In first half of 2025, the financial cost of weather catastrophes escalated at record pace, [as global heating due to the burning of fossil fuels worsens weather catastrophes]. The environment-hating Trump's administration stopped updating a database tracking the costs of the s worst disasters. A group of scientists has revived it.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 October 2025
Not good for the USA-AI bubble: Airbnb choses Alibaba's open-source AI over "not ready" ChatGPT from OpenAI. Airbnb "relies heavily" on Alibaba's Qwen models to power its AI customer service agent.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 22 October 2025
Mortgage rates will not fall below 6% anytime soon, a top economist says in grim forecast
- Realtor.com, 20 October 2025
GDP growth in Zhōngguó grows at the slowest pace in one year, amid crumbling domestic demand and crashing real estate market
- Zero Hedge, 20 October 2025
Ever increasing insurance costs for home and auto insurance bring back talk of price caps. Increasingly, insurers in both Republican and Democratic states are being told to cap prices as lawmakers come under pressure from voters.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 October 2025
The rental boom is remaking the furniture market. For many young adults priced out of the housing market, long-term rentals have become the new starter home. That is a challenge and an opportunity for the home-furnishings industry.
- Barron's, 18 October 2025
The Trump organization expands in Bharat, where many of its real estate partners face criminal accusations of fraud and money laundering.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 October 2025
The land underlying the city of Shanghai sinks as sea levels near the city rise the fastest in 4,000 years
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 October 2025
The state of New York bans "algorithmic price collusion" - using AI systems to determine rental rates for aparrment (some cities have also banned the software).
- The Verge, 16 October 2025
Gulf nations are investing billions of dollars in real estate projects along the North Coast of Egypt (west of Alexandria)
- Warner Brothers CNN, 16 October 2025
Major real estate developers are fast becoming electric power brokers. A new real estate sector, 'powered land', needs to be secured with the permits, utility commitments, and infrastructure needed to deliver power to a data center.
- Comcast's CNBC, 14 October 2025
Home foreclosures in the USA jump 17% in Q3 of 2025
- Zero Hedge, 11 October 2025
National home improvement chain Lowe's finalized an $8.8 billion deal this week to acquire one of its competitors. On Thursday, the company confirmed it had completed the purchase of California-based Foundation Building.
- MLive, 11 October 2025
Editorial: [capitalists?] Trump and Pulte now want the government mortgage giants (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) to provide socialist subsidies to [capitalist?] home builders
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 October 2025
Why did Walmart just buy a shopping mall? Walmart plans to turn the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania into a mixed-use development that will include retail, dining and entertainment space, according to a recent filing.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 October 2025
Inside the death spiral of San Francisco's most storied mall. San Francisco Centre, once among Bay Area's top-performing retail centers, is bleeding millions of dollars a year.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 October 2025
The landmark office buildings in the USA that are on financial 'life support'. For example, the Superman Building in Providence has been empty since 2013, despite a revival effort. "It is dead down here now."
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 October 2025
The amount of vacant warehouse space in the USA held steady around an 11-year high in the third quarter, but it didn't expand for the first time in three years as demand rose and the amount of newly built space continued to fall.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 October 2025
Investors comprise the highest share of homebuyers in 5 years
- Comcast's CNBC, 07 October 2025
140,000 students in New York City are homeless. Can the next mayor change that? The city's housing crisis has contributed to an education crisis, with more children than ever living in temporary housing. They face dismal outcomes.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 October 2025
Immigrants from Bharat own and/or operate 60% of the hotels and motels in the USA, many of the immigrants from the state of Gujarat in Bharat
- Warner Brothers CNN, 04 October 2025
Iran considers moving its capital southward from Iran, to somewhere on the Persian Gulf, because of Tehran's over-expansion and water scarity. Rainfall in Iran has decreased 50% in recent years, and with increased evaporation in reservoirs, there is less water available.
- Jerusalem Post, 03 October 2025
Sea level rise could put more than 100 million buildings across the Global South at risk of regular flooding if fossil fuel emissions are not curbed quickly, decreasing their value and making them harder to insure
- Phys.org, 03 October 2025
Trump's new taxes/tariffs on timber, wood, furniture and kitchen cabinets could raise the cost of building and buying a home, increasing inflation
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 October 2025
Shares of Fair Isaac rise significantly with pricing change. Credit bureaus, not so much. Fair Isaac, the producer of the FICO Score, changed its pricing model, giving it a greater share of the overall credit-scoring revenue.
- Barron's, 02 October 2025
Shares of Fair Isaac rise about 25%, and shares of Equifax and TransUnion decline about 10%, after Fair Isaac announced a plan that bypasses the big three credit bureaus - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion - in providing its credit scores directly to mortgage lenders.
- Zero Hedge, 02 October 2025
FICO disrupts the credit-score market. Fair Isaac is offering mortgage lenders a direct path to its FICO credit scores, for the first time giving them a way around the three powerful credit-reporting firms.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2025
Race to the financial dung heap. I thought cryptocurrencies would be the catalyst for the next collapse, but private credit, subprime auto and commercial real estate give it a run for its money.
- QTR's Fringe Finance (substack), 01 October 2025
A housing heat map for the USA signals ongoing deceleration as buyers wait for lower interest rates
- Zero Hedge, 01 October 2025
Big corporate landlords have unwelcome new competition. Regular homeowners who cannot sell their properties are renting them out instead, and the growing number of 'accidental landlords' is a headache for big corporate landlords.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 October 2025
The vanishing American dream: why young adults can not afford homes, families, or stability. They are entering their peak family-formation years already financially crippled.
- Zero Hedge, 30 September 2025
Home prices in the USA drop for 5th straight month in July, led by Tampa
- Zero Hedge, 30 September 2025
$100,000,000 -
FTC accuses Zillow of paying Redfin $100 million to stop competing on rental listings. The agency said the alleged deal reduces competition in an already concentrated market and is likely to drive up the cost of advertising vacancies in rental buildings with more than 25 units. The charges fall under the criminal antitrust laws.
- Thomson's Reuters, 30 September 2025
Soaring home prices in Australia force a record number of retirees to rent
- Zero Hedge, 30 September 2025
Why lower interest rates set by the Federal Reserve won't instantly lower your borrowing costs. Interest rates on mortgages are expected to climb by the end of the year despite the reductions.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 September 2025
Making [Christian-controlled, climate change denying] Florida more flood resistant is forcing hard choices for homeowners. A rule requiring many storm-damaged homes to be demolished or rebuilt to the latest flood-resistant standards has exacted personal and cultural costs.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 September 2025
FEMA is paralyzed. Disaster-torn communities are paying the price. St. Louis's tornado was months ago, but it is still waiting for hundreds of millions in federal recovery funds to arrive. The delays are due to Trump's plan to shift responsibility to the states and shrink FEMA.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 September 2025
Zillow reports its first profitable year since 2012
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 September 2025
Existing home sales in the USA remain near 15 year lows as prices keep rising
- Zero Hedge, 25 September 2025
Existing home sales in the USA remain near 15 year lows as prices keep rising
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2025
Refugees in the Netherlands can obtain social housing within 14 weeks; locals wait up to 12 years. "Dutch people in their twenties and thirties live with their parents in the attic or share an apartment with two or three people."
- Zero Hedge, 25 September 2025
supporters of the racist Trump in Alabama, in the real estate construction industry, rethink Trump's racist deportations (which they voted for) as immigration raids disappear hundreds of their "god-fearing, family-oriented" immigration workers. [Remember that the next time you vote for an authoritarian racist]
- Jiaravanon's Fortune, 24 September 2025
New home sales exploded higher in august, but prices soared
- Zero Hedge, 24 September 2025
Trump's appointees are destroying fair housing laws and civil protections in housing because their support racial diversity and equality
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 September 2025
Are we living the last high-tech/real-estate bubble? The consensus holds there will be another bubble after the Everything Bubble pops, but this might be misplaced confidence in the godlike powers of central banks.
- Zero Hedge, 19 September 2025
Heat waves and flooding caused by global heating, due to the burning of fossil fuels, could cost the European Union $50 billion in damage to buildings and agricultural crops as well as a loss of productivity, a new study found.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 September 2025
The demand for the refinancing of mortgages jumps nearly 60% as interest rates drop sharply
- Comcast's CNBC, 17 September 2025
Zinc roofs give Paris its signature look. But they are a nightmare in heat. As global heating caused by the burning of fossil fuels helps fuel more severe heat waves, Paris is struggling between maintaining its architectural heritage and keeping apartments livable.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 September 2025
Indonesia is seeking the help of Zhōngguó to build a US$80 billion giant sea wall along the northern coast of Java in a project that officials see as essential to protecting millions of residents and key industries from rising seas and sinking land, despite criticisms over its financial and environmental costs.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 September 2025
The CEO of RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) predicts "significant inflation" to hit in 2025, and get worse in 2026, as the furniture industry suffers from Trump's taxes/tariffs.
- Murdoch's MarketWatch, 11 September 2025
Shares of meme-stock Opendoor soar 50% after the company names a new CEO. OpenDoor buys and sells homes over the Internet.
- Comcast's CNBC, 11 September 2025
One reason share of OpenDoor soared is the CEO's promise: to fire 85% of the people working for OpenDoor "There are over 1,400 people working at Opendoor. I don't know what most of them do. We don't need more than 200 of them."
- Comcast's CNBC, 11 September 2025
Zhōngguó opens for travel a new record-smashing cable-stayed mega-bridge over the Yangtze River. Structure boasts a number of world firsts, from its striking asymmetric design to the precision tools developed to build it. Meanwhile, the USA builds another AI data center.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 11 September 2025
Wealthy socialistically subsidized real estate developers in New York City meet to plot the defeat of the socialist mayor candidate, Zohran Mamdani, because his socialism favors the non-wealthy
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 September 2025
Mortgage demand jumps to the highest level in three years, as interest rates drop sharply
- Comcast's CNBC, 10 September 2025
Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble: the housing market in the USA gained $20 trillion in the last 5 years, almost doubling to $35 trillion
- Warner Brothers CNN, 09 September 2025
Prices of lumber are flashing a warning sign for the economy of the USA. Wood prices are sliding and mills are cutting back because of uncertainty over tariffs and a building slump.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 September 2025
Tether denies bitcoin sell-off rumors, confirms buying bitcoin, gold, and land.
- Zero Hedge, 08 September 2025
Mortgage rates decline on reports of worsening of the economy of the USA. "We are seeing a lot of interest in refinances." One housing economist says the 30-year mortgage rate will drop below 6% if October's jobs report is also negative.
- Murdoch's MarketWatch, 08 September 2025
From mortgages to stocks, how higher bond yields for long-term Treasury Bonds hit wider markets
- Comcast's CNBC, 06 September 2025
Demand for industrial space in the USA falls for the first time in 15 years. Economic uncertainty brought on by constantly changing tariff policy and persistently high inflation is taking a greater toll on the previously hot warehouse sector.
- Comcast's CNBC, 05 September 2025
Mortgage refinancing starts to thaw as rates trend down. With the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at a 10-month low, homeowners with high-rate mortgages are starting to get excited about refinancing.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 July 2025
People in South Korea and Nihon are understandably irked by the ease with which foreigners can acquire real estate when locals are struggling. Many of these foreigners are from Zhōngguó.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 01 September 2025
How an AI company, Builder.AI, went from a grossly inflated (outside the AI world) valuation of $1.5 billion to zero (0, no, nil) dollars in a few months, after the bored of directors discovered that sales had been significantly overstated, the CEO resigned, and the company went into bankruptcy.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 August 2025
The USA closed many of its shopping malls, but Zhōngguó continued to build shopping malls. Now Zhōngguó has too many. The first closing of an Apple Store in mainland Zhōngguó hints at broader troubles facing Zhōngguó's shopping malls as developers open more of them.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 August 2025
Editorial: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government owned real estate mortgage companies, apparently can't track mortgage fraud
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 August 2025
Profitablility pressure grows for state banks in Zhōngguó due to lower margins as well as small reductions in bad loans
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 29 August 2025
New home inventory is at its highest level since just before the housing market collapse that led to the Great Recession, but that does not mean it is the same market.
- Jiaravanon's Fortune, 28 August 2025
Trump's taxes/tariffs on imports of furniture will make it harder to turn yuor house into a home. Protectionism will not save the American furniture industry, but it will increase the cost of living.
- Reason.com, 27 August 2025
The authoritarian Trump's attempts to seize control of the Fed is pushing up the interest rates that matter most to consumers
- Comcast's CNBC, 27 August 2025
The Panama Canal Authority plans sale of new ports to bring in competition ahead of a deal with BlackRock. The Canal's administrator wants more companies managing canal ports to dilute the influence of BlackRock partner Mediterranean Shipping Company and, potentially, Cosco which is based in Zhōngguó.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 August 2025
Home prices in the USA decline for the 4th straight month in June
- Zero Hedge (locked), 26 August 2025
Millennials and Gen Z are gambling on a big mortgage-rate drop, using ARMs and refinancing. But that could be a "financial ticking time bomb".
- Jiaravanon's Fortune, 26 August 2025
5 years on, the property crisis in Zhōngguó has no end in sight. The government had set out to slow speculation, kicking off a slowdown in real estate values that is still grinding on with wide economic consequences.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 August 2025
This is the end of a once mightiest property firm in Zhōngguó. Zhōngguó Evergrande, delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday, leaves behind a giant pile of debt and a long line of desperate creditors.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 August 2025
Realestate/property stocks in Zhōngguó increase in value as investors bet on government stimulus, despite some downbeat earnings reports from major developers
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 August 2025
Most department store chains are leaving shopping malls. Dillard's is buying one. The department-store chain this month purchased the Longview Mall in Texas, about two hours east of Dallas.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 August 2025
Sales incentives offered by homebuilders soar as new home sales in the USA disappoint in July, as prices plunge. The share of builders who reported using sales incentives reached a post-pandemic high of 66% this month.
- Zero Hedge, 25 August 2025
Adjustable rate mortgages climb to 41% of total held by banks in the USA, surpassing the record high level set just before the global financial crisis
- Zero Hedge, 24 August 2025
It is now twice as expensive to buy an entry-level home than rent
- Zero Hedge, 24 August 2025
Zuru, a company based in Zhōngguó, run by two men from New Zealand, is buying up real estate in areas destroyed by wildfires in California,in order to build luxury real estate for the wealthy.
- Zero Hedge, 24 August 2025
California's cost-ineffective high-speed train's robbery continues. The state rail authority is scrounging for money to complete its bullet train to nowhere after the Trump Administration last month yanked $4 billion in funds. So now it is proposing to build real estate and solar projects on property that was seized for the train.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 August 2025
Trump says he will impose taxes/tariffs on imports of furniture, causeing shares of Wayfair (down 6%), RH (down 6%) and Williams-Sonoma (down 4%) to plunge
- Murdoch's New York Post, 22 August 2025
Trump announces that he will be imposing higher taxes/tariffs on imports of furniture, to be imposed in the next 50 days
- Warner Brothers CNN, 22 August 2025
Extreme weather events are driving up both global food prices and home insurance rates as more frequent catastrophic climate events increase the risk of loss
- Futurism, 22 August 2025
Research reveals why more US homeowners are at risk of losing insurance: "Insuring properties is a gamble for home insurance companies, and it is increasingly not worth the risk."
- The Cool Down, 22 August 2025
Alarming report warns of worsening crisis that could destabilize US insurance system: "Losses are on the rise." "The probability of extreme weather is changing."
- The Cool Down, 22 August 2025
A broken housing market: in unprecedented inversion, it has never cost more to buy an existing home over a new home
- Zero Hedge, 21 August 2025
$3,950,000 -
Oyster Bay, a ritzy Long Island town, has agreed to pay $3.95 million and approve a s expansion just weeks after admitting to inventing a fake grandmother to block the project in court.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 21 August 2025
Demand for rental housing causes an unexpected jump in building. Apartment construction is climbing steadily, while the construction of single-family homes is declining.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 August 2025
Homeowners are doing small projects but deferring big ones, according to Home Depot. Home Depot said Trump's taxes/tariffs will soon start hitting some price tags even as consumers continue to hold off on larger projects because of higher interest rates and economic uncertainty.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 August 2025
Home Depot warns it may raise prices because of Trump's taxes/tariffs
- Murdoch's New York Post, 20 August 2025
Liberal California passes a law that gives interest on insurance payouts to homeowners, payouts held in escrow accounts at banks that currently keep all of the interest for a non-risk service.
- Comcast's CNBC, 19 August 2025
The economy of Zhōngguó slows broadly even as exports keep rising. Officials blamed USA "protectionism" for the dismal July data, but growth was likely held back by real estate and new policies aimed at slowing factory investments.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 August 2025
The economy of Zhōngguó slows broadly even as exports keep rising. Officials blamed USA "protectionism" for the dismal July data, but growth was likely held back by real estate and new policies aimed at slowing factory investments.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 August 2025
Nobody is buying homes, nobody is switching jobs - and mobility in the USA is stalling. The paralysis has economic consequences for everyone. Growing families cannot upgrade, empty-nesters cannot downsize, and when people cannot move for a job offer, they often earn less.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 August 2025
How investors from Zhōngguó transformed Athens, Greece. Investors from Zhōngguó hold nearly half of first-time visas linked to property purchases - and over 60 per cent of renewals.
- Comcast's CNBC, 16 August 2025
Non-paid AI is now eliminating paid-human jobs in the apartment industry, taking over work orders, lease renewals, showings and more from paid-humans who are doing such work now.
- Comcast's CNBC, 15 August 2025
"Let the rich spend": a political advisor suggests easing property ownership restrictions to spur consumption. A prominent member of Zhōngguó's top political advisory body wants less regulation and more respect for consumer choice.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 15 August 2025
Do you need to own a house? Many older people in the USA decide they do not. Rising property tax, insurance and home-repair costs are prompting some people 55 and older to consider renting.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 August 2025
Despite a property glut, risks associated with commercial real estate loans were manageable, HKMA and HSBC said in separate statements on Wednesday
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 13 August 2025
Rushanara Ali has resigned from her role as Minister for Homelessness for the United Kingdom, following reports that she removed tenants from her east London townhouse and relisted the property with 700-per-month rent increase
- Zero Hedge, 11 August 2025
Panama has signed a $2.486 billion loan agreement with Nihon to fund the construction of Metro Line 3
- Tico Times, 10 August 2025
Strong economy? 120 million square feet: store closings in the USA are on pace to set a new record high in 2025
- Zero Hedge, 09 August 2025
Two huge socialist IPOs: Trump is preparing public offerings (of the profits) for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which is pure socialism if the government will provide guarantee to their loans
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 August 2025
Two huge socialist IPOs: Trump is preparing public offerings (of the profits) for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which is pure socialism if the government will provide guarantee to their loans
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 August 2025
Italy will build a bridge that links the island of Sicily to the mainland of Italy, a 50-year dream closer to reality. The government of Italy said the bridge would be a security asset, which allows it to categorize the project as a military expense and count it toward its NATO spending commitments.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 August 2025
Coastal flooding in the USA is much worse than official records show - and no one is measuring it
- ZME Science, 05 August 2025
Families in Texas (which helped elect Trump) are being offered a measily $3000 for their land along the border with Mexico, so the authoritarian Trump can spend $46 billion to build his racist wall
- The Independent, 05 August 2025
Home-sellers outnumber home-buyers by the most in over a decade
- Zero Hedge, 05 August 2025
Trump's racist border wall is back -- and so is his fight with landowners in Texas. The cost of the wall has exploded from $8 billion to now over $46 billion which Congress recently allocated taxpayer dollars to pay for.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 August 2025
Home by home, Rossiya is selling occupied Ukraine to buyers in Rossiya. Kremlin-linked construction firms reap criminal profits from redevelopment of housing destroyed by the military forces of Rossiya.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 August 2025
The decline in real estate prices in Zhōngguó could be ending. The decline in new home sales in Zhōngguó may reduce to 7% this year, according to Fitch Ratings which had originally predicted a decline of 15 percent.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 05 August 2025
The abusive "algorithmic audit" done by AI systems could soon plague customers of hotels at checkout time. Loss prevention, or money gouging?
- Comcast's CNBC, 03 August 2025
Condominium sellers have not faced a real estate market this weak in more than a decade. Prices are down, supply is up and sellers often feel lucky to get an offer, especially in the South.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 July 2025
Hotel occupancy rates and gambling revenue in Las Vegas are down over 10%, not as bad - YET - of declines before the financial crisis and market crash in 2008
- Zero Hedge, 30 July 2025
WeWork founder Adam Neumann liked to say he ran a tech company. WeWork's new, postbankruptcy marketing chief is tasked with positioning the brand as an old-fashioned office space provider.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 July 2025
Home prices in the USA decline for the 3rd straight month in May
- Zero Hedge, 29 July 2025
A tiny company is vouching for risky insurers in hurricane country. As major home insurers flee storm-ravaged markets, Demotech's ratings enable smaller ones to step in. A string of failures has left homeowners without compensation.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 July 2025
High interest rates and prices are deterring individual buyers of homes, leaving an opening for investment firms to purchase large numbers of single-family properties.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 July 2025
Trump seeks to revive the lumber industry, by increasing logging in national forests in the USA, and increasing trade protections against imports of lumber from Canada
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 July 2025
The reasons why the Federal Reserve needs to spend $2.5 billion to renovate its headquarters. The high costs are due to dealing with asbetos, height limits, lead contamination, and including higher-than-expected groundwater under the building.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 July 2025
Sales of homes in June drop as home prices rise to record highs
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 July 2025
Sales of homes in June drop as home prices rise to record highs
- Zero Hedge, 23 July 2025
Sales of homes in June drop as home prices rise to record highs
- Comcast's CNBC, 23 July 2025
Affordable-housing real estate development projects stall over proposed reductions in federal rental assistance to poor people. Trump's tax/spending law elimiinates $27 billion that will make it harder to maintain and pay debt on these properties, developers say.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 July 2025
Singapore wants to spend billions of dollars to build a 8-mile-long 'Long Island' barrier of islands to defend Singapore against rising seas. Singapore is already suffering 'nuisance flooding' due to rising sea levels, and expects things to get worse.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 23 July 2025
Warehouses in Zhōngguó are declining in value, as suppliers relocate to Bharat due to Trump's tax/tariff trade wars. Logistics property owners are losing out to their rivals in India, where rents increased this year from the second half of 2024.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 23 July 2025
Trump considers eliminating the capital gains tax on the same of homes
- Zero Hedge, 22 July 2025
Alarming report warns that huge number of once-valuable homes may soon be "worthless" due to destructive weather patterns [due to global heating due to burning of fossil fuels] making these homes insurable
- The Cool Down, 22 July 2025
Since the 1970s, the prices of homes has increased more rapidly than the salaries of homebuyers. The price/income ratio has gone from around 4.0 to 5.3
- Zero Hedge, 21 July 2025
Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi sounds a "red alarm" on the housing market and says that homebuilders are "giving up", and will continue to do so (along with declining home prices) until mortgage rates are reduced
- Jiaravanon's Fortune, 20 July 2025
Climate catastrophes (wildfires, floods, storm damage), due to global heating from the burning of fossil fuels, is creating a "new market reality" for insurance companies, with insurance losses in 2025 expected to rise about $100 billion
- Warner Brothers CNN, 18 July 2025
Climate catastrophes (wildfires, floods, storm damage), due to global heating from the burning of fossil fuels, is creating a "new market reality" for insurance companies, with insurance losses in 2025 expected to rise about $100 billion
- Comcast's CNBC, 18 July 2025
It will take more than low interest rates to make houses affordable in the USA. Even if mortgage rates were to go down again, rising prices mean homeowners would still be stuck with higher costs and higher property taxes that result from rising prices.
