In case you missed it, the Big Beautiful Bill was initially applauded by the American Society of Travel Advisors for its tax breaks, but the group and other travel industry pros are none too thrilled about the measure’s increase to visitor fees and cuts to Brand USA funding. 

The bill introduces a $250 “visa integrity fee” that would apply to most non-immigrant U.S. visas, including tourist, student and work visas. It also includes an increase from $21 to $40 for the U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) fee. 

Those who obtain the “non-immigrant visa” may be eligible for reimbursement of the fee if specific conditions are met, and the fee does not apply to travelers from Canada or countries including Ireland and Italy that participate in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). 

Numerous Las Vegas-based folks have expressed concern that the fees on international visitors will affect travel at a time the flow of visitors is already down — and ahead of 2026’s FIFA World Cup.  

In May, Las Vegas hosted approximately 3.4 million visitors, down 6.5 percent over last May and down 7.4 percent compared to May 2019, per LVCVA. Hotel occupancy was 83.0 percent for the month, down 3.1 points year-over-year. 

As of May 2025 

Las Vegas “Led” Housing Inventory Spike in Biggest U.S. Metros in June 

At the metro level, the 50 largest housing markets recorded year-over-year inventory growth in June, according to a Realtor.com report. The list of markets that saw the largest increase was topped by the Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas metro: 

• Las Vegas (+77.6 percent) 

• Washington, D.C. (+63.6 percent) 

• Raleigh (+56.4 percent) 

Inventory increased in all four major U.S. regions in June: 



• West (+38.3 percent) 

• South (29.4 percent) 

• Midwest (+21.3 percent) 

• Northeast (+17.6 percent) 

As of June 2025 

All in all, the Northeast has seen the greatest recovery for active listings when compared to average pre-pandemic inventories (2017, 2018 and 2019). 

The Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas metro had 36 percent more active listings in June by that metric, though other metros have even more, including: 

• Denver (+88.1 percent) 

• Austin (+66.2 percent) 

• Seattle (+53.9 percent) 

• Dallas (+52.6 percent)  

• Nashville (+48.6 percent) 

• Tampa (+47 percent) 

• San Francisco (+44.4 percent) 

As of June 2025 

In June, the average home for sale in the U.S. was on the market for 53 day, five days longer than the same time last year. It marked the 15th straight month of homes taking longer to sell on a year-over-year basis.  

As of June 2025 

All four regions saw year-over-year increases in time on market, reflecting broader cooling trends: 

• South: +8 days 

• West: +7 days 

• Northeast: +3 days 

• Midwest: +1 day 

Relative to pre-pandemic norms, all regions but the West are still seeing quicker sales: 

• West: 8 days slower 

• South: 0 (same days as pre-pandemic norm) 

• Midwest: 8 days faster 

• Northeast: 11 days faster 

Among the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, 39 saw for-sale homes sit on the market for longer than last year. The biggest slowdowns were in: 

• Nashville (+20 days) 

• Orlando (+15 days) 

• Miami (+15 days) 

• Tucson (+12 days) 

Realtor.com reported that June active inventory in the U.S. was up 28.9 percent year-over-year, but down 12.9 percent compared to pre-pandemic (2017—2019) levels. 

The total number of unsold homes, including those under contract, was up 20 percent compared to June of last year. It marked the 20th consecutive month of inventory growth, and the second consecutive month with more than 1 million active listings. 

As of June 2025 

Pending home sales—homes under contract—decreased 1.6 percent year-over-year. 

Newly listed homes declined for a second straight month — but were up 6.2 percent year over year, in part because builders are offering attractive buyer incentives as we mentioned earlier this month. 

Price cuts were reported on 20.7 percent of listings—the highest share for any June since at least 2016 and the sixth consecutive month with growing price reductions. 

New listings rose 1.3 percent year over year 

As of June 2025

The national median list price for homes was $440,950, up 0.2 percent since last year, and in line with 2022–24 levels. Median price per square foot increased by 0.7 percent year over year. 

The number of homes active on the market climbed 25.1 percent year over year, a slight decline from the previous week, and the 88th consecutive week of annual gains. 

