November 21, 2025 • 42 mins
Kevin covered the following stories: AAA is out with their estimate for Thanksgiving travel; the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims; the National Association of Realtors reported October existing home sales; now that the Government shutdown has ended, the House, Senate and transportation leaders can turn their attention to the Highway Bill; a nationwide study from Critical Mass Insights was released indicating the level of support for the "AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act"; Kevin has the details, sifts through the data, puts the information into historical perspective and offers his insights and some opinions along the way.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome aboard.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Thanks for tuning in on this Friday morning. Who says
nothing good happens after midnight? Obviously they've not been listening
to America's Trucking Network. Triple A is out with their
predictions for the holiday travel time. Triple A projects at
eighty one point eight million people will travel at least
(00:36):
fifty miles from home over the Thanksgiving holiday period, which
runs from Tuesday November twenty fifth to Monday, December the first.
This year's domestic travel forecast includes an additional one point
six million travelers compared to last Thanksgiving. That's up two percent,
So apparently the economy isn't doing as rotten as the
(00:58):
spoon federcgurgitators and mainstream media would like us to believe.
Setting a new overall record, Thanksgiving is the single biggest
holiday for travel compared to other others like Memorial Day
or July fourth. According to Stacy Barber, vice president of
Triple A Travel, Thanksgiving travel numbers are always impressive because
(01:22):
this holiday has become synonymous with heading out of town
to spend time with loved ones. People are willing to
brave the crowds and make last minute adjustments to their
plans to make lifelong memories, whether it's visiting extended family
or meeting up with friends.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Now, Hollywood and.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
The people there and some of the shows are always
trying to make it seem that this is a time
of confrontation, this is the time of where families don't
get along. There's a commercial running that just absolutely bugs me.
And it's a scene of this young girl poking her
(02:01):
head in the door, opening the door and she hears
the family members. I wonder who Jackie or whatever her
name is, is dating now, And she gets this look
on her face. She shuts the door behind her, and
then she texts her mom, sorry, flight delayed? Can you
set aside a plate for me?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So she would.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Rather not spend time or bond memories with family members
simply because somebody may ask her if she's dating anybody.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I mean, it is a.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Horrible commercial and a terrible precedent. And then I don't
even quite honestly, I don't even know what the commercial
is trying to sell. It's just so irritating to see that.
And when you see these commercials where just you know,
in any type of a show they're trying to show
you put Now. Of course, over the last couple of years,
we have heard people say, and especially the people with
(02:50):
Trump derangement syndrome, they say, I can't even deal with
my family members. I just am so irritated if I
find out that they voted for Trump and so on.
What You're the one with the problem, not the other
family members. Most people don't live in this bubble of
irritation they deal with. You don't see us on the
conservative side saying during the Biden administration and during the
(03:15):
Obama administration that anybody that voted for them, I'm not
going to associate with them and so on. It's just,
you know, let it go for a twenty four hour
period of time, spend time. These are the people that
are relatives, they're supposed to be your family. Let it
go for a couple and you know, all these this
(03:35):
bickering and stuff that you hear that people talk about
over Thanksgiving is just absolutely ridiculous. It just basically shows
sometimes the immaturity level of certain people, and the people
that participate in that or the people that started those
are the people with the problem. Thanksgiving Travelers by mode
of transportation by car. TRIPAA projection at least seventy three
(03:57):
million people will travel by car. That's nearly nine twenty
percent of the Thanksgiving travelers. An additional one point three
million people on the road compared to last year. Now
again that's up two percent. Again, overall travel is up,
a number of people traveling is up two percent, and
buy car is going to be up by two percent.
A warning to all you four wheelers out there that
(04:19):
are going to be on the highway, remember that when
you're out driving and you see eighteen wheelers out on
the road as you are traveling between November twenty fifth
and December the first when you see these trucks out
on the road and if they're passing somebody, you know,
if they're passing another truck and it takes maybe a
mile or so before you can get around them. Have
(04:42):
some patients realize the fact that you're out having fun,
You're on.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Your way to visit relatives. They are on the job.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
They are on their way to the stores delivering the
stuff so that you can have your Thanksgiving celebration, and
so that on Black Friday, the Storre's shelves will be
full and the stuff that you can buy. Also, they
are in the process of transporting the various goods and
services for everything, the goods that are going to be
(05:12):
there for Cyber Monday, that Monday after Thanksgiving. So realize
that they are not home with their families, they are
not enjoying the Thanksgiving holidays because they're out on the
road making your Thanksgiving and your holiday possible.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Again.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Seventy two percent of everything out on the shelves is
brought to you by a truck. And when you add
into consideration that all the other items that may not
necessarily be delivered by a truck, somewhere along the line,
almost one hundred percent of everything you touch has been
has touched a truck. And when you take into consideration,
as was pointed out to me at match this past March,
(05:51):
that you don't realize the number of other things other
than what's on the shelf. The sheets, the medicine, the
stuff that's all at the hospital are there are brought
by a truck. When you look at the supplies, the
cleaning supplies and stuff, the janitorial stuff for office buildings,
for that kind of stuff that's not on the retail shelves,
(06:15):
but that has been brought to the location or to
the warehouse the wholesaler buy a truck. So when you
add all that in, there is a ton of stuff
mop more than tons and tons of stuff that has
brought to you by a truck. So have a little
bit of respect. Realize that a truck has a longer
stopping capability or capacity than what you have. You can
(06:39):
on in a car can pretty much stop on a
drunk dime. A truck hauling a large load takes a
long period of time for them to stop. And if
you notice out on the highways that you're in traffic
and things are slowed down, there's generally a lot of
space between the truck and the car in front of them,
(07:00):
and people have a tendency of cutting in there. I'm
kind of a mixed on this because if you're at
a slow speed, that's not a big deal. But if
you're on the highway and you're traveling at sixty miles
an hour and there's not much room between the truck
and you're trying to cut in between them, you're asking
for trouble because if something slows down, the truck is
(07:23):
not going to have enough space to stop.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And stay out of their blind spots.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Just kind of a little bit of word of caution
there again, looking at this travel survey from TRIPAA and
some of the stuff that they're talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Let's see, let's go through some of this stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Here a warning in here that thirty five percent of
all fatalities in crashes involving alcohol or all other fatalities
occur over the Thanksgiving week, So thirty five percent of
all traffic fatalities in the United States happened during that period.
(08:00):
Take your time, be cautious, take it a little slower.
You don't have to set the land speed record from
one destination to another. Be safe out on the highway
and get there safely. You don't want that as part
of the people thinking about Thanksgiving for the rest of
their lives. Oh that's the week that so and so
(08:21):
died because they were out on the highway. Airfare they're
talking about six million people will be traveling.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Now.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
My rule of thumb is that if your travel destination
is more or less than five hours by car, in
my opinion, I would much rather drive because by the
time you take into consideration, you have to factor this in,
you know, just add it up however long it takes
you to drive from your house to the airport. They
(08:47):
suggest you get to the airport two hours ahead of time,
which gives you time to check your bags, get into
the terminal, do your boarding pass, and of course you
can do your boarding pass ahead of time. You can
actually print that out at home and hopefully it will
work there at the airport. But then, of course, the
flight time, depending upon where you're going. Flight times to Chicago,
(09:07):
I think from Cincinnati is something like an hour and
fifteen minutes. Down in Nashville's about an hour, So you
got to figure the in your factor in the flight time.
Then once you get to the airport, getting your bags,
getting off the plane, finding an uber or getting to
where you've got your car rental, and then getting in
the car, and then the travel time from the airport
(09:27):
to your actual destination.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Plus you have the flexibility.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Once you're there is that you have a car at
your disposal if you want to go make some trips
and do a road trip or drive around the area
and see the sights and that type of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So rule the thumb.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
If it's less than five hours, I'd much prefer to drive.
So that's my two cents worth. Oh, I can't do
that anymore because we're running out of pennies. I'm Kevin Gordon,
America's truck In Network, seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
I love.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
This is the reathing report on America's Trucking Network on
seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Looking at head to the racing weekend, Formula One holds
the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday, Lando Norris has
three hundred and ninety points and leads the battle for
the world championship with three races to go.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Obviously, always trying to win. It's always sweeter when you
end up on the podium where you can win the race.
