Location Strategy Top 10 Chartbook

New businesses aren’t the job creation engines they were before: firms started in the 2010s employ half the number of workers as their counterparts in the 1990s. This holds true for 1, 3, and 5 years into the business. The BLS research doesn’t offer insight into the why behind the trend, but technology and the ability, even for small companies, to outsource are factors.

The Atlanta Fed’s GDP Now forecast shows residential investment is no longer a drag on economic growth.

This can’t go wrong, can it? Debt-to-income ratios reach 44% for FHA Purchase Mortgages.

The May residential construction report was a shocker, with housing starts hitting a multi-year high for this time of the year.

Here are the seasonally adjusted trends; they also show a significant uptick.

SF Starts Jump Above 2018 Levels

Traffic from prospective buyers is also up.

We have been waiting for the Fed Funds Rate to cross the CPI; since 1958 high inflation has never broken until those lines have crossed. This has now happened: the Fed Funds Rate is now over 1% higher than the US inflation rate, a strong sign that the reduction in inflation is real. The last time monetary policy was this tight with a Fed Funds Rate above 0% was back in October 2007.

PPI for residential building materials has fallen over 7%, providing some relief for homebuyers

New home sales recoveries after housing market busts.

All four major Texas Metros are represented on this list.

Why renters move: #1 to form their own household. Pent-up demand eventually yields new households.

Home builders and semiconductors both hitting new highs. This doesn’t happen in bear markets. These industries also are usually among the earliest signals of an emerging economic recovery from recession.

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