A new wave of knockabout from Bill Pulte and Zohran Mamdani (yes, them again), an unpleasant boss leaves his corner office, and a bright group of college students dive into real estate investing. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of Aug. 3-7.
Miss: What Goes Up Must Come Down, Right? Mortgage rates continued rising for the fifth straight week to a level not seen in over a year. Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.69% as of Aug. 6, up from last week when it averaged 6.66%. A year ago at this time, it averaged 6.63%. Bill Pulte, the chairman of Freddie Mac and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, didn’t bother offering any public input on what’s going on, while Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater tried to change the subject by insisting that “the housing market is showing signs of adjustment, with listing prices modestly below year-ago levels and for-sale inventory improving from the limited supply seen in recent years.” Unless there is a significant turnaround soon, mortgage rates could easily scrape or even pass the 7% mark before the end of the year.
Miss: Pulte to the DHS Rescue? Speaking of Pulte – and, yes, we do that a lot – perhaps the zaniest story of the week involved the effort by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to get the president to replace Markwayne Mullin with the irrepressible Mr. P. as the Secretary of Homeland Security. According to the New York Post, Bannon is upset over Mullin’s work and insists that Pulte will adhere to the Trump agenda of rapid mass deportations. “If you put him in DHS on an interim basis, even as the head of deportations, you would have the overwhelming support of the MAGA base who really have made Bill Pulte the equivalent of a MAGA folk hero,” Bannon claimed. However, the Post tartly observed, “One person close to Trump pointed out the only people promoting Pulte’s name were Bannon and Pulte.”
Miss: Self-Promotion on the Public Dime. It seems that the only public figure who gets as much coverage as Pulte is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and this week he was the center of a complaint by the independent watchdog group NYC Common Sense regarding a self-promoting video he produced showing his commitment to helping renters deal with allegedly callous landlords. NYC Common Sense filed a Freedom of Information Law request to see how much public funding went into a 13-minute YouTube video designed to beatify the mayor as the renters’ champion. “New Yorkers elected a mayor, not a Hollywood producer,” said the organization, adding this vanity piece was “an effort clearly intended to generate viral attention” instead of addressing the city’s serious housing challenges.
Miss: What a Character! If you are unfamiliar with the mad adventures of Luke Brugnara, then please check out this article on the San Francisco real estate investor who had his bail revoked because he evaded a bench warrant for six months. Brugnara was arrested last January for threatening to shoot people he insisted were trespassing at Thornton State Beach in Daly City, California, but that’s just the latest in a series of screwball crimes that include violating the Endangered Species Act and art theft. Brugnara was apprehended on the roof of a church, but he insisted the US Marshals who nabbed him never made their identities known. There could be a Jim Carrey movie lurking within Brugnara’s mayhem.
Miss: Bye-Bye, Bad Boss. Adieu to Vishal Garg, who announced he is stepping down as CEO at Better Home & Finance Holding Company. You may remember Garg as the chief executive who berated his employees as “a bunch of dumb dolphins” in a November 2020 email and then created more ill will in December 2021 when he fired 900 staff members in a Zoom call shortly before the year-end holidays. No reason was given for Garg’s decision to step down, and he will still be a member of the board of directors. Let’s hope Interim CEO Daniel Lewis will bring a more professional level of leadership to the company, which has suffered long enough from a boorish boss.
Hit: Hope for the Future. Mercifully, there is one Hit to share this week: a Wall Street Journal report on a team of 20 undergraduates at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business who operate Sample Gates Manamagent, a real estate investment business that oversees about $12 million in equity. According to the article: “Unlike the many student investment clubs that deploy university money or rely on donations, the Indiana group raises funds from third parties and invests in properties across the country, such as apartment developments and industrial parks.” Take a few minutes to meet these bright young people – you’ll come away with the satisfaction of knowing there are impressive Gen Zers who could someday lead the nation in the right direction.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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