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Nearly three-quarters of Americans say owning a home is a higher measure of achievement than having a successful career, raising a family or earning a college degree, according to a new survey.

Record high housing prices and rising mortgage rates are causing the housing market to cool. For the 3rd straight month, sales have decreased at the slowest pace since the earlier months of the pandemic.

Despite the recent cooling, Home prices still rose more than 20% Year-Over-Year, which is the biggest surge in 35 years.. and you know our incomes haven’t risen that much.

What’s even more interesting is that Spring, or the last season, usually sees the majority of home sales on average during the year, typically about 40% of home sales happen in Spring time happen between March and June!

In our last episode, we covered how it’s getting really hard to buy homes, especially for first-time home buyers… Although the market is cooling and we’re seeing some price decreases, the prospect of buying a home is still a distant dream for many of us. There is less housing available for rent and sale than at any time in 30 years, and things are only getting worse. This undersupply is concentrated in the lower end of the market, and as a result homelessness has become one of the big problems in booming cities.

Some Helpful Links:

• Homelessness in New York and the Source
• Squalor Behind the Golden Gate
• Overcoming the Nation’s Daunting Housing Supply Shortage
• Real Estate Affordability
• Trudeau to outlaw Foreign Home Buyers in Canada

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At the closer end of 2021, inflation started to scare the average person. Prices getting higher was something that not only worries the average consumer, but the Federal Reserve. The exist mainly to control this inflation - and in 2022, they realized they had to do their job.

The Federal Reserve started raising interest rates at a fast pace. If you’ve been listening to THC, you know that this means that borrowing money will get more expensive. Credit cards interest rates would get more expensive, auto loans would have higher interest rates, and mortgages would be harder to afford. That’s exactly what happened.

t’s been long-understood that Owning a Home Is the American Dream. Well for us millennial it’s kind of becoming a distant dream.. Scratch that its actually become a nightmare!

The average home prices in America have been on a tear! Buying a House Has Never Been More Difficult. Since the pandemic Average home prices have increased by 33%! If high prices weren’t enough, mortgage rates which reached record lows at the start of 2021, are now rising at their fastest pace in decades.

So what can first time home buyers do? Today, on Things Have Changed, we’re going to talk about the Housing Market - the different factors that are impacting it and could there be a likelihood of another 2008 Housing Market crash?? Tune in!

Some cool reads:

• Housing in America has become much harder to afford
• Housing Markets Exposed to Interest Rate HIkes
• American Property Market Looking Bubbly
• 4 Ways to Get Ahead in These Times

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As cities come back to life with the influx of people returning from their COVID getaways, the rise of rent prices are hurting us all. Some cities are even seeing 60% rent increases year-over-year.

Just when we thought inflation was going to come under control with the Fed rising rates, we might have been too optimistic. Rent or housing on average is the largest expense an American has on a monthly basis. Even an incremental rise in housing expenses could mean displacement or a serious re-designing of your overall budget.

On Things Have Changed Podcast, we’re going to do a series related to housing - one of your largest financial burdens on a monthly basis. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how Rent could displace millions of Americans.

According to rent.com, this is where rents are rising:

2 Bedroom Apartments

• Chandler, AZ (+68.6 percent)
• Miami, FL (+59 percent)
• Portland, OR (+51.8 percent)
• Austin, TX (+50 percent)
• Philadelphia, PA (+47.8 percent)
• Tacoma, WA (+46.6 percent)
• Salt Lake City, UT (+46.5 percent)
• Nashville, TN (+45.4 percent)
• Little Rock, AR (+45.2 percent)
• Jersey City, NJ (+41.2 percent)

These are the Americans cities that have gotten cheaper, according to rent.com:

2 Bedrrom Apartments

• Shreveport, LA (-18.7 percent)
• Wichita, KS (-18 percent)
• Toledo, OH (-16.4 percent)
• Indianapolis, IN (-12.1 percent)
• Scottsdale, AZ (-11.5 percent)
• Anaheim, CA (-10.7 percent)
• Arlington, TX (-10.5 percent)
• Cleveland, OH (-10.5 percent)
• Kansas City, MO (-9.1 percent)
• New Orleans, LA (-8.3 percent)

Some interesting stories:

• Dallas Rent Prices Rise
• Rent Averages in the USA

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In our previous episode, we talked to Dr. Seth Benzell about How the Pandemic Changed Global Labor Markets and in this episode, we talk about the work he's done to find a solution to the age-old issue of rising automation. 