It's it's always a better feeling because that's what that's
what we'll want. So it's been a good few races
recently and it's it is hard at times, I think
when when you're fighting and you're in the position that
we're in at the moment as a team, you know,
between Oscar and myself to sometimes like step back and
(10:32):
realize what you're you're doing.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
In second place in the standings as Norris as McLaren
teammate Oscar Piastre, he is twenty four points back.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
You know my expectation and for myself is to try
and perform at the same level, but that's not always
a guarantee, and I know that it can also just
change very quickly. You know, whether it's because you get
unlucky or whether you're not performing at the perfect level
and the guys I'm up against can perform at the
high level. Things can change for eas at least, never
(11:03):
the nicest feeling to see your lead disappear.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Reigning world champion Max vers staff and trails Norris by
forty nine points in third place in a situation he
is not used to.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
I mean, it's a lot of points, so I'm not
really thinking about it too much because there's also not
much that I can do.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
We need a lot of luck now till the end.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
To even have an opportunity, so I personally, I don't
think about that.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I do this.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
He is the breathing reward on America's Druging Network on
seven hundred WLW, Everybody have a Safe and Happy Weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Sag Dennison a t N.
Speaker 7 (11:40):
A decade ago, I was on the trail of one
of the country's most elusive serial killers, but it wasn't
until twenty twenty three when he was finally caught WLW.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Well, now that the government shutdown, this is over.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
The Bureau of Labor Statistics are out with their initial
jobless claims. This is the first time in what about
six seven weeks, But anyway, during the period of the shutdown,
the forty three days shutdown, so divide that, well, it's
about seven weeks, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So the seven weeks we've been out with this out,
we have not had this report, is what I am
trying to say. Number of Americans finally for new applications
for unemployment benefits fell last week, but more out of
the work. Wait a minute, but more out of work.
People are struggling to find new opportunities amid a week hiring. Again,
(12:28):
we're still in that phase of no hire, no fire situation,
so people aren't getting fired at a regular basis, and
they're not hiring employees again because Lion Jerry Powell and
the Federal Reserve are not really lowering interest rates and
it's cost too much to expand businesses, and people are
(12:48):
in a wait and see situation to see how things
are going to be going. As far as you know,
any type of expansion. The sales numbers are good, the
traffic flow is good, all the other economic numbers are good.
It's just this wait and see situation and businesses wanting
to expand and wanting to get their business stronger. Initial
claims for state unemployment benefits dropped eight thousand to a
(13:11):
seasonally adjusted two hundred and twenty thousand for the week
ended November fifteenth, Labor Department set on Thursday. The Labor
Department resumed publishing the weekly claims reporting following the end
of the forty three day record setting government shutdown. Economists
polled by Reuters had forecasts that the unemployment rate would
(13:32):
be two hundred and thirty thousand, so they missed that
by about ten thousand. And you know, every time I
hear the phrase economists always reminds me an economist is
an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he
predicted yesterday didn't happen today.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
And that's so true when.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
We see some of these reports coming out of some
of the reports from economists that are so far off.
But again, Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday, the
data collected period established and household surveys would be extended.
The extra processing time added BLS canceled the October unemployment number.
(14:12):
So whether the unemployment number went up from four point
three or four point two percent, where that unemployment number is,
we don't know that for October, and we won't know
that until next month. Let's see the longest let me
see where.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Was I here?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Bureau Labor Statistics said on Wednesday, repeat that comment that
the data collection period for the establishment of the household
surveys would be extended the extra processing time added. BLS
canceled October's unemployment report because the longest shutdown in history
prevented data collection for the household survey from which the
unemployment rate is calculated. October's non FORIGM payroll data will
(14:53):
be released together with November's employment report on December sixteenth.
The unemployed a rate for October will.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Never be known.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Okay, you know what it was in September, You're gonna
know what it was in November. So October, there were
predictions from various organizations that I think it was the
Saint Louis FED came up with a number some of
these other economists with the either Goldman Sachs or JP
Morgan or some of these other companies have come up
(15:27):
with they thought was the unemployment rate, and they said
it was around four point three. I saw one that
said it may have been four point four. But you know,
you look at the weekly jobless rate and the weekly
job weekly jobless claims have not gone up considerably. They
have actually willed this past week actually fell So if
(15:49):
you're not having large swaths of unemployment on a weekly basis,
chances are you're not going to have a large unemployment
number over a period of time or for that particular month.
There have been no large scale layoffs, especially reflected in there.
And remember the story we were talking about the other day,
(16:10):
and there was a key paragraph in there. They said,
when you look at some of these reports from so
called experts, they are not shown over the years to
be very reliable. Concentrate on the current month, current data available,
and that will be a better gauge. And again, if
you look at the unemployment of the initial jobless claims,
(16:31):
which have been between two hundred and ten thousand and
up to two hundred and fifty thousand over a couple
of years now actually the last year and a half thereabouts,
at two hundred and twenty thousand. We are right smack
dab in the middle of that good range there, two
hundred and ten actually to the lower end two hundred
ten to two hundred and fifty thousand, so where people
(16:54):
are thinking, oh, well, you know, we will never know
what the unemployment rate for October was. The number of
people receiving unemployment benefits after an initial a week of
aid by a proxy for hiring increase twenty eight thousand
to a seasonally adjusted one point nine seven four million
during the week, again not up very high. What will
(17:17):
matter then is the labor participation rate. How many people
have dropped out of the market. There are some people
people in middle aged that may be retiring, so they
are not part of the unemployment figures. Other people that
just stop looking for whatever reason. I don't know what
they're living off of. But again, it's a situation where
(17:40):
you're not seeing these major fluctuations, so you shouldn't expect
to see that unemployment go up very substantially, and so
this handwringing that we won't know what that number is
for October is kind of ridiculous. October existing home sales
see a small gain, but supply is dropping that's kind
of interesting. Improving mortgage rates at the end of the
(18:03):
summer boosted home sales, but that gain, like may be
short lived. Sales of previous previously owned homes in October
rose one point two percent from September to four point
one million units on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
According to the National.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Association Realtors, sales year over a year aren't up one
point seven percent year over year. Now, we had that
story yesterday, and remember I was talking about that that
you know that what is the story was like fifty
three percent of homes in the United States have lost
value over the last year, and you know, it made
(18:45):
it seem like this was something drastic, that we were
in some sort of a housing crisis like we were
back in two thousand and eight that really didn't resolve
itself during the Great Recession until about twenty twelve. But
this is a correction, as they've been talking about, a
return to normalization. Because when you're in these hot markets
(19:06):
like Orlando, Tampa, a lot of cities in the South
and in some of the more resort areas, that's where
a lot of people flock to during the pandemic. Because
if they were working from home again, still getting a paycheck. Basically,
if you're allowed to work from home and you're not
going to be called back in the office, you can
work from anywhere. And so people were choosing to move
(19:30):
and to buy homes in these areas, which when you
flock to a particular area, when a lot of people
go in, the demand goes up and the supply may
not be there, so that would increase those home prices.
And so now what we're seeing is kind of a
leveling off of that and kind of pulling back down.
But the number of people in that report that they
talked what we talked about yesterday and covered very well
(19:52):
on this program, I might add, is the fact that
very few people are actually underwater, that their home is
now value less than what their mortgage was is. And
that's one of the problems we saw during the Great Recession,
where home values in some areas, even in my area
in northern Kentucky actually dropped, of course the board about
(20:12):
forty percent. So people that had bought homes within the
last for the couple of years before that actually found
themselves underwater. Fortunately, the banks looked at that and said, well,
you know, normally what we'd have to do is we'd
have to ask for more equity or pay more down
and people would not be able to stay in that house.
