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.
Napa Four Seasons
The 85-room Four Seasons Resort in Napa is expected to sell for $170 million, a near-record of $2 million per key. Demand for the adjoining 21 residences for sale was also strong and all units are in contract.
Consumer Expectations
Households’ expected level of spending a year from now surged to 4.2%, the best reading since June 2015 and predict their future incomes would rise by 2.4%, a 0.2 percentage point increase from the prior month and the highest reading since February 2020.
Minimum Wage
Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 could lift 900,000 Americans above the poverty threshold—but the policy would cost 1.4 million Americans their jobs over the next four years, according to a study released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget.
Hotel Index
The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index was down 8.2% in January.
Hospitality Jobs
The leisure and hospitality sector lost 61,000 jobs in January, following a steep decline of 536,000 in December.
Online Bookings
The percentage of U.S. online hotel bookings through hotel websites rose one percentage point last year to 49%, while OTA share fell to 51%.
Renter Debt
Research from Moody’s Analytics and the Urban Institute estimates 9.4 million U.S. renter households owed an average of $5,586 in back rent, utilities and related late fees as of January, for a total burden of $52.6 billion.
Rooms Construction
The total active pipeline count is decelerating and is now below where it was a year ago, down 3% as compared to Q4 2019.