The Real Estate News Brief: More Inflation Concerns, Big Change for Home Sales, Single-Family Construction Hot Spots

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending March 16th, 2024... what the latest inflation reports are telling us, why home sellers might be jumping for joy, and where we’ll be seeing the most single-family construction.    We begin with economic news from this past week. Two new inflation reports add to concerns about which way prices are going. The Consumer Price Index and the Producer Price Index both show prices were higher in February with the PPI showing the biggest surprise on the upside. The PPI represents the wholesale cost of goods and services and what we might expect to see bubbling up at the retail level.   For the month of February, the PPI was up .6% which is double what Wall Street economists had predicted. That brought the annual rate of wholesale inflation up from 1% to 1.6%. Higher energy costs can be blamed for most of that gain. They were up 4.4% for the month. Food prices were also 1% higher. When you eliminate food and energy prices for the core rate of inflation, you still get a steep .4% gain and an annual rate of 3.8%...   ...You can read more about the stories in this episode by following links in the show notes at newsforinvestors.com. You can also join RealWealth for free to learn more about real estate investing. We focus on single-family homes, but also help members find small multi-families and participate in syndicated development deals. It takes just a minute to sign up at realwealthshow.com. And please subscribe to this podcast on your preferred platform and leave us a review if you love the show.    Thanks for listening! Kathy Fettke   Links:   1 - https://www.marketwatch.com/livecoverage/cpi-report-for-february-dow-futures-inch-higher-ahead-of-key-inflation-data/card/inflation-accelerates-in-february-cpi-shows-RZTJ6W9hTgClRxUcKaa5   2 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wholesale-price-increases-add-to-picture-of-persistent-inflation-1fdf2a4c?mod=economic-report   3 - https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/14/this-week-provided-a-reminder-that-inflation-isnt-going-away-anytime-soon.html   4 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-dip-to-209-00-and-still-show-no-sign-of-rising-layoffs-2d94aacc?mod=economy-politics   5 - https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms   6 - https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20240315367/no-more-6-home-buyers-and-sellers-will-soon-negotiate-their-own-commissions-with-agents   7 - https://eyeonhousing.org/2024/03/strong-rebound-in-single-family-permits-at-the-start-of-2024/   8 - https://eyeonhousing.org/2024/03/strong-rebound-in-single-family-permits-at-the-start-of-2024/