BREAKING: US new home sales plummeted -11.3% month-over-month to 619,000 in May, well below the estimated -0.2% decrease.
This was the largest decline since September 2022 when new home sales fell by ~14%. Year-over-year sales dropped by a whopping 16.5%, the most since February 2023. This also follows the Pending Home Sales decline to their lowest level since April 2020. Meanwhile, the supply of homes available for sale rose to 481,000, the highest since the 2008 Financial Crisis. The US housing market is slowing. Source: The Kobeissi Letter
% Increase over the last 5 years...
US Money Supply (M2): +42% Average US New Home Price: +44% "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." - Milton Friedman Source: Charlie Bilello
Lumber prices continue to sink amid a soft US housing market
Source: The Daily Shot
Starwood Capital limits investor redemptions by up to 80% in its 10 Billion Property Fund...
Source: FT, Barchart
Want to buy a home?
1980: save for a couple years 2024: forget about it Source: Michael Burry Stock Tracker
Hong Kong’s New Home Sales Hit Record High of $5.4 Billion
New home sales in Hong Kong surged to a record high in April, as buyers rushed to the market after the government removed property curbs. The value of firsthand residential property sales reached HK$42 billion ($5.4 billion) last month, more than triple the value of transactions in March, according to Ricacorp Properties Ltd. That’s the highest in data going back to 1996. The number of sales at 3,545 was also the most since 2006. This sales boom follows the removal of extra taxes in February, which led Hong Kong’s developers to speed up new project launches and discount properties to capture increased demand. Last month, CK Asset Holdings Ltd. priced its homes in the Blue Coast project roughly 20% lower than nearby competitors, while Great Eagle Holdings Ltd.’s units in the Ho Man Tin area were initially priced at about 30% below nearby new projects that launched a year earlier. Developers are racing to clear their inventory with discounts, after a weak property market in the past year led to the accumulation of unsold homes. The number of properties available in the primary market rose 6% to 91,300 in the fourth quarter of 2023 from three months earlier, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. By comparison, only 13,000 new homes were sold on average every year from 2021 to 2023, government data show.
The cost of buying a home in the US rises to $2,750/month, the second highest ever recorded, according to Reventure.
Prior to the pandemic in 2022, the average home in the US would cost $1,400/month. In other words, it is now 100% MORE expensive to buy a home in 2024 compared to 2020. Even at the peak of the 2008 Financial Crisis, the average home payment peaked at $1,550/month. The average US family would need to spend 44% of their PRE-TAX income to buy a home today. Source: The Kobeissi Letter, re.venture
BREAKING 🚨: St. Louis Commercial Real Estate
The Former AT&T Building in St. Louis just sold for $3.6 million. In 2006, it sold for $205 million. A total loss of more than 98%. Source: Barchart