- Mises Institute, 17 July 2025
Why FHFA meddling in credit score reporting, allowing the less-reliable ratings from VantageScore to be used along with FICO's credit scores, is unwarranted. FICO cannot generate reports for people with minimal credit histories.
- Real Clear Markets, 17 July 2025
The megadrought in the western region of the USA might last for decades, bad news for the idiots continuing to build homes and farms in the desert
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 July 2025
International buyers, led by people from Zhōngguó and Canada, purchased $56 billion worth of homes in 1 year in the USA
- Zero Hedge, 16 July 2025
The median age of a first-time home buyer is 38 years old. That is bad for the USA.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 July 2025
Demand for mortgages in the USA plummets 10%, as interest rates remain high
- Comcast's CNBC, 16 July 2025
Goldman Sachs warns of "accelerated property price declines" across cities in Zhōngguó
- Zero Hedge, 15 July 2025
Saudi Arabia asks consultants to review feasibility of its futuristic city, Neom, "The Line" megaprojects. The kingdom has been scaling back large-scale construction and investment projects amid rising costs and lower oil prices.
- Middle East Eye, 14 July 2025
Nearly one-third of 100 major housing markets in the USA now have home prices declining as inventory/supply increases
- Comcast's CNBC, 14 July 2025
Editorial: "Didn't we learn this was a bad idea the first time?" Trump wants to private government mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but still guaranteeing the loans of the to-be-private companies with taxpayers dollars (which led to the financial chaos that forced the government to seize control of the two entitites).
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 July 2025
Trump's immigration police are scaring off illegal immigrants would are rebuilding the fire-ravaged areas of Los Angeles
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 July 2025
Editorial: how to increase mortgage defaults in the USA. Trump's regulator for Fannie and Freddie wants to reduce the use of FICO for housing credit, while factoring in rent payments of borrowers.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 July 2025
Home are flooding onto the market in Las Vegas as retirees leave the city and investors decide to take profits
- Realtors.com, 11 July 2025
A record high of over $7 billion worth of homes are on sale in Las Vegas. High interest rates are causing fewer homes to be sold.
- Benzinga, 11 July 2025
Wells Fargo ends a partnership with Bilt that offered a credit card that earned rewards when you charged your rent to the card
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 July 2025
Because there are no alternatives, land finacne and property-driven growth remain the foundation of the economic system of Zhōngguó
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post (locked), 11 July 2025
Shares of real estate companies in Zhōngguó soar on rumors that the government might reintroduce large-scale stimulus for the economic sector
- Zero Hedge, 10 July 2025
The vacancy rate of warehouses climbs to the highest level (7.1%) in more than a decade
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 July 2025
136,000,000 -
A group of 7 homebuilders have agree to pay $136 million to settle antitrust litigation involving allegations of the companies exchanging details about pricing, viewings and incentives
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 July 2025
Undocumented workers at construction projects face unchecked exploitation by their (white) employees who are exploiting Trump's racist immigration activities: "It is more work, less pay".
- The Guardian, 10 July 2025
The Agriculture Department is planning to ban the future purchase of farmland in the USA by companies/investors in Zhōngguó (as well as by financial parties in other countries)
- Zero Hedge, 08 July 2025
The Agriculture Department is planning to ban the future purchase of farmland in the USA by companies/investors in Zhōngguó (as well as by financial parties in other countries)
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 July 2025
The Agriculture Department is planning to ban the future purchase of farmland in the USA by companies/investors in Zhōngguó (as well as by financial parties in other countries)
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 July 2025
Delistings of homes for sale increase 50% as home sellers who cannot obtain the selling price they want leave the market, even with reductions in prices offered by sellers.
- Realtor.com, 08 July 2025
Shares of FICO drop 17% (recovering to being down 9%) after the government announces that borrowers for government-backed loans can use credit ratings from a competitor, VantageScore. Welcome relief, as FICO fees have greatly increased in recent years. VantageScore is owned by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 08 July 2025
Shares of FICO drop 17% (recovering to being down 9%) after the government announces that borrowers for government-backed loans can use credit ratings from a competitor, VantageScore. Welcome relief, as FICO fees have greatly increased in recent years. VantageScore is owned by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 July 2025
Evidence of a rebound in the real estate market in New York City: an investment fund in Saudi Arabia is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in one building there
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 July 2025
The number of people renting housing in the USA rose to a record high, as fewer people can afford to buy a new home with the current salaries
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 July 2025
As interest rates on mortgages remain 'stuck' above 6.5%, many homeowners can't refinance at lower interest rates and thus are 'stuck' with higher monthly payments
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 July 2025
People in México City are angry at remote workers because the remote workers drive up the price of rents and foods, displacing longtime residents of México City
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 July 2025
Government relief and insurance programs require significant reform to be equipped to handle a future of increasingly intense and costly climate events due to global heating caused by the burning of fossil fuels
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2025
A real estate megadevelopment in the deserts of California, Diable Grande ... runs out of water
- SF Gate, 04 July 2025
Pocket Listing Service, a private homes-for-sale database for the rich and famous in Los Angeles, sues the National Association of Realtors under the antitrust laws, with PLS claiming that the NAR is trying to ruin the business of the PLS
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 July 2025
Young people in South Africa find it harder to buy homes, as foreign buyers have helped increase property prices 160% since 2010
- Bloomberg, 02 July 2025
Costs of home insurance are increasing in most states of the USA, an average of 8% for the whole country (according to Insurify), with some states having larger increases (such as California at 21% and Louisiana at 28%)
- Comcast's CNBC, 02 July 2025
$4,800,000 -
A federal judge has ordered Trump Tower in Chicago to pay $4.8 million for killing thousands of fish due to taking large amounts, 20 million gallons a day, of water from the Chicago River to cool the building.
- The Independent, 01 July 2025
Home Depot is buying GMS (a building products distributor) for about $4.3 billion as retailer chases more home pros
- Comcast's CNBC, 30 June 2025
Home Depot wins a biding war to buy GMS (a building products distributor) for about $4.3 billion as retailer chases more home pros
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 June 2025
Why the surge of the real estate industry in Bharat does not make it a substitute for Zhōngguó. The property sector in Bharat is booming, but Zhōngguó's plays a more important role in Asia and is supported by better fundamentals.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 30 June 2025
Americans are finding ways to use digital currencies to help them buy homes, and new companies are forming to help people gamble in cryptocurrency casinos by borrowing money based on their value of their homes
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 June 2025
It is bulletproof, fire-resistant and stronger than steel. It is 'superwood'. Waste wood scraps, changed at the molecular level, could become heavy-duty building materials -- and even replace plastic, aluminum and carbon fiber in our vehicles and gadgets.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 June 2025
Weather-related foreclosures across the United States could jump 380% over the next 10 years, reported CBS MoneyWatch. By 2035, weather-driven events could account for up to 30% of all foreclosures, compared with roughly 7% today.
- The Cool Down, 26 June 2025
Zohran Mamdani triumphed (winning the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City) without a majority of Black voters. Where does that leave them politically? Black city leaders are worried their influence is waning at a moment when the rising costs that Zohran Mamdani put at the center of his campaign are pushing Black New Yorkers out of the city.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 June 2025
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is working to let borrowers use cryptocurrencies as part of their federal mortgage applications without converting it to cash. Only digital assets held on USA-regulated, centralized exchanges will qualify under the new guidance.
- Comcast's CNBC, 26 June 2025
Shares of several New York-based banks and real estate investment trusts fell over 3% on Wednesday as Zohran Mamdani's lead in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary stoked concerns that his proposed rent freeze could pressure building owners.
- Thomson's Reuters, 25 June 2025
Home prices in the USA continue to plunge in April, with the biggest drop since December 2022
- Zero Hedge, 24 June 2025
More homeowners find themselves 'underwater' financially. Some who bought around the market peak in pandemic boomtowns owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 June 2025
Three Republican-contolled states have the highest share of "seriously underwater" mortgages that face a high risk of foreclosure
- Zero Hedge, 24 June 2025
Home sales rose in May, but housing market is still sluggish. Sales of existing homes held near historically low levels, the latest sign that buyers are staying away because of high home prices.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 June 2025
A $30 minimum wage has hotel owners in Los Angeles in revolt. They are seeking to suspend a city ordinance requiring what union leaders say is the highest minimum wage in the USA.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 June 2025
The governor of Texas signs a new law banning citizens of Zhōngguó from buying property in Texas. The initiative allows those who hold valid USA visas to purchase property, but only if the property is used as a primary residence.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 22 June 2025
The real estate sector in Zhōngguó has been in an extended slump. A shrinking population is making it worse.
- Comcast's CNBC, 21 June 2025
These sleek, energy-sustainable homes are breaking the stereotype for prefab construction
- Warner Brothers CNN, 20 June 2025
To make the rich richer, the Trump's and the House's proposed tax law would raise the estate tax exemption to $15 million and make it pernament
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 June 2025
To make the rich richer, the Trump's and the House's proposed tax law would raise the estate tax exemption to $15 million and make it pernament
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 June 2025
Mortgage demand drops, even as interest rates fall to the lowest since April
- Comcast's CNBC, 18 June 2025
Homebuilder confidence in the USA declines to near 13-year-lows
- Zero Hedge, 17 June 2025
Homebuilder sentiment nears Covid pandemic low as economic uncertainty and higher mortgage rates plague consumers
- Comcast's CNBC, 17 June 2025
Real estate developers are finally dealing with the office-oversupply problem. Supply is on pace to contract for the first time in 25 years, as incentives help drive conversions to residential buildings.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 June 2025
Oil-derived 'forever chemicals' detected in 65% of the private wells that were sampled in Pennsylvania
- Phys.org, 16 June 2025
A town's single largest taxpayer is also its biggest headache. An empty shell for years, the shopping mall, the Berkshire Mall, in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, shows how difficult it is to redevelop malls in smaller towns. The owners of the mall refuse to sell the property so it can be redeveloped.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 June 2025
New real-estate math: half a million more sellers than buyers. Home prices are up more than 50% in the last five years, and mortgage rates are holding above 6.5%. New listings have not been enough to jolt the market out of its slumber.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 June 2025
Congress considers a crackdown on those spammy calls from mortgage lenders. Legislation would reduce 'trigger leads', whereby credit bureaus sell your mortgage application information to competing lenders.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 June 2025
Trump destroys another USA business: At Home, a popular home goods retailer with 260 stores across the USA, has filed for bankruptcy citing Trump's taxes/tariffs hurting its business and causing consumers to spend less, which made it unable to service its $2 billion of debt.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 16 June 2025
Trump destroys another USA business: At Home, a popular home goods retailer with 260 stores across the USA, has filed for bankruptcy citing Trump's taxes/tariffs hurting its business and causing consumers to spend less, which made it unable to service its $2 billion of debt.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 June 2025
More homes are finally hitting the market, but buyers are still priced out. Home prices are up more than 50% in the last five years, and mortgage rates are holding above 6.5%. New listings have not been enough to jolt the market out of its slumber.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 June 2025
Hong Kong is urged to turn the Hung Hom waterfront into Hong Kong's equivalent of Cannes and Monaco. People are encouraging a project to emulate famous mega-event destinations, while others question viability of more commercial facilities.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 13 June 2025
The boom in building data centers for non-intelligent AI systems may turn into a long-term oversupply, with many such investments losing money
- Zero Hedge, 12 June 2025
What is brewing in the mid-Atlantic housing market? Canceled listings erupt to five-year high.
- Zero Hedge, 11 June 2025
How Home Depot became ground zero in Trump's deportation efforts. The White House told ICE to target Home Depot, disrupting the company's symbiotic relationship with the day laborers outside its stores.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 June 2025
Editorial: to make rich real estate developers richer, Republicans in Congress want to expand a tax subsidy for real-estate developers under the guise of promoting affordable housing. It will do the opposite while larding up the tax code.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 June 2025
Zhōngguó is using some of the money in a $1.5 trillion fund to offer cheap alternative to bank mortgages and boost housing demand
- Zero Hedge, 10 June 2025
At $3,000 a night, luxury farm resorts are the next glamorous getaway
- Warner Brothers CNN, 10 June 2025
By 2030, rising seas will threaten the beaches and communities of Costa Rica - looding coastal areas, damaging infrastructure, and displacing communities.
- Tico Times, 09 June 2025
Nearly 30-year-old tax exemption rules for capital gains blamed for the housing shortage in the USA. Many homeowners avoid selling because of high capital gains taxes, prompting real estate professionals to call for changes.
- Zero Hedge, 09 June 2025
Sunnova, one of the largest rooftop-solar installation businesses in the USA, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, a stark illustration of the strains haunting the clean-energy sector in the USA as shifting federal policies shake investor confidence.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 June 2025
Sunnova files for bankruptcy after SunPower's collapse
- Zero Hedge, 09 June 2025
Bankruptcies of solar energy companies signal that the clean energy industry is faltering in the USA, another industry captured by Zhōngguó
- Bloomberg, 09 June 2025
The stock market in Hong Kong has revived, but how about real estate? The decline in the interbank offered rates in Hong Kong should be good news for the real estate sector but its underlying problems remain acute (including oversupply, the threat of rates rising, etc.). With the one-month Hibor interbank rate below 1 percent, the effective mortgage rate has falled below 2.4 percent, making home buying less expensive than renting.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 09 June 2025
A construction boom for AI data centers (for mostly socially useless AI applications) faces local resistance in 28 states
- Zero Hedge, 08 June 2025
The United Kingdom now requires that most new homes being built must be fitted with solar panels
- Zero Hedge, 08 June 2025
The housing market in the USA was predicted to recover this year. What happened? Economists predicted that the USA would end its long-running housing market slump in 2025. The economists are wrong.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 June 2025
Why is hail becoming so large? Hailstorms cause billions in damages. Scientists are studying why it happens.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 June 2025
Foreign buyers are fleeing the condo market in south Florida. Sales to international buyers fell to 10 percent of transactions last year, a steep decline from 50 percent in 2018.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 June 2025
After the city and county of Los Anageles spent about $1 billion on housing for the homeless, the city and county are littered with empty buildings and empty rooms for the homeless.
- Zero Hedge, 05 June 2025
Demand for mortgages drops for the third straight week, even as interest rates decline
- Comcast's CNBC, 04 June 2025
South Florida emerges as epicenter of housing weakness
- Zero Hedge, 03 June 2025
The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific episodes of racial violence by white Christians in the history of the USA, murdered up to 300 Black residents and destroyed a neighborhood and its businesses. More than a century later, the mayor of Tulsa announces a $105 million reparations package, the first large-scale plan committing funds to address the impact of the atrocity committed by white racist Christians.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 June 2025
Nearly half of the $700 billion in homes for sale have gone 'stale' as sellers outnumber buyers by 500,000
- Zero Hedge, 02 June 2025
The Trump administration wants to sell shares in two government-controlled companies, Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac, that are crucial for getting a mortgage. First it needs to figure out what it wants the mortgage market to look like.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 June 2025
In Uganda, an affordable alternative to dirt floors is a big boost to human health. A company called EarthEnable sells at a reasonable price, clay-based earthen floors that give a durable, sealed floor for less than half the cost of concrete.
- Associated Press, 01 June 2025
Who should consider getting flood insurance? These days, almost everyone. Inland areas have suffered severe flooding in recent years, experts note. And standard homeowner policies do not cover flood damage.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 May 2025
The hospital-bed shortage in the USA is about to become worse. As new construction declines and occupancy rates soar, experts warn that hospitals may soon cease to function properly because of overcrowding.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 May 2025
Sellers outnumber prospective homebuyers in the USA as high prices and mortgage rates skew the housing market
- Associated Press, 30 May 2025
"It really fits us": how an American couple traded the south of increasingly authoritarian Florida for the south of France
- Warner Brothers CNN, 29 May 2025
Pending home sales in the USA plunge the most in 30 months, back new record lows. "Despite an increase in housing inventory, we are not seeing higher home sales. Lower mortgage rates are essential to bring home buyers back into the housing market."
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 May 2025
Could Taiwan derail Trump's 'big beautiful' plan for the housing market in the USA? The life insurance industry in Taiwan is a major buyer of USA Treasury Bonds.
- Zero Hedge, 29 May 2025
Idiots in the town that voted to become a Musk-controlled town are being warned by Musk's SpaceX that they may lose rights to "continue using" their personal properties.
- Comcast's CNBC, 29 May 2025
Home values are dropping in 27 of 50 states in the USA as the housing market shifts amid continuing high interest rates, according to data from Zillow
- Benzinga, 28 May 2025
First-time home buyers downsize amid tight supply, high interest rates. Newly built homes have been getting smaller since the a trend home builders have been leaning into to entice buyers and alleviate costspandemic.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 May 2025
Home prices in the USA dropped in March for the first time in over 2 years, down a modest -0.12% month-to-month.
- Zero Hedge, 27 May 2025
Why Vietnam ignored its own laws to fast-track a golf complex for the grifting Trump family. As the grifter Trump blurs the lines between the presidency and business, and threatens steep taxes/tariffs on imports from foreign countries, governments feel compelled/extorted to favor Trump-related projects.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 May 2025
Non-white homeowners of color in the USA are disproportionately vulnerable to climate risks compared with white homeowners, according to a new study by Zillow. Discriminatory housing practices such as redlining have limited where people of color are able to buy. Increased climate risk and the financial toll -- high insurance premiums, steep rebuilding expenses, lower resale value -- could further set back nonwhite communities.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 May 2025
Home sellers are dropping prices, but buyers are still not buying. What could change that.
- Barron's, 23 May 2025
Here are 6 signs that the housing market depression in the USA is getting even worse
- Zero Hedge, 23 May 2025
Trump's destructive reductions of the National Weather Service is forcing the agency to do more with less as the country heads into a storm season that is expected to see above-normal numbers of hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 May 2025
Honk Kong will spend about $40 million on flood control projects to protect the city from megastorms
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 23 May 2025
Existing home sales in the USA are weakest since the great Financial Crisis of 2008
- Zero Hedge, 22 May 2025
The numerous aging dams in Zhōngguó pose a serious threat to public safety
- Zero Hedge, 21 May 2025
A fire salel of the largest office tower in Portland shows how far the city has fallen. The once-premier building is now over half empty, reflecting how the Oregon city's downtown is struggling with crime and other quality-of-life issues.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 May 2025
The power of Christian hate: Trump is significantly reducing funding for flood prevention projects in Democratic states across the country while creating new water construction opportunities in Christian Republican states, undoing a Biden-era budget proposal that would have allocated money more evenly.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 21 May 2025
Mortgage rates cross back over 7% after Moody's downgrades the USA credit rating
- Comcast's CNBC, 19 May 2025
Españna orders Airbnb to block nearly 66,000 holiday rental listings over rule violations
- Associated Press, 19 May 2025
Españna's airport authority will start to limit access to Madrid's airport during some parts of the day as a preventive measure to stop more homeless people from sleeping in its airport terminals
- Associated Press, 19 May 2025
Trump's taxes/tariffs are dragging down an already stalled housing market. The problem is two-fold: increased material costs due to Trump's taxes/tariffs and faltering demand for new homes as home shoppers grew more hesitant amid stock market turmoil in April and Trump's tax/tariff-induced recession fears.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 19 May 2025
Swiss Re beats profit expectations, despite lower revenue. The reinsurer reported a larger-than-expected increase in net profit as it absorbed the impact of the wildfires that ravaged California in January.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 May 2025
$10,000,000 -
For allowing Sean 'Diddy' Combs to violently attack Cassie Ventura in their hotel in 2016, the InterContinental Hotel will pay Ventura $10,000,000
- Los Angeles Magazine, 16 May 2025
Permits for new single-family homes plunged in April, while inventories of unsold NEW homes is surging
- Zero Hedge, 16 May 2025
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency admits that he does not have a plan for the next hurricane season. "... clarifying the intent of Trump has been a challenge ..."
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2025
The woes of commercial real estate in the USA challenge the bank that built its fortunes on skyscrapers. Bank OZK wants to diversify after long defending ultrahigh concentrations of commercial real estate.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2025
First-time home buyers are struggling. That is bad news for home builders. Even with construction companies offering cheap mortgages, youngish people are finding it difficult to enter the market.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2025
USA homebuilder sentiment declines to its lowest level since 2023. Homebuilders blame Trump's taxes/tariffs as homeBUYERS remain the most depressed in 45 years.
- Zero Hedge, 15 May 2025
Your insurance company may be using a drone to spy on your property from the air
- HuffPost, 15 May 2025
Weather forecasters say that the USA is facing worst tornado season in more than a decade. Severe weather in 2024 resulted in the second-highest number of tornadoes since record-keeping began in 1950.
- The Independent, 15 May 2025
A Thai court has issued arrest warrants for 17 people including a high-profile construction tycoon, police said on Thursday, over their alleged involvement in the building of a skyscraper that collapsed and killed scores of workers during a powerful March earthquake.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 15 May 2025
Living near golf courses may double risk of being afflicted with Parkinson's disease. A golf course lawn may be beautiful, but the chemicals used to keep it that way may present serious risks for those living nearby.
- Zero Hedge, 14 May 2025
Two reinsurance companies in Deutschland, Munich Re and Hannover Re, lost a combined $1.9 billion due to wildfires in Los Angeles in January 2025
- Comcast's CNBC, 13 May 2025
The national mortgage debt of the USA tops $12.6 trillion amid rising interest rates and housing costs such as insurance
- Zero Hedge, 12 May 2025
Spain is confronting a housing crisis that has rapidly become one of the most acute in Europe. Since 2015, nearly one-tenth of the housing stock in Spain has been bought by investors or converted to tourist rentals. The scarcity has helped drive up prices much faster than wages, making affordable homes out of reach for many, .
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 May 2025
"Wildly inappropriate behavior": a real estate group is accused of cover-ups. The Appraisal Institute faces concerns that one of its leaders has a history of harassing women and that it did not disclose that some certification exams were incorrectly scored.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 May 2025
The rest of 2025 is not looking good for retail-property market. A rebound is fizzling amid store-chain bankruptcies and tax/tariff concerns.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 May 2025
The spring season for home sales is shaping up to bel a dud. Although inventory has been rising, high home prices and mortgage rates are putting off buyers during the prime selling season.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 May 2025
Most baby boomers cannot afford assisted living in their retirements, and are weighing on the housing market by staying in their homes, reducing available inventory of homes for sale.
- Jiaravanon's Fortune, 10 May 2025
A climate scientist working as an adviser on Saudi Arabia's Neom project has warned that the new mega-city could change local environments and weather systems, including the path of wind and sand storms.