But so many people were in that situation, so I
(20:36):
think they well pretty much at the time, they did
it on a case by case basis. If people were
making their mortgages, they weren't likely to ask for more money,
realizing that the thing would eventually turn around and the
values would come back. So again, there's very few homes
at this point in time that are underwater, and so
people you know, just you know. And in that report
(20:57):
also yesterday, we talked about that from the last time,
on average, the number when homes were previously sold to
today are up about sixty seven percent. So what they
pointed out is that if the prices came down two
three four percent, you're still way ahead. If your home
value went up sixty seven percent over that period of time.
(21:20):
Talk a little bit more about this story October. Existing
home sales will see a small gain, but the supply
is dropping. I'm Kevin Gordon. America's truck neckwork seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
Forecast for the Try State and the rest of the country.
In the Try State, overnight Claudie with rain the low
down to forty seven rain continuing Friday, a high fifty eight. Saturday,
mostly claude skies to begin, then gradually becoming sunny, a
high a fifty three sunshine Sunday highs into the upper fifties. Nationally,
heavy rain moving out of the southern plains overnight through Saturday.
Additional heavy rainfall and a thread of flash flooding will
(21:54):
be seen for southern California, western Arizona, and southern Nevada,
along the Gulf Coast, across the over Mississippi Valley and
into the southeast. Record warm temperatures continuing.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Seven hundred wlw IM Kevin Gordon. This is America struck
In Network. We're talking about this story. October. Existing home
sales seed small gain, but supply is dropping. We were
talking about how the home prices are. Sales were up
one point seven percent year over year. The count is
based on home closing, so contracts likely signed in August
(22:30):
and September. While contract signings would not be impacted by
the government shutdown blah blah blah, they go into that
and how it's calculated and so on. During that contract
signing period the average rate on a thirty year fixed
mortgage came down a little bit, but then moved up again.
The popular thirty thirty year rate started August at six
(22:52):
point sixty three percent, fell steadily to six point one
three percent, so a half a percent dropped by mid September,
and then came back up to six point three seven
by the end of the month. According to Mortgage News Daily,
it now stands at three point three six percent. Now,
(23:13):
we've talked about on this program the difference in terms
of a home price if you had a back before
the pandemic, if you had an interest rate below three percent,
what your rate on that would be, what your monthly
payment would be, how much home you could afford that
is changed dramatically by a difference between three percent and
six percent. We've had those numbers on this program. I'll
(23:36):
probably bring that up in the next couple of weeks
again just to remind you. But it is a drastic amount.
And so you know, somebody that's earning a certain level
of money that based on the house that they could
they can buy based on these current interest rates, is
far less than what they could possibly afford. Now, just
I'm just going to off the top of my head,
(23:58):
I think the number was, if you were a right
one hundred and ten thousand dollars earning one hundred and
ten thousand dollars. Based on this statistic that they were
talking about, you could afford a house somewhere in the
neighborhood of three hundred and some thousand dollars. If the
interest rate was down around three percent, you could afford
a house one hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars more.
(24:20):
One hundred and sixty seven thousand more. Plus if you
look at the interest rate on that home of the
average home being sold is around three hundred and fifty
They say that the low end is three hundred thousand
to four hundred thousand, so you pick three hundred and
fifty thousand.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
The rate on that.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Difference between a three percent loan and the current rate
at three point sixty seven percent is about a seven
hundred dollars a month difference in what your mortgage would be. Now,
those are off the top of my head because what
I remember, But you think about how much more you
can do with seven hundred dollars more per month than
paying a mortgage. So when you we see first time
(25:00):
home buyers standing on the sidelines and thinking, gosh, the
affordability isn't there. We can't jump in. All you gotta
do is point to lieon Jerry Powell and the interest
rates that people are paying on mortgages, because when you're
down up there in the six percent range as opposed
to even a five percent, four percent thereabout, the numbers
are asked are just phenomenal. And you can go to
(25:22):
these mortgage calculators, you can go online. There are different plates.
I think bank rate does one, and some of these
other investing tools. You can just go in into a
mortgage calculator and plug in different income levels, how much
percentage down, how much house you can afford, and that,
so you can do that numbers yourself. But it is
it is astonishing. I was shocked when I saw it.
(25:45):
Let's see the inventory for homesale for homes for sale
has also come down after gaining for much of the
year's supply fell one point five to two million units,
down point seven percent from September, although still nearly eleven
percent higher than the year ago. At the current sales pace,
there would be four point four month supplies still on
(26:08):
the market, which probably isn't too bad. That's why sale
prices are still gaining. Medium price on a home sold
in October was four hundred and fifteen two hundred dollars,
an increase of two point one from October of twenty
twenty four and the twenty eighth consecutive month of annual gains.
(26:28):
Daniel Danielle Hale, chief economists at realtor dot com looking ahead,
Home shoppers in today's market face some advantages from following
mortgage rates and seasonally slower competition. At the same time,
the lack of housing affordability continues to be a challenge
keeping home sales at their historically low levels. Homes are
(26:50):
staying on the market longer, at an average of thirty
four days last month compared with twenty nine days in October. Now,
that is not such a bad thing from a buyer's standpoint, obviously,
from a seller standpoint, and in a case where you
have a seller where you see so many times that
(27:10):
they will actually find a home that they want to
buy and they'll go ahead and did on that, or
actually buy the house if they can afford it, and
they still have to sell their house now if they
can't put that in as a contingency that I have
to sell my home first before this loan closes. If
the seller isn't interested in that, then they could be
(27:32):
possibly stuck with two mortgages. But from a buyer's standpoint,
when you get into and I don't know if you
watch any of these shows, but there's all these different
I think it's on HGTV and some of these other shows,
million dollar listings and there's a Beachfront, bargain Hunt and
these type of things. When they start talking about a
(27:53):
tight market, people, you know, the realtor is saying, well,
you know, these homes down here are moving really quick.
You can't wait, you can't hold back and make a decision.
So when somebody is looking at a home, that's when
they go in and they buy something in a hurry
because they're afraid of losing that home to another person
that comes in and puts in a bid on it.
(28:16):
That's bad from the seller stand or from the buyer's standpoint,
because if there's a large competition for there, you may
be hurrying into a decision that may not be right
for you. And if you're paying more for that house,
obviously your mortgage is going to go up. So being
in a situation where homes are on the market for
about a month at least gives you a time to
(28:36):
look at that, look at a couple of other properties,
make the determination which suits better, which better is suited
for your family. So now again from a seller standpoint,
that's not so good. So you know, in any type
of a situation, you know, if you're a buyer or
a seller, it depends on the market. If supply is
low and you're a buyer, then price is going to
(28:58):
be higher than what you expect. But if the demand
is low, then the supply is higher and those prices
will come down and fluctuate. So it depends on what
side of the transaction you're on. First time home buyers
made a comeback in the market, representing thirty two percent
of sales, up from twenty seven percent a year ago,
(29:19):
but not all regions aren't equal, and of course we
see that across the board. Lawrence Yun, a chief economist
for the Realtors, first time home buyers are facing headwinds
in the Northeast due to lack of supply, in the
West because of high home prices, and so again, you know,
it depends on where you live. Sales growth continues to
(29:39):
be strongest in the high end of the market. Homes
priced above one million dollars saw sales up by more
than sixteen percent from a year ago. Those price between
seven hundred and fifty and one million saw a gain
of ten percent. Meanwhile, sales of homes priced between one
hundred thousand and two hundred and fifty thousand were up
(30:00):
just one percent, and homes below one hundred thousand saw
a drop in sales actually of nearly three percent. So
interesting news there from the Home National Association of Realtors
and realtor dot com in the various people that put
into this particular report. There's been there's a lot of
(30:22):
bills now that Congress is back in session. There's a
whole legislative agenda. The Hill Transportation leaders I the Highway
bill that needs to be passed, and we'll get into
that coming up, because there's a lot of stuff that
needs to be done. There's a lot of stuff that's
been sitting out there for a long period of time
(30:43):
that needs to be corrected and needs to be enforced,
and they need to get off their butts and pass it.