The automation scare is not new.  Since the luddites in the 19th century, we've heard the laborers complain about automation. In fact, it is the new standard in todays world. We all hear about the benefits of automation but we are still trying to understand and remediate the negative externalities.

If you've listened to Things Have Changed before, you know Dr. Seth Benzell spends his time studying the digital economy, the platforms that have succeeded in it, and how it's affected our economy as a whole. In this episode, he helps us understand how he's gotten to the two solutions that he mentions in his paper on "Simulating Endogenous Global Automation". 

Seth walks us through two of his considerations for policy that could possibly change the direction away from increased wage inequality:

• Mandating automation for regions that would otherwise not automate
• Universal Basic Income 

Check out our previous episodes with Dr. Seth Benzell on the links below:

• How Tech Created a Winner-Take-All Economy – with Seth Benzell
• How the Pandemic Has Changed Global Labor Markets with Dr. Seth Benzell

Here is a link to Dr. Seth Benzells work:

• Dr. Seth Benzell Website
• Efficiency of U.S. Public Space Utilization

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Automation has been a recurring theme in corporations quest to improve their bottom line and stay competitive. So what has changed post the pandemic?

Today we have  Dr. Seth Benzell  returning on Things Have Changed after 2 long years, and he's here to help us understand the incredible trends shaping  the economy. 

Dr Seth is a Digital Economist, an Assistant Professor at Chapman University, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy as well as the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Dr. Seth shares with us some of the biggest trends that has happened in the last 2 years, including the roles of automation and technological change and how that impacts who makes money in the economy, the great resignation, and the rise of tech superstars!

For a bit more background into our fascinating conversation with Seth, check out his first chat with the crew in 2020:

• How Tech Created a Winner-Take-All Economy – with Seth Benzell

Here are some helpful links to Dr. Seth Benzell's latest work:

• https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/risa.13800
• https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3922494

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In the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about gaming, the big trends shaping this massive and growing industry, and how Metaverse fits into all of this... We’ve learned why Facebook changed their name to Meta, how Microsoft is uniquely placed to be a titan in this virtual experience through Xbox, and what the current representation of the Metaverse is.

But what do we at THC love about it??

There is a growing economy in the ‘verse and we’ve been building our understanding through the stories we share..

You can buy real estate beside snoop dogg, go to a concert with your friends and watch big artists perform, shop for Nike Shoes/NFT’s, and possibly even borrow money through the blockchain.

Today on Things Have Changed, we’re going to talk about ‘Metanomics’, or.. The Economics of the Metaverse.

Some Real Estate Numbers:

• Sandbox transactions in 2021 were 65,000 and worth over $350M, according to the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE).
• Decentraland - Tokens.com bought $2.5M land in the fashion district
• Republic Realm - November 2021, paid $4.3M for land in the world of Sandbox (Largest metaverse land purchase today)

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In our last episode, we spoke about how big tech was looking at gaming as a growth strategy. And the way to own the future. The metaverse future!

With FB, Microsoft and Apple pouring billions into this virtual reality, what does the metaverse look like today? Are there some current gaming ecosystems that could be the foundations of the what the metaverse looks like tomorrow?

One of the most promising examples of the metaverse today, Fortnite, held multiple collaborations with artists for concerts in the last 4 years! The Travis Scott Fornite performance had 45 million participants... and they all saw the giant Nike Air Jordans he was wearing..