- Zero Hedge, 06 May 2025
Loss of forests due to farms and cities expanding, is linked to declining quality of drinking water
- Phys.org, 06 May 2025
Home prices in Texas and Florida with lots of inventory are posting the biggest price declines, while prices in the Northeast and Midwest are still rising
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 May 2025
A $1 billion tax bill is looming over homeowners in Boston. The value of some Boston office buildings has tumbled by 50%, forcing homeowners to pay higher real estate taxes to balance the city's budget.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 May 2025
Fighting floodwaters in Louisiana with patches of 'green'. Simple, affordable initiatives like rain gardens are helping to soak up water in New Orleans.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 May 2025
Wealthy investors from Zhōngguó are shifting their investments from the USA to markets such as Thailand, Australia and Singapore, due to Trump's tax/tariff trade war
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 04 May 2025
Home builders are increasing discounts as they struggle to entice buyers. Demand has been disappointing during the spring home-buying season, and Trump's taxes/tariffs threaten to raise costs.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 May 2025
Trump kills a Biden-era program to end sewage backups into central Alabama homes, wrongly labeling the whole thing "illegal DEI" because most of the people helped are Black Americans
- The New Republic, 01 May 2025
The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - government-sponsored businesses - may foment another financial crisis. They now back more than 60% of new mortgages, versus roughly 45% before the meltdown in 2008.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 May 2025
Trump's destruction of government agencies are making natural disasters deadlier. Trump is denying recovery funding and slashing money for preparedness. With hurricane season approaching, the results could be catastrophic.
- The New Republic, 30 April 2025
Scientists issue dire warning as an iconic American city, New Orleans, sinks into the ocean. "Human intervention has made it worse." New Orleans is sinking at the rate of one to two inches per year.
- The Cool Down, 29 April 2025
Homeownership rate in the USA falls to lowest level in 5 years. Elevated mortgage rates contribute to keeping prospective buyers from owning a home.
- Zero Hedge, 29 April 2025
Homeowners insurance has risen over 50% in these states: Utah, Illinois, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nebraska. The most expensive states to insure your home are Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Nebraska.
- Comcast's CNBC, 29 April 2025
The Federal Reserve is pushing ahead with a huge $2.5 billion revamp of its Washington, DC headquarters despite mounting losses -- as one ex-official accused central bankers of behaving like French royalty
- Murdoch's New York Post, 27 April 2025
Working while homeless: in the USA, it is all too common.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 April 2025
Existing home sales are the weakest in March since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008
- Zero Hedge, 24 April 2025
Home sales in March fell 5.9%, biggest drop since 2022. Many buyers, spooked by rising economic uncertainty, stayed away from the housing market during the start of the crucial spring season.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 April 2025
The million-dollar housing crisis in Canada. Soaring housing costs, with many homes nearing $1 million, have sparked an exodus from cities like Vancouver, and people in Canada want their next prime minister to do address the problem.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 April 2025
White and Black farmers still bear the scars of land grabs in Zimbabwe. How mishandling of land reform evicted many white farmers, "enriched elites", and left Black Zimbabweans in poverty
- Al Jazeera, 23 April 2025
Weekly mortgage demand plunges nearly 13%, as interest rates hit 2-month high
- Comcast's CNBC, 23 April 2025
Nearly 50% of the home-sellers in the USA are offering price concessions/reductions to buyers
- Zero Hedge, 22 April 2025
Millions of student loan borrowers are behind on payments. They are seeing their credit scores drop, which will make it more difficult to buy a car or rent a home. And that has implications for the already slowing economy.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 April 2025
Why condo owners in Florida are so desperate to sell. Insurance increases, special assessments and limited financing options have sharply elevated costs.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 April 2025
Why condo owners in Florida are so desperate to sell. Large increases in insurance premiums, unexpected repair assessments and restrictive lending practices have turned the dream of coastal living into a costly burden for many, particularly in older buildings.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 22 April 2025
The housing market in Miami is hurt by "breathtaking" collapse in demand. Sales are down 50% from pandemic peak, and are 30% below the long-term average for March.
- Zero Hedge, 21 April 2025
The housing market in the USA may finally see relief as foreign buyers, illegals and Airbnbs disappear
- Zero Hedge, 20 April 2025
The family home: from shelter to a financial asset to a financial liability (due to deflation of asset bubbles and higher maintenance costs such as insurance)
- Zero Hedge, 20 April 2025
An exceptionally powerful atmospheric river fueled the deadly early April flooding disaster in the central and southern USA -- a historic flood event and a poignant example of how the phenomenon acts differently in the East than it does in the West. Another flooding disaster is coming.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 18 April 2025
Homebuyers rusk to obtain riskier loans, such as adjustable-rate loans, as turmoil due to Trump's taxes/tariffs pushes interest rates higher
- Comcast's CNBC, 16 April 2025
How Nihon built a 3d-printed train station in 6 hours for a small town.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 April 2025
Because of Trump's attacks on Canada, people in Canada are selling their vaction homes in the USA
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 April 2025
Wealthy buyers are backing out of multimillion-dollar home deals in the USA. Trump's trade war and stock market chaos have put the once unshakable high-end home market 'on ice'.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 April 2025
In 15 years, 80,000 homes in the New York area may be lost to flooding
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 April 2025
How construction contracting work became an economic race to the bottom. The reality of being a real estate contractor includes labor shortages, brutal competition and low, low margins.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 April 2025
Homeowners in the USA must earn $50,000/year more than renters to cover their housing payments
- Zero Hedge, 12 April 2025
Finland bans people and companies from Rossiya from buying property in Finland, banning such nationals from countries who "pose a potential threat to the national security of Finland"
- Zero Hedge, 12 April 2025
The Republican Trump's FEMA rejects Republican Trump-supporting North Carolina's request to extend the period in which residents can file for hurricane damage reimbursement. Since taking office, Trump has signaled he wants to do away with FEMA entirely.
- The Daily Beast, 12 April 2025
Mortgage rates surge over 75 as Trump's taxes/tariff trade war impacts the bond market. "Forget about housing in this environment."
- Comcast's CNBC, 11 April 2025
$300,000,000 -
Destiny USA, the largest mall in Syracuse, New York (owned by Carousel Center, a division of the Pyramid Companies), defaults on its $300 million mortgage. Pyramid had been required to make interest-only payments on the loan and then pay off the loan in its entirety or refinance it when its maturity date came on June 6, 2019.
- Zero Hedge, 10 April 2025
Here is how Zhōngguó could crush the housing market in the USA. Zhōngguó could sell its hundreds of billions of dollars of USA mortgage-backed securities in retailiation for Trump's trade war. This would force up mortgage rates in the USA, and kill the housing market.
- Comcast's CNBC, 09 April 2025
A swift rise in mortgage rates this week wiped out any advantages of last week'ss decline for homebuyers. Homebuyers are now more concerned with the state of the economy and employment than they are with rates.
- Comcast's CNBC, 08 April 2025
Americans have $35 trillion in housing wealth - and it is costing them. But the wealth has come with rising property taxes and higher hurdles for borrowing.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 April 2025
Prized seaside warehouses to bear brunt of Trump's tax/tariff plan. Disruption of foreign trade could bring lower occupancy rates, reduced property values and less industrial development by port cities.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 April 2025
The public insurance safety-net system in California that lost a million-dollar check. Customers of the state-chartered Fair Plan face problems including canceled policies, refusals to treat toxins from smoke and dire customer service.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 April 2025
The mortgage giant Rocket Companies has agreed to buy Mr. Cooper Group, one of the largest mortgage companies in the USA, in a $9.4 billion all-stock deal.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 March 2025
In Bangkok, looking at high-rises with a new sense of dread. Buildings are rising all over the city, emblems of economic growth. But an earthquake that sent one crashing to the ground has stirred fears about building safety in Thailand.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 March 2025
Trump and Musk are trying to destroy FEMA. Communities battered by storms are losing billions of dollars in desperately needed support to rebuild (of no concern to the filthy rich), including communities that voted for Trump.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 March 2025
The surprising good news for shopping mall owners: the bankruptcy of Forever 21. The fast-fashion retailer's store closures create an opportunity for stronger tenants that can pay higher rents.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 March 2025
Commercial real estate delinquency rate increase in the 4th quarter
- Zero Hedge, 25 March 2025
As Trump works to destroy FEMA, data shows there was a major disaster declaration every four days in 2024
- Warner Brothers CNN, 24 March 2025
Almost 7 years ago, Elon Musk announced he would turn tunnel dirt into "bricks for low-cost housing". Another one of his boulshirt ideas that fizzled out?
- Benzinga, 24 March 2025
Signs of a bottom in the office real estate market. Sales of office buildings jumped nearly 21 percent last year, and leasing activity is up, too. Companies are looking for more space as work-from-home policies decline.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 March 2025
Republicans in Florida are considering to reduce the costs of owning a home by eliminating property taxes. Eliminating property taxes would leave Florida more dependent on its sales tax (which affects the poor the most) and strip local governments of revenue to fund everything from schools to social services (of most benefit to the poor).
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 March 2025
Fears due to Trump's tax/tariff trade wars with Canada and México are raising construction costs by up to 20%, says the CEO of developer Related Group, Jon Paul Perez.
- Comcast's CNBC, 21 March 2025
Building permits in the USA decline for the 3rd straigth month. So, the forward-looking aspect of the residential construction data is not pretty - despite mortgage rates tumbling.
- Zero Hedge, 18 March 2025
State Farm gets 'provisional' approval in California for a 22% increase in premiums for insurance policies on homes and buildings for owners, and 15% for renters
- Zero Hedge, 17 March 2025
$24,000,000 -
The Los Angeles Times, owned by the billionaire bio-tech entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, is sued for $24 million for allegedly failing to pay rent, leaving printing plant covered in "toxic ink stains"
- Murdoch's, 17 March 2025
Hawaii is sinking 40 times faster than previously predicted -- homes and businesses could soon be wiped out
- Murdoch's New York Post, 17 March 2025
A secret mortgage blacklist is leaving homeowners stuck with unsellable condos. Fewer homes can get Fannie Mae-backed mortgages, a response to Surfside condo collapse and insurance crunch.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 March 2025
In the insurance crisis in the US, hail hits harder than hurricanes and fires. Home insurers are dropping policyholders and raising premiums as the costs of repairing storm damage rises.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 March 2025
Not just condo prices: the entire housing market in Florida is softening, especially along the southwest coast. Prices are falling and inventory is rising in much of Florida. The turning market comes as migration to the Sunshine State slows, and a combination of hurricane fears, rising insurance and tax bills, and a steady supply of new construction has given buyers more leverage.
- Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 5 March 2025
After wildfires, clear skies in Los Angeles conceal a "toxic soup". Scientists collecting water, air and soil samples in neighborhoods ravaged by fires say they are concerned about long-term health risks for residents.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 March 2025
Compass in talks to buy Warren Buffett's real-estate brokerage unit. The talks are the latest sign of consolidation among real-estate brokerages during a prolonged period of lackluster home sales.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 March 2025
Scientists issue a critical warning after linking pollution from natural gas stoves in homes to a major health risk. The risk is due to nitrogen dioxide pollution causing asthma and premature deaths. "The problem is far worse than we thought."
- The Cool Down, 13 March 2025
Los Angeles has big plans to rebuild after the wildfires. Good luck obtaining insurance. Displaced residents seek a speedy return to their homes in the Pacific Palisades, but the largest insurer in California says, "Writing new policies does not make any sense at this time."
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 March 2025
Haden Kirkpatrick, a State Farm executive, has been fired after he was secretly recorded alleging that the insurance company hiked rates for California homeowners reeling from the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 12 March 2025
The Trump's immigration policies are scaring both undocumented workers, and the people who hire them. Fearing roundups, many immigrants are staying home. Construction, agriculture, senior care and hospitality employers say labor shortages will worsen.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 March 2025
The mortgage giant Rocket Companies has agreed to buy Redfin in an all-stock deal valuing the online real-estate brokerage at $1.75 billion.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 March 2025
What the war on the water supplies of California is really about, water supplies from a fragile ecosystem. The water needs of the communities where the water originates are often seen as expendable or unimportant compared to the needs of larger distant cities and corporate farmers.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 March 2025
What went wrong at Noem, Saudi Arabia's futuristic metropolis in the desert. Neom executives shielded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from the challenges of his fantastical plans, including by engaging in "deliberate manipulation" of financials, according to an internal report.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 March 2025
It is a surprisingly good time to be in the property insurance business. Insurers, despite inflation and recent disasters, are reporting strong results thanks to pricing and coverage adjustments.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 March 2025
Trump vowed to lower home prices. He could push them up. Taxes/tariffs (such as on lumber from Canada) and deportations of illegal immigrants (who build houses) threaten to push homeownership out of reach for millions.
- Barron's, 08 March 2025
Trump orders a new probe into imports of lumber from Canada and other countries, which could result in more taxes/tariffs on imported lumber, driving up the cost of building homes
- Thomson's Reuters, 01 March 2025
Trump orders a new probe into imports of lumber from Canada and other countries, which could result in more taxes/tariffs on imported lumber, driving up the cost of building homes
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 March 2025
Wall Street crashed the economy in 2008. Now they are back and bigger than ever. Wall Street expects to sell more than $335 billion in asset-backed debt this year. Remember that conference in "The Big Short"? This year's conference just drew a record 10,000 people.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 March 2025
Pending home sales in the USA collapse to record lows
- Zero Hedge, 27 February 2025
Alexandria, the birthplace of Cleopatra, is experiencing a "dramatic surge" in the collapses of buildings, as sea levels rise. About 7,000 old buildings in Alexandria are at risk of collapse.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 27 February 2025
New home sales in the USA plunge in January as mortgage rates spiked, while median new home prices exploded higher
- Zero Hedge, 26 February 2025
Trump authorizes the head of the EPA, Lee Zeldin, to fire up to 65 percent of the people at the EPA, which protects the Earth. Lee Zeldin, has also reportedly recommended that the White House end its 2009 "endangerment finding" that that climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions is a danger to human health.
- Nextstar Media's The Hill, 26 February 2025
New York-based Namdar, the real estate investor that won big on zombie malls, is now going all-in on empty offices, by buying office buildings in major markets after the pandemic hit and office values plummeted
- MSJ, 26 February 2025
Home prices in the USA accelerated again to a new record high in December, just six months after the Fed fueled the fire by reducing interest rates a total of 1.0%
- Zero Hedge, 25 February 2025
Retail store closures outpace openings amid "historic shift" to service-based tenants. But the outlook is not all bad, as the real estate churn may open up 140 million square feet of retail space in a market where high quality storefronts are in short supply, a JLL report says.
- Zero Hedge, 24 February 2025
Why Trump's ending of support for renewable energy could destroy a boom in manufacturing in the USA. A recent bright spot in manufacturing in the USA has been a flood of government funding under the Biden administration: for semiconductors, and for renewable energy. By ending those subsidies, Trump will send American manufacturing back to the doldrums.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 February 2025
Wildfires in California hit hard State Farm insurance company. But State Farm was already struggling financially.
- Barron's, 22 February 2025
Existing home sales in the USA plunged in January as mortgage rates rose
- Zero Hedge, 21 February 2025
Subprime crash redux: commercial real estate bond distress hits another record high. If this sounds a lot like the subprime crisis of 2006-2008, s because there are many similarities.
- Zero Hedge, 21 February 2025
Glaciers melting due to global heating caused almost 2 centimeters of sea level rise from 2000 and 2023, a loss of 6.5 trillon tons of ice
- The Guardian, 21 February 2025
Trump plans to fire 84% of the people working in the government office that helps non-rich people recover from the biggest environmental disasters. More money for tax breaks.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 February 2025
Zurich Insurance expects that the wildfires in California will lead to $200 million in pretax losses for the group, which reported better-than-expected results for 2024
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 February 2025
Housing starts in the USA plunged in January (along with homebuilder confidence)
- Zero Hedge, 19 February 2025
Small warehouses are becoming harder to find. Beneath the growing availability of warehouses in the USA lies a tight supply of buildings under 100,000 square feet.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 February 2025
Residents in Kentucky, face more destruction and anxiety from storms. The flood damage of recent days was not as catastrophic as some previous climate disasters in the state. But the rains still brought widespread havoc, and painful reminders of trauma.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 February 2025
The middle class in Zhōngguó feels the squeeze as property slump hits pocketbooks. Zhōngguó's per-capita property income grew at its lowest rate for over a decade in 2024, trimming disposable incomes and limiting consumption.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 February 2025
California rejects the request for an increase of 22% in home insurance rates/premiums sought by State Farm insurance company. The insurer said the rate increase is needed to prevent further depletion of capital that may affect its credit rating and harm mortgage customers.
- Zero Hedge, 16 February 2025
Which interest rate should you care about? The Fed's short-term interest rates matter, but the main action now is in the 10-year Treasury Bond market, which influences mortgages, credit cards and much more
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 February 2025
At least three people, including a child, have been killed after a catastrophic and historic flooding event unfolded across portions of Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virgnia over the weekend as a powerful storm system produced several threats across the eastern half of the USA.
- Murdoch's Fox News, 15 February 2025
Trump's Federal Emergency Management Agency has decided to stop enforcing rules designed to prevent flood damage to schools, libraries, fire stations and other public buildings. Experts say the move, which has not been publicly announced, could endanger public safety and may be in violation of federal law.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 February 2025
The USA is headed toward a landlord-friendly era in the Trump era. Expect higher rent prices. The prospect of apartment rents rising could further stoke inflation and give the Federal Reserve another reason to pause the reduction of interest rates.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 February 2025
Move over Florida, as retirees are making new plans as climate change and global heating raises housing costs. Extreme weather and soaring insurance costs have many retirees rethinking where to live. What to know if you are in a climate danger zone.
- Barron's, 15 February 2025
Due to global heating, the levels of polar sea ice fall to a record low in February, more of a threat to coastal properties.
- BBC, 14 February 2025
Shares of Airbnb rise more than 14%, its best day ever, on better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings
- Comcast's CNBC, 14 February 2025
As buyers fail to show up, more homes are being pulled from sale. An increase in the number of properties being delisted could be an early sign of a weakening housing market.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 February 2025
The world's largely unprotected peatlands are a 'ticking carbon bomb', warns study. Bogs and swamps are a colossal carbon store but their continued destruction would blow climate change targets.
- The Guardian, 13 February 2025
The SEC, obeying Trump, is pausing its legal defense of a rule that aims to give investors a clearer picture of the risks companies might be exposed to because of climate change and its effects, including droughts and wildfires
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 February 2025
Insurance company Travelers estimates it will lose $1.7 billion on catastrophic losses from wildfires in California
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 February 2025
The growing crisis in the insurance industry may make it hard to get a mortgage in parts of the country in the coming decades, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday, noting that banks and insurance companies have been pulling out of coastal and fire-prone areas they deem too high risk.
- Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 1 February 2025
Renters are tired of moving, settling in for the long haul. Soaring home prices keep many on the sidelines. Renters in need of more space and privacy are making house rentals their long-term homes.
- Zero Hedge, 10 February 2025
17 percent of homeowner mortgages in the USA are at 6 percent interest rates or higher
- Zero Hedge, 10 February 2025
State Farm insurance company was all in on business in California - until it pulled out before the recent wildfires. The insurer aggressively grew in Los Angeles, despite getting overweight on fire risk, but decided to cut thousands of policies last year, adding to the home-insurance crisis in California.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 February 2025
Allstate Insurance says it will pay out $1.1 billion in insurance claims caused by the wildfires that swept through Southern California in January. While the expected payout is significant, Allstate said Wednesday it was able to limit its losses partly by pulling back from the California market.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 06 February 2025
The way that hurricanes kill is changing. Hurricane Helene shows how. A close analysis of Helene's fatalities shows how major storms are taking lives in unexpected ways, and how the deadly effects can last long after the skies clear.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 February 2025
No more palm trees, and six other ways that Los Angeles can protect itself from wildfires: build safer houses, upgrade dangerous power lines, redesign roads for easier access by emergency vehicles.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 February 2025
Florida condominium owners are begging for relief after a new building safety law passed in the aftermath of the deadly Surfside collapse burdened them with staggering fees -- and one lawmaker is warning that it could trigger the "next wave of homeless people". New safety requirements and increased financial demands could bankrupt homeowners and condo associations alike.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 03 February 2025
That giant sucking sound? It is climate change and global heating devouring the value of your home, especially in climate-change denying states
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 February 2025
That giant sucking sound? It is climate change and global heating erasing $1.5 trillion of the value of homes in the USA, especially in climate-change denying states. Rising home-insurance costs and more homeowners spurning some risky neighborhoods will drive these declines.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 February 2025
How SoftBank bet and lost over $4 billion on WeWork. Masayoshi Masa was 'convinced' by Adam Neumann.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 02 February 2025
The huge wildfires in Los Angeles are fully contained.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 February 2025
More people in the USA than ever are living in wildfire areas. Across the West, there are now more than 16 million homes in the wildland-urban interface. About 1 in 8 properties in California now face "very high" fire risk.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 February 2025
Pending home sales drop sharply in December as mortgage rates surge back over 7%
- Comcast's CNBC, 30 January 2025
Single women owe millions more homes than single men in the USA - the gap is only growing, despite a persisent pay gap where women earn less than men (16% less on the average). The gap is most prominent in the South. Experts suggest that women are more willing to make financial sacrifices to become homeowners.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 29 January 2025
Home prices in the USA surge to new record high (except in Tampa)
- Zero Hedge, 28 January 2025
Another real estate developer in Zhōngguó is facing a cash crisis. Zhōngguó Vanke, one of the largest developers in Zhōngguó, fired its top executives and said it anticipates a $6.2 billion loss, a sign the property meltdown is still raging.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 January 2025
Another real estate developer in Zhōngguó is facing a cash crisis. Zhōngguó Vanke, one of the largest developers in Zhōngguó, fired its top executives and said it anticipates a $6.2 billion loss, a sign the property meltdown is still raging.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 January 2025
Sales of new homes in the USA rise for the second straight year in 2024
- Zero Hedge, 27 January 2025
Trump's new taxes/tariffs on imports from Canada will hurt homebuilders and the real estate industry in California as it rebuilds from recent wildfires.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 January 2025
Homeowners' associations are struggling to find master insurance policies, forcing fees higher for residents. Insurers are boosting premiums or exiting the business, citing rising losses from extreme weather and aging buildings. The steep premium hikes usually end up passed on to individual owners in the form of higher monthly dues.
- Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 6 January 2025
Spain seeks to curb foreign buyers amid growing housing crisis. The country is at the forefront of a wider crunch spreading across Europe, and its prime minister has proposed a 100 percent tax aimed at foreign real estate investors.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 January 2025
Los Angeles is on fire, forcing the municipal bond market to wake to the risks of climate change and global heating
- Barron's, 25 January 2025
For the second year in a row, insurance rates for homeowners increase by over 10%, and not just in California. In six states, rates increased by more than 20%.
- Zero Hedge, 24 January 2025
Existing home sales in the USA decline to the lowest since 1995, with first-time buyers at the lowest on record
- Zero Hedge, 24 January 2025
Existing home sales in the USA decline to the lowest since 1995, with first-time buyers at the lowest on record
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 January 2025
Housing shortage, not volatile rates, is biggest obstacle for buyers, Zillow CEO says. The housing market in the USA has been hurt by volatile mortgage rates, but a severe shortage of available homes is the most critical obstacle for would-be buyers, Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman said.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 January 2025
Divvy Homes, once valued at $2 billion, is sold for half that price. The company, backed by high-flying Silicon Valley investors like Andreessen Horowitz, had promised it would reinvent the rent-to-own model and make it more consumer friendly. High interest rates and mortgage rates thwarted those plans.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 January 2025
The world is getting riskier. Reckless Americans do not want to pay for their poor decisions. Insurance is one of finance's great gifts to mankind. California is a microcosm of what happens when it breaks down - either households face potential ruin, or the public is handed a financial time bomb.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 January 2025
We have to stop underwriting people who move to, and build in, climate danger zones
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 January 2025
Rental price-gouging and scamming are worsening the conditions of victims of wildfires in California
- Zero Hedge, 18 January 2025
How the wildfires could reshape mortgage lending in California. If the insurance industry stops writing policies for California homes, it will ultimately hit the mortgage industry.