We'll be talking about that coming up. I'm Kevin Gordon,
America's truck and Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
You know what your customers are doing right this second,
the exact same thing you are listening to me, which
let's be up.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
This is america Struck a Network seven hundred w W.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I'm and Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
The Hill and transportation leaders are eyeing this highway bill,
and this is some of the stuff that's been delayed
to the government shutdown. I don't know why with the
government shutdown that the legislators still weren't on the job
passing certain pieces of legislation. Okay, they can't agree on
(31:32):
the budget and so on, but some of the other
bills that needed to be passed, why didn't they work
on those? Why weren't they meeting in sessions. Why weren't
they breaking up in the individual groups trying to get
some consensus on some of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It absolutely infuriates me the way they do, the way.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Congress and the Senate act and so let's just get
into this key takeaways in this story. Republicans intend to
wrap up consideration a National Defense Authorization Act before the
end of the year. Yeah, you would think that would
be something that they would want to do by the
end of the year. In fact, probably should have been
done way before this. Transportation Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves
(32:12):
stresses a highway bill that addresses autonomous technology. Again, with
the movement towards autonomous cars, autonomous trucks, even autonomous planes,
for God's sake, the legislation that needs to be put
in a place to kind of catch up with that
technology and regulate that technology is something that shouldn't be
(32:33):
played with and should be dealt with considerably. The House
Transportation Appropriations Bill would also try to provide two hundred
million dollars for truck parking expansion projects. Two hundred million.
There's far more of a need than that than anything else.
And the thing that I keep bringing up is the
(32:55):
fact that you know, back in the day, let's not
forget in nineteen fifty six when Dwight Eisenhower put forth
the Highway trans basically the Highway Bill. At that point
in time, this was based. Okay, let's give you a
little bit of history lesson here. Dwight Eisenhower was the
Commander in Chief or the Allied commander of the Allied
(33:18):
Forces in Europe during World War Two. Okay, he saw
in Germany how the Audubon worked, how the German troops
were able to go across this basically what they called
the Audubon, but which is basically a freeway from one
end of the country to the other in a matter
of hours and in terms of days. Going back in
(33:38):
Dwight Eisenhower's history, back when he was a lieutenant colonel,
I believe, back after World War One, back in nineteen
twenty twenty one, just to test to see, because that
was when transportation was coming into full force with cars, automobiles, trucks,
and so on. They wanted to see how long it
would take for a convoy to get from Washington, d c.
(34:01):
All the way to the other side of the country
and over that because there were no roads, there were
dirt roads, gravel roads, all kinds of horrible conditions. It
took them, I believe, if memory serves me correct, almost
a month to get there. A month to get from
one end of the country to the other. When he
became president, recognizing the need during the Cold War to
(34:24):
be able to move troops from one end of the
country to the other, he developed this nineteen fifty six
National Highway Transportation and Defense Defense Highway Act. So as
part of the defense budget, ninety percent of what was
spent or what was the cost of building the interstate
(34:46):
highway system, ninety percent of that was paid for by
the federal government recognizing the need of this for defense purposes. Now,
of course, they didn't want to freak everybody out and said, well,
you know, we've got to be able to move troops
because we're going to go to war with with you know,
with Russia, the uss R and all this sort of stuff. No,
they said, you know, they passed it off as a
(35:06):
highway transportation. But the byproduct of that is is the
fact that we're able to as tourists, as going on vacation,
able to travel to distant places over a matter of
a couple of days instead of taking the entire week
to get there, spend a week and then or spend
a couple of days and then come back. So, plus
(35:27):
the fact that's the result of that, we now have
you know, fresh seafood into the middle of the country.
We have citrus coming up from Florida and from other
places that don't rot on the way. And so the
benefits of this, and the government saw this as you know,
a necessity, and so as a part of that, they
paid ninety percent of that. Now, why the Transportation Highway
(35:49):
Act and some of the Infrastructure Bill isn't part of
the defense budget so to speak. Why that hasn't been
kept in the place is beyond beyond my comprehension. Because
it is still a vital importance to the movement of troops,
and so if it is still important for troops, then
(36:09):
some of the money out of that should come into
the infrastructure for that. So again giving me a little
bit of a history lesson there, But the Transportation Infrastructure Committee,
and when they're talking about two hundred million dollars for
rest areas, that's.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Not going to do much.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
I mean, I think typical cost of some of these
rest areas and stuff along the highways. I know Ohio
has been amping up some of their and remodeling. They're
not adding it. Well, they're adding some truck spaces, they're
truck parking, but they're upgrading their systems or their travel
centers for tourists and stuff. But I think most of
those projects, each one of those is about six million apiece,
(36:50):
So you can eat up two hundred million dollars in
the transportation budget. Nothing flat in terms of trying to
build and to expand these different rest areas.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Transformation Appreciation Bill.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Again would provide two hundred million for truck parking and
expansion projects. Now one of the things and it still
bothers me that this is still hanging out there. This
is now we have talked about this.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Well.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
I'm into my fourth year of doing America's truck and network,
and right off the bat, one of the things that
we were talking about were not only the speed liminers
and stuff along those lines, but there's they were.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
The attempt was to.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Eliminate AM radios out of cars, and a lot of
that had to do with the electric vehicles that were
being manufactured, the fact that the radio waves of the
radio interfered with the operation and the clean operation of
the battery. Also the battery added a little bit of
problem to the static of the of the vehicle or
to the radio. And so rather than doing the quick
(37:52):
fix and it was a very cheap fix that could
be done and can do that, rather than doing it,
just started eliminating it out of the cars, and a
bill before Congress, and this has been there for a
couple of years now AM radio for every car. New
nationwide study Critical Mass Insights showed overwhelming consumer support for
keeping AMFM radio built into vehicles, reinforcing radio's continued role
(38:18):
as a core in car feature. The research finds that
ninety six percent of Americans consider AMFM access important when
purchasing a new car, while ninety eight percent says it's
important that the radio be easy to locate on a
vehicle's dashboard for infertainment system. Now, during times of emergency,
(38:40):
when the electric goes down, one of the best way
of transporting or transmitting the actual emergency alerts and so
on is by is via AM radio, and so if
that's not available, then critical information having to do with
emergencies is not going to be transmitted, and so the
importance of having this in vehicles is extremely important. Findings
(39:04):
cut across all demographics, with adults eighteen to seventy four
broadly agreeing on radio's relevance. Even among those who don't
regularly listen to amr FM, roughly nine and ten say
radio access is crucial in situations where they may need
it the most. That includes severe weather, natural disasters, major emergencies,
(39:25):
or man made tragedies scenarios where ninety seven percent say
having live local radio available is vital.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So this has been part of the well.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
These the bills that are involved here, there is a
bill in the Senate and in the House. The Senate
bill is three three fifteen and the House bill is
three something and whereas that House built nine seventy four,
So you got a Senate bill three fifteen and a
(39:59):
House resolution in nine seventy four. And I would encourage
you that if this is important to you, and it
should be, call your congressman. Call and it's very easy
to do. You can call that switchboard, the Congressional Hotline
or Congressional switchboard, and they're very friendly. It's not going
to put you on anybody's radar screen. They're not going
(40:19):
to be haranguing you for you know, talking to the
government or something along those lines. You can leave a
message for your senator or congressman and it's very easy.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
You call the phone number.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
You tell them where you live, tell them what area
you live in, because that'll tell them who your congressman in.
Just by the state you're in, they'll know which two
senators are your senators, and then they can tell you
who your congressman is, and then very politely, you can
leave a message for all three and say I would
like them to push this bill, these two bills, the
(40:53):
bill before the House and the House and build before
the Senate and basically talk about what it is is
the AM rate radio for every car. That's basically the
terminology for those bill and the phone number is two
zero two two two four three one two one. Again,
that's two zero two two two four three one two one.
