I'm sure some of us knew it would come to this.....

Between the lumber tariffs on Canada and the various other building materials and hardware from China the tariffs are adding between $9,000 and $20 thousand to the cost of an average home.

 

Actually, under Trump, finally Blue Collar wages are rising faster than White Collar.



Salaries for college graduate Americans are growing much slower than for Americans who are working in transportation, restaurants, services, construction, and sales, according to federal data.

Average pay grew 3.0 percent in the 12 months up to December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, employees in the broad “management, professional, and related” category gained only 2.5 percent.

But there was a 4.2 percent rise in wages for “sales and related” employees, a 3.7 percent rise for “production, transportation, and material moving” workers, a 3.4 percent rise for “trade, transportation, and utilities” workers, and a 4.1 gain for “leisure and hospitality” workers.

Only Trump stands up for The American Worker against The Globalists.

DECOUPLING: China’s exports and imports both fell in June, as higher US trade war tariffs blitzed Chinese economy.

Keep beating the hell out of them Mr. President!

 

Lol...That's where the US is headed with trump's policies.

 

– Oct. 30, 2018 — ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation's premier property database, today released its 2018 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, which shows that nearly 1.5 million (1,447,906) U.S. single family homes and condos were vacant at the end of Q3 2018, representing 1.52 percent of all homes ...Oct 28, 2018

Gotta wonder how much demand for new homes there really is with 1.5 million sitting empty...

Additionally, the cost of housing was 10 times more expensive than it was in 1950 relative to average income before Trump, and it still is.

Methinks yet another bogus 'what else can we make up to blame on Trump?' thread.

 

They really are not, corporate profits are up, upper earnings are up but everyone else — stagnant

 

I don't think so.

 

that .25 increase I presume you're referring to coincides with mortgage interest rates rising (they just recently started to decrease)

" From September 2017 through November 2018, the interest rate on 30-year mortgages increased from 3.8% to 4.9%. Sales of existing homes dropped sharply, with about a one-month time lag. Sales of newly-built single-family houses peaked just after mortgage rates started rising, then dropped sharply in the following months, hitting bottom in December 2018. Mortgage rates obviously affect the affordability of a house, but the changes in mortgage rates also affected expectations of future affordability. Homebuilders moved quickly to avoid the worst sting of the higher rates, then returned to the market at the first signs of rates easing."



https://www.forbes.com/sites/billco...weaken-further-in-2019-and-2020/#20ee75fb1152

 

This would cause most of the price increases to occur in only one sector, the building industry. It would have little effect on the food industries, for instance. As such the wage increases for the building industry would be more than general inflation. In short, the US workers in the building industry come out ahead.

 

Its naive to think you can use selective protectionism to benefit a subgroup of workers. It's on a par with 'optimal tariffs' (where terms of trade effects benefit a dominant market). Retaliatory measures ensure negative knock-on effects.

Just have all construction companies as cooperatives. Job done!

 

Rather than just telling me I am wrong, tell my why I am wrong. If the tariffs are against a specific area, they will affect that area more than other areas. Thus that area benefits. Their wages will go up faster than inflation.

 

There will be plenty of housing once we deport the illegals.

 

Precisely. Free trade and lax immigration are the culprits.

 

Simply put, if the price-to-income ratio is going up, it means that homes are becoming less affordable.

Thus, how come we currently have a high ratio considering the fact most housing indicators are still below historical average?

 

I did tell you why you are wrong. Any form of protectionism will lead to retaliation such that the American peoples are made worse off. There is no optimal tariff. There are only folk trying to use protectionism for political reasons, ensuring redistribution effects in return for greater economic inefficiency.

Try something like Heckscher-Ohlin to model the well-being effects.

 

I said it would mostly affect the housing area. You did not explain why that was not true.

 

Well,

Yesterday, Clinton asked HUD to come up with strategies to increase housing affordability

Yesterday, Bush's drive for homeownership created a demand/increased the home price to income ratio

Yesterday, Obama implemented HARP/HAMP

Today, Trump's tariffs increased the home price to income ratio

Geeeeeze, when will we ever have a housing market undisturbed by the government?

 

Again, I did. Any protectionism ripples out through retaliatory effects.

 

Ya I laughed Higher wages=higher cost for wood and materials.. And the next thread will be all leftist crying about poverty and living wage

 

Nonsense

 

What's comical is, the demand for skilled construction workers are making them worth more wage wise and the leftist want to blame immigration policy and the lack of unskilled low wage working illegals.. Now there is leftist stupidity at its very best!

 

Yup, leftist defeatism.

 

Well said

 

Not true. For example. Lets say the price of eggs doubles. It will have little effect on the economy as a whole. It might double the income of egg producers, but that is about it.

 

What housing indicators are you talking about?

 

Fed’s Powell says US homebuilders hit by ‘a perfect storm’ of Trump’s immigration policy, tariffs

Full article;

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell echoed what most in the homebuilding industry have been complaining about all year. While the nation sinks into a severe housing shortage, homebuilders are struggling against high costs for labor and materials.

In response to questioning from Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., Powell said, “What we hear from the homebuilders is that it’s a series of factors that are holding them back and challenging affordability.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell echoed what most in the homebuilding industry have been complaining about all year. While the nation sinks into a severe housing shortage, homebuilders are struggling against high costs for labor and materials.

In response to questioning from Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., Powell said, “What we hear from the homebuilders is that it’s a series of factors that are holding them back and challenging affordability.”

He pointed to the fact that thousands of skilled workers left the construction industry following the housing crash that began in 2008 and never returned.

“Now you have a shortage of skilled labor, so it’s hard to get people on the job, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and other people. No matter what you pay them, just finding people to do that work,” said Powell.

Smith responded, “Would you say our immigration policy might have something to do with that?”

Powell replied, “That’s what we hear from homebuilders. That’s part of it for sure.”

Then he added, “Material costs too have gone up, and some of that is tariffs for sure. The homebuilders feel almost like they’ve been hit by a perfect storm here.”

Builders, especially in the south and west, rely on immigrant labor, much of it from Mexico. The Trump administration’s tough stance on immigration has hit construction employers hard.

“It’s really across the entire labor force, I mean some of the stats are staggering,” said Sheryl Palmer, CEO of Arizona-based homebuilder Taylor Morrison, at a recent CNBC Capital Exchange conference. “We’ve lost productivity, and we haven’t brought new kids into the system because it’s not this career that folks are aspiring to have, and for all those reasons, we just can’t physically solve the problem because we just can’t get them [houses] built.”

Single-family housing starts have been unimpressive so far this year. In May, they fell 6.4% compared with April and were 12.5% lower compared with May 2018, according to the U.S. Census.

The lack of sufficient home construction, especially at affordable price points, has led to a severe housing shortage. That shortage continues to inflate home prices, keeping would-be first-time buyers on the sidelines. Rents are now rising at a fast clip, as occupancy is unexpectedly high in both apartment buildings and single-family rental properties.

“What I hear from businesses and communities, especially in rural Minnesota but really all over the state, is that the lack of workforce housing, affordable housing for people who have good jobs is actually a real limit on economic growth,” said Smith.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/11/fed...immigration-policies-hit-us-homebuilders.html

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