Categoria: Economy

Feds Backstop All Deposits Of Failed Silicon Valley Bank, Second Bay Area Bank Plunges

by Vittorio Ferla 13 Marzo 2023 Comments0

SANTA CLARA — Federal officials moved to insure all deposits at failed Silicon Valley Bank, hoping to inoculate the banking system against contagion, but shares of another Bay Area regional bank plunged on Monday.

Dozens of customers lined up at the doors of the Santa Clara headquarters of the fallen Silicon Valley Bank on Monday to await the opening of the financial firm’s doors. The bank began to allow customers into the bank at 10 a.m.

The move to protect Silicon Valley Bank depositors arose over fears that tech startups might be forced to shut down or furlough employees due to a cash squeeze if their uninsured deposits weren’t available to tap for their ongoing operations — andas well as to ward off runs against other banks with a high percentage of uninsured deposits.

The U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. teamed up to lead the quest against a banking system contagion in the wake of the collapse and takeover by the FDIC of the insolvent Silicon Valley Bank.

“The FDIC today transferred all deposits — both insured and uninsured — and substantially all assets of the former Silicon Valley Bank to a newly created, full-service FDIC-operated ‘bridge bank’ in an action designed to protect all depositors of Silicon Valley Bank,” the FDIC announced Monday.

Signs quickly emerged on Monday, however, that Wall Street and big investors were skeptical about the federal actions in the case of Santa Clara-based Silicon Valley Bank.

San Francisco-based First Republic Bank’s shares nosedived Monday morning and plunged 64% in early session trades on Monday.

Like Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic is a regional bank with a considerable amount of wealthy depositors.

Investors became queasy about First Republic Bank after the bank announced Sunday that the FDIC and JPMorgan Chase (Chase Bank) had teamed up to provide access to $70 billion in funds through an array of sources.

New York City-based Signature Bank joined Silicon Valley Bank in a collapse and was taken over by the FDIC during the weekend.

In a fresh sign of skepticism over small banks, federal officials failed to round up a buyer for Silicon Valley Bank despite an hours-long auction on Sunday.

George Avalos | Business Reporter George Avalos is a business reporter for the Bay Area News Group. He covers the economy, jobs, PG&E, Chevron, financial companies and commercial real estate.

Filed under Banks California News Economy inflation

Macy’s, Best Buy Fourth-Quarter Reports Underscore Consumer Slowdown

by Vittorio Ferla 2 Marzo 2023 Comments0

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO and MICHELLE CHAPMAN

NEW YORK  — Quarterly earnings from Macy’s and Best Buy show how Americans have pulled back their spending on clothes and gadgets as inflation strains household budgets.

Macy’s profit and sales in the holiday quarter slid, though it beat Wall Street expectations and its outlook for 2023 didn’t disappoint given the uncertain economic environment.

It was the same at Best Buy, though the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain issued a downbeat financial outlook for the year.

It’s a retreat from the heavy spending on technology during the pandemic when millions of parents and children worked or attended classes largely from home.

“The consumer electronics industry continues to feel the effects of the broader macro environment and its impact on consumers,” said Matt Bilunas, Best Buy’s chief financial officer.

Best Buy reported weak spending on computers, home theaters, appliances and mobile phones in the fourth quarter, though tablets and gaming were still hot categories.

Major retailers over the past week have said that they don’t know what to expect in 2023 with so many unknowns regarding the strength of the U.S. and global economy.

However, unlike big retailers that have already reported results, Macy’s on Thursday remained relatively positive about its profit this year.

The department store expects to earn between $3.67 and $4.11 per share in 2023, potentially outperforming Wall Street consensus projections for per-share earnings of $3.78.

Shares jumped more than 9% to $22.34 on Thursday.

Retailers are feeling the sting of a consumer spending slowdown in an economic environment that’s growing more unpredictable. Kohl’s, Walmart and Target have all issued cautious outlooks. Many stores had to discount heavily in the last six months to get rid of unwanted merchandise as shoppers shifted their spending more to necessities and services. Now, many stores seem to have inventory in control and they’re trying to be more surgical in their price cuts.

