U.S. existing home sales decline as prices surge to record high

U.S. home sales fell for a fourth straight month in May as record high prices amid low inventory frustrated potential buyers, a trend that could persist for while, with builders unable to deliver more houses because of expensive lumber.

Existing home sales dropped 0.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.80 million units last month, back to their pre-pandemic level, the National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday. Sales fell in the Northeast, West and the densely populated South, but rose in the Midwest. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales falling to a rate of 5.72 million units in May.

Home resales, which account for the bulk of U.S. home sales, surged 44.6% on a year-on-year basis. The annual increase was, however, distorted by the plunge in sales in May 2020, when the economy was reeling from mandatory shutdowns of non-essential businesses to slow the first wave of COVID-19 cases. The COVID-19 pandemic fueled demand for houses as millions of Americans switched to remote work and schooling. Supply was already tight before the pandemic. Some homeowners were reluctant to list their homes because of fear of contracting the virus from potential buyers touring their properties. Some elderly Americans likely delayed downsizing due to the pandemic. The virus has disrupted labor supply at saw mills and ports, causing shortages of lumber and other raw materials. That is limiting builders’ ability to ramp up construction of new homes. The government last week reported a moderate rebound in homebuilding in May and a drop in permits.

With inventory tight, bidding wars are rising, threatening to price some first-time buyers out of the market. The median existing house price accelerated a record 23.6% from a year ago to an all-time high of $350,300 in May. Economists do not believe another housing bubble is developing, noting that the surge is being mostly driven by a mismatch between supply and demand, rather than poor lending practices, which triggered the 2008 global financial crisis. But the rapidly rising prices could feed inflation. There were 1.23 million previously owned homes on the market in May, down 20.6% from a year ago. At May’s sales pace, it would take 2.5 months to exhaust the current inventory, down from 4.6 months a year ago. A six-to-seven-month supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand.

Properties typically remained on the market for 17 days in May, down from 26 days in May 2020. Eighty-nine percent of the homes sold last month were on the market for less than a month. First-time buyers accounted for 31% of sales in May, down from 34% a year ago.

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-economy-housing/u-s-existing-home-sales-decline-as-prices-surge-to-record-high-idUSL2N2O01ZE

morning

>>65290

morning

00-9001 USAFSOC C-32B departed McGuire AFB nw

Myanmar coup latest: Urban warfare erupts in Mandalay

UK boycotts three Burmese entities; junta leader meets Russian security chief.

Tuesday, June 22

8:20 p.m. Reuters reports Norwegian pension fund KLP will divest from Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone over the Indian company's links to the Myanmar military.

2:00 p.m. Reports surface of exchanges of fire in the morning between the military and the People's Defense Force in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city. The PDF is an increasingly bold urban guerrilla force. The Irrawaddy, a local news organization, quoted one of its members from social media: "The military got a smell of us and come to our base. When we found out they were coming, we fired back. It is the day we have been waiting for to start fighting." Posts on social media also said the junta troops used Russian developed rocket-propelled grenades during assaults on PDF positions.

Monday, June 21

10:00 p.m. The U.K. adds three Myanmar entities to its sanctions list: a pearl firm, a timber company and the State Administration Council -- the junta attempting to run the country. London says the two state-owned businesses could be funneling funds to the military government while the council has undercut democracy in the nation.

9:00 p.m. Junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has met in Moscow with Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council, Myanmar state media report. Topics of discussion included security cooperation between the two countries and current developments in Myanmar. Min Aung Hlaing has also met with Alexander Mikheev, director general of Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport, to discuss technical cooperation. The senior general is in Moscow to attend an international security conference this week.

2:15 a.m. A mosque in Ahlone Township of Yangon is set ablaze and burns for about two hours with no report of casualties. Locals presume the arson is intended to fan anti-Muslim sentiment amid the political and economic turmoil that has lasted over four months since a military coup on Feb. 1.

1:30 a.m. Myanmar national soccer team member Pyae Lyan Aung, who refused to return home from Japan with his teammates last week, will apply for refugee status there Tuesday, Kyodo News reports, citing his lawyer. The goalkeeper has said he fears for his life after making the three-finger salute of defiance against the junta at a match in Japan. Sunday marked World Refugee Day.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Myanmar-Coup/Myanmar-coup-latest-Urban-warfare-erupts-in-Mandalay

>>65287

Blackstone to buy Home Partners of America in $6 bln deal

Blackstone Group (BX.N) on Tuesday agreed to acquire Home Partners of America, which acquires and rents single-family homes, in a $6 billion deal, the private-equity firm said on Tuesday.

The U.S. housing sector has become red hot, boosted by a strong economic recovery, ultra-low interest rates and continued demand for bigger homes from people working remotely due to the pandemic. Home Partners owns more than 17,000 houses in the United States that it rents out to tenants who are given an option to buy them eventually.

