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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. A recent Zillow analysis suggests it would take a drop of more than one percentage pointto 4.43%for the median-income U.S. homebuyer to comfortably afford the median-priced U.S. home. And that assumes a 20% down payment, which many first-time buyers are unable to make. Even more striking, in several high-cost coastal metros, not even a 0% mortgage rate would make the median-priced local home affordable for a household earning the local median income. This includes New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, and San Jose, where taxes, insurance, and maintenance on a median-priced home alone can often consume more than 10% of a median households income. On the flip side, Zillow finds that mortgage rates are already low enough for median-income buyers in many Midwestern markets to afford the median-priced home in those areas. Keep in mind, this is back-of-the-envelope math. The mortgage rate scenarios above assume all else is equaland that lower rates dont impact home prices. Are we likely to see an average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 4.43% anytime soon? Zillow economists say that scenario is unrealisticat least in the short term. Holding incomes, [U.S.] home prices and all other housing-related costs equal, mortgage rates would need to drop to 4.43% in order for a typical home to be affordable to a buyer making the median income, assuming they put 20% down. That kind of a rate decline is currently unrealistic, wrote Zillow economic analyst Anushna Prakash. Prakash added that: If buyers are waiting for big drops in mortgage rates or [U.S. home] prices to help affordability, theyre in for a rude awakening. Just like falling rates, that kind of correction in house prices wont happen without a serious slowdown in economic growth and income growth, and a rise in the unemployment rate.
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E-Commerce
Facebook has taken down a large group page that was being used to dox and target [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents in Chicago, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X Tuesday. Facebook parent Meta confirmed the move in a brief statement shared with Fast Company Tuesday. This Group was removed for violating our policies against coordinated harm, a Meta spokesperson said. Those policies include prohibitions against outing undercover law enforcement and supporting vandalism, among other restrictions. Meta did not immediately respond to an inquiry about which of those rules were allegedly violated. Neither Meta nor Bondis statement identified the Facebook group in question. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that it was a group called ICE Sighting Chicagoland” with roughly 76,000 members. Numerous Chicago Facebook groups and pages have featured reports and discussions of ICE activity in recent weeks, as state and local officials and many residents have condemned and protested the agencys aggressive operations in the area. Another Chicago Facebook page, condemned in conservative media in recent days for allegedly encouraging resistance against ICE, appeared to still be live Tuesday afternoon. Conservatives have previously criticized Facebook parent Meta and other social media companies for bowing to what they saw as censorship demands from the left, including pressure from the Biden administration to take down certain pandemic-related posts. I believe the government pressure was wrong and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) last year. Jordan praised Zuckerberg earlier this year as the company ended a fact-checking program and other content restrictions conservatives saw as limiting free speech. Meta also agreed to pay $25 million to settle claims related to Facebook and Instagram suspending President Trumps accounts after the January 6, 2020, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which the president called a First Amendment violation, citing alleged government pressure on the company. Other online platforms including Apples App Store and the Google Play Store have also reportedly recently taken down tools used for tracking ICE operations, with Apple telling Fox Business at least one ICE-tracking app was removed after a law enforcement request. Courts have historically held that its legal under the First Amendment to film and otherwise document law enforcement activity. The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs, Bondi said in her post. The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.
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E-Commerce
The ongoing government shutdown is delaying the announcement of the annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for tens of millions of beneficiaries.Originally scheduled for Wednesday, the 2024 Social Security COLA announcement will now be Oct. 24. It is timed to the September Consumer Price Index, which also has not yet been released.The agency adjusts its benefits every year based on inflation. The postponement of the announcement is the most recent example of how the government shutdown, entering its third week and with little progress made toward a resolution, has made it more difficult for people to plan out their finances.Projections by Senior Citizens League and the AARP anticipate a COLA increase of roughly 2.7%. About 70.6 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children, get Social Security benefits.Social Security Administration beneficiaries have voiced concerns that next year’s increase will not be enough to counter rising costs.Sue Conard, a 75-year-old retired nurse from La Crosse, Wisconsin, and SSA recipient, recently traveled to the U.S. Capitol with other retiree members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union to lobby for meaningful progress towards gaining health care protections to end the shutdown, as well as changes to Social Security benefits.She said she wants lawmakers to change the calculation on how the COLA is determined since the standard CPI gauge, which includes a market basket of consumer goods and services, doesn’t take into account many costs typical for older Americans.“The issue of how the COLA is determined is flat-out wrong because health care is not factored into the CPI,” said Conard, speaking on the front steps of the Longworth House Office Building.Some lawmakers have proposed legislation that would make SSA use a different index, called the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), to calculate the cost-of-living increase that measures price changes based on the spending patterns of older people on things such as health care, food and medicine.A collection of Democratic lawmakers has proposed legislation to change the CPI calculation for COLA benefits to the CPI-E. Last session, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., proposed a law that would change the COLA calculation, but that never got a hearing in the Senate Finance committee.AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan said the COLA “isn’t just a source of income it’s a lifeline of independence and dignity, for tens of millions of older Americans.” But even with an adjusted COLA, a majority of Americans still face challenges covering basic expenses, she said.Vanessa Fields, a 70-year-old former social worker and AFSCME member from Philadelphia, said she pays roughly $1,000 per month for groceries, more than in previous years. The COLA doesn’t keep up with rising costs, she said, “and we’re going to be in bad shape if lawmakers don’t act.”The agency is expected to begin notifying recipients about their new benefit amount starting in early December. A spokesperson for Social Security who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the COLA said retirement and Supplemental Security Income benefits would be adjusted beginning Jan. 1, 2026, without any delay despite the current government lapse in appropriations.The delayed COLA announcement comes as the national social insurance plan faces a severe financial shortfall in the coming years and as the agency has seen substantial workforce cuts.The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in June said the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034, instead of last year’s estimate of 2035. If the trust fund is depleted, the government will be able to pay only 81% of scheduled benefits, the report said.In addition, the agency laid off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000 earlier this year, putting pressure on the remaining workers to handle claims and answer inquiries from a rising number of recipients. Fatima Hussein, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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