🚨 401(k) Withdrawals Hit Record Highs
Households feel the squeeze!
One in seventeen Vanguard 401(k) holders pulled emergency money out of retirement last year.
The top reason was avoiding foreclosure.
That same week, mortgage rates crossed below 6% for the first time in years, then reversed 13 basis points in a single session after Iran strikes pushed Treasury yields back above 4%.
Distressed inventory builds quietly in data like this before it ever hits an auction block.
Here is where it is concentrating right now:
In this edition of the AltReports:
🏦 Retirement Accounts Crack
🏠 Sales Freeze Deepens
📈 Rates Whiplash Back
💸 Services Inflation Surges
🏢 CRE Risk Concentrates
Video of the Week: The 401K Housing Trap Nobody Is Talking About
Chart of the Week: 3x more workers raiding their 401(k)
Podcast of the Week: Slow Flips—Finding Cheap Houses for Mailbox Money
Investor Prompt: Score the Seller Before You Score the Deal
Record 6% of Vanguard Retirement Holders Made Hardship Withdrawals in 2025
Vanguard reported that 6% of 401(k) participants took hardship withdrawals last year, up from 4.8% in 2024 and nearly three times the pre-pandemic average of 2%.
Existing Home Sales Hit Lowest Annual Pace Since 1995 as Affordability Resets Take Hold
Realtors are pushing sellers toward lower listing prices as comparable sales drag appraisals downward, with Houston inventory already at all-time highs.
Mortgage Rates Reversed 13 Basis Points in a Single Session After Iran Strikes
The 30-year fixed rate jumped from 5.99% to 6.12% on March 2nd as Iran conflict pushed 10-year Treasury yields back above 4%, erasing a week of declines that had briefly crossed the psychologically important 6% threshold.
Services PPI Running at 10.2% Annualized as Tariff Costs Move Through Supply Chains
Services PPI spiked 10.2% annualized in January while core goods PPI jumped 8.5%, both the worst readings since 2022, with professional and commercial equipment wholesaling alone rising 14.4% month over month.
K-Shaped Economy Concentrating CRE Risk in a Shrinking Number of Asset Classes
Delta Airlines reported premium cabin sales up 9% while main cabin dropped 7%, a dynamic NYU Stern economist Sam Chandan says mirrors the concentration risk now building across commercial real estate.
Paid members: this issue includes an Investor Prompt that turns any public record search into a distress score before a property hits an auction list.