Speaker 1 0:02

Welcome to the Money Chisme Podcast , a fun and safe space for personal finance , investing and entrepreneurship tips , where we get the chisme on all things money with sass and humor . I am your host , violeta , a first generation Mexican immigrant , a real estate investor , entrepreneur , and I am here to help you kick ass in the financial game . Each week , I not only bring you expert tips but also share the financial freedom and entrepreneurship journeys from our own community , because you know , representation is important . So grab un cafecito or , si quieres , an adult beverage and let's get into this week's money chisme . Hola , hola . Welcome to another episode of the money chisme podcast .

Introduction

Speaker 1 0:55

This week I just want to go online and kind of see what's been going on in the news in the finance world . So basically , I'm just going to go on here and look up what's been going on and I have a few articles pulled up that I will link down in the description in the show notes , in case you're curious . But I , of course , I'm a real estate investor , so I am curious about the interest rates . So the first article that I have pulled up is from

Mortgage Interest Rates

Speaker 1 1:24

USA Today , that I pulled from Yahoo Finance , and the headline reads the Fed just stashed hopes for lower mortgage rates and a 30 year fixed loan is above 7.55% , which is a little bit down from the 8% in October . But you know it's definitely way above what these initial predictions were . What these initial predictions were Back at the end of last year and beginning of this year there was rumors that we were going to get down to 6% .

Speaker 1 2:19

So let's go over what these predictions were . So , for example , back in February Fannie Mae forecasted that the 30-year fixed rate mortgage was going to be 5.9% , but now they're saying by the end of the year it might be at 6.4% . Same thing with the Mortgage Bankers Association . They're at the same with 6.4% for the year end , but initially in January they said it would be 6.1 . Um , the national association of realtors um , they believe um 7.1 , uh this spring , which is true because it's way above um and then 6.5 by the end of the year , but they initially predicted 6.3 . End of the year , but they initially predicted 6.3 . Wells Fargo initially thought it would be 6.05 . But it looks like all of them are kind of similar in saying that we're going to be above 6.5 by the end of the year . So it doesn't look like it's going to drop below that . So if you're thinking of buying , um , it looks like you're going to be around the 7% range anyways .

Speaker 1 3:32

Um , especially as we're coming around um to the hot season , which is the summertime . Um , because everyone wants to move during the summertime , before the kids start school , and it's the perfect time to move . So everyone's shopping around for homes and , although there's a low inventory , you would think that interest rates are high enough to reduce buyers . It really is not , because , at the end of the day , people need to move on , right , they need to live , they need to go somewhere and find somewhere to live . Uh , so you're , I'm already seeing it even here by my house . Um , houses are starting to fly off again . Uh , they're closing within two weeks , like they're being sold within two weeks of being listed it .

Speaker 1 4:22

It was slow at the beginning , I will say , and even at the end of last year , homes were slightly lower , but now the prices are increasing again and again . I'm not an expert , I'm not a real estate agent or anything , but it is important to kind of keep up to date with these and just get an idea of what you can expect , especially me as a real estate investor that is planning to buy another investment property this year , I have an idea of what I should be looking at . So when I start looking and I start doing my deal analysis , I should be assuming that I will get like above 7% , because I'm always going to go for the worst case scenario . So , um , these are to help me plan and same with somebody that's trying just to buy their first home . Plan for these . If it does drop , then yay , but if not , then you know , plan for the interest rates to be that high . So , with the high mortgage interest rates , um , increasing and not not planning to really take a , a big dip too much by the end of the year , um , that brings me to what about the sales prices ? Um , in , uh , in the housing market , because you kept hearing about the , the bubble and the housing market bubble and all that . But what , um , what is the forecast ? Um , and this next article is from Forbes and it's the housing market predictions for 2024 .

Speaker 1 6:06

And , um , it did talk about how , in the spring , uh , because of the high mortgage rates , uh , it wasn't home buying , wasn't that uh big ? And I did see it here during the springtime earlier this year , I did see some houses kind of sit a little bit longer than usual and selling a little bit less . And even when I get like the , I get this little notification of like the how much my house is worth and uh , at the beginning of the year , like it had , um , they expected less . Like it still obviously was going up , um , but it was less than what you would have thought um of with the way things were going , and so at in the springtime way things were going and so at in the spring time , yeah , it was uh kind of like slow , houses were slower to sell and um , um , it was um easier to negotiate , I guess .

