Friday Fact Pack! Weak Economic Sauce

By Hightower Las Vegas and RCG Economics on February 24, 2023

Prospects for a number of indicators in the U.S. economy are weak: 

CPI Increases 

Visual Capitalist graphed price increases from 2000 to 2022 in select goods and services: 

As of December 2022 

Job Openings 

West Virginia had the highest job openings rate, 9.1 percent, in December 2022, followed by Louisiana (8.7 percent) and Alaska (8.5 percent) per the Labor Department. 

The states with the lowest job openings rates in December 2022 were New York (4.6 percent), New Jersey (5.4 percent), Connecticut (5.7 percent), and Hawaii (5.8 percent).  

Map: 

The national job openings rate was 6.7 percent in December 2022. Nevada came in at 6.6 percent.

Existing Home Sales 

The big story for existing home sales in January was the sharp year-over-year (YoY) decline. Here’s Calculated Risk’s final look at what went on last year when compared to the prior year in 40 local housing markets in January: 

(Note: The table above shows Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) declines in sales based on data from the National Association of Realtors® as of January 2023) 

Mortgage applications decreased 13.3 percent from the prior week for week ending Feb. 17, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. 

Smaller Apartments 

Rent Cafe’s latest analysis of apartment sizes in the 100 largest U.S. cities shows a 30-square-foot drop in square footage last year, but Nevada’s metros are bucking the trend: Henderson has the 8th biggest newly-built apartments in the nation, while the size of Las Vegas rentals landed the city in the 23rd spot, and Reno was ranked 30th. 

• The average Henderson apartment measures 1037 square feet, 150 square feet more than the national average and 114 above the average in the Western U.S. 
• The average square footage of units in Las Vegas was 965. 
• Reno averaged 945 square feet last year.   

Tallahassee has the biggest square foot average: 

As of December 2022  

Household Debt 

U.S. aggregate household debt balances continued to grow in Q4 of 2022 — to $16.9 trillion after a $2.75 trillion since the end of 2019, per a New York Federal Reserve report. 

As of Q4 2022

The fourth quarter of 2022 also saw an uptick of debt falling into delinquency for nearly all debt types after nearly two years of low delinquency transition rates.  

As of Q4 2022 

Advanced Degrees 

The Daily Shot took a look at how many Americans with advanced degrees are in the workforce by gender, and found that the ladies win: 

As of January 2022 

EV Batteries 

Nevada is among the 15 states with the most planned EV manufacturing: 

Via The Daily Shot as of January 2022 

VC 

Fundraising by venture-capital firms hit a nine-year low in the fourth quarter, as economic pressures persisted. Venture firms as a whole raised $20.6 billion in new funds in Q4, a 65 percent drop from the year prior and the lowest fourth-quarter amount since 2013, according to data firm Preqin Ltd., which tracks venture fund data. 

Of note: The amount was less than half the level raised in the preceding three months, marking the first time fundraising volumes decreased from the third to fourth quarter since 2009. 

As of December 2022 

401(k) 

Although the average 401(k) balance rose in Q4 2022, those balances ended the year down 23 percent (to $103,900) from the prior year, per a report from Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest provider of 401(k) plans. The firm manages more than 35 million retirement accounts. 

The average individual retirement account (IRA) balance also plunged 20 percent year over year to $104,000 in Q4 2022. 

A separate analysis from Vanguard found that average 401(k) balances in its care fell 20 percent in 2022 to $112,572, and hardship withdrawals were up slightly. 

Rebuilding Ukraine 

 At least $600 billion — four times more, adjusting for inflation, than the reconstruction of Europe through the Marshall Plan after World War II — is the estimated cost of repairing and modernizing Ukraine, after damage done in the war with Russia. Fixing the railways alone could cost $130 billion, according to CBER. 

Population Growth 

Golden Visas 

Ever think about moving to another country? “Golden visas”, or residence permits granted in exchange for investments, exist in several EU countries, including Italy, Spain and the Netherlands: 

As of January 2022 

The situation, however, is evolving quickly.

Tech Timeline 

“It is easy to underestimate how much the world can change within a lifetime. Bringing to mind how dramatically the world has changed can help us see how different the world could be in a few years or decades.” 

So begins an Our World in Data post by Max Roser on world-changing technology over time, from the first use of stone tools 3.4 million years ago to the ability to control fire and use it for cooking, which happened 2.4 million years later, to the rapid pace of new inventions seen in the 1900s: In 1903, the Wright brothers took the first flight in human history, and just 66 years later, we landed on the moon. 

As of February 2023 

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On the Horizon 

Mike PeQueen: On Tuesday we will see the Case-Shiller U.S. home price index to learn how sustained high mortgage rates are affecting residential real estate. 

Next week’s MarketWatch calendar: