BUSINESS NEWS AND MARKET RESEARCH.
Recession: Experts say a recession has begun due to job market weakness and a rise in Chapter 11 bankruptcies. Tech, retail, and media are some of the hardest hit industries.
Real Estate Recap: The commercial real estate market has imploded. Properties have sold at >50% discounts and foreclosures are skyrocketing.
Quote of the month: Unemployment rates are a lagging indicator. Let the social workers focus on the unemployment rate. It will not help investors in the next 12 months.
Real Estate
- August 2, 2024: 30-year fixed mortgage drops 22 basis points to 6.4%, the lowest rate since April 2023.
- August 1, 2024: Housing inventory hits new post-pandemic high.
- July 29, 2024: Banks are taking control of distressed commercial properties at the highest rate in a decade.
- July 25, 2024: Existing home sales dropped 5.4% to 3.89M units, the lowest, since December. Housing inventory increased by 3.1% to 1.32M units, the highest since October 2020.
- July 25, 2024: High interest rates and inflated home prices wreak havoc on home sales across the US.
- July 24, 2025: Inventory skyrockets 20% YOY while prices remain flat.
- June 28, 2024: Progress Residential, corporate buy of residential homes, raises $675M
- May 15, 2024: Wall Street buying up neighborhoods.
- April 29, 2024: US Lawmakers want to ban Wall Street from buying single-family homes in the US.
- March 7, 2024: California legislators want big corporate landlords out of family neighborhoods.
- January 31, 2024: Blackstone buys 38,000 homes by acquiring Tricon.
Comm. Real Estate
- June 5, 2024: 67 banks at risk of collapse from exposure to commercial real estate loans.
- May 28, 2024: Commercial real estate is a ticking bomb for banks.
- May 26, 2024: Great Post-Pandemic commercial real estate crash in Boston.
- May 22, 2024: The six largest US banks saw significant delinquencies in commercial property loans.
- April 8, 2024: Bay Area office sales plummet 85% compared to pre-pandemic
- January 29, 2024: LA office building sales fell 41% in 2023.
- January 18, 2024: NYC building sales plummet.
Employment
- August 2, 2024: Unemployment rate rises to 4.3% and job growth drops to 114,000, much lower than expected.
- July 31, 2024: Jobs in the oil and gas industry are shrinking.
- July 31, 2024: July job growth in the private sector was worse than expected, adding 122,000 jobs.
- July 25, 2024: 376 tech companies laid off 108,591 employees so far.
- March 20, 2024: Hollywood is in a full-scale job market depression.
- July 24, 2025: The Hollywood job market is the toughest since 2009.
- March 22, 2024: California’s unemployment rate was 5.3% in February, the highest in the nation.
- June 2024: New York’s unemployment rate was 4.3%.
- April 23, 2024: Texas unemployment rate was 2.5%.
- July 19, 2024: Florida’s unemployment rate was 3.3%.
Transportation
- July 22, 2024: Car repos spiked 23% as borrowers defaulted on their loans.
- July 25, 2024: Automakers hit a significant storm
- July 25, 2024: Ford shares hit worst day since 2008
- June 16, 2024: The used EV price crash is worsening.
- June 13, 2024: New car inventory reaches 2.89M units with 74 days’ supply and $47,455 average listing price.
- July 17, 2024: The US freight recession is almost over.
- April 17, 2024: The fright recession has been one of the longest on record.
- March 20, 2024: US bank auto loan delinquencies at a decade high.
Retail
- August 6, 2024: Italian restaurant chain Buca di Beppo files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
- August 2, 2024: Bob Stores is closing all 21 brick-and-mortar locations.
- May 13, 2024: Retailer chains have closed 3,200 brick-and-mortar stores.
- May 9, 2024: Consumers fed up with food costs ditching big brands.
- July 25, 2024: Nestle slows price hikes to win back shoppers.
- July 22, 2024: McDonald’s traffic is slowing across all major markets.
Economy
- August 6, 2024: Credit card delinquencies hit 12 year high.
- August 5, 2024: Federal Reserve Advisor says America may be in a plain vanilla recession.
- August 2, 2024: Dow closes down 600 points and Nasdaq enters correction territory after weak jobs report.
- August 1, 2024: Dows shed 500 points as recession fears grow.
- July 31, 2024: McDonald’s sales fall 1% in Q2 vs last year as consumers pull back on spending.
- July 25, 2024: US GDP grew 2.8% in Q2.
- July 24, 2024: Credit card delinquencies at a 12-year high.
- July 19, 2024: Corporate bankruptcies highest in a decade as the debt-ridden bubble economy of easy money pops.
- May 14, 2024: US bank failures could surge by 50 in the coming years.
- May 1, 2024: 15 most recent bank failures.
- April 30, 2024: Republic First Bank in Philadelphia was the first bank failure in 2024. More banks to follow.
- February 7, 2024: First time in two decades, the US buys more from Mexico than China, $475.6B vs $472.2B.