<ul><li><strong>Erratic weather, coupled with a pandemic, has curbed tea production in Assam, which makes for more than half of India’s total tea output.</strong></li><li><strong>The price of tea had hit a record high in 2020 and the average price has risen further this year.</strong></li><li><strong>Branded players like Tata Consumer Products and <keyword id="44863" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="HUL">HUL</keyword> are giving profit margin to stay competitive and to grab market share from smaller players.</strong></li><li><strong>There are over a million people, mostly women, working in tea gardens losing productive days and wages due to the pandemic and inclement weather.</strong></li><li><strong>India is the second largest tea producer after China, and ranks fourth among tea exporting nations after Kenya, Sri Lanka.</strong></li></ul>The price of tea was already at a record high before the weather in Assam got a bit kooky. And that could make tea even more expensive in the days to come. Companies like Tata Consumer Products and Hindustan Unilever (HUL) may pass on the rising cost or chai (Indian tea) lovers may have to curb enthusiasm for their favourite beverage. <br /><br />The average price of tea sold at the auctions in Guwahati (Assam) in 2021 has crossed ₹211 per kilogram and in Coonoor (Tamil Nadu), the average price for the year was more than ₹125 in mid-May. <br /><br /><strong>It was the COVID-19 lockdown last year that scuttled tea production and, this year, it’s the worst drought in decades.</strong><br /><table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 468pt;"><colgroup></colgroup><col /><col /><col /><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;"><strong>Auction market<br /></strong></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;"><strong>Avg price for 2021<br /></strong></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;"><strong>Avg price for 2020</strong><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Guwahati<br /></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹211.75<br /></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹164.42<br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Coonoor<br /></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹125.87<br /></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹114.3<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Source: <a href="https://www.teaauction.gov.in/pages/News.aspx#">Government data</a><br /><br />Manoj Jallan, former chairman of the North Eastern Tea Association (NETA), described the current drought as the worst in 30 years. <br /><br />"Temperature drop from 34 to 19 degrees Centigrade coupled with hardly any sunshine for the last one week, preceded by temperatures above 34 degree Centigrade is playing havoc with the crop," Mrigendra Jalan, advisor to yet another producers’ lobby, Bharatiya Cha Parishad, told IANS, a news agency. <br /><br />All in all, the cup of tea is likely to get more expensive in the near future. This is because Assam and West Bengal produce more than 80% of all the tea in India (the world’s second largest producer after China).<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="state tea output" msid="82792455" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Graphics by Business Insider India.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />Business is not entirely bad for the companies. Tata Consumer Products, which sells Tata Tea among other brands, saw the beverage segment (including coffee) grow 59.6% by revenue, and 23% by volume, in Jan-March 2021. Tea consumption in India was already on the rise before work-from-home, forced by the pandemic, allowed people to have more cuppas each day.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="tea demand" msid="82792499" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;This a picture of the rising tea demand in India before the pandemic struck. The pace of growth has been better in the last year. &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />However, overall operating profit margin for the company shrank nearly 10% and the primary contributor was the rising cost of buying tea from the estates. Hiking retail prices, cutting employee cost and marketing spends was not enough to protect the bottom line from shrinking.<br /><br />But that’s just the story of the three months ending March 2021. The business has been booming for Tata Consumer Products, whose revenue has grown 1.6 times and net profit is up nearly two and a half times over the last three financial years.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="tcpl financials" msid="82792549" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The compounded annual growth rate for Tata Consumer Products in the last three financial years is 10.9% for revenue, and 19.7% for profit, according to ICICI Securities report  dated May 10. &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> <br />The tea sellers at <keyword id="6355725" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="tata-group">Tata Group</keyword> and HUL are using this period to remain competitive and capture as much of the market as possible. There are many Indians who still prefer cheaper unbranded suppliers. The unorganised market is estimated at ₹9,000 crore a year, by ICICI Securities, compared to the ₹16,500 crore organised segment where Tata Tea has steadily maintained a market share of 20%.