We dive into one of the most exciting trends in all of tech! Tune in!

From the Opportunities in the Metaverse by JP Morgan:

• Transactions: Every year, $54B is spent on Virtual Goods (Double the amount spent on buying music)
• Socialize: Approx. 60 Billion messages are sent in Roblox
• Create: GDP for Second Life was about $650 million in 2021, with $80M paid to creators
• Own: Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT’s) have a market cap of $41B

Some other helpful links:

• Metaverse Report by Deloitte
• The Metaverse is not a revolution, but an evolution - by PWC
• Our World Tomorrow - How the metaverse is becoming a massive revenue stream for artists

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So... 6 months ago, Facebook did something that very few companies in the world of business has ever done. They changed their entire business philosophy and mission, pivoted a $700 billion dollar company into something that does not exist currently. We are talking about the metaverse and why FB rebranded themselves to META.. In 2021, Meta reportedly spent $10B on Facebook Reality Labs, the metaverse division at Facebook. But why the huge shift?

Let's take a look at what happened last year.. Facebook built one of the most amazing money machines the world has ever seen. Then Apple came and threw a wrench in the gears last year.. In Q1 earnings this year, Facebook revealed that changes Apple made that affect how ads work on iOS apps — namely, that it’s now much harder for app-makers and advertisers to track user behavior — will cost it $10 billion in revenue this year.. That's not even it.. Meta lost 1M daily active users in a quarter (wiped out about 20% of its value) - Worst facebook performance on record on the stock market. You could say there was a much needed change to keep people excited about Facebook.

While Facebook put the metaverse on center-stage, it is far from the only big tech company investing in the ‘verse. Facebook cannot build the metaverse alone.. and it hasn't been. Microsoft started building it’s own ideas around the metaverse more than 5 years ago... and Azure will play a huge role in its future. Microsoft also happens to be a juggernaut in the gaming space.. which is the foundation of the current ideas of the metaverse. Keep in mind, Microsoft also is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard..  

But could the big unlock here be gaming? At THC today we break down how we believe metaverse will just be an extension of what gaming is today!

Some helpful links:

• Microsoft shows Meta won’t own the ‘verse
• What does the Metaverse have to do with this deal
• Microsoft Activision deal may bring the metaverse to Enterprise Tech
• Microsoft hit by defections - talent going to Meta
• Meta’s Shareholders get a Reality Check
• Microsoft acquires Minecraft

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If you’ve ever played games on a console before like the xbox, playstation, nintendo, or even the game boy, you probably remember how expensive it was to have all the games you wanted to play. I mean, each game could cost you over $50! Not to mention then console you needed to have to play it! To give you an idea, an Xbox series X costs half a GRAND today!

Well, it’s never been a better time to become a gamer.. with the inception of cloud-based gaming, it proves that there is an active effort to get games across all your consoles, PC’s, or even your mobile phone... As technology gets better for game-streaming, there is a chance that we can have a Netflix-like feel to gaming!

From XBox’s game pass, to the playstation’s playstation plus service, gaming is becoming more and more accessible to people who don’t have the cash to buy ALL the games you’ve ever wanted to play. If Microsoft is actually able to purchase Activision Blizzard, the consolidation in the space will hasten. Again, the platforms are buying content that could in turn, lead into another streaming service war - The Netflix vs Amazon Prime vs HBO Max vs Disney Plus Vs Hulu war will also exist in the video gaming space..

Today, on Things Have Changed Podcast, we’re going to talk about how the subscription Economy has officially infiltrated gaming!

Some Interesting Reads on Gaming:

• The Great VideoGame Consolidation - 
• Sony’s real strategy for Bungie Purchase
• Microsoft Deal for Activision Reviewed by FTC
• Playstation Vs Xbox
• Sony’s Comeback
• Gaming markets breakdown

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The Things Have Changed Podcast Team is exploring video!

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