Hi, Shrewd!        Login  
Shrewd'm.com 
A merry & shrewd investing community
Best Of PoliticsBest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd
Search
Shrewd'm.com Merry shrewd investors
Search
Best Of PoliticsBest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd


The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
Answer this questionContinue to Shrewd'mThis note won't appear again
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (4) |
Author: Dope1   😊 😞
Number: of 84346 
Subject: Housing and rent prices
Date: 12/17/25 12:52 PM
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 3
Often you see home prices and rents conflated when someone is talking about affordability. They can be, but there are elements to both that can be viewed separately.

After years of near-zero Fed fund rates, housing prices kept going up and up: St. Louis Fed (FRED): Federal Funds Effective Rate (FEDFUNDS) | FRED
From ~March of 2008 until ~September of 2022 the Fed rate was ~2.5% or less with a lot of that time being essentially zero. That led to cheap mortgages and coupled with other effects saw home prices rise. Recent increases in the rate have made mortgages more expensive and we're finally starting to see housing prices fall, especially in condos.

cnbc.com - Condo prices are falling but a bargain isnt guaranteed

Rental markets are also affected by population...and since we've started actually enforcing border laws, illegals are packing up and leaving. And that's leading to more supply of housing...and rents are now dropping:

mxmnews.com: MxM News: Rents finally fall as Trump deportations ease housing squeeze

Speaking on Fox Business Channel, Bessent pointed to fresh rent data showing apartment prices fell 1.1 percent compared to a year ago and are now down 5.2 percent from their 2022 peak, when housing costs were surging nationwide. Bessent argued the decline isn’t accidental, but the predictable result of reversing what he called years of “unfettered immigration” that flooded local housing markets and forced working Americans to compete for limited supply. Citing a recent Wharton School study, Bessent noted a near one-to-one relationship between population growth and rent increases, saying the research found that “every one percent increase in population” translated into roughly a one percent rise in rents.
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
Print the post
Members reply directly to Dope1 here — and replies get answered. Reading is free; so is joining the conversation. Join Shrewd'm »
This community has written 84,309 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
It's going to get worse · 33 recs · 2025
G’day Donny · 30 recs · 2026
Old Related Story · 28 recs · 2026
HCR is a national treasure · 27 recs · 2025
Fascism in America · 27 recs · 2025
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (4) |


Announcements
US Policy FAQ
Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

Best Of Politics | Best Of | Favourites & Replies | All Boards | Followed Shrewds | Open Questions | Moving a community