Tuesday, April 7, 2026

RV Shipments Reach All-Time High in First Quarter of 2021

Mon, 26 April 2021  |  travel 

The growing demand from Americans hungry for the freedom to travel and experience the great outdoors is clear. According to newly released data from the RV Industry Association’s March 2021 survey of manufacturers, more RVs made their way to RV dealerships across North America in March than in any prior single month. The 54,291 wholesale RV units shipped last month is more than a 5% increase over the previous record set in March of 2018. The March shipments also bring total RV shipments in the first quarter of 2021 to a record-breaking 148,507 units, the most RVs ever shipped in a singl... Read More

Job Satisfaction Remains High Despite Pandemic

Mon, 26 April 2021  |  employment pandemic 

In the face of the pandemic, an economic crisis, mass layoffs, and high unemployment, the percent of employees reporting overall satisfaction with their jobs remained high in 2020, according to a new survey from The Conference Board.

While some components of job satisfaction declined due to the recession and economic stress, companies devoted more efforts and resources toward supporting their employees, their well-being, and their families during the pandemic. This resulted in the surprising, albeit slight, increase in job satisfaction from 56.3 percent in 2019 to 56.9 percent in 20... Read More

Housing Gains Could Grow Black Wealth More Than $500 Billion in a Decade

Mon, 26 April 2021  |  demographics housing 

Incremental increases in homeownership rates and home values among Black households would help shrink the current $3 trillion racial wealth gap by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade, according to a new Zillow analysis. Today's typical Black household has only about 23% of the wealth of a typical white household, down from 34.6% before the Great Recession. Housing factors -- including lower home values and rates of homeownership -- directly account for nearly 40%2 of that gap, with assets like investments in stocks and bonds and retirement accounts making up the rest. <... Read More

Home Listing Shortage May Be Turning Around

Fri, 23 April 2021  |  housing 

New data in Zillow's® Monthly Market Report1 suggests the inventory crunch bedeviling home searchers may be starting to turn around as record appreciation of home values makes it more enticing to sell. Meanwhile, the recovery of rents is gaining broad momentum and touching double-digit annual gains in hot markets like Phoenix and Riverside.

Although continued demand for homes pushed total for-sale inventory down 1.1% in March, the monthly decline was the smallest seen since July. That's thanks to a rush of new inventory (rising 30% from late February to late March), which sign... Read More

In-Person Banking Fading

Wed, 21 April 2021  |  banking 

FICO, a global analytics leader, today released its 2^nd annual Consumer Digital Banking study that found consumers across the U.S. and Canada have embraced digital banking and biometric identity proofing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that almost half (41 percent) of North American consumers are more likely to use digital means to open a financial account than a year ago, while almost a third (32 percent) are less likely to visit a branch to open a new account.

"In an effort to help stop the spread of the virus, consumers across Read More

Luxury-Home Sales Rise 42% In First Quarter

Tue, 20 April 2021  |  housing real estate 

Sales of luxury homes in the U.S. rose 41.6% year over year in the first quarter of 2021, far outpacing sales growth in every other segment of the housing market, according to a new report from Redfin that divided all U.S. residential properties into five price tiers—luxury, expensive, mid-priced, affordable and most affordable—based on Redfin Estimates of the homes' market values. By comparison, sales of affordable homes increased 7% and sales of mid-priced homes climbed 5.9%.