Including temporarily closed hotels, weekly U.S. hotel occupancy was 63%, the highest since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, and weekend occupancy also set a pandemic-era record at 75%.

Blackstone Group Inc. has agreed to buy Home Partners of America Inc., a company that buys and rents single-family homes, in a $6 billion deal that’s a sign Wall Street believes the U.S. housing market is going to stay hot. Home Partners owns more than 17,000 houses throughout the U.S., which it bought, rents out and offers its tenants the chance to eventually buy.

Economists and business executives now expect supply-chain disruptions and key labor shortages to persist through the end of the year.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Sunday screened more than 2 million travelers at airports – the highest number since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.

Shareholders approve Extended Stay America sale to Blackstone and Starwood Capital for $20.50 per paired share. The transaction includes the Extended Stay America brand, management operations and its owned hotel portfolio, which at the close of 2020 comprised 563 properties. The deal is scheduled to close on June 16.

Investors looking to cushion their portfolios against inflation helped real-estate stocks lead the S&P 500 in recent weeks. The real-estate sector, which focuses on companies that rent properties, has gained 14% this quarter, more than double the 6.9% gain of the broader stock index.

The number of employees who are back in the office has been inching up since vaccines began rolling out in the U.S. but only 31% of office workers had returned to the workspaces they occupied before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 2.6 million people who retired since February 2020 was higher during this pandemic recession-recovery than in previous recession-recoveries.

The Baird-STR Hotel Stock Index — comprising 20 of the largest hotel companies publicly traded on a U.S. stock exchange by market capitalization — was down 2.8% from April to May, underperforming the S&P 500 which grew by 0.5% for the month. Year to date as of May 28, the hotel stock index value has grown 12.8%.

Bank deposits have continued to surge this year. Between late March and May 26, they rose by $411 billion to $17.09 trillion. That is slower than the pace last spring, but still nearly four times the average of the past 20 years.