<br /><br />So, the current <keyword id="22195" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Inflation">inflation</keyword> in <keyword id="46725" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tea-Prices">tea prices</keyword> could be a bigger jolt for smaller players as well as the million-plus people working in the tea gardens. Several hundred workers in many tea gardens under at least 15 districts have been infected by the <keyword id="1754604" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">Coronavirus</keyword>, IANS reported. The Indian summer is the peak harvest and loss of production may also mean loss of wages along with a rise in cost of healthcare.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:</strong><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/skyroot-aerospace-raises-11-million-in-funding-with-plans-to-have-vikram-1-on-the-launch-pad-by-mid-2022/articleshow/82788901.cms">Skyroot Aerospace raises $11 million in funding with plans to have Vikram-1 on the launch pad by mid-2022</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/cryptocurrency-polygon-founded-by-3-indians-has-touched-13-billion-in-market-cap/articleshow/82770196.cms">Cryptocurrency Polygon, founded by 3 Indians, has touched $13 billion in market cap</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/adani-green-energy-to-acquire-sb-energy-india/articleshow/82759578.cms">Adani Green Energy to acquire SB Energy India, boosting its renewable energy capacity by 4.9GW</a><br />

A cup of regular tea has never been this expensive in India, thanks to kooky weather

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49554012.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /><br />
You don’t need an overflowing bank balance to travel the world. All you need is the will and passion to make it happen.<br />
<br /> It is this very belief that allowed <keyword id="6388414" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Vijayan">Vijayan</keyword>, the 65- year-old tea-seller from Ernakulam, Kerala and his wife Mohana travel 17 countries.<br />
<br /> In a beautiful and heartwarming short film, film-maker <keyword id="3115544" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Hari-M-Mohanan">Hari M. Mohanan</keyword> documents how this couple beat the odds and achieved their lifelong dream of seeing the world.<br />
<br />
“I met Vijayan two years back and he told me about his passion for travelling while we got travelling. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked him ‘Where are you going next?’ He told me, they have plans to visit Argentina in 2020,” recounted Mohanan.<br />
<br /> He added, “It’s not everyday that you hear a man busy making tea in his small tea shop say that. His answer was intrigued me. I was determined to explore the philosophy that was behind the statement. And, once I got to know, I knew in an instant it would inspire millions. And, then <keyword id="1180086" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="invisible-wings">Invisible Wings</keyword> was born.”<br />
<br />
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49554051.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /><br />
<br />
“I want to see the world. That’s my desire. My only desire!” exclaims Vijayan in the film.<br />
<br />
He considers his wife Mohana his greatest strength and with her by his side, he’s managed to visit Egypt, Jordan, London, Paris, Switzerland, Venice, Singapore, Malaysia and America, apart from travelling the various states in the country.<br />
<br />
The question is obvious. How did a tea shop owner accumulate the funds for these trips?<br />
<br />
Vijayan has been running the tiny tea shop, his only source of income, for the past 40 years with the help of his wife.<br />
<br />
With their limited funds, it became increasingly difficult for them to plan trips. They saw only way to keep their passion for travel alive.<br />
<br />
Vijayan would approach the banks for a loan  and then the couple would travel to a foreign destination, come back and work towards repaying the debt for a period of two-three years.<br />
<br />
 Thereafter, the cycle would continue.<br />
<br />
Frequent criticisms by his friends and family members who were of the belief that he should be saving money for his future instead hardly deterred Vijayan.<br />
<br />
His strategy for saving and spending money is fairly simple. They save Rs 300 a day for their tickets and try restricting themselves to 10 dollars or less on picking up some tiny souvenirs from the places they visit. Spending on anything else is a complete no-no.<br />
<br />
There’s a shot in the film where the filmmaker zooms in on the table at the couple’s house that has all their souvenirs on display. In that scene, you’re instantly reminded of the old proverb- if there’s a will, there’s always a way.<br />
<br />
