Morning Brew Daily
Sellers Are Ripping Homes Off the Market & AI Slop is Taking Over Thanksgiving
26 Nov 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, sellers are pricing their homes way too high.
Then beware of AI recipe slop this Thanksgiving. It's Wednesday, November 26th. Let's ride.
What a time to be alive. It's the day before Thanksgiving. Pound for Turkey Pound, the best holiday of the year. If you're heading out of town for the holiday, hope your travels have been smooth. And cross your fingers for Toby and me here who are about to board a plane and train to see our families. Well, tonight should be interesting.
For many younger folks, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is the time you hit up your hometown's local bar and have the most awkward encounters possible with people from your high school you haven't seen in years. All that childhood gossip about who's hooking up with who and can you believe this guy went to prison is going to come rushing back.
Toby, I think I've aged out of this tradition at this point, but if you're like 19 to 25, it is pretty thrilling.
If you haven't grown out of it, here's what you do to assert dominance. Number one, firm handshake, look people in the eye. Number two, strategically buy one of the first rounds when everyone can still remember it. If you are 19, do not do that. And then number three, subtly bring up that you are running the turkey trot tomorrow while everyone's getting a little bit sloshed.
Everyone will hate you, but in my mind, that asserts dominance. Also, my graduating class had a total of 47 people in it, so take advantage. All that advice with a grain of salt right there. And now a word from our sponsor, U.S. Bank. Holiday shopping season is officially here, which means it is time to hunker down and stick to your budget.
The last thing you want is an unexpected bill or expense to catch you by surprise.
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Chapter 2: Why are sellers removing homes from the market?
Yeah, definitely a little confusing, definitely some mixed messages, but I'm going to take the glass half full approach here because there were a lot of warning signs that people were pulling back on spending. We had some companies say that in earnings earlier this earnings season, but yesterday Most of these companies did really well.
Best Buy, Abercrombie, Dick's, Kohl's all improved their guidance, which is surprising given all of the news headlines we've been hearing. Target and Home Depot seem to be the two retailers that aren't doing so well, but Walmart, TJ Maxx, Burlington Coat Factory, Ross... are all doing really well. People are still shopping.
They're seeking out value, but they are still shopping more than all of these warnings would suggest. And one note on this retail sales report. Yes, it came in a little bit softer than expected 0.2% growth. But if you're looking at whether people are feeling financially healthy. Look at sales at eating and drinking establishments because that is completely discretionary.
You don't have to go out to eat or go to a bar. You could do all that stuff at your home for cheaper. But sales increased 0.7% on the month. They're up 6.7% from a year ago. That matched expectations or even exceeded them. So it does look like people are still feeling okay enough to go eat and drink out, which is a sign of somewhat consumer health.
All right, Chef Neil over there just saying, flexing that. You could definitely cook at home. We know, but sometimes you just want to order out a little bit. There is a paradox emerging in retail spending right now, though, because MasterCard is predicting 3.6% growth in total holiday spend for 2025. it speaks to the fact that the consumer is feeling good.
They're going to spend more money, but they actually are saying that people will spend more dollars, but buy fewer items. How does that happen? Prices have arisen. So inflation is driving a lot of that bump in spending. Inflated price tags makes the consumer look healthier, makes the total pie look bigger, even though actual gift volume may decline a little bit.
And it speaks to this idea of the K-shaped economy that we have talked about again and again, where high-income households are are still spending on luxury goods, travel, dining out, as you mentioned, while middle and low-income households are feeling the pinch. Spending is falling a little bit. They are discount chasing more. So that is the story of the U.S. consumer right now.
One is diverging and spending a lot of money, and then the other half is kind of spending less money as they are cutting across categories and living more paycheck to paycheck. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back and talk about AISLOP.
Toby, do you have anything that's totally customized for you?
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