Veterans Day is an official United States public holiday, observed annually on November 11, that honors military veterans, that is, persons who served in the United States Armed Forces. It coincides with other holidays, including  Armistice Day and  Remembrance Day, celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of  World War I; major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. The United States previously observed Armistice Day. The U.S. holiday was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day; Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day honors those who  died while in military service.

Mortgage rates are cooling off after sharply rising. But expect home prices to start slowing, and even dropping, in some of the most overheated markets in the country over the next couple of years.

With the average on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 5.7%, some would-be buyers are spooked by the higher borrowing costs and are putting their plans on hold. A year ago, the rate was 2.72%.

The hesitation is starting to show up in proprietary data, Rick Palacios Jr., head of research at John Burns Real Estate Consulting, told MarketWatch. The company counts suppliers, builders and buyers (such as hedge funds) among their clients.

“The consensus is most forecasters … are anticipating prices to either flatten and/or go down next year, especially in a lot of these way overheated markets like Boise,” Palacios said.

Expect these declines to manifest more steeply in some parts of the country.

At a national level, he said he expected home prices to decline by mid-single digit percentages over the next two years. 

It’s not just him. Capital Economics’ Matthew Pointon also expects a “small fall” in home prices of around 5% on a year-over-year basis by 2023, he said.

Having looked closely at many of the markets, Palacios expects an even more “meaningful price decline” in some of the popular pandemic destinations.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Palacios highlighted how his research firm saw the rate of change in home prices slow in a hot market like Boise, Idaho, after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates, sending mortgage rates up sharply.

“Boise is the poster child,” Palacios said, and, in his firm’s view, may see a decline in home prices as early as this year.

“Boise is the poster child,” Palacios said, and, in his firm’s view, may see a decline in home prices as early as this year.

Inventory is climbing, too. Realtor.com data from June noted a 18.7% increase in the number of new homes available for buyers — the “fastest yearly pace of all time,” the company said. The biggest jumps in listings were in markets like Raleigh and Charlotte in North Carolina and Nashville on a month-over-month basis.

“The U.S. housing market is at the beginning stages of the most significant contraction in activity since 2006,” Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac, said earlier this month.

The official data is telling a different story, though: The sale of new single-family homes last month, despite the higher mortgage rates, rose by 10.7% compared with the previous month, according to the Commerce Department. 

Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, meaning “Christ‘s Mass“) is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed most commonly on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the  Christian liturgical year, it is prepared for by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night; in some traditions, Christmastide includes an Octave. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world’s nations, is celebrated culturally by a large number of non-Christian people, and is an integral part of the holiday season.

“The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth” (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe

History

Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions after harvests and at other times. The Thanksgiving holiday’s history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.

In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII and in reaction to the large number of religious holidays on the Catholic calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work and sometimes pay for expensive celebrations. The 1536 reforms reduced the number of Church holidays to 27, but some Puritans wished to completely eliminate all Church holidays, including Christmas and Easter. The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting or Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on high called for Days of Fasting. Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving. For example, Days of Fasting were called on account of drought in 1611, floods in 1613, and plagues in 1604 and 1622. Days of Thanksgiving were called following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1705. An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into Guy Fawkes Day.