What the experts say

An awful year for real estate...

The housing market had its worst year since 1995, said Phil Rosen in Business Insider. Full-year sales in 2023 hit 4.09 million, with “sales lower across all regions in the U.S. year-over-year,” according to the National Association of Realtors. The market finished the year poorly, with sales dipping 6.2 percent from the prior year. Lower sales figures didn’t dampen prices, which rose 4.4 percent yearover-year to $366,500 for an existing home. However, there are signs the market may have bottomed out in 2023. “The inventory of unsold homes in December dropped 11.5 percent from the prior month.” And Freddie Mac data shows that the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 6.6 percent last week, down from 8 percent in October.

...but Americans still feel more secure

Americans are feeling pretty good about their economic situation, said Felix Salmon in Axios. Though polling on President Biden’s handling of the economy has been consistently dour, “63 percent of Americans rate their current financial situation as being ‘good,’” according to a new Harris Poll, with another 19 percent saying it’s “very good.” Both numbers are “entirely in line with the average result the past 20 times Harris Poll has asked this question”—a sign that the discontent analysts have nicknamed the “vibes recession” may be ebbing. Respondents gave a favorable view of the labor market, with 63 percent describing their job security as “a sure thing.” Perhaps an even more stunning statistic is that 77 percent of Americans say they are “happy” with their living situation, and that’s including renters, who are historically far more likely to poll negatively.

Accounting firm backs off DEI goals

PricewaterhouseCoopers has dropped some of its diversity hiring initiatives after pressure from activists, said Stephen Foley in the Financial Times. The Big Four accounting firm has “opened up previously off-limits scholarships to white students” and ended race-based eligibility criteria for its student internship program. The firm (whose employee base is 55 percent white and 22 percent Asian) also softened corporate language to say that it has “an ‘aspiration’ rather than a ‘goal’” to have a racial makeup of 35 percent Black and Hispanic employees. PwC was among the firms targeted by Stephen Miller’s conservative activist group, America First Legal, which questions the legality of corporate diversity efforts.