Mortgage lenders originated a record $3.69 trillion worth of mortgages last year. With the 30-year mortgage rate near 2.97%, between 15.2 million and 16.7 million Americans could lower their monthly mortgage payments through a refinancing.
Eviction Moratorium
The CDC order covers tenants who can’t pay their full rent due to a substantial loss of household income, loss of compensable hours of work, a layoff or extraordinary medical expenses. While the intent of the CDC moratorium was to prevent the spread of Covid, there is no requirement in the order that the income loss be due to Covid.
Fed Monetary Policy
The Fed will continue to support the economy with near-zero interest rates and large-scale asset purchases until “substantial further progress has been made,” a standard that Mr. Powell said “is likely to take some time” to achieve.
San Diego
The city of San Diego paid $106 million in late 2020 for two hotels to house the homeless — $67 million for the 192-key Residence Inn Mission Valley and $39.5 million for the 144-key Kearny Mesa Residence Inn.
Hospitality Jobs
Since February 2020, the leisure-and-hospitality sector has shed nearly four million jobs, roughly a quarter of its workforce. As of January 2021, 15.9% of the industry’s workers remained unemployed; more than any other industry.
$15 Wage
A study of more than 5,000 hotels across the U.S. has found that 64% of the country’s hotel workers currently earn less than the Biden administration proposed new federal minimum wage of $15 an hour.
MAR Posts Loss
Marriott International Inc. ended 2020 with a loss of $267 million—its first annual loss since 2009—as the company absorbed the effects of the downturn in global travel during a pandemic that emptied most of its rooms last March and continues to sap demand.
Retail Sales
Shoppers boosted spending by 5.3% in January, the first increase in four months, buoyed by recent virus-related stimulus payments. The rise followed three consecutive months of declining sales during the 2020 holiday shopping season.
Lumber Prices
Lumber futures have climbed 47% over the past three weeks, to within a few dollars of records set in September. Lumber for March delivery ended trading Friday at $982.10 per thousand board feet, more than twice the price a year earlier.
Budget Deficit
The U.S. budget gap totaled a record $736 billion during the first four months of fiscal 2021, an 89% increase from a year earlier.