Kai Risdahl

But so far this year, only a handful.

There are plenty of instances where FTCs still make sense.

Jessica Miserandino is import manager with AFL, a company in Duncan, South Carolina, that makes fiber optic cables.

It imports a lot of optical fiber from Japan.

Miserandino says the FTZ still offers advantages because when you import goods into it, you don't pay the duty and tariffs at that point in time.

Miserandino says that gives the company more flexibility to deal with tariff bills that can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

especially while you're waiting to see what happens with these tariffs.

You know, you just you don't know what's going to change day by day at this point.

Being able to delay tariff payments allows businesses to invest that money elsewhere.

Ryan Tuhill is director of community and economic development with the city of Phoenix.

Tuhill says those companies include semiconductor manufacturers, aerospace and defense companies.

Tuhill says the number of businesses using the city's FTZ has steadily increased over the last several years.

And so far this year, it's still going up.

I'm Justin Ho for Marketplace.

This final note on the way out today, which I'll preface by noting that the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage last week was 6.48%, down a tad from a week earlier.

That's from Fannie Mae.

I mention it to get to this.

The National Association of Realtors said today the heretofore moribund spring home-buying season seems to have gotten a bit of a mid-season boost.

Home sales in May up 3.2% from April.

Jordan Mangy, Zunil Maharaj, Janet Nguyen, Olga Oxman, and Virginia K. Smith are the digital team.