Compass Contemplations for Thursday

DID YOU KNOW? Housing starts fell 5.3% in September from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.201 million, according to the Commerce Department. Residential building permits, which can signal how much construction is in the pipeline, also fell, declining 0.6% from August to an annual pace of 1.241 million last month. Housing-starts data are volatile from month to month and can be subject to large revisions. September’s 5.3% drop for starts came with a margin of error of 11.3 percentage points. (WSJ)

DID YOU KNOW? U.S. home-builder confidence ticked up in October after pulling back from a multi-decade high in recent months. (WSJ)

DID YOU KNOW?  Household wealth in the U.S. continues to surge. China has replaced Japan in 2nd place. Aggregate global wealth rose by $14 trillion to $317 trillion in the 12 months prior to mid-year 2018, a 4.6% growth rate. Rising wealth was largely due to increases in non-financial assets owned by the middle-class. Total wealth and wealth per adult in the U.S. have grown every year since 2008, even when total global wealth suffered a reversal in 2014 and 2015. The U.S. has accounted for 40% of all increments to world wealth since 2008, and 58% of the rise since 2013. (Global Wealth Report 2018)

DID YOU KNOW? Consumers filed the fewest requests for a mortgage since late 2014 last week as most home borrowing costs reached their highest levels in more than 7 years.

DO YOU WANT PROOF? .....of how every "Compass experience" matters?  This summer, a Compass Agent in LA successfully and smoothly sold the home of their clients. Those clients then asked their agent if perhaps they knew a Compass agent in New York who could help sell their parents apartment on the Upper East Side. It had been on the market for quite some time with a different agent at a different firm and they felt they had such a positive experience with Compass LA they wanted to try a change ......this time with Compass New York. With the introduction to Compass NY and an agent who specializes on the Upper East Side, the home was re-listed, staged, and beautified. After just 13 days on the market, it entered into a contract and closed within 45 days. There is no better public relation for ALL of us if we ALL focus on QUALITY EXPERIENCES AND RESULTS.