In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending October 1st, 2022... what’s up with the GDP, inflation and jobs, why rent growth is slowing, and a new law for California job seekers.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 News We have plenty of economic news to report, but first, a few words about Hurricane Ian which has ripped across Florida and South Carolina. Our hearts go out to the families and communities who have been affected. Ian was one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the U.S. and serves as a reminder for homeowners with a high-risk of flooding to check their insurance coverage. (1) Flood insurance is getting more expensive, but it’s better than coming up short after a big hurricane. According to ValuePenguin, the average cost of flood insurance from the National Flood Insurance Program is $985 a year. (2) The government’s latest revision on the GDP shows the economy shrank .6% during the first half of the year. That’s the same as the previous estimate, but as CNBC reports, there’s still a lot of disagreement on whether the nation experienced or is experiencing a recession. It’s widely believed that two quarters of negative growth defines a recession, but there are other factors to consider in today’s environment that don’t support that. The strong job market is one of them. With unemployment around 3.7%, some economists believe the economy is expanding. And many are predicting growth in the third quarter. There’s also concern that the economy could falter next year, as the Fed continues raising rates to control inflation. (3) And that’s a big problem. The so-called personal consumption index for August shows a .3% rise in prices. Without food and gas, the core rate was .6% higher. That shows that inflation is still running hot and brings the annual rate of inflation for the PCE from 4.7% to 4.9%. That’s still lower than a 40-year high of 5.3% in February. (4) The Federal Reserve believes the PCE reading on inflation is more accurate than the CPI.Last week’s jobless report shows that initial claims dropped to their lowest level in five months. Benefit applications were down to 193,000. The number of people already collecting unemployment benefits also dropped. The total is about 1.35 million. (5)August was a good month for new home sales. The Commerce Department reports a 28.8% surge to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 685,000 homes. As reported by MarketWatch, that’s the second-biggest month-to-month jump in new home sales ever. It’s also a big reversal from July, when new home sales were down 8.6%, and full-year sales are expected to be down as much as 20%. Some economists attribute the August surge to home buyers rushing to get into a new home before mortgage rates rise any further. (6) Existing home sales went in the other direction. The National Association of Realtors says that pending home sales were down 2% in August. Pending home sales only indicate the likelihood of a sale. NAR is expecting existing home sales for the entire year to fall 15.2%. But NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, expects more home sale activity in 2023. (7)Home price growth is slowing down as mortgage rates get close to the 7% mark. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city index was down .4% in July. That brings the annual rate of home price growth down from 18.7% to 16.1%. The national home price index was also down by a smaller .2%. The decline is reportedly the fastest decline in home price growth in the history of this index, and the first time that home price growth has gone down since February of 2012. (8)(9)Mortgage Rates Mortgage rates continue to rise. Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 41 basis points higher last week, for an average of 6.7%. The 15-year was up 52 points, to 5.96%. Freddie also says there’s a wide range of weekly rate quotes, so it’s important to shop around if you’re looking for