24 WESTERN PALLET
Redfin’s Taylor Marr attributed in part to cooling demand for second homes.
“The pandemic-driven surge in sales of vacation homes is coming to an end as mortgage rates rise at their fastest pace in history, causing some second-home buyers to back off,” Marr said. “When rates and prices shoot up so much that a vacation home starts to look more like a burden than a good investment and a fun place to bring your family on the weekends, a lot of prospective buyers have second thoughts. The new second-home loan fees that kicked in on April 1 were also a deterrent. Plus, some buyers’ down payments—and their nerves—probably took a hit when the
stock market dipped over the last few months.”
Looking forward, “We expect new home sales and single-family housing starts to remain comparatively resilient in the near term, in part due to a heightened level of homes currently under construction and high order backlogs,” wrote a research team at Fannie Mae. “While the lack of existing homes for sale will still support new home demand, the [mortgage rate] ‘lock-in’ effect and worsening affordability will eventually weigh on new sales as well.”
Article written by John Greene, reproduced with permission from Forest2Market.
Housing Starts, Cont'd from Page 23
Brambles Takeover Bid Fizzles
A European-based private equity company has walked away from a potential bid for Brambles Ltd., the Australian provider of pallets and crates for transporting goods around the world.
CVC Capital told Brambles it “will not be putting forward a proposal nor seeking to conduct detailed due diligence at this time due to the current external market volatility,” Brambles said in a statement this month.
Brambles earlier reported having held preliminary discussions with CVC after receiving an unsolicited takeover proposal. Subsequently, shares of the company jumped as much as 13%, a record intraday gain.
Following the announcement of CVC exiting negotiations, Brambles slumped as much as 7.8%, giving it a market value of about A$15.4 billion ($10.8 billion).