The Real Estate News Brief: Fed’s Latest Rake Hike, 2023 Top Markets, Airbnb’s “Live Like a Hobbit”

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending December 17th, 2022... the Fed’s latest rate hike, a 2023 top market forecast, and where you can “live like a hobbit” on Airbnb.   Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.   Economic News   We begin with economic news from this past week. As I mentioned in an update a few days ago, the Fed hiked short-term rates once again. This time, it was a half point increase. The previous four increases were three quarters of a point. That brings the federal-funds rate up to a range of 4.25% to 4.5%. The Fed’s effort to stop inflation is expected to go as high as 5.25%. Several Fed officials expect rates to go even higher. Fed Chief Jerome Powell says of the need for more rate hikes: “We’re going into next year with higher inflation than we thought.” This is expected to increase the risk of a recession. (1)   The Fed’s decision on rates came a day after the latest report on consumer prices. The Labor Department reported that the Consumer Price Index or CPI only rose .1% in November. That brings the annual rate of inflation down from 7.7% in October to 7.1% in November. When you omit prices for food and fuel, the core rate was up .2% to an annual rate of 6%. Digging in a little deeper, you’ll see that some price categories are still seeing high inflation, such as rents. They were up .8% in November. The good news is that prices are not rising as fast as they were, but the Fed doesn’t expect to get inflation down to pre-Covid levels of 2% until 2024 or 2025. (2)   CoreLogic released its latest report on home price growth, which shows that annual gains are down to 10.1%. That’s the slowest annual gain since early 2021, although some metros are still seeing a high rate of growth. The states of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina are seeing the biggest home price gains right now. The city of Miami is at the top of the metro list with an annual gain of 22.6%. Tampa is a close second at 20%. (3)   The job market is holding up. As MarketWatch reports: “Layoffs have increased, but job losses remain small.” Initial claims were 20,000 lower last week to an 11-week low of 211,000. They’ve slowly risen from a 54-year low of 166,000 last spring. Continuing claims are also slowly rising. They were up by 1,000 last week, to 1.67 million. (4)   Mortgage Rates   Mortgage rates have been coming down a bit as the rate of inflation weakens. Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is down 2 basis points to 6.31%. The 15-year is down 13 points to 5.54%. It’s not enough to boost demand however. Freddie says it remains “very weak.” (5)   In other news making headlines…   Where Are the Hot 2023 Housing Markets?   Realtor.com came out with a top ten list of housing markets for 2023, and it looks like the South to Southeast part of the country will be in the lead. Atlanta is at the top of the list. As the so-called “New York of the South, it has the highest potential for growth, according to the National Association of Realtors. It is also more affordable compared to similar cities. NAR says that 20% of Atlanta renters can afford to buy a median-priced home. That’s higher than the national average. (6)   Raleigh, North Carolina is second on the list, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth, which is one of our preferred markets for single-family rentals. We also like Huntsville, Alabama; Jacksonville, Florida; and San Antonio, Texas which are 7th, 8th, and 9th on the list. We’ll have a link to the complete list in the show notes.   The City where Building Permits Take Almost 2 Years!   If you’ve ever had to wait weeks or even months for a building permit, you probably weren’t trying to build something in San Francisco. The Chronicle did a little research on permit-approval time and found that the typical waiting period was 627 days, or very close to “two years”! And that doesn’t include the time it might take to deal with an earlier planning approval stage which can take up to a year or more.   According to Corey Smith of the Housing Action Coalition: “It just proves what we know: that San Francisco doesn’t prioritize building new housing.” The report comes in the midst of a state review for the city’s permitting process. The city’s Department of Building Inspection also responded to the report saying that it is currently making changes that will speed up the process, but it won’t be known for some time as to how much. (7)   The Airbnb That Lets You “Live Like a Hobbit”!   Airbnb is offering a unique stay at the original “Hobbiton” in New Zealand. That’s where filming took place for “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings.” It’s been open for tours for years, but the owner of the property is opening it up for 3-night stays next March to celebrate the 10th anniversary of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” Guests will be accommodated in one of 44 hobbit holes and experience life in The Shire. You must be at least 18 years of age, with a verified Airbnb profile, and lots of positive reviews to stay overnight. We’ll have a link to that information and our other stories in the show notes.   That’s it for today. Please remember to hit the subscribe button, and leave a review! It’s also free to join RealWealth if you haven’t done so already. We offer hundreds of articles, webinars, and podcasts on real estate investing. As a member, you’ll also have access to our Investor Portal with data on specific markets, our experienced investment counselors, and our curated list of real estate professionals that can help you build a rental housing portfolio.   Thanks for listening. I'm Kathy Fettke.   Show Notes link:  https://www.newsforinvestors.com   Join link: https://join.realwealth.com/?utm_content=Real%20Estate%20News%20Podcast&utm;_campaign=Join%20for%20Free&utm;_term=Description%20Text%20Link   Subscribe link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-estate-news-real-estate-investing-podcast/id1079952715   Links:   1 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-hikes-interest-rate-by-half-percentage-point-benchmark-rate-seen-topping-out-at-5-25-11671044699?mod=mw_latestnews   2 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/coming-up-cpi-inflation-report-11670937380?mod=mw_latestnews   3 - https://www.scotsmanguide.com/browse/content/corelogic-home-price-growth-drops-near-single-digits-in-october   4 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-drop-to-11-week-low-of-211-000-in-early-december-11671111658?mod=economy-politics   5 - https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms   6 - https://www.nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/10-housing-markets-expected-to-lead-the-nation-in-2023   7 - https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/housing-permits-san-francisco-17652633.php   8 - https://news.airbnb.com/hobbiton/