Yearly Archives: 2022

The National Association of Realtors released new data Wednesday reporting that mortgage payments have risen more than 50% in the last year. The increase hits on the heels of data from the U.S. Census Bureau showing that new home sales fell 12.6% in July, down 29.6% from a year ago.

According to Zillow, house prices have dropped in 30 of the 50 largest metro areas. Meanwhile, home values are still up 16% from last year and 44.5% from July of 2019.

“Those who still want to sell are making some necessary price adjustments. And, that’s a good thing,” said economist Orphe Divounguy. “More than half of homeowners with a mortgage had at least 50% in home equity across the country – a new record - according to data from Attom. Those who can still afford to buy are getting a little breathing room. However, most Americans have been pushed to the sidelines.

“Housing affordability remains the biggest issue afflicting the market today and an increase in the available housing stock is a necessary condition to keep the market humming,” he added.

Pending home sales also dropped by 1% in June, the second consecutive month of decline, according to NAR. Those sales have declined in eight of the last nine months.

“In terms of the current housing cycle, we may be at or close to the bottom in contract signings,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “This month’s very modest decline reflects the recent retreat in mortgage rates. Inventories are growing for homes in the upper price ranges, but limited supply at lower price points is hindering transaction activity.”

NAR said Americans' ability to afford a home has dropped to the lowest level in decades.

“In June, housing affordability plummeted to its lowest level since 1989, according to NAR,” the group said. “Accounting for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and a 20% down payment, the monthly mortgage payment on a typical home jumped to $1,944, an increase of 54%, or $679, from one year ago.”

Interest rates have risen significantly in recent months, putting more pressure on homebuyers.

“On the demand side, housing is less affordable than it’s ever been,” Divounguy said. “On the supply side, potential sellers are not interested in trading their low fixed rate mortgage for today’s much higher rate.”

A majority of Americans think inflation will rise if President Joe Biden goes through with a potential plan to forgive $10,000 in student debt per borrower, according to a new poll.

The CNBC/Momentive survey found that 59% of those surveyed said they are concerned forgiving the debt will make inflation worse.

“Republicans are especially concerned: 81% of Republicans say student loan forgiveness will make inflation worse, nearly double the number of Democrats who say the same (41%),” Momentive said.

Inflation hit the highest level in decades for several consecutive months in the last year before its growth leveled off, at least temporarily, in July.

The poll found Americans are largely split on whether loans should be forgiven.

“Looking ahead, 34% say loans should be forgiven for those in need, 32% say all student loans should be forgiven, and 30% say no student loans should be forgiven for anyone,” Momentive said. “These numbers, too, have held steady since January.”

The poll comes as Biden faces a looming deadline. In March 2020, former President Donald Trump first suspended the loan repayments citing COVID-19. That suspension has since been extended several times, but it is now set to expire at the end of the month. The debts do not accrue interest while frozen.

Biden has yet to announce whether he will suspend repayments again or resume them.

The poll surveyed more than 5,000 adults online earlier this month.

(The Center Square) – Republicans in Wisconsin are not letting the two-year anniversary of Jacob Blake’s shooting, and Gov. Tony Evers’ reaction to it, go unnoticed.

It was on August 23, 2020, that a Kenosha police officer shot Blake in the back after Blake fought with officers, shrugged off a Taser, went to get into his ex-girlfriend's SUV, and finally reached for a knife.

That shooting touched off three days of protests and riots that left Kenosha burned and battered.

“Tony Evers has failed us. He consistently provides weak leadership,” Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels said Tuesday.

Michels held a roundtable event in Kenosha to mark the anniversary of Blake’s shootings, as well as the start of the riots in Kenosha.

“Is it any wonder why Governor Evers desperately wants to change the subject and talk about anything other than Kenosha today?” Michels added in a Tweet.

Michels used Evers’ “no regrets” comments in a new campaign commercial that hammers the governor for his response to the shooting and the riots.

Evers at the time blamed the police for Blake’s shooting.

"Tonight, Jacob Blake was shot in the back multiple times, in broad daylight, in Kenosha, Wisconsin," the governor wrote after the shooting in 2020. "While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country."

Evers continued: "We stand with all those who have and continue to demand justice, equity, and accountability for Black lives in our country – lives like those of George Floyd, of Breonna Taylor, Tony Robinson, Dontre Hamilton, Ernest Lacy, and Sylville Smith. And we stand against excessive use of force and immediate escalation when engaging with Black Wisconsinites."

Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Paul Farrow also called out the governor for his original comments about the shooting and the riots that followed, as well as his silence on this two-year anniversary.

“When the people of Kenosha needed a steady hand, Evers answered by playing politics, inflaming tensions, blaming law enforcement, and refusing federal help while the city burned,” Farrow said in a statement.

Gov. Evers was silent about the anniversary of Blake’s shooting on Tuesday.

(The Center Square) – Eric Toney, the GOP candidate running for Wisconsin's Attorney General, said Milwaukee was one of America's most dangerous cities.

The Fond du Lac district attorney cited homicides within the city are on track to break the record of 193 set in 2021.

Yet, despite the reputation for violence, the city of Milwaukee police department has been arresting fewer and fewer people over the past nine years.

Milwaukee police made 13,272 arrests in 2021, which was 61% less than the 34,326 arrests made in 2012. The drop in arrests pre-dated the pandemic. Arrests went from 34,326 in 2012 to 17,007 in 2019, that's more than a 50% drop in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The decline in arrests comes at a time when police were going on more dispatched assignments than in the past.

