Home Prices Reach Record Highs in May

Real Estate,


According to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller report, home prices in the US were 16.6% higher in May 2021 than they were in May 2020. It was the highest reading in over 30 years of Case-Shiller reporting.


April’s rise was also high at 14.8% year over year.


The city’s reporting the highest home price increase were Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle, among the 20 cities tracked in this report. All 20 cities reported upward trends in home prices for the year ending in May 2021. Phoenix reported a 24.7% price increase for the year, and San Diego had a 24.7% increase. Seattle’s was 23.4%.


Cities with the lowest gains were Chicago, Cleveland and Minneapolis, although they all had gains in the low double-digits.


Some of the cities had record-breaking annual gains: Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Seattle and Charlotte, North Carolina.


The high home prices have but a bit of damper on the number of homes being sold during the past few months, but now that the number of homes available for sale is increasing it is expected that prices will begin to come back down to earth.

Director Peter Farrelly Considers New Project

Lifestyle, ,

It’s always exciting to hear about a new project coming out of Hollywood, particularly when that project might include actor Eddie Redmayne and Director Peter Farrelly. Multiple sources have been reporting that an untitled new movie is in the works for Joe and Anthony Russo’s company AGBO. Eddie Redmayne has already been tapped to star in the movie, and now Director Peter Farrelly is being courted to direct it.

What’s the plan for the movie? Well Redmayne is supposed to play Christopher Wylie in this political thriller. Redmayne starred in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 and also finished Netflix’ thriller The Good Nurse.

Director Peter Farrelly has also been hard at work lately, basking in the Oscars he won for Green Book. He’s currently working on Apple’s move Th Greatest Beer Run Ever with Zac Efron and Russell Crowe.

It’s definitely worth paying attention to these plans as they unfold.

Private Space Flight Taking Off

Technology, , ,

Axiom Space, a non-government, private company that specializes in spaceflight, is teaming up with SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket-making enterprise, to bring more missions to fruition.
The deal is to add a total of four missions to the SpaceX schedule.


The Houston-based Axiom had already announced its first mission, Ax-1 would be ready to launch in January 2022, utilizing SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule. The new agreement will provide for Ax-2, Ax-3 and Ax-4.


SpaceX already has three Crew Dragon flights to the International Space Station under its belt, all of them under the Commercial Crew program of NASA, using government trained and paid astronauts. Ten astronauts have flown with SpaceX already and a full schedule of astronauts, both government and private Crew Dragon missions are coming up this year.


“SpaceX has blazed the trail with reliable, commercial human launch capability and we are thrilled to partner with them on a truly historic moment,” Axiom CEO Michael Suffredini said.

Chicago Business Leaders Urging Companies to Bring Their Workers Back to the Office

Economy, , ,


Business leaders in Chicago want downtown full again. They say it’s safe, and the economy needs them. Getting people back to the office was the topic of a roundtable discussion with World Business Chicago and the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago. They emphasized that the city needs those 600,000 that used to populate the downtown area.


“Even if you can work from home, and many have and have figured it out, think about the shops you walk by from the train to the bus to get to the office and how many of those people need us,” said David Casper, CEO, BMO Financial Group. “As a bank that promotes commerce, it’s a bit of our responsibility.”


Some companies are considering bringing their office workers back after Memorial Day. Others are continuing with a hybrid schedule and work towards more people in the office later in the year. One problem is that many workers don’t feel safe on public transportation.


One key piece of the puzzle of getting people back to the office is increased vaccination rates. Illinois has about a 35% vaccination rate, but with safety protocols in place and financial incentives, downtown workers are getting vaccinated at a higher rate than the state in general.

Business Tip: Leave New Jersey and Move to Utah

Lifestyle, ,

According to Wallethub, six out of the ten top US cities to start a small business are situated in Utah. The financial review and advice website looked at over 1,300 small American cities to see which of them create an excellent environment for small business growth and success. The website looked at 20 parameters to determine overall scores: accessible financing, human-resource availability, workforce education levels, office space costs, labor costs and others.

Here is the list of the ten top cities, and guess what? None of them are on the East or West coast.

  • St. George, Utah
  • Cedar City, Utah
  • Williston, North Dakota
  • Washington, Utah
  • Logan, Utah
  • Aberdeen, South Dakota
  • Midvale, Utah
  • Fort Meyers, Florida
  • Clearfield, Utah
  • Bozeman, Montana

We will not list the ten worst cities, but it is enough to say that five of the ten are in New Jersey, and the other five are not all that far away in Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts.