Latest news with #MeredithWhitney
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Baby Boomer Myth? 'Oracle of Wall Street' Says Seniors Live 'Paycheck to Paycheck' and Can't Afford Housing — 'It's Crazy, Right?'
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. The idea that baby boomers have staggering amounts of wealth has become widely accepted in the US. While this notion is not entirely inaccurate, digging deeper into the data shows a slightly different story. Meredith Whitney, CEO of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television in May that baby boomers are among the consumer cohorts that are struggling after COVID-19 stimulus checks "dried up." Don't Miss: Invest early in CancerVax's breakthrough tech aiming to disrupt a $231B market. . GoSun's Breakthrough Rooftop EV Charger Already Has 2,000+ Units Reserved — Whitney was dubbed "The Oracle of Wall Street" by Bloomberg for predicting the 2008 financial crisis. "After-tax earnings in the year after consumer stimulus checks ended were down on average 18%, right, because COVID was non-tax," Whitney told Bloomberg. "You've seen home equity rise at a faster clip than credit card lending, so people are tapping into the equity in their homes. And it's seniors, right? So 44% of home equity is taken out by seniors, which is counterintuitive—it's crazy, right?" Whitney talked about different cohorts among baby boomers to highlight the unequal distribution of wealth. "Everyone thinks the boomers have all this money, but that's a small portion. Seniors are living paycheck to paycheck," she said. Data shows that baby boomers account for nearly 52% of the country's total wealth, worth $78.55 trillion. Trending: This Jeff Bezos-backed startup will allow you to . Whitney also discussed how affordability challenges facing baby boomers are impacting the housing market. She said seniors are staying in their existing homes longer because they cannot afford to move out. "Only 1 in 10 seniors can afford assisted living," Whitney said. "This is one of the problems with housing inventory, they're staying in their houses longer because they can't afford to move out." Talking about changes in consumer sentiment, Whitney said that at the start of the recent earnings season, major banks reported that the consumer was "fine." However, restaurant earnings indicated a decline in foot traffic from low-income consumers, while Walmart's (NYSE:WMT) retail data showed that its business is now largely driven by higher-income shoppers, she said. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon recently warned that the retailer will have to raise prices due to the impact of tariffs announced by President Donald Trump. "We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible," McMillon said during the company's fiscal Q1 2026 earnings call in May. "But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren't able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins." Read Next: Named a TIME Best Invention and Backed by 5,000+ Users, Kara's Air-to-Water Pod Cuts Plastic and Costs — With Point, you can Image: Shutterstock This article Baby Boomer Myth? 'Oracle of Wall Street' Says Seniors Live 'Paycheck to Paycheck' and Can't Afford Housing — 'It's Crazy, Right?' originally appeared on Sign in to access your portfolio
Daily Mail
02-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Housing market reaches milestone last seen in 2009 that's good news for homebuyers
The housing market has reached a milestone it has not seen for 15 years, and it could be good news for buyers. The number of newly built homes on the market is at the highest level it has been since 2009. Home builders are struggling to find buyers in the frozen housing market, as elevated interest rates disincentive existing owners moving, and keep mortgages out of reach for many first time buyers. Coupled with house prices remaining at their most unaffordable level in recent history, the result is an unusually high inventory of new-build homes available. Home builders are offering discounts and perks as they try to offload them, according to Marketwatch. The typical home buyer cannot afford to pay current prices and current interest rates on a mortgage. The average 30-year mortgage rate is at 6.77 percent, as of June 26 and the median price of a new home sold in May was $426,600. The 'Oracle of Wall Street' Meredith Whitney previously told that rates need to drop below 6 percent to kickstart the housing market. 'The big story in the housing sector remains the inventory situation,' Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Santander U.S wrote in a note to investors. Stanley says the inventory is now 'bloated' and has been since last spring when the market tends to pick up pace. Despite builders efforts to entice buyers, success has been limited, according to Oliver Allen, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. 'Mortgage rates remain too high for sales to climb significantly higher, while the softening labor market likely will limit the flow of potential home buyers,' Allen wrote in a note. 'With housing payments at an all-time high, many buyers are feeling priced out,' Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather told earlier this year. 'But sellers still need to move, which means they're increasingly offering concessions to get deals done — especially on condos and townhomes.' Major builder Lennar have said they will look to lower prices in order to move its existing inventory. And Lennar is not alone. Around 30 percent of builders cut home prices in January, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported — by an average of 5 percent. Home builders are struggling to find buyers in the frozen housing market, as elevated interest rates disincentive existing owners moving Home builders are offering discounts and perks as they try to offload new homes 61 percent of builders also offered sales incentives in January, the NAHB survey revealed. Incentives include mortgage-rate buydowns and smaller floor plans. Sales of newly built homes did grow in 2024 compared to 2023, according to federal government data, but inventory remains elevated. By contrast, 2024 was the worst year for sales in 30 years for the resale home market. Inventory in the resale home category is also rising, up 16.2 percent from a year ago, which gives buyers more options too. The South and West of the country are the most attractive regions for prospective new construction buyers, a new report from revealed. The regions have larger shares of new build homes available on the market, lower new construction premiums, and more opportunities for mortgage rate buydowns, the report found.