While inflation has eased in recent months, it remains stubbornly high. And a sustained campaign by the Federal Reserve to cool inflation through interest rate hikes makes it more expensive to use credit cards to buy goods in stores, in addition to raising the cost of auto, home and business loans.

Macy’s, which also operates beauty chain Blue Mercury and upscale Bloomingdale’s in addition to its namesake stores, said Thursday that it “anticipates that the heightened level of uncertainty within the macroeconomic environment will continue” this year.

Chairman and CEO Jeff Gennette told The AP in a phone interview on Thursday that all income tiers including the wealthy shoppers are pulling back. But he said there are big opportunities to sell more items to well-heeled shoppers who are not cutting back at the levels others are. At Bloomingdale’s, which recently celebrated its 150th anniversary, members of its loyalty program accounted for more than 70% of sales and spent 7% more in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago.

Macy’s earned $508 million, or $1.83 per share, in the quarter ended Jan. 28. Stripping out certain items, earnings were $1.88 per share. That tops the per-share earnings of $1.57 that Wall Street had expected, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

That compares with net income of $742 million, or an adjusted profit of $2.45 per share, in the year-ago period.

“Although Macy’s expects challenges in the year ahead (with an net sales decline of 1% to 3% in the fiscal year ahead), its better-than-expected Q4 results bode well as they demonstrate that the myriad changes it has been making over the past few years,” said Insider Intelligence senior analyst Zak Stambor.

Sales declined to $8.26 billion from $8.67 billion, but that also topped analyst projections. Macy’s Inc. expects sales of $23.7 billion to $24.2 billion for 2023, which is a bit light of analyst projections.

Comparable sales dropped 3.3% on an owned basis and were down 2.7% on an owned-plus-licensed basis.

Best Buy earned $495 million, or $2.23 per share, for the three-month period ended Jan. 28, down from the $626 million it earned during the same period last year, but better than the per-share earnings of $2.10 Wall Street had expected.

Revenue declined 10% to $14.73 billion, still slightly better than expected, and comparable store sales fell by the same percentage.

The company expects comparable sales to decline anywhere from 3% to 6%, worse than the 1.7% decline expected by industry analysts, according to a poll by FactSet.

Best Buy said expects earnings per share between $5.70 and $6.50 this year, short of the $6.79 projections on Wall Street. Its revenue projection of between $43.8 billion and $45.2 billion was also shy of the $45.73 billion analysts are looking for.

Company shares slipped nearly 2%, or $1.38 per share, to $81.16.

Filed under Economy inflation

What Slowdown? Californians’ Unpaid Bills Hit Record Low

by valipomponi 22 Febbraio 2023 Comments0

”Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations while noting these grades are best seen as a mix of artful interpretation and data.

Buzz: Californians have yet to show serious problems paying their bills in this challenging economy, as late payments hit a record low at the end of 2022.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the New York Fed’s quarterly tracking of consumer borrowing habits compiled from credit history by Equifax. The stats break out 11 heavily populated states, including California, dating to 2003.

Topline Only 1% of California household debts were 90 days or tardier in the fourth quarter. That’s a remarkable resiliency following the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes throughout most of 2022 designed to cool the pandemic era’s surprisingly robust economy.

So how low is California’s 1% delinquency rate?

The fourth quarter marked the best statewide payment pace on record and the lowest delinquency rate of the 11 big states tracked.

It’s significantly below the 1.61% of debts nationwide that are tardy and also the lowest since 2003. The highest delinquency among the 11 big states was found in Pennsylvania at 2.2%.

Consider California averaged 1.6% late payments in mid-pandemic 2020-21 and 1.9% in pre-pandemic 2018-19. Looking back over 21 years, 3.9% of California bills were paid late on average.

