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July 12th

Posted On Sunday, 16 July 2023 14:47 Written by
Posted On Sunday, 16 July 2023 11:34 Written by

In part 1 of this article, we diagnosed a reality of many digital disruptions, especially those pertaining to AI and automation in the education industry: Technology will NOT replace humans, but only give them a greater opportunity to leverage their tactile, human skills to find new roles in the world.

In such a hands-on, human sector as education, educators, administrators, and leaders alike should not fear the current influx of autonomous software like ChatGPT but instead, use an anticipatory mindset coupled with their human competencies to adapt autonomous software and think critically and creatively about letting it handle the simple, otherwise arduous tasks.

In doing so, professionals in education can better foster the ability for students to learn the skill of application and in turn, how they themselves can adapt to the world around them. The best part? All of this cannot be replicated by AI, autonomous software, or machine learning (ML) whatsoever!

AI Is Restricted, but Educators Are Not!

So where do humans excel in the humanization of automation? In my research, there are 12 common competencies that are difficult — if not impossible — for current AI and autonomous software to master. These are the areas where teachers ultimately and indefinitely thrive.

Here is a brief look at each of these 12 competencies. While reviewing them, open your mind and put up your opportunity antenna to target where they may be applicable in your own field of work, if not in education:

  1. Adaptability and Agility – Opposite of anticipation; this refers to reacting quickly in unforeseen circumstances and still using them to your advantage.
  2. Anticipatory Skills – Anticipating problems and pre-solving them before they happen, learning how to anticipate disruptions, and getting better at being the disruptor.
  3. Meaningful Communication – Communication is a two-way, dynamic dialog that leads to learning and action, rather than a process of one-way, static information.
  4. Effective Collaboration – Different from cooperation, which is doing something because you have to, collaboration is about creating abundance for all by working together to benefit all sides, including your own.
  5. Creative Problem Solving – Being able to identify problems and then learning to define, imagine, create, and invent to solve them in unique, irreplicable ways.
  6. Service Delivery – While AI and automation can complete the jobs we tell them to complete, it is humans who know the value of being of service to others.
  7. Relationship Building – Using interpersonal skills to know the difference between a positive and a negative situation in a working relationship.
  8. Technology Savvy – Humans can easily adapt new tools and technologies to redefine projects and processes, creatively applying those tools to accomplish tasks.
  9. Strategic Listening – Being able to utilize our ability to listen, with active and passive listening skills often playing a bigger role than speaking does.
  10. Emotional Intelligence and Empathy – This competency is extremely important. It pertains to our ability to perceive both our own and others’ emotions, understand them, and manage them.
  11. Selling, Persuasion, and Influence – Using these to create positive actions and outcomes in professional environments is key for humans to thrive.
  12. Career Mastery – Every career has both a science side and an art side that are up to a human being to master. Typically, the science side is learned in school, leaving the art side out. But with AI and technology taking over many of the fundamentals, educators now have more time to cover the art side and how a person applies these skills.

 

With technology taking over the basic fundamentals, educators have the ability to finally teach these core competencies that are necessary to thrive out in the world and even use them to their own advantage in adapting successfully to the world of automation in EdTech.

In short, I want everyone to learn to humanize subject matter and engage the art side of their careers to help better the world!

What Next?

So, how do you actually apply these concepts? How do you move forward with EdTech, turn disruption into an advantage, and embrace the opportunities it presents?

Below, I have outlined a few steps you can take to begin:

  1. Spend one hour a week in the role of an opportunity manager to list the Hard Trend future certainties heading toward your industry and the world. Use these to see problems and disruptions before they occur to pre-solve them and find related opportunities.
  2. In this list, be sure to include all three categories of Hard Trends — technology, demographics, and regulations. With regard to regulations, remember to look for funding opportunities.
  3. List out the Soft Trends, because Soft Trends are those that can be influenced. What Soft Trends in the education industry do you want to leverage to your advantage as a leader or an educator?
  4. Finally, take these two lists of opportunities and create an action plan! Click here to download my AI Tool Recommendations Report.

Conversely, as an EdTech company, remember that you need to be a positive disruptor as well instead of aiming to displace human beings in every way possible.