Speaker 1 7:10

And with the high interest rates plus people seeing that the houses are really the sales prices are really high , houses are really the sales prices are really high , and the people that do own houses they're not wanting , they're more hesitant in selling their house and moving because they know they're going to have to just pay higher now . And so there was like a lower inventory on top of the low inventory that we already have , the housing shortage , and so all that together , regardless of all that , people still need to move , people still need to move and buy a house . And so , although it was kind of like stagnant at the beginning , there was still , you know , houses were still being sold and there was still a 6.4% gain in February . So here , according to Forbes , um , uh , the U S home prices , they still had a 6.4 annual gain in February . The house prices still had a 6.4 annual gain in February , and so home prices were still at , or near the all-time high . Houses are still . Houses are still , the value is still increasing the sales price and on top of that , you still are starting to see again that houses are starting to pick up to be sold faster . I'm starting to see them to go under contract within two weeks , two to three weeks . So people are out here buying . Unfortunately , the only uh , real thing that's really going to help is like having more homes available , more inventory , and unfortunately we can't keep up at the moment . So it's going to stay until you know something else happens , that um pushes everything back down , um , and with these interest rates , um , going back down below five percent would be nice , but again , with the other article , it's not looking like it's going to happen this year . So if you're looking to buy , or thinking about it or wanting to , you're going to have to plan for this

Immigration and Housing Market

Speaker 1 9:44

Now .

Speaker 1 9:45

This next article is by BiggerPockets . It is the US immigration crisis , what it really means for housing markets and investors , and I thought this was a pretty good read . I read it and it gave me a lot of insight that I didn't even consider . As a real estate investor , when I'm doing the analysis for the deals , it never occurs to me to look at immigration trends or anything like that . It never occurs to me to look at immigration trends or anything like that , and in this article it talked a little bit about that to take that into account . But it really was an article talking about how immigration actually has a pretty positive impact in housing markets . So in the article she mentions how there's an estimated 5.4 trillion in housing wealth that immigrant households hold and how , when immigrants move into a community , obviously the demand for housing goes up . So the article also mentions when immigrants move into a community , obviously the demand for housing goes up . So the article also mentions when immigrants move into a community , obviously the demand for housing goes up , which you know is something that we need to consider as real estate investors .

Speaker 1 11:07

If you are keeping track of of some immigration trends , when you're hearing it in the news that we have an influx of immigration . Um , you can see and look where are they heading and start , you know , investing in those areas Because housing , the need for housing , is going to go up and in these areas that increases the economic activity . You know , more people , they're buying more and all that . So it has a lot of benefit because they're buying more goods and services and you know , as a result , sometimes the how home values rise . Some people think it's the opposite and as a real estate investor like you know , this is a great opportunity to do , like if you're investing in multifamily housing or little , small apartments like that , because that need is going to increase .

Speaker 1 12:10

And then there's this thing she talks about how generally housing . You know , more housing well , generally means less affordability for would-be homeowners . But you know , actually immigration ends up stabilizing areas that are declining . And she did mention one example which is how they prevented the decline , the population decline in Chicago uh , in the surrounding uh , cook County , which has kept those housing prices stable . So Chicago uh was struggling at one point but due to immigration . You know it that . You know , market has actually stabilized because of immigration and people stabilizing that market and on top of that they , you know , bring up back the community . You know the community was struggling and they come back and they create a community and , um , you know , it benefits in the long run .

Speaker 1 13:16

So , uh , this article was a good read . It has a lot of um data studies that she they that the article references . So , if you're interested , definitely read this one . I'm not going to get too much into it because it goes a little bit into some of the politics of immigration , which is still a good read , but really , if you're a real estate investor , this is something that you have to consider . And now I'm glad I came across this article because now that's something that I am going to start looking at .

