Category: Penny Stocks

High mortgage rates didn’t spook Medina, even if they meant taking on a 30-year loan at a 6.8% interest rate. The process of actually finding a house and signing the contract, he said, was the painful part.

After attending around 15 open houses, the couple put down five offers, all of which fell through. “I just remember the first one. It felt like we were getting crushed,” Medina said. The home was listed at $395,000, so the couple offered $405,000. The buyer ended up going with an all-cash offer of $400,000 that came with no contingencies. 

Bid after bid, buyers with deeper pockets kept beating out Medina and his wife. “There was one where they went [$40,000] over asking,” Medina recalled. “It was extremely competitive.” 

Over a third of home purchases in February were made with all cash, according to a Redfin analysis. “In many places, wealthy Americans are the only ones who can afford to buy homes,” said Chen Zhao, the brokerage’s economics research lead.

But the couple’s efforts eventually paid off with their sixth bid, and they closed on their home March 5.

Medina’s experience illustrates how competitive and expensive the U.S. housing market has become for first-time home buyers, particularly millennials.

It’s also a tale of perseverance and success. Millennials, the largest generation in the U.S., are the country’s dominant home buyers today, according to the National Association of Realtors’ latest annual report on generational trends in home buyers and sellers. And their demand for homes to buy is likely to only intensify in the years to come, based on industry forecasts and analyses of demographic trends. 

Millennials reclaim the home-buying title after brief boomer takeover

To be sure, older generations still have the upper hand in the housing market.

“Sellers have lived in their homes for a long period of time, and they’ve gained a lot of housing equity,” Jessica Lautz, the deputy chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors, told MarketWatch. So when they’re buying homes, they can pull out all the stops and pay for a home with cash. 

“But millennials found a way to enter into the market,” Lautz added.

After a brief period last year when millennials lost the title of the dominant home-buying generation to baby boomers, they have taken back the title, the new NAR report found. Millennials made up 38% of home buyers, the largest group by generation, followed by boomers at 31% and Gen X at 24%. 

First-time buyers made up 32% of all home buyers, the NAR said. Younger millennials in particular made “huge strides in becoming a first-time home buyer,” Lautz said; about 17% of home buyers were younger millennials. 

In fact, the 2023 surge by boomers was a blip, as millennials have made steady gains in homeownership and have outpaced their elders every year since 2014, aside from last year, Lautz said.

But with boomers seeing a sharp increase in home values and equity, they remain a formidable home-buying force. Over the next few years, there will be a tug-of-war between the two largest generations as to which will dominate the market, Lautz said. 

Gen Z women make homeownership gains

At the other end of the spectrum, the youngest generation of home buyers — who generally have less wealth given their age — are making strong progress towards homeownership. Even though Gen Z made up the smallest share of home buyers, at 3%, women of that generation have made significant headway toward homeownership, NAR’s data showed.

Overall, 20% of recent home buyers were single women, and Gen Z made up the highest share of single women buyers, the NAR said, at 31%.

Jasmine Wells, a 24-year-old active-duty servicemember, was one of those new, single homeowners. 

After learning in January 2022 that she would be stationed in South Carolina, Wells bought her first home there. She decided to buy after seeing how much cheaper it was to own rather than rent.

“When I was looking at apartments, I saw that to get an apartment in a nice area, it was something like $1,800 a month,” Wells told MarketWatch in an interview. “I felt that it was like a really good idea for me to purchase a home.” 

She found from her supervisor that there was a company that works with people in the Army, like her. The company then assigned her a specific real-estate agent during the house-hunting process, but that arrangement wasn’t working for her: The offers she submitted were falling through. She found her own agent and they looked at more homes, including newly constructed ones. 

In May 2022, she found her target, and two months later, she closed on the newly built home for $300,000 with a mortgage backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. She has a mortgage rate of 4.5%.

“My goal was to create generational wealth,” Wells said. “My mom talked to me a lot about how long she waited to purchase a home … and she completely regretted not purchasing it sooner to build generational wealth.” 

Boomers still rule home-selling

When it comes to selling homes, there’s no doubt about it — baby boomers are the dominant generation. 

Younger baby boomers in particular made up the largest share of home sellers, at 26%, NAR said. The median seller was 64 and earned a median income of $103,000. 

Gen X made up the second-largest share of sellers, at 23%. 

The most common reason homeowners cited for selling their house was to move closer to family and friends, according to the NAR. Other reasons included their home being too small and their family situation changing.

The typical homeowner lived in their house for 10 years before selling. That number has stayed the same over the past few years, but before the Great Recession, people used to move every six or seven years on average, Lautz said.

Tenure also varied widely by age group: Younger millennials typically stayed in their homes for four years, while sellers ages 59 and older stayed for 15 years.

One possible explanation for people staying in their homes for longer after the recession is that they “may think of their house in a different type of way,” Lautz said. People find staying in one place for a longer period of time to afford stability, and also allow them to build more equity in their home.