And here’s a reminder of the economic ugliness of the Great Recession: California’s 11.6% delinquency rate in 2009-10.

Details Yes, Californians have lots of debt – $84,850 per capita at year-end 2022. That’s No. 1 among the 11 big states and 42% above the national $59,885 norm.

Still, California has few delinquent debts – $857 per capita, the third-smallest rate among the 11 states and 11% below the nation’s $964. The highest was in Texas at $1,172 while the lowest was in Michigan at $799.

Of course, most Californians’ debts are mortgages. Traditional home loans and home-equity borrowing ran $69,460 per capita statewide in the fourth quarter. No other big state has more housing debts, and it’s 60% above the nation’s $43,350 level.

Or look at this debt difference this way – 82% of California’s per capita borrowings are mortgages vs. 72% nationally.

But so far in this wild economy, the house payment is getting to the lender on time.

Only 0.64% of California’s home-loan dollars owed were 90 days late or more in 2022’s final quarter. That’s the best payment rate of the 11 big states and roughly one-third lower than the 1.03% national rate.

Note: Texas, with a 1.31% late-pay pace, had the most-tardy mortgages of the 11 big states.

Caveat A recent borrowing binge hints that an inflationary bout not seen in four decades is pinching household finances.

California’s per capita debts grew by 2.2% in 2022’s final three months – the fastest since 2021’s second quarter.

But it trailed the nation’s 2.9% debt growth – the biggest surge since 2007’s fourth quarter, just before the real estate bubble exploded into the Great Recession. And California’s debt bump was the smallest among the 11 big states, with Nevada’s 5.7% being the largest.

Debts have ballooned everywhere during in pandemic era. It’s a mix of borrowers in financial hurt and others taking advantage of what were once historically low interest rates.

California debts are up 17% vs. 2019’s fourth quarter. Yet that’s only the fifth-fastest growth in borrowing among the 11 states and it’s slightly above the 16% national growth rate.

By the way, the fastest growth in debt among the 11 big states was found in Nevada at 31%. The slowest was New York at 8%.

Bottom line As 2023 starts, the typical Californian looked to be in solid financial shape, at least when managing their household debts.

That’s not terribly surprising considering generous government aid offsetting coronavirus’s economic chill, record-low unemployment and significant pay hikes across California.

However, these strong payment histories, plus other signs of continued economic vigor, suggest the Fed’s fight to chill an overheated economy is nowhere complete. So expect the Fed’s inflation battle – i.e. more rate hikes – to continue.

Don’t forget these year-end stats miss any impact of the recent slew of the technology industry’s wave of layoff announcements. So, both the level of borrowings, as well as bill-payment patterns, will be numbers to watch as signals of consumer distress.

PS: It’s also worth noting that these debt figures only track folks with credit histories. So these trends don’t include the bill-paying challenges of folks lacking a credit score, a flock that’s decidedly less financially fit than the typical Californian.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

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History Says 6%-Plus Mortgage Rates Are Still Too Low

by Mata 18 Febbraio 2023 Comments0

“Numerology” tries to find reality within various measurements of economic and real estate trends.

Buzz: Mortgage rates today would be at 8.9% if they were priced according to this century’s typical spread above the inflation rate.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the relationship between the monthly average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage (by Freddie Mac) and the inflation rate (12-month change in the Consumer Price Index).

Fuzzy math: Critics say the Federal Reserve’s inflation battle, which roughly doubled mortgage rates, has gone too far.

Topline Since 2000, 30-year mortgages averaged 5% compared with 2.5% inflation – that’s a loan rate 2.5 percentage points above the cost of living.

January’s 6.4% U.S. inflation rate – plus that 2.5% historic spread – equals 8.9% for home loans.

But in January, 30-year loans averaged 6.27% vs. the 6.4% inflation rate – with loan rates 0.13 percentage points below the cost of living.

Details January marked the 22 consecutive month that the mortgage-rate average was below the inflation pace.

