professor of finance at the smith school of business at the university of maryland dr ossie what's your biggest take away from this report how significant is that well i think it's actually significant given given that this is some of the best numbers we've seen coming from the any peace index for some time and the idea that their optimism is picking up steam is consistent with that was the view that we need to get more construction activity going on into the home building market here in order for it to see some improvement in terms of the fate for borrowers basically well the current homeownership rate in the us that's at sixty three point nine percent which is obviously below the two thousand and five peak of sixty nine point two percent so is this report reason to believe that we could actually see that rate jump up a little bit. i think it's possible that we could see that i think in addition there with millennial sort of have been holding back their their home buying

activity ever since the financial crisis so i think. the optimism that we're seeing from from home building as well as sort of the jump back into the market by someone else will bode well going forward for home ownership rates well as the fed is expected to have more rate hikes for two thousand and eighteen what kind of effect do you think that could have on current and also future mortgages. well you know in terms of the fed rate hikes i think most economists would think there is about three to four of these in play for two thousand and eighteen which would be significant on mortgage rates if it wasn't for the fact that we're talking about rate hikes that affect really the short end of the yield curve however mortgage rates are are really tied more to the to the intermediate part of the curve somewhere in the five to ten year range so i think what we'll see is continued flattening of the yield curve maybe a pickup of forty to fifty basis points point fourth point five percent increase

that is in mortgage interest rates for the fixed rate thirty year mortgage i still think it will be a good market to be buying into if your buyer particularly a first time home buyer out there even with these kind of hikes on the horizon some people are predicting to see higher housing prices in the u.s. in two thousand and eighteen and two thousand and nineteen which is double the rate for underlying consumer inflation and wages so is that assessment only taking into account areas with higher housing costs like l.a. in new york or is this really in line with the current health of the housing market . well i think that overall nationwide home prices should appreciate between two and a half and three percent both in two thousand and eighteen and two thousand and nineteen which would be running about parallel or maybe even a little bit higher than inflation so the numbers you were quoting me earlier probably are more reflective of some of the hotter markets the housing markets on

the west coast in particular the san francisco's the san jose seattle those i think we can expect to see continued acceleration in home prices for the foreseeable future largely because of tightening in the housing inventory side on a lot of those markets freddie mac's economist john because he wrote that an area where the housing markets weren't prepared for a war coastal housing areas which are in danger poor rising levels do you think that we could see a now there were real estate bubble that could harm the nation or is this something that would have more of a local with fact. well it certainly is a local fact those properties that are that are on the coastal markets will certainly be affected i think some of the studies that you're the shot is as referencing there are are saying that the these markets would be hit by a six foot rise in sea levels by the year twenty one hundred so this is not something that i think any of us have to worry about. on. a five to ten year basis

even i think this is out there quite a number of years but. certainly it's an issue as you start to think about things like flood insurance programs that are out there. and has sure its policies that are offered by insurance companies for for homeowners those things if we were to see a continued rise in sea levels even very small levels it might make them start to think twice but overall i'm not i think there are many other things about the housing market that we need to pay closer attention to them than sea level rising in the immediate future i want to ask you now about millennial is what you sort of touched upon earlier in our interview it's very well known that millennial is have quote tale of the housing market as they have with many other industries continue to rant is by far a handful of reasons a millennial are getting older now and closer to the age that their parents bought homes for the first time so down the road how big of an impact do you think that

will have on the homeownership rate. i think it will have a fairly significant impact if you look back from the years right after the financial crisis of two thousand and eight two thousand and nine what we saw was a lack of of formation household formation coming from. that millennial segment what that did is it really suppressed first time home buying opportunity for quite a while and historically we've seen as much as thirty forty percent of new home purchases coming from the first time home buyers of which two thirds these days are made up of millennial buyers so it's a big deal i think going forward the fact that we have an uptick in millennial interest in becoming homebuyers coupled with the next generous that thirty seven of the fifty one year olds that are also showing a bit higher. interest in homeownership will certainly push the market along

from what we've seen over the last couple years while it's obviously had a pretty big impact so is there a way to offset the millennial effect on the housing market. in terms of what we see going on today i think there are any number of things that are you know causing headwinds for for the market and one of the biggest happens to be affordability i think if you look at that among anything in the market today we have to stand back and really assess can people spend the have budgeted that is the amount of income for the cost of those she added with homeownership it's rising as we know and many of the the large metropolitan areas largely because of a severe shortage and housing inventory and from that standpoint i think we really kind of have to look at what opportunities are there to kind of either promote you know truman and tax credits and other kinds of things to lure people into the