Economist and Fact Pack co-publisher John Restrepo on the state of affairs: 

The market is cooling for sellers, which Fact Pack readers do not need to be told means a shift toward a buyer-friendly environment. Many news organizations are hyping fears of a housing crash in their headlines, but it’s important to remember that the U.S. saw a strong and sustained seller’s market, including historically low inventory and quick sale times, from 2020 through Spring 2022. Those two factors created seller confidence about asking prices such that average home prices stayed relatively high, even as demand began to noticeably decline in many metros starting in 2023. 

So far, 2025 has seen more price reductions (on a seasonal basis) than any recent year, but 80 percent of sellers held firm in June, a data point supported by the year-over-year price per square foot increase of 0.7 percent and the fact that national median listing prices across the country have been in the in the $440,000 range in the past four June readings. 

AI Retrofits to Construction Machines 

Many construction sites across the country have slowed or stalled because of labor shortages, including a lack of trained workers who can operate heavy machinery. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that in May, there were 245,000 Job openings in the construction industry. 

In related news, San Francisco-based startup Bedrock Robotics announced last week it has raised $80 million to deploy autonomous excavators and bulldozers that will operate with no humans in the cab. The company’s website includes tag lines like “Building at the speed of societal need” and “Construction that never sleeps,” and engineers at its facility retrofit standard heavy equipment with cameras, sensors, and machine-learning (AI) software. The result? Precision navigation even over uneven terrain, unmanned machines that can work for 24 hours straight. 

Safety is another reason we soon may see more AI in the construction industry. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 199 workers were killed by heavy machinery in 2022. On-site risks, including crushing, amputations, and ejections from cabs, were detailed in a 2024 report by industrial injury law firm Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello. 

How Much for the Burger?

First eggs, now beef. As egg prices have decreased since the avian flu was contained, beef prices are at record levels, increasing almost 9 percent since January, per the Department of Agriculture. 

The average pound of beef is retailing for $9.26, and June’s consumer price index showed steak and ground beef prices were up 12.4 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively, over the last year. 

Record-high beef prices have been a decade in the making due to shrinking herds, drought conditions and the rise of imported beef, according to Michael Swanson, chief agriculture economist at Wells Fargo. 

Cattle herd sizes are at their lowest levels in 74 years, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), because cattle ranching is not as profitable as it once was. Margins are “razor thin” thanks to increasing supply costs including feed, according to commentary by AFBF economist Bernt Nelson in a May market report. 

Sustained drought conditions in large portions of U.S. ranchland have dried out pastures, forcing ranchers to rely on more expensive feed for cattle instead of free-grazing grass, per the AFBF. 

Imported beef from countries including Argentina, Australia and Brazil now account for roughly 8 percent of U.S. beef consumption, while exports of beef have slowed — dropping 22 percent in May compared to the year before — according to the AFBF. 

Five -year trend graph based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: 

As of June 2025 

Food Price Outlook 

The increase in beef prices prompted us to check U.S. Department of Agriculture data for more detail as well as for other notable numbers. Highlights: 

• In 2023, food prices increased by 5.8 percent as economy-wide inflationary factors and supply chain issues combined to create market pressure. 

• Food prices rose by 2.3 percent in 2024, helped by cooling labor pressures, lower energy prices, and changes in consumer demand. Food-at-home prices increased by 1.2 percent, lower than their historical average pace of growth, and food-away-from-home prices rose by 4.1 percent, slightly outpacing their historical average. 

• From April 2025 to May 2025, prices increased for 11 food-at-home categories and declined for 4 food-at-home categories. Processed fruits and vegetables, fats and oils, and cereal and bakery products experienced the largest upward price swings while one category—eggs—experienced a substantial price decrease. 

• Retail egg prices decreased in May over the prior month for the second month in a row (-7.5 percent) after dipping 10.5 percent from March to April. That said, egg prices in May 2025 were still 41.5 percent higher than in May 2024.  

