March 25, 2023 | Retirement Investment Rule, Gas Prices, Home Sales, and Home Buying vs. Renting

Retirement Investment Rule
I was disappointed to see Joe Biden veto the resolution to overturn a retirement investment rule that allows managers of retirement funds to consider the impact of climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors when picking investments. Biden says he signed the veto because "legislation passed by the Congress would put at risk the retirement savings of individuals across the country." Unfortunately, I think the veto does the opposite. You know which bank had a good ESG score? Silicon Valley Bank. I believe if fund managers want to consider ESG when investing then they can go for it, but I worry this will allow them to hide behind poor investments like a Silicon Valley Bank in the name of ESG.

 

Gas Prices
What is California's solution to the highest gas prices in the US? More regulation. I don't understand what these lawmakers look at. The bill will allow the state to set a maximum gross gasoline refining margin and penalize any CA based refiner that exceeds that margin. The bill will also allow for a new watchdog agency and politicians say the legislation creates new transparency over refinery shutdowns, transactions that compose the crucial spot market where retail prices are set, export, and import activity, pipeline activity, and other aspects of the industry. There will also be a new ledger that will be kept for transactions on the gasoline spot market and regulators will have to be informed of all trades. I'm not sure why these CA politicians believe that refiners are only screwing over their state, maybe they should look at the excessive regulations and taxes as a reason for higher prices. The easiest way to help prices would be to encourage supply, this bill does not do that.

 

Home Sales
When looking at the headline for existing home sales, some may be excited as they spiked 14.5% compared to the month of January. Looking compared to last February though, existing home sales were 22.6% lower. The median home price also saw its first year over year decline in 131 months, or nearly 11 years. It was a minor decline of just 0.2%, but I do believe that the decline will be larger in the upcoming months. Supply continues to remain problematic with just 980,000 homes for sale at the end of February. This continues to produce an imbalanced market with just 2.6 months of supply at the current sales pace. I still do not see a major decline in rates and believe the housing market will continue to struggle in 2023.

 

Harrison: "Home Buying vs. Renting"