housing sector some what we've seen in the past few years do you think the housing market actually created any new protections to create a safety net or prevent anything to housing market bubbles like with zod during the financial crisis. yes there have been up a lot of things that have happened since the crisis four years and probably the biggest i would say is the consumer financial protection bureau implementation of the so-called qualified mortgage rules which really dramatically changed the underwriting quality the requirements for underwriting that is of home mortgages in other words if you look at the quality of loans being done today versus ten years ago it's dramatically different these are very very low risk assets again they aren't the nontraditional mortgages that we want saw and many would say contributed to the crisis in fact that coupled with other improvements of better oversight of

fannie mae and freddie mac. even though both are in conservatorship. along with other measures have gone a long way to really make sure that what we saw in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine very unlikely to happen again on on our watch for quite some time that they're clippard rafi a professor of finance at the smith's will and business at the university of maryland thanks so much for your time today thank you as we go to break here's a holiday quiz question for you real christmas trees are grown in all fifty states of the union which states grow the most christmas trees we'll have the answer after the break. when you don't. see. what they did they could put it. to be true only ten space. left alone.

said. no servant is messy that. if you speak french. then send. this busy cut up to. about it under them i did but that's not a good idea oh no i mean my. dismissal. of them would be still a lot. of slave feel compelled to. give it doesn't it doesn't you know some of the problem on sunday the left about

a lot of people get it some. time and most will go down. as become a. comedian now and with contempt then the policeman. from some policemen down somehow must post some solo some made out. of the from the wind up in. across europe municipalities are taking their water supply back from private companies to me to people this is with simple song alone even some company else with oh they can find private companies to take over the utilities many bought a hell of. a leg so mr gus you got to buy them to come up to go. i've been this is

us to quote them out of it or you're not able to lift the bill brought up locals are ready to stand up for the basic human rights of access to water it's about water but it's also over much more than water it's about the hurt and the redistribution of all or whether it's on day or day downwards do you want or. here's what people have been saying about rejected in the senate it's the law and author of the bill the show i go out of my way to punch you know what it is that really packs a punch oh yeah it is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently better than food. and see people you never heard of love redacted tonight the president of the world bank. and doesn't really mean it seriously send

us an e-mail as a civilization just a tiny bit more advanced than we are that they can already pick up jerry springer or any other sitcoms interview shows the nightly news they see what we're doing to our planet you know it isn't really a very pretty picture and so in addition to sending this chaotic masses that we used to communicate with one another we want to send a clear signal to the extraterrestrial that there's also some rationality on the world. welcome back the answer to our quiz question real christmas trees are grown in all fifty states of the union which states have the most of those well the top christmas tree producing states are oregon north carolina michigan pennsylvania wisconsin and washington state more in the christmas tree industry until

a little later now check this out from the best of boom bust. bitcoin is still doing fairly well have a ring around fifteen thousand dollars but it's crypto competitors are starting to out china to get his take on what's happening we're joined now by chief markets analyst at think markets name has had a pretty wild month and there's so much speculation as to why what do you think are the main reasons for the surge. thank you for having me well there are a number of reasons as you said speculation is one of the major reason that we have seen those that there's a major difference when it comes to big corn and assessing how this movie is happening where the coin is a commodity were the big coin is actually a currency but let me just revive and buy this many out of bitcoin because it is

the entire concept it's just decentralized and that has fueled a really not only in bitcoin but also in the i see your market and then we have major major firms taking a stab on the companies like whatsapp and other things like each have is having its own platform where they wanted to introduce their we introduce their own point and they wanted to go after way you can exchange money through the entire platform but again coming back to your question what really fueled this rally the rally has been fueled on the basis that this is a huge driver to where you can go and store your valve and this is why we are seeing not much big movement to the downside but we seeing massive movement to the upside but the liquidity was the massive problem with the introduction of siebel c.m.e. and now nasdaq next year that liquidity gab but how could become a lot more better because we have institutional traders coming into the market and

participating that remember when seba did its listing for future the gap between the future and the spot index was over two thousand dollars that gap has narrowed because bigger institutions have started to participate in this market and with the introduction of these institutions we're seeing a lot more less wallet when it comes to because and i think that is driving and that would drive the price in two thousand and eighteen as well you pointed out. in a piece that you wrote for forbes that a theory and light returned to a bit quine's main rivals have done well recently till is that simply because of the sudden interest in crypto currency or is there something else at play absolutely like i said it's not the only ether it's not only dyson it's not only near but other companies which are issuing their i.c.'s like each other via also

