Rates Take a Turn for the Worse in an Already Weak Housing Market
Potential Home Buyers Face Difficult Choices As They Watch High Mortgage Rates and Home Prices Climb Further
With the spring home-buying season now upon us, potential home buyers are facing difficult choices as they watch already-high mortgage rates and home prices climb further, and a po...
Retail Sales Post Impressive Back-To-Back Gains
Households Continue To Spend, but Are Becoming More Cautious
U.S. households continue to support the economy by spending more despite rising debt costs, as shown by retail and food services sales, which increased by 0.7% in March, beating co...
Job Gains Keep Chugging Along
Economy Adds Robust Increases Despite Federal Reserve's Measures To Tame Inflation
We’re getting accustomed to seeing robust job gains reported month after month, something we thought would not continue this long as the Federal Reserve keeps its policy rate high ...
Consumers Continue To Carry the Economy
Growth Appears To Be on a Rosy Trajectory
Economic growth in the first quarter of 2024 appears to be on a rosy trajectory.
Some Beachside Retail Properties in Los Angeles Struggle To Draw Demand
Daytime Workers and Tourism Remain Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
Unusually cold and rainy weather and has plagued Los Angeles in recent years, distressing beachside retail landlords from Malibu to Long Beach. While national consumer spending con...
Happier Homebuilders Ramp Up Construction After Sale Prices Climb
Sentiment Improves as Sellers Maintain Upper Hand in Home Sales
Many single-family homebuilders have become optimistic as the spring season unfolds under what appears to be favorable economic conditions.
The Bumpy Road to Calming Inflation
No One Said It Would Be Easy
Nobody said that taming inflation would be easy.
Employment Surveys Offer Divergent Views
Job Gains Remain Solid Despite Rise in the Unemployment Rate
The two surveys that provide a monthly update of the labor market can occasionally produce mixed representations of how the market is faring.
A Spring Thaw Is Unlikely in the Housing Market
Mortgage Rates Remain Stubbornly High
As this year’s spring home-buying season approaches, homeowners and renters remain reluctant to move due largely to the rise in interest and mortgage rates over the past two years.
A Nation Awash in Debt — and Getting Worse
Federal Deficits Projected To Grow to $2.6 Trillion Over Next Decade
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency, recently published its annual 10-year U.S. federal budget forecast, and its outlook on spending and revenues is dismal.
Households Are Falling in Love With Their Credit Cards
Debt-Fueled Spending Could Become a Problem
Consumers have carried the economy during the pandemic recovery and continue to spend at a robust pace. The combination of growing household debt and higher costs of servicing that...
Layoffs and Hiring Are Not Adding Up
Firms Ramped Up Recruitment in January Even as They Cut Jobs
While the economy avoided a recession in 2023, and most analysts are expecting our good fortune on that front to continue this year, every morning seems to bring another firm’s ann...
Economy Keeps Humming Along, Defying Forecasts
US Posts Another Strong Quarter of Growth
Consumers helped drive another quarter of strong economic growth to close the year.
The Task of Taming Inflation Is Nearly Done
But Recent Uptick in Prices May Delay Rate Cuts
The three-year war on inflation finally appears to be winding down, but the path to its end could be choppy.
Labor Market Continues To Cool as Demand for Workers Eases
But Wage Growth Still Outpaced Inflation
The labor market continues to show resilience, a positive sign of demand for commercial real estate space across property types as we begin the new year.
Is the Housing Market Finally Poised To See Relief?
With Rates Expected To Ease, Both Supply and Demand Could See Improvement
With the housing supply constrained by rate-locked sellers, and buyers shut out of the market by higher mortgage rates and home prices, the residential property market largely stal...
A Soft Landing Is in Sight
New Jobs Report Gives Reason for Optimism
Last week’s jobs report for November was one of a series of recent reports solidifying the notion that the economy is on a glide path to a “soft landing,” a rare result given that ...
Consumers May Be Reaching Their Limit
October Marks Slowest Pace For Spending Growth Since Early 2021
We received further evidence last week that the economy was blistering hot in the third quarter of 2023 when the latest figure for real gross domestic product was revised higher fr...
The Recession Has Been Called Off, For Now
Economic Forecasts Turn Slightly Positive for 2024
While the commercial real estate sector encountered multiple headwinds in 2023, including a capital markets seizure and a drop in tenant demand, the U.S. economy has managed to avo...
Import Traffic Is Back on the Rise at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
Rising Demand for Nearby Industrial Space Could Follow in 2024
Demand for industrial space in Southern California has pulled back sharply in 2023, but the foundation for stabilization and eventual recovery in leasing activity is beginning to t...