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| New to the newsletter? Subscribe to The Daily Money to get the best consumer and financial news from USA TODAY delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. And give our news-inspired Spotify playlist a listen. It features every song quoted here. |
| Welcome to a new week, Daily Money readers. We finally made it. Jayme Deerwester back with you. This weekend, my dog saw horses – the kind that go to the Olympics – for the first time and didn't have a barking fit (a big equestrian faux pas). And the Energizer Bunny hound walked so much, she was sleepy for a day and a half. I'm gonna call that a win. |
Starter homes on the endangered list |
| The U.S. is having a major affordable housing crisis, especially for those first-time homebuyers or looking to purchase a home ranging from 1,800 to 2,400-square-feet, the typical size of a starter home, according to experts. |
| Homes ranging in price from $100,000 to $250,000, the typical cost for an entry-level home, have seen nearly a 28% decrease in inventory from a year ago, says the National Association of Realtors. |
| It begs the question: Are starter- or entry-level homes on the verge of extinction? |
| "They're not extinct, but they are endangered," said Robert Dietz, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. "It's much harder to find and build homes in smaller quantities in today's market given the demand, space challenges, and potential regulatory burdens. The submarket that's been least supplied has been the entry-level home." |
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| USE GOOGLE CHROME? Then you need to apply this security fix ASAP. |
| CINNAMON TOAST CROCS: These clogs are part of a balanced breakfast. |
Did drug use contribute to labor shortage? |
| The U.S. workforce has yet to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, and researchers are shedding light on one factor that may be contributing to the labor shortage in the U.S.: substance abuse. |
| A rise in drug abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic could account for between 9% to 26% of the decline in labor force participation among people aged 25 to 54 between February 2020 and June 2021, according to a new working paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research. |
| The authors found 25,356 more deaths due to certain drugs between April 2020 and June 2021: |
| • | Opioids: 14,820 | | • | Methamphetamine: 2,702 | | • | Alcohol: 7,835 | |
| "Deaths due to substance abuse were elevated during the pandemic," notes Karen Kopecky, co-author of the paper and an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. "This suggests that substance abuse was elevated." |
| 🎧 Mood music 🎧 |
| I've been rewatching that early '00s gem "Veronica Mars," which referenced the band Staind in one episode. Our story about the role substance abuse may have played in the labor shortage got me to thinking about their journey-to-sobriety song "It's Been a While." |
| "And it's been a while since I could hold my head up high. And it's been a while since I first saw you. And it's been a while since I could stand on my own two feet again." |
| LISTEN WHILE YOU WORK: You can hear just about every song quoted in the newsletter on the Daily Money Mood Music playlist on Spotify. |
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