- Barron's, 18 January 2025
How the wildfires in California could lead to higher insurance costs for the rest of the country. Premiums have been rising sharply in recent years. The L.A. disaster will make matters worse.
- Barron's, 18 January 2025
Trump may privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What it means for shareholders and homeowners.
- Barron's, 18 January 2025
A large chunk of the cost of rebuilding after the Los Angeles wildfires is likely to shift to insurance customers throughout the state, under a little-noticed rule change last year by the insurance regulator of California that applies to large wildfires
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 January 2025
Is the catalyst for the next financial crisis ... homeowners insurance? Millions of Americans are thus left with much of their net worth tied up in houses that are prohibitively expensive to insure - if insurance is available at any price - and are therefore unsellable.
- Zero Hedge, 16 January 2025
Fears of a land grab have erupted across fire-ravaged areas of Los Angeles County, as local and state officials have already begun discussing plans for 'Los Angeles 2.0': "They are going to turn Altadena into one gigantic apartment complex, referring to local officials who want to change zoning in the Altadena area from single-family to multi-family. In other words, some officials want to usher in the construction of apartment buildings and so-called 'smart cities'.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 January 2025
Landlords in Los Angeles increase rents as much as 124% as fires force thousands to flee. "The vultures are circling and the flames are not even out yet."
- Zero Hedge, 15 January 2025
Economic toll of the wildfires in Los Angeles goes far beyond that of destroyed homes
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 January 2025
Many of the most destructive wildfires in California were caused by electric power lines
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 January 2025
More people in the USA than ever are living in wildfire areas. Los Angeles is no exception. Fierce winds and droughts set the conditions for the wildfires in Los Angeles, but the reckless, profiteering growth of housing in fire-prone areas also played a major role.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 January 2025
$115,000+ -
Hotel asset manager Ashford will pay a fine of more than $115,000, after the SEC said it was not forthcoming about a customer data breach.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 January 2025
Spain plans to help solve its housing crisis with a tax of 100% on homes bought by foreigners
- Comcast's CNBC, 14 January 2025
Their wealth is in their homes. Their homes are now ash. Many of the middle-class homeowners in Los Angeles bought properties years ago, before prices exploded. Now, they are figuring out what to do next, as fires accelerate the city's crushing housing crunch.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 January 2025
FTC prepares to sue the largest apartment landlord in the USA over hidden fees. The FTC is weighing a lawsuit alleging Greystar failed to disclose fees related to trash services and background checks.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 January 2025
Local governments in Zhōngguó settle overdue bills with apartments, not cash. In recent years, property developers in Zhōngguó have used unsold apartments to settle debts to construction companies and furniture suppliers. Now, local governments in Zhōngguó are doing the same.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 January 2025
Wildfires in California have caused billions of dollars in losses. Why insurance stocks have a brighter future. The insurance industry has been thriving as climate change increases the demand for coverage.
- Barron's, 12 January 2025
Wildfire and extreme weather are big concerns for buyers of homes. Real estate listings websites like Zillow size up a home's likelihood of flood, fire, and wind damage. That could affect prices.
- Barron's, 12 January 2025
The USA has more fancy apartments than it is able to fill. The USA has a serious housing shortage, but not for the type of apartments that real-estate investors have been building in record numbers.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 January 2025
As a climate scientist, I knew that it was time to leave Los Angeles. For those who have lost everything in climate disasters, the apocalypse has already arrived. And as the planet gets hotter, climate disasters will get more frequent and more intense. The cost of these fires will be immense, and they will affect the insurance industry and the housing market.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 January 2025
Shares of Mercury General, whose insurance organization is mostly centered in California, crashed 35% in premarket trading. About 80% of its premiums of $4.6 billion in 2024 were derived from the state, making it one of the most exposed insurers to the LA County fire.
- Zero Hedge, 10 January 2025
California imposes 1-year moratorium on insurance policy cancellations in areas ravaged by wildfires
- Zero Hedge, 10 January 2025
How climate change and global heating is supercharging disasters. Extreme weather events - deadly heat waves, floods, fires and hurricances - are the consequences of a warming planet.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 January 2025
10 people are dead, and 10,000 structures burned, as the wildfires in Los Angeles continue to burn with little control. The resulting destruction of properties could exceed $150 billion.
- Zero Hedge, 10 January 2025
Insurance stocks dive as loss estimates double from fires in southern California: Allstate dropped 5%, Traveller's dropped 2%, Chubb dropped 3%. Power company Edison International drop 10% on Wednesdaty. Pacific Gas & Electric dropped over 10%.
- Investor's Business Daily, 10 January 2025
Warehouse leasing prices are holding up despite declining demand. A steep cutback in new construction leaves tenants facing continued high rents after rates soared during the pandemic.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 January 2025
$223,000,000 -
Owners of a dilapidated hotel in Times Square, the Carter Hotel, which has been cited many times as "America's filthiest hotel", default on a $223 million loan
- Murdoch's New York Post, 09 January 2025
Damage from wildfires in Los Angeles likely to be costliest blaze in the history of the USA. Insured losses from the disaster could be more than $20 billion, or even higher if the fires spread further.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2025
California was already in home-insurance crisis before the recent infernosin Los Angeles. Industry officials warn of widespread economic damage on par with some of the biggest fire disasters in recent memory.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2025
Infernal chaos: the wildfires in Los Angeles spread to Hollywood Hills, with 2000 buildings destroyed and over 130,000 people evacuated. In total, over 17,000 acres have been burned and over 2000 building structures destroyed.
- Zero Hedge, 09 January 2025
"A hellscape in all directions": the devastating fires that ignited crisis and chaos in Los Angeles. Fires are burning one of the most iconic swaths of America, upending lives and destroying property.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2025
The Santa Ana winds driving the wildfires in Los Angeles. Devastating fires in the Los Angeles region are driven by Santa Ana winds blowing from California and Nevada's interior deserts to the Pacific Ocean.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2025
A lender to purchasers of mobile homes, owned by Warren Buffett, is sued because of its risky mortgages. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, made loans to buyers of manufactured homes that it knew the buyers could not repay.
- Zero Hedge, 08 January 2025
The Justice Department expands its price-fixing lawsuit against RealPage to include six big landlords. Greystar, the largest apartment owner in the USA, and Blackstone's LivCor are among the firms added to the lawsuit.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 January 2025
A lender to purchasers of mobile homes, owned by Warren Buffett, is sued because of its risky mortgages. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, made loans to buyers of manufactured homes that it knew the buyers could not repay.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 January 2025
Retail is fashionable with property investors again, but only the unflashy kind. More people than ever are running errands at their neighborhood shopping center. Supply of this type of property is surprisingly scarce.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 January 2025
Sekisui House, a real estate company based in Nihon, quietly becomes the fifth-largest homebuilder in the USA
- Murdoch's New York Post, 03 January 2025
Ports in the USA need help from the private sector. Under the government's port authority, political considerations often override commercial criteria, leading to poor investment decisions.
- Zero Hedge, 31 December 2024
Concrete can be made 30 percent stronger by processing and adding charred coffee grounds to the concrete mix. Every year the world produces a staggering 10 billion kilograms (22 billion pounds) of coffee waste globally. Most ends up in landfills, worsening global heating.
- Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 31 December 2024
The Interior Department is caught between tribes in casino battles. The Biden administration's consideration of three proposed tribal casinos in California and Oregon has touched off a fierce debate about tribal sovereignty and land rights.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 December 2024
Pending home sales in the USA rose again in November as mortgage rates fell, but mortgage rates have soared since
- Zero Hedge, 30 December 2024
An epic construction site in the desert of Islamic Saudia Arabia is a hazard for workers. Gang rape, suicides and highway deaths plague Neom, the futuristic Islamic vision of Crown Prince Mohammed.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 December 2024
Homeowners have no incentive to sell. This is partly because Americans who locked in ultra-low mortgage rates during the pandemic have little incentive to move into new homes and take on higher borrowing costs.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 30 December 2024
Raging waves batter the coast and piers of California. An increasingly ferocious and volatile surf is raising questions about the future of the state's piers, which have defined the coastline for generations.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 December 2024
Cost of buyer incentives looms over home builders. Lower-rate loans and other incentives have helped the biggest home builders sell new houses at a decent clip this year, even as stubbornly high mortgage rates weigh on sales of existing homes.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 December 2024
Insurance and taxes now cost more than mortgages for many homeowners. Insurers have pushed big rate increases in premiums because of losses from natural disasters and rising costs to repair homes. Surging home values in recent years, meanwhile, have lifted property taxes for many homeowners.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 December 2024
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed suit against Rocket Homes, alleging the real-estate company provides incentives to brokers and agents to steer home buyers to its parent company's mortgage-lending wing, Rocket Mortgage
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 December 2024
From 2018 to 2023, the average sale price of a new manufactured home (mobile home) grew faster than that of a new single-family home, according to a recent study, rising 58% to $124,300. During the same period, the average sale price of a new single-family home rose nearly 38 percent, to $409,872.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 December 2024
The Fed reduced interest rates, but mortgage costs went up. Average 30-year mortgages have climbed to around 6.7% since the Fed started lowering rates in September. And they are only poised to rise further.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 December 2024
During the past 14 years, sea levels in the southeast region of the USA and the Gulf of Mexico have risen twice as fast as the global average - all areas bordering states controlled by global-heating-denying Republicans lobbied/bribed to deny global heating by the fossil fuel industry
- Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, 20 December 2024
Boom, bust, back from the dead: Why are mall retailers the most interesting stocks on the market? Malls defined a generation. Those mallrats grew up. Guess what stocks they're buying?
- Sherwood News, 20 December 2024
$290,000,000 -
Highgate, a New York-based hospitality investor, forfeited ownership of the sixth-largest hotel in San Francisco, the Hyatt Regency to its lending bank, Blackstone Mortgage Trust, in return for cancelling a $290 million debt
- Comcast's CNBC, 20 December 2024
Home sales in November post the biggest annual gain since 2021. Sales of existing homes rose in November, notching the biggest year-over-year gain in more than three years.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 December 2024
$680,000 -
Lafayette RE Management, with a $1 billion in assets, and its founder will together pay $680,000 after a former Lafayette partner, Jesus Nunez-Unda, accused the greedy firm of obtaining a paycheck protection program loan under false pretenses, according to documents unsealed this week in San Antonio federal court.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 December 2024
Insurers are deserting homeowners as climate shocks worsen. Without insurance, it is impossible to get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans cannot buy a home.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 December 2024
The housing affordability crisis is going global. Home prices and rents are rising faster than incomes in big cities in Europe and beyond. "The price in Ireland is mental.", said a Dublin teacher who lives with his mother.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 December 2024
About 36 high-rise buildings in South Florida are sinking or settling in unexpected ways, in some cases because of nearby construction. Limestone under the South Florida beach is interspersed with layers of sand, which can shift under the weight of high-rises and as a result of vibrations from foundation construction.
- Associated Press, 17 December 2024
Asking rents fall 0.7% to lowest level since March 2022. The median rent is now 6.2% lower than when it hit an all-time high of $1,700 in August 2022.
- Zero Hedge, 17 December 2024
Stand Insurance, a new business, seeks to cover homes in areas other insurers are abandoning because of risks from natural disasters like wildfires and floods.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 December 2024
Your home-insurance bill has only one way to go: up. Damage from hail is fueling a jump in insurance claims as more homes are built in disaster-prone areas.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 December 2024
Millennials are scared of buying a home in the USA. They might have a good reason. Millennials see real estate as a speculative asset. That makes them less apt to buy than their parents did at similar ages.
- Barron's, 14 December 2024
$37,000,000
A northwest Indiana man, Brad Detert, secured a record $37 million pretrial settlement after being severely injured in a 2020 construction zone crash in Valparaiso, Indiana. The primary defendant, Traffic Control Specialists, was accused of failing to follow state and federal standards for safely directing traffic in the construction zone.
- Fox News, 13 December 2024
How a realtor's non-profit arm quietly funds conservative advovacy groups. The National Association of Realtors has created a non-profit that gives more heavily to conservative causes , and to groups that have little to do with real estate and housing
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 December 2024
Wall Street is betting billions on rental homes as ownership slips out of reach. Millennials priced out of the most coveted suburban neighborhoods are turning to upscale single-family rentals nearby. Developers are eager to capture that demand.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 December 2024
Why shares of home building companies are predicted to rebound
- Barron's, 07 December 2024
The commercial mortgage crisis deepens. The office real estate sector has been grappling with a severe downturn for several years now, but are accelerating recently as they are driven by persistently high vacancy rates and declining rents.
- Zero Hedge, 06 December 2024
Insured losses due to natural catastrophes to top $135 billion in 2024, according to the Swiss Re Institute. Global insured losses from natural catastrophes like hurricanes and floods are on track to exceed $135 billion in 2024, marking the fifth consecutive year with such losses surpassing a level of $100 billion.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 December 2024
The construction industry braces for a one-two punch: taxes/tariffs and deportations. Trump's immigration and trade policies put home builders in a vulnerable economic position.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 December 2024
The biggest apartment owner in the USA starts constructing modular homes. Greystar Real Estate Partners plans Monday to open its first modular project in the USA, a six-building apartment complex in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, and is building six more.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 December 2024
The 850-year-old Smithfield Market in London will be closing. In an era of supermarket chains, which buy produce directly from far-flung food-processing plants, a wholesale meat market in the heart of London makes little sense. The property, in any case, is more valuable as a site for offices, apartments or retail businesses.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 November 2024
$15,000,000 -
The private equity firm Blackstone is paying nearly $15 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the previous landlord of violating rent-stabilization rules by overcharging renters for apartments now owned by Blackstone.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 November 2024
Sales of new homes in the USA 'crashed' in October, the largest month-to-month decline since July 2013
- Zero Hedge, 26 November 2024
Zhōngguó is building 3000 miles of high-speed rail - that it might not need. The train system is one of the biggest public works in history, and it is becoming a giant money pit.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 November 2024
Shares of Freddie Mac are up 116%, and shares of Fannie Mae are up 143, since Trump won re-election, on bets that Trump will loosen restrictions over the two mortgage giants. They both play a central role in the US housing market by purchasing mortgages from lenders and re-packaging them as securities, and both fell under government control during the 2008 financial crisis as mortgage defaults soared.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 November 2024
Farmers in the UK protest in London over a change in inheritance taxes. Farms worth more than about $1.3 million will face an estate tax from 2026, ending a previous exemption and prompting anger in some rural communities.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 November 2024
Big cities in the USA take up fight against apartment rental prices being set by 'BigTech' AI algorithms. The federal price-fixing lawsuit against rental-software firm RealPage could take years, but some cities and states are already cracking down on abuses the company fosters with landlords.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 November 2024
Housing starts in the USA and building permits decline to levels around the time of the Covid lockdown
- Zero Hedge, 19 November 2024
Vacancy rates have plunged in the most desirable London submarkets and in the newest office towers especially -- which should sound familiar to anyone in New York real estate
- Murdoch's New York Post, 17 November 2024
The Housing and Urban Development agency (HUD) - what has it achieved for the trillions of tax dollars it has spent? The homeownership rate in the USA was 64% in 1967, two years after HUD was created. Now the rate is ... 64%.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 November 2024
Rents for apartments in Texas are declining due to a surge in new supply and reduced demand. In Austin, Texas, he median apartment rent dropping 15% over the last 2+ years. The vacancies have skyrocketed. Rental concessions are everywhere.
- Zero Hedge, 15 November 2024
The economy of Zhōngguó is improving, but still needs more financial help from the government. Beijing's recent cascade of monetary and fiscal easing subsidies have yet to fully reinvigorate an economy weighed down by a yearslong property-sector slump.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 November 2024
Why Home Depot made an $18.25 billion investment on the real estate professionals business. The retailer announced it was acquiring SRS Distribution, a company that sells supplies to roofing, pool and landscaping professionals, for $18.25 billion in March and closed the deal in June.
- Comcast's CNBC, 15 November 2024
The New York City Council approves a law shifting broker fees to landlords. The City Council approved a bill on Wednesday that would curb a loathed New York City real estate practice: making renters pay thousands of dollars in broker fees.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 November 2024
Coffee shops are replacing the office for independent workers, but being a 'third place' can be a 'third rail'. Independent cafe owners are not profiting much and even Starbucks is struggling to adapt, even with paid memberships.
- Sherwood News, 13 November 2024
$27,000,000 -
Black and Latino families who were pushed out of a Palm Springs neighborhood by white Christian politicians in the 1960s reached a $27 million tentative settlement agreement with the city that will largely go toward increasing housing access
- Associated Press, 13 November 2024
The economic downturn in Zhōngguó has not been kind to the ultrarich who made their wealth on its rise. In their haste to cough up cash, the luxury property market in Hong Konh has had some fire sales.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 November 2024
Foreclosures in Zhōngguó soar, threatening to sharply reduce profits at banks. When the housing market was flying high, mortgage defaults were almost nonexistent. But now the legal system is struggling to keep up with evictions.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 November 2024
Why are cities still spending big on convention centers? Cities are spending more than ever to land the biggest events, but companies have long pulled back on spending for annual conferences and attendance has dwindled.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 November 2024
The CEO of Neom, the futuristic city in Saudi Arabia, abruptly leaves the project. ongtime CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr left Neom, Saudi Arabia's marquee development, which has been plagued by delays, cost overruns and staff turnover.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 November 2024
Real-estate scions are breaking a cardinal rule: never sell. The office-market downturn is forcing some of New York City's multigenerational family owners to sell core properties.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 November 2024
Plummeting home prices in Florida haven't been this bad since 2011. A mix of problems are pressuring the market, including increased housing supply, skyrocketing insurance premiums and accelerated construction in recent years.
- New York Post, 12 November 2024
Mortgage rates fell, then rose. What comes next? Many would-be home buyers are still hoping for mortgage rates to come down as the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates. How much they will fall is unclear.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 November 2024
Home Depot lifts full-year outlook after third-quarter sales rise. The home-improvement retailer raised its guidance following strong third-quarter sales as demand rose for grills and paint. Hurricane preparations in the Southeast also provided an increase in sales.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 November 2024
Why aren't empty office buildings be used for housing, especially for homeless people living on the streets? Because of a silly local rule that requires that apartment windows can be opened.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 November 2024
An estimate of the total cost of damage from climate-related extreme weather events globally was approximately $2 trillion between 2014 and 2023, extreme weather events caused by global heating due to burning of fossil fuels that profits the socialist fossil fuel industry.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 10 November 2024
The environment of the Yellowstone National Park is disappearing to real estate development. The television show, "Yellowstone", may be partly to blame. Development has brought more fences, roads and traffic, the latter compounded by spiking park visitation. Homes with garbage and bird feeders can attract grizzly bears, causing conflicts and bear deaths.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 November 2024
Growing food instead of lawns in front yards. Front yards transformed to tiny crop farms in Los Angeles provide vegetables to dozens of families and use a fraction of the water needed by grass.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 November 2024
Zhōngguó disappoints with the latest "bare minimum" socialist stimulus package, as it waits for Trump's taxes/tariffs
- Zero Hedge, 08 November 2024
Zhōngguó announces $1.4 trillion package over five years to help reduce the 'hidden' debt of local governments. The debt swap program, however, fell short of many investors' expectations for more direct fiscal support. The new debt measures would alleviate pressure on local authorities and free up funds for supporting economic growth.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 November 2024
If the Fed is reducing interest rates, why aren't mortgage rates falling? Consumer borrowing costs have not tracked the central bank since it cut rates by 0.5% in September.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 November 2024
Florida now has 4 of the top 10 American cities where home prices are plummeting the most. However, in cities such as Miami, median list prices are still 50% higher than before the pandemic.
- MoneyWise, 07 November 2024
A company in the USA with investors from Zhōngguó, that owns land near military sites in the USA, successfully petitioned the USDA to change the classification of the land as owned by interests in Zhōngguó.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 November 2024
Empty apartments in the USA are finally starting to fill up. If that demand is sustained, landlords likely will have more pricing power starting sometime next year.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 November 2024
Weekly mortgage demand tanks 11% as interest rates surge higher. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances -- $766,550 or less -- increased to 6.81% from 6.73%. Applications to refinance a home loan fell 19% for the week.
- Comcast's CNBC, 06 November 2024
"Homes are still overpriced and unaffordable", as the Fed's socialist 0.5% reduction in interest rates sparks a mortgage rate increase
- Zero Hedge, 31 October 2024
A Wall Street landlord bought your neighbor's house. It is a mixed blessing. The zip codes where investors own a bigger share of homes have seen higher-than-average increases in both prices and rents.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 October 2024
Since mid-2022, housing prices in the world's real estate bubble cities have sunk approximately 15% in real terms as central banks embarked on rate hikes.
- Zero Hedge, 27 October 2024
Wells Fargo may lose up to $3 billion on its office building loans. "We have reserved for all of it, so the balance sheet is de-risked, but it's going to play out over three, four years."
- Thomson's Reuters, 24 October 2024
In a 'ghost' city in Malaysia, echoes of the housing crash in Zhōngguó. Forest City was an audacious $100 billion project by a top real estate developer from Zhōngguó. Today, the project is a fraction of what had been planned and the developer is bankrupt.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 October 2024
Home sales in the USA on track for worst year since 1995. Existing-home sales in September fell 3.5% from a year earlier, as persistently high prices and elevated mortgage rates are keeping potential home buyers on the sidelines.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 October 2024
Existing home sales in the USA slump to the lowest level since 2010, with the recent 0.5% reduction in interest rates not semming to help much
- Zero Hedge, 23 October 2024
Retail space is going fast and pushing out local shops. Small businesses struggle to compete with national chains as rents rise.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 October 2024
Munich Re net profit misses forecast due to hurricane losses. Munich Re's third-quarter net profit missed consensus forecasts due to hurricane losses but the company said it expected to beat its full-year target.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 October 2024
As Kamala Harris courts 'Sun Belt', housing costs stand in her way. Shuttered factories and trade deals helped turn working-class Midwesterners against Democrats. Will the high cost of housing do the same in the Sun Belt?
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 October 2024
Can a $350 million plan transform 5th Avenue into a grand boulevard? New York City officials and business leaders plan to expand sidewalks, add seating areas and trees and remove two car lanes to make the renowned avenue more pedestrian friendly.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 October 2024
The economy of Zhōngguó continued to grow at a lackluster pace over the summer, according to data released on Friday, underscoring the urgency of the recent attempts by the government to bolster growth. The central bank has cut interest rates and minimum down payments for mortgages. The finance ministry promised the sale of more bonds to raise money for local governments to pay municipal salaries and buy vacant apartments for conversion into affordable housing.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 October 2024
Costco is downstairs and the living is easy. The discounter will anchor 800 apartments. The chain signed onto its first residential mixed-use building in Los Angeles, signaling a potential shift in its real estate strategy.
- Barron's, 19 October 2024
Housing starts and building permits in the USA plunge in September. So, The Fed cuts short-term rates... mortgage-rates rise... and builders slow their building plans. That is not how it is supposed to work!