That’s highly uncommon as mortgage rates traditionally run above cost-of-living growth. Why? Lenders want to earn more than what inflation gobbles up in terms of buying power.

How odd is it? The history books have only one other streak like this: 20 months that ended in July 1975, a time when inflation soared because of an Arab oil boycott, which inflamed U.S. consumer prices.

In those 20 months, mortgages averaged 9.1% vs. 10.7% inflation – that’s a 1.6 percentage-point gap. In the current streak, which started in April 2021, mortgages averaged 4.4% vs. 7% inflation, with loans sitting 2.6 points below the cost of living’s surge.

This is one of many economic curiosities of the pandemic era. It’s fallout from the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented cheap-money bailout of the housing market that was used to stimulate a whipsawed economy.

I’ll note the current mortgage premium above inflation is swiftly narrowing. The Fed is now trying to cool an overheated economy. Its interest-rate hikes are attempting to tame the worst bout of inflation in four decades.

Look back in March 2022, just as the Fed’s battle with inflation became serious. Mortgages averaged 4.2% that month vs. the 8.5% inflation rate – a 4.3-point gap.

Bottom line So January’s 6.27% mortgage was a bargain, historically speaking.

Yes, 6%-plus mortgages will throttle home sales and put huge pressure on housing pricing. Yes, that’s painful.

But this is simply the Fed boosting mortgage rates to nearly the inflationary pace. That’s still cheap looking through a historical lens.

And, no, the Fed doesn’t have it out for housing. Do you remember who helped slash mortgage rates to less than 3%, mid-pandemic? Those historic bargains fueled 2021’s feeding frenzy for homes.

Mortgages in 2023 simply reflect a return to economic normalcy.

Jonathan Lansner is business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

Jonathan Lansner | Business columnist Jonathan Lansner has been the Orange County Register’s business columnist since 1997 and has been part of the newspaper’s coverage of the local business scene since 1986. He is a past national president of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing and a 1979 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

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Price Hikes Have People Across Southern California Scrambling For Eggs

by Vittorio Ferla 8 Febbraio 2023 Comments0

Spooked by the recent spike in egg prices, Dan Kamps had no problem spending nearly an hour waiting for two dozen at Billy’s Egg Farm in Chino.

He was among the first batch of customers sitting in their idling cars at 8 a.m. on a recent chilly January morning. Being there early is important as eggs — which start at $5 a dozen at Billy’s — run out by noon most days, Kamps said.

The lengths people are willing to go for affordable eggs is a reflection of soaring prices nationwide — with a dozen large eggs retailing for $5.62 on Feb. 1, up from $4.83 at the beginning of December, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows.

Egg farms are reporting an influx of customers, but some are looking into quirkier solutions, such as their neighbors’ backyards, to purchase eggs at a time when finding them at local grocery stores is not guaranteed.

Cars wait in line to buy eggs at Billy’s Egg Farm and drive-thru store in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) Billy’s Egg Farm owner Billy Mouw says he’s been selling 25,000 eggs a day lately at his family farm, which houses around 30,000 chickens. With his daughters’ help, he’s able to shell out eggs a dozen at a time to cars that stretch down the residential road surrounding the business.

The availability and price of eggs at the farm make it worth the wait for Kamps, who has a family of five at home.

“You go anywhere else right now and its upwards of $7 for a dozen eggs, that hurts my wallet,” the Chino resident said as the line of cars began to move.

“It’s saving money for my family, but it’s also supporting the small business,” Kamps continued. “I’d rather spend the money here than at Walmart and honestly, it’s more expensive at Walmart right now.”