gene pool and performing very very well you look at the performance of the three m. the reason that these firms are doing so well is because of the great in the technology that they have got how many transactions can you execute per second i think that is where everyone is looking at everyone is looking at what is the next quarry which is going to seed this must so ron like bitcoin that's why investors and capitalists or trade they are trying to capitalize on this market they're trying to find what is the next big point what is the next court which is going to drive this massive rally look at look at your report look at the performance for the last four this year some of these koreans have performed march on washington better than bitcoin in two thousand and seventeen bitcoins were eyes in december took a lot of people by surprise and it led to plenty of crypto currency critics to say

that this is a risky bubble waiting to happen do you think there were a i mean what do you think we can expect for a bit coin for the rest of this year and in twenty eighteen yes while some of those skeptical though some of those biggest listed the people who are not that favorable in terms of a big point to be holding the biggest holdings of bitcoin the physical holdings of bitcoin so let's just remind our viewers that that was the premature case and they're going to provide the brokerage services to the main media or to what they call a sophisticated clients so what do we think holds for bitcoin in two thousand and seventeen. in my articles in force before the sea the sea board did its future listing we said there's a good chance is that big coin price could easily touch twenty thousand so we are near enough that twenty thousand by the end of this year but i think going into two thousand and eighteen there are a number of factors which are very important and that could easily drive the price

of bitcoin value above forty thousand what are those factors let's look at regulation because we know that throughout two thousand and seventy regulations haven't been able to pull back bitcoin in terms of its priced or how much price we have a change is how many new issues we're going to get what different products we are going to get if there's going to be any technology upgrade for the court how the brokerage and hedge fun and uses shushan are going to react within this one because the more participation that we have from these ones and i will be writing an article on forbes about this the more liquidity we have and the more liquidity we have and the more regulation in terms of her credibility we have we will see even more participation from a general public but one thing above all is that if the perception continues that this is a driver to way you store is driver to have to store your valve then i do think

that the price the book tension for the prices for forty thousand perhaps by the end of two thousand and eighteen but if the perception changes the point is no longer a driver to where you can store or a commodity it is actually a currency and alternative to the mighty dollar then perhaps the upside for that isn't that much because then the volatility needs to see the volatility need to die out i also sense you are in london and i want to pivot and talk about bracks and now members of parliament are set to vote on whether or not to put an official date . i'm putting that into law do you think they're going to vote for that but i think the breadstick negotiation will remain the major major obstacle for the u.k.'s economy in going to thousand a team and i think. after that starting into round two she has done a tremendous job in terms of bringing where the breaks it started from and where we

are we have gone through she has gone through a major obstacle such as northern ireland such as establishing stable grounds in terms of how much they're going to pay for the bill i think these were the major obstacle in order to start that negotiation where she would be able to go into the room and start ok who is going to be my trade partner and who will be how we're going to negotiate these trade deals i think she is on the right track but doesn't necessarily mean that every year doesn't necessarily mean the two thousand and eighteen by any mean is going to be good for the u.k. economy or even in two thousand and nineteen yes she certainly had a rocky road ahead and has dealt with a lot but earlier this month samuel tombs of pantheon macro economics you predicted the outcome of the last general election said he things might not actually happen primarily because of whoever is in power at that point what want to risk damaging their own reputation by implementing it do you think that scenario is possible i do

think that some are is those a probability for that and i'm sure if you see some sort of betting companies out there they could be still providing of bets on these loans that ok the breaks it could actually not happen after all of this drama that we have seen but i think the probabilities or the reality of that situation happening are very minute. the e.u. has gone through a lot over the past year or so especially when it comes to elections so what do you think will be the block's biggest issue to face in two thousand and eighteen. i think the biggest issues going into two thousand and eighteen would be once again you geo political concern it would be again the drift vivian the european union because we know what's happening right now in catalonia i think catalonia avoid the entire situation about catalonia would resurface in two thousand and eighteen and also not to forget about elections taking place in italy in two thousand and

eighteen that also remains an important agenda for the e.u. and for the european central bank but on the on the overall i do think that the euro zone has a much much brighter future as compared to the u.k. i do think that the european central bank has done tremendous job in terms of that bring in their recovery we do think that they do unemployment rate could easily fall to point to two point five percent in two thousand and eighteen and we can see substantial g.d.p. growth which could be in around of a one point nine percent and also inflation could be picking up as well so do you think that will help with wages in the eurozone because like you said unemployment is lower and we could see an increase in g.d.p. but waitrose like here in the u.s. has been kind of slow so what do you predict for two thousand and eighteen yes for sure certainly i think with a lorry and unemployment the slack in the economy would reduce and that we could certainly see the higher wages kicking in because remember there are certain cities

