The unclear future for the CFPB, a Vermont housing shortage and a halt to San Diego housing vouchers. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of Jan. 27-31.
Miss: A Job Nobody Wants? If you are wondering about the continued presence of Biden appointee Rohit Chopra as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), that might be a case of default rather than design. A new report this week claimed the Trump White House has offered the director’s job to multiple people, but no one wants it. This includes Kathy Kraninger, who held the position in the first Trump administration from 2018 to 2021 but is now happy as CEO of the Florida Bankers Association, and Craig Phillips, a first-term Trump Treasury official who considered accepting the job but took a position at Freddie Mac. Chopra said he will not resign and is ready to serve out his full term, which ends in late 2026. This is truly puzzling – seriously, there isn’t anyone either in conservative Washington circles or in any red state government agency that is eager to redefine the CFPB?
Hit: A Long Overdue Conversation. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has introduced legislation to reduce the statutory funding cap for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to $0, which would be achieved by ending transfer payments from the Federal Reserve to the CFPB. Companion legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Keith Self (R-TX). Whether this legislation passes remains to be seen, but at least it sparks some much-needed discussion on whether this Obama-era regulatory agency has created more problems than solutions and whether it has become much too politicized no matter who is in the White House.
Miss: Here We Go Again. After a four-year pause, the tortured relationship between President Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is back, with the president resuming the shrill badmouthing of the central bank chief for not adhering to his policy wishes while Fed leader glumly refuses to be baited into a fight. To be flippant, Trump and Powell come across like an old married couple where one partner complains endlessly about the other while the target of the wrath stonily absorbs the abuse with nary a word in self-defense. Oh well, we’re stuck with another year or so with this scenario until Powell’s term expires and Trump will appoint a successor to his liking.
Miss: A Serious Housing Shortage. A new report is warning that Vermont needs to create 7,000 new homes each year for the next 25 years to keep up with the demand for housing, for a total goal of 172,000 new units by 2050. This problem was a long time in the making – the statewide record for homebuilding was 4,800 in 1988, while the historic low was 1,300 permits in 2011. For the 10 years from 2010 to 2020, Vermont’s housing stock only increased by an average rate of 0.4%, or roughly 1,178 homes per year. Complicating matters is the prevalence of seasonal and other secondary use homes in Vermont – more than 15% of all homes in the state (about 50,000) are identified as seasonal homes.
Miss: Very Bad Planning. The San Diego Housing Commission has halted the issuance of Section 8 vouchers, citing a lack of federal funding to cover current and future commitments. The agency received $275.4 million from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in its last fiscal year for rental assistance, but it spent $282.3 million covering rental bills and it is not expecting to receive additional voucher funding in the immediate future. As a result, voucher offerings are on indefinite hold. This is a problem that has been a long time coming – Housing Commission Chairman Mitch Mitchell said the agency warned San Diego’s political leadership in the fall of 2022 that it faced an evaporation of voucher funding.
Hit: A Real Wonder Down Under. Australians have a great sense of humor, which may explain why a hopelessly derelict house was the top ranked listing on Australia’s RealEstate.com.au site. The two-bedroom property in suburban Brisbane offers buyers a mess of broken windows covered with cardboard, peeling walls spraypainted with graffiti, closets that are missing doors, and a surplus amount of garbage inside and outside. The listing price at $699,000 – a bargain for that market – while the listing headline of “Renovate or Detonate” offers clues to what the future holds for this broken-down gem.
Phil Hall is the editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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