The film is being shared blindly on all social networking sites and is being picked up by websites (Including Mashable) at a lightning speed.<br />
<br />
Even though Mohanan didn’t anticipate such an overwhelming reaction to the film, he knew the story would work.<br />
<br />
“Their story is inspiring, passionate and heartwarming,” he says, but adds “They deserve more.”<br />
<br />
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49554072.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /><br />
<br />
To understand the emotional reach of the film, Mohanan rode a bicycle across South India for about 80 days crossing 3500 kms and managed to reach 150 screens and counting, just days before the online release of the film. (Invisible Wings released on 15<sup>th</sup> October, 2015 on the birthdate of the late APJ Abdul Kalam)<br />
<br />
“Through this movie, I wanted to evoke the latent powers hidden inside people. Hard-work and determination makes anything possible and Vijayan and Mohana are the living examples of that.”<br />
<br />
The most shocking part however is the fact that Mohanan is currently busy finding alternatives to repay the money he borrowed for the production of the movie.<br />
<br />
“Filmmaking is an expensive form of art. My initial plan was to sell the movie to a brand which would take care of the monetary aspect involved with making a film. But, almost everyone I approached wanted to shorten the film to a mere four minutes. That would have been an injustice. I couldn’t do that to them,” he says.<br />
<br />
While the whole world is watching the movie online, I’m trying to raise money to dub the film in various languages so that it can reach an even bigger audience. If you are one of those who like the movie and are in a position to help, do support me.” he concludes.<br />
<br />
The film ends with Vijayan uttering "It's possible. It's possible. It's possible." It seems Mohanan is also following that very principle<br />
 <br />
Have a look at the moving film<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GdDl_YFfhwc" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
You can find Hari M. Mohanan on Twitter. He tweets @harimmohanan<br />
 <br />
 <br />


Meet the tea-seller couple who travelled 17
countries and the film-maker who brought their story to life

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/50f705baeab8ea622d000009-982/170-east-78th-street-duchovny.jpg?maxX=400" border="0" alt="170 East 78th Street Duchovny" width="400" /></div><p class="source"><a href="http://www.stribling.com/properties/3674675#">Stribling &amp; Associates</a></p></div>Despite the couple's split back in 2011, David Duchovny and Tea Leoni's triplex maisonette has been sitting untouched on the Upper East Side — until now.</p>
<p>The property was just <a href="http://www.stribling.com/properties/3674675#" target="_blank">listed by Stribling &amp; Associates</a> for $9.25 million, according to a <a href="http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/01/16/david_duchovny_tea_leoni_list_triplex_maisonette_for_925m.php" target="_blank">Curbed NY report</a>. Though public records reportedly name the seller as "Salvator Trust," Curbed cites <a href="http://www.bergproperties.com/blog/a-quick-look-at-david-duchovny-and-tea-leonis-digs-in-manhattan-couple-paid-6-25m-in-april-2008-for-their-co-op-apartment-on-the-upper-east-side/" target="_blank">an old blog post by Big Time Listings</a> from 2009 that says the now-separated couple are the owners of the unit, which they bought in April 2008 for $6.25 million.</p>
<p>The 170 East 78th Street address was originally three separate artists' studios that were combined into the five-bedroom townhouse that's currently on the market. The pre-war building comes complete with a doorman and garden. It's even pet friendly.</p>

HOUSE OF THE DAY: David Duchovny and Tea Leoni List Their Upper East Side Triplex For $9.25 Million

<p class="enhanced-subtitle">If you don't already own a home, you're going to be screwed for years to come</p><p class="drop-cap">Attempting to time the housing market is a foolish pursuit. Sure, there are heaps of data, forecasts, and market experts who can offer theories on where home prices or borrowing rates are headed. But no amount of tea-leaf reading can spare you from this harsh reality: Homebuying is ultimately a coin toss. If you're very lucky, you buy a home right before prices boom. If you're not so fortunate, you pony up the cash just in time for the bubble to burst.</p><p>While these breaking points are nearly impossible to see in advance, they're often glaring in hindsight. Perhaps the most shocking "before and after" for the housing market in recent memory — the moment when the fortunes of homebuyers diverged, creating what one expert called a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-housing-market-home-prices-first-time-homebuyers-real-estate-2023-1">"housing economy of 'haves' and 'have-nots'"</a> — came in July 2020. That's when it became clear that a wave of house-hungry millennials and space-starved remote workers were turning the housing market's initial pandemic slump into a full-blown frenzy.