- Zero Hedge, 18 October 2024
Home prices in Zhōngguó decline the most since 2015, despite efforts to revive market. New home prices in September fell 6.1 per cent year on year in 70 mainland cities, widening from a 5.7 per cent slump in August.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 18 October 2024
NFL stadiums could experience $11 billion in climate-related losses by 2050, a new report finds. Stadiums near the water and could see insurance premiums rise and repair costs soar as weather-related losses hit.
- Comcast's CNBC, 17 October 2024
Walmart has begun selling tiny homes, months after Amazon offered the unusually stylish pop-up abodes. The "expandable prefab house" from Chery Industrial will cost you $15,900 for the 19-by-20-foot option.
- Jiaravanon's Fortune, 17 October 2024
Storms be damned, as people in Florida keep building in high-risk areas. Nearly 300,000 new properties nationwide have been built in flood-prone areas since 2019.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 October 2024
Homeowners in Florida fear soaring insurance cost after hurricanes. Average homeowner premiums in Florida surged nearly 60% between 2019 and 2023.
- Thomson's Reuters, 17 October 2024
Stocks in Zhōngguó decline after the round of property stimulus is a dud
- Zero Hedge, 17 October 2024
Zhōngguó will win the "tough battle" to preserve the real estate sector of its economy, the minister of housing predicts, by expanding its stimulus to 4 trillion yuan (about $500 billion)
- Bloomberg, 17 October 2024
Babcock Ranch, a climate resistant community passed two hurricane tests. On the west coast of Florida, a town built to weather hurricanes hosted more than 2,000 people during Hurricane Milton.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 October 2024
High home prices force builders to offer mortgage buydowns -- and more. Home builders might have to offer further price reductions, in addition to continuing mortgage rate buydowns.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 October 2024
$1,900,000 -
The Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau penalized Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation for alleged redlining in Black neighborhoods in Birmingham, Alabama, the agencies said on Tuesday, which the company denies. The mortgage lender will pay a $1.9 million penalty and provide $7 million in loan subsidies as a result, the CFPB said in a statement.
- Thomson's Reuters, 15 October 2024
How climate disasters are making mobile homes a huge risk. Millions of Americans (6% of homes), many poor and vulnerable, live in mobile and manufactured homes. When catastrophe strikes, they are often on their own with less insurance.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 October 2024
Hurricanes amplify the insurance crisis in riskiest areas. After Helene and Milton (estimated damages are over $200 billion), some small Florida insurance companies risk bankruptcy. Larger insurance companies will be in the hot seat with lawmakers and consumer groups. Since 2021, nine property and casualty insurers have gone bankrupt in Florida. The socialist National Flood Insurance Program is $20 billion in debt.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 October 2024
People moved to Florida for a slice of paradise. Now they are packing their bags. Hurricanes have driven up the cost - and headaches - of living in the Sunshine State. Some Floridians are reaching their breaking point.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 October 2024
Real estate pro Ivy Zelman is bullish on housing stocks. "What economists don't appreciate is that turnover is extremely depressed not because there is a lack of demand but because of the lack of supply."
- Barron's, 11 October 2024
Few states elect their insurance commissioners. But in North Carolina, a proposed 42 percent rate hike and Hurricane Helene have raised the stakes in the upcoming election.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 October 2024
Analysts at Morningstar DBRS forecast insured losses from Milton in the range of $60-$100 billion if the hurricane directly hits the Tampa metro area. A $100 billion loss would put Milton on par with the 2005 storm called Katrina.
- Zero Hedge, 09 October 2024
$52,000,000 -
Marriott agrees to pay a $52 million penalty to 49 states and the District of Columbia to resolve the harm to its customers from three large data breaches, which took place from 2014 to 2020, affected more than 344 million customers worldwide
- Thomson's Reuters, 09 October 2024
Investors who bought 'catastrophe' bonds are preparing for huge losses due to Hurricane Milton's direct path over heavily-populated Tampa, Florida
- Bloomberg, 08 October 2024
The great migration to global-warming-denying Florida is coming undone. A surplus of housing inventory and dwindling buyer interest are slowing sales and keeping homes on the market longer. Hurricanes and extreme weather are making it worse.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 October 2024
Homeowners are rushing to file insurance claims after Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction across six states. Many of them will likely be able to buy full coverage. Property insurers in recent years have hollowed out coverage and sharply increased rates to compensate for steep underwriting losses driven by worsening natural disasters caused by global heating due to fossil fuel use.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 October 2024
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates, then standard 30-year mortgage rates went up. It is a warning that lower interest rates in the long term are not a foregone conclusion.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 October 2024
After Hurricane Helene, lawyers gear up for battles over who should pay. As storms intensify, so do the legal clashes with insurance companies, aid agencies and others over compensation, rebuilding and even scams.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 October 2024
Research on hundreds of tropical storms finds that mortality keeps rising for more than a decade afterward. Looking at 501 tropical storms from 1930 to 2015, researchers found that the average tropical storm resulted in an additional 7,000 to 11,000 deaths over the 15 years that followed. Overall during the study period, tropical storms killed more people than automobile crashes, infectious diseases and combat for soldiers.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 October 2024
An apocalypse hits the electric grids in the Carolinas: 360 substations down, power restoration could take "months"
- Zero Hedge, 02 October 2024
The housing surplus in Zhōngguó 'collides' with its shrinking population. Many cities are stuck with empty homes that they will likely never fill, adding to the economic woes of Zhōngguó.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024
In a town in Florida ravaged by storms, homeowners all want to sell. Ballooning home insurance costs and the perennial threat of violent storms hit the Tampa Bay housing market hard.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024
That luxury home comes with an ocean view -- and surging insurance costs. A lot of high-end real estate is in parts of the USA that have become hotbeds for climate disasters in recent years.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024
The house-price supercycle is just getting going. Why property prices could keep rising for years.
- Economist, 01 October 2024
Housing starts are tumbling as completions soar, it is very recessionary. The discrepancy between housing starts and completions is the largest since 1980.
- Zero Hedge, 01 October 2024
Mooresville, a wealthy town in North Carolina, worries that there is danger lurking under its grass lawns. For decades, utilities across the nation sold waste coal ash to real estate developers. The EPA now warns it poses a cancer risk.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 October 2024
When Hurricane Helene hit, this disaster-proof neighborhood in Cortez, Florida, kept their lights on. Housing designed for strong hurricanes, and secure solar panels on the roof, proved themselves during the hurricane.
- Fast Company, 30 September 2024
The socialist stimulus onslaught continues in Zhōngguó as the State Council calls for faster implementation of easing measures
- Zero Hedge, 30 September 2024
Zhōngguó to allow home buyers to refinance mortgages in latest easing move. The move is the latest in a weeklong burst of easing measures aimed at stimulating s moribund property market.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 September 2024
Will the surprise stimulus plan launched by Zhōngguó work? Getting out of the deflationary hole that Zhōngguó has fallen into is vital, and in the short run all stimulus will help. But for the long term, ZHōngguó needs to stop digging and start consuming.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 September 2024
Global-warming-aggravated Hurricane Helene to cause from $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage in southern states
- Zero Hedge, 29 September 2024
Sorry, your insurance bill probably is not coming down much. Here is why. Both presidential candidates have talked about the rising cost of insurance in the USA. But the factors that make cars and homes more expensive to insure are hard to control -- especially all at once.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 September 2024
Zhōngguó's mortgage cut still insufficient to move the needle, boost spending by homeowners. A set of policy and interest rate changes were unveiled on Tuesday as policymakers sought to revive the world's second-largest economy.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 27 September 2024
A study finds that global heating and climate change doubled likelihood of recent floods in Europe. Storm Boris dumped record amounts of rain over Central and Eastern Europe this month. A new study found global heating and climate change made the deluge more likely.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 September 2024
Many cities and counties in the USA are selling bonds to cover costs from storms and drought caused by global heating, which many of these Republican states deny is happening .
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 September 2024
Pending home sales limp off all-time record lows in August in the USA -- "... contract signings remain near cyclical lows even as home prices keep marching to new record highs"
- Zero Hedge, 26 September 2024
In global heating denying Florida, Hurricane Helen becomes a "nightmare" storm with "unsurvivable" storm surge ahead of landfall in Florida, having gained much destructive power in the ever-warming Gulf of Mexico waters
- Zero Hedge, 26 September 2024
The investment fund of Jared Kushner, Affinity Partners, has reaped over $100 millions in fees, but so far returned no profits to his investors. The son-in-law of Trump has said he has intentionally moved slowly to invest the money of investors, which came primarily from the Islamic world - the investment funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Investments? Or indirect bribes to Trump and his family?
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 September 2024
A homeowner in Florida was dropped by his insurer over drone images of his roof, with no in-person human inspection. "Policyholders in Florida have no protection from any predatory, arbitrary or capricious decisions of insurance companies."
- MoneyWise, 25 September 2024
Home prices set to soar over 10% amid an 'explosion' in mortgage refinancing after the Fed lowered interest rates (pushing up inflation that was 'down' enough for the Fed to cut rates)
- Zero Hedge, 25 September 2024
Despite declining mortgage interest rates, new home sales in the USA dropped in August
- Zero Hedge, 25 September 2024
Argentina scrapped its rent controls. Now the market is thriving. Landlords in Buenos Aires are rushing to put properties back on the market, and many renters are getting better deals after the new president, Milei, scrapped rental laws, along with most government price controls.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2024
$48,000,000 -
Invitation Homes, one of the largest owners of single-family homes in the USA, to settle allegations of hidden costs charged to renters. Invitation Homes agrees to pay $48 million to refund consumers.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 September 2024
Home prices in the USA hit new record high, but YoY appreciation slows significantly. For the fourth month in a row, home price annual appreciation slowed in July.
- Zero Hedge, 24 September 2024
Neither Kamala Harris nor Trump can make housing more affordable. The rise in mortgage rates, inflation cause by federal spending, and a thicket of state and local construction laws are little controlable by the president of the USA.
- The Hill, 24 September 2024
Canada and Europe dominate the foreign ownership of farmland in the USA, 50 times more land than owned by interests in Zhōngguó
- Zero Hedge, 24 September 2024
The interest rate reduction of 0.5% will not save these real-estate owners. Relief from lower interest rates is coming too late for many highly indebted commercial-property investors.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 September 2024
Housing asset values supported the consumer economy in Zhōngguó but prices have collapsed. The latest month: housing values down 7% year-to-year. The consumer in Zhōngguó won't spend until housing prices stabilize. The housing bubble must be reinflated.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 September 2024
After spending $1.9 billion to acquire the Motel 6 hotel chain, and earning $1 billion in profits (net cost $900 million), Blackstone sells the hotel chain to a global travel company, Oyo, for $525 million
- Murdoch's New York Post, 21 September 2024
The Motel 6 hotel chain is sold to Oyo, a giant hotel chain based in Bharat. Blackstone agrees to sell one of the USA's most recognizable lodging chains for $525 million.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 September 2024
$13,000,000 -
Jason Adler, supposedly a rich hedge fund manager, is sued by his mother for $13,000,000 - "the world's worst son" - after he defaulted on a $13 million mortgage he took out in 2016 against his late father's swanky townhouse on New York's Upper East Side. In a related case, Austrian billionaire Harald McPike claims Ader scammed him out of $25 million in a 2021 agreement to back a $2.6 billion bid to buy the largest casino in the Philippines.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 20 September 2024
Existing home sales in the USA decline to near 14-year lows in August
- Zero Hedge, 19 September 2024
Homes in the mountain towns of California are too risky for insurers, but residents want to remain in these danger zones. In the San Bernardino Mountains, another wildfire has forced residents to flee, the latest reminder that they must accept the risks of global heating (i.e., no insurance) if they want to remain.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 September 2024
Combining solar power with farming is getting easier. Developers are wary of added costs. Agrivoltaics may help farms use less water and protect fruit from frost, but many U.S. farmers can still make more money renting their land to developers.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 September 2024
The Federal Reserves reduces interest rates by 0.5%, despite stocks and home prices being at record highs, with the result that stock prices and home prices will go even higher
- Zero Hedge, 18 September 2024
The Fed announces that it will lower interest rates by another 0.5% before the end of 2024
- Comcast's CNBC, 18 September 2024
The Federal Reserves reduces interest rates by 0.5%, despite stocks and home prices being at record highs, with the result that stock prices and home prices will go even higher
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 September 2024
There is no doubt that the Federal Reserve is driving financial markets right now
- Zero Hedge, 18 September 2024
Housing starts and permits surged in August as rate-cut euphoria re-emerged
- Zero Hedge, 18 September 2024
Why the expected interest rate cut by the Fed will not solve the housing wealth gap. With home prices near record highs and the cost of home insurance and property taxes rising, affordability remains an issue.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2024
Junk fees charged by hotels and airlines are easier to detect -- and you will keep paying. It is becoming more normal for travelers to know upfront all costs associated with overnight stays at hotels, and with airplane tickets.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2024
When property investors want out, these bargain hunters rush in. Investment firms are raising record sums for real estate secondary funds that cut private deals to buy assets from investors who cannot otherwise exit.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 September 2024
Many people in California are losing the ability to buy insurance for their homes. Insurance carriers are canceling policies because of the difficulty of raising premiums and increased costs due to environmental damages
- Zero Hedge, 15 September 2024
Home sales in flood zones are booming. Here is why buyers take the risk. New Yorkers are spending billions on houses in flood-prone areas despite growing awareness of the effects of climate change.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 September 2024
Home prices in August in Zhōngguó decline at the fastest pace in 9 years, as small cities bear brunt. The smallest cities such as Yangzhou, Huizhou and Dali posted the biggest drops, with their losses widening from July and June.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 14 September 2024
REITs are beating the market. 10 investments with juicy yields. Quality REITs should hold up well as the economy slows down. Here are 10 that you should seriously consider.
- Barron's, 14 September 2024
$62,200,000 -
Zhōngguó imposes a penalty of $62.2 million on PwC (PricewaterhouseCooper), and bans it for six months from undertaking auditing for clients, for its failures in checking the books of bankrupt developer Zhōngguó Evergrande Group.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 13 September 2024
Mortgage rates in the USA continue to fall. The average rate on 30-year mortgages declined to 6.2 percent this week, the lowest point since early 2023.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 September 2024
Neom City, the world's biggest construction project, is a magnet for Islamic executives committing crimes for profit. The Neom project in Islamic Saudi Arabia is contending with corruption, worker deaths, racism and misogyny.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 September 2024
Core inflation comes in hotter than expected as shelter costs unexpectedly rise. One week from today, the Fed will reduce interest rates by 0.25%, sparking the next inflationary deluge.
- Zero Hedge, 11 September 2024
Inflation extends cooling streak to hit 2.5% in August. Inflation eased to new three-year lows, teeing up the Fed to begin gradually reducing interest rates at a meeting next week.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 September 2024
Inflation cooled in August, keeping the Fed poised to cut interest rates. Consumer Price Index inflation continued to cool, reaching a new three-year low. But signs of stubbornness lingered under the surface.
- New York Time, 11 September 2024
Indonesia to ban construction of hotels, villas in Bali to tackle overdevelopment. Moratorium could last for up to 10 years as government aims to improve quality of tourism and preserve agricultural land.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 September 2024
The condo market in Florida looks shaky. Could the bottom fall out? Overall, the median sales price of a condo in the state fell 1.3% in July, the latest figures available showed, marking the first year-over-year decline going back to at least July 2020. That is a lot less than the double-digit annual price gains racked up until November 2022, and the decline continues downward as inventory piles up and demand wanes.
- Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 08 September 2024
Shocked by extreme storms caused by global heating, a fishing town in Maine fights to save its waterfront. After two devastating storms hit Stonington in January, plans are multiplying to raise and fortify wharves, roads and buildings. But will that be enough?
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 September 2024
Are local governments in Zhōngguó using unsustainable tactics to repay debt? From "smashing pots" to special bonds, regional officials are running out of ways to squeeze businesses for more money, experts say.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 07 September 2024
Landslides are destroying multimillion-dollar homes in California, and they are getting worse. Rancho Palos Verdes is one of the cities with a lot of damage.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 07 September 2024
Flooding is getting worse -- and fewer homeowners have insurance. Swaths of the USA that have never flooded before are now in danger of being swamped, but the risk is not covered by standard home-insurance policies.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 September 2024
The rent control market failure in the Netherlands. The radical expansion of rent control by the government of the Netherlands is displacing tenants and aggravating a preexisting housing shortage.
- Reason, 05 September 2024
Two years after deadly floods damage Pakistan, it is happening again. Millions of people still recovering from the devastation of 2022 are bracing for the possibility of losing what they have rebuilt.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 September 2024
Why it is so hard for Zhōngguó to fix its ailing economy. A real estate collapse has made consumers cautious and businesses wary, as Zhōngguó confronts a crisis unlike any other since it opened its economy to the world.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 September 2024
While the number of construction job openings are down 50% in just 6 months, the number of residential building construction jobs is the highest on record. Are the number of existing construction jobs about to crash to maintain the correlation?
- Zero Hedge, 04 September 2024
Mortgage refinance demand is 94% higher than a year ago, as interest rates fall again in the USA. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) decreased to 6.43% from 6.44%.
- Comcast's CNBC, 04 September 2024
Global heating can cause bridges to "fall apart like tinkertoys", experts say. Extreme heat and flooding are accelerating the deterioration of bridges, engineers say, posing a quiet but growing threat.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 September 2024
Apartment construction is slowing, and investors are betting on higher rents. The rise in interest rates pushed construction-loan costs up and property values down.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 September 2024
This once hot real-estate type is now being offered as office space. Developers thought the pandemic era's supercharged demand for life-science properties was sustainable, but they were wrong.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 September 2024
The down payments of homebuyers hit a "record high", surging nearly 15 percent in a year to 18.6 percent of the property price
- Zero Hedge, 03 September 2024
Why thousands of hotel workers are on strike. Pandemic-era cuts to staffing and services like daily housekeeping and room service have persisted, which unions say has resulted in lower incomes and heavier workloads for remaining workers.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 September 2024
As the number of fees rise for booking lodging using Airbnb, more and more consumers are questioning whether or not it just makes sense to book a hotel. After all, at a hotel, you are guaranteed customer service, housekeeping and amenities. With Airbnb, those add-ons can be exactly that ... costly add-ons. Travelers have noticed a shift with Airbnb becoming more expensive than hotels and offering less value, leading to frustration over high fees and uncooperative hosts, according to travel experts.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 September 2024
Why interest rate reductions will not fix a global housing affordability crisis. Central bankers are lowering borrowing costs, but that will not be a cure-all for a widespread lack of affordable housing. Housing supply is failing to meet demand, helping to push home prices to levels that are out of reach even for middle-income families.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 September 2024
Hotel strikes by workers during Labor Day weekend reflect the frustrations of a workforce largely made up of women of color. The strikes targeting Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotels were set to last one to three days.
- Associated Press, 01 September 2024
Strikes start at top hotel chains in the USA as housekeepers seek higher wages and daily room cleaning work. Unionized housekeepers, however, have waged a fierce fight to restore automatic daily room cleaning at major hotel chains, saying they have been saddled with unmanageable workloads, or in many cases, fewer hours and a decline in income.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 September 2024
Homebuyers flock to city centres as pandemic-induced demand for flats close to nature wanesisland. That shift has become evident in metropolises across the UK and Australia, as well as in compact cities like Singapore and Hong Kong.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 01 September 2024
Offices in Zhōngguó are now emptier than during the peak of Covid lockdowns as the economy declines
- Zero Hedge, 30 August 2024
SAD: the majority of people in the USA can no longer afford an average house
- Zero Hedge, 30 August 2024
The hotelification of offices, with signature scents and saltwater spas. Hoping to lure workers back to their desks, companies are designing 'work resorts', deluxe spaces meant to compete with the comforts and versatility of their living room.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 August 2024
$34,000,000 -
Brandon Miller, the high-profile criminal New York real estate developer who took his own life last month, was in even more dire financial straits than was initially revealed at the time of his death. Miller, 43, who flaunted a high-flying Hamptons lifestyle bankrolled by millions of dollars in secret debt along with his influencer wife, Candace, was nearly $34 million in the red, with just $8,000 in his bank account, TheRealDeal reports.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 30 August 2024
Zhōngguó has another company in its crosshairs over its epic property bust: PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Big Four accounting firm, an auditor of choice for many real estate developers in Zhōngguó, faces blowback over the s epic housing bust.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 August 2024
Toxic homes for sale: how the illegal marijuana industry in California ruins houses. Officials are finding houses riddled with residual nerve agent pesticides that are not in any USA chemical library.
- Zero Hedge, 28 August 2024
Marylanders to protest AI data center power lines as eminent domain threatens small farms
- Zero Hedge, 28 August 2024
Developers and landlords of subsidized housing, who cannot raise rents or charge more for starter homes, say property insurance increases could put them out of business
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 August 2024
The state of California just passed a new law that will make illegal aliens eligible to receive as much as $150,000 in taxpayer-funded loans to purchase new homes.
- Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024
Home prices in the USA surged to a record high in June. Despite this, the Fed wants to reduce interest rates, which will drive up home prices even further, making it even harder for people to buy homes.
- Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024
If everything is so great, why are millions of people in the USA sleeping in their vehicles? The primary reason why so many people are living in their vehicles is because the cost of living has soared to unprecedented heights.
- Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024
Economic problems for the recreational vehicle industry, with the largest RV dealership offering 55% discounts
- Zero Hedge, 27 August 2024
Kyle, Texas, is one of the fastest-growing cities in the USA. But with extreme heat and limited water supplies, that is not necessarily a good thing.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 August 2024
Cows obstruct the capital of Nigeria as global heating turned grazing lands into deserts, and real estate and industrial development leave non-industrial herders with nowhere to go
- Associated Press, 25 August 2024
The social recession is accelerating. Did wages rise 10-fold to match the 10-fold rise in the cost of a modest house? No! That is a social recession in a nutshell.
- Zero Hedge, 25 August 2024
Many 'bottom-fishers' are buying office buildings at huge discounts. A new wave of private buyers is betting that they can make money even as the national office market shrinks because of remote work.
- Barron's, 24 August 2024
One million square foot office building in Center City Philadelphia appraised for 25% less than 2021
- Zero Hedge, 22 August 2024
Home sales in July in the USA break a four-month losing streak as supply rises nearly 20% over last year
- Comcast's CNBC, 22 August 2024
California wants to reward illegal aliens with zero down, no payment home loans. "Our state is already facing a housing crisis, and adding more strain through AB 1840 is not the approach."
- Zero Hedge, 21 August 2024
Lowe's reduces its full-year earnings predictions due to "challenging macroeconomic backdrop" hurting homeowners
- Zero Hedge, 20 August 2024
Over a million square feet of retail space is empty in vacant chain-drugstore locations across New York City - 'zombie' pharmacies. Here is why its so hard to fill these empty stores.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 August 2024
A combination of plummeting iron ore prices and the property crisis in Zhōngguó could reduce the revenues of the government of Australia by $3 billion
- Disney's ABC News, 18 August 2024
Why D.R. Horton is the home builder stock to buy now. The housing market has been moribund after a post-Covid frenzy. Lower rates and demand for starter homes should provide a tailwind for the shares.
