Blog Archives

Powell Pivot III: Too Little Too Late for Overleveraged Apartment Owners?

Powell Pivot III_ Too Little Too Late for Overleveraged Apartment Owners Inflation

Powell did it for the third time. He proved for the third time that you should listen to him carefully until he does something completely different, and then you should listen to him again. After raising rates aggressively starting in April 2022, after he had said that the Fed wouldn’t raise rates until the end of 2023 at the earliest,

Read more ›



Zip

ZIP CPI

Last week the CPI report was released. One can see that shelter is now by far the biggest component of inflation. Non-Housing Services are growing at a moderate rate while Core Goods prices are declining.

Core CPI Major Component August 11, 2023

This chart shows how CPI excluding shelter has been moderating quite significantly,

Read more ›



Getting in the Arena in Austin - Resilience

The Road to Resilience Gary Carmell

One of the beneficial things about writing a blog each week is that it helps me prepare for presentations that I have to do periodically. Last week we had our national meeting in Austin for many of our CWS employees, and this week we have our annual investor meeting.

Read more ›



Down with Housing

Down with Housing

With the renewed runup in interest rates, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit the homeownership market via a frenzy of charts. Of course, all real estate is local, but these overall trends are pretty powerful, so it would be unusual for most markets to be immune to them.

Read more ›



Deconstructing Construction Employment

Construction Employment

Give me a word

Give me a sign

Show me where to look

Tell me, what will I find?

What will I find?

Read more ›



From Housing to Labor and Back Again

From Housing to Labor and Back Again

I think this chart is what keeps Jay Powell up at night. If he were convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that we were still in the same low inflation regime that had been present for decades prior to Covid,

Read more ›



Stocks Drop and Jobs Contract

Stocks Drop and Jobs Contract

One can see from the following charts from Sentimentrader.com that the last 100 trading days have been one of the worst periods in terms of stock returns in modern history. 

Stock History 12-31-1946 12-31-2001

And while the jury is still out as to whether we will have a recession over the next year,

Read more ›



Housing Economic Dependency: A Tale of Two Countries

I have always been fascinated by economic cycles. What I have learned over the years is that financial excesses that reverse into fear and revulsion are often catalysts for economic downturns. Real estate, commercial and/or residential, are often culprits because they are assets that can be leveraged which can magnify returns as well as often being influenced by tax advantages which can stimulate demand beyond its longer-term trend.

Read more ›



Off Target

manufacturers the Fed inflation off target Jay Powell

Last week was brutal for retailers as major earnings announcements showed how they have been hit very hard by huge cost increases. Wal-Mart started the week off shocking the market with its very weak earnings outlook and then there was Target.

Target shares sink 25% after company says high costs, inventory woes hit profits

Its stock price got absolutely crushed in the wake of its results being released.

Read more ›



Random Real Estate Musings Trends and Topics

Real Estate Mortgage increase

At CWS we have been heavily focused on growth-oriented markets that have large in-migration due to a competitive cost of living, high quality of life, and pro-business environment. This has led us to be heavily concentrated in metro areas such as Austin,

Read more ›



Categories

Free Insights