</p><p>The differences between those who bought homes before and after that turning point are staggering. People who got in before things went haywire were able to dodge skyrocketing home prices, lock in record-low mortgage rates, and stack hundreds of thousands of dollars in home equity over the past few years. Meanwhile, people left on the sidelines have watched their <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-apartment-rent-high-pandemic-big-cities-household-formation-roommates-2023-5">rent costs eat into their down-payment nest eggs</a>, median home prices soar by 30%, mortgage rates shoot back up, and the pool of available homes shrink to the lowest levels in recent history. </p><p>The result is a housing market that's fundamentally out of whack. With each passing month, more millennials, and now Gen Zers, reach the points in their lives where they feel the urge to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-housing-market-home-prices-first-time-homebuyers-real-estate-2023-1">settle down and buy a home</a>. Yet the number of available homes remains shockingly low, especially during what would normally be a busy spring selling season. On the horizon, there's no flood of new homes that could significantly ease the housing crunch. And <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boomers-buying-homes-blocking-millennials-housing-market-real-estate-prices-2023-4">homeowners have little incentive</a> to move, since doing so would mean giving up the comfortably low mortgage rates that guarantee them manageable home payments for decades to come.</p><p>The housing market has changed for good — and with the benefit of time-earned wisdom, we can pinpoint the moment it entered a new era. If July 2020 was the make-or-break moment for the market, we may now be seeing the crystallized "new normal": a fraught landscape defined by a scarcity of available homes, borrowing rates that have sharply rebounded from their historic lows, and homeowners who feel locked in by the deals they scored earlier in the pandemic. Call it the Housing Ice Age.</p><h2><strong>An upside-down housing market</strong></h2><p>While the transformation may have been triggered by a once-in-a-generation public-health emergency, Mike Simonsen, the president of the housing-data firm Altos Research, told me, the seeds of our upside-down housing market were planted over a decade ago. Since the housing crash of 2008, builders' reluctance to add to the supply of homes, combined with a gradually cresting <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-house-home-real-estate-mortgage-rates-rent-debt-boomers-2022-9">wave of millennial first-time buyers</a>, created a combustible scenario.</p><p>"We were already at record-low inventory when we started the pandemic, then the pandemic just accelerated all of these things," Simonsen said.</p><p>Two big things happened during the initial response to the pandemic that launched the housing market past the point of no return. First, borrowing rates hit historic lows as the Federal Reserve attempted to stimulate the economy. This shift allowed more people to get access to mortgages and dramatically reset buyers' expectations in ways that will reverberate for years. Second, demand for homes surged because of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-work-home-house-prices-rent-cost-decline-cheaper-cities-2023-1">widespread adoption of remote work</a> and the sudden urge people felt for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-apartment-rent-high-pandemic-big-cities-household-formation-roommates-2023-5">more space</a>. The chaos pulled forward years of homebuying activity, creating a rush for homes that seriously warped the market. Both factors have propelled competition in the housing market to new heights and made it challenging for would-be buyers to find their footing.</p><iframe title="National Association of Realtor’s Home Affordability Index" id="datawrapper-chart-6809y" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/6809y/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="450"></iframe><p>When that fateful July arrived in the pandemic's first year, homes were selling quicker than they had in any month since the National Association of Realtors began collecting data in 2011, prompting the organization to proclaim a "<a href="https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/economists-outlook/v-shaped-housing-market-recovery-in-july-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">V-shaped housing-market recovery</a>." First-time homebuyers were jumping into the market with gusto, accounting for 34% of home purchases. The median home price in the third quarter of that year jumped to $337,500, up 5% from the previous quarter, kicking off a two-year streak of massive price increases. Fueling this sudden shift was collapsing mortgage rates, which, for the typical 30-year loan, fell below 3% for the first time ever that month.</p><p>"I might say July is the turning point, where you actually saw that sharp increase in demand driven by the low-interest-rate environment and the remote-work phenomenon," Cristian deRitis, the deputy chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told me.