Brian Dake

Sales of new U.S. single-family homes raced to a near 13-year high in June as the housing market outperforms the broader economy amid record low interest rates and migration from urban centers to lower-density areas because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

New home sales rose 13.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 776,000 units last month, the highest level since July 2007. May’s sales pace was revised upward to 682,000 units from the previously reported 676,000 units.

New home sales have now recouped losses suffered when non-essential businesses were shuttered in mid-March to slow the spread of the respiratory illness. New home sales are counted at the signing of a contract, making them a leading housing market indicator.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late Thursday released new guidelines with a heavy focus on reopening schools in the fall, saying children are less likely to experience severe symptoms or spread the virus in schools.

Under the new guidelines, the CDC recommends that schools follow a certain level of precautions based on the amount of community transmission in their area. The CDC advises that unless there is substantial, uncontrolled community transmission in an area, schools should reopen to some extent.

“It is critically important for our public health to open schools this fall,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a statement announcing the guidelines. “School closures have disrupted normal ways of life for children and parents, and they have had negative health consequences on our youth. CDC is prepared to work with K-12 schools to safely reopen while protecting the most vulnerable.”

The CDC’s recommendations include socially distancing school children through cohorting or pods as well as a number of other measures to limit possible transmission of the coronavirus.

According to the CDC, there are few reports of children being the driving force of transmission within families. It said that as of July 17, children and adolescents account for under 7 percent of COVID-19 cases and less than 0.1 percent of COVID-19-related deaths.

“The best available evidence indicates that COVID-19 poses relatively low risks to school-aged children,” the guidelines read.

The unemployment rate fell in all 72 of Wisconsin’s counties from May to June, according to new data released Wednesday that was compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Counties with the highest June unemployment rate include Menominee County with 20 percent, Forest County with 18.5 percent, and Iron County at 14.2 percent. The counties with the lowest rates were Lafayette with 5.7 percent, Clark at 6.1 percent, and Taylor with 6.2 percent.

Dennis Winters, chief economist at the state Department of Workforce Development, which released the federal data, said the numbers make sense given the historic impact the COVID-19 outbreak has had on all levels of the economy. But Winters added that he’s encouraged to see unemployment trending in the right direction.

“These numbers are certainly higher than we like, but they’re down substantially from where they were,” Winters said. “The trend seems to be going that way, so we’re taking that as good news.”

Wisconsin’s statewide unemployment rate dropped to 8.5 percent in June, an improvement of more than 3.5 percentage points from May’s unemployment rate of 12.1 percent, but a number still in line with Great Recession levels.

Pfizer and BioNTech, a German biotech company, announced Wednesday that the U.S. has reached a $1.95 billion deal with them for an initial order of 100 million doses of their coronavirus vaccine.

According to the announcement Americans will receive the vaccine for free. The United States, which has a population of over 300 million people, could get up to 500 million more doses of the vaccine.

Earlier this month BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said several hundred million doses could be produced even before approval, up to 1.2 billion by the end of 2021.

Their vaccine is set to begin the final stage of the testing process, known as phase three trials, at the end of the month. It is one of more than a dozen companies that has had positive results while working on a vaccine.

Moderna, a company working with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is set to begin the phase three testing stage this month as well. AstraZeneca PLC, a company developing a vaccine with the University of Oxford, will also enter phase three trials in August.

Wisconsin’s housing market performed far better than expected in June, with existing home sales down just 4.5% compared to that same month in 2019, and median prices rose 3.6% to $222,000 over the same 12-month period, according to the most recent analysis of the state housing market by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA).

On a year-to-date basis, home sales for the first half of 2020 were 4.9% lower than the first six months of 2019, and median prices were up 7.6% to $209,900.

“This is better than we expected given the COVID-induced slide in sales we saw last month,” said WRA Chairman Steve Beers. Sales slid sharply in May, dropping 24.3% compared to May 2019, so being down just 4.5% is a big improvement.

Beers qualified the comparison by noting that sales in June last year were actually somewhat weak, dropping 7.7% from June 2018. “It’s important to remember that we’re comparing closed sales with the same month a year earlier, so the weak performance in June 2019 makes this past month’s drop in sales smaller,” he said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree something needs to be done about the state’s unemployment system, but Democrats and Republicans don’t see eye to eye on the best solution.

State Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) is one of the Democrats who introduced legislation Thursday aimed at removing some of the barriers to unemployment benefits.