- Barron's, 17 August 2024
Housing starts and building permits plunged to Covid lows in July, while single-family permits fell for the sixth straight month
- Zero Hedge, 16 August 2024
Year-to-year home prices in Zhōngguó just plunged the most since 2015
- Zero Hedge, 16 August 2024
To solve its housing crisis, Britain turns to an old idea: new towns. By reviving an idea from the 1940s, the Labour Party government is hoping to overcome the development hurdles that have plagued previous efforts with a plan to build new communities.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 August 2024
Coming soon to San Francisco? A viral video shows 'sub-lethal' remote-controlled paintball gun protecting a commercial building.
- Zero Hedge, 15 August 2024
Over 100,000 people in Los Angeles could be homeless by the 2028 Olympics. Will they have to be 'relocated' during the Olympics, and how/where?
- Zero Hedge, 15 August 2024
Homebuilder sentiment slumps to 2024 low, homebuyer sentiment at record low
- Zero Hedge, 15 August 2024
Home Depot, the largest home improvement retailer in the USA, beat second-quarter earnings and sales expectations but lowered its comparable sales and profit forecasts for the year as higher interest rates "put pressure on demand"
- Zero Hedge, 13 August 2024
Drawn by the opportunity to invest with private equity firms, small investors rushed into real estate investment trusts. But the funds have lost some appeal as interest rates have climbed.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 August 2024
Child care, rent, insurance: where inflation hits hardest now. Costs for child care, rent and car insurance are up. Inflation might be easing, but it does not feel that way.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 August 2024
A Republican Representative in Congress continues efforts to prevent two Native American tribes, the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, from reclaiming title to 9500 acress of their historical lands in Oklahomaa
- The Hill, 12 August 2024
Biggest shakeup in a century set to hit real estate agents this week, as they no longer will be able to require homesellers to pay fixed commissions to both the buyer's and seller's agents, in the past a 6% commission
- Warner Brothers CNN, 12 August 2024
San Francisco is sinking in bad hotel debt. The sharp drop-off in visitors since before the pandemic is squeezing the city's hospitality sector.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 August 2024
Habitat for Humanity helped them obtain homes. An insurance crisis may take their homes from these people. In New Orleans, low-income homeowners are at risk of losing houses built by the nonprofit as more (global heating) storms hit the city and property insurance prices soar.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 August 2024
Do not expect a rapid decline in mortgage rates. Several market forces could keep them elevated for some time.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 August 2024
Office loans are toxic, but apartment loans are in bad shape too. Distress rates are rising for a type of loan that apartment flippers feasted on during the pandemic.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 August 2024
Shares of Airbnb plunge 15% on slowing demand in the USA as the consumer downturn worsens
- Zero Hedge, 07 August 2024
China Evergrande aims to recover $6 billion from executives and others. The heavily indebted real estate developer in Zhōngguó said it is seeking to claw-back the money from seven individuals, including founder Hui Ka Yan, his ex-wife, a former chief executive and a former chief financial officer.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 August 2024
Left behind in the retail real-estate comeback: department stores. Department stores are bleeding customers, and landlords no longer view them as magnets for shoppers.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 August 2024
Weekly mortgage refinance demand in the USA soars 16% as interest rates sink to lowest level in over a year. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) decreased to 6.55% from 6.82%.
- Comcast's CNBC, 07 August 2024
Weekly mortgage refinance demand in the USA soars 16% as interest rates sink to lowest level in over a year. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) decreased to 6.55% from 6.82%.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 August 2024
Homeowners increasingly tap home equity lines as savings rate plummets
- Zero Hedge, 06 August 2024
Hotels in New York City do not need licenses. Should they? New York's hundreds of hotels are subject to less regulatory scrutiny than many other businesses. The industry is resisting City Council efforts to change that.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 August 2024
Trump cites opportunity zones as a triumph. Their success is middling. A tax incentive, with bipartisan roots, aims to foster development in poor areas. It has fueled building, but it has not always aided local residents, only rich investors. Some people consider it an expensive boondoggle that allows wealthy investors to enjoy higher returns by financing projects that they might have backed even without an extra carrot.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 August 2024
A mortgage alternative for lower-priced homes comes with risks. Seller-financed loans known as 'land contracts' (buyers do not obtain full ownership until the house is fully paid for) do not involve a bank and lack the consumer protections available with traditional home loans.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 August 2024
Voters in Wisconsin seethe over out-of-control housing prices. Wisconsin had the biggest jump in home prices among presidential battleground states -- and people in Wisconsin say their frustration over finding affordable housing could determine how they vote in November.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 August 2024
Mortgage rates plunge to 6.4%, the lowest level in more than a year, after weak employment report
- Comcast's CNBC, 02 August 2024
Wayfair executives warn of a slowdown in the sales of home goods that correlates with the 2008 global financial crisis
- Zero Hedge, 02 August 2024
A 23-floor office building in New York City just sold at a 97.5% discount, a sign of how much the Covid pandemic upended the market for office buildings in New York City.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 August 2024
"We do not need more concrete": a new village in Tanzania will use a 3D printer and soil to construct buildings for its community
- Warner Brothers CNN, 01 August 2024
The Biden administration begins paying over 40,000 Black American farmers who faced discrimination from white officials in banks and the government. The thousands of payouts, which will total $2 billion, follow years of delays and lawsuits that frustrated struggling Black farmers. The Biden administration had wanted to pay out $4 billion until white farmers filed lawsuits against the payments.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 August 2024
Starter homes cost at least $1 million in 117 cities in California. When homes are ranked by value, those in the bottom third are considered starters. The average U.S. starter home sells for $197,000.
- Zero Hedge, 30 July 2024
Surge in commercial-property foreclosures suggests bottom is near. Lender portfolios of foreclosed and seized office buildings, apartments and other commercial property grew 13% in the second quarter.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 July 2024
The share of young adults living with parents is the highest since 1940
- Zero Hedge, 29 July 2024
Insurance companies in the USA suffer the biggest losses in the 2000s due to the home insurance policies, losing $15 billion in underwriting losses in 2023
- Thomson's Reuters, 28 July 2024
Why Europe has become an epicenter for anti-tourism protests this summer. At the center of the protests lies the growing issue of rising rents and house prices, which has made home ownership almost impossible for some residents.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 27 July 2024
Motels are having a new moment. What is old is new again, and the humble roadside motel that an older generation might dismiss as outmoded is appealing to a new group of younger fans attracted to hit-the-road adventures.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 July 2024
Hotel owners and union clash over proposal to regulate nonunion hotels. The New York union says the measure would enhance safety, while hotel owners say it would destroy businesses.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 July 2024
The housing market in Florida is seeing "nightmare scenarios" as buyers cancel purchases due to affordability concerns. Borrowing costs also remain elevated, which has helped pushed buyers away from the market.
- Business Insider, 26 July 2024
Unsold new homes just hit an all-time high in the USA South
- Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 26 July 2024
Real estate crisis? Small banks say their loans are fine. Community banks are big commercial real-estate lenders. But they say their loans are to sturdy local businesses, not those facing vacant office space.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 July 2024
New home sales in the USA unexpectedly tumbled in June as homebuyer confidence crashes to record low
- Zero Hedge, 24 July 2024
Blackstone's mortgage REIT slashes dividend by 24% as distress piles up in CRED market
- Zero Hedge, 24 July 2024
The office market in Washington, DC, is in trouble - no matter who wins the presidency. The Biden administration has struggled to get members of the federal workforce back to the office on a more regular basis.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 July 2024
Existing home sales in the USA puked (again) in July, as median prices rose once again to a new record high
- Zero Hedge, 23 July 2024
Landlords used software to determine rents. Then came the lawsuits. Antitrust cases contend that use of RealPage's algorithm, which lets property owners share private data, amounts to collusion.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 July 2024
Thinking about a cruise on the Mississippi River? There is one big 'if'. Though operators are building ships, and towns are investing in landings and other infrastructure, fluctuations in the river's flow, exacerbated by climate change, are hampering sailings.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 July 2024
The plans of rich authoritarian investors from Silicon Valley to build their own city is delayed. The East Solano Plan, a proposal for a walkable urban community in a rural corner of the San Francisco Bay Area, stoked tension, fear and mistrust among some neighbors.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 July 2024
Proposed rural land reform in Zhōngguó could be very profitable for farmers after bold move at third plenum. Long hindered by restrictions on profiting from sales of land on which they live, rural residents now may benefit from a "very valuable" proposal to "allow farmers to revitalise and use their legally owned homes via renting, becoming shareholders, and cooperating with others".
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 22 July 2024
The Olympics in Paris is transforming their neighborhood, Seine-Saint-Denis. And the government is kicking them out. The Games brought billions to redevelop this Paris suburb, which has many abandoned factories and spaces like the warehouse, which have become unauthorized housing for homeless people and immigrants.. What will the thousands of homeless people who live there do?
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 July 2024
In London, a houseboat used to be the affordable option. Not anymore. With land-based home prices increasingly out of reach, more Londoners are taking to the water. But as the canals fill up, even this affordable living option is becoming less attainable.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 July 2024
A plan by the Biden administration to limit rent increases across the USA is reigniting debate. A proposal to make tax breaks for landlords contingent on rent limits has drawn industry pushback, progressive applause and some alternative approaches.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 July 2024
Towns in the USA are rebelling against megamansions. As house sizes are exploding, communities across the country are debating limits.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 July 2024
A New York City pension fund makes the rights of renters an investment priority. The fund has adopted standards aimed at encouraging the landlords it invests in to limit rent increases, and provide 30 days of notice for eviction filings. The city's four other pensions could do so as well.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 July 2024
Devastating, back-to-back power outages, due to hurricanes and flooding, have led some in Houston to consider whether they want to stay in the city they love.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 July 2024
"Taylor Swift is my nemesis" - hotel prices soar due to the pop star's concert tour in Europe. Some people assume they could book a hotel at a given rate, only to find they would have to pay what sometimes equates to hundreds of dollars more per night.
- Murdoch's MarketWatch, 16 July 2024
By burning down buildings in controlled conditions in laboratories, insurers want to change how they are built. Property insurers are trying to force changes in construction standards that they say are necessary to protect against wildfires.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 July 2024
Evictions surge in major cities in the American Sunbelt. Filings in cities including Las Vegas, Houston, and in Phoenix over the past year in a half-dozen cities are up at least 35% from pre-2020 norms.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 July 2024
Do not expect home prices to go down anytime soon, say experts. Lack of inventory and high interest rates will continue to push home prices up into 2025, experts say.
- Zero Hedge, 15 July 2024
Trillions in hidden debt drove economic growth in Zhōngguó. Now the debt threatens the future of Zhōngguó. Local governments racked up as much as $11 trillion in off-the-books debt to build industrial districts, resorts, transit systems and housing projects, including many that failed.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 July 2024
Trillions in hidden debt drove economic growth in Zhōngguó. Now the debt threatens the future of Zhōngguó. Local governments racked up as much as $11 trillion in off-the-books debt to build industrial districts, resorts, transit systems and housing projects, including many that failed.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 July 2024
GDP growth in Zhōngguó unexpectedly tumbles as new home prices plunge most in 9 years
- Zero Hedge, 14 July 2024
When rents rise, so does homelessness
- Zero Hedge, 13 July 2024
Insurance premiums for homes in the USA are wildly distorted. Climate change is driving rates higher, but not always in areas with the greatest risk. Higher premiums are being charged in states where regulators apply less scrutiny to requests for rate increases, compared with states where officials question the justifications offered by companies and try to keep rates low, the research shows.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 July 2024
Opinion: we built our world for a climate that no longer exists. Our power grids, our infrastructure, are built for the cooler climates of yesterday.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 12 July 2024
Home insurance premiums are surging -- and states are allowing it. Industry denies 'bullying' tactics after getting approval for premium increases averaging 20% since last year.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2024
Insurers are braced for more early-season 'Hurricane Beryls'. Despite its early arrival, the storm hits an insurance market that has already raised the price of catastrophe coverage.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2024
The housing crisis in cities in Spain drives rise in homelessness as tourism booms, creating more short-term rentals for tourists and fewer long-term rentals for residents of Spain (but more profits for billion-dollar tech companies)
- Thomson's Reuters, 11 July 2024
Homes in the big cities of California cost 10 times more than the average income
- Zero Hedge, 10 July 2024
Real estate firms from Israel are touring cities in North America, marketing homes in Israel -- and in West Bank settlements legally allowed to be settled by Jewish families by the government, displacing Islamic families.
- The Intercept, 09 July 2024
Kind of like communist housing meets corporate housing": Lennar showcases new home-builds in Texas. "Illegal immigrants in NYC are living in less cramped conditions than that community in Texas.".
- Zero Hedge, 09 July 2024
Property fraud allegations snowball as commercial real-estate values fall. A drop in values caused by higher interest rates and a rise in defaults exposes more schemes.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 July 2024
The decline of the commercial real estate market in San Francisco. The vacancy rate for San Francisco office space reached a fresh record of 34.5% in the second quarter.
- Comcast's CNBC, 08 July 2024
Apartments could be the next real estate business to struggle. Owners of some rental buildings are starting to struggle because of rising interest rates and waning demand in some once booming Sun Belt cities. Only some have stopped making payments on their mortgages, but analysts worry that as many as 20 percent of all loans on apartment properties could be at risk of default.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 July 2024
The rush to exit commercial real-estate funds is going mainstream. More Main Street funds -- not just non-traded REITs -- are limiting withdrawals of their clients' funds.
- Murdoch's MarketWatch, 06 July 2024
The strong USA dollar spells opportunity for investors. Quality corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and overseas stocks look attractive at these lofty levels for the currency.
- Barron's, 06 July 2024
The real-estate market is in for sharp correction with losses that could take a decade to recover from, strategist says, with both residential and commercial properties that could soon experience a wave of distress, causing prices to plunge about 30% in both markets
- Business Insider, 04 July 2024
Hurricane Beryl batters Jamaica as 2 other islands, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, lie in ruin with marinas and a hospital destroyed, rooftops torn away and tree trunks snapped like matchsticks across the drenched earth. The powerful storm, which devastated communities in the eastern Caribbean earlier this week, was headed next to the Cayman Islands.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 July 2024
Construction industry suffers largest layoffs 'since Lehman' as initial jobless claims disappoint (again)
- Zero Hedge, 03 July 2024
A real-estate fund industry is bleeding billions after Starwood Capital restricted withdrawals from its $10 billion real-estate fund. Redemptions industrywide from real-estate funds are expected to hit $16.5 billion this year while new fundraising dwindles to $5.7 billion.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 July 2024
It is home-building season, but no one is buying lumber. Closures of sawmills that manufacture lumber have not stopped lumber prices from falling to postpandemic lows, a warning sign that residential construction and home-improvement markets are buckling.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 July 2024
What to know about the plan of Israel to legalize 5 settlements in the West Bank, legalizations done with the support of the USA. Israel says it will legalize five West Bank settlements previously considered illegal, as the government accelerates what critics call a slow-motion annexation of land meant for an Islamic state in Palestine.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 June 2024
The 'frozen' housing market is warping the economy in the USA. Cheap mortgages are forcing millions of homeowners in the USA to stay put. That is becoming a problem well beyond the property market, as renters, realtors and job recruiters (people can't accept new jobs without new housing) are among those suffering financially.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 June 2024
This homebuying season is the worst in more than a decade. Existing-home sales from February through May were at their slowest pace for that period since 2011.
- Barron's, 29 June 2024
Beijing became the last major city in Zhōngguó to trim mortgage rates and down-payment requirements for home buyers, part of growing efforts across the country to resolve a long-running property crisis
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 June 2024
Pending home sales in the USA unexpectedly plunge in May to a record low, lower than during the Covid lockdowns
- Zero Hedge, 27 June 2024
The housing market in the USA is in deep trouble, with people unable to buy houses (prices, insurance, etc.) and those that want to sell finding it hard to buy a replacement home for the same reasons
- Zero Hedge, 27 June 2024
McDonald's admits that customers reject fake-meat burgers. McDonald's admitted that its plant-based burger tests across San Francisco and Dallas markets ended in a major failure.
- Zero Hedge, 27 June 2024
Some Wall Street banks, worried that landlords of vacant and struggling office buildings will not be able to pay off their mortgages, have begun selling their portfolios of commercial real estate loans hoping to cut their losses.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 June 2024
Goldman Sachs raises $3.4 billion for buying stakes in real estate funds. Goldman Sachs's asset management arm has raised one of the largest pools of capital targeting stakes in private real-estate funds, benefiting from investors' desire to take advantage of mounting liquidity problems among other investment managers and their limited partners.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 June 2024
Hotel room rates in Hawaii have increased dramatically in the past five years. It is causing some travelers to look elsewhere, as the number of visitors to Hawaii is declining.
- SF Gate, 26 June 2024
Brookfield's plan to turn malls into minicities falls short. Six years after a big bet, only two projects have been completed.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 June 2024
KKR makes its biggest foray into apartments, betting on rising rents. The private-equity firm paid $2.1 billion for more than 5,200 apartment units across the country.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 June 2024
Scientists identify new Antarctic ice sheet 'tipping point', warning future sea level rise may be underestimated
- Warner Brothers CNN, 25 June 2024
If you can't beat high mortgage rates, consider joining them. A high cost to borrow is also resulting in higher yields for investors in some mortgage bonds.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 June 2024
A housing downturn in Austin, Texas, is "remarkable" as inventory spikes to a record high
- Zero Hedge, 21 June 2024
For the first time since the financial crisis, CMBS investors face Europe's first AAA Loss
- Zero Hedge, 21 June 2024
The government of the USA - Freddie Mac in particular - wants to socialistically nationalize/guarantee second mortgages (so consumers have more money to spend to prop up a failing economy). What could go wrong, other than everything?
- Mises Institute, 21 June 2024
Existing home sales tumble in May, while prices set new record highs, making it harder for first-time home buyers
- Zero Hedge, 21 June 2024
Forever 21 is asking some landlords for rent concessions as high as 50% as it faces financial difficulties. The company is struggling to manage its sprawling store footprint and compete with savvier digital upstarts.
- Comcast's CNBC, 21 June 2024
Local authorities in Zhōngguó have been encouraged to buy unsold homes to create affordable housing amid efforts to address a property crisis, but many of these governments are already struggling with debt.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 June 2024
Housing starts and building permits in the USA plunge to Covid lockdown lows, and multi-family permits cratering to their lowest since Oct 2018
- Zero Hedge, 20 June 2024
Housing starts and building permits in the USA plunge to Covid lockdown lows, and multi-family permits cratering to their lowest since Oct 2018
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 June 2024
The luxury real estate world is rocked by rape allegations against star brokers. In multiple lawsuits and interviews, women accuse Tal and Oren Alexander, brothers, of sexual assault.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 June 2024
A new way social injustice, : the growing business of surf pools, building artificial surfing pools inland, with many planned for areas facing water scarity where poorer residents don't have adequate water supplies
- MIT Technology Review, 17 June 2024
Prices of new homes in Zhōngguó plunge the most since October 2014
- Zero Hedge, 17 June 2024
Some insurance companies in Zhōngguó have risk exposure in excess of 15 percent of shareholder's equity
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 June 2024
A big bond rally is promising some help for home buyers. The sharp rise in bond prices has pushed down the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note, a benchmark for mortgage rates and other borrowing costs across the economy.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 June 2024
Wells Fargo invested in a flashy credit card (offered by a fintech startup) that you can use to pay rent interest-free. Wells Fargo is losing money every month on the program as savvy customers flock to the card and projections on key revenue drivers turn out to be inaccurate.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 June 2024
Condominium owners in South Florida are dumping/selling their homes after getting slapped with six-figure special assessments to finance renovations due to stricter safety standards
- MoneyWise, 15 June 2024
Shares of homebuilder companies have been 'hammered' down. Why they will rise again.
- Barron's, 15 June 2024
Another day, another push to give many millions to multimillionaires. These subsidies to build new stadiums for billionaires is complete economic nonsense -- "billionaries using public funds to build a private playground for the rich and powerful". The 'economic impact studies' n which stadium subsidies are based have another name: lies.
- Am. Inst. Economic Research, 14 June 2024
Micro communities for the homeless sprout in US cities eager for small, quick and cheap solutions. In downtown Atlanta, shipping containers have been transformed into an oasis for dozens of previously unsheltered people who now proudly call a former parking lot home.
- Associated Press, 14 June 2024
Millions in drug money has made its way into the south Florida commercial real estate market
- Zero Hedge, 14 June 2024
Storms do not need a name to wreak havoc in south Florida. Between days of excessive heat and days of unrelenting storms, the summer rainy season is starting to feel different -- and highly unpredictable.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 June 2024
Buyers snap up aging and empty office buildings for deepl discounts. Bargain hunters are getting deals of up to 70 percent, a sign of the pain in the commercial property market that could lead to large losses for banks and investors in real-estate-backed loans.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 June 2024
Heavy rain and "life-threatening flooding" hit South Florida, prompting the climate-change-denying governor to declare an emergency.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 13 June 2024
Shares of Target Hospitality crash 35% on news that the Biden administration will shutter the ICE facility in Texas that TH services
- Zero Hedge, 11 June 2024
The government of Zhōngguó liquidates Dexin Zhōngguó Holdings, another property developer that had unmanageable debt
- Zero Hedge, 11 June 2024
What retail apocalypse? Shopping centers are making a comeback. Vacancy is the lowest it has been in two decades, at 5.4 percent, according to a recent report. The properties are thriving even as retailers such as Macy's and Express shutter many stores.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 June 2024
For shrinking Mississippi River towns, frequent floods worsen fortunes. Flooding has pushed people out of their homes near the Mississippi River at a roughly 30% higher rate than the USA as a whole.
- Associated Press, 11 June 2024
An office building in popular Old City section of Philadelphia sells at a 38% discount to its assessed value
- Zero Hedge, 10 June 2024
The cats of Old San Juan are being run out of town. Locals can empathize. A federal plan to remove feral cats from a historic site in the capital of Puerto Rico has upset some residents, who are also feeling pushed out as housing costs soar as investors buy properties, which pushes up rents and home prices.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 June 2024
"Not Sustainable": high insurance costs threaten affordable housing. Homeowners in areas battered by climate disasters are facing dizzying insurance rate increases. But builders of housing for the homeless and other low-income families are also struggling.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 June 2024
Office building losses start to pile up, and more pain is expected. The distress in commercial real estate is growing as some office buildings sell for much lower prices than just a few years ago.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 June 2024
Moody's may reduce the credit ratingss of six regional banks in the USA which have much exposure to commercial real estate debt
- Bloomberg, 06 June 2024
Investors in real estate are wiped out in bets fueled by Wall Street loans. Syndicators made big purchases that are unraveling with high interest rates, adding distress to an already troubled property market in the USA.
- Bloomberg, 06 June 2024
Property stocks in Zhōngguó tumble into a bear market as the government bailout fades
- Zero Hedge, 06 June 2024
The government of Zhōngguó has relaxed or eliminated measures on home buying to spur new purchases. This has made a vocal constituency of existing homeowners very unhappy.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 June 2024
Renters and owners live in separate economies. In short, renters are in dire straits financially, while homeowners are "continuing to reap the rewards" of cheap pandemic money.
