The Hidden Cost of a Government Shutdown on Property Markets

Missing metrics disrupt lending, underwriting, and development

It’s cliché to say real estate is a data business, but when government data stops flowing, the cliché becomes a crisis. The recent shutdown that shuttered key agencies and silenced economic releases has exposed just how fragile our decision-making is when the public data pipelines go dark. In real estate and lending, we lean so heavily on indices, employment metrics, rental reports, and construction stats that a blackout in those feeds ripples farther than you realize.

During the shutdown, critical releases from agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census will be delayed or suspended. That means no fresh unemployment rate, no new jobs data, no updated housing starts, no fresh measures of inflation or Consumer Price Index changes from the BLS, no new population updates, no updated household formation data..   ...more

RSK: With the way the market and economy are right now, any wrench thrown into the wheel is not good.