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why home prices are 'skewed' higher: Meredith Whitney explains
Meredith Whitney, CEO of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, joins Morning Brief to explain how high rates, limited housing supply, and location preferences are keeping homeownership out of reach for many. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why home prices are 'skewed' higher: Meredith Whitney explains
Meredith Whitney, CEO of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, joins Morning Brief to explain how high rates, limited housing supply, and location preferences are keeping homeownership out of reach for many. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Here's the latest stat showing how the US housing market has frozen over in 2025
New home sales fell 13.7% in May, another data point that shows the housing market is stuck. The South led the decline with a 21% drop, while the Northeast saw an increase. Declining home sales are raising red flags for real estate experts. The housing market is even more frozen over than it was last year, and more data is piling up to prove it. New home sales dropped sharply in May, the US Census Bureau reported on Wednesday, showing that the US housing market is at an impasse as buyers hesitate and sellers struggle to offload their homes. Sales of new single-family houses fell 13.7% month-over-month, from 722,000 in April to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 623,000 in May. The May number is 6.3% lower year-over-year. The decline in sales was led by a sharp slowdown in the South. Sales in the region plunged 15.5% year-over-year and 21% from the previous month. The Northeast was the only region that saw an increase in new home sales. Americans aren't buying homes, but it's not because supply is constrained like it was in 2024. On the contrary, housing supply has picked up. The May report showed that there were roughly 507,000 new houses available for sale. At May's sale pace, it would take 9.8 months to clear the supply of housing. Anything higher than six months of supply typically indicates a buyers market — a notable shift from the sellers market that led to rapidly appreciating home prices post pandemic. In the South, new home construction actually hit its higher levels since 1971 last month, with 311,000 new units on the market thanks to increased construction and decreased sales. Data from Redfin earlier this month also points to a deep freeze in US homebuying activity. Redfin reported that there's a record $700 billion worth of homes for sale across the country, an all-time high by dollar amount. So why aren't buyers jumping in? Prospective homebuyers are hesitant to pull the trigger on a purchase with elevated mortgage rates and economic uncertainty. Mortgage rates still remain prohibitively high, averaging 6.82% in May, according to Freddie Mac. And home prices are still rising, making affordability a challenge; the median new home sold for $426,600 last month, up 3% from the $414,300 median a year ago. It's not just new homes that aren't selling. Existing home sales dropped 0.7% this May compared to last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. May's decrease comes on the heels of the slowest April buying season in 16 years. The slowdown in the housing market is raising warning signs for some experts. Meredith Whitney, the CEO of investment research firm Meredith Whitney Advisory Group and senior advisor at Boston Consulting Group, told Yahoo Finance that she believes the housing market is on track for "its worst year in decades." The seasonally adjusted annual rate for home sales is currently around 4 million, an alarmingly low number in Whitney's perspective. Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
