Forgive the later time at which this will be posted, I am in “prep for vacation” mode and trying to check off all the to-do’s before I leave for a week. Do you have any idea how excited I am to be on vacation next week? For the first time in almost 15 years, my kids are old enough to basically deal with themselves and their entertainment, a milestone I realized when last we traveled to the beach for the 4th of July. This is also the only vacation we take each year in which we are not hosted by one of mine or my husband’s parents. What can I say, we married well. His parents have a home in Rehoboth while mine have a home in Vero Beach, Florida. Spring break is for Florida, and summer is for Rehoboth. But this week when we go, his parents don’t join us and we get to spend quality time alone with just the 4 of us. Our schedule or lack thereof, our eating in or out habits and preferences, our chance to really relax.
I am desperate with anticipation. So let’s get to the Edit so I can get to vacation! This week there were many more articles on housing with the same news I shared last week but then there were also a couple of dueling articles this week declaring either that the boom was over or that it wouldn’t end until 2022. Plus there were several on Facebook that caught my eye, one about Google that I found particularly interesting, plus news from Apple on iphone sales that I find mind boggling.
DID THE HOUSING BOOM GO BUST YET?
Before I dig into the dueling articles, let me just say that I am firmly in the “no it has not busted” camp. I am declaring what we are seeing now as a return to seasonality as we continue to ride a rollercoaster that is still headed north.
Diana Olick over at CNBC reports that housing is busted. I am not in any way shape or form, an unrealistic or overly optimistic person, but Diana’s glum outlook makes me think she suffers from a glass half empty perception of things.
“Sales of new single family homes fell to an annualized rate of 676,000, 6.6% below May’s rate of 724,000 and 19.4% below the June 2020 level of 839,000. Analysts were expecting new home sales to increase by 3.4% in June.”
Yes, when you compare to the beginning of the boom, things are definitely slower but I don’t take that to mean that demand has subsided enough for there to be a downturn in the market.
Bill Connerly at Forbes is on my side of things. He thinks that the mortgage rate increase forecasted for 2022 is what will end the boom. He’s even willing to hedge to 2023 and I support this view.
“The key to the buying boom has been low mortgage rates plus a shift in desired housing type. When will the boom end? The two keys are satisfying the new demand and mortgage rates.”
Yup. What Bill said.
FACEBOOK’S STILL GOT IT GOING ON
Can I let you in on a not so secret secret, Facebook is my first and one true digital media love. Sometimes I hate it a little bit now too, but I think that is to be expected in any long term relationship.
I mean I still love my husband dearly even though he has piles of paperwork that moved with us to this home nearly 13 years ago that remain untouched, but god forbid we throw them away, he may need them sometime.
And so like my husband, Facebook still has it going on. Conversion API is a crafty solution to the Apple tracking mess because the pixel is less than reliable at this point. But overall there are several other solutions that the ever mighty Facebook allows advertisers to take advantage of that help negate the effects of iOs 14.5.
On the organic end of the spectrum is a helpful how-to article about Facebook Groups. While I still love Facebook, on a personal level I have incrementally scaled back my day to interactions and usage with the exception of Facebook groups. It feels like the version of Facebook I loved the most in the early days, that connection and community is really palpable and personal in Facebook groups.
How would a home builder take advantage of them? Not without significant work. But imagine building groups focused on the communities in which you build, providing new home buyers with a network of other new home buyers with whom they can discuss topics unique to their perspective as your clients. Like I said, it would take work and time because you want to make sure you’re cultivating positive spaces and relationships, not places to complain. It could add significant value to the referral side of your business.
HOW ABOUT THEM APPLES?
Some days I’m witty and come up with those subheads. Other days not so much. Today is a blend. Enjoy. But seriously, Apple released its earnings report and declared that it saw a 50% increase in iphone sales, year over year! I find this to be a mind boggling number given how saturated the phone market is and how expensive iphones are compared to their Android counterparts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an Apple devotee and have been since before the iphone came to be but I hardly expected that kind of growth in that segment of their business was possible. I include this news here because it pertains to the tracking woes above. More iphones in the world means more people opting out of being tracked and a bigger impact on your marketing efforts.
CHECK THE GOOGLE
This piece of info was for sure the most useful one I have come across in a long time. It’s fascinating for personal and business use too. Google has added a feature in their SERPS that will let you see why something ranked. So from a personal perspective you can gauge how accurate the result is and from a business perspective you can do some serious competitive research on keywords. Go ahead and try it out. It’s fascinating.
That’s that, clocks ticking, to-do list is dwindling, and there’s a roadie (Should it be a Ranch Water or a marg?) with my name on it just waiting for our departure. Needless to say, there will be no Edit next week. Good bye and good luck!
