A fight over the Fed, an upcoming exodus of Canadians returning going home, and a growing wave of property tax reform efforts. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of Aug. 25-29.
Miss: How Not to Lower Interest Rates. A great deal of attention this week was aimed at President Trump’s attempt to bend the Federal Reserve to do his bidding by trying to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook after Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, accused her on X of mortgage fraud. Cook is a Biden appointee whose term ends in 2038, but Trump sought to force her aside so he could add his own candidate to Fed’s Board of Governors. Cook, who has not been charged with any crime, filed a lawsuit against Trump to block his action. Considering that Trump’s make-believe scandal against Fed Chairman Jerome Powell regarding cost overruns on the central bank’s headquarters failed to pressure Powell into resigning, one can assume this new assault will also generate a lot of noise but no results.
Miss: A Canadian Goodbye. A new Royal LePage survey this week found more than half (54%) of Canadians who currently own residential property in the US say they are planning to sell within the next year. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of those potential Canadian sellers blamed Trump administration trade policies with Canada as the reason for their departure while 33% cited personal and financial reasons and 5% blamed extreme weather conditions including hurricanes, flooding, and forest fires. But at the risk of being flippant, one should ask our Canadian friends if life under Prime Minister Mark Carney is so much better.
Hit: The War Against Property Taxes. One of the most pressing issues at a state and local level is the pushback against rising property taxes. This week, we saw Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vow to either slash or eliminate property taxes, while a new grassroots movement in Nebraska seeks to encourage property tax reform in that state. Over the past several weeks, other states and cities have been enacting their own initiatives to make life easier for homeowners. Next year’s elections for state legislatures and governorship could easily be determined by the candidates who do their best to ensure property taxes do not go up.
Hit: Smarter Regulatory Oversight. Kudos to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for issuing a proposed rule this week to limit its supervisory oversight of nonbanks. The agency stated in the summary of the proposed rule that it was “proposing to adopt a standard definition of ‘risks to consumers with regard to the offering or provision of consumer financial products or services’ that will bind the Bureau in proceedings to designate nonbank covered persons for Bureau supervision. This will ensure that the Bureau acts within the bounds of its statutory authority and provide clarity to institutions about the standard the Bureau applies.” Public input on the proposed rule is being accepted through Sept. 25.
Miss: Keep Your Hate to Yourself. Two huge thumbs down for luxury real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, who has recently turned his Instagram page into a vile collection of anti-Semitic tropes and slurs. Hadid is a Palestinian-American and it is understandable that he is anguished over the conditions in Gaza. But at the same time, the tragedy overseas does not condone miserable comments against the Jewish people. Hadid’s insults and rantings are so wretched that I cannot republish them on this site. At a time when there is too much hatred swirling around, the last thing we need is a prominent real estate industry figure throwing more fuel on an out-of-control fire.
Hit: The Big Apple’s Apples for Less Money. The discount grocer Aldi has gained a significant spot in the US food retail industry, and this week it announced it will be opening its first store in Manhattan – just off Times Square, to be precise. Earlier this month, the New York Times did an article on the chain with the headline “Aldi’s Passionate, Cultlike Following Fuels Its Rapid Expansion Plans” – which is interesting, since the article featured input from shoppers in Texas and New Jersey but never offered a clue about a potential Manhattan store. As a personal aside, I’m a native New Yorker who is old enough to remember when you could pay a quarter to watch Linda Lovelace movies in Times Square – now, that same quarter will get you a short-term rental on an Aldi shopping wagon. How times have changed.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
Illustration: Vector Pocket / Getty Images
