Would you spend $1.3 million on a dilapidated, crumbling house?
Someone already has. In New Zealand, one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world, quality and price are not obstacles to the property boom trib.al/lFnLdGd
Property markets around the world are running hot in similar ways to New Zealand’s.
128 out of 150 cities saw prices rise year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, with 43 growing at double-digit rates — more than twice the amount in the previous year trib.al/Bc1xtoH
A genuine economic recovery is underway, driven by $5.4 trillion of extra savings worldwide.
Aspiring “upsizers” are searching for space and long-term financial investments, especially among aging millennials who see a shot at outpacing rich boomers trib.al/Bc1xtoH
There’s pent-up speculative enthusiasm as millennials jump on the housing ladder after what feels like years of missed opportunity.
The result is prices going beyond the historical average of what buyers would be able to afford (and be willing to pay) trib.al/Bc1xtoH
Egregious tales of excess include:
➡️ Bidding wars over semi-derelict homes in Australia
➡️ Prospective buyers in Shenzhen being asked to transfer 1 million yuan ($154,706) and submit personal credit reports before being able to bid trib.al/Bc1xtoH
New Zealand’s isolation and Covid success have attracted Silicon Valley preppers and domestic investors, with one woman buying five homes in one year.
The less wealthy are racing to keep up. Those who’ve failed to get on the property ladder feel ashamed trib.al/rA2JcGb
Prices don’t always rise, though.
House prices in global cities such as London, Hong Kong and New York have fallen, in contrast with roomier properties further out trib.al/rA2JcGb
There may be sound reasons for going long on the suburbs right now or overpaying a little for one’s dream home.
But the trends driving this dash could easily reverse if the post-pandemic “normal” looks more like the megacity-dominated past than we expect trib.al/rA2JcGb
Policymakers should be wary. What starts as a feel-good trend can turn.
Building more housing won’t on its own fix the problem, but more should be done.
One easy opportunity to add supply will come as companies reduce office space trib.al/rA2JcGb
Regulators should keep an eye on mortgage credit standards, which are starting to loosen slightly.
If the big four U.S. banks were to return to their pre-Covid loan-to-deposit ratios of 80%, that would imply $2.1 trillion in new loans trib.al/rA2JcGb
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How many times have you said to yourself: “If I could only earn $X, then I’d be happy.”
It raises the question: How much money is enough to truly feel wealthy? trib.al/OLSKdYi
People’s views on wealth have changed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
➡️ In 2020 respondents said $2.6 million was needed to be wealthy
➡️ In 2021, respondents said $1.9 million was needed to be wealthy trib.al/vs5UGZF
What it takes to feel wealthy is a moving target.
Although it’s wise to think about how to grow your personal wealth, you can spare yourself a lot of anxiety by focusing on how to find contentment trib.al/vs5UGZF
A month after Kristallnacht, @davidjshipley’s father’s family left Berlin for the U.S.
As Jews, their time as Germans had to come to an end, to put it charitably. The family went first to NYC before settling in Oregon, a distant corner of a foreign land bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-…
Their relentless desire to become Americans, to join up with the country that had saved their lives, was brought home to @davidjshipley recently when he stumbled on Julian Shipley’s — his grandfather — study guide for his citizenship exam bloom.bg/2TDbG1o
@davidjshipley It wasn’t until the 1950s that the U.S. put in place a standardized citizenship exam.
Before then, applicants went before a judge, who quizzed them. Trick questions were forbidden, but everything else was fair game bloom.bg/2TDbG1o
The vacation housing market seems to be cooling off.
The number of mortgage rate locks on second homes increased 48% in May compared with a year earlier. Since last June, the jump had been greater than 80% each month trib.al/uP5egsl
But prospective second-home buyers shouldn't interpret the data as indicative of some big shakeout and a sign to take action
It's likely to remain a seller's market for vacation homes for the foreseeable future trib.al/uP5egsl
While some employees will be returning to the office, many will continue to have some flexibility.
And with limited labor available in seasonal towns, it will take even more time to increase the supply of homes than in the rest of the market trib.al/uP5egsl
California’s hydropower reserves are drying up in the most literal sense.
This summer, the fuel that normally stands in for water is also running lower than usual trib.al/UQVzi8s
Natural gas typically fulfills two roles for California’s power grid during the summer:
➡️ It fills in the gap left by depleted hydropower
➡️ It handles much of the state’s surge in electricity demand during the early evening trib.al/13I89vX
The premium on local gas supplies has jumped to its highest level since February.
Power stations in California and Nevada Were also suddenly burning double the amount of gas compared to the previous month as a heatwave washed over the West trib.al/13I89vX
➡️ 100 years since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party
➡️ 24 years since the return of the former British colony to the motherland
➡️ One year since the national security law took effect trib.al/IUvy2iL
Hong Kong’s fate has lessons for the world, not least on the fragility of a liberal way of life and institutions in the face of autocratic determination trib.al/0JZkvHg
Placid scenes around Hong Kong at the moment feed into Beijing’s chosen narrative:
The pro-democracy protests were a plot fomented by hostile foreign forces to subvert China’s socialist system, while the national security law ended the chaos trib.al/0JZkvHg