The Faithful Watchman

Housing affordability has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, with all of the least affordable markets in the state of California, according to data from the National Association of Home Builders.

The organization’s Housing Opportunity Index shows that a mere 42.2% of American families earning $90,000 per year were able to afford new and existing homes sold between the beginning of July and the end of September. Affordability is expected to weaken further as mortgage rates increase.

“The housing market and affordability conditions have continued to weaken throughout the year as rising mortgage rates, supply chain bottlenecks and a lack of skilled construction workers continue to push housing costs higher,” National Association of Home Builders Chairman Jerry Konter said in a statement. “Entry-level buyers are particularly hurt, as more of them are getting priced out of the market.”

The organization has not recorded a lower affordability reading since its analysts began tracking the metric consistently in 2012. The most recent affordability data marks the second consecutive quarterly record low.

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The Biden administration doubled down on its move to cancel student debt for millions of borrowers after a federal judge nixed the controversial program.

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in the Northern District of Texas declared the debt cancellation plan illegal on Thursday evening in response to a lawsuit filed by the Job Creators Network Foundation’s Legal Action Fund. The student loan cancellation plan would eliminate $10,000 in debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 per year and $20,000 for students who attended college using Pell Grants.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that an appeal has already been filed. “The President and this administration are determined to help working and middle-class Americans get back on their feet, while our opponents — backed by extreme Republican special interests — sued to block millions of Americans from getting much-needed relief,” she remarked. “We will never stop fighting for hardworking Americans most in need — no matter how many roadblocks our opponents and special interests try to put in our way.”

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One of the world’s largest and most influential hedge funds is warning that “dishonest” policymakers have set the world on the path to potentially the worst period of hyperinflation in modern history, which could result in “societal collapse.”

Elliott Management, a Florida-based firm founded by billionaire Paul Singer, said in a letter this week that an extraordinary set of rash policies during the coronavirus pandemic have “made possible a set of outcomes that would be at or beyond the boundaries of the entire post-WWII period.”

“Investors should not assume they have ‘seen everything’” just because they’ve lived through numerous other financial crises, the letter said, according to the Financial Times, the idea that “‘we will not panic because we have seen this before’ does not comport with the current facts.”

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The unemployment rate reached 3.7% in the month of October as payrolls rose by 261,000, according to a Friday report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The health care sector saw the most robust employment gains, while professional services and manufacturing likewise witnessed notable increases. The hospitality industry continues to suffer most from labor shortages, with employment continuing to remain well below levels seen at the beginning of 2020.

Jobless rates have remained between 3.5% and 3.7% for much of the year. The most recent figures indicate a 0.2% uptick from levels recorded in September.

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