Weekly News (January 31, 2024)

Mortgage Interest Rates Review

United Mortgage Nation  1/31/2024

 Federal Fund Rate: 5.25 -5.50%        Prime Rate: 8.25 – 8.50%  

“Lily” Day Care Center will open in Leonia, NJ

Korea Daily  1/30/24 

레오니아에 미국 최대 릴리 데이케어 센타 개설  

• Underserved senior population receive access to new adult day care facility in Leonia, NJ.
• 67,000 sf Dat Care Center will open at 2 Christie Heights St, Leonia, NJ between Grand Ave and Christie Heights St. 
• MFR Enterprises ( Owner Hoon Nam) plans to open the facility, “Lily Life” in Fall 2024.

Office building converted to residential in K Town

Korea Daily  1/18/24 

맨하탄 코리아타운 오피스건물 주거용 전환   

• Office building at 110 W 32nd St will be converted to residential units.  Tony Park, PD Property and MediaWill, Korean media company(벼룩시장, 알바천국) purchased this building(110,000 sf) at $37M in Sep 2023 and sold the first 2 floors as a commercial condo at $30M recently.    
  
•    Tony Park, PD Property will convert 3rd floor to 10th floor to 77 Studio and 1Br room apartment rental units.   The first floor, mezzanine, and the basement will become a supermarket.
• Presently, 8 floors of the building were empty and Mr. Park said he will convert to anything except office space at the interview with CBS on 14th.  

House price in Nov dropped from Oct, 2023

Korea Times   1/31/24 

작년 11월 주택가격 전월대비 0.2% 내려 

• According to CoreLogic Case-Shiller, the housing price index declined 0.2% on Nov 2023 from Oct 2023, which was the first time in 10 months since Jan 2023.     
  
•   The Index increased 5.4% compared to the same time a year ago.     
•   Until Oct, 2023, 30 year-fixed interest rates were about 7.5% which affected declining home buyer demand.

Real-Estate Turmoil Hits Office Towers

WSJ  1/31/2024

부동산 경기 침체에  고층사무실 건물 휘청  

• The highest quality office buildings have had much better success navigating the industry’s turmoil. Now, even premier towers are starting to wobble.  Rents at the highest-end buildings have been falling, while the rate of leasing has been slowing. Tenants have become more sensitive to costs in a world of higher interest rates and lingering concerns about a possible economic slowdown, market participants say.
• Premium, amenity-rich office space outperformed in terms of rent and occupancy throughout the pandemic — $300/sf at One Vanderbilt in Manhattan — That sort of exceptionalism is beginning to wane. Asking rents for prime space in 16 U.S. markets declined in the third quarter after increasing on average from about $61 a square foot in mid-2021 to close to about $70 in the second quarter of last year, according to CBRE. 

Leasing Activities in the U.S

WSJ  1/31/24

Strong Economy Expanded 3.1%

WSJ   1/25/24 

튼튼한 경제, 3.1% 확장세    

• The recession never showed up in 2023. Consumers made sure of it. The U.S. economy grew 3.1% over the past year, the Commerce Dept said Thursday. A resilient labor market supported strong consumer spending and brushed aside a feared downturn. A year ago economists saw a recession as very likely and projected anemic 0.2%growth for 2023. Instead, last year’s gain was a sharp pickup from a comparable 0.7% advance in 2022.
• Still, there are signs that spending—and the whole economy—won’t be able to continue at such a rapid clip. Economists, expecting consumer outlays to cool, forecast growth to ease to 1% this year.

Annual change in U.S. GDP

WSJ  1/25/24

Forecasting Dropping Rates in May becomes strong 

Korea Times   1/31/24

연준 금리동결전망 – 5월인하  유력

• Many economists forecast that the rates will be frozen at Jan FOMC(1/30-1/31) and possibility of rate dropping in March is 50/50, and forecast on dropping in May becomes strong.   
• Earlier, the Fed indicated the rate will be dropped 0.75% in 2024.
• Recently, PCE (without energy and food) on consumer goods increased   2.9%, compared to a year ago, which was the first below 3% in 9 months since March, 2021 (2.3%).  
• The bit of concern is that the job opening was 216,000 (non-agriculture) which as more than the forecast, 170,000.  

UPS Sets 12,000 Job Cuts as Slump Drags On

WSJ  1/31/2024

UPS, 경기 부진에  12,000  명 감원 처리

•  UPS said it plans to shed about 12,000 jobs this year and mandated staff work from offices five days a week starting March 4, as the package-delivery giant seeks to boost productivity amid a protracted slowdown.
•  The cuts are primarily targeted at management staff worldwide as well as contract workers, adding that those jobs aren’t likely to return even when business picks up. The company has around 85,000 management force.  
• UPS’s truckload brokerage unit, Coyote Logistics, was a drag on the company’s revenue. This business has been hit hard by excess capacity from higher inventory levels and consumers spending more on services than on goods.