Vacancy for premium Midtown office space fell to 16.4% in the first quarter, from 22.3% two years earlier. The U.S. office vacancy rate, meanwhile, rose to 22.8% from 22.1% over the same period.
Rate Cut Futures
Before the war, interest-rate futures suggested that traders saw a 79% chance that the Fed would cut rates at least twice this year. Now, that percentage has dropped to 11%. Traders view it roughly as a tossup whether the central bank cuts rates at all by the end of December.
NYC Housing
A New York City affordable-housing program offers tax breaks with easier rules for residential projects under 100 units. New York City apartment developers are splitting large projects into 99-unit segments to dodge harsher rules for new incentives.
Unemployment
Over the past 12 months, unemployment among college-educated workers 34 and under has converged—and now surpassed—the 4.1% rate for people with two-year associate degrees.
Storage Users
More than 12 percent of American households, a record high, stash their overflow in rented storage spaces.
Japanese US Home Builders
Japanese builders have announced or closed acquisitions of 23 U.S. single-family home builders since 2020, more than double the number from 2013 to 2019. That doesn’t include the multifamily developers and construction-supply companies they have also bought. By some estimates, Japanese builders are now set to own about 6% of the U.S. home-construction market.
Unemployment Rate
The monthly breakeven rate - the number of new jobs needed to keep the unemployment rate stable - was much higher in the 1970s at 185,000 jobs, as women and baby boomers poured into the labor force. It dropped to just 50,000 in late 2020 during the pandemic. This year, slower immigration means the breakeven pace could fall to nearly zero, requiring less than 10,000 new jobs per month in 2026.
HOA Fees
Homeowners association and condo fees are significantly increasing, adding to mounting costs that are driving buyers out of the housing market. Median monthly condo fees rose 29% from 2019 to $420 in 2025, while single-family HOA fees rose 26% to $63 last year.
KC World Cup
The Kansas City metro area, with about 2.2 million residents, is the smallest of the 16 cities hosting the World Cup. Over the past 15 years, the region has poured $650 million into building world-class training facilities and stadiums in an effort to become America’s soccer capital. The city had a budget of $165 million for the World Cup tournament.
Private Credit Allocation
Of the about $6 trillion in invested assets held by life and annuity companies, nearly $1 trillion is now in private-credit investments.