Refrigerated flats of eggs on display for sale at Maust’s California Poultry in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Paul Maust, the assistant manager, processes eggs after they are washed at Maust’s California Poultry in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Assistant Manager Paul Maust stands in a room full of fresh eggs, waiting to be washed and processed at Maust’s California Poultry in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Customers wait in line to purchase eggs at Maust’s California Poultry in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Madison Bergamo sells a flat of eggs out of a drive-thru window at Billy’s Egg Farm in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Madison Bergamo reacts while selling eggs out of a drive-thru window at Billy’s Egg Farm in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Customers shared similar sentiments down the road at another egg farm, Maust’s California Poultry, which reports it’s also seen a huge influx in demand.

“I’m definitely cutting back, I can barely make omelets for my family anymore,” said Dee Forbes, who was first in line at Maust’s. “I can’t find eggs at the groceries somedays, so I come here. Yes, I have to wait, but it’s cheaper and local.”

While egg prices have leveled a bit, it’s still a drastic jump from an average of $2.89 at this time last year.

This has left people shuffling between grocery stores across Southern California only to find shelves almost completely empty, or with sticker shock when the only ones available are pricier options.

Customers shop for eggs and poultry at Maust’s California Poultry in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) All of this has led to some grocery stores rationing egg supplies, limiting customers to one or two cartons apiece. And as eggs are a major ingredient in products, other food items such as baked goods and mayonnaise, have also seen a price hike.

That drastic change in the egg landscape matters for families like Forbes’ who say rising food costs the past three years have profoundly changed her grocery shopping habits.

“I’m always looking for ways to spend less at the market but with egg prices now, it just means more money on food,” Forbes said as she put her young daughter in the backseat of her car. “Everything is increasing right now in value but I did not expect eggs to be one of them. But what can you do?”

A case of the chicken flu So what’s causing this drastic change in egg costs?

The answer is a combination of factors including inflation and rising costs of feed for chickens but the ongoing avian flu epidemic can be mostly pointed to as blame, according to the USDA.

Over 58 million birds have been infected with avian flu as of February 1, the agency said. The prior record was set in 2015, when 50.5 million birds died.

Paul Maust, assistant manager, carries a hen at Maust’s California Poultry in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) These infected birds must be slaughtered, causing egg supplies to fall and prices to surge.

This includes millions of cage-free hens California relies on to comply with Proposition 12, which voters approved in 2018 and phased out caged housing systems altogether. It also requires producers from other states to not use cages if they want to sell their eggs here.

Since its passage, six other states have enacted laws that ban cages for egg-laying hens,. Three of those bans are now in effect, including in Colorado and Washington, where conventional eggs were prohibited starting Jan. 1

But with a majority of U.S. eggs still produced in the conventional way, the demand for cage-free eggs far outstrips what farms can supply.

Paul Maust, assistant manager at Maust’s California Poultry, has seen this firsthand.

The state is the largest consumer of eggs in the nation because of the population size, he said, but “now there’s less and less farmers here because there are so many regulations and rules.”

There is also no straight answer to when or if prices will drop back to 2022 prices, said Maust, who thinks costs will fluctuate as long as the avian flu affects supply nationwide. Sellers have to replace chickens and that takes time to start producing eggs.

Cashier Beatriz Quezada, left, sells eggs at Maust’s California Poultry in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) While California egg farms, like his, haven’t been affected by the avian flu, he said customer volume now is higher than any time he can remember.

“We have about 90,000 birds total and we’re constantly bringing eggs from each our three farms, selling quick every day basically,” Maust said as a line of customers stretched around out the door on a recent January morning. “We’re getting probably about 1,500 to 2,000 people daily but this time last year, it was max 800.”

Mouw, the other egg farm owner up the street, has seen the same. Operating the business for 31 years and Mouw has “never had it like this before,” he said.

Billy Mouw sells flats of egss as cars line up at his Billy’s Egg Farm drive-thru in Chino on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The price of eggs has increased over the last year due to an avian flu outbreak that has affected chicken farms nationwide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) “We still sell around the same but back then it would sell out at 5 p.m. and now, we’re rarely make it to 2 p.m,” Mouw said. “People are coming from across SoCal. We even had customers from Palm Springs last week.”