Democrats, including Rep. Stubbs, introduced the following legislation:

• LRB 6244 – Wisconsin is one of only two states that prevent people with disabilities who are able to work from receiving unemployment benefits. This bill would allow social security disability (SSDI) recipients to receive concurrent unemployment insurance benefits.

• LRB 6246 – Under current law, individuals cannot receive extended UI benefits when participating in extended occupational training. This bill would reinstate the ability of those participating in extended occupational training to receive extended UI benefits.

• LRB 6249 – Currently, claimants are ineligible for UI during weeks where they hit a wage threshold. This bill would temporarily suspend the $500 wage threshold for recipients of unemployment insurance benefits.

• LRB 6254 – The current definition of “suitable work” creates challenges for claimants. This bill reinstates DWD’s authority to determine by administrative rule what constitutes suitable work a claimant must accept if offered, and what labor market conditions to review based on the number of weeks that the claimant has received benefits.

• LRB 6256 – Several laws enacted over the last decade have restricted DWD’s ability to increase access to unemployment insurance when appropriate. This bill expands DWD’s authority to promulgate rules that provide waivers for work search and job registration requirements.

• LRB 6257 – Currently, payments on valid unemployment insurance claims are delayed for one week. This bill would permanently eliminate the requirement that claimants wait one week before receiving benefits.

• LRB 6265 – Currently, claimants are required for perform four work searches per week. This bill lowers the required work searches from four to two per week and repeals the provision allowing DWD to require by rule additional work searches.

• LRB 6362 – The concept of substantial fault has caused confusion for both employers and employees and when employees are entitled to benefits when they are discharged by their employers. This bill would eliminate the concept of substantial fault being a disqualifying factor.

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) was quick to dismiss the ideas—blaming the governor for how he’s handled the crisis.

Republicans want to use federal money to cover the costs of unemployment benefits for people waiting to find out if they qualify, which Gov. Tony Evers called a “political stunt.”

The Wisconsin economy’s labor market improved during June as its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 8.5% and the state added 99,300 private sector jobs during the month according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released today by the state Department of Workforce Development.

The state’s unemployment rate improved significantly from May when it was 12.1%, according to revised data, and is well below the national rate of 11.1%

The state’s leisure and hospitality sector added 47,700 jobs in June, the retail trade sector added 16,400 and the educational and health services sector added 12,900.

The state’s labor force participation rate is 65.7%, down from 67% a year ago.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday retail sales rose 7.5% last month. That was on top of the 18.2% jump in May, which was the biggest gain since the government started tracking the series in 1992. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales advancing 5% in June.

Yesterday, Governor Tony Evers  created the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband Access.

The task force will advise the governor and Wisconsin State Legislature on broadband actions and policy, including strategies for successfully expanding high speed internet access to every residence, business, and institution in the state; initiatives for digital inclusion; and pathways to unlocking and optimizing the benefits of statewide, affordable access to broadband for all communities in Wisconsin.

Broadband access is an essential catalyst to drive community, public safety, learning, health, and economic goals across the state of Wisconsin and, as outlined in a recent report by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, will be critical to the state’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The task force will be chaired by Brittany Beyer, Executive Director for Grow North Regional Economic Development Corporation, and consists of members who represent a balance of interests, perspectives, and areas of expertise. It will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to research and develop recommendations for actions so that all Wisconsinites can have access to this essential and critical service needed for daily life.

The Treasury Department reported Monday that the deficit hit $864 billion last month, an amount of red ink that surpasses most annual deficits in the nation’s history and is above the previous monthly deficit record of $738 billion in April.

For the first nine months of this budget year, which began Oct. 1, the deficit totals $2.74 trillion, also a record for that period. That puts the country well on the way to hitting the $3.7 trillion deficit for the whole year that has been forecast by the Congressional Budget Office.

The June deficit was driven higher by spending on various government relief programs such as an extra $600 per week in expanded unemployment benefits and a Paycheck Protection Program that provided support to businesses to keep workers on their payrolls.

Another reason for the surge in the June deficit was the government’s decision to delay tax payments this year until July 15. That decision mean that quarterly payments made by individual taxpayers and corporations will not be due until July 15 this year rather than June.

So far this budget year, revenues total $2.26 trillion, down 13.4% from the same period last year, while spending totals $5 trillion, up 49.1% from a year ago.