A weekend topic starting with the Real Deal. "Commercial broker Jaret Turkell is ready to rock and roll. Turkell posted a GIF of Minions dancing with the tagline: 'It’s time to PARTYYYYYY!” shortly after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced on Wednesday that the Fed was keeping interest rates unchanged, and signaled it would make three 0.25 percentage point rate cuts next year. 'We are back baby. LFG!!!!!!' reads another tweet from Turkell, who focuses on multifamily and investment land sales at Berkadia in South Florida. (LFG stands for 'let’s f**king go.') 'Massive distress is going to be somewhat off the table, at least I hope so,' he added."

"Still, asset classes like office and multifamily could suffer disproportionately, especially as suburban office tenants continue to downsize and multifamily landlords struggle to turn a profit. 'There will be pain and distress in that market, no question about it,' said Jaime Sturgis, CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based Native Realty. Some multifamily landlords and developers 'were already operating on razor thin margins to begin with,' Sturgis adds. 'The smallest variations in that model can break it.' Multifamily developer Asi Cymbal, who has projects in Miami Gardens, Fort Lauderdale and Dania Beach, agreed that rate cuts won’t solve major problems, such as if a developer overpaid for land."

Business Insider. "Some economists worry that the Fed's signals could prompt another wave of price increases. As it is, US inflation hasn't quite reached the Fed's target rate of 2% — in November, the Consumer Price Inflation rose 3.1% year-over-year. 'The shored-up sentiment among market participants has caused financial conditions to become the loosest they have been during the central bank's tightening campaign, which is likely to create a renewed bout of inflation,' wrote Jose Torres, a senior economist at Interactive Brokers. He noted that all commodities have risen sharply in anticipation of 're-accelerating inflation' in the months ahead. 'I thought Powell was too early in discussing rate cuts, something he remarked as premature just two weeks ago,' added Torres, referring to Fed Chair Jerome Powell."

"'I don't see how the Fed is going to get inflation down to 2% if they're going to start cutting interest rates,' Robert Brusca, president of FAO Economics, told MarketWatch on Thursday, adding that robust wage growth was also driving inflation. Cutting interest also comes with risks. After all, if the US economy doesn't slow to near recessionary growth in the next quarter, 'inflation will be higher down the road, and sooner,' wrote Steven Blitz, the Chief US Economist of GlobalData.TSLombard."

KVUE in Texas. "'Hopefully, my parents will leave me their house,' Patricia Zermeno said. An Austinite of 12 years and a former homeowner, Zermeno jokes about the state of the housing market. She said with interest rates as high as they are, it feels impossible to own again. 'It is very hopeful that it is going down,' Zermeno said. '[But] I don't know how much I would trust the Federal Reserve saying that they're not hiking the interest rates any further.'"

KXAN in Texas. "The report shows that the median home price in the Austin and Round Rock region – around $425,000 – is down nearly 10% compared to last month. Though prices are dropping, they remain considerably high relative to pre-pandemic princes, ABOR said. 'On a year-over-year basis, we certainly saw a decline in November,' said Clare Losey, the housing economist for the Austin Board of Realtors. 'However, relative to November of 2019, the median sales price in the Austin [metropolitan sales area] is about 40% higher. So overall, home prices are still very much elevated,' Losey continued."

Construction Coverage. "While the real estate market appears to finally be cooling down, home price growth has been a defining economic trend in recent years. Over the past decade, which has included recoveries from both the Great Recession and the COVID-19 recession, U.S. home values grew by more than 100%. In comparison, average hourly earnings saw a modest 41% increase, while the Consumer Price Index rose by just 32%. The most substantial increases in home prices have been concentrated in Western states and select states in the Southeast. Since 2013, Idaho and Florida have witnessed the most significant growth, with median home prices increasing by 165.0% and 158.5%, respectively. Other top states include Nevada (+142.6%), Georgia (+141.2%), Washington (+136.9%), Utah (+135.4%), and Arizona (+134.8%)."

"At the city level, locations in Florida notably stand out for their remarkable surge in home prices. For instance, in Miami Gardens, FL, median home prices skyrocketed from approximately $106,000 in 2013 to nearly $436,000 today, marking a 312% increase. Eight Florida cities reported price increases of over 200%—roughly twice the national average—over the past decade."

From Newsweek. "Home foreclosures in the U.S. dropped last month, but financial experts don't expect the numbers to continue in that direction in the new year. For three states in particular, foreclosures are surging, indicating troubling economic times ahead. Delaware, Maryland and Ohio had the highest rates of completed foreclosures, while Bakersfield, California, and Cleveland, Ohio, were the two metropolitan areas with the highest rates. Financial and retirement adviser Drew Stevens said the overall yearly uptick in foreclosures can be attributed to confidence in the economy slipping. Many companies, from Hasbro to Maersk, are laying off employees, which inevitably fuels a potential spree of foreclosures."

"'Employees who bought high-priced pandemic homes are not able to afford them,' Stevens told Newsweek. 'Adjustable rate mortgages are still available, and with interest rates 40 percent higher than two years ago, many who bought high-priced homes at low rates can no longer afford the higher payment.'"

