Nashville’s housing market is booming. Rents are rising dramatically. We are hearing stories that give us pause to consider the sustainability of the boom. Several articles have caught our attention. Nashville’s housing market hits high notes thanks to young buyers. The Financial Times featured Nashville’s booming housing market a few weeks ago. [Tiered Registration Required]
This week we continue the theme begun last week—examining the economy and the stock market as we turn the page on a New Year. This week we present three articles that in varying degrees, address the economy and markets from different angles. The first article compares present conditions to those that existed prior to the
The Federal Reserve met last week and it made no changes to its large scale asset purchase program. The late spring/early summer experience, where its communications about tapering the program were bungled, drove up interest rates, in expectation that stimulus would be withdrawn in the near future. As markets reacted, the Fed backtracked, and since
Sometimes good news is greeted poorly by the market. Last week the number of claims for jobless benefits dropped to the lowest level since October 2007. Consumer confidence also moved near a five-year high. However, the stock market dropped, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to prices, climbed. Concerns that the Federal Reserve will taper asset purchases beginning as early as September have stoked a selling spree.
What are the prospects for investing in real estate in a potential rising interest rate environment? The first two articles this week address the return prospects for core real estate in a rising rate environment. The third article is an update on the phenomenon of private equity funds purchasing homes for long-term rental.
We begin with an article summarizing sizeable increases in home prices reported by the S&P/Case-Shiller Index. Next, we summarize upbeat news in the Conference Board’s most recent Consumer Confidence Index®. We temper the good news with a report on the state of household finances following the recession. Finally, we present an Issue Brief that explains why housing is so important to the economy as a whole.