The US real estate market continued to normalize at the end of last year, with falling mortgage rates leading to a slight decline in prices, while a number of key indicators approached seasonal norms, according to data from Zillow, an online home sales and rental service.
Only a little more than a quarter of homes (28%) in the United States were sold above the originally listed price in November, Zillow data showed. Data for December is not yet available. This is the lowest figure since June 2020, when the housing market had just recovered from the initial shocks of the coronavirus pandemic and began to warm up. Meanwhile, the figure still remains higher than in November 2019, when the share of homes sold above the declared value was 21%. “The decline in mortgage rates has begun to help renew interest from buyers. If rates continue to decline this spring and buyer activity is in line with the seasonal norm, this year could be a normal or even boring one for the market,” said Jeff Tucker, senior economist at Zillow.
The standard time for a property to be on the market before receiving an offer is currently up to 30 days. This is significantly longer than last December, when the figure was 13 days, but much less than the 43 days in December 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic. The longest time to sell a property was recorded in Austin (68 days), Las Vegas (57 days) and Phoenix (55 days). At the same time, the fastest transactions were made in Hartford, Connecticut, Cincinnati and Kansas City. Monthly mortgage costs are currently about $1.8 thousand for average homes after a 20% down payment, which is more than $100 lower than in October, when the peak level was reached. Meanwhile, the figure is still 62% higher than in December 2021. Problems with housing affordability are weakening demand, Zillow notes.
Ukrainians since January 31, the moment of start of the program on exchange of incandescent lamps on LED-lamps, received in “Ukrposhta” the first million of bulbs.
As the company reported in the press release on Saturday, thanks to the EU support the first 4 million bulbs were delivered to regional centers and major cities of the country, residents of Kyiv have already exchanged more than 162 thousand bulbs, residents of Kharkiv – more than 80 thousand, 88 thousand – Dnipro and 69 thousand – Lviv residents.
“The statistics we see are mainly people who came to the branches of “Ukrposhta” without pre-registration. Of course, during the week more people wished to exchange lamps: those who registered in “Diya” only from Wednesday began to receive confirmation of the exchange, some have already managed to come to the branch, and some will receive the lamps next week”, – described the situation by the general director of “Ukrposhta”. Igor Smelyansky.
He noted that next week it will be possible to exchange lamps in the branches of “Ukrposhta” in all cities, not only in the regional centers.
The company said that next week 6 million more bulbs will be available in the cities of district importance, and by the end of February due to the mobile branches of “Ukrposhta” the bulbs should go to the rural areas.
“Thus, at the first stage the citizens of Ukraine in the next month and a half will be able to exchange up to 20 million bulbs” – the company predicts.
According to previously announced estimates, the exchange of incandescent bulbs for 50 million LED-lamps will allow for a shortfall of about 1 GW. The EU will provide Ukraine with 30 billion bulbs, and another 5 million bulbs are expected from France.
ArcelorMittal remains committed to Ukraine and believes in its future, despite the huge difficulties in the work of its own mining and smelting plant, ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog (AMKR), caused by full-scale armed aggression of Russia, said Vijay Goyal, ArcelorMittal executive vice president and CEO of ArcelorMittal CIS.
“Every day we lose more than $1 million. 10% of our staff is at war, 67 people died defending the country… But I not only hope, but I believe that we will come out victorious. We are willing, able and ready to rebuild,” he said at a business forum on the rapid reconstruction of Ukraine in Luxembourg organized by the Ukrainian-Luxembourg Business Club.
ArcelorMittal board member Michel Wurth noted that since buying Krivorozhstal in a privatization tender in 2005, more than $10 billion has been invested in Ukraine in total, and in 2021 the plant, which employs 26,000 people, was a record producer.
“We remain committed to Ukraine, to its people, and we plan to participate in the rebuilding of Ukraine as quickly as possible,” he stressed
Goyal noted that the management and staff of AMKR set an incredible example of indestructibility, organizing the work of the enterprise during blackouts, without access to the Black Sea ports, during shelling.
According to him, ArcelorMittal counts on the high quality of state administration after the war, continued anti-corruption efforts, efficient infrastructure, as well as the provision of security conditions given the large number of weapons in the country.
For its part, he said, the company is exploring all opportunities to better integrate AMKR into the global market and bring new technologies to Ukraine.
For his part, Wurth added that the issue of public-private partnerships and attracting financing remains important.
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest producer of rolled steel in Ukraine. It specializes in the production of long products, in particular rebar and wire rod.
ArcelorMittal owns in Ukraine the largest mining and metallurgical plant “ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog” and a number of small companies, in particular PJSC “ArcelorMittal Beryslav”.
Ukraine exported 5.5 million tons of grain, oilseeds and their products in January, which is 1.3 million tons less than in December, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy reported on Saturday.
“Such a downward dynamic is due to the artificial blocking of the “grain corridor” by Russian inspectors,” the ministry said.
It specified that the “grain initiative” shipped only 3 million tons in the first month of the year, while previously the export of agricultural products in the corridor was 4 million tons or more per month.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, corn exports fell by 700 thousand tons – to 2.6 million tons, wheat – by 250 thousand tons, to 1.3 million tons.