</p><p>As the dust settles after a hectic few years, it's becoming clear which of the pandemic distortions are going to stick around as long-term trends. Homebuyers and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/real-estate-agents-realtors-reckoning-housing-market-home-sales-slow-2023-4">real-estate agents</a> who grew accustomed to the market running red hot during the first couple of years of the pandemic are confronting the challenges that come with a much-chillier environment — higher borrowing rates, fewer transactions, and a dearth of homes that ensures competition for listings remains fierce. </p><p>The most striking feature of this new housing market is the historic lack of homes available for sale. Part of this is due to pre-COVID-19 decisions: The hype around income-earning investment homes has over the past decade led to roughly 8 million homes being taken out of the resale market and turned into investment properties, Altos Research estimates. Even still, the severity of the inventory crunch proves something else has shifted.</p><iframe title="The number of homes actively for sale" id="datawrapper-chart-YRw3i" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YRw3i/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="450"></iframe><p>A busy spring selling season, when inventory typically spikes as people gear up to move in the summer, hasn't materialized this year. Typically, you'd expect to see about 1 million single-family homes on the market around this time of year, Simonsen told me — today there are just over 400,000. In March, roughly 30% fewer properties hit the market compared with pre-pandemic norms, Black Knight, a mortgage-software and -data provider, reported. And in April, existing home sales were down a whopping 23% from last year, <a href="https://www.realtor.com/research/existing-home-sales-apr-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Realtor.com</a> found. The number of new listings that hit the market in March and April was essentially on par with the low levels in 2020, when the country was in the throes of the first pandemic restrictions, Danielle Hale, the chief economist at Realtor.com, told me.</p><p>"If you had told us in 2019 or 2018 that we were only going to have a little over half a million homes on the market in April, no one would have believed you," Hale said. "It's so vastly different that it's probably hard for most people to comprehend."</p><p>Many would-be sellers are content to stay put because they've locked in mortgage rates well below what they could get if they got a new loan today. After rates bottomed in late 2021, the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hikes — designed to fight inflation that was caused in part by the housing-market surge — have sent borrowing costs soaring. The typical rate for a 30-year mortgage now stands at around 6.4%, according to Freddie Mac, about the highest levels since the Great Recession. This has kept people from putting their houses on the market and suppressed overall inventory levels. Roughly 86% of US homeowners with mortgages have an interest rate of 5% or lower, while half of all mortgages have an interest rate of 3.5% or lower, well below today's level, according to Black Knight. And roughly three in five homeowners have moved just within the past four years, meaning that even if rates do come down, many mortgage holders will be in no hurry to move, according to data from Redfin. </p><p>"The high-interest-rate environment is locking out a lot of would-be first-time homebuyers. It's just not affordable at these levels for them, given their incomes," deRitis told me. "But even more frustrating, perhaps, is for buyers who are qualified, who even have the cash available — there's just very limited existing home inventory. Even if they want to buy, they just can't."</p><h2><strong>The lucky and unlucky</strong></h2><p>This new Ice Age will have profound effects that are likely to linger for decades. Those who bought homes before the market's turning point have watched their wealth skyrocket over the past several years. As of March, the typical homeowner with a mortgage had about $185,102 in tappable equity — the amount they can borrow against while keeping a 20% stake in their home — according to Black Knight. That's a 54% increase from the same point in 2020. In the two years ending in October, US homeowners gained a whopping $9 trillion in home equity, according to the Federal Reserve.</p><iframe title="Homeowners’ average tappable equity" id="datawrapper-chart-M8HXk" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/M8HXk/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="450"></iframe><p>Renters have seen none of those wealth gains. In fact, they're more burdened by rent than ever before. Last year, the typical American household needed to <a href="https://www.moodys.com/web/en/us/about/insights/data-stories/us-rental-housing-affordability.