CNN BUSINESS | ‘It’s crazy. There is no inventory.’ Housing industry veteran marvels at real estate boom

New York (CNN Business) – Jeffrey Mezger is a 40-year veteran of the real estate industry. He’s never seen a stronger housing market than this one.

“It’s crazy. There is no inventory,” the CEO of KB Home told CNN Business.

For wannabe buyers, the shortage of homes on the market, combined with a surge of competition from other purchasers is setting off bidding wars, all-cash offers and no end of sticker shock.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Why the 911 will be last the Porsche model to go electric

(CNN) – Porsche is making a big push to go green. By 2030, the high-performance automaker says it will be “carbon neutral” and that 80% of the cars and SUV it makes will either be electric or plug-in hybrids.

One model, in particular, will be the final holdout and will continue to run on gasoline for the foreseeable future, said Porsche’s head of global sales, Detlev von Platen. The 911.

Even more than most high performance cars, the Porsche 911 is defined by its gasoline engine as much as its unique teardrop profile. Its six-cylinder engine is mounted over the rear wheels, putting a significant mass of weight far behind the driver and giving the car a distinctive feel when driving on a twisting road. The car is iconic to the Porsche brand, representing it more than any other. The company has built over a million examples over multiple generations since 1963.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | The Fed is yanking away big banks’ ‘get out of jail free’ card

New York (CNN Business) – Federal regulators said Friday they won’t extend a Covid relief provision granted to big banks, dashing Wall Street’s hopes for an extension.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC) and other big bank stocks retreated on the news, helping to drive the Dow down as much as about 300 points, or 1%. US Treasury yields also crept higher, weighing on the broader markets.

Last spring, when the economy and markets were in chaos, the Federal Reserve handed a sort of “get out of jail free” card to America’s big banks: It loosened leverage rules that JPMorgan, Bank of America (BAC) and other large lenders must abide by.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Higher mortgage rates still aren’t cooling the hot housing market

New York (CNN Business)Mortgage rates have been steadily rising this year, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing demand for housing — yet.

According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage is now 3.05%, up from the all-time low of 2.67% at the end of 2020. Rising long-term bond yields could lead to even higher mortgage rates in the not-so-distant future.

So the question is whether the housing market — which remained surprisingly resilient as consumers fled cities for more space in the suburbs during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak — will continue to hold up well if mortgage rates keep climbing.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Angie’s List changes its name in a complete rebranding

New York (CNN Business) – In the early days of the internet, it was novel and exciting to find ratings and reviews of contractors on a site like Angie’s List. That’s long changed — and it’s one reason the Angie’s List brand is being retired on Wednesday.

In an ever-so-slight name change, Angie’s List will rebrand as Angi starting Wednesday. The company’s owner will change its name from ANGI Homeservices to simply Angi Inc. (Its ticker symbol will remain “ANGI.” (ANGI))

Angi CEO Oisin Hanrahan told CNN Business the name change is meant to help highlight that the company owns other housing-related services, notably HomeAdvisor and gig economy marketplace Handy. (Hanrahan is a Handy co-founder, who joined Angi in 2018 after the company bought his startup.)  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Volkswagen could soon steal Tesla’s crown

London (CNN Business) – Tesla knows all about how to disrupt an industry. It may soon find out what it’s like to be on the receiving end.

After years as the undisputed king of the electric car, Tesla (TSLA) could be matched sale for sale by Volkswagen (VLKAF) as early as 2022, according to analysts at UBS, who predict that Europe’s biggest carmaker will go on to sell 300,000 morebattery electric vehicles than Tesla in 2025.

Ending Tesla’s reign would be a huge milestone in Volkswagen’s transformation into an electric vehicle powerhouse. Badly burned by its diesel emissions scandal in 2015, Europe’s largest carmaker is investing €35 billion ($42 billion) in electric vehicles, staking its future on new technology and a dramatic shift away from fossil fuels.  —read more— 

CNN style Architecture | Champions of French social housing win the ‘Nobel of architecture’

Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, known for transforming and revitalizing neglected buildings across France, have been named winners of architecture’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

The duo, whose “never demolish” ethos has given new life to pre-existing urban architecture, will be awarded the 2021 Pritzker Prize at a ceremony later this year, organizers announced Tuesday.

Born in France and Morocco, respectively, Lacaton and Vassal met as students in Bordeaux before co-founding the Paris-based practice Lacaton & Vassal in 1987. Together, they have designed a number of major cultural and educational buildings, including the Nantes School of Architecture’s riverside campus, completed in 2009, and an ambitious 2012 expansion of the Palais de Tokyo art gallery in Paris, which saw the museum increase in size by 20,000 square meters (215,000 square feet).  —read more— 

CNN style Fashion | Grammys 2021: Best red carpet fashion moments

As we’ve come to expect, the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards adopted a part-digital ‘hybrid’ format for Sunday night’s ceremony, resulting in a mixture of physical red carpet looks and glamorous at-home fashion.

But, as ever, the music awards’ style was brighter, bolder and more colorful than most of its film and TV counterparts.

While many nominees watched from home, performers and award presenters arrived in person at the Los Angeles Convention Center. And they weren’t about to miss a rare opportunity for a red carpet moment.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | The most valuable startup in America is worth more than SpaceX

New York (CNN Business) – Move over, SpaceX and Instacart: Payments processing company Stripe is now the most valuable startup in America.

Stripe announced Sunday a new $600 million round of funding at a valuation of $95 billion, nearly tripling its last valuation of $36 billion.

The new funding vaults Stripe ahead of Instacart, which recently raised new financing at a valuation of $39 billion, as well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is now valued at $74 billion, according to research firm CB Insights. (Still, Chinese TikTok owner Bytedance still easily retains the title of the world’s most valuable “unicorn” startup at $140 billion.)

Stripe has gotten a boost thanks to the pandemic-fueled surge in demand for online and mobile commerce.  —read more—