*as of 7/8; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

Housing inventory rose for the 20th straight month and is now up 28.9% year-over-year, hitting a new post-pandemic high. Supply in both the West and South is now above pre-pandemic levels, while listings in the Midwest and Northeast remain well below. Meanwhile, pending sales are down 1.6% year-over-year and the national median list price ticked up 0.2% year-over-year.

➨ TAKEAWAY: It’s pretty straightforward - when supply rises in conjunction with demand seemingly falling, prices are poised to fall as the country enters a buyer’s market. Regional differences are key, though, as the biggest inventory gains have come in Denver, Austin, and San Antonio, all of which have seen median list prices fall. Meanwhile, the markets with the lowest inventory gains - Milwaukee, Buffalo and New York City - all saw median list prices increase.

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In this episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin and Sacra founder Jan-Erik Asplund discuss the rise of Anduril, the defense technology startup disrupting traditional defense contracting with innovative products and a unique business model. They explore the evolution of Anduril's offerings and how the company has positioned itself as a potential sixth prime contractor in the defense sector. The discussion also covers Anduril's revenue growth, competition with established defense primes, and the opportunities and risks it faces in the global market, as well as its IPO prospects.

📊 Small business optimism steady: The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index ticked slightly down in June by 0.2 to 98.6, slightly above the historical average of 98. The Uncertainty Index fell by five points, indicating that small business owners believe the economic environment is stabilizing.

🏢 BlackRock’s expanding industrial footprint: The world’s largest asset manager is buying the industrial real estate firm ElmTree for an undisclosed amount. Elmtree has $7.3 billion in AUM and 122 net-leased industrial properties across 31 states.

🚀 VC and the new tax bill: The fallout from the “Big Beautiful Bill” brings a number of indirect effects on the VC industry, but the biggest direct impact will come from the expansion of the qualified small business stock tax exemption, which will benefit VCs and theoretically increase investable capital. On the other hand, university endowments will face higher taxes, which could cut into the capital of some of the nation’s largest private market investors.

💵 Private credit secondaries: In another example of the burgeoning secondary market for stakes of private credit funds, Coller Capital announced a $6.8 billion private credit secondaries fund, nearly four times larger than its predecessor.

🤖 CoreWeave buys Core Scientific: The recently public AI cloud company is acquiring the crypto miner and data center provider in a $9 billion all stock deal, with the announcement sparking decreases in both companies’ share prices.

🏢 Apartment occupancy rates: Nationally, the occupancy rate for apartments rose by 140 basis points, with only six of the top 150 markets experiencing declines, showing Lincoln, NE, Madison, WI, and Youngstown, OH at the bottom of the rankings.

🎨 New London art fair: A new boutique art fair for women-owned galleries will debut during London’s Frieze week this October, and will highlight artwork by female artists at affordable price points.

🎬 Downton Abbey auction: As the long-running series comes to an end with its third film this fall, Bonham’s will be auctioning 120 props and items from the show in September, including costumes, autographed scripts, and even a classic car.

By far the biggest gainer in the top-100 tokens by market cap in the last week was the Solana-based memecoin Bonk, which rose 58%, getting back to its level from six weeks ago, before it declined precipitously. Much of the price action is due to the ascendance of Bonk.fun, a memecoin generator that overtook the previous market leader Pump.fun this week. Bonk.fun’s uses the fees generated on the platform to buy and burn Bonk, which reduces supply and increases demand. As long as the platform remains popular, which is never a given in the world of crypto, it should help boost the price of Bonk.