Speaker 1 13:55

And so , since we are on the topic

Starbucks Boycott

Speaker 1 13:58

of controversial topics , the next article is by Finbold and it is the Starbucks stock falls to a four-year low as the boycott rages on , and this is one that I'm participating in , I do not , you know , for several reasons . You know , really , from stemmed initially from the union , like anti-union tactics that they have , and on top of the palestines , but apparently they had a four-year low in their stock . Um , because , apparently , you know , uh , due to this boycott now the boycotts have been happening , uh , from last that I heard from when I came about it was October of last year and , you know , initially they were like . They were saying like the boycott didn't work and blah , blah , blah because it didn't really affect , I believe , their fourth quarter of last year . But it started gaining traction and it looks like this quarter it actually is starting to show the effects of the actual boycott , because it's saying that there was a drop in 6% of sales . So it says , according to Starbucks CFO Rachel Ruggery , the second quarter of international sales was impacted by issues in the Middle East and other comparable stores . Sales abroad dropped by 6% . In North America sales declined by 3% and it's all due to , you know , the boycott , because of what's going on in the middle east , east and starbucks involvement , and so now the stocks have dropped and it's getting , um , an effect . So was the drop in sales and in the stock price , you know , because of the boycott . Well , here the analyst , you know , does highlight that the social media discussions about Starbucks stance on the Middle East could be a critical factor for the sluggish sales . So you know , for those that say that boycotts don't work , you know , here's some proof and it looks like it's starting to have an actual impact . We'll see next quarter . So we'll see what happens .

Speaker 1 16:43

But I thought that was kind of interesting and for

Gamestop Stock Price Skyrockets

Speaker 1 16:47

the final article is kind of like a funny one because it brings back the times of 2020 where we had these meme stocks and apparently this guy , roaring Kitty or something like that , who I guess got started on Reddit . So this is on . Where is this ? Uh , cnn again , I'll have it linked and apparently gamestop and amc shares you know , stock prices uh , they skyrocket again in the first in three years , all because this guy or this person , um , roaring Kitty , uh came back online and I guess he posted a meme again of GameStop and everybody went and invested and bought up this stock . So so for shiggles , let's go look at the GameStop uh stock and I just pulled up the the five day uh recent ones Um , and you could see , like you know , may 8th and May 9th and I think you know May 10th , it kind of had like a little bit of a little hike and went up to uh to $19 and 60 cents uh for the stock price and then I guess you know Roaring Kitty came back and apparently he posted a meme again and it shot up to $30.45 and so , like if you had some GameStop somewhere I think I have some GameStop stock , uh , that I bought a while ago . When all that was going on , I was like you know what , I'm just gonna buy a little bit and see what happens . So after I record this , we'll see how , you know , it did . And so it shot up $30 , up to $30 .

Speaker 1 18:45

And then right now , at this moment , it is a little bit down , but it's crazy to see , you know , the impact of just a famous person , um , that can manipulate , uh , the shares price . So let's look at AMC stock price , right , uh , and see how that one that one doesn't look like it went too high up , like GameStop did , Uh , so well , actually it did . Uh , I wasn't looking at the five day , I was looking at the one day , for some reason , uh , so it initially was at $3 and 21 cents and then , um , today it has skyrocketed to $5.23 , which may not look like a lot , but that is a 58% increase in the past five days . You know , just shot up , and so pretty crazy to see that somebody could have such a big impact in stock prices just by posting a meme , and so just wanted to end this video with that craziness . So is he coming back to mess with the stock market again ? We'll see what happens . I'm going to keep an eye on it . That was pretty , pretty crazy and just brings back brings me back to 2020 , when Dogecoin was a thing and all that stuff .

Speaker 1 20:16

So , other than that , hopefully you enjoyed this episode of me just going online and searching up what's been going on lately in the finance world . Hopefully I'll do these , you know , maybe monthly or something like that , cause it was actually fun just to kind of like chit chat and see what's been going on . But other than that , I will see you in the next episode . Bye , thank you so much for listening . Don't forget to like and share this episode so others can also find this podcast . Don't forget to follow me on all my social medias listed in the show notes below , where you can also find this podcast . Don't forget to follow me on all my social medias listed in the show notes below , where you can also find resources to help you in your financial journey . If you're interested in becoming a guest on the podcast , you can find that information in the show notes . Other than that , thank you so much for your support and I will see you in the next episode . Bye . Thank you so much for your support and I will see you in the next episode . Bye .