- Zero Hedge, 05 June 2024
Zhōngguó needs to inject $276 billion into its property market to stabilize prices, according to Goldman Sachs
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 04 June 2024
$517,000,000,000 -
Unprecedented ocean temperatures make this hurricane season especially dangerous and destructive
- USA Today, 02 June 2024
Commercial property meltdown clobbers pension funds. Recent moves by government pension plans offer a new glimpse into the widespread and slow-moving commercial real-estate slump.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 June 2024
$580,000,000 -
A government regulator in Zhōngguó fines the Evergrande Group $580 million for alleged financial misconduct, dealing the former property giant another blow as it navigates liquidation proceedings
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 June 2024
The little-known reason counties keep building bigger jails that cost the taxpayers more money: architecture firms seeking more subsidies. All over the country, architecture firms make the case for bigger jails -- and then get hired to design them.
- The Intercept, 31 May 2024
A downsized WeWork will leave bankruptcy in search of its first profit. The flex-office provider projects to turn a profit in 2025 under its new owner, software firm Yardi Systems.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 May 2024
Since 1980, there have been 383 extreme weather or climate disasters where the damages reached at least $1 billion. In total, these disasters have cost more than $2.7 trillion
- Zero Hedge, 30 May 2024
Pending home sales in the USA plunged to record lows in April as interest rates rose
- Zero Hedge, 30 May 2024
Home insurance is clobbering consumers. Yet it is barely counted in inflation statistics. Skyrocketing premiums are hitting homeowners hard, but they barely factor into common price measures. The biggest jumps occurred in Texas, Arizona and Utah - three leading climate-change-denying states run by Christians.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 May 2024
Shares of Kohl's plummet 20% after a massive earnings miss and after lowering its forecast for the full year
- Comcast's CNBC, 30 May 2024
Zero-percent down mortages are once again available. What could go wrong, other than everything like the last time.
- Zero Hedge, 29 May 2024
Bankruptcies have left more stores vacant, but the space does not sit empty for long. Available retail locations are near record lows, and that makes it easier than ever for landlords to replace departing tenants.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 May 2024
Why a state government plan in California to build more homes is failing. Very few new housing units have been completed under a two-year-old law that eliminated zoning restrictions on duplexes constructed alongside single-family homes.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 May 2024
Why hotels in New York City are so expensive right now. The average hotel room rate in the city is $301 a night, a record. A major reason: One of every five hotels is now a shelter, contributing to a shortage of tourist lodging.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 May 2024
Facing a possible cash crunch, giant real estate fund limits withdrawals. Starwood Real Estate Income Trust is restricting what investors can redeem rather than sell its properties to raise cash. The fund will buy back only 1 percent of the value of its assets every quarter.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 May 2024
Reinsurance - the hidden driver of soaring home insurance costs. A looming round of reinsurance renewals could signal a slowdown in premium increases.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 May 2024
Why technology has not transformed the building industry. Much of the construction of homes and buildings is still down manually.
- BBC, 24 May 2024
64 office buildings in New York City are planning to be tranformed into residential units. The city has a Conversion Accelerator Program to simplify the labyrinth of rules and building codes, assisting owners in repurposing their spaces.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 24 May 2024
The price of new 30-year government bonds in Zhōngguó have been volatile since their recent debut, as small investors pile into a bet seen as safer than the the property and equities markets in hōngguó.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 May 2024
The price of new 30-year government bonds in Zhōngguó has whipsawed since their recent debut, as small investors pile into a bet seen as safer than the the property and equities markets in hōngguó.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 24 May 2024
Priced out of housing, communities take real estate development into their own hands
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 May 2024
As climate change makes disasters more frequent and severe, the insurance industry is in tumult. Losses have been spreading beyond states that have been ravaged by hurricanes and wildfires, like Florida and California, and into places like Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Even in the Northeast, where homeowners insurance was still generally profitable last year, trends are worsening.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 May 2024
Rent is harder to pay for and inflation is a burden, a Fed financial survey finds. The Federal Reserve's 2023 survey on household financial well-being found Americans excelling in the job market but struggling with prices.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 May 2024
A $10 billion real-estate fund is bleeding cash and running out of options. A long line of investors in Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, known as Sreit, want their money back.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 May 2024
Sternlicht's Starwood REIT running low on cash as redemptions soar amid a crisis with commercial real estate
- Zero Hedge, 18 May 2024
Sternlicht's Starwood REIT running low on cash as redemptions soar amid a crisis with commercial real estate
- Zero Hedge, 18 May 2024
Sternlicht's Starwood REIT running low on cash as redemptions soar amid a crisis with commercial real estate
- Zero Hedge, 18 May 2024
Sternlicht's Starwood REIT running low on cash as redemptions soar amid a crisis with commercial real estate
- Zero Hedge, 18 May 2024
The government of Zhōngguó will start buying apartments as the housing slump worsens
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 May 2024
The central bank of Zhōngguó announces a $42 billion program of cheap funding to allow state-owned companies to purchase unsold homes, providing an interest rate of 1.75%, to boost the debt-stricker housing market.
- Zero Hedge, 17 May 2024
Republican politicians in Florida, pass a law deleting 'climate change' from the state policies of Florida. The law also stops programs designed to encourage renewable energy and conservation in a state that is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Meanwhile, it is geting harder and more expensive to obtain home insurance in Florida ... because of climate change.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 May 2024
Shares of real estate companies in Zhōngguó rise as more cities unveil rescue efforts, rising on expectations that government entities are helping buy up excess housing in a bid to revive the struggling real-estate sector.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 May 2024
Condominium owners in Florida are selling tens of thousands of their condos, unwilling to pay special assessments of up to $100,000 to retrofit buildings to new safety standards
- Zero Hedge, 16 May 2024
The government of Zhōngguó is considering the purchase of millions of homes to save the property market
- Zero Hedge, 15 May 2024
A new law in Florida is disrupting the condominium market three years after the collapse of the Surfside building. More units are being dumped on the market because of six-figure special assessments tied to repairs for older buildings.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 May 2024
Sky-high housing costs in the USA propel construction of rental homes. Rental builders are betting that the lowest level of home affordability since the 1980s means that even relatively affluent people in the USA will remain renters.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 May 2024
The obscure Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted 2 (Democrats) to 1 (Republican) in a partisan split on Monday on a new rule that could help speed up wind and solar energy
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 May 2024
New rules to overhaul electric grids could boost wind and solar power. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the biggest changes in more than a decade to the way power lines are planned and funded in the USA.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 May 2024
New rules to overhaul electric grids could boost wind and solar power. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the biggest changes in more than a decade to the way power lines are planned and funded in the USA.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 May 2024
Stubbornly high rents prevent the Federal Reserve from finishing inflation fight. For more than a year, the central bank has expected slowing rent increases to show up in official housing measures. The Fed is still waiting.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 May 2024
Trump may owe $100 million from fraudulent double-dip tax breaks, audit shows. A previously unknown focus of an IRS audit is a dubious accounting maneuver that effectively meant taking the same write-offs twice on a Chicago skyscraper.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 May 2024
Even a real estate company tied to the government cannot escape the real estate crisis in Zhōngguó. Zhōngguó Vanke's stock shares listed in Hong Kong have lost two-thirds of their value over the past year. That is bad news for those hoping the worst is over for the real estate market in Zhōngguó.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 May 2024
Only half of adults say they could afford their childhood home today
- Zero Hedge, 10 May 2024
Country Garden misses bond payments, says government could help. Country Garden said a state guarantor could come to its aid after the troubled developer missed deadlines for bond payments, presenting a key test in an ongoing debt crisis in the property sector of Zhōngguó.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 May 2024
Manhattan apartment rents gain momentum, signal potential record highs this summer
- Zero Hedge, 09 May 2024
Local governments in Zhōngguó swap debt for data as pressure builds to relieve debt burdens. Analysts warn plan has not been thoroughly evaluated, with inconsistent valuations of data and potential legal issues yet to be resolved. They are forced to do so, since profits from land sales have vanished.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 09 May 2024
Office tower turmoil in New York City worsens ahead of trillion dollar maturity wall
- Zero Hedge, 08 May 2024
The biggest contruction project in the world gets an economic reality check. Saudi Arabia's plans for twin 100-mile-long skyscrapers have lost momentum amid spiraling costs and construction glitches.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 May 2024
The private-equity deal/rape that flattened a hospital chain and its landlord. Cerberus made a huge profit - the rich getting richer, but the Steward hospital chain went bankrupt and its landlord suffered big losses.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 May 2024
How a 'hidden' tax of $1.4 billion will force water bills to rise in New York City. Mayor Adams plans to charge a rent to the city's Water Board.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 May 2024
A Chinese debt trap? Sri Lanka's Hambantota port set to debunk narrative with its success. The transaction was not contingent on default by Sri Lanka on its external debt to Zhōngguó's Exim bank; rather it was a lease arrangement for 99 years at a fee of US $1.12 billion.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 03 May 2024
Americans greatly increased their use of self-storage. That demand is suddenly cooling. Many developers, spurred by the Covid pandemic to invest money in new self-storage facilities, have been caught short by this drop in demand.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 May 2024
The property slump in Zhōngguó - Beijing ends curbs on multiple home ownership in outer areas of city to stimulate buying. Home transactions outside the fifth ring road accounted for around 80 per cent of the total in the city in 2023, according to Centaline.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 01 May 2024
Defaults on loans for office building near historic levels with billions on the line. More than $38 billion of office buildings in the USA face loan defaults, foreclosures or other forms of distress, the highest amount since 2012.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 May 2024
Offerings of 'golden visas', once a boon, lose their luster. Spain is the latest European country to end its program, which brought in billions of euros from real estate investors seeking residency status but worsened a housing crisis for locals.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 April 2024
Wall Street has spent billions buying homes. A crackdown is looming. Some lawmakers say investors that scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are driving up home prices.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 April 2024
Wall Street has spent billions buying homes. A crackdown is looming. Some lawmakers say investors that scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are driving up home prices.
- Zero Hedge, 30 April 2024
WeWork rejects a $650 million bid from former founder Adam Neumann, while obtaining a bankruptcy deal with creditors. The restructuring, now supported by all of the major creditors of WeWork, would transfer WeWork's equity to its senior lenders and cancel its $4 billion in debt.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 29 April 2024
Availability of office space hits a record high in San Francisco. "Rents will definitely come down. And once that debt workout happens, there is going to be a larger reset."
- Zero Hedge, 27 April 2024
$250,000,000 -
Warren Buffett's real estate brokerage agrees to $250 million settlement. HomeServices of America, the largest residential real estate brokerage in the United States, will settle the claims brought by home sellers who said they were forced to pay inflated commissions, pending court approval.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 April 2024
How realtors tamed a wild housing market and created a lucrative monopoly. The National Association of Realtors has long protected its high commissions but has agreed to big changes after losing a landmark court case.
- Barron's, 27 April 2024
A luxury apartment building in Washington, DC, fires all of its front desk human employees and replaces them with Amazon lockers, sparking tenant protest. [KM: whiners - let the rich get richer.]
- Zero Hedge, 25 April 2024
The folly of the real-estate boom in Zhōngguó was easy to see, but no one wanted to stop it. Developers, home buyers and Western bankers all ignored warning signs, but not two accountants who went looking for "financial anomalies" and "shenanigans".
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 April 2024
First-time buyers must earn $120,000 to afford the average home
- Zero Hedge, 24 April 2024
CoStar, a real-estate data analytics company, which became a WeWork landlord in February, said it has no intention to give lease concessions and more time to restructure leases
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 April 2024
Reversing the real-estate doom loop is possible. Just look at Detroit. Barely a decade after it declared bankruptcy, the city is emerging as the most unlikely real-estate boomtown in the USA.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 April 2024
Real-estate agents and investment advisers chafe at new anti-money-laundering rules. The Treasury Department is looking to bring two new industries under regulations intended to stem the flow of illicit money.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 April 2024
Foreclosures on loans for commercial real estate soar to levels not seen in nearly a decade
- Zero Hedge, 22 April 2024
People who rent will decide the 2024 presidential election between Biden and Trump
- Zero Hedge, 21 April 2024
Construction jobs in Philadelphia set to plunge as residential projects hit a wall
- Zero Hedge, 21 April 2024
The middle class cannot afford homes in nearly half of the top 100 metropolitan areas in the USA
- Zero Hedge, 20 April 2024
A huge number of homeowners have mortgage rates too good to give up. Their reluctance to change homes alters housing supply.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 April 2024
$10,000,000 -
Charles Hill, former star of HGTV, is fined $10 million for real estate fraud, a Ponzi scheme
- Zero Hedge, 19 April 2024
Cities in Zhōngguó are sinking below sea level. Development and groundwater pumping are causing land subsidence and heightening the risks of sea level rise.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 April 2024
Housing market slumps as mortgage rates top 7%. Existing home sales in March posted their biggest monthly drop in more than a year, buffeted by mortgage rates that rose again.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 April 2024
Meredith Whitner, the 'oracle of Wall Street', who predicted (kind of) the 2008 financial crash, says the rise in young sexless men living with their parents will cause home prices to plunge 30%
- The Daily Mail, 18 April 2024
The zombie office timebomb: commercial real estate foreclosures in the USA jumped 117% in March - as experts warn it could trigger the next banking crisis. Soaring interest rates are making it tougher for owners to refinance property.
- The Daily Mail, 18 April 2024
Existing home sales plunged (again) in March, but prices continue to rise. Home sales are stuck because interest rates have not made any major moves.
- Zero Hedge, 18 April 2024
Amsterdam bans construction of new hotels as a way to fight overtourism
- Warner Brothers CNN, 17 April 2024
Big Tech is downsizing workspace in another blow to office real estate. The pullback marks a sharp reversal after years when companies had been bolstering their office footprints by adding millions of square feet of space.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 April 2024
Housing starts in the USA collapsed in March - biggest drop since Covid lockdowns, led by a collapse in rental property construction
- Zero Hedge, 16 April 2024
Shares of Bank of America drop after humans actually read the latest earnings report, and notice soaring charge-offs for real estate and credit card losses
- Zero Hedge, 16 April 2024
Bank of America reports solid earnings, but commercial real estate losses unexpectedly surge. Banks are starting to finally pass massive CRE/office losses through the Income statement. How ugly is it about to get.
- Zero Hedge, 16 April 2024
Why the stone walls of New England are unlike any others. Bigger than the Great Wall of Zhōngguó, Hadrian's Wall, and the Pyramids of Giza combined, the region's ubiquitous stone walls are also a unique ecological habitat.
- Atlas Obscura, 15 April 2024
Many empty-nesters are staying put rather than downsizing, keeping housing inventory tight in a market where higher interest rates and steep prices are making homeownership less affordable for the average family.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 April 2024
The housing market in Bharat is booming. What is driving the big gains? It takes financing, patience, and a little bit of luck to buy a home in the hottest real estate markets in Bharat.
- Barron's, 13 April 2024
Property taxes in the USA have become increasingly racist, hurting Black Americans and benefitting white Americans
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 April 2024
Mortgage rates near 7% again. The rise threatens the revival in sales of homes that many had hoped for this year.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 April 2024
The real estate nightmare unfolding in downtown St. Louis. The office district is empty, with boarded up towers, copper thieves and failing retail stores -- even the Panera outlet shut down. The city is desperately trying to reverse the 'doom loop'.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 April 2024
Homeowners face a $25 trillion bill due to damages from climate change. Property, the biggest asset class in the world, is also its most vulnerable.
- Economist, 11 April 2024
Zhōngguó is buying billions of dollar less from farmers in the USA, and more from farmers in Brazil, in protest of rules for land ownership that make it harder for Zhōngguó to buy land in the USA.
- Zero Hedge, 10 April 2024
Shares of Shimao Group, a real estate developed in Zhōngguó, dropped 14% after a state-run bank in Zhōngguó, in a rare case, filed a liquidation petition against the heavily indebted developer in Hong Kong, adding uncertainty to a proposed restructuring of billions of dollars of offshore debt.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 April 2024
Luxury brands go shopping for upmarket boutiques. Big luxury companies have spent more than $9 billion on real estate since the start of 2023.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 April 2024
Real estate prices in Austin, Texas, have gone from boom to bust in just a few years, from $420,000 on the average iun 2020 to $669,000 in 2022 and down to $525,000 in 2024
- Benzinga, 08 April 2024
Blackstone makes $10 billion bet on multifamily homes as real rents begin re-accelerating
- Zero Hedge, 08 April 2024
Blackstone makes $10 billion bet on multifamily homes as real rents begin re-accelerating
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 April 2024
The rent really is too damn high: why you feel poorer than ever. Americans feel real economic pain, but it is not just due to three years of inflation -- it is about 30 years of disaster
- Salon, 06 April 2024
Revenue earned by companies in Zhōngguó from engineering and construction works in Africa has dropped by 31 per cent since the peak of lending in 2015. Observers say factors including a more conservative approach from lenders and a falling number of projects are behind the decline, a situation which is unlikely to change.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 06 April 2024
The realtors still need market reform. Despite a recent lawsuit settlement, the cartel keeps home prices high and damages the economy. REX founder Jack Ryan wants federal antitrust action.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 April 2024
Banks are extending office loans. Are they also pretending? Many 2023 maturities were pushed into 2024, giving lenders more time for rates to drop and other investors to buy some of their debt.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 April 2024
How a Covid pandemic boom led to a "property tax mess" in Colorado. A surge of new residents into Rocky Mountain states drove up home prices. The result was property tax increases of 40 percent or more for some of those already there.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 April 2024
The vacancy rate of office towers hits a record high of 19.8% as 'zombie' buildings litter skylines of cities.
- Zero Hedge, 03 April 2024
Co-working space provider WeWork said its lease restructuring effort so far is expected to result in more than $8 billion in future rent savings and that it aims to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of May.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 April 2024
The dollar-store showdown comes down to real estate. Dollar General, located mostly in rural areas, plans to expand, while the more urban-focused Family Dollar will close hundreds of stores.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 April 2024
$48,200,000 -
Trump's bond benefactor, Don Hankey, earned billions from subprime car loans. In 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered two of his companies, Westlake Services L.L.C. and Wilshire Consumer Credit, to refund customers $44 million and pay a $4.2 million fine for deceiving customers
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 April 2024
Knight Speciality Insurance agrees to issue a bond of $175 million to Trump to allow Trump to appeal a conviction for business fraud
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 April 2024
Knight Speciality Insurance is known for providing high-interest loans to car buyers with bad credit histories - subprime auto loans.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 April 2024
Why it is so expensive to live in Phoenix. Arizona is a presidential election battleground state, and a dire shortage of affordable housing there is sowing economic anxiety among voters. Since 2010, the number of rental properties available for $1,000 or less in greater Phoenix has declined 86 percent. Too much land is zoned for single-family homes.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 April 2024
They grow your berries and peaches, but often lack one item: insurance. Farmers of fruits and vegetables say coverage has become unavailable or unaffordable as drought and floods increasingly threaten their crops.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 April 2024
New home prices in Zhōngguó rose at the fastest pace in more than two and a half years in March versus a month earlier, a private survey showed on Monday, driven by a slew of supportive steps to prop up the crisis-hit property sector.
- Thomson's Reuters, 31 March 2024
The historic economic comeback of Nihon demonstrates just how screwed up the economy of Zhōngguó is right now. Like Nihon in the 1990s, Zhōngguó is suffering a collapse in the real estate market.
- Business Insider, 31 March 2024
The Brooklyn Tower, the 1066-foot building which is the tallest building in all of Brooklyn, has defaulted on its loan controlled by JDS Development
- Zero Hedge, 29 March 2024
Kongjian Yu has a plan for cities that flood: stop fighting the water. A landscape architect in Zhōngguó has a surprising strategy to help manage surges of water from storms supercharged by climate change -- the development of hundreds of landscaped urban water parks where runoff from flash floods is diverted to soak into the ground or be absorbed into constructed wetlands..
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 March 2024
Home Depot buys roofing distributor in deal valued at $18 billion including debt. The retailer said it would acquire SRS Distribution in a deal with a value of $18.25 billion, which includes assumed debt.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 March 2024
Delinquent property taxes in New York City approach a total of $1 billion, after the expiration of a tax-lien punishment
- Zero Hedge, 28 March 2024
Renting is now cheaper than owning in all of the largest metro areas in the USA
- Zero Hedge, 28 March 2024
A leaked document reveals that Amazon plans to get rid of office space it rents to save $1.3 billion, in a cost-cutting move amid a crisis in the value of commercial real estate towers
- Zero Hedge, 28 March 2024
Zhōngguó signals more support for the real estate industry, but substance to be key for turnaround. The premier of Zhōngguó and its central bank chief have sought to calm the embattled property sector in recent days, but investors are waiting on something slightly more elusive: concrete steps.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 March 2024
The market for officce space is in turmoil. So why are rents more expensive? Office rents in the USA are holding steady -- or even rising -- despite soaring vacancy rates, a record amount of available sublease space, and rising defaults.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 March 2024
Home-flipping plummets as profits slump
- Zero Hedge, 26 March 2024
Home prices in the USA rose for 12th straight month in January, despite soaring rates
- Zero Hedge, 26 March 2024
A Black couple who claimed an appraisal company undervalued their Baltimore home based on their race have settled their lawsuit against their mortgage lender, loanDepot, which has agreed to a number of sweeping policy changes that could offer significant relief to homeowners who allege racially biased appraisals in the future.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 March 2024
Windowless rooms and town-gown battles: how student housing got expensive. Investors like student apartments because returns are steady and tenants can borrow to pay the rent.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 March 2024
More retirees are leaving Florida and moving to the southern Appalachia region (from West Virgina southwest). High real estates in Florida are one reason.
- Zero Hedge, 25 March 2024
Adam Neumann has submitted a bid of more than $500 million to buy back WeWork, the office-sharing company he co-founded and propelled to a $47 billion valuation before it fell into bankruptcy, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
- Thomson's Reuters, 25 March 2024
Adam Neumann has submitted a bid of more than $500 million to buy back WeWork, the office-sharing company he co-founded and propelled to a $47 billion valuation before it fell into bankruptcy, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 March 2024
New home sales in the USA unexpectedly dropped in February as prices tumbled, with the lowest median new home price since June 2021
- Zero Hedge, 25 March 2024
New York Community Bank and Meridian rode the property boom together. Now they are struggling financially. The bank got many of its loans from a broker now blacklisted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 March 2024
The new normal for mortgage rates will be higher than many hope. Changes across the market for mortgage-backed bonds mean rates can stay elevated even once the Federal Reserve starts cutting.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 March 2024
Could real estate agents be thrown out of work the same as were travel agents? Not quite, since buying a home is a longer term investment than buying a plane ticket.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 23 March 2024
Insurers report a rising number of damage claims due to hail. Inflation is driving up the cost of materials and labor to repair roofs and cars. Adding to the costs of insurers is increased development in areas affected by severe storms.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 March 2024
$57,500,000 -
Real estate brokerage company Compass will pay $57.5 million as part of a proposed settlement to resolve lawsuits over real estate commissions
- Zero Hedge, 22 March 2024
Existing home sales unexpectedly exploded higher in February ... and so did prices
- Zero Hedge, 21 March 2024
A legal settlement has upended the model for buying and selling homes for the past three decades and prompted more than a million agents to re-examine their careers
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 March 2024
Turbulences in real-estate markets on both sides of the Atlantic raised fears of contagion risks for the financial sector in Europe, but analysts see European banks better insulated from the downturn than their banking peers in the USA.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 March 2024
A homeowner in New York City is arrested for changing the locks on one of her properties that has been illegally occupied by squatters
- Zero Hedge, 19 March 2024
Economic impact of a shortage of plumbers should concern everyone. Three years ago, the National Association of Home Builders reported there was a 55% shortfall in the number of plumbers available for work.