Raising eggs The recent demand in eggs has also led some households in the region to look for alternative ways to get their yolk fix.

In El Sereno, a mostly working class Latino neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles, Kit and Naoko Mccall have been supplying eggs from their small urban backyard farm for the past six years. The couple has 34 chickens and sell eggs the same day they are laid.

Dubbed EggSereno, their small business is run through word of mouth and direct messages on Instagram. But interest in their small operation has picked up, evident by a waitlist that’s currently over 100 people long, Kit said by phone last month.

A local family picks up a dozen eggs from EggSereno, a small local backyard operation in El Sereno that has been selling eggs for the past six years. (Courtesy of EggSereno/Instagram) “We just love people coming by and meeting the source of their eggs,” said Kit, a local full-time teacher. “We teach kids about chickens and get to know our neighbors along the way.

The business “is not a profitable operation but it’s rewarding to provide quality eggs,” to the community, Kit said.

In the city of Riverside, Mark Sessa, 55, jumped in on the egg business more recently when neighbors began knocking on his door asking about his backyard chickens.

“It was just past 30 days when they started selling them,” Sessa said. “I didn’t even know there was a shortage.”

He’s had chickens for the past 14 years, averaging around 10 total hens and producing eight to 11 eggs a day.

“Upkeep isn’t bad and it’s nice having chickens knowing how crazy it is out there right now with prices,” Sessa said.

While backyard chicken operations aren’t new, they’ve increasingly piqued interest since the start of the pandemic. People loaded up and in some cases hoarded supplies, including eggs, as the COVID-19 outbreak spread and orders to shelter in place were enacted.

Panic during the early days of the pandemic has waned, but Google search interest in “raising chickens” has jumped noticeably from a year ago.

That may be a reflection of the rapid inflation for eggs and people looking to save long term, Muast said.

Bernadette Arreguin Casiano’s backyard in Hacienda Heights is home to a chicken coop that has 30 hens and two roosters , one who is seen in the center of the maddness on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG) Most recently, he’s a seen an influx of curious customers inquiring on buying chickens and how they can start their own farm at home. Muast’s sells chickens of all sizes and breeds, he said.

“They say the prices are too high, so they want to see what they can do with live chickens,” Maust said. “It’s been happening more often than not.”

‘Eggs are essential’ For Bernadette Casiano, 51, she was ahead of the curve when it came to backyard chicken farms. The full-time nurse has been running a backyard operation at her Hacienda Heights property since 2014 and selling eggs to friends the past four years.

Bernadette Arreguin Casiano has raised chickens before the shortage and will continue to do so. She stands proud in her home garden in Hacienda Heights with one of her favorites, Sunny on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG) Casiano calls her urban farm her “homestead,” that’s currently filled with 20 hens. She even has a YouTube page that gives tips on how to grow vegetables and take care of chickens.

“I remember I was a little girl and one of my earliest memories was that my grandma had a chicken coop in her backyard,” Casiano said by phone last month. “That’s where it all started.”

But recently, her love of chickens has translated to a booming side hustle, something she never expected.

Casiano’s phone and Facebook account has been overwhelmed with interested buyers looking for eggs, which have become a hot commodity. A dozen eggs for $8 is a deal that many will pay right now, she said.

One of Bernadette Arreguin Casiano’s evolving hobbies is raising chickens, she feeds them nutritious grains as well as a compostable kitchen and garden waste in her backyard in Hacienda Heights on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG) “I looked at my chickens the other day and said ‘I knew you guys will pay off one day,’ ” Casiano said. “People know now me as the crazy homestead lady and that’s OK.”

The spike in egg prices has provided Casiano with a new perspective on being prepared for whenever the next shortage of food product comes around. It’s something she hopes others will also learn from.

“I think as the world changes, all of us have to look at where our food is coming from and how we can be more sustainable and prepared,” Casiano said. “Eggs are essential to a lot of people and I think many are just realizing that out now for the first time.”

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