(41:18):
Let them know what you think about this, tell them
that you find it important that radios stay in cars
and that it be mandated and that it is available
again because of national emergencies or not. The House again,
the House bill is nine seventy nine and the Senate
bill is three fifteen. So just call that number. They're
(41:40):
very friendly. It's perhaps actually I've used it several times
and quite honestly, it's one of the few things that's
enjoyable and when dealing with the federal government, they're very polite,
very friendly, and it'll get your message into the mailbox
or the voicemail of your particular congressman or senators.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Well, folks, that does it for us.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
We're up against clock here stay two un for red
Eye Radio a top the hour. And by the way,
if you miss any part of our program, make sure
you hit up that iHeartRadio app brought to you buyer
friends at Rush Truck Centers. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking
Network seven hundred WLW
This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome aboard.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Thanks for tuning in on this Friday morning. Who says
nothing good happens after midnight? Obviously they've not been listening
to America's Trucking Network. Triple A is out with their
predictions for the holiday travel time. Triple A projects at
eighty one point eight million people will travel at least
(00:36):
fifty miles from home over the Thanksgiving holiday period, which
runs from Tuesday November twenty fifth to Monday, December the first.
This year's domestic travel forecast includes an additional one point
six million travelers compared to last Thanksgiving. That's up two percent,
So apparently the economy isn't doing as rotten as the
(00:58):
spoon federcgurgitators and mainstream media would like us to believe.
Setting a new overall record, Thanksgiving is the single biggest
holiday for travel compared to other others like Memorial Day
or July fourth. According to Stacy Barber, vice president of
Triple A Travel, Thanksgiving travel numbers are always impressive because
(01:22):
this holiday has become synonymous with heading out of town
to spend time with loved ones. People are willing to
brave the crowds and make last minute adjustments to their
plans to make lifelong memories, whether it's visiting extended family
or meeting up with friends.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Now, Hollywood and.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
The people there and some of the shows are always
trying to make it seem that this is a time
of confrontation, this is the time of where families don't
get along. There's a commercial running that just absolutely bugs me.
And it's a scene of this young girl poking her
(02:01):
head in the door, opening the door and she hears
the family members. I wonder who Jackie or whatever her
name is, is dating now, And she gets this look
on her face. She shuts the door behind her, and
then she texts her mom, sorry, flight delayed? Can you
set aside a plate for me?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So she would.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Rather not spend time or bond memories with family members
simply because somebody may ask her if she's dating anybody.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I mean, it is a.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Horrible commercial and a terrible precedent. And then I don't
even quite honestly, I don't even know what the commercial
is trying to sell. It's just so irritating to see that.
And when you see these commercials where just you know,
in any type of a show they're trying to show
you put Now. Of course, over the last couple of years,
we have heard people say, and especially the people with
(02:50):
Trump derangement syndrome, they say, I can't even deal with
my family members. I just am so irritated if I
find out that they voted for Trump and so on.
What You're the one with the problem, not the other
family members. Most people don't live in this bubble of
irritation they deal with. You don't see us on the
conservative side saying during the Biden administration and during the
(03:15):
Obama administration that anybody that voted for them, I'm not
going to associate with them and so on. It's just,
you know, let it go for a twenty four hour
period of time, spend time. These are the people that
are relatives, they're supposed to be your family. Let it
go for a couple and you know, all these this
(03:35):
bickering and stuff that you hear that people talk about
over Thanksgiving is just absolutely ridiculous. It just basically shows
sometimes the immaturity level of certain people, and the people
that participate in that or the people that started those
are the people with the problem. Thanksgiving Travelers by mode
of transportation by car. TRIPAA projection at least seventy three
(03:57):
million people will travel by car. That's nearly nine twenty
percent of the Thanksgiving travelers. An additional one point three
million people on the road compared to last year. Now
again that's up two percent. Again, overall travel is up,
a number of people traveling is up two percent, and
buy car is going to be up by two percent.
A warning to all you four wheelers out there that
(04:19):
are going to be on the highway, remember that when
you're out driving and you see eighteen wheelers out on
the road as you are traveling between November twenty fifth
and December the first when you see these trucks out
on the road and if they're passing somebody, you know,
if they're passing another truck and it takes maybe a
mile or so before you can get around them. Have
(04:42):
some patients realize the fact that you're out having fun,
You're on.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Your way to visit relatives. They are on the job.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
They are on their way to the stores delivering the
stuff so that you can have your Thanksgiving celebration, and
so that on Black Friday, the Storre's shelves will be
full and the stuff that you can buy. Also, they
are in the process of transporting the various goods and
services for everything, the goods that are going to be
(05:12):
there for Cyber Monday, that Monday after Thanksgiving. So realize
that they are not home with their families, they are
not enjoying the Thanksgiving holidays because they're out on the
road making your Thanksgiving and your holiday possible.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Again.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Seventy two percent of everything out on the shelves is
brought to you by a truck. And when you add
into consideration that all the other items that may not
necessarily be delivered by a truck, somewhere along the line,
almost one hundred percent of everything you touch has been
has touched a truck. And when you take into consideration,
as was pointed out to me at match this past March,
(05:51):
that you don't realize the number of other things other
than what's on the shelf. The sheets, the medicine, the
stuff that's all at the hospital are there are brought
by a truck. When you look at the supplies, the
cleaning supplies and stuff, the janitorial stuff for office buildings,
for that kind of stuff that's not on the retail shelves,
(06:15):
but that has been brought to the location or to
the warehouse the wholesaler buy a truck. So when you
add all that in, there is a ton of stuff
mop more than tons and tons of stuff that has
brought to you by a truck. So have a little
bit of respect. Realize that a truck has a longer
stopping capability or capacity than what you have. You can
(06:39):
on in a car can pretty much stop on a
drunk dime. A truck hauling a large load takes a
long period of time for them to stop. And if
you notice out on the highways that you're in traffic
and things are slowed down, there's generally a lot of
space between the truck and the car in front of them,
(07:00):
and people have a tendency of cutting in there. I'm
kind of a mixed on this because if you're at
a slow speed, that's not a big deal. But if
you're on the highway and you're traveling at sixty miles
an hour and there's not much room between the truck
and you're trying to cut in between them, you're asking
for trouble because if something slows down, the truck is
(07:23):
not going to have enough space to stop.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And stay out of their blind spots.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Just kind of a little bit of word of caution
there again, looking at this travel survey from TRIPAA and
some of the stuff that they're talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Let's see, let's go through some of this stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Here a warning in here that thirty five percent of
all fatalities in crashes involving alcohol or all other fatalities
occur over the Thanksgiving week, So thirty five percent of
all traffic fatalities in the United States happened during that period.
(08:00):
Take your time, be cautious, take it a little slower.
You don't have to set the land speed record from
one destination to another. Be safe out on the highway
and get there safely. You don't want that as part
of the people thinking about Thanksgiving for the rest of
their lives. Oh that's the week that so and so
(08:21):
died because they were out on the highway. Airfare they're
talking about six million people will be traveling.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Now.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
My rule of thumb is that if your travel destination
is more or less than five hours by car, in
my opinion, I would much rather drive because by the
time you take into consideration, you have to factor this in,
you know, just add it up however long it takes
you to drive from your house to the airport. They
(08:47):
suggest you get to the airport two hours ahead of time,
which gives you time to check your bags, get into
the terminal, do your boarding pass, and of course you
can do your boarding pass ahead of time. You can
actually print that out at home and hopefully it will
work there at the airport. But then, of course, the
flight time, depending upon where you're going. Flight times to Chicago,
(09:07):
I think from Cincinnati is something like an hour and
fifteen minutes. Down in Nashville's about an hour, So you
got to figure the in your factor in the flight time.
Then once you get to the airport, getting your bags,
getting off the plane, finding an uber or getting to
where you've got your car rental, and then getting in
the car, and then the travel time from the airport
(09:27):
to your actual destination.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Plus you have the flexibility.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Once you're there is that you have a car at
your disposal if you want to go make some trips
and do a road trip or drive around the area
and see the sights and that type of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So rule the thumb.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
If it's less than five hours, I'd much prefer to drive.
So that's my two cents worth. Oh, I can't do
that anymore because we're running out of pennies. I'm Kevin Gordon,
America's truck In Network, seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
I love.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
This is the reathing report on America's Trucking Network on
seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Looking at head to the racing weekend, Formula One holds
the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday, Lando Norris has
three hundred and ninety points and leads the battle for
the world championship with three races to go.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Obviously, always trying to win. It's always sweeter when you
end up on the podium where you can win the race.