- Washinggton Examiner, 19 March 2024
$78,000,000,000 -
Regulators in Zhōngguó have accused Evergrande and its founder of inflating revenues by $78 billion, putting the insolvent property developer at the heart of the biggest financial fraud case in Zhōngguó. Regulators penalized Hengda Real Estate a fine of $580 million, Evergrande's main unit.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 19 March 2024
$580,000,000 -
Regulators in Zhōngguó have accused Evergrande and its founder of inflating revenues by $78 billion, putting the insolvent property developer at the heart of the biggest financial fraud case in Zhōngguó. Regulators penalized Hengda Real Estate a fine of $580 million, Evergrande's main unit.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 19 March 2024
Trump is rejected by 30 insurance companies as he seeks a $454 million bond that he needs to appeal a civial fraud penalty in New York
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 March 2024
Cities face cutbacks as commercial real estate prices tumble. Lost tax revenue fuels concerns over an urban 'doom loop'.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 March 2024
The Biden administration on Monday finalized a ban on the only type of asbestos, chrysotile, still used in the United States (for construction, cement, car parts), the first time since 1989 the federal government has moved to significantly restrict the toxic industrial material. Chrsotile has been linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer that forms in the lining of some internal organs.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 March 2024
The effects will not happen quickly as Nihon ends selling is bonds with negative interest rates. The long-term effects of positive rates could be profound -- on everything from mortgage rates to U.S. government finances.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 March 2024
The 'fire-sale' for office buildngs in the USA has barely begun. Only 3.5% of offices sold last year came from a distressed seller, thanks to optimism and forgiving lenders.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 March 2024
Half of the office space in downtown Pittsburgh could be empty in 4 years
- Zero Hedge, 18 March 2024
$1 trillion in 2024 maturities of commerical real estate debt could lead to hundreds of bank failures
- Zero Hedge, 18 March 2024
Default: investors in the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco are late with a $3 Million loan payment as foreclosure looms. There are 22 active commercial mortgage-backed securities loans for hotels in San Francisco maturing in the next two years.
- Zero Hedge, 17 March 2024
Closing costs for buying a home have risen along with rates. These mortgage fees increased 22 percent from 2021 to 2022. One likely factor is the greater use of discount points to nudge interest rates down.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 March 2024
The real estate market in Zhōngguó just set a record -- but not a good one. Secondhand home prices in the most developed cities saw their the worst decline since the government started releasing data in 2011, suggesting that the real estate slump in Zhōngguó shows no signs of ending.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 March 2024
Shares of online real estate services providers, Compass and Zillow, drop 14% after a jury orders the NAR to pay $418 million in antitrust damages
- Investopedia, 15 March 2024
Why a Native American nation is challenging the USA over a 1794 treaty. The Onondaga have asked an international commission to find that the United States violated a treaty guaranteeing the nation 2.5 million acres of land.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 March 2024
Criminal gangs of immigrants from South America are targeting mansions in Baltimore, as President Biden's border crisis spread chaos
- Zero Hedge, 15 March 2024
$358,000,000 -
The National Association of Realtors agrees to pay $418 million in damages, and eliminate the fixed 6% commission on home sales, to settle its shares of a jury penalty of $1.8 billion levied in November of 2023.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 15 March 2024
Private equity wants your credit card debt. And car loan. And mortgage. Private fund managers like Apollo, Blackstone and KKR are pushing into asset-based lending and targeting the biggest prize in the global economy: the American consumer.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 March 2024
Hilton Hotels bets on college towns with $210 million deal. The lodging giant is acquiring Graduate Hotels, a brand with properties near dozens of college campuses throughout the USA.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 March 2024
"Urgent Action Needed", as rents in New York City get closer to record highs
- Zero Hedge, 14 March 2024
Concrete is one of the worst pollutants in the world. Making concrete the 'green' way is a booming business. Concrete accounts for more than 7% of global carbon emissions, according to some estimates.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 March 2024
The market for office space in Miami was 'red-hot'. Now its tallest planned office tower cannot fill its space. The 1,000-foot project under construction is still searching for an anchor tenant.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 March 2024
Over 140,000 farms (about 7% of all farms) have been lost in 5 years in the USA. While the number of farm operations and acres operated declined, the value of agricultural production increased, rising from $389 billion in 2017 to $533 billion in 2022.
- Zero Hedge, 11 March 2024
Investors based in Zhōngguó sell $31.7 billion dollars of commercial real estate in the USA over the last 5 years, sales driven by capital controls and lending caps. The sales were first driven by the nationwide deleveraging campaign, but have continued due to a structural shift in the property sector.
- Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 March 2024
The surprising left-right alliance that wants more apartments in suburbs. The YIMBY movement is not just for liberals any more. Legislators from both sides of the political divide are working to add duplexes and apartments to single-family neighborhoods.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 March 2024
Electric utility Xcel Energy has admitted "Our facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition" of the worst wildfire in the history of Texas. Shares of Xcel have plunged 15% since the fires have begun.
- Zero Hedge, 07 March 2024
Electric utility Xcel Energy has admitted "Our facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition" of the worst wildfire in the history of Texas. Shares of Xcel have plunged 15% since the fires have begun.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 March 2024
Income needed to afford a home in the USA has soared by 80% since 2020
- Zero Hedge, 05 March 2024
A new study shows that white-collar employees who can work remotely now live roughly twice as far from their offices as they did prepandemic.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 March 2024
Warren Buffett is getting dragged into the real-estate commissions litigation. Plaintiffs are suing Berkshire Hathaway Energy, owner of one of the brokerage defendants, trying to collect on potentially billions in damages.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2024
Warren Buffett is getting dragged into the real-estate commissions litigation. Plaintiffs are suing Berkshire Hathaway Energy, owner of one of the brokerage defendants, trying to collect on potentially billions in damages.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 March 2024
Investment managers who have bought up forestland are going tree by tree to figure out whether they should be felled for timber or kept up for carbon-credit generation, as the growing voluntary carbon market has opened up a new way to make money from such holdings.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2024
An architect builds toward the future on the border of Mexico with the USA. With her library, senior center, markets and sports complexes, Fernanda Canales is bringing a sense of community, beauty and safety to underserved towns.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 March 2024
A global recession wave is building steam. Recessions in Germany, Nihon, and the United Kingdom are coinciding with commercial real estate worries. It could shake markets.
- Barron's, 02 March 2024
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, a top pension fund in Canada, just sold its 29% share of a New York City office building ... for $1. The other owners will assume the fund's debt obligations. It did the same in December with another property.
- Zero Hedge, 29 February 2024
Pending home sales puked in January, back near record lows, and the "surprise" surge in December was revised down large.
- Zero Hedge, 29 February 2024
The East Coast is sinking. New satellite-based research reveals how land along the coast is slumping into the ocean, compounding the danger from global sea level rise. A major culprit: overpumping of groundwater.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 February 2024
A devastating wildfire ravages parts of the Texas Panhandle, home to more than 85% of the state's cattle herd. This comes when the nation's cattle herd has collapsed to a seven-decade low, pushing up retail beef prices at the supermarket to record high levels.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 February 2024
Climate change is raising the already high wildfire risks of climate-change-denying Texas. The Smokehouse Creek fire is a sign of more to come. Property insurers in Texas are already raising the price of their policies, and withdrawing sales from some parts of the state. Homeowners in Texas saw their insurance rates increase 53.6 percent between 2019 and 2023.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 February 2024
The second-largest wildfire on record in Texas raged across 850,000 acres on Wednesday, as firefighters from around the state tried to contain it. The blaze has consumed houses, burned vast ranch lands, killed livestock and forced evacuations across the sparsely populated Texas Panhandle.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 February 2024
Another property giant in Zhōngguó, Country Garden, has a creditor, Ever Credit, who wants it dismantled. The creditor has asked a Hong Kong court to liquidate its operations and pay off lenders. The court filing involves Country Garden's failure to repay a loan of $204 million plus interest owed to Ever Credit.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 February 2024
Another property giant in Zhōngguó, Country Garden, has a creditor, Ever Credit, who wants it dismantled. The creditor has asked a Hong Kong court to liquidate its operations and pay off lenders. The court filing involves Country Garden's failure to repay a loan of $204 million plus interest owed to Ever Credit.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 February 2024
Goldman Sachs says office tower prices must plunge 50% for conversion to multi-family housing to make economic sense
- Zero Hedge, 28 February 2024
Rural America set to be transformed by a federal plan for to use up to 55-million acres of solar farms. The Biden administration to propose designating as much as 55 million acres of public lands as potential sites for industrial-scale solar farms.
- Zero Hedge, 28 February 2024
Employee shortages at hotels threaten to push travel costs even higher. Room rates look poised to rise as owners pass on escalating wage costs.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 February 2024
The warehouse boom fades, and the hopes of a region in California fade with it. As e-commerce soared, warehousing jobs in San Joaquin County surged too. Did the area bet too heavily on one industry?
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 February 2024
Home prices in the USA rose for 11th straight month in December, but mortgage rates are on the rise again
- Zero Hedge, 27 February 2024
Housing costs are running hot, but is the data missing a cooling trend? Pandemic disruptions may have muddled the measurement of home prices in inflation data. That could complicate the future plans of the Federal Reserve on interest rates.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 February 2024
Can owners of heavily leveraged Airbnb properties can withstand a prolonged downturn in the short-term rental market, especially those who used stupid amounts of leverage to buy Airbnb properties?
- Zero Hedge, 26 February 2024
New home sales in the USA in January decline a bit, while median prices are at 2-year lows as supply jumps
- Zero Hedge, 26 February 2024
The sate of Washington wants to limit annual rent increases to 7 percent. Oregon and California have passed similar measures.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 February 2024
Surging home insurance costs could force families to leave these 10 states - with Florida having the most expensive home insurance
- Murdoch's Fox News, 24 February 2024
Home prices in Zhōngguó decline, increasing pressure on Beijing. A prolonged fall in home prices shows the huge task facing policymakers, who have so far proved unable to turn the market around.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 February 2024
Reckoning for realtors in the USA? An estimated $100 billion in annual real estate commissions could be cut by 30%, analyst says -- putting as many as 1.6 million agents out of work. Here is why.
- MoneyWise, 23 February 2024
An estimated 2.5 million people were forced from their homes in the USA by weather-related disasters in 2023, according to new data from the Census Bureau. The USA experienced 28 disasters last year that each cost at least $1 billion.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 February 2024
It is "absolutely crazy": a vacant office tower in Los Angeles is to be torn down for just 30 new charging stations for electric vehicles. The value of commercial real estate has plummeted so much that this makes economic sense.
- Zero Hedge, 22 February 2024
Existing home sales in the USA decline as home prices hit a record high for January
- Zero Hedge, 22 February 2024
An insurance crisis leaves homeowners vulnerable (and with less insurance) in hurricane-prone (and Christian climate changing denying) Louisiana. Since the 2020 hurricanes, nine insurers became insolvent in the US state of Louisiana within a couple of years.
- Al Jazeera, 21 February 2024
As the costs of home insurance continue to increase, coverage is decreasing. Frequent natural disasters and high inflation have led insurers to raise premiums, and forced many customers to pare reduce their policies. Underinsurance is not a new problem, but it has become far more widespread and severe over the past three years, as rising inflation and climate change have created a highly volatile and unreliable insurance market and raised costs for homeowners.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 February 2024
Sales at Home Depot decline for the fifth quarter on weak demand for housing, the result of higher mortgage rates that have put a big freeze on the housing market
- Zero Hedge, 20 February 2024
The gap in homeownership in the USA between Black and White owners is worse now than a decade ago. The Black homeownership rate saw a modest annual uptick to 44.1% in 2022 from 44% in 2021, but remains significantly behind the White homeownership rate of 72%.
- Warner Brothers CNN, 20 February 2024
Zhōngguó supercharges stimulus with the biggest reduction in its mortgage reference rate on record, from 4.2% to 3.95%
- Zero Hedge, 19 February 2024
Zhōngguó supercharges stimulus with the biggest reduction in its mortgage reference rate on record, from 4.2% to 3.95%
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 February 2024
Xi Jinping, the president of Zhōngguó, is grappling with $7 trillion downturn as the country's debt levels soar, the real estate market collapses, and stock markets pull back over 21% from 2021 highs
- Benzinga, 19 February 2024
Thanks to soaring housing prices, the era of the 400-square-foot subdivision house is upon us. People are forced to buy these small houses because a house under $300,000 that they can afford is something increasingly hard to find.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 February 2024
These small towns have a big city problem: the rent is way too high. Long considered more affordable than New York City, the Hudson Valley presents a stark example of how the nationwide housing crisis is squeezing renters.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 February 2024
Unleash the powers of 'evil financial power' of unlimited credit and excess capital on a limited, essential resource such as shelter and this is what we end up with: artificial scarcity, rent-serfs and half-vacant neighborhoods owned by rich absentee landlords
- Zero Hedge, 17 February 2024
$450,000,000+ -
The state court ruling in Trump's includes a penalty of over $450 million. The ruling in Trump's civil fraud case could cost him all his available cash. The judge said that Trump's "complete lack of contrition" bordered on pathological.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 February 2024
Value of farmland in the USA hits record high amid tighter credit conditions
- Zero Hedge, 16 February 2024
Housing starts collapsed in January - biggest MoM decline since Covid lockdowns. Multi-family permits plunged (bad news for CPI as no rent-relief in sight).
- Zero Hedge, 16 February 2024
Zhōngguó revives socialist ideas to fix its real-estate crisis. President Xi Jinping aims to put the state back in charge of the crumbling property market, part of a push to rein in the private sector.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 February 2024
Late mortgage payments pile up for giant apartment lender in the USA. Arbor Realty loans funded a Sunbelt apartment boom. Many of its borrowers are now struggling with higher interest rates.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 February 2024
Climate change has hit home insurance. Is health insurance next? Insurers are adjusting to assessing climate risk as extreme heat and air pollution have been linked to a rise in hospitalizations.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 February 2024
Student housing has a new mantra: bigger is better. Off-campus complexes are getting larger, with some being home to more than 1,500 students, and being built on prime parcels of land as close to campus as possible.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 February 2024
Another bank subsidy that America should kill off. The Federal Home Loan Banks offer loans to Wall Street that are too cheap.
- Economist, 14 February 2024
Squatters are taking over homes across the USA on an industrial scale and turning them into dens of crime
- Zero Hedge, 12 February 2024
What the 'electric vehicle city' of Zhōngguó, Hefei, says about the state of the economy. Hefei has led the country in making electric vehicles and other tech products, but it still has not escaped a nationwide housing crisis.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 February 2024
So-called 'zombie-offices' spell trouble for some banks. Bank tremors serve as a reminder: Just because a crisis has not hit immediately does not mean commercial real estate pain is not coming. A recent study estimates that 14 percent of all commercial real estate loans -- and 44 percent of office loans -- are underwater.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 February 2024
How to house the fastest-growing population in the world. About 70% of buildings needed in Africa by 2040 are not yet built.
- Economist, 07 February 2024
Big Banks are well positioned to prosper from the distress at smaller banks due to failing loans associated with commercial real estate
- Zero Hedge, 07 February 2024
TAG, a big landlord in Germany, warns home prices could 30% from their peaks in 2022. Properties are already down 10%.
- Thomson's Reuters, 07 February 2024
Shares of New York Community Bancorp crash despite reassurances that there is "virtually" no outflow of deposits from branches
- Zero Hedge, 07 February 2024
Adam Neumann tries to buy back WeWork as creditors mull a sale. WeWork executives have been cool to Nuemann's interest and it is unclear how much financial backing he has.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 February 2024
Adam Neumann tries to buy back WeWork as creditors mull a sale. WeWork executives have been cool to Nuemann's interest and it is unclear how much financial backing he has.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 February 2024
Luxury retailers are buying out their landlords. The parent companies of Prada and Gucci are among those spending hundreds of millions of dollars for Fifth Avenue properties.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 February 2024
A federal appeals court has issued a limited temporary block on an authoritarian law in FLorida that bans citizens of Zhōngguó from buying property in Florida.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2024
Insurers such as State Farm and Allstate are leaving fire- and flood-prone areas. Home values could take a hit.
- Comcast's CNBC, 05 February 2024
Why major cities in the USA are becoming a problem for foreign banks. International banks often have greater exposure to the real estate problems in downtowns and big cities in the USA.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 February 2024
A group of antitrsut lawsuits accuse large landlords of price-fixing the market rate of rent in the USA using RealPage. One complaint filed by Washington D.C's Attorney General alleges 14 landlords in the district are sharing competitively sensitive data through RealPage, a real estate software provider. They allege that landlords share competitively sensitive data through RealPage, which then sets artificially high rents on a key slice of the local rental market.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 February 2024
$70,000,000 -
Keller Williams agrees to pay $70 million to settle real estate agent commission lawsuits nationwide
- Associated Press, 01 February 2024
Banks around the world are losing money as commercial real estate losses increase. The value of many buildings has plummeted as millions of workers have stuck with pandemic-era remote working, leaving vast tranches of office space vacant or underused. At the same time, historically high interest rates have made it harder for real estate developers -- who often take out huge loans to finance projects -- to make good on their repayments.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 February 2024
The real estate crisis in Zhōngguó "has not touched bottom". The forced liquidation of Zhōngguó Evergrande epitomizes the struggles of the real estate sector: nationwide, sales are down, and millions of homes have been paid for but not delivered.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 January 2024
Factory activity in Zhōngguó contracts for fourth straight month. A lackluster start to the year points to limits in the ability of exports to drive growth as real estate struggles.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 January 2024
Home prices in the USA rose for the 10th straight month in November, but gains slow
- Zero Hedge, 30 January 2024
For retailers, business is back and landlords say no more rent discounts. Landlords are having a much easier time filling prime retail space and are far less likely to agree to concessions.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 January 2024
Zhōngguó Evergrande was once the biggest developer of properties in Zhōngguó. Now, it has been ordered to liquidate because of its massive debts.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 January 2024
Zhōngguó Evergrande was once the biggest developer of properties in Zhōngguó. Now, it has been ordered to liquidate because of its massive debts.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 January 2024
Median rents in the USA slide for eighth month on surge in new apartment supply
- Zero Hedge, 27 January 2024
Trump's golf-course tax break could reach $323 million. Federal benefits stem from agreement not to build atop a golf course in Florida, dwarfing similar Trump deals.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 January 2024
WeWork withholds $33 million in January rent as lease renegotiation tactic. The co-working company has been in bankruptcy nearly three months and its lease-restructuring efforts appear to be intensifying.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 January 2024
WeWork wrestles to amend leases as landlords seek clarity on restructuring plan. The co-working company has achieved at least $3.7 billion in savings through rejecting and amending leases, but talks for further concessions are dragging on.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 January 2024
The farmers had what the billionaires wanted. In Solano County, California, a who's who of tech money is trying to build a city from the ground up. But some of the locals whose families have been there for generations do not want to sell the land.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 January 2024
Home sales were the lowest in almost 30 years in 2023. High mortgage rates and prices made home-buying prohibitively expensive for many people last year.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 January 2024
2023 was the worst year on record for existing home sales
- Zero Hedge, 19 January 2024
A firesale: Blackstone's defaulted Manhattan office tower loan portfolio is marketed at a 50% discount
- Zero Hedge, 17 January 2024
Blackstone's flagship BREIT records wortst annual performance since inception
- Zero Hedge, 17 January 2024
The bill is coming due on a record amount of commercial real estate debt. More than $2.2 trillion in debt is maturing before 2028, and much of that will have to be refinanced at higher interest rates.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 January 2024
The housing crisis in Ireland. Soaring rents have left many struggling to afford homes in Dublin and have created a generational divide. Two-thirds of younger adults in the city live with their parents. "The social contract has been completely ruptured."
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 January 2024
As realestate development alters the nature and culture of the islands of Greece, some local residents fight back. As a proliferation of pools threatens some water supplies and housing costs skyrocket, people of the Cycladic islands say the Aegean islands' character is being lost to the crime of real-estate homogenization.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 January 2024
Buying home and auto insurance is becoming impossible
- Zero Hedge, 14 January 2024
The USA was hit by a record number of high-cost disasters in 2023. There were 28 storms, wildfires or other disasters that each cost at least one billion dollars in damages, a sign of the growing economic burden of climate change.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 January 2024
Mortgage rates and inflation could draw attention to the Federal Reserve this election. The Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates in 2024 while moving away from balance sheet shrinking. Yet a key event looms in the backdrop: the election.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 January 2024
The insurance market is healing. Higher prices and lower interest rates are drawing more capital into reinsurance, which can ultimately benefit home and auto policies.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 January 2024
Office vacancies hit record high across cities in the USA as CRE downturn worsens. "The bulk of the vacant space are buildings that were built in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s."
- Zero Hedge, 09 January 2024
Buying home and auto insurance is becoming impossible. Huge losses from national disasters have prompted the industry to jack up prices and pull back from some markets.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2024
Tracy Kasper, the new president of the National Realtors Association, resigns after a blackmail threat. The resignation is latest in a series of blows to the trade organization.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2024
As once-routine weather events become increasingly destructive, the rising cost of home-owners insurance threatens to further stall a national housing market that is already groaning under the weight of high interest rates, rising prices and surging construction expenses.
- Murdoch's New York Post, 06 January 2024
Land along the East Coast of the USA continues to collapse at a worrying rate of up to 2 millimeters a year (while coastal waters are rising 4 millimeters a year). It is steadily sinking or subsiding, which is destabilizing levees, roads, and airports. With each millimeter of subsidence, it gets easier for storm surges to creep farther inland, destroying more and more infrastructure.
- Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 06 January 2024
The biggest hospital landlord in the USA suffers new losses. Medical Properties Trust said it would record about $350 million of write-downs related to its largest tenant, sending its shares down nearly 30% in early trading Friday.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 January 2024
The supply of apartments in the USA hits the highest level in 40 years
- Zero Hedge, 05 January 2024
Warehouse availability surges to highest level since the Covid pandemic. The fourth-quarter vacancy rate of 5.2% reported by Cushman & Wakefield was up from 3.1% in the same period a year earlier.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 January 2024
The averagel household in the USA can afford only the cheapest 16% of listed homes. For the average American, 2023 was the worst year ever for housing affordability.
- Zero Hedge, 03 January 2024
The economy of Britain is "not working", for at least 2 key reasons. The power grid cannot keep up with demand for connections, and local planning authorities can block new construction for years. Overcoming these roadblocks has gained essential support.
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 January 2024
Apartment rent relief is expected to continue in 2024. A surge in new supply has pushed vacancy higher, making it harder for landlords to raise prices.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 January 2024
New York City and San Francisco are the leading cities with the heaviest debt-loads for CRE office space, followed by Chicago and Los Angeles
- Zero Hedge, 02 January 2024
Property reinsurance rates in the USA rise by up to 50% on January 1
- Thomson's Reuters, 02 January 2024
The slowdown in the residential real estate market, a crucial cog in the American economy, is threatening sectors like home improvement and storage
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 January 2024
A real-estate juggernaut ran off the rails in 2023. At nontraded REITs, fundraising tumbled and shareholders cashed out as worries rose over the commercial-property market.
- Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 January 2024
How the property crisis in Zhōngguó ruined investments that could not lose
- Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 January 2024