"The fundamental premise of the Home Partners platform is to provide residents with the opportunity to live in their chosen home with the option to purchase it," Jacob Werner, Blackstone real estate senior managing director, said in a statement. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, the companies said.

Goldman Sachs and Co LLC was financial adviser to Home Partners, while Sidley Austin LLP and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP acted as its legal counsel. BofA Securities and Wells Fargo Securities were financial advisers to Blackstone, while Simpson Thatcher and Bartlett LLP was its legal counsel.

https://www.reuters.com/business/blackstone-buy-home-partners-america-6-billion-deal-wsj-2021-06-22/

Russian Warships Practice Sinking Aircraft Carrier 35 Miles Off Hawaii Coast As US Places F22s On Standby

For weeks Russia has mustered a large fleet and aerial assets in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii in what's been widely recognized as Russia's largest Pacific military drills since the end of the Cold War. The Pentagon has closely monitored the somewhat unprecedented exercises which have seen at least 20 warships, submarines, fighter jets, and long-range bombers operating a mere 300 miles off Hawaii's coast.

But in a new alarming statement the US Navy is confirming that at one point Russian vessels and aircraft came a mere 35 miles off Hawaii's coast as the massive war games were underway. While stressing that the foreign military assets stayed within international waters, spokesman for US Indo-Pacific Command Navy Capt. Mike Kafka, said, "At the closest point, some ships operated approximately 20 to 30 nautical miles (23 to 34 statute miles) off the coast of Hawaii," he said. "We closely tracked all vessels."

New details of Russian maneuvers during the course of the exercises suggest there were multiple "close calls" - also as days ago the Pentagon scrambled F-22 stealth fighters, which remain on standby.

The Russian side is now divulging that its military undertook mock attacks on a simulated aircraft carrier strike group.

#OSINT #BMØ #Russia #USNavy #Pacific #Hawaii @USPacificFleet Large Russian navy taskforce just 35 Nautical Miles South of Honolulu Hawaii, 19-06-2021. Escorted by Three Arleigh Burke class Destroyers and a Sentinel class CoastGuard Cutter. pic.twitter.com/OBHE3iS3xb — OSINT-1 (@OSINT_1) June 20, 2021

First, as the Honolulu Star Advertiser has detailed, armed US fighters twice responded to the area amid a heightened state of alert over the Russian war games: The deployment of Russian "Bear" bombers as part of the exercise twice resulted in missile-armed Hawaii Air National Guard F-22 fighters scrambling to possibly intercept the turboprop planes — which headed in the direction of Hawaii but never came close, officials said.

The report continues: "The Hawaii Air Guard stealth jets launched June 13 and again on Friday, but no intercepts were conducted with the Russian planes likely turning away from the path toward the state, according to an account of the launch." And the hugely provocative details of the simulated carrier sinking put out by Russia's defense ministry were detailed in The Drive as follows: The Russian Ministry of Defense today published an account about the Pacific Fleet maneuvers, which are described as having practiced "the tasks of destroying an aircraft carrier strike group of a mock enemy."

A simulated cruise missile strike was carried out by the Pacific Fleet flagship, the Slava class cruiser Varyag (pictured above), as well as the Udaloy class destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov, and the Steregushchiy class corvettes Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov, Gromky, and Sovershenniy.

Russia's defense ministry has lately issued multiple short official videos of its large force in action near Hawaii...Again, since the formal end of the exercises it's emerging based on independent satellite image analysis that some of the Russian military assets were engaged in operations much closer to the United States' sovereign territory than previously thought.

"Russia says that they are 300 miles off the coast of Hawaii, yet unconfirmed satellite images from June 19 appear to show them much closer - within 35 miles of the U.S. state," The Daily Mail observes. The newest US Pacific-Command statement has since confirmed this proximity of at least some of the Russian assets. A number of Western pundits underscored that the large-scale Russian games were meant as a serious muscle-flexing "message" to President Biden just as he met with Vladimir Putin in Geneva last Wednesday.

Despite the US fighters being scrambled off Hawaii's coast and remaining on stanby, Biden never publicly addressed the threat, though it's unknown if he broached the issue with Putin directly in the closed-door talks. The U.S. scrambled three F-22 stealth fighter jets from Hawaii on Sunday in an unscheduled flight that may have been in response to the presence of a Russian Navy exercise https://t.co/qcFvmOAREK— Newsweek (@Newsweek) June 16, 2021

See Cap#2 for BOXER98 on hold when the above wuz going on-held ne of Hickam after a Reno depart-this habbened on Sunday June 13th

What's more is that a Russian spy ship has remained in the regional waters near the US islands, according to Hawaiian news sources which detailed its presence Monday.

No doubt, US Pacific-Command forces are still on a high state of alert, monitoring for any remaining Russian military maneuvers in the area.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russian-war-games-approached-mere-35-miles-hawaiis-coast-included-mock-carrier-sinking