New metrics make Midwest investment attractive
Recently, the Midwest has shown surprising growth and economic resilience, making this region an attractive candidate for multifamily development, investment and general interest. Often considered the slowest growing region in the U.S., the Midwest has...
Labor Department quietly cuts employment growth in half
The labor market increasingly resembles the imposing visage of the Wizard of Oz, with disappointment behind the curtain. Just look at the latest job numbers. Recent data indicate the economy added about half as many...
Millennials rising
Millennials are now wealthier than previous generations were at their age. They can’t believe it either. The median household net worth of older millennials, born in the 1980s, rose to $130,000 in 2022 from $60,000...
Categories hit hardest by inflation
Despite inflation cooling to the lowest level in more than three years in July, there’s no way around the fact that consumer prices in the United States have risen sharply over the past three...
Has capitalism come at the expense of the poor?
Perhaps the most amazing fact in all economic history is the unprecedented rise in wealth per person that has taken place in the last two centuries, following the Industrial Revolution. But it remains a...
Market set for recovery
The multifamily housing market is showing promising signs of recovery, with recent data from CoStar Group revealing a significant increase in demand and stabilization of vacancy rates. Absorption rates have notably risen from 118,000 units...
The housing theory of childless cat ladies
Would a YIMBY building boom rejuvenate urban family life or produce sterile, megacity hellscapes? Housing Boom = Baby Bust? America’s low birth rate is in the news again, thanks largely to Vice Presidential candidate Sen. J.D....
Is land-use regulation holding back construction productivity?
Ed Glaeser is perhaps the pre-eminent urban economist working today, and I’ve cited his work repeatedly when looking at land-use restrictions and burdens on new development. So I was very interested to see he’s coauthored...
L.A. homeless tower building cost rings bells
Gym, balconies, restaurant, soundproof music studio, business center, located in downtown Los Angeles, and it’s pet friendly. Sounds like a pretty good hotel, four-stars at least. Sounds like it, but it isn’t. It’s the new Weingart...
Rents fall behind inflation
Tracking rents is important for understanding the dynamics of the housing market. For example, the sharp increase in rents helped me deduce that there was a surge in household formation in 2021 (September 2021:...
Market demand sets stage for few rent hikes
While asking rents for new leases nationally are running nearly flat over the past 12 months, those figures are heavily influenced by the Sunbelt, where record-high supply has turned rent growth negative in some...
Economics and the hidden order
The “real world” is calling. But the real world is a real mess. So how do we clean up the mess? That’s a massive task: too big for any one person. This looks like...
