COMPASS Contemplations for Thursday

DID YOU KNOW? Manhattan markets are picking up: There were 47 in-contract deals from May 11 to 17th, up from 31 the week prior. That increase follows six consecutive weeks of declines.

DID YOU KNOW?  Besides DOW 25,000, what SIX METRICS could define the real estate recovery?

1. The flattening of the curve. (This is a health-fueled crisis, not an economic fundamentals-fueled crisis). CHECK, for most areas.

2. The end of stay-at-home orders. Once society moves around more freely, so too can commerce flow. CHECK for many areas, not all.

3. The 10-year yield rises above 1%.  IMPROVING. Not there yet.

4. Credit Stress. IMPROVING notably.

5. JOBLESS CLAIMS. STILL BAD, yet most jobs lost were in sectors that are now re-opening. Re-hiring could improve dramatically. (eg: Amazon has offered 125,000 of the 175,000 part-time employees it hired for the pandemic a fulltime job)

6. Hardest hit sectors improve. STARTING NOW.

DID YOU KNOW? In Miami, April saw a 20.7% year-over-year drop in closed sales of single-family homes and a 36.5% plummet in condo-townhome sales during the same period. New listings in April were down over 27.2% year-over-year in the single-family category and were down 38.5% for the condo-townhouse sector. New pending sales for April took a 35.1% drop in the single-family category from a year earlier and pending sales in the condo-townhouse category sank by 56.6% from April 2019. April should prove to be the 'bottom' of this decline. May, however, is already showing a sharp improvement with pending sales up around 80%! $1m+ pending sales are up over 30% already.

DID YOU KNOW? Dozens of U.S. cities have inadequate flood insurance coverage. In Boise, Idaho ValuePenguin found that there was only one active flood insurance policy despite there being more than 8,700 homes ....in a 100-year flood plain. Riverside, California, was the second-worst city for flood insurance coverage ratios, with only 344 active policies despite more than 40,000 homes in a 100-year flood plain. Across the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., there are only 4 active policies for every 100 homes in active flood zones. Maybe a good time to check in with your clientele to see if their home is located in a flood zone and to make sure they have adequate insurance?

DID YOU KNOW? In the week ending May 10, newly pending sales nationwide were up almost 50% from the same period in April. And in four large metros — Cleveland, Cincinnati, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, newly pending sales were up from the same time last year. New for-sale listings are up 12.5% month over month after the seven days ending on May 10, but year over year they were still down 27.6%. Overall, while home listings continue to bounce back, inventory still remains about 20% below last year’s already low levels. (Housingwire)

DID YOU KNOW? Summer is almost here and it may be a good time to message to your clients how to deal with ticks, a common problem with pets and kids....and adults! After safely removing the tick, one of the most important steps is to test the tick. Knowing the species and what disease(s) the tick is carrying will help with your diagnosis. Click here for a list of tick testing labs in the U.S. Click here for complete Be Tick AWARE resources.