You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
36th president
John Bailey, a cinematographer who worked on “The Big Chill” and “American Gigolo,” was voted to become the 36th president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars. [Variety]
53 percent
Percent of owner-occupied homes owned by people 55 and older. Baby boomers are holding on to their homes longer and are crowding out others from the market, namely younger Americans trying to own their first property. That figure was only 43 percent a decade ago. Certainly nothing could go wrong in an intergenerational housing fight where one side is holding out for a ridiculously expensive cash-out that the other side can likely never offer. [Bloomberg]
84 percent drop
Chinese capital buying up offshore real estate has been a financial trend in major world cities since 2013. But it’s projected to crash this year. Due to a stronger yuan and domestic initiatives that need funding, Morgan Stanley estimates an 84 percent drop in Chinese overseas direct property investments. [Bloomberg Gadfly]
109 cases
A salmonella outbreak traced back to a southern Mexico papaya farm has sickened at least 109 people in 16 states. [ABC News]
785 touchdowns
Number of touchdown passes last year that were thrown from the right arm of a passer. For a little context, last year there were … 786 total touchdown passes. The left-handed TD pass was on a trick play. This dearth of lefty passers is weird. [FiveThirtyEight]
$1.021 trillion
Current outstanding revolving debt in the U.S., which you can basically think of as “credit card debt” for all intents and purposes. This is a new record, beating out $1.02 trillion in April 2008. Around that time nothing whatsoever notable occurred in the economy, as far as I can recall. [MarketWatch]
If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.