A new NAR leader, a jaw-dropping data revision and more Britons buying homes. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are the Hits and Misses for the week of Aug. 19-23.
Miss: Wright or Wrong, Part 1. Nine months after the National Association of Realtors (NAR) named Nykia Wright as its interim CEO, the organization elevated her to become its permanent chief executive. While it might seem like bad manners to diss someone who lands a new job, one needs to question why NAR opted to give its leadership role to someone with no experience as a realtor. The industry could have recruited its new leader from scores of talented men and women who are doing a wonderful job running state and regional realtor associations, which makes the appointment of Wright – a former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times – more than a little curious. 2024 NAR President Kevin Sears claimed that Wright “has been instrumental in leading us up to this point” – but that leadership included the $418 million settlement that uprooted the industry. Well, let’s hope NAR is on the path for a better future.
Miss: Wright or Wrong, Part 2. Another Wright was in the news this week – master architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s only completed skyscraper is being listed for sale only 18 months after it last changed hands. The 19-story Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was acquired for $10 by The Copper Tree Group 18 months ago under the promise they would make a $10 million investment in the building that would attract tech industry tenants. However, the acquired property’s $600,000 worth of debt ballooned to $2 million in the last 18 months and its owners sold heritage furnishings designed by Wright in violation with preservation agreements with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. Co-owner Cynthia Blanchard acknowledged the mess by deadpanning, “We didn’t know what we were getting in to.”
Miss: Now, That’s a Real Boo-Boo. This week, the U.S. Department of Labor acknowledged that it made an itty-bitty mistake in its data reporting on the jobs front – specifically, the department’s reporting on monthly payroll figures for the 12 months ending in March overstated job growth by 818,000. The previously reported pace of 242,000 jobs added per month was closer to roughly 174,000 jobs per month, a 28% downward revision. Hey, if people don’t have jobs, they’re not going to be buying homes. It is not unusual for data reports to be revised – but the level of this downward revision is so dramatic that it is difficult to ascertain whether the original numbers represented incompetent counting or a deliberate attempt to exaggerate the strength of the economy.
Hit: When the Media Gets it Right. It is often too easy to bash the media, but here’s a story where a news organization was the hero. Bill Paulson, a realtor at Keller Williams Realty in Needham, Massachusetts, discovered his YouTube page was removed because the site flagged it as “scam/spam/deceptive.” Paulson, who uses his YouTube page to present videos of home tours, was unable to get any cooperation from YouTube’s customer service team, so he turned to NBC10 Boston for help. The news station contacted Google, the parent company of YouTube, several times before getting a response that resulted in Paulson’s page being restored. Said Paulson to the station, “I would not have been able to do it without you. I really appreciate it!”
Miss: Talking Out of Turn. The bankrupt hospital operator Steward Health Care System is accusing its landlord Medical Properties Trust Inc. (MPT) of interfering with a court-approved plan to sell some of its properties to pay its creditors. According to Bloomberg, Steward alleged MPT had direct communications with potential bidders without telling the hospital operator, who said this violated a judge’s terms for the Chapter 11 sale process. MPT denied the claim, but the matter exacerbates the ongoing financial crisis that has burdened Steward, which filed Chapter 11 in May and is seeking to sell its hospitals to new owners.
Hit: Sparking a Possible Trend. While Jerome Powell slow walks the Federal Reserve to reducing interest rates, the British are already enjoying the benefits of their central bank’s rate cut. The Bank of England’s first rate cut in four years sparked a renewed interest in homebuying, according to data from Rightmove, the UK online property portal. UK estate agents witnessed a 19% increase in prospective buyers since the Aug. 1 rate cut compared with the same period last year – the figure also marked an increase from the 11% year-on-year upswing recorded in July. Let’s hope something similar better can happen on this side of the Atlantic.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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This is the best NAR can do? Promote someone with no experience as a Realtor to CEO?
This is ridiculous. There wasn’t anyone competent in the whole USA that NAR could have filled this position with?
I question the qualifications of the NAR’s legal team that lost the suit. Did they have an Idea of how Realtors actually conduct business? How they incur expenses and don’t get paid unless a property actually transfers. The public has always had the ability to sell by owner or get a flat fee company. I question the need to have a National Realtor association. Has anyone done a study relating to that?
Why in the world and who in the world would pick a permanent CEO????
Nykia Wright just seems to be wrong as a CEO for a REALTOR organization. Through February of 2023 she drew $367,026 from the Chicago Sun Times and an additional $407,528 from ‘other sources’ Wonder where that came from…no wonder she had no quals about throwing the membership under the bus for a mere $418 million. A good leader? NOT. I speak from 51 years as a member of NAR so have seen some truly good CEO’s..she is not one.
Ridiculous how these Fools at the NAR came to the conclusion a PERMANENT CEO was needed after Rolling Over on All its Members … The NAR and all its Weak Judgements Needs to Go Away.
Agreed with all of the above- all that NAR is good for is lobbying- they screwed us in their negotiations with the DOJ, they rake in all of our dollars, sell our cell phone numbers and email addresses to others for profit (which dramatically increases spam)- no longer should we be held hostage to this organization through our MLS’s as a “mandatory” requirement. And hiring someone to be a CEO that isn’t even IN real estate? This just goes to show you how out of touch and pathetic this organization is. BYE, NAR. We need another organization to assemble to lobby on our behalf- not you!
I was a member of NAR since 1976 and did not renew this year as a result of this crisis.