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Decline in Mortgage Rates in July

8.1.24
 
Good Morning,
 
DID YOU KNOW?
 
  • Despite 39% of U.S. families renting in 2022, nearly 8 million qualified as "income mortgage-ready." This means they could likely handle a mortgage payment for a typical home in their area without exceeding 30% of their income. We urgently need to educate the consumer better as it relates to finances. (Benzinga)
 
The official incident map for the Department of Forestry & Fire Protection references all current fires.
 
  • The Chief People Officer of a tech company received an email from her mortgage broker with directions to wire the $398k down payment to a Chase account: she wasted no time sending the money. The email appeared to be a response to one Robillard had sent her broker asking about final steps before the closing, which was rapidly approaching. The next day, a duplicate request for a down payment alert made her realize she had fallen for a scam. She had been tricked into sending her life savings to a criminal. Scams involving fake emails in real estate deals have exploded over the last decade, rising from less than $9 million in losses in 2015 to $446.1 million by 2022, according to the FBI. OPENDOOR - the online selling and buying entity - was the listing agent for the house. Might a 'human' agent have alerted her to this potential risk? I guess all those human agents simply open doors....(CNBC)
 
  • MONOPOFLATION? With many corporations starting to cut prices - many who had raised them simply because inflation was a great 'excuse' to do so - might the fact that there are huge monopolies in the US corporate world have allowed this by reducing competition?
 Here are some ideas to ponder:
 
- Between 1995 and 2015, 60 leading pharmaceutical companies merged to only 10.
 
- There were 12 major airlines in 1980: today there are only four.
 
-Four large food companies now control 85% of beef processing, 70% of the pork market, and 54% of poultry.
 
-Just three giants — Albertsons, Kroger, and Walmart — control 70% of the grocery sales in 167 cities.
 
-LVMH owns 75 luxury brands.....
 
 
 
Home Sweet Home
 
  • Real Estate has multiple tax advantages: One of them is when you inherit property, the IRS applies a stepped-up basis to that asset. This means, for tax purposes, the base price of the asset resets to its value on the day you inherited it. If you were to hypothetically inherit property and then immediately sell it, you would potentially owe no taxes on those assets. The rules are the same whether you jointly own the property or not. Capital gains tax on the jointly owned inherited property will be evenly split, based on the ownership stake, for each owner who inherited a piece of the property.
 
 
  • The 30-year fixed rate mortgage declined to 6.78% on July 25, down from the 7.22% high on May 2, according to Freddie Mac data. The first rate cut is almost entirely priced into financial markets already, especially bond markets. If borrowing costs for home loans come down, there’s a chance more buyers will jump in the market. And if demand outpaces supply, prices might go up even more. (CNBC)

 

 
Around the World
  • SAFE-flation? What might be another form of inflation fuel?  The cost for security, both physical and digital, not to mention insurance. 77,000 security staff and just 10,500 athletes at the Paris Olympics.....no wonder those tickets cost a fortune! (WSJ)
 
  • European Central Bank at June’s meeting cut rates by a quarter point to 3.75%. We have also seen rate cuts in Canada, Sweden, and Switzerland this year. In the U.S., Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recently signaled that further rate hikes are unlikely from here, meaning that bond yields should be at, or close to, peak levels. (BARRONS)

 

 
SummerTime Party!
 
This past week I enjoyed celebrating the beautiful summer season with friends, family, music and good food. Thank you to everyone who attended, and special thanks to Too Gone Blue's dancing tunes!

 

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Work With Katherine

Real Estate Expert Katherine Hunt has been a licensed real estate agent in Silicon Valley for over 29 years. She offers skill and experience with residential property, investment property, new construction, and 1031 exchanges.
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