Vinjeru Mkandawire
speaker
38 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 27 May
Vinjeru Mkandawire’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The Intelligence from The Economist · What price victory? Ukraine on the front foot · 27 May 2026
podcast
Yes.
So similar factors have also frozen the market in Britain where transactions remain subdued.
Mortgage rates are obviously higher, but in both the US and in the UK, we're seeing that sellers are extremely reluctant to realize losses from their homes, and so they're staying put rather than selling.
Yes, exactly.
So before the war in Iran, America's housing market looked ripe for recovery.
Unemployment was low, existing homeowners were sitting on near record equity, and affordability was improving, in part because of rising incomes.
But the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent energy prices rocketing.
This threatens to drive up inflation and in turn mortgage rates, and so the housing market remains on ice.
Well, until borrowing costs drop significantly, there are very few ways to actually get the housing market moving again, at least in the short term.
Some homeowners have little option but to sell.
So those undergoing divorces, for instance, or people moving for work.
However, Home Depot can't rely on this trickle of transactions.
So instead, it's courting builders who tend to spend more than the DIY crowd.
And they now account for half of Home Depot's revenue.
And over the past few years, Home Depot has spent more than $30 billion acquiring wholesale distributors that cater to professional contractors.
But for now, plenty of its tills remain empty and offer a warning that the housing market is no longer working for people who need to buy or sell.
And so in many ways, the housing market is broken.
Thanks for having me, Jason.
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