-May 2,2020-

Low snowpack in latest survey

This week DWR conducted the 5th Phillips Station snow survey of 2020. The manual survey recorded 1.5 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent of .5 inches, which is 37% of the May average for this location near Tahoe.

April will be the worst auto sales month in at least 30 years

SANTA MONICA, CA — April 30, 2020 — Edmunds says that April will be a record down month for the auto industry due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, forecasting that 633,260 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. for an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 7.7 million. This reflects a 52.5% decrease in sales from April 2019, and a 36.6% decrease from March 2020. Edmunds analysts note that this is the lowest-volume sales month dating back to at least 1990; the second worst month for sales in the past 30 years was January of 2009, when 655,000 vehicles were sold.
“April auto sales took the biggest hit we’ve seen in decades,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights. “These bleak figures aren’t just because consumers are holding back on their purchases — fleet sales are seeing an even more dramatic drop as daily rental business has dried up. Like many other industries, the entire automotive sector is struggling as the coronavirus crisis continues to cripple the economy.”
Edmunds experts note that plans for easing shelter-in-place orders across the country in May could open up opportunities for automakers and dealers to capture some deferred demand, but there is still economic uncertainty ahead.
“April is likely the bottom for auto sales, so hopefully there’s only room for improvement from here,” said Caldwell. “But with employment and consumer confidence at new lows, the question remains: Will people be in the position to purchase new cars? Although automakers are doing their part by offering landmark incentives, those might not be enough if consumers cannot recover financially from this crisis.”

Low rates not enough to boost housing market

A story in Marketwatch this week suggests report low rates may not be enough to boost the housing market right now.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to an average of 3.23% during the week ending April 30, a decrease of 10 basis points from the previous week says Freddie Mac -the lowest level since Freddie Mac began tracking this data starting in 1971. A year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.14%.

“The number of Americans applying for loans used to purchase homes, while 20% down from last year, had nonetheless improved after hitting a five-year low.

But low rates won’t be enough to change the tides in the housing market, experts said. The number of listings of homes for sale continues to decrease as home buyers and sellers across America have grown wary of making such a large transaction given the state of the economy.

“Many buyers — stuck at home and worried about their jobs — have hit the ‘pause’ button,” George Ratiu, senior economist at Realtor.com, said. “With financing less of an incentive and inventory disappearing, we will see a sharp contraction in sales over the next two months.”`

Not helping is the fact that mortgage companies like Wells Fargo have halted the purchase of jumbo loans that originate from other lenders.