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fork over more than 30% of its income</a> to rent an average-priced apartment, according to Moody's, the first time since the firm began tracking the data 25 years ago that the rent-to-income ratio crossed that threshold. </p><p>For the people who can wade into the market today, there's ample evidence that they're getting short-changed. In March 2020, $300,000 could have gotten you a roughly 2,000-square-foot home, according to data on average prices per square foot from Realtor.com. Today, that same dollar amount would get you a 1,400-square-foot property. So in just three years, the same amount of money gets a buyer 30% less house. The NAR's housing-affordability index has plummeted since the start of the pandemic, falling from about 180 to just 98 as of March.</p><iframe title="How much house can you get for $300,000?" id="datawrapper-chart-NpSzx" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/NpSzx/4/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="450"></iframe><p>Some aspects of the pandemic-era housing market that once seemed "odd" are increasingly becoming new norms. Buyers are still bidding quickly on the homes they want — more than 20% of homes are going under contract almost immediately, Altos Research found. In 2022, all-cash purchases accounted for more than one-third of all single-family-home and condo sales, a nine-year high, according to Attom Data Solutions, a real-estate-data firm.</p><p>For those who missed out on the past several years of wealth building, the long-term effects could be devastating. We already know that millennials are living with their parents later, delaying typical life milestones such as getting married or having children, and having to wait longer to purchase homes. As a result, they have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-house-home-real-estate-mortgage-rates-rent-debt-boomers-2022-9">less wealth than their predecessors</a> did, even though their earnings have caught up to those of previous generations. The steep rise in mortgage rates last year ensured that there would be a decadeslong gap between those who secured cheap rates earlier in the pandemic and those who will be forced to contend with all kinds of rising housing costs in the coming years. </p><p>"The thing that I think is maybe not changing is the fact that we have people who are in homes now who are locked in for 30 years," Simonsen told me. "If I've got a 30-year mortgage, I don't ever have to sell that house. Those are generational changes."</p><hr /><p><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/james-rodriguez" rel="">James Rodriguez</a> is a senior reporter for Insider.</em></p>

We're entering a brutal new era for the housing market

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b7af08a80eb35532d8b46e9-2400/shutterstock284451122.jpg" border="0" alt="running city" data-mce-source="Daxiao Productions/Shutterstock" /><p class="source"><span>Daxiao Productions/Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/morning-routine">morning routine</a> can be hard to follow on a normal day, let alone while you're traveling.</strong></li><li><strong>Benjamin Spall <a href="https://mymorningroutine.com/">interviewed</a> over 300 people - from authors and athletes to entrepreneurs and executives - and asked how they stick to their morning routine when they <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/travel">travel</a>.</strong></li><li><strong>They shared a few key <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/habits">habits</a> that help them stay productive in the mornings.</strong></li><li><strong>These include: Smartly scheduling, embracing the forced productivity of a hotel room, and recognizing that things don't always go as planned.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p>Sticking to a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/morning-routine">morning routine</a> when traveling for work can feel like an impossible task.</p><p>It's often easier to just go with the flow when we're on the road, but this can lead us to falling out of our regular routine and into some unhealthy <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/habits">habits</a>.</p><p>Over the past five years, I have interviewed <a href="https://mymorningroutine.com/">over three-hundred successful people about their morning routines</a>- including the chairman of the Vanguard Group, Bill McNabb, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and media mogul Arianna Huffington. Along with my co-author, Michael Xander, we just released<a href="http://www.amazon.com/My-Morning-Routine-Successful-Inspired/dp/0735220271/">a book </a>of exclusive interviews with advice on how to create a morning routine of your own.</p><p>One question we always ask when interviewing people about their mornings is if, and how, they stick to their morning routine when traveling.</p><p>We analyzed all the answers we've received, and from these answers, we uncovered some key tips and habits that anyone can do to help keep a successful morning routine while traveling for work.</p><h2>1. Do some smart scheduling before you leave</h2><p>Some of the successful businesspeople we interviewed advocate for scheduling flights around your morning routine, and focusing on getting enough sleep.</p><p>If you know you sleep well on planes, choose to take an overnight flight so you can wake up refreshed in your destination and ready to go.