A total of 15.4 million tons of corn and 9.7 million tons of wheat were exported in the marketing season (July 2022 – January 2023), while 39.2 million tons of oilseeds, the ministry said.
It added that during 11 months of war 44.4 million tons of agricultural products were sent from Ukraine to other countries, including 9.9 million tons of wheat and 18.2 million tons of corn. Insignificant difference in the supply of these crops compared to the new marketing season is associated with the closure of Ukrainian ports, which did not function for five months, and in August they began to gradually increase the volume, said the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
According to his data, sunflower oil remained in the top three leading shipments in January with 347 tons, which is 121 thousand tons less than in December.
January shipments of soybeans declined slightly compared to December – to 345 tons from 387 tons, meal to 295 tons from 331 tons.
At the same time sunflower seed supply was reduced more than 1.6 times – to 190 thousand tons from 312 thousand tons more, and rapeseed – nearly 1.3 times: to 186 thousand tons from 237 thousand tons compared to 412 thousand tons in November.
As Ministry of Agricultural Policy noted, barley shipments remained almost unchanged in January: 168.7 tons against 179 tons in December. During the first month of 2023 soybean oil shipped by 6 thousand tons more – 26 thousand tons.
“The overall picture of January shipments as a percentage is as follows: corn – 47.36%, 24.23% – wheat, 6.33% – sunflower oil, soybeans – 6.29%, 5.38% – meal, sunflower seeds – 3.46%, canola – 3.39%, barley – 3.08%, soybean oil – 0.49%,” indicated the Ministry.
It added that the total volume of shipments for 11 months by crops: 18.2 million. MT – corn (40.88%), 9.9 million tons – wheat (22.25%), 3.6 million tons – sunflower oil (8.12%), 3.2 million tons – rape (7.21%), 2.9 million tons – sunflower seeds (6.49%), 2.5 million tons – meal (5.65%), 1.9 million tons – barley (4.21%), 2 million tons – soybeans (4.70%), 215 thousand tons – soybean oil (0.49%). tons – soybean oil (0.48%).
As reported, Ukraine in 2021/2022 MY exported 48.51 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, which is 8.4% higher than in the previous MY, despite the full-scale invasion of Russia and the difficulties with the export of agricultural products due to the blockade of Ukrainian seaports. 18.74 million tons of wheat (12.6% more than in 2020/2021MY), 23.54 million tons of corn (+1.9%), 5.75 million tons of barley (+35.9%), 70.9 thousand tons of flour (-44.1%) were supplied to foreign markets.
Ukraine in 2020/2021 MY exported 44.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops: 16.64 million tons of wheat, 23.08 million tons of corn, 4.23 million tons of barley, 126.9 thousand tons of flour and 18.4 thousand tons of rye.
In 2019/2020, Ukraine exported a record 56.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops.
Kiev will continue the construction of a pedestrian bridge from the Obolonskaya embankment to Obolonsky Island, which has been carried out since 2020 at the expense of patronage funds and for which no money from the city budget is used, said Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.
“Kiev received funds to continue construction from the Metropolis of Greater Paris. These are earmarked funds that foreign partners allocated to us for the construction of this particular facility,” Klitschko wrote in his Telegram channel on Tuesday.
According to him, by the beginning of 2023 have already installed three supports of the bridge and began installing the fourth, purchased materials.
“For the funds provided by the Metropolis of Greater Paris, will complete the installation of the fourth pillar of the bridge, purchase and install auxiliary and partially run structures, purchase steel structures,” – said the mayor of Kiev.
He specified that according to the project the bridge will be based on four piers, two of which are located in the strait. The width of the pedestrian object will be 4 m, length – 164 m.
“The bridge will be comfortable for the movement of small groups of people. The passage of small vessels in the bay of Obolon facility will not interfere. Obolonsky island will be equipped as a modern recreation area for Kiev citizens with the preservation of flora and fauna “- summed up Klitschko.
The owner of the building that houses the headquarters of American Twitter Inc. in San Francisco has sued the company, accusing it of non-payment of rent.
The lawsuit, filed by SRI Nine Market Square LLC, says the site breached its lease agreement in December by failing to pay a monthly rent of about $3.4 million, prompting it to receive a notice of default on its contractual obligations on Dec. 5. The owner of the building received its due amount through a line of credit that Twitter used as a security deposit.
Meanwhile, the company “again breached the lease agreement by failing to pay monthly rent and additional rent under the agreement in January 2023″ of about $3.428 million, the lawsuit notes. SRI Nine Market Square received another $266,000 through a line of credit, so Twitter currently owes $3.16 million.
SRI Nine Market Square wants the company to increase the credit limit to $10 million due to the terms of the agreement, which provide for such an option in the event of a change in its management. In late October, Twitter was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk. The lawsuit says the site refuses to do so.
In addition, the owner of offices in the center of London Crown Estate filed a similar lawsuit, writes MarketWatch. They confirmed that they went to court, but did not specify how much Twitter did not pay.
In December, foreign media reported that the company had stopped paying rent for a number of offices as part of cost-cutting measures after Musk took over. In early January, another landlord in San Francisco sued Twitter.
