Latest news with #MarkHamrick
New York Post
27-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Nearly half of US homebuyers say they have regrets — their common complaints revealed
There are no regrets in life, they say, just lessons. And homeownership comes with many lessons. No fewer than 45% of current homeowners say they have at least one regret about the purchase of their home, according to a new Bankrate survey. From runaway repair costs to untenable mortgage payments, the burdens of homeownership can lead some unfortunate homebuyers to think twice about the biggest financial decision of their lives. More than two-fifths of regretful owners pointed to maintenance and other hidden costs as a source of their regret, reporting that post-purchase homeownership was more expensive than they expected. Advertisement 4 Frustrated homebuyers reported repairs, space issues and mortgage rates among their chief complaints. Getty Images/iStockphoto 'For most folks, buying a home is the most expensive transaction of their lifetime,' said Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick. 'After the purchase is complete, we find that affordability issues rank high on the list of regrets. While homeownership is still associated with the proverbial American dream, it is prudent to consider and plan for many ongoing costs of ownership, not just getting over the threshold of the down payment and settlement.' Buying too small of a house was the second most common regret, at 21%. Advertisement A 2024 survey by Talker Research found that space complaints arise relatively quickly among Americans — nearly half reported feeling cramped in their home within a year of living there. 4 Some buyers expressed regret over their spending. Getty Images Too-high mortgage payments (16%) and overpaying for the house (15%) followed the top complaints. More than a third of buyers who purchased homes during the red-hot post-pandemic market reported believing they had overpaid, according to a 2022 survey by Money and Morning Consult, and there's evidence of whiplash in today's market. Overvalued home prices and reluctant buyers are slowing the pace of sales across the country. Advertisement Lesser regrets surveyed, according to Bankrate, included buying a house in a bad location, at 14%, and buying too big of a house, at 11%. 4 Regrets varied among age groups, with older owners more likely to bemoan repair costs. Getty Images Homeownership regrets varied by generation, the Bankrate survey found. Baby boomer homeowners were more likely to regret high maintenance costs — a potential consequence of older people owning older homes. Younger generations of homeowners, like millennials, were more likely to regret taking on high mortgage payments and rates. Despite the shadow of regret, the survey has a big bright spot — 55% of homeowners reported having zero regrets about purchasing their current home, particularly baby boomers. Nearly 60% of homeowners between the ages of 61 and 79 said they had no second thoughts. Advertisement 'While some homeowners have a regret about the purchase of some kind, it is telling that the vast majority would do it all over again if they had the chance,' Hamrick said. 4 Despite some gloomy respondents, a majority still believe that owning a home is a part of the American dream. Getty Images/iStockphoto Respondents widely agreed that homeownership remains a part of the American dream, and 70% said they would buy their current home again if they had a do-over. 'For those who might yet purchase a replacement home in future years, whether buying larger or downsizing, some of these would-be lessons learned can prove useful,' Hamrick said.
Fox News
02-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Business Rundown: The First Jobs Report, Post-Liberation Day
The April jobs report gave us our first snapshot of the U.S. economy post-Liberation Day tariffs. As unemployment held steady and the job growth beat expectations, many economists are reading this report with a sigh of relief. FOX Business correspondent Gerri Willis speaks with Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick to break down the better-than-expected report and what this positive reading means for the impact of Trump's tariff and trade policies. Photo Credit: AP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Strong jobs report surprises economists
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – A strong jobs report caught economists by surprise Friday. The new numbers show unemployment and hiring stayed steady even as Americans worry about the impact of new Trump tariffs. The U.S. added 177,000 jobs last month, above expectations and unemployment remained at a relatively low 4.2%. President Trump celebrated Friday's economic news in a Truth Social post, writing in part….'employment strong, and much more good news, as Billions of Dollars pour in from Tariffs. Just like I said, and we're only in a TRANSITION STAGE, just getting started!!!' Though recent polling shows his optimism about tariffs doesn't match the mood among most Americans. 'Consumer sentiment is quite miserable right now,' said BankRate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick. BankRate analyst Mark Hamrick says the new trade policies are driving fears about the future of the economy. 'People are worried about their job security and concerned about the prospect of higher prices,' said Hamrick. The president insists the hefty taxes on foreign imports will be worth it. 'It's going to make us very rich. We're going to be paying off debt. We'll be lowering your taxes very substantially,' said Trump. The administration promises in the long-term it will strengthen American manufacturing. Hamrick warns in the short-term tariffs could mean less goods on store shelves, higher prices for products, and downsizing at some companies. President Trump is calling for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, but economists say that's unlikely to happen in the near term. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Epoch Times
