I need your input into renewing my lease. My current lease expired 4/30/19. I contacted my landlord in February 2019 to negotiate a new agreement. He called me in mid summer 2019 and offered the same rent with a 4 year commitment, I agreed and he said he would send me a amendment to our lease. I had not spoken with him sense, last week he called me wanting me to sign a lease agreement. I told him i would rather go month to month given the current circumstances . any advice? he still wants a 3 year lease. I don't see any major work in the pipe line. just smaller jobs. I pay 1850/mo. rent

I would give him the 3 year lease but request a clause to cancel it with a 60 day notice. I did that with my last lease. This slow down is just temporary.

With mortgage rates down and the number of buyers increasing the economy should rebound nicely (if the government gets out of the way)

Purchase application data keeps going up, the next 4 years figures to be strong.

If you are month to month, why sign anything? It's not like businesses are clamoring to rent space. This is just your landlord looking to save his own butt.

Things will be slow for a couple years at least. Even in areas with little restrictions, people aren't spending. Until a vaccine arrives, don't expect anything to change.

John

Why do you think that the economy is going to be slow for a couple of years?

Like every recession, there will be bright spots among the gloom. But broadly speaking, this recession is going to last as long as we don't have immunity to covid19 or an effective therapy. The data is already in. Sweden has allowed businesses to remain open, but demand is down almost as much as it is in countries that have tight lock downs. Or just look here in the US. Nobody is saying you can't fly. But demand is down 95% because people know that's the perfect place for it to spread.

Seems like construction is still doing OK so far. But no industry is going to be immune from the kind of demand hit we're facing now.

With low mortgage rates. And the millenials reaching the family starting age (31 years old)

Home sales are going to be really good for the next 4 years.

One caveat is that there are 140 million houses already in the US. New construction is always going to be more expensive than existing homes, because they were built with cheaper labor. New construction uses all the trades not so much for remodels.

If you notice the chart shows why sales have been flat for the last 10 or so years.

Anyway the underlying dynamics of the economy look really good after the virus thing is over with. The economy is driven by demographics interest rates and production of value.

Sweden's policy is probably the right one BTW.

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I think the recovery will begin in Sept