that will then be the biggest economy of the euro zone in germany where companies are actually losing contracts because they do not have a sufficient labor because they do not have a number of people who can actually go into those factories and make those walk what they are supposed to do and these companies are unable to deliver on the contract source for sure i do think their wages would rise and going back to your what you have touched at all in the u.s. that yes vague pressure is something that we have not seen in two thousand and seventeen. but with the u.s. overall to tax overhaul we do anticipate that in two thousand and eighteen with there is a greater potential for ages to grow and gradually move a lot more high in two thousand and eighteen over in the u.s. as well name chief markets analyst at think markets thanks so much for your time today.

before we go with only a few days before christmas the final figures won't be in for a while but every holiday season people flock to get their christmas trees some cut them for themselves some pick them up in a parking lot and some get them at a store and others still are having them order directly to their home regardless of how you get one of those trees don't grow themselves well perhaps they do but they need a lot of help along the way and they get it there are more than fifteen thousand christmas tree farms throughout the united states and they add to local state and national economies according to the united states department of agriculture's us to to stick service and the national christmas tree foundation yes there is a grand national christmas tree foundation there are approximately twenty five to thirty million twenty five to thirty million real christmas trees sold in the u.s.

every year there are close to three hundred fifty million real christmas trees currently growing on christmas tree farms in the u.s. alone they're all planted by farmers on close to fifteen thousand farms and about three hundred fifty thousand acres are used as we said in our answer to our quiz the top christmas tree producing states are oregon north carolina michigan pennsylvania wisconsin washington state and there are over a one hundred thousand christmas tree jobs in the u.s. eighty percent of the artificial trees are made in china and there are of course made from non-biodegradable plastics they can be used for many years perhaps we need to buy a great degradable christmas tree although i guess it wouldn't last for that long certainly is not of long as the other the existing by the existing trees the artificial trees that is so i suppose as for real trees there are of course recycling in fact there are more than four thousand local christmas. tree recycling

programs in the states all throughout the country every real christmas tree that's harvested for everyone that's harvesters there is either one or three seedlings that are planted each spring it can take as many deaths as fifteen years to grow a tree of typical height six or seven feet or as little as four years the average time is seven years for a tryst mystery thanks for watching be sure to catch boom bust on you tube at youtube dot com slash boom bust r.t. c n x time.

altie we have a great team we need to strengthen before the free float and your bets have been a legend to keep it so it's at the back. in one thousand nine hundred two that must qualify for the european championships at the very last moment no one believed in us but we won and i'm hoping to bring some of that waving spirit to the r.c.t. . recently i've had a lot of practice so i can guarantee you that peter schmeichel will be on the best form since my last will call him and that story. of the old joke it was only. brushed. left left left more or less ok stuff that's really good. for. russian athletes taking jungle pics remains controversial what awaits the olympians

in south korea and more important what awaits them after the good. god man made global warming incinerating plan or is it causing an eco but the corporations feel like you know what that might cost us a penny at the end of the year so we'll do have donek adjustment to our algorithm it will take out the city in alaska that would flag us to take action appropriate first survival of the species and we're going to instead rely on our balance sheet and our algorithm like i'm going to g.p.s. monitor. that's pointing over a cliff i don't care if the cliff is there my algorithm says it's not there so i keep driving i do a film and always i'm going to go right over that cliff because out of the data tell me. how does it feel to be a share of the greatest job in the world it's as close to being

a king as any job there is what business model helps to run a prison now we just do it oh my guess is nobody you know visitation i don't know one comes in you know we don't have to serve them anymore is cost effective that's what they want to do that they don't give a damn if you do the chores and that they're actually paying us to put it back into . the louisiana incarceration rate is twice as high as the u.s.n. bridge what she could is behind such success.

israel's prime minister orders the country's withdrawal from unesco that's the spy is having several recognized her dutch sites in the country. and also this hour a u.s. olympic gold medalist reveals years long abuse spy team doctor accuses fire ranking sports officials of buying her silence spoke to another form and you must he was the first to publicly come forward. i wish i could say that i would. surprised but the reality with us is they have a decades long policy of covering up sexual abuse. or facebook admits that it's fake news. and even more views. articles.