Friday Fact Pack! Consumer Sentiment Nosedives
By Hightower Las Vegas and RCG Economics on May 13, 2022
Inflation. Rising interest rates. Gas prices. Financial market instability. These and other factors are no doubt to blame for a drop in consumer sentiment to its lowest level since 2011.
Fact Pack co-publisher Mike PeQueen:
“The selloff in financial markets has worsened notably in recent weeks. The working definition of a bear market is a peak-to-trough decline of more than 20 percent, and since its January peak, the S&P 500 is off about 18 percent.”
Graph:
Gas Prices
As high as prices are in the U.S., other nations are seeing even higher rates:
Immigrant Populations
A new study looks at which U.S. locations have the largest immigrant populations. Totaling more than 44 million, the U.S. foreign-born population accounts for one-fifth of the world’s migrants.
The study found that immigrants account for 19.4 percent of the Nevada population, compared to 13.5 percent nationally. Out of all U.S. states, Nevada has the 5th largest foreign-born population; California has the largest:
U.S. immigrants come from almost every country in the world, but Mexico is the most common country of origin for the foreign-born population:
Internal Migration
Apartment List just released its quarterly Renter Migration Report, providing new data on where renters across the country are looking to move.
More than 40 percent are looking for their next home in a new metro, and 27 percent are searching in a new state, both well above pre-pandemic benchmarks.
- 33 percent of Las Vegas apartment hunters are looking for homes elsewhere. The most popular destinations among these renters are Phoenix, Tucson, and Los Angeles.
- And 33 percent of renters looking for apartments in Las Vegas are searching from out-of-town. Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Riverside are providing the most inbound search interest.
Map of inbound migration to Las Vegas:
Where they are going:
Tech hub turnover:
Housing Vacancy Rates
Housing vacancy rates — both for homeowner and rental housing — are at or near historic lows, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s recently released Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS).
Homeowner:
Rental:
Broadband
When Congress passed the Digital Equity Act of 2021, it created a grant program to be administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in the form of monetary awards (grants) to states based on populations, demographics, and availability and adoption of broadband.
This map shows the percentage of the population that falls into at least one of the eight covered population categories as defined by the Digital Equity Act of 2021:
Nevada stats:
Emissions
One of the pandemic’s positive outcomes was reduced greenhouse gas emissions:
Note: Commercial aircraft emissions decreased 32 percent from 2019 to 2020 — but improvements in aircraft and engine technologies meant some aircraft emissions were declining even before the pandemic.
Global Food Prices
Food commodity prices went down slightly in April following an all-time high in March, per the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The drop was driven by a small dip in the prices of vegetable oils and cereals.
The Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of commonly traded food commodities, was 29.8 percent higher than in April 2021:
The prices of dairy, sugar and meat all are up:
Crops
Did you know most of world’s crops are used for things other than feeding people? From livestock meal to hydrogenated oils to various starches, we’re heading to a place where the world’s crops are mostly used for things other than directly feeding humans.
In a newly published study, researchers estimated that in 2030, only 29 percent of the global harvests of 10 major crops — barley, cassava, corn, oil palm, canola, rice, sorghum, soybean, sugar cane and wheat — will be directly consumed as food in the countries where they were produced, down from about 51 percent in the 1960s.
Comparative maps from an article on the report in The Conversation:
Food insecurity graph from FSIN’s 2022 Global Report on Food Crisis:
Globally, per the report, levels of hunger surpassed all previous records in 2021, with close to 193 million people acutely food insecure across 53 countries/territories — an increase of nearly 40 million people compared to the previous high (2020).
China is 3D Printing a Hydroelectric Dam with Zero Human Labor
Most Downloaded Apps
Tik Tok wins.
On the Horizon
Next week’s MarketWatch calendar:
Mike PeQueen: Now that we know inflation is continuing to run hot and that the Fed will continue to raise rates to cool it down, the big worry is whether it will cause a recession — so all eyes will be on the retail sales and business inventories figures coming out next week.