It's it's always a better feeling because that's what that's
what we'll want. So it's been a good few races
recently and it's it is hard at times, I think
when when you're fighting and you're in the position that
we're in at the moment as a team, you know,
between Oscar and myself to sometimes like step back and
(10:32):
realize what you're you're doing.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
In second place in the standings as Norris as McLaren
teammate Oscar Piastre, he is twenty four points back.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
You know my expectation and for myself is to try
and perform at the same level, but that's not always
a guarantee, and I know that it can also just
change very quickly. You know, whether it's because you get
unlucky or whether you're not performing at the perfect level
and the guys I'm up against can perform at the
high level. Things can change for eas at least, never
(11:03):
the nicest feeling to see your lead disappear.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Reigning world champion Max vers staff and trails Norris by
forty nine points in third place in a situation he
is not used to.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
I mean, it's a lot of points, so I'm not
really thinking about it too much because there's also not
much that I can do.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
We need a lot of luck now till the end.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
To even have an opportunity, so I personally, I don't
think about that.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I do this.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
He is the breathing reward on America's Druging Network on
seven hundred WLW, Everybody have a Safe and Happy Weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Sag Dennison a t N.
Speaker 7 (11:40):
A decade ago, I was on the trail of one
of the country's most elusive serial killers, but it wasn't
until twenty twenty three when he was finally caught WLW.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Well, now that the government shutdown, this is over.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
The Bureau of Labor Statistics are out with their initial
jobless claims. This is the first time in what about
six seven weeks, But anyway, during the period of the shutdown,
the forty three days shutdown, so divide that, well, it's
about seven weeks, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So the seven weeks we've been out with this out,
we have not had this report, is what I am
trying to say. Number of Americans finally for new applications
for unemployment benefits fell last week, but more out of
the work. Wait a minute, but more out of work.
People are struggling to find new opportunities amid a week hiring. Again,
(12:28):
we're still in that phase of no hire, no fire situation,
so people aren't getting fired at a regular basis, and
they're not hiring employees again because Lion Jerry Powell and
the Federal Reserve are not really lowering interest rates and
it's cost too much to expand businesses, and people are
(12:48):
in a wait and see situation to see how things
are going to be going. As far as you know,
any type of expansion. The sales numbers are good, the
traffic flow is good, all the other economic numbers are good.
It's just this wait and see situation and businesses wanting
to expand and wanting to get their business stronger. Initial
claims for state unemployment benefits dropped eight thousand to a
(13:11):
seasonally adjusted two hundred and twenty thousand for the week
ended November fifteenth, Labor Department set on Thursday. The Labor
Department resumed publishing the weekly claims reporting following the end
of the forty three day record setting government shutdown. Economists
polled by Reuters had forecasts that the unemployment rate would
(13:32):
be two hundred and thirty thousand, so they missed that
by about ten thousand. And you know, every time I
hear the phrase economists always reminds me an economist is
an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he
predicted yesterday didn't happen today.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
And that's so true when.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
We see some of these reports coming out of some
of the reports from economists that are so far off.
But again, Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday, the
data collected period established and household surveys would be extended.
The extra processing time added BLS canceled the October unemployment number.
(14:12):
So whether the unemployment number went up from four point
three or four point two percent, where that unemployment number is,
we don't know that for October, and we won't know
that until next month. Let's see the longest let me
see where.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Was I here?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Bureau Labor Statistics said on Wednesday, repeat that comment that
the data collection period for the establishment of the household
surveys would be extended the extra processing time added. BLS
canceled October's unemployment report because the longest shutdown in history
prevented data collection for the household survey from which the
unemployment rate is calculated. October's non FORIGM payroll data will
(14:53):
be released together with November's employment report on December sixteenth.
The unemployed a rate for October will.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Never be known.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Okay, you know what it was in September, You're gonna
know what it was in November. So October, there were
predictions from various organizations that I think it was the
Saint Louis FED came up with a number some of
these other economists with the either Goldman Sachs or JP
Morgan or some of these other companies have come up
(15:27):
with they thought was the unemployment rate, and they said
it was around four point three. I saw one that
said it may have been four point four. But you know,
you look at the weekly jobless rate and the weekly
job weekly jobless claims have not gone up considerably. They
have actually willed this past week actually fell So if
(15:49):
you're not having large swaths of unemployment on a weekly basis,
chances are you're not going to have a large unemployment
number over a period of time or for that particular month.
There have been no large scale layoffs, especially reflected in there.
And remember the story we were talking about the other day,
(16:10):
and there was a key paragraph in there. They said,
when you look at some of these reports from so
called experts, they are not shown over the years to
be very reliable. Concentrate on the current month, current data available,
and that will be a better gauge. And again, if
you look at the unemployment of the initial jobless claims,
(16:31):
which have been between two hundred and ten thousand and
up to two hundred and fifty thousand over a couple
of years now actually the last year and a half thereabouts,
at two hundred and twenty thousand. We are right smack
dab in the middle of that good range there, two
hundred and ten actually to the lower end two hundred
ten to two hundred and fifty thousand, so where people
(16:54):
are thinking, oh, well, you know, we will never know
what the unemployment rate for October was. The number of
people receiving unemployment benefits after an initial a week of
aid by a proxy for hiring increase twenty eight thousand
to a seasonally adjusted one point nine seven four million
during the week, again not up very high. What will
(17:17):
matter then is the labor participation rate. How many people
have dropped out of the market. There are some people
people in middle aged that may be retiring, so they
are not part of the unemployment figures. Other people that
just stop looking for whatever reason. I don't know what
they're living off of. But again, it's a situation where
(17:40):
you're not seeing these major fluctuations, so you shouldn't expect
to see that unemployment go up very substantially, and so
this handwringing that we won't know what that number is
for October is kind of ridiculous. October existing home sales
see a small gain, but supply is dropping that's kind
of interesting. Improving mortgage rates at the end of the
(18:03):
summer boosted home sales, but that gain, like may be
short lived. Sales of previous previously owned homes in October
rose one point two percent from September to four point
one million units on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
According to the National.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Association Realtors, sales year over a year aren't up one
point seven percent year over year. Now, we had that
story yesterday, and remember I was talking about that that
you know that what is the story was like fifty
three percent of homes in the United States have lost
value over the last year, and you know, it made
(18:45):
it seem like this was something drastic, that we were
in some sort of a housing crisis like we were
back in two thousand and eight that really didn't resolve
itself during the Great Recession until about twenty twelve. But
this is a correction, as they've been talking about, a
return to normalization. Because when you're in these hot markets
(19:06):
like Orlando, Tampa, a lot of cities in the South
and in some of the more resort areas, that's where
a lot of people flock to during the pandemic. Because
if they were working from home again, still getting a paycheck. Basically,
if you're allowed to work from home and you're not
going to be called back in the office, you can
work from anywhere. And so people were choosing to move
(19:30):
and to buy homes in these areas, which when you
flock to a particular area, when a lot of people
go in, the demand goes up and the supply may
not be there, so that would increase those home prices.
And so now what we're seeing is kind of a
leveling off of that and kind of pulling back down.
But the number of people in that report that they
talked what we talked about yesterday and covered very well
(19:52):
on this program, I might add, is the fact that
very few people are actually underwater, that their home is
now value less than what their mortgage was is. And
that's one of the problems we saw during the Great Recession,
where home values in some areas, even in my area
in northern Kentucky actually dropped, of course the board about
(20:12):
forty percent. So people that had bought homes within the
last for the couple of years before that actually found
themselves underwater. Fortunately, the banks looked at that and said, well,
you know, normally what we'd have to do is we'd
have to ask for more equity or pay more down
and people would not be able to stay in that house.
But so many people were in that situation, so I
(20:36):
think they well pretty much at the time, they did
it on a case by case basis. If people were
making their mortgages, they weren't likely to ask for more money,
realizing that the thing would eventually turn around and the
values would come back. So again, there's very few homes
at this point in time that are underwater, and so
people you know, just you know. And in that report
(20:57):
also yesterday, we talked about that from the last time,
on average, the number when homes were previously sold to
today are up about sixty seven percent. So what they
pointed out is that if the prices came down two
three four percent, you're still way ahead. If your home
value went up sixty seven percent over that period of time.
