{"id":88160,"date":"2025-06-28T01:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T08:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=88160"},"modified":"2025-07-03T09:57:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:57:58","slug":"black-coffee-28-june-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id88160-black-coffee-28-june-2025.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Market Mayhem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe …<\/em><\/p>\n

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance.<\/p>\n

I hope everybody had a wonderful week. And with that, let’s get right to this week’s commentary, shall we?<\/p>\n

There are no markets; only interventions.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014 Chris Powell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Credits and Debits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? US cattle supplies, have fallen to the lowest level in 73 years<\/a>. The good news is that while cattle supply remains down year-over-year, record-high animal weights are helping to offset the decline in volume. It also helps that the cattle industry is also likely at or near the bottom of its usual 12-year inventory cycle, which suggest price pressures should be easing soon. In the meantime, cattle will continue to be maligned by the usual suspects, and under-appreciated by most of society.<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Still, US beef prices from the end of May showed the average price for a pound of ground beef reached another all time high of nearly $6 a pound<\/a> – which makes us wonder if Costco’s $1.50 hot dog is truly<\/strong><\/em> “all-beef” – or something a bit more… mysterious. On the other hand, who cares, when you can enjoy one of their famous tube-steaks for just four easy payments…<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> In other news, more than 1 in 3 baby boomers who are homeowners said they will never sell their homes<\/a>. Another 30% percent say they\u2019ll sell their home at some point, but “not within the next decade.\u201d As for the Silent Generation, 45% say they do not plan to sell their residential properties. Not that anybody can afford them anyway …<\/p>\n

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Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Then again, it\u2019s not as if there is a shortage of homes on the market – last month saw yet another monthly increase in the number of homes put up for sale. As a result, the official inventory of homes available for sale has now increased for 19 consecutive months<\/a>. We wonder if the older generations are saying they have no intention of selling because they saw the latest existing home sales data for May, which reported the weakest number of closings since the depths of the housing market crisis in 2009. In the meantime …<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> The truth is, the housing market is completely broken<\/a> as prices not only remain high – they keep climbing \u2013 despite a growing inventory. In fact, the median sales price last month increased 1.3% from a year ago to $422,800 \u2013 that’s the highest price for any May on record. Since the pandemic five years ago, prices are up 51% – which suggests that, at some point, the market should be due for an epic takedown. We’ll see. And speaking of epic take downs:<\/p>\n