29-04-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
US Job Openings Slide to 6-Month Low, Layoffs Fall
Job vacancies declined sharply in March, but little change in new hires and layoffs signals that the U.S. labor market remains solid. The number of job openings tumbled by 288,000, to 7.192 million, the lowest in six months, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Last month's number fell short of the consensus forecast of 7.48 million. Data indicate that the decrease in employment opportunities was broad-based, led by transportation, warehousing, and utilities (negative 59,000), accommodation and food services (negative 42,000), and construction (negative 38,000). Employment vacancies in the federal government also fell by 36,000. While the number of job openings has steadily declined since reaching the March 2022 peak of 12.1 million, other JOLTS metrics indicate the national labor market is intact. Related Stories 4/29/2025 4/28/2025 Job quits—a measure economists use to determine workers' confidence in finding a new position—increased by 82,000, to an eight-month high of 3.25 million. New hires were unchanged at 5.4 million, indicating employers are reluctant to expand their payrolls. Layoffs and discharges fell to 1.6 million, led by the retail trade (negative 66,000) and the federal government (negative 11,000). Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate, says the JOLTS report figures were compiled before President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff plans, so the latest labor dataset could suffer from a lagging effect. 'So, it runs the risk of being somewhat less meaningful given the level of volatility and uncertainty surrounding the economy,' Hamrick said in a statement to The Epoch Times. According to the latest Federal Reserve Meanwhile, 'It may be hard for a while but we need to do something before America goes bankrupt. This should have been done decades ago,' one small business owner said in the monthly survey. Other indicators, meanwhile, could present a snapshot of the broader U.S. labor market. Jobs, Layoffs, and Tariffs This week's main event will be the April jobs report on May 2. Economists anticipate the U.S. economy created 130,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent. 'We acknowledge the high degree of economic uncertainty heading into the forthcoming April employment report, and beyond,' Hamrick said. 'That's another way of saying that we shouldn't be shocked by a surprise in the data. Still, expectations are worth noting.' Market watchers will also monitor payroll processor ADP's National Employment Report. Early estimates suggest the private sector added 108,000 new jobs last month. Global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas will report on U.S.-based employers' planned job cuts. In March, employers announced 275,240 layoffs, the third-highest monthly total on record. The sizable figures were attributed to the Trump administration's plans to cut federal spending and downsize the government workforce. Meanwhile, jobless claims, a weekly gauge of the job market, have been stable. Last week, initial and continuing unemployment claims hovered around their 'The fact that unemployment has remained relatively low despite a significant decline in job openings is unprecedented,' said Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, in a In a separate Bureau of Labor Statistics Economic observers have expected seismic shifts in the U.S. labor market because of the new administration's cost-cutting efforts and policy changes, and these concerns have yet to appear in the hard data. Some say data in the coming months should present a clearer picture of how Trump's trade agenda is affecting the economic landscape. The first-quarter GDP growth rate will be released on April 30. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDPNow Model estimate, the U.S. economy contracted 1.5 percent after adjusting for gold imports and exports. Paul Ashworth, the chief North America economist at Capital Economics, says a spike in imports dragged down first-quarter growth, which could reverse in the current quarter. 'The reversal of that surge will have an offsetting effect in the second quarter, boosting growth to more than 2% annualised. Over the rest of 2025 and throughout 2026, however, we expect quarterly growth to slow to around 1.5% annualised,' Ashworth said in the Q2 2025 US Economic Outlook As the administration celebrates Trump's first 100 days in the Oval Office, Siebert Financial CIO Mark Malek says observing the next 100 days is crucial. 'For the most part, I think we've seen the worst. We've seen the extremes, in terms of the downside. I think markets now are having a much more positive bend on what's going to be happening in the next 100 days,' Malek said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Survey: Experts see the 10-year Treasury hovering around 4% a year from now despite recession fears