(21:20):
Talk a little bit more about this story October. Existing
home sales will see a small gain, but the supply
is dropping. I'm Kevin Gordon. America's truck neckwork seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
Forecast for the Try State and the rest of the country.
In the Try State, overnight Claudie with rain the low
down to forty seven rain continuing Friday, a high fifty eight. Saturday,
mostly claude skies to begin, then gradually becoming sunny, a
high a fifty three sunshine Sunday highs into the upper fifties. Nationally,
heavy rain moving out of the southern plains overnight through Saturday.
Additional heavy rainfall and a thread of flash flooding will
(21:54):
be seen for southern California, western Arizona, and southern Nevada,
along the Gulf Coast, across the over Mississippi Valley and
into the southeast. Record warm temperatures continuing.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Seven hundred wlw IM Kevin Gordon. This is America struck
In Network. We're talking about this story. October. Existing home
sales seed small gain, but supply is dropping. We were
talking about how the home prices are. Sales were up
one point seven percent year over year. The count is
based on home closing, so contracts likely signed in August
(22:30):
and September. While contract signings would not be impacted by
the government shutdown blah blah blah, they go into that
and how it's calculated and so on. During that contract
signing period the average rate on a thirty year fixed
mortgage came down a little bit, but then moved up again.
The popular thirty thirty year rate started August at six
(22:52):
point sixty three percent, fell steadily to six point one
three percent, so a half a percent dropped by mid September,
and then came back up to six point three seven
by the end of the month. According to Mortgage News Daily,
it now stands at three point three six percent. Now,
(23:13):
we've talked about on this program the difference in terms
of a home price if you had a back before
the pandemic, if you had an interest rate below three percent,
what your rate on that would be, what your monthly
payment would be, how much home you could afford that
is changed dramatically by a difference between three percent and
six percent. We've had those numbers on this program. I'll
(23:36):
probably bring that up in the next couple of weeks
again just to remind you. But it is a drastic amount.
And so you know, somebody that's earning a certain level
of money that based on the house that they could
they can buy based on these current interest rates, is
far less than what they could possibly afford. Now, just
I'm just going to off the top of my head,
(23:58):
I think the number was, if you were a right
one hundred and ten thousand dollars earning one hundred and
ten thousand dollars. Based on this statistic that they were
talking about, you could afford a house somewhere in the
neighborhood of three hundred and some thousand dollars. If the
interest rate was down around three percent, you could afford
a house one hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars more.
(24:20):
One hundred and sixty seven thousand more. Plus if you
look at the interest rate on that home of the
average home being sold is around three hundred and fifty
They say that the low end is three hundred thousand
to four hundred thousand, so you pick three hundred and
fifty thousand.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
The rate on that.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Difference between a three percent loan and the current rate
at three point sixty seven percent is about a seven
hundred dollars a month difference in what your mortgage would be. Now,
those are off the top of my head because what
I remember, But you think about how much more you
can do with seven hundred dollars more per month than
paying a mortgage. So when you we see first time
(25:00):
home buyers standing on the sidelines and thinking, gosh, the
affordability isn't there. We can't jump in. All you gotta
do is point to lieon Jerry Powell and the interest
rates that people are paying on mortgages, because when you're
down up there in the six percent range as opposed
to even a five percent, four percent thereabout, the numbers
are asked are just phenomenal. And you can go to
(25:22):
these mortgage calculators, you can go online. There are different plates.
I think bank rate does one, and some of these
other investing tools. You can just go in into a
mortgage calculator and plug in different income levels, how much
percentage down, how much house you can afford, and that,
so you can do that numbers yourself. But it is
it is astonishing. I was shocked when I saw it.
(25:45):
Let's see the inventory for homesale for homes for sale
has also come down after gaining for much of the
year's supply fell one point five to two million units,
down point seven percent from September, although still nearly eleven
percent higher than the year ago. At the current sales pace,
there would be four point four month supplies still on
(26:08):
the market, which probably isn't too bad. That's why sale
prices are still gaining. Medium price on a home sold
in October was four hundred and fifteen two hundred dollars,
an increase of two point one from October of twenty
twenty four and the twenty eighth consecutive month of annual gains.
(26:28):
Daniel Danielle Hale, chief economists at realtor dot com looking ahead,
Home shoppers in today's market face some advantages from following
mortgage rates and seasonally slower competition. At the same time,
the lack of housing affordability continues to be a challenge
keeping home sales at their historically low levels. Homes are
(26:50):
staying on the market longer, at an average of thirty
four days last month compared with twenty nine days in October. Now,
that is not such a bad thing from a buyer's standpoint, obviously,
from a seller standpoint, and in a case where you
have a seller where you see so many times that
(27:10):
they will actually find a home that they want to
buy and they'll go ahead and did on that, or
actually buy the house if they can afford it, and
they still have to sell their house now if they
can't put that in as a contingency that I have
to sell my home first before this loan closes. If
the seller isn't interested in that, then they could be
(27:32):
possibly stuck with two mortgages. But from a buyer's standpoint,
when you get into and I don't know if you
watch any of these shows, but there's all these different
I think it's on HGTV and some of these other shows,
million dollar listings and there's a Beachfront, bargain Hunt and
these type of things. When they start talking about a
(27:53):
tight market, people, you know, the realtor is saying, well,
you know, these homes down here are moving really quick.
You can't wait, you can't hold back and make a decision.
So when somebody is looking at a home, that's when
they go in and they buy something in a hurry
because they're afraid of losing that home to another person
that comes in and puts in a bid on it.
(28:16):
That's bad from the seller stand or from the buyer's standpoint,
because if there's a large competition for there, you may
be hurrying into a decision that may not be right
for you. And if you're paying more for that house,
obviously your mortgage is going to go up. So being
in a situation where homes are on the market for
about a month at least gives you a time to
(28:36):
look at that, look at a couple of other properties,
make the determination which suits better, which better is suited
for your family. So now again from a seller standpoint,
that's not so good. So you know, in any type
of a situation, you know, if you're a buyer or
a seller, it depends on the market. If supply is
low and you're a buyer, then price is going to
(28:58):
be higher than what you expect. But if the demand
is low, then the supply is higher and those prices
will come down and fluctuate. So it depends on what
side of the transaction you're on. First time home buyers
made a comeback in the market, representing thirty two percent
of sales, up from twenty seven percent a year ago,
(29:19):
but not all regions aren't equal, and of course we
see that across the board. Lawrence Yun, a chief economist
for the Realtors, first time home buyers are facing headwinds
in the Northeast due to lack of supply, in the
West because of high home prices, and so again, you know,
it depends on where you live. Sales growth continues to
(29:39):
be strongest in the high end of the market. Homes
priced above one million dollars saw sales up by more
than sixteen percent from a year ago. Those price between
seven hundred and fifty and one million saw a gain
of ten percent. Meanwhile, sales of homes priced between one
hundred thousand and two hundred and fifty thousand were up
(30:00):
just one percent, and homes below one hundred thousand saw
a drop in sales actually of nearly three percent. So
interesting news there from the Home National Association of Realtors
and realtor dot com in the various people that put
into this particular report. There's been there's a lot of
(30:22):
bills now that Congress is back in session. There's a
whole legislative agenda. The Hill Transportation leaders I the Highway
bill that needs to be passed, and we'll get into
that coming up, because there's a lot of stuff that
needs to be done. There's a lot of stuff that's
been sitting out there for a long period of time
(30:43):
that needs to be corrected and needs to be enforced,
and they need to get off their butts and pass it.
