CNN | Architect’s innovative shipping container homes could help solve Puerto Rico’s housing crisis

(CNN) – Puerto Rican architect Carla Gautier Castro stands overlooking the remains of a home after a string of earthquakes hammered the town of Yauco, on the southwest of the island.

It’s a painful scene she has seen again and again. It is also the reason she now dedicates her life to ensuring everyone on the island has a safe dwelling.

The pillars of this concrete house collapsed, crushing three vehicles underneath. Furniture and personal belongings are strewn around, unreachable, unsalvageable.

“I’m traumatized,” homeowner Luz María Morales Vargas tells Gautier Castro. “We’ve lived here for 27 years.”  —more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Home sales reach a 14-year high in August, with prices hitting a new record

Home sales surged to a 14-year high in August as record low interest rates brought homebuyers out in droves and pushed prices to a new record high.

Existing home sales — which includes sales of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — were up 2.4% in August from July, to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6 million transactions, according to the National Association of Realtors. That was a 10.5% increase from the year before and the highest level since December 2006.  —more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Commercial real estate flounders as housing market booms

New York (CNN Business) – The housing market is red hot thanks to record-low mortgage rates and consumers looking to flee cities for the suburbs. But offices, shopping malls and other commercial real estate properties have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The rise of Zoom (ZM), Slack (WORK) and other productivity tools has made it easier for people to set up home offices and still get their jobs done. Meanwhile, Amazon (AMZN) and other digital retailers are flourishing amid the Covid-19 pandemic as the shift from bricks to clicks has accelerated.

“There will likely be less demand for commercial real estate due to the rising popularity of online shopping and working from home,” said Ivy Investments global economist Derek Hamilton in an e-mail.  —more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Fed pledges to keep interest rates near zero for years

New York (CNN Business) – The Federal Reserve committed Wednesday to do more to help the US economic recovery, promising more asset purchases and lower interest rates for even longer than it previously expected.

The Federal funds rate remained unchanged at zero to a quarter percentage point, and will stay there until America’s labor market has recovered “consistent with the Committee’s assessments of maximum employment” and the inflation rate has risen to 2%, and is on track to exceed that level for some time.

Given the country is still down 11.5 million jobs since February and the consumer price inflation rate over the past 12 months stood at 1.3% last month, this seems like a long way off.  —more— 

CNN Business | Home Depot cancels Black Friday

New York (CNN)Black Friday as you know it is gone this year at Home Depot.

But don’t fret. The home improvement retailer said it’s just taking a different approach to the annual one-day deep discounts bonanza that occurs the day after Thanksgiving.

Instead of a single day, Home Depot (HD) said it will offer Black Friday discounts for two months, beginning in early November through December.  —more—