Investment analysts expect the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to be somewhat lower a year from now, according to Bankrate's First-Quarter Market Mavens survey. The survey found that analysts expect the rate to fall to 4.08 percent, from 4.25 percent at the end of the survey period on March 28. Forecasts ranged from 3.32 percent to 4.75 percent. 'This is a unique point in time in which neither the administration nor the Federal Reserve are seen providing a backstop for stocks,' says Mark Hamrick, Bankrate's senior economic analyst. 'Unlike Trump term v1, the president seems to be agnostic to the stock market's performance or even signaling that investors should be prepared for more volatility and/or declines.' 'As for the Fed, it remains to be seen whether it will be more attentive to supporting employment or stable prices,' says Hamrick. This article is one in a series discussing the results of Bankrate's First-Quarter 2025 Market Mavens Survey: Survey: Market pros see stocks recovering from tariff shock, favor international stocks over next year Survey: Pros agree that crypto is too high risk for most investors Survey: Experts see the 10-year Treasury hovering around 4% a year from now despite recession fears The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has bounced around a lot in the last two years as concerns swirl about stubborn inflation, the Fed's slow-to-act posture, the U.S. government's debt and President Donald Trump's tariffs, among other things. The 10-year yield began to rise in September, just as the Federal Reserve was beginning to lower short-term interest rates. The market watchers surveyed by Bankrate expect the 10-year yield to be 4.08 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2026 — down from 4.25 percent when the survey closed. For context, respondents in Bankrate's fourth-quarter survey expected the 10-year yield to be 4.14 percent at the end of 2025. While most analysts still expect the Fed to cut short-term interest rates this year, the central bank is standing pat on rates for now. Fed chair Jerome Powell has said the Fed prefers to take a 'wait and see' approach to Trump's tariffs and the overall direction of inflation. The 10-year Treasury has been on a roller coaster the last six months or so as investors position themselves for the future. The 10-year yield was already rising when Trump was reelected, and the expectation of further deficit spending and now the effects of tariffs have investors working a lot harder to figure out how the market may move under Trump's presidency. The potentially inflationary effect of tariffs is keeping the Fed on the sidelines for now, even with inflation above its 2 percent long-run target. But if tariffs and uncertainty slow the economy, it could tip over into a recession. 'The Fed finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place, as new tariff and counter-tariff policies go into effect,' says Patrick J. O'Hare, chief market analyst, 'Faced with the prospect of slower growth but higher inflation, the Fed will have its hands tied.' 'The Fed has left inflation too high in pursuit of a soft landing it could not reach,' says Robert Brusca, chief economist, FAO Economics. 'Now tariffs pose a threat to inflation performance and the Fed will try to smooth it over despite having reduced credibility and having missed its inflation target for 45 months in a row.' If these various factors do lead to a recession, then the 10-year yield is likely to fall and the Fed would likely reduce short-term rates to support the economy. For now, Trump has unleashed a lot of uncertainty with his tariffs, which are much wider in scope than in his first term. 'Washington's policy mix is having a material impact on sentiment,' says Dec Mullarkey, managing director, SLC Management. 'Households, markets and global partners have been surprised by the scope and intensity of the tariffs and related threats. The uncertainty is starting to stall decision making and some forecasters have already cut their GDP forecast.' Lower Treasury yields in recent weeks may reflect investors' risk aversion amid the uncertainty. Greater demand for Treasurys pushes their yield down, as bond prices and yields move inversely. 'DC and Trump policy will remain volatile and unpredictable. Volatility tends to result in more cautious, less aggressive investors,' says Michael K. Farr, president and CEO, Farr, Miller & Washington. 'The answer is still outstanding as to whether tariffs are more rhetoric than reality,' says Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist, CFRA Research. 'The longer high and broad-based tariffs remain in effect, the greater the likelihood of recession and a new bear market.' So the direction of the 10-year Treasury in the year ahead may depend a lot on how Trump's tariffs play out. Here are legendary investor Warren Buffett's top tips for surviving a bear market. Methodology Bankrate's first-quarter 2025 survey of stock market professionals was conducted March 21-28 via an online poll. Survey requests were emailed to potential respondents nationwide, and responses were submitted voluntarily via a website. Responding were: Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist, Wells Fargo Investment Institute; Dec Mullarkey, managing director, SLC Management; Patrick J. O'Hare, chief market analyst, Michael K. Farr, president and CEO, Farr, Miller & Washington; Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist, CFRA Research; Chuck Carlson, CFA, CEO, Horizon Investment Services; Kim Forrest, chief investment officer/founder, Bokeh Capital Partners; Kenneth Chavis IV, senior wealth advisor, Versant Capital Management; Chris Fasciano, chief market strategist, Commonwealth Financial Network; Jon Brager, portfolio manager/managing director, Palmer Square Capital Management; Louis Navellier, CIO, Navellier & Associates, Inc.; Kenneth Tower, chief market strategist, Quantitative Analysis Service, Inc.; Robert Brusca, chief economist, FAO Economics. Editorial Disclaimer: All investors are advised to conduct their own independent research into investment strategies before making an investment decision. In addition, investors are advised that past investment product performance is no guarantee of future price appreciation.