We'll be talking about that coming up. I'm Kevin Gordon,
America's truck and Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
You know what your customers are doing right this second,
the exact same thing you are listening to me, which
let's be up.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
This is america Struck a Network seven hundred w W.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I'm and Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
The Hill and transportation leaders are eyeing this highway bill,
and this is some of the stuff that's been delayed
to the government shutdown. I don't know why with the
government shutdown that the legislators still weren't on the job
passing certain pieces of legislation. Okay, they can't agree on
(31:32):
the budget and so on, but some of the other
bills that needed to be passed, why didn't they work
on those? Why weren't they meeting in sessions. Why weren't
they breaking up in the individual groups trying to get
some consensus on some of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It absolutely infuriates me the way they do, the way.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Congress and the Senate act and so let's just get
into this key takeaways in this story. Republicans intend to
wrap up consideration a National Defense Authorization Act before the
end of the year. Yeah, you would think that would
be something that they would want to do by the
end of the year. In fact, probably should have been
done way before this. Transportation Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves
(32:12):
stresses a highway bill that addresses autonomous technology. Again, with
the movement towards autonomous cars, autonomous trucks, even autonomous planes,
for God's sake, the legislation that needs to be put
in a place to kind of catch up with that
technology and regulate that technology is something that shouldn't be
(32:33):
played with and should be dealt with considerably. The House
Transportation Appropriations Bill would also try to provide two hundred
million dollars for truck parking expansion projects. Two hundred million.
There's far more of a need than that than anything else.
And the thing that I keep bringing up is the
(32:55):
fact that you know, back in the day, let's not
forget in nineteen fifty six when Dwight Eisenhower put forth
the Highway trans basically the Highway Bill. At that point
in time, this was based. Okay, let's give you a
little bit of history lesson here. Dwight Eisenhower was the
Commander in Chief or the Allied commander of the Allied
(33:18):
Forces in Europe during World War Two. Okay, he saw
in Germany how the Audubon worked, how the German troops
were able to go across this basically what they called
the Audubon, but which is basically a freeway from one
end of the country to the other in a matter
of hours and in terms of days. Going back in
(33:38):
Dwight Eisenhower's history, back when he was a lieutenant colonel,
I believe, back after World War One, back in nineteen
twenty twenty one, just to test to see, because that
was when transportation was coming into full force with cars, automobiles, trucks,
and so on. They wanted to see how long it
would take for a convoy to get from Washington, d c.
(34:01):
All the way to the other side of the country
and over that because there were no roads, there were
dirt roads, gravel roads, all kinds of horrible conditions. It
took them, I believe, if memory serves me correct, almost
a month to get there. A month to get from
one end of the country to the other. When he
became president, recognizing the need during the Cold War to
(34:24):
be able to move troops from one end of the
country to the other, he developed this nineteen fifty six
National Highway Transportation and Defense Defense Highway Act. So as
part of the defense budget, ninety percent of what was
spent or what was the cost of building the interstate
(34:46):
highway system, ninety percent of that was paid for by
the federal government recognizing the need of this for defense purposes. Now,
of course, they didn't want to freak everybody out and said, well,
you know, we've got to be able to move troops
because we're going to go to war with with you know,
with Russia, the uss R and all this sort of stuff. No,
they said, you know, they passed it off as a
(35:06):
highway transportation. But the byproduct of that is is the
fact that we're able to as tourists, as going on vacation,
able to travel to distant places over a matter of
a couple of days instead of taking the entire week
to get there, spend a week and then or spend
a couple of days and then come back. So, plus
(35:27):
the fact that's the result of that, we now have
you know, fresh seafood into the middle of the country.
We have citrus coming up from Florida and from other
places that don't rot on the way. And so the
benefits of this, and the government saw this as you know,
a necessity, and so as a part of that, they
paid ninety percent of that. Now, why the Transportation Highway
(35:49):
Act and some of the Infrastructure Bill isn't part of
the defense budget so to speak. Why that hasn't been
kept in the place is beyond beyond my comprehension. Because
it is still a vital importance to the movement of troops,
and so if it is still important for troops, then
(36:09):
some of the money out of that should come into
the infrastructure for that. So again giving me a little
bit of a history lesson there, But the Transportation Infrastructure Committee,
and when they're talking about two hundred million dollars for
rest areas, that's.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Not going to do much.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
I mean, I think typical cost of some of these
rest areas and stuff along the highways. I know Ohio
has been amping up some of their and remodeling. They're
not adding it. Well, they're adding some truck spaces, they're
truck parking, but they're upgrading their systems or their travel
centers for tourists and stuff. But I think most of
those projects, each one of those is about six million apiece,
(36:50):
So you can eat up two hundred million dollars in
the transportation budget. Nothing flat in terms of trying to
build and to expand these different rest areas.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Transformation Appreciation Bill.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Again would provide two hundred million for truck parking and
expansion projects. Now one of the things and it still
bothers me that this is still hanging out there. This
is now we have talked about this.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Well.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
I'm into my fourth year of doing America's truck and network,
and right off the bat, one of the things that
we were talking about were not only the speed liminers
and stuff along those lines, but there's they were.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
The attempt was to.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Eliminate AM radios out of cars, and a lot of
that had to do with the electric vehicles that were
being manufactured, the fact that the radio waves of the
radio interfered with the operation and the clean operation of
the battery. Also the battery added a little bit of
problem to the static of the of the vehicle or
to the radio. And so rather than doing the quick
(37:52):
fix and it was a very cheap fix that could
be done and can do that, rather than doing it,
just started eliminating it out of the cars, and a
bill before Congress, and this has been there for a
couple of years now AM radio for every car. New
nationwide study Critical Mass Insights showed overwhelming consumer support for
keeping AMFM radio built into vehicles, reinforcing radio's continued role
(38:18):
as a core in car feature. The research finds that
ninety six percent of Americans consider AMFM access important when
purchasing a new car, while ninety eight percent says it's
important that the radio be easy to locate on a
vehicle's dashboard for infertainment system. Now, during times of emergency,
(38:40):
when the electric goes down, one of the best way
of transporting or transmitting the actual emergency alerts and so
on is by is via AM radio, and so if
that's not available, then critical information having to do with
emergencies is not going to be transmitted, and so the
importance of having this in vehicles is extremely important. Findings
(39:04):
cut across all demographics, with adults eighteen to seventy four
broadly agreeing on radio's relevance. Even among those who don't
regularly listen to amr FM, roughly nine and ten say
radio access is crucial in situations where they may need
it the most. That includes severe weather, natural disasters, major emergencies,
(39:25):
or man made tragedies scenarios where ninety seven percent say
having live local radio available is vital.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So this has been part of the well.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
These the bills that are involved here, there is a
bill in the Senate and in the House. The Senate
bill is three three fifteen and the House bill is
three something and whereas that House built nine seventy four,
So you got a Senate bill three fifteen and a
(39:59):
House resolution in nine seventy four. And I would encourage
you that if this is important to you, and it
should be, call your congressman. Call and it's very easy
to do. You can call that switchboard, the Congressional Hotline
or Congressional switchboard, and they're very friendly. It's not going
to put you on anybody's radar screen. They're not going
(40:19):
to be haranguing you for you know, talking to the
government or something along those lines. You can leave a
message for your senator or congressman and it's very easy.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
You call the phone number.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
You tell them where you live, tell them what area
you live in, because that'll tell them who your congressman in.
Just by the state you're in, they'll know which two
senators are your senators, and then they can tell you
who your congressman is, and then very politely, you can
leave a message for all three and say I would
like them to push this bill, these two bills, the
(40:53):
bill before the House and the House and build before
the Senate and basically talk about what it is is
the AM rate radio for every car. That's basically the
terminology for those bill and the phone number is two
zero two two two four three one two one. Again,
that's two zero two two two four three one two one.
(41:18):
Let them know what you think about this, tell them
that you find it important that radios stay in cars
and that it be mandated and that it is available
again because of national emergencies or not. The House again,
the House bill is nine seventy nine and the Senate
bill is three fifteen. So just call that number. They're
(41:40):
very friendly. It's perhaps actually I've used it several times
and quite honestly, it's one of the few things that's
enjoyable and when dealing with the federal government, they're very polite,
very friendly, and it'll get your message into the mailbox
or the voicemail of your particular congressman or senators.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Well, folks, that does it for us.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
We're up against clock here stay two un for red
Eye Radio a top the hour. And by the way,
if you miss any part of our program, make sure
you hit up that iHeartRadio app brought to you buyer
friends at Rush Truck Centers. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking
Network seven hundred WLW
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