• Beef and veal prices increased by 0.4 percent from in May, following increases of 0.7 percent from March to April, 1.6 percent from February to March, and 2.0 percent from January to February. Prices for beef and veal were 8.6 percent higher in May 2025 than in May 2024. Poultry prices rose by 0.5 percent from April 2025 to May 2025. Poultry prices were 2.5 percent higher in May 2025 than in May 2024 and are predicted to increase in 2025 due to strong demand amid higher prices for other animal protein products. Poultry prices are predicted to increase 2.3 percent in 2025, with a prediction interval of 0.4 to 4.2 percent. 

• Prices for sugar and sweets rose by 0.6 percent from April to May after having risen by 0.3 percent from March to April. Prices for sugar and sweets were 4.1 percent higher in May 2025 than in May 2024.  

Good-bye Delaware, Hello Nevada 

Andreessen Horowitz, the $45 billion venture capital giant that backed Airbnb and Coinbase, announced last week that it would reincorporate in Nevada, criticizing Delaware’s business court for creating “legal uncertainty.” 

A departure trend coined “Dexit” began after Delaware judges nixed Elon Musk’s $56 billion Tesla package in early 2024, signaling a change in the court’s view on executive pay. Musk exited and reincorporated Tesla and SpaceX in Texas, and since then eight public firms — including AMC Networks — have voted to reincorporate in Nevada, according to Freshfields.  

Delaware, with a population of just over one million, has long been America’s corporate capital because companies incorporated there but that do not conduct business within state lines do not have to pay Delaware corporate income tax on earnings — along with the absence of a sales tax and capital stock tax. Last year, the state added nearly 290,000 new entities, including a whopping 80 percent of all US IPOs. 

More than 300 S&P 500 companies — worth $39 trillion — remain incorporated in Delaware, according to FactSet, including JP Morgan Chase and McDonald’s. 

Late Night Nix 

One of the big three late night shows will cease to exist after this season — Paramount-owned CBS announced last week that it plans to end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which led viewer ratings in the 11:30 pm late night slot for nearly a decade. 

As of June 2025

Theories abound for why Colbert’s show is being canceled. Nate Silver does a decent job of distilling them without endorsing any, and more will no doubt be said in the weeks ahead.

In a statement, Paramount Global executives said, “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘The Late Show’ franchise at that time” and said the move was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content, or other matters happening at Paramount.” Paramount’s decision followed Colbert criticism of Paramount for settling President Donald Trump‘s defamation lawsuit, calling the $16 million donation to Trump’s future presidential library “a big fat bribe” and noted pending FCC approval for the company’s $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.

Space Race

As a follow up to the USSF Space Plane blurb in last week’s Fact Pack, we sifted through articles on space agencies across the globe and discovered that many countries have recently established space programs, including multiple African nations. 

India and Israel have attempted moon landings while the U.S., EU, and China continue to invest in new commercial and military ventures. Emerging players in space also include companies with commercial interests and nongovernmental organizations with the money and resources to do so. 

It will surprise no one that the U.S. and Chinese programs are allocated far more funding than those in other countries and more frequently launch satellites, but the relative affordability of small satellites called CubeSats have enabled more countries, companies, and institutions to conduct successful space projects. 

A CubeSat in orbit Source: NASA/Butch Wilmore, CC BY-NC 

Efforts are afoot to persuade driving this more inclusive approach to engagement in space, including initiatives like “Dark and Quiet Skies”, which works to ensure that people can stargaze and engage with the stars without noise or sound pollution.  

As the planet grapples with the ethics of space junk, orbits, and manned missions aimed at money-making, it has been suggested that at some point humans will have to start limiting the number of satellites. 

The future is apparently now, though we have not yet “attained” George Orwell’s dystopian world in which totalitarian systems used tele-screens and videoconferencing to control the masses. 

On the Horizon

MarketWatch calendar: 

Data & Dialogue About the Economy



The Fact Pack is a monthly business e-report co-authored by Mike PeQueen of Hightower Las Vegas and John Restrepo of RCG Economics, which combines important metrics relevant to business decision makers and financial commentary on the current issues facing the economy.

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