</p><p>If sleeping on planes is something that doesn't come as easy as you would like, choose instead to schedule your flight to land in your destination the evening before, so your sleep and morning the next day aren't affected.</p><p>Peter Balyta, president of education technology at Texas Instruments, who told us he travels a lot, said, "On the road, I make it a point to find time to rest, even in short intervals-especially when I'm working through jet lag."</p><h2>2. Embrace the forced productivity of your hotel room</h2><p>"I find hotels to be a great place for quiet, mindful morning moments, as there is no temptation to clean out the refrigerator or reorganize my desk," said Andy Hayes, a premium tea seller.</p><p>Hotel rooms are great places to get work done, especially if you're traveling alone, because you're less likely to face the same distractions you would at home.</p><h2>3. Come up with a personal travel routine, and stick to it</h2><p>If you travel a lot, try to come up with a standard, personal routine that you always stick to while away. This can be a pared-down version of your at-home routine - where you run on the hotel treadmill instead of around your local park, for example - or a different routine altogether.</p><p>"My schedule is dynamic, so I have to be prepared to adapt. I keep a suitcase packed with thin gym shoes and socks and workout stuff so I can weave that into my schedule when I travel. I'm pretty disciplined about sticking to it," said Kevin Warren, chief commercial officer at Xerox.</p><p>But, with that said…</p><h2>4. Recognize that you're only human</h2><p>While you should try your best to stick to a personal travel routine, you shouldn't beat yourself up if things don't always go as planned.</p><p>Fashion model and cultural activist Cameron Russell said, "I travel a lot for work, so my days are always different. Having a morning routine really means fitting things in around everything else."</p><p>If you skip your morning meditation for a couple days in a row, don't feel like you failed; just get back to it when you return home. And if you can't get your morning workout in when traveling, that's OK. The creator of Bulletproof Coffee, Dave Asprey, told us,"With the stresses of sleep deprivation, airplane travel, new time zones, and not being in complete control of the quality of my food, my body doesn't need the extra stress of vigorous exercise."</p><p>While it's good to try to find the time to fit in your morning routine when traveling, recognizing that you're only human allows you to treat your body with the gentleness it needs.</p><p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://benjaminspall.com/">Benjamin Spall</a>is the co-author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/My-Morning-Routine-Successful-Inspired/dp/0735220271/?tag=insider-safetynet-20">My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired</a>, and the founding editor of <a href="https://mymorningroutine.com/">mymorningroutine.com</a>.</span></em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/black-klansman-cop-infiltrated-kkk-spike-lee-ron-stallworth-2018-8">How a black cop infiltrated the KKK - the true story behind Spike Lee's 'BlacKkKlansman'</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/fQBHXElz-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

I've interviewed hundreds of successful people - here are their 4 best tips for sticking to a morning routine while traveling

The CEO of the world's biggest sneaker marketplace explains how a string of failed startups led to one worth $250 million

<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/537f9252eab8ea5c40a0f9dc-1200-924/narendra-modi-19.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="Narendra Modi" width="480" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui</span></p><p class="caption">Narendra Modi</p></div><p></p></div>The most important change in the world over the past 30 years has been the rise of China. The increase in its average annual GDP per head from around $300 to $6,750 over the period has not just brought previously unimagined prosperity to hundreds of millions of people, but has also remade the world economy and geopolitics.</span></p>
<p>India's GDP per head was the same as China's three decades ago. It is now less than a quarter of the size. Despite a couple of bouts of reform and spurts of growth, India's economy has never achieved the momentum that has dragged much of East Asia out of poverty. The human cost, in terms of frustrated, underemployed, ill-educated, unhealthy, hungry people, has been immense.</p>
<p>Now, for the first time ever, India has a strong government whose priority is growth. Narendra Modi, who leads the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has won a tremendous victory on the strength of promising to make India's economy work.</p>
<p>Although we did not endorse him, because we believe that he has not atoned sufficiently for the massacre of Muslims that took place in Gujarat while he was chief minister, we wish him every success: an Indian growth miracle would be a great thing not just for Indians, but also for the world.</p>
<h3>From lackey to leader</h3>