Milwaukee police went on 279,818 dispatched assignments in 2021, the most since 2016 and the second-highest total of calls since 2012. City police were dispatched 13% more than in 2012, according to city data.

The Milwaukee police force had the fewest sworn officers in 2021 since at least 2006, when online records are available. The city had 1,839 sworn officers in 2021, which was 10% fewer than in 2012.

"The Milwaukee Police Department has not evaluated historical data related to arrests," said Sgt. Efrain Cornejo, spokesman for the department. "We remain committed to working with our community and system partners to build sustainable healthy neighborhoods, free of crime and maintained by positive relationships."

Milwaukee's police department falls in line with numerous other police forces in the country that have seen a large reduction in arrests.

Joshua Taylor, the 4th Congressional District Chair of the Milwaukee Democratic Party, didn't respond to an email seeking comment.

The Milwaukee Police Association didn't respond to an email seeking comment.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state's two U.S. senators are warning of the "weaponization" of the U.S. Department of Justice after the FBI on Monday raided former president Donald Trump’s Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago estate.

They did so after the former president announced on his Truth Social platform that his home was “under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents” over a document dispute. The raid was unannounced, “not necessary or appropriate” and “prosecutorial misconduct,” Trump said.

The White House, Department of Justice, and FBI have yet to release a statement in response to numerous media inquiries.

DeSantis issued a statement from his campaign Twitter account, saying, “The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves. Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”

Florida’ senior U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, published a video message online, warning that the FBI’s tactics were like those of a third-world dictatorship.

“We’ve had divisive politics and anger in our politics for as long as this country’s existed," Rubio said. "... But the one thing we’ve never had is we’ve never been a country where people who take power, like becoming president, now use that power to persecute their past or political opponents. We’ve never seen that until … the Justice Department under Joe Biden decided to raid … the home of the former president who might … be running against him ...

“This is what happens in places like Nicaragua where last year every single person who ran against Daniel Ortega for president, every single person that put their name on the ballot, was arrested and is still in jail. That’s what you see in places like Nicaragua. We’ve never seen that before in America. You can try and diminish it, but that’s exactly what happened.”

The FBI agents weren’t looking for a fugitive, he said, or tracking down “some serial killer or drug kingpin,” but engaged in “a high-profile raid over a document dispute.”

Document disputes aren’t new, Rubio added.

“Multiple administrations have had disputes over the archival office over what is a presidential record and what isn’t,” he said. Sending 30 FBI agents was done for “one purpose … to try to politically harm and intimidate their political opponents.”

Pointing into the camera, presumably to President Joe Biden, Rubio said, “You’re playing with fire. This is dangerous. Because someone else will be in power one day and now you have created the precedent for them to do this back to you. And then we become the third world. And then we lose our country. And our system of government and the meaning of being one nation under a real constitution. This needs to stop.”

The people responsible for the raid, he said, Attorney General Merrick Garland and the director of the FBI, “need to be held to account for going along with something so undemocratic, unconstitutional, and flat out dangerous and destructive to our republic.”

He also pointed out that the FBI “isn’t doing anything about the groups vandalizing Catholic churches, firebombing pro-life groups or threatening Supreme Court justices.”

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said the FBI’s raid was “incredibly concerning, especially given the Biden admin’s history of going after parents and other political opponents. This is Third World country stuff. We need answers …”

In response to DeSantis’ statement, Florida Agriculture Secretary Nikki Fried, a Democrat running for governor, said, “Your tweet is another escalation of your pathetic loyalty to an insurrectionist over country and the rule of law.”

The Democratic Party of Florida said of DeSantis, “This wanna be autocrat weaponizes every state agency against his enemies, targets marginalized communities for political gain, incarcerates people for protesting, while handing out billions of our tax dollars to his donors and raises taxes on us.”

It added, “Law and order though, right Ron? Aren’t you firing people for not following the law? How many laws does Trump have to break?”, referring to DeSantis removing a prosecutor who said he wouldn’t be enforcing state law.

Some social media users asked if DeSantis would work with local sheriffs to prevent FBI raids of Floridians in the future. The Florida Standard reported that the “DeSantis administration did not know about nor worked with FBI or DOJ on the Mar-a-Lago raid.”

The raid came two weeks after U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray, notifying them of FBI whistleblower allegations of a coordinated effort to cover up the alleged criminal activity of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

“If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI are – and have been – institutionally corrupted to their very core to the point in which the United States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the law,” Grassley wrote, adding there were “systemic and existential problems within your agencies.”

Grassley sent a letter May 31 detailing alleged violations of federal laws by Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault “based on a pattern of active public partisanship in his then public social media content.” Gressley requested information “so that Congress can perform an objective and independent review of the alleged misconduct,” but received no response.

The raid also came after multiple attorneys general sued the Justice Department after it began investigating parents who speak out at school board meetings, and without evidence, labeled them “domestic terrorists.”

One of the parents being investigated was a Florida-based Moms for Liberty advocate. Its founders said the DOJ “was using counter-terrorism authority under the PATRIOT Act to investigate parents of schoolchildren who were exercising their first amendment right to petition their local government for a redress of grievances.” The group warned that if law-abiding parents were being targeted by the FBI, anyone could be.