Credit-card spending at restaurants and retailers excluding gasoline stations rose 1.5% between August and September. In particular, spending at restaurants and bars rose 2.3%, the data showed, suggesting that customers didn’t let the Delta variant hold them back.
Eviction filings in court were up 8.7% in September from August. But the rate is still low on a historic basis, and, at 36,796 filings, it is roughly half the average September rate pre-pandemic.
The number of workers returning to traditional office space has been edging higher since the week of Labor Day, when an average of 31% of the workforce was back in 10 major cities. The average hit 36% during the week that ended Oct. 8, a new high during the pandemic period.
Hotel data and analytics firm STR is projecting that about 1 billion U.S. hotel rooms will be booked this year, up from 829 million in 2020, but still below the record year of 2019, when guests booked 1.3 billion rooms.
The U.S. trade deficit widened to a record in August as the trade gap in goods and services expanded to $73.3 billion from $70.3 billion in July. The August deficit was slightly larger than the prior record of $73.2 billion in June as imports rose 1.4% in August to $287 billion, also a record high.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures average home prices in major metropolitan areas across the U.S., rose 19.7% in the year that ended in July, the highest annual rate of price growth since the index began in 1987.
Big hotel companies are adding more all-inclusive resorts, betting that the pandemic will boost a business model that encourages guests to stay in one place. These resorts, where customers pay a flat fee that covers their room, food, drinks and other services, have recovered from the shock of the pandemic faster than other types of hotels.
Third-party hotel management companies Benchmark Global Hospitality and Pyramid Hotel Group announced they are merging to create Benchmark Pyramid.