Head of Apollo Predicts Bonanza in CRE
February 10, 2010
Tweet The founder of Apollo Management, Leon Black, has predicted that there will be a bonanza in commercial real estate opportunities in a Financial Times article. “I think a lot of the traditional holders of this real estate are going to be forced to sell as things are marked down,” he said. “Commercial real estate [...]
Read More >>Apartment Vacancy At 30-Year High; San Jose Leads Rent Declines
January 7, 2010
Tweet REIS put out data yesterday which pegs the vacancy rate for US apartments at a 30-year high. The vacancy rates now stand at roughly 8% according to REIS data. Rents fell 3% last year, according to Reis, led by declines in San Jose, Calif., Seattle, San Francisco and other cities that had brisk growth [...]
Read More >>Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization Declines
April 15, 2009
Tweet Released today were Industrial Product, and Capacity Utilization numbers, and the declines continued: Industrial production fell 1.5 percent in March after a similar decrease in February. For the first quarter as a whole, output dropped at an annual rate of 20.0 percent, the largest quarterly decrease of the current contraction. At 97.4 percent of its 2002 average, [...]
Read More >>Consumer Price Index (CPI) Falls 0.4% in March
April 15, 2009
Tweet The US Consumer Price Index (All Urban Consumers) numbers were released, and they registered the largest annual drop (-.4%) since 1955. Prices have been under pressure as demand has fallen for goods, and we are coming off a year which had significantly higher energy prices. Regionally, the CPI data is released bi-monthly rather than [...]
Read More >>United States vs. The World In Charts
April 3, 2009
Tweet The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its “Chartbook of International Labor Comparisons” with updated data to March 2009. The PDF file contains helpful data on how the United States stacks up with other countries with respect to its labor force. The release is full of interesting data, charts (hence, chartbook), and comparisons. Check [...]
Read More >>US Capacity Utilization and Industrial Production Still Falling
March 25, 2009
Tweet Since the last post on Industrial Production in the US back in January, the numbers still have not seemed to bottom out. The latest numbers for February 2009 were released by the FED last week, and the charts are still headed steeply down. Capacity Utilization numbers for February have deteriorated an additional 2.4% since [...]
Read More >>US Unemployment Jumps From 7.6% to 8.1%
March 6, 2009
Tweet Unemployment numbers are out and they are grim. The unemployment rate soared to a 25-year high of 8.1% in February. That is up from 7.6% in January. That is a 1.3% jump in just the last four months: Total nonfarm payroll employment dropped by 651,000 in February. Since the recession began in December 2007, about 4.4 million [...]
Read More >>UK World’s Largest Ponzi Scheme
February 28, 2009
Tweet Despite how bad many may think the US economy is – and it is bad – the USD is still holding its own against other currencies (for now), and foreigners for the time being still continue to purchase our debt. In fact, in relation to some other western countries, the US is holding up [...]
Read More >>January Unemployment Shoots to 10.1% in California
February 28, 2009
Tweet Preliminary January numbers have been released, and they are simply ugly. Unemployment has rocketed to double digit territory at 10.1%, seasonally adjusted. That number is up from 8.7% in December of 2008, 8.3% in November of 2008, and 6.1% in January of 2008. The current number represents a 73% jump year-over-year! National unemployment numbers [...]
Read More >>U.S. Office Vacancy Rate Set To Soar
February 19, 2009
Tweet According to REIS, a market research firm, office vacancy rates in the United States are expected to reach 16.7% this year. REIS’s latest market reports indicate an expectation of 17.6% next year, just shy of the 18.7% vacancy reached in 1992. The vacancy rate as of EOY 2008 was 14.5%. REIS also expects rental rates [...]
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