According to a survey by WalletHub, Valentine’s Day spending is expected to reach $25.8 billion in the U.S. this year, or about $185.81 per person choosing to celebrate the holiday.
Meanwhile, 46% of Americans say inflation is affecting their Valentine’s Day plans, and 24% don’t expect their valentine to spend any money on a gift this year. But another 45% expect their valentine to spend at least $50.
So what gives? Get more numbers.
Has the home sales market in San Francisco finally begun to cool off, or is it just the chill of another atmospheric river? Inventory and median sales price were down year over year in December, and properties took a little more time getting scooped up. Meanwhile, condo prices in the City by the Bay saw a 9% increase from the same time in 2022, and opportunities were 10% more plentiful.
Remember when economic experts were predicting another recession? Yeah, we don’t either. Looking at the U.S. GDP over the past two years, it’s clear our national economy is trending up. In other words, don’t believe the hype!
The numbers from December are in, and it’s a familiar story. But while sales of homes and condos are still below the same time last year, the gap is narrowing as inventory slowly returns. But buyers still need to act fast with homes spending an average of 23 days on the market. As far as the bottom line, median sales prices were up year-over-year, more so for homes (16%) than condos (5%).
Did you know? The United States is home to 4% of the world’s population, yet produces more than 12% of the trash — to the tune of 4.9 pounds per person per day – and over 28% of our garbage is packaging. That means we throw out 82 million tons of material every year.
Want a scarier number? Every 15.5 hours, we throw out enough plastic to fill the stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play, and 91% of it isn’t recycled. It’s enough to make you want to refill that olive oil bottle instead of buying a new one.
It’s no secret our groceries come with a lot more packaging every day, but we probably don’t think about it more than once a week when we take out the trash. The Almanac takes a look at two Peninsula “refilleries” trying to reduce our collective climate footprint.
