More Americans are quitting their âdead-end jobsâ
Americans quitting their âdead-end jobs,â without having another job, because of bad pay is a real thing — and itâs hurting the economic recovery.
Some 649,000 employees gave notice in April, the sectorâs largest one-month exodus in over 20 years, a 
 reflection of pandemic-era strains and a strengthening job market.
Some are finding less stressful positions at insurance agencies, marijuana dispensaries, banks and local governments, where their customer service skills are rewarded with higher wages and better benefits. Others are going back to school to learn new trades, or waiting until they are able to secure reliable child care.
In interviews with more than a dozen retail workers who recently left their jobs, nearly all told the Washington Post that the pandemic introduced new strains to already challenging work: longer hours, understaffed stores, unruly customers and even pay cuts.
âIt was a really dismal time, and it made me realize this isnât worth it,â said 23-year-old Aislinn Potts of Murfreesboro, Tenn., who left her $11-an-hour job as an aquatic specialist at a national pet chain in April to focus on writing and art. âMy life isnât worth a dead-end job.â
It is too soon to tell whether the latest exodus reflects a long-term shift away from retail work. Some employees, for example, may return to the industry once child care is more readily available and other pandemic-related challenges ease, but others are turning to industries where workers are in high demand.
Until then, âHiring nowâ signs will keep cropping up on storefronts big and small as retailers scramble to fill openings.
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Institutional investors donât threaten housing, but iBuyers do
A couple of weeks ago a viral story came out about a fund called BlackRock who was reported to be buying everything in sight and paying 20-50% above market value.
Since then Rise&Shred has been covering efforts from the industry to counter this claim. Popular appraiser/blogger Ryan Lunquist recently put his hat in the ring and basically adopts the same stance as the rest of us; that the articleâs claim is inaccurate.
âWhen viral news about BlackRock broke I read this Wall Street Journal piece like many others. This may not be a popular take, but I felt the article was lacking data to support some of the sensational narratives being spun,â he writes.
Getting data is a problem as Lundquist notes that, with tracking institutional buyers is they donât always acquire properties under only one name, so itâs not so easy to gauge their activity. Also many states are non-disclosure states on buyers, thus making tracing accurately even more difficult.Â
âFor instance, Zillow has four names they are currently using to buy in the Sacramento market and Invitation Homes has had at least a dozen names theyâve used through the years,â he notes, adding the real threat to single-family homes is not institutional investors anyway.Â
âThe most dominant expression of institutional investors in real estate rightnow is the iBuyer model (in Sacramento at least). Unlike Invitation Homes, these companies are flipping rather than holding and some of them are attempting to make their money by becoming a one-stop-shop for consumers,â he said.
Great blog, Ryan, keep it up!
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Most millennials want to see rates go even lower, even though they canât afford down payments
This is what you can consider being a choosey beggar đÂ
Lombardo Homes conducted a small surveyof just over 1,000 millennials who were in the market to buy homes. Needless to say, they were surprised by what they found.
Eighty-three percent of millennials say they are actively saving right now, though many of them (71 percent) say their rent is so high itâs very difficult to accumulate much in savings, the survey found.Â
Debt also inhibits savings for many: 51 percent of millennials have credit card debt, 39 percent have student loans, 29 percent have auto loans and 17 percent have medical debt.
âTwo in three millennials (66 percent) say they are waiting for lower mortgage rates to start the home buying process,â the report states. âThis is odd given the fact that rates are currently near historic lows, but it may speak to a lack of education and awareness among this cohort of homebuyers.â
Whatâs more, millennials seem more impacted by the pandemic, current news cycles and common buzz words than practical approaches to handling their money.
âFor one, most millennials donât see real estate as the most attractive way to invest money. Twice as many millennials prefer the stock market for investing over real estate. In fact, more millennials even prefer cryptocurrency (24 percent) over real estate (22 percent), as far as investment opportunities go,â the survey states.
âAmong the other reasons holding millennials back: fear of commitment to one area (63 percent), job insecurity (56 percent), and concerns about a housing market crash (53 percent),â Lombardo Homes concluded.
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