What we’re reading (10/22)
“There’s Never Been A Worse Time To Buy Instead Of Rent” (Wall Street Journal). “Getting on the property ladder has rarely been tougher for first-time buyers. But a tight housing market isn’t turning out to be a bonanza for landlords either. The cost of buying a home versus renting one is at its most extreme since at least 1996. The average monthly new mortgage payment is 52% higher than the average apartment rent, according to CBRE analysis. The last time the measure looked out of whack was before the 2008 housing crash. Even then, the premium peaked at 33% in the second quarter of 2006.”
“New Homeowners Won’t See A Profit For Over A Decade” (Axios). “Historically, experts have said you need to stay in your home at least five years to break even. But with mortgage rates inching toward 8%, new homeowners will need to stay put longer to avoid going underwater.”
“Car Owners Fall Behind On Payments At Highest Rate On Record” (Bloomberg). “Americans are falling behind on their auto loans at the highest rate in nearly three decades. With interest rate hikes making newer loans more expensive, millions of car owners are struggling to afford their payments.”
“This Land Isn’t For You Or Me. It’s For The Meat Industry.” (Vox). “The federal government’s livestock grazing program is just one part of America’s agricultural land use story. The other part is all the land used to grow crops to feed farmed cattle, chickens, pigs, and fish, which comes in at 127 million acres. All told, a staggering 41 percent of land in the continental US is used for meat, dairy, and egg production. Globally, it’s more than one-third of habitable land. Much of it was once forest that’s since been cut down to graze livestock and grow the corn and soy that feeds them.”
“The Gems Hiding In Plain Sight In The Treasury Market” (New York Times). “You didn’t have to be a financial wizard to get a safe return of more than 7 percent on your money for decades to come. All you had to do was buy a 30-year U.S. Treasury bond in the last nine months of 1994. And if you were especially lucky with your timing and bought that bond in early November 1994, you could have gotten more than 8 percent interest annually.”
