| Volume 143 Number 42 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
You probably know that COVID-19 tests are in short supply. But did you know there’s no shortage of scammers setting up fake COVID-19 testing sites to cash in on the crisis? Click here for more.
How Did Past Health Scares Affect the Real Estate Market?
A month and a half into a national emergency that has shuttered the economy as the U.S. battles with the coronavirus pandemic, the real estate market is already bearing the impacts of the health crisis.
Local policies that ban in-person home showings, inspections, appraisals and document signings aside, both homebuyers and sellers have instinctively pulled away from the market ahead of what would typically be a busy spring season.
According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales dipped 8.5% from February to March, although year-over-year, they remained in positive territory with a slim increase of 0.8%. But these figures reflect the closing of transactions that had been initiated at least a month prior. Because of the data lag that exists in the real estate industry, the true current effects of COVID-19 may not begin to emerge in statistics until early summer. Click here for more.
Your Money
U.S. consumers are putting away cash at a rate not seen since November 1981, according to a report released Thursday by the government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The report found that the savings rate hit 13.1 percent in March -- up from 8 percent in February. In March, Americans accrued a total of $2.17 trillion in personal savings. Experts are attributing the surge in savings to the fact that bank savings, money market accounts, and Treasury bonds are yielding meager amounts after the Fed dropped interest rates down to zero last month. The COVID-19 pandemic also prompted the Fed to launch numerous lending programs. The report said personal income fell 2 percent in March, “in part due to the response to the spread of COVID-19, as governments issued ‘stay-at-home’ orders.” The BEA said this spurred “rapid changes in demand, as businesses and schools switched to remote work or canceled operations, and consumers canceled, restricted, or redirected their spending.” Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
The CFPB announced enhancements to its Consumer Complaint Database. With the addition of a geospatial view, consumers will now be able to view complaints by state using an interactive map. Additional new options will also allow users to view recent marketplace conditions and aggregate information concerning specific products and issues compiled from consumer complaints. In addition to being able to filter complaints by date, company name, and key words, users will now be able to apply word searches and filters to the interactive map. Click here for more.