Friday April 28 2017 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:            

New Poll Finds Record Number Of Americans Want More Government In Their Lives In a poll conducted a few days ago by NBC News / Wall Street Journal, a record 57% of Americans responded that they want MORE government in their lives, and that the government should be doing more to solve people’s problems. That’s the highest percentage since they started asking this question in 1995. In fact, 57% is nearly double what people responded in the mid-90s. What ever happened to self-reliance? The pioneering spirit? Good ole’ American can-do ingenuity? In truth there are countless ways for a motivated person to solve problems. Or at least to make forward progress. For example, to all these kids that have their hands out demanding free university education, I always ask the same questions: How many books did you read in the last twelve months?

How many FREE online courses from Harvard and MIT did you take? Are you actually doing anything to help yourself? Or are you just whining on social media about how no one is giving you anything for free? America was founded as a place where people take responsibility for themselves.

But this now seems to be an outdated, minority view. The Land of the Free is truly becoming the Land of Getting Free Stuff.

What’s Wrong with the American Craft-Beer Boom? - (www.wolfstreet.com) One of my many favorite craft brews used to be Lagunitas IPA, brewed in Petaluma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco. I used to be a regular buyer for home use – though when I’m out, I try beers I don’t know. In 2015, Heineken International, one of the world’s largest multinational brewing conglomerates with 180 or so brands, from Tiger to Tecate, bought a 50% stake, following in the footsteps of other multinational brewing conglomerates: they’re all on an acquisition binge of American craft brewers. Why? Because craft beer sales have been soaring, even as sales of the big brands, despite costly marketing and Super Bowl ads, have been sagging. The market is tilting toward craft brews, and the conglomerates figured this out too. Conglomerates are cost-cutters. They buy a brewer and try to make it work by cutting costs. One way they cut costs is by using cheaper commodity ingredients that their other breweries buy, which pushes down costs. This is American corporate theology.

Cheaper Mortgages Could Spur Housing Market - (www.foxbusiness.com) Mortgage rates dropped below 4% for the first time since November, providing more kindling to an already hot housing market as the crucial spring selling season gets under way. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 3.97% for the week ended April 20, from 4.08% a week earlier and 4.3% in mid-March, according to data released Thursday by mortgage company Freddie Mac. The drop could help encourage buyers who had been put off by rising mortgage rates to dive into the market and prompt others to rush to buy homes before rates rise again. "We are in the spring, and people are out looking to buy homes," said Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac. "These low rates are really going to help out with affordability." For most of 2016, mortgage rates, which generally move together with yields on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note, hovered just above 3.5% for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

Spring housing: 'Strongest seller's market ever' - (www.cnbc.com) Spring homebuyers are pounding the pavement at a furious pace, but the pickings are getting ever slimmer. Even as more homes come on the market for this traditionally popular sales season, they're flying off fast, with bidding wars par for the course. Home prices have now surpassed their last peak, and at the entry level, where demand is highest, sellers are firmly in the driver's seat. "I've been selling real estate for 25 years and this is the strongest seller's market I have ever seen in my entire real estate career," said David Fogg, a real estate agent with Keller Williams in Burbank, California. "A lot of our sellers are optimistically pricing their homes in today's market, and I have to say in most cases we're getting the home sold anyway." Fogg listed a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,240-square-foot home in Burbank for $789,000 and had three offers before the first open house Sunday. In the Los Angeles-area market, that is considered an entry-level home. The open house drew more than 100 potential buyers, most of them already weary of the competition.

Mayor to subsidise 'naked' homes solution to London housing crisis  - (www.theguardian.com) the Enfield homes would be about 15% cheaper to build than standard new homes because of their basic design. "They will have a functioning sink and bathroom, but what they won't have is every interior wall or things like fitted coffee machines [which housebuilders often include]," he said. Costs will be cut further because buyers will not have to pay for the land in the purchase price. The freehold will be retained by the council and owners will pay annual ground rent. The plan is to ensure that the homes are cheap enough that buyers will only need to spend a third of their gross income on mortgage payments -- a widely used definition of "genuinely affordable" housing. Subject to planning consent, the apartments could be ready for occupation in 2020. The austere designs fit with a trend for minimal living among millennials forced upon them in part by a lack of disposable income because of high rents and property prices.

OTHER STORIES:

Equity markets, euro rally in wake of French election - (www.reuters.com)
Trump Wants Tax Plan to Cut Corporate Rate to 15% - (www.wsj.com)
Trump pushes Democrats on border wall as government shutdown looms - (www.reuters.com)

Retailers Are Going Bankrupt at a Record Pace - (www.bloomberg.com)
Fed Model Says `Neutral' Interest Rate Dips Back to Zero: Chart - (www.bloomberg.com)
Banks Are Backing Out of $1.7 Trillion in Chinese Investments - (www.bloomberg.com)