|
Existing Home Prices Record High in June. In contrast with new home sales, existing home sales fell for the fourth month in a row in June as record-high home prices and 7% mortgage rates weighed on buyers. Sales of existing homes fell 5.4% to an annualized rate of 3.89 million in June, the National Association of Realtors reports. (That’s the number of homes that would be sold over an entire year if sales took place at the same rate in every month as they did in June. The numbers are seasonally adjusted.) It is the slowest pace of home sales in any June since 1999, when the NAR began tracking the data. Compared with June 2023, home sales were down 5.4%. The median price of an existing home in June rose 4.1% as compared with the year before, to $426,900, an all-time high. Unsold inventory rose to the highest level in four years. Nearly 30% of properties were sold above list price, the NAR said, with homes receiving an average of 2.9 offers. Sales of million-dollar-plus homes saw an uptick in June, the only increase among all price categories. Nationwide, sales of homes priced over $1 million rose 3.6% in June as compared with a year ago. The total number of homes listed on the market in June rose 3.1% from last year, to 1.32 million units. There is a 4.1-month supply of unsold inventory, which is the highest level since May 2020. Listed homes remained on the market for 22 days on average, down from 24 days in the previous month. All-cash buyers made up 28% of sales. The share of individual investors was 16%. About 29% of homes were sold to first-time home buyers. “The collapse in sales largely reflects the jump in mortgage rates to 7.2% in April, from 6.9%, and is something we had anticipated given that pending home sales and mortgage applications, which lead transactions by a month or two, both slumped in April and May,” according to Thomas Ryan, an economist focused on North America at Capital Economics.
United States–Canada Border Slash. With all the focus on the US-Mexico border, we sometimes forget about our northern border. The United States-Canada Border is the longest in the world. It stretches 5,525 miles from Maine to Alaska, traversing land, sea, and untouched wilderness. As such, you might assume this colossal border would be left untouched by humankind, merely an invisible line on a map. But you’d be wrong. Every year, the average American taxpayer pays half of one cent to the International Boundary Commission (“IBC”) for the sole purpose of deforesting every inch of the U.S.–Canada border. With an annual budget of $1,400,000, the IBC ensures that the boundary will never be just an imaginary line. Affectionately known as “the Slash,” this treeless zone is 20 feet wide and covers everything from narrow isolated islands to steep hillsides. Spanning national forests and towering mountains, the vast majority of the Slash is so remote that it will never receive any visitors (aside from a handful of bears), yet it is still painstakingly maintained every six years with grueling hours of exhausting manual labor. The Slash was initially deforested for the sole purpose of, according to the IBC, making sure that the “average person… knows they are on the border.” It all started in the 1800s, when the western land section of the U.S.–Canada border was set at the 49th parallel. The Slash was cut and over 8,000 original border markers were laid down, most of which are still standing today. Unfortunately, there was no GPS system at the time, so the border markers were inadvertently placed in a zig-zag fashion, straying north or south of the official 49th parallel border by an average of 295 feet. The lack of sufficient cartography also led to irregular border cutoffs such as Point Roberts and the Northwest Angle. Despite its errors, witnessing the Slash is still on the bucket list of hundreds of geography nerds worldwide. Seeing the Slash can be as simple as going to Google Maps, zooming towards the U.S.–Canada border, and switching to satellite view. Those looking for a more up-close view can travel to Newport, Vermont, and hop aboard Northern Star Cruises, which will take you right alongside the Slash.
|
