Did You Know?

LUXURY LIFESTYLE INSIGHTS

THE GLOBAL VACATION rental market — valued at $22.7 billion in 2020 — will surpass a whopping $111.2 billion by 2030, according to a Precedence Research study late last year. (CNBC)

IN 2021, REPORTS SHOWED that over 70% of the 400 richest people in the U.S. and 88% of millionaires are self-made. (WSJ)

CALIFORNIA IS BANNING the sale of gas leaf blowers and other small gas-powered equipment starting in 2024, citing severe impact on environmental and human health and the imperative to reduce carbon emissions.

BITCOIN AND OTHER cryptocurrencies are classified as property and subject to capital gains taxes, meaning that you owe taxes on the increase in value of your property from when you first bought it. If you bought and sold cryptocurrency, or otherwise spent your crypto or exchanged it for other digital tokens, you must report this as a capital gain. (CNBC) O VERALL US HOUSING INVENTORY IS DOWN 53% SINCE 2019.

CONTRARY TO THE RED-HOT MARKETS OF 2020 & 2021, NAR economist Lawrence Yun, predicted that home sales will fall by 9% this year, and home prices will rise 8%, adding up to a 1% decline in sales volume and estimates 2023’s sales volume will rise 3% due to a more moderate 1% drop in sales and 4% rise in home prices.

ABRIEF HISTORY OF THE U.S. 30-YEAR FIXED MORTGAGE RATE 1970s - Rates in 1971 were in the mid-7% range, moving up steadily until they were at 9.19% in 1974. They briefly dipped down into the mid- to high-8% range before climbing to 11.20% in 1979. 1980s- Interest rates reached their highest point in modern history in 1981 when the annual average was 16.63%. Fixed rates declined from there, but they finished the decade around 10%. 1990s- The average mortgage rate in 1990 was 10.13%, but it slowly fell, finally dipping below 7% to come in at 6.94% in 1998.

Mortgage rates steadily declined from 8.05% in 2000 to the high-5% range in 2003. As the Great Recession hit, mortgage rates fell almost a full percentage point, averaging 5.04% in 2009. 2000s - Mortgage rates entered the 2010’s around 4.69%, falling steadily and were in the mid-3% range by 2012. In 2013, rates went up to 3.98% when the bond market panicked a little bit when the Federal Reserve said it would stop buying as many bonds. Rates rose to 4.17% in 2014 falling back to 3.85% in 2015. By 2016 they averaged 3.65%. Rates began to rise after the 2016 presidential election, reaching their peak at the end of 2018/start of 2019.... between 3.95% on the low end and 5.34% on the high end.

By January 2020, the average rate for a 30-year fixed was about 3.7%. When COVID hit they dipped into the 2’s, hitting a low in December 2020 at 2.68%!