“But they may also have a lower interest rate, or [may] have purchased a larger home,” she added, “so this gives them some stability that they don’t have to make a housing trade.”

How have home prices and mortgage rates affected you? We want to hear from readers who have stories to share about the effects of increasing costs and a changing economy. If you’d like to share your experience, write to readerstories@marketwatch.com. Please include your name and the best way to reach you. A reporter may be in touch.

The data “comes after the surprising and very positive growth in industrial production in February, while this set of positive figures reinforces hope that the manufacturing sector will be able to restore solid growth, which will be one of the most important factors to support oil prices this year,” said Samer Hasn, market analyst at XS.com, in a note.

Traders are returning from a three-day holiday, with futures trading closed on Good Friday. WTI booked a gain of around 16% in the first quarter. Brent rose nearly 14%, supported by production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and optimism over the economic outlook.

She cleaned out his bank accounts and she sold his house. He had stage 4 cancer and was not physically able to handle his business. As power of attorney, she put her name on his bank account, changed his beneficiaries and stopped communicating with his family. How can I find out she was added to the bank account and changed his beneficiaries?

She flipped the title on his car, sold all his furniture and told us that our dad didn’t leave me or my sister anything. He was not married and he had two daughters. His house sold five days before he died and unless he has some other bank accounts, the money ($200,000) went into the account she put her name on.

I am currently waiting for the survivors’ department of the federal government to send me the packet with a list of beneficiaries on his life insurance as well as his retirement/pension. I am also waiting on his death certificate in order to open probate to see what other assets he has. I appreciate any advice you can give to help me navigate through this difficult situation. 

Does a POA have the authority to make these types of changes and cut his direct heirs out of everything, and keep everything for herself? 

Daughter of the Deceased

Related: My delightful father, 95, has substantial assets. I’m afraid my right-wing brother will steal his money. What can I do?

Dear Daughter, 

From what you say, this woman should be prosecuted — not placated. 

A power of attorney who appropriates an elderly person’s assets using undue influence and/or the intent to defraud can face criminal and civil penalties. Larceny, the theft of someone’s property, is a felony in most states, depending on the amount stolen. She is likely betting on your legal inexperience and good nature to get away with it. 

She was not his wife, and as his on-again, off-again girlfriend, her actions vastly overstepped her role as a power of attorney, who is in a position of trust and has a fiduciary duty to act on behalf of the principal and in their best interests. Clearly, she was acting in her own best interests, selling his assets and putting them in newly created joint bank accounts.

There is a statute of limitations on elder financial abuse in most states, and you should treat this as such. It’s not the Case of the Greedy Girlfriend, to paraphrase the alliterative episode titles of Perry Mason; it’s more likely the Case of the Illegal Interloper. You need to rethink your entire approach to this situation, and hire an elder-law attorney.

I assume your father’s girlfriend did not leave much, if anything. You need to stop waiting for information to come through the mail, and stop treating this like an unfortunate series of events. A power of attorney can, with the cooperation of the principal — your father — add themselves as a joint owner on a bank account, rather than just a co-signer.

Your father’s girlfriend did what this nursing home did to this reader’s elderly cousin. She isolated him and took control over his bank accounts, manipulated him into signing over his bank accounts rather than just signing over the right to make withdrawals on those bank accounts, and abused her role as power of attorney to help herself to his estate. 

The Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association, or Simfa, has a checklist for financial abuse: “Numerous withdrawals of smaller amounts.” Tick. “Changing power of attorney or the beneficiaries on insurance or investment accounts.” Tick. She went one step further: She liquidated the whole kit and caboodle.

As Simfa warns, she is essentially a caregiver who becomes overly interested in your father’s finances rather than his care. It recommends people in your position to contact an Eldercare Locator information specialist toll-free on 800-677-1116 weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. It has both English- and Spanish-speaking specialists. 

Laws overseeing fiduciary relationships 

Many states have laws that protect against the abuse of fiduciary relationships. “A beneficiary designation can also be contested for lack of capacity if there is evidence the account holder was not of sound mind when they signed the form,” according to Harrison Estate Law, a Gainesville, Fla.-based law firm.

“Many financial institutions allow account holders to change their beneficiary designations online,” the law firm adds. “This creates a greater chance for undue influence or fraud, but it can also make it harder to win a beneficiary-designation challenge. It also motivates banks and financial institutions to defend beneficiary-designation challenges.”

Let this give you the momentum to proceed with legal action. Harrison Estate Law cites a case where a Florida appeals court ruled that a pay-on-death designation in favor of the deceased’s caretaker should be invalidated due to undue influence. The caretaker had used her personal relationship with the deceased to change the beneficiary designation. 