<p>Government is at the heart of India's failure. The few strong governments India has had--always dominated by the Congress party, a Nehru-Gandhi family fief--have had rotten economic agendas. Reformist politicians--like the outgoing prime minister, Manmohan Singh--have lacked the clout to implement their policies.</p>
<p>That is partly because India is an extraordinarily hard place to govern. Much power is devolved to the states; the fissiparous nature of its polity means that deals have constantly to be done with a vast array of regional and caste-based parties; and a colonial and socialist past has bequeathed India a bureaucracy whose direction is hard to change.</p>
<p>Mr Singh, who was not much more than a Gandhi family retainer, had little chance of doing so. Mr Modi, by contrast, has huge authority, both within his party and in the country. The BJP's victory owes something to good organisation but most to its leader's appeal. Not since Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 has India had such a powerful personality in charge.</p>
<p>Mr Modi has an outright majority--282 of the 543 elected seats in Parliament's lower house. Only Congress has ever won a majority by itself before, and it has not had one for 30 years.</p>
<p>The combination of parliamentary clout and personal power means that Mr Modi has a better chance of getting state governments to go along with him than Mr Singh did. Congress, meanwhile, has been routed, retaining just 44 seats. The joke goes that until last week India had no government; now it has no opposition.</p>
<p>Mr Modi has a mandate for economic reform. Although his core supporters are religious nationalists, steeped in the glories of a Hindu past, it was the votes of the young, urban and educated that won him the election.</p>
<p>They were turned off by Congress's drift and venality, and its preference for welfare handouts over fostering opportunity. They want the chance of self-advancement that Mr Modi, a tea-seller's son, both represents and promises.</p>
<p>His first task is to stabilise a fragile economy. He must clean out the banks (bad loans are preventing a recovery), sort out the government's own finances (chronic deficits are at the root of India's inflation), cut subsidies, widen the tax base and allow the central bank to pursue a tougher anti-inflation policy.</p>
<p>His second task is to create jobs. Labour laws are rigid, land for factories often impossible to acquire at any price, and electricity patchy. Mr Modi must launch sweeping land reforms, crack heads in the misfiring coal and electricity industries and make India more of a single market not just by improving roads, ports and the like, but also by cutting the red tape that Balkanises the economy.</p>
<p>A national sales tax would help here, replacing myriad local levies. Such relatively straightforward steps could make a powerful difference, raising the Indian growth rate by two or even three percentage points from its current 4-5%.</p>
<p>Reaching out to Pakistan would bring economic as well as security benefits. Trade between Pakistan and India is currently negligible, and there is huge scope for growth.</p>
<p>As a leader from the nationalist right, Mr Modi is well placed to bring about a rapprochement, rather as Menachem Begin could make peace between Israel and Egypt. The initial signs are good: Mr Modi has invited Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to his inauguration.</p>
<h3>One rule for all</h3>
<p>There are three main dangers. One is that Mr Modi turns out to be more of a Hindu nationalist than an economic reformer. He has spoken of "bringing everyone along". But while he has already worshipped at the Ganges since his victory, promising to clean up the river sacred to Hindus, he has not brought himself to mention Muslims, who make up 15% of the population.</p>
<p>A second danger is that he is defeated by the country's complexity. His efforts at reform, like all previous reformers' efforts, may be overwhelmed by a combination of politics, bureaucracy and corruption. If that happens, India will be condemned to another generation or two of underachievement.</p>
<p>A third is that Mr Modi's strength will go to his head, and he will rule as an autocrat, not a democrat--as Indira Gandhi did for a while. There are grounds for concern. After years of drift under Congress, some of the country's institutions have rotted. The main police investigator is politically directed, the media can be bought, the central bank, which does not have statutory independence, has been bullied before, and Mr Modi has authoritarian tendencies.</p>
<p>The risks are there, but this is a time for optimism. With a strong government committed to growth and a population hungry for it, India has its best chance of making a break for prosperity since independence.</p>
<p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist.</p>
<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="https://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT01NWJlYjQ0ZjdmNzg0YTg1ZjJmOGYzN2FlYmQ3MDhmMiZub25jZT1jNDg2MzhlNS1hNTlkLTQ1MDUtOTExMy02OTY3ODg0OTFkZDUmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p>

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