The Manila Times. "Current optimism about the Philippines' economic prospects could be misplaced, ING Bank said, with growth likely to markedly slow next year. Capital formation, meanwhile, dropped by 1.6 percent in line with a slowdown in bank lending to productive activities — likely a consequence of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) rate hikes to combat stubborn inflation. A sharp drop in price growth and a BSP easing could provide an upside to next year's GDP result, ING said, but the 'wild card … will be government spending, which is expected to be capped by elevated debt levels.' 'We believe that GDP growth can outperform our initial base case scenario but only if government spending is able to expand by double digits for all of 2024,' it added."

News.com.au in Australia. "Living in Sydney has become a financial nightmare and the ever-rising cost of housing, food and bills is forcing more and more people to call the city quits, new data shows. A few years ago, Sydney businesswoman Renae Smith swapped her pokey two-bedroom house in Newtown in the city’s inner-west, which she rented for $500 per week, for a huge country home in Burgundy in the French countryside. The 'massive”' property with five bedrooms, sprawling grounds and a pool, cost her 'peanuts' compared to what she forked out back at home."

"'I lived like a king,' Ms Smith, founder of the public relations agency Atticism, recalled. 'But it wasn’t just that the house that was cheaper – the lifestyle was cheaper. We’d drive to Nice for the weekend, fly to Barcelona for 15 euros (AU$25) and spend the weekend on the beach, or I’d get the fast train into Paris for the day. My life was so full, and at the same time, nowhere near as expensive as the nine-to-five grind I paid for in Newtown.'"

"When her visa expired, Ms Smith and her family relocated to Britain while they plotted their next move. 'I couldn’t bear the thought of going back to Sydney,' she said. 'My business is there – so Australia is my day-to-day focus – but I had huge anxiety about the idea of going back to paying such huge amounts of money to live in Newtown. The UK is also ridiculously expensive. In short, I also hate it here. The weather is literally the worst and the food is averagely below par, unless you visit London and pay a million dollars for something nice.'"

"But the family agreed to use the UK as a base while travelling. Ms Smith said they spent a lot of time exploring small islands in Greece. Earlier this year, while wandering through Lefkada, she and her husband spotted an ad in a local real estate agent’s window for a 4600sqm block of land on a hill facing the sea. It was surprisingly cheap, so they bought it. Next year, they’ll build a comfortable home and make a new life for themselves in Greece. 'For less than what we spend in three months [in the UK], we will be able to live for an entire year in Greece. We can work less, pay less, and live more.'"

"For younger Sydneysiders, living here means making huge sacrifices to cover the essentials like rent and food. Olivia Eddy moved from New Zealand at the start of the year for work and found 'the way money disappears could rival Houdini.' 'Despite my best efforts to save each month, I’ve been pocketing pennies,' Ms Eddy said. 'Any savings are quickly eaten up as soon as any big expense arises. I had to sacrifice things like going home to see my family during the year. I also haven’t been able to do other things on my Sydney bucket list, such as a trip to the Blue Mountains or seeing a show in the Opera House. Meeting basic living expenses unfortunately had to come before these things.'"

"Next year, Ms Eddy will move to Adelaide. Leaving Sydney so soon wasn’t something she planned, but 'when looking at the budgets between the city cities, the choice was easy.' For the stage of life she’s in, staying in Sydney 'is not sustainable'. She’ll miss Sydney but said she’s excited to move – 'as is my bank account.'"

The Globe and Mail. "The end of the year has been good for just about every asset class, everywhere. Bonds have shot up in value, bringing long-term interest rates down by more than 1 per cent. Stocks have surged. Bitcoin blew past US$40,000 again and kept rising. Gold and silver are up, and meme stocks, the 2021 fad, enjoyed a resurgence. It seemed like almost everything and everyone was along for the ride, since even the little-loved (lately) German stock market enjoyed a stellar month, the DAX index rising by a whopping 10 per cent in November alone."

"It was all driven by growing talk of a coming U.S. Federal Reserve 'pivot,' which was confirmed on Wednesday when Chair Jerome Powell said the institution was eyeing three rate cuts next year. Anticipating the rebound that would follow, they crowded in to snap up assets they expected to rally – which is to say, just about everything. Accompanying this was a rapid easing of financial conditions, as money began sloshing around freely again. By one measure, access to money had become as easy as it had been about a year ago, when central banks began their rate-hiking cycle."

"All of this reveals how difficult a job central banks face: A whiff of hope and everyone breaks out the champagne. For all the supposed money central banks have sucked from the economy, there’s still loads of it about, ready to rush in at the first hint of good news. Central banks know this because they put the money there."

"Although central banks will continue with the quantitative tightening they have been using to gradually reduce the money supply, the Fed has announced it’s prepared to pivot toward reducing interest rates in the new year. In other words, the Fed has decided to join the gamble, and endorsed the rally in markets. The new year will reveal if its judgment that it has won the war on inflation is correct."

NBC Montana. "A rising cost of living is top of mind for many Bozeman residents, and the price of housing is of particular concern. Compared to last fall, average rental rates for a two-bedroom apartment decreased by approximately 23% - ringing in at $2458 per month in September 2022 and currently coming in at $1885. Increasing rental vacancy rates are another sign of improvement. The current vacancy rate in Bozeman is 8.2%, up from 1.3% in 2021. The hope is that as the housing supply continues to expand, rents will decrease."

"But those figures are not music to everyone’s ears. Bozeman Mayor-elect Joey Morrison told NBC Montana, 'Until we're back at like 2010 rents, I don't want to hear let's sing praises and celebrate that our community is becoming more affordable again. I’m not really hearing, or myself experiencing, this sort of rent decrease, cost of living decrease that I hear folks saying,' he said."