The general unease around software like ChatGPT is rooted in the fear that human skill and these 12 competencies mentioned today are somehow replaceable, making people obsolete. Take on the responsibility of being an anticipatory thinker as well, encouraging ways in which people can adapt and leverage any autonomous education software or other autonomous technology otherwise feared by the general public and the education sector.

We are all in this together, in one way or the other. That delicate balance can be better sustained with positive disruption, making our lives better and giving people a greater purpose! We cannot run from digital disruption and autonomous technology, but we can work with them and stay productive and innovative as a human race.

Posted On Tuesday, 18 July 2023 00:00 Written by
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Posted On Tuesday, 25 July 2023 00:00 Written by
Posted On Monday, 24 July 2023 00:00 Written by

After a good CPI number and a solid 10-year treasury auction, we saw a nice 75bp improvement in the UMBS 30YR 5.5% coupon, which followed up a 19bp gain on Tuesday. Today we have the PPI number and jobless claims, so we might see some more good news and another good day for bonds.

Despite all the good inflation data, you can expect the Fed to raise rates again at the end of the month, just because they can, and because they REFUSE to use any real-time data at their disposal and formulate a real strategy. As usual, the Fed is way behind the curve and refuses to admit they are wrong. Since you can’t fight the Fed, expect a slow, but steady decline in mortgage rates and when the economy stalls in the fall as those with student loans struggle to pay back what they owe, billions will not be spent on all they things they have been spending their, and our, money on the last two plus years! While I am sure there are a few people who have made their “payments” to their savings accounts, most just spent the money and are going to be surprised when the loans come due! Yes, I now the president said they weren’t going to have to pay those loans back, but he lied! He has another plan to try and lessen the blow, but it not only won’t work, but it will also get struck down in the courts. People, you borrowed the money, now just pay it back!

The next big challenge we are going to face in the mortgage industry is, what will the rules be for calculating student loan payments now that they are supposed to be being paid back, but there is the attempt to circumvent repayment with the new plan that they are calling “ramping up to repayment!” Just another challenge and quite possibly a very painful surprise to those who think they can go out and buy a home with a mortgage while they are “ramping up” their repayments! This is going to be very challenging if we don’t get some real leadership real soon; and I don’t think that is likely to happen. On the other hand, they could just pay back what they owe!

Questions or comments: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Posted On Monday, 17 July 2023 00:00 Written by
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Posted On Friday, 14 July 2023 15:20 Written by
Posted On Tuesday, 01 August 2023 12:20 Written by

Elevated mortgage rates are cutting into homebuyers’ budgets. But this week’s inflation reportwhich shows that consumer prices are cooling quicklyprovides a glimmer of hope that mortgage rates could gradually start to come down.

The median U.S. home-sale price rose 1.5% from a year earlier during the four weeks ending July 9, the first increase in nearly five months. That’s according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.

Average weekly mortgage rates are at their highest level since November 2022, bringing the typical homebuyer’s monthly payment to a near-record-high of $2,627.

To look at the hit on affordability another way, a homebuyer on a $3,000 monthly budget can afford a $450,000 home with today’s average rate. That buyer has lost $30,000 in purchasing power since February, when they could have bought a $480,000 home with that month’s average rate of around 6%. The drop is more extreme when compared to a year ago, when a $3,000 monthly budget would have bought a $510,000 home at a rate of about 5.3%.

Prices are rising despite relatively low demand because there are so few homes for sale. New listings are down 27% year over year, the biggest drop since the start of the pandemic, and the total number of homes on the market is down 14%, the biggest drop since March 2022. That’s mostly because potential sellers are locked in by low rates; nearly all homeowners have a rate below 6%.

On the bright side, this week’s economic news provides a glimmer of hope for the housing market. The latest consumer-price index report shows that inflation cooled more than expected in June, largely because it has started reflecting months of cooling housing costs.

“This month’s inflation report is likely to bring mortgage rates down a bit from their recent highs. It shows that the Fed’s interest-rate hikes are working and increases the chance they’ll only hike rates one more time this year,” said Redfin Economic Research Lead Chen Zhao. “Because elevated mortgage rates are responsible for both of today’s major homebuying challenges—high monthly housing payments and low inventory—any decline is welcome news for buyers. But even though rates will come down slightly, they’ll likely remain well above 6% until the Fed sees several more months of inflation readings closer to their target.”

