In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending July 2nd, 2022... why inflation appears to be slowing, what the GDP says about a potential recession, and the latest reports on rent growth.Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.Economic NewsWe begin with economic news from this past week. The rate of inflation appears to have slowed a bit. The Personal Consumption Index, or PCI, was up .6% in May with a yearly rate that was unchanged at 6.3%, but the core rate was down slightly. The core rate doesn’t include prices for food or fuel, and the yearly rate for that dropped from 4.9% in April to 4.7% in May. The Federal Reserve feels the PCI is more accurate than the Consumer Price Index or CPI, because the PCI factors in more variables, such as changes in consumer behavior. (1)It’s now official. The economy shrank 1.6% in the first quarter, and the Atlanta Federal Reserve is forecasting a negative reading for the second quarter as well. The Atlanta Fed GDPNow tracker indicates that the economy shrank 1% in Q2. Two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth is interpreted as a recession. But MarketWatch reports that some economists are forecasting growth in the second quarter. We won’t have the official reading until the end of this month. (2)(3)As concerns mount about a long-lasting recession, there are now predictions that the Fed will be cutting rates next year, not raising them. CNBC reports that most analysts expect the Fed to continue hiking rates until the end of “next” year, but global chief economist at UniCredit, Erik Nielsen, told CNBC: “Can you really hike interest rates into a recession even if inflation is high? That would be unusual.” Michael Yoshikama of Destination Wealth Management also feels that the Fed will reverse its course and cut rates by the end of “this” year. The predictions are all over the map however. The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Loretta Mester, expects growth to slow but doesn’t expect to see a recession. Ark Invest CEO, Cathie Wood, told CNBC that the U.S. is already in a recession. (4)Initial jobless claims were down by about 2,000 last week, to a total of 231,000, but the four-week average is slightly higher. Continuing claims have continued to fall and are now back down to pre-pandemic levels. MarketWatch economists feel that layoffs may remain low because companies have already had a tough time filling positions, and won’t want to let anyone go. (5)Pending home sales have rebounded somewhat. The National Association of Realtors says they were up .7% in May after six months of declines. But there are still challenges ahead for the housing market. NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun says: “Despite a small gain in pending sales from the prior month, the housing market is clearly undergoing a transition.” He says: “Contract signings are down sizably from a year ago because of much higher mortgage rates.” Year-over-year, they are down 13.6%. (6)Meantime, home prices are up again. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city index shows a 21.2% year-over-year increase in April. That’s up from 21.1% in March. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reports a slightly slower rate of growth. It says that home price growth is up 18.8% year-over-year. (7) Construction spending was down slightly in May, but remained the same for new single-family and multi-family homes. (8) And consumer confidence hit a 16-month low in June, due to concerns about the economy, high prices, and the possibility of a recession. (9)Mortgage RatesThe rise in mortgage rates took a break last week. Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 11 basis points to 5.7%. The 15-year dropped 9 points to 4.83%. (10)In other news making headlines…Homebuyers Lose Purchasing PowerA new study shows that a typical homebuyer has lost more than $100,000 in purchasing power because of high interest rates. Redfin says