News you can use with Boomer Foster (3/6/2023)

Here is this week’s edition of "News You can Use" with Boomer Foster. He is president of our company gives a very brief observation of the Financial and Real Estate Markets. Enjoy.

Summary of topics below:

Good afternoon, in this week's video:

 Economic News [00:10] 

• The Dow finished up almost 1.5% on the back of some negative economic indicators. 
• On Tuesday & Wednesday, the Fed Chief will testify before Congress. We hope to get some clue as to the Fed’s intentions to raise rates from that testimony. 
• On Friday, February employment numbers will be released. 
• 30-year fixed rates went up for the fourth week in a row, from 6.45% to 6.65%. 

 Industry News [01:54] 

• Closed sales were down 40.7 % year over year. Remember, last year at this time, the market was still pretty hot. 
• New Pending's were down 24.6% year over year, but up 6.5% week over week. 
• Showings were down 28.4% year over year, but up 5.7% week over week. 

News you can use: February 27th, 2023

Here is this week’s edition of "News You can Use" with Boomer Foster. He is president of our company gives a very brief observation of the Financial and Real Estate Markets. Enjoy.

Summary of topics below.

Good Monday Afternoon Everyone!

I hope you take a moment to watch this week's News You Can Use. Below is a summary of topics:

Economic News [0:09]

• Bumpy ride on Wall Street, with all three indices down and the Dow finished down 860 points, which is about 2.5%.
• Reflective of the rise of inflation beyond the Fed’s ability to control it.
• We can expect a further bump in the Federal Funds rate when the Fed meets in March.
• 30-year fixed rates rose for the third week in a row, from 6.32% to 6.5%.

Industry News [2:10] 

• Closed sales are down 37% year over year, but week over week they were up 26.7%.
• All other major indicators are down compared to this time last year. 

I would love to hear from you and what you think about Boomer's brief video. Please leave them in the comments below or email me at BReynolds@LNF.com.

News you can use - Boomer Foster Feb 20, 2023

Hello friends,

Hot off the press, we have a new edition of News You Can Use with Boomer Foster. Boomer Foster is the President of General Brokerage of Long & Foster Real Estate. Here is his take on the financial news from last week. As usual, the transcript is below the video. I hope this is useful to you.

Good afternoon, everyone!  Last week on Wall Street was a bit of a mixed bag as investors are struggling with stronger-than-expected economic data that has been coming out lately. We spoke about the jobs numbers last week, and the January CPI report just revealed that inflation is up 6.4% year over year and up .5% month over month. This isn’t giving investors much hope that the Fed will start to become more dovish in the coming months. Obviously, the situation is fluid, and more information will come out that will affect the Fed’s decisions to hike rates further. On Wednesday, the Fed will release the minutes from its last meeting, which will reveal more of their ultimate intentions. The Existing Home Sales report will come out tomorrow, and then preliminary GDP sales will be released on Thursday, which will give us a clearer picture of the state of the economy. 30-year fixed rates went up for the second week in a row, from 6.12% to 6.32%.  In our industry, most major indicators are down year over year, but the big issue that we’re facing is that demand is outpacing supply, with showing activity only down 18% from a very busy February of last year.

News you can use Jan 30, 2023 - Boomer Foster

 Hello friends,

I have great news. Boomer Foster, President, General Brokerage at Long & Foster Real Estate does a weekly video of  Real Estate industry news, particularly the financial / market news. In the past, he has mixed that information with in-house news and events, which would be of no interest to the general public. He has now decided to have his video edited so that there is a video suitable to share with you.

Boomer is a straight talker and is interesting to listen to. He has a very high level, but in depth perspective of the market and industry. The videos are generally a short 4-6 minutes. Since I believe these could be very useful to many of you, I am going to try to post them here every week for your edification. 

Here is this weeks video, with a transcript below.

Enjoy.

Transcript:

Good afternoon, everyone! 

Last week was a big one on Wall Street. The Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P were all up due to solid economic growth as well as a better-than-expected GDP from the 4th quarter of last year. The big news that we’re keeping an eye on this week is the Fed’s February meeting and whatever announced raise they have in mind for the Federal Funds rate. Most economists agree that they’ll probably raise it 25 basis points. 30-year fixed rates were down slightly, from 6.15% to 6.13%. The good news about where we are with mortgage rates is that consumers have gotten used to the new normal and, in the grand scheme, rates are lower than historical averages. There’s been a significant change in buyer activity and consumers are back to buying again. The big challenge is still inventory. 

In our industry, we’re starting to see pending sales pick up again, down 18.8% year over year, but up 5.2% week over week. So, we’re beginning to see movement in the right direction. Inventory is up 60% from the same time last year, but only because not as many homes are coming off the market. The big news in our industry is that a federal court ended the DOJ inquiry into the Clear Cooperation policy. The reason that’s big news is that the agreement that was in place under the previous administration is back in effect, which is good news.