Leading indicators of homebuying activity:

  • The daily average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.96% on July 12, down from a half-year high of 7.22% a week earlier. For the week ending July 6, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.81%, the highest level since November.
  • Mortgage-purchase applications during the week ending July 7 rose 2% from a week earlier, seasonally adjusted. Purchase applications were down 26% from a year earlier.
  • The seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for home tours and other homebuying services from Redfin agents—was essentially flat from the week earlier and near its highest level since May 2022 during the week ending July 9. It was up 5% from a year earlier, the seventh consecutive annual increase. Demand was dropping at this time in 2022 as mortgage rates fluctuated.
  • Google searches for “homes for sale” were up essentially flat from a month earlier during the week ending July 8, and down about 15% from a year earlier.
  • Touring activity as of July 9 was up 4% from the start of the year, compared with a 10% decrease at the same time last year, according to home tour technology company ShowingTime. Tours increased slowly during this time last year as mortgage rates shot up.

Key housing market takeaways for 400+ U.S. metro areas:

Unless otherwise noted, this data covers the four-week period ending July 9. Redfin’s weekly housing market data goes back through 2015. For bullets that include metro-level breakdowns, Redfin analyzed the 50 most populous U.S. metros. Select metros may be excluded from time to time to ensure data accuracy.

  • The median home sale price was $383,750, up 1.5% from a year earlier. That’s the first year-over-year increase since February, and just $2,500 shy of the record high hit in June 2022.
  • Sale prices increased most in Milwaukee (13.5% YoY), Providence, RI (9.2%), Miami (7.8%), Cincinnati (6.7%) and Newark, NJ (6.7%).
  • Home-sale prices declined in 19 metros, with the biggest drops in Austin, TX (-9% YoY), Detroit (-7.4%), Las Vegas (-6%), Phoenix (-5.5%) and Fort Worth, TX (-5.3%).
  • The median asking price of newly listed homes was $393,248, up 1.3% from a year earlier. Asking prices have been increasing for a month.
  • The monthly mortgage payment on the median-asking-price home was $2,627 at a 6.81% mortgage rate, the average for the week ending July 6. That’s on par with the record high hit a week earlier, and up 13% ($305) from a year earlier.
  • Pending home sales were down 14.8% year over year, continuing a year-plus streak of double-digit declines.
  • Pending home sales fell in all but one of the metros Redfin analyzed. They declined most in Cleveland (-34.9% YoY), Newark, NJ (-24.8%), Warren, MI (-24.1%), Milwaukee (-23%) and Cincinnati (-22.5%). They increased 4.6% in Austin.
  • New listings of homes for sale fell 26.8% year over year, the biggest decline since May 2020.
  • New listings declined in all metros Redfin analyzed. They fell most in Las Vegas (-49% YoY), Phoenix (-41.6%), Cleveland (-39.8%), Providence, RI (-39.1%) and Newark, NJ (-36.9%).
  • Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) dropped 14.4% from a year earlier, the biggest drop since March 2022. Active listings were down slightly from a month earlier; typically, they post month-over-month increases at this time of year.
  • Months of supply—a measure of the balance between supply and demand, calculated by the number of months it would take for the current inventory to sell at the current sales pace—was 2.8 months, the highest level in nearly three months. Four to five months of supply is considered balanced, with a lower number indicating seller’s market conditions.
  • 30.5% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, on par with the share a year earlier.
  • Homes that sold were on the market for a median of 27 days, the shortest span in 10 months. That’s up from 21 days a year earlier.
  • 36.8% of homes sold above their final list price, down from 49% a year earlier.
  • On average, 5.5% of homes for sale each week had a price drop, down just slightly from 5.7% a year earlier.
  • The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their final asking prices, was 100.1%. That’s the second time in nearly a year that the typical home is selling above its asking price, on average. It’s down from 101.5% a year earlier.

To view the full report, including charts, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-update-home-prices-rise-first-time-five-months

Posted On Friday, 14 July 2023 06:19 Written by
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