The court said that since payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts are substitutes for a will, they “are subject to challenge on grounds such as undue influence, fraud, duress and overreaching.” Challenging such designations require bank records, and other paperwork; an experienced attorney can help you with the heavy lifting.

Power of attorney is a powerful legal document, but their responsibilities last only while the person is alive. The executor of the will — if one exists — or administrator of the estate should take over the accounting of the remaining assets and debts. You can petition the court to remove your father’s girlfriend, if she is the executor/administrator.

Her actions should also be reported to the local police or sheriff’s office and your District Attorney. “It is important to note that the principal’s financial assets are always considered to belong to the principal, not the agent,” according to the McAndrews Law Offices, which has branches in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia.

Your father’s case illustrates that you can’t always rely on banks or lawyers to be on the lookout for elder financial abuse and suspicious behavior. You have to be the watchful one because, as I told this woman who feared her father was being isolated from the rest of the family, early intervention is ideal. And so is a prompt response when the damage is done. 

This happened within the last three months of his life. Don’t allow your inheritance to slip away. You, your sister and your father deserve justice.

Related: ‘I’m 60 and looking to retire’: My brother was released from jail and wants to buy back our parents’ foreclosed home. Should I help him?

The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.

Previous columns by Quentin Fottrell:

My boyfriend owns his home and I pay him rent. I have five kids and he has two children. What happens to me if he dies?

My friend invested $50,000 in her brother’s failed property business. On her deathbed, he pledged to repay her children. What now?

​​‘I’m 60 and looking to retire’: My brother was released from jail and wants to buy back our parents’ foreclosed home. Should I help him?

Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Post your questions, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.

By emailing your questions to the Moneyist or posting your dilemmas on the Moneyist Facebook group, you agree to have them published anonymously on MarketWatch.

By submitting your story to Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of MarketWatch, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms, including via third parties.

As a point of reference, Intel’s stock INTC, +0.91% soared 90.1% in 2023 after tumbling 48.7% in 2022. In comparison, the S&P 500 index SPX gained 24.2% in 2023 after falling 19.4% in 2022.

AMD’s stock AMD, +0.50% shot up 127.6% in 2023, after slumping by 55% in 2022.

Broken down, Gelsinger’s 2023 salary fell 18% to $1.07 million, from $1.3 million in 2022, but the value of the stock awards he received increased to $12.43 million from $8.87 million, while his non-equity incentive plan compensation, which includes cash performance bonuses, jumped to $2.89 million from $945,900.

He also received $112,000 in deferred compensation, to reflect changes in the value of his pension, which he didn’t receive last year.

The “all other compensation” category dropped to $362,900 from $497,100. In 2023, that category included $16,500 in retirement-plan contributions, $84,200 in deferred compensation plan contributions, $27,500 for financial planning and physicals and $227,200 for company-provided car service.

Regarding the car service, the amount reported represents the cost of the service used for “nonbusiness” purposes.

“We do not consider these additional security measures to be a personal benefit for our CEO, but rather appropriate expenses for the benefit of Intel that arise out of our CEO’s employment responsibilities and that are necessary to his job performance as well as his safety,” Intel said.

There was also $7,500 in “other” compensation, which included $1,500 for residential security and $6,000 in charitable contributions made on Gelsinger’s behalf.

Meanwhile, AMD’s proxy statement released earlier this week put Su’s total 2023 compensation at $30.35 million, or barely above her 2022 compensation of $30.22 million — but still 80% more than what Gelsinger made.

Su’s salary last year was $1.2 million, and she had $21.85 million in stock awards, $5.84 million in option awards, $1.43 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation and $28,711 in all other compensation.

Su’s all other compensation included contributions of $14,850 to her 401(k), $2.412 in life-insurance premiums paid, and “other” compensation of $11,449, which was the cost of “spousal travel on company aircraft” for business trips.

Don’t cry for Gelsinger, however. Remember that in 2021, after he returned to Intel as CEO on Feb. 15, he reaped total compensation of $178.59 million. That included “new-hire equity awards of a significant magnitude” — $140.43 million to be exact — so the company could hire “the best leader possible.”

From the time Gelsinger became CEO through Thursday’s close, Intel’s stock has tumbled 28.5%, while AMD shares have charged up 92.5%.

And what of Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia Corp. NVDA, +0.12%, the rival chip maker and current hottest artificial-intelligence play?

Nvidia hasn’t filed its proxy statement for its latest fiscal year, which ended Jan. 28. But for the fiscal year that ended Jan. 29, 2023, Huang’s total compensation was $21.36 million, down from $23.74 million the year before.

What will his compensation for the latest fiscal year be, after the stock rocketed by 238.9% in 2023?

Nvidia’s stock is up by 503.9% from Feb. 15, 2021, through Thursday, and its market capitalization as of Thursday’s close was $2.26 trillion, which was 4.7 times the combined market cap of Intel, at $186.75 billion, and AMD, at $291.63 billion.