A last-minute slew of Biden administration lawsuits, a special advisor for the NAR chief and Justin Trudeau opens the Exit door. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of Jan. 6-10.
Miss: Last Minute Lawsuit. During his aborted re-election campaign, President Biden insisted that “corporate greed” was responsible for elevated rental housing costs. Biden never identified the greedy corporate entities – after all, some of them were the hedge funds and financial services entities that are major Democratic donors – but this week Biden’s Justice Department sued six major companies for allegedly using algorithmic pricing schemes to inflate the costs of rental housing. A question that needs to be asked: Why did the Biden administration wait until the last two weeks of its term to seek punishment against the entities that supposedly embodied “corporate greed,” especially since the charges were amended to an older lawsuit targeting the real estate software company RealPage?
Miss: You Get a Lawsuit! You Get a Lawsuit! Also happening in the last days of the Biden era: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is churning out lawsuits. This week’s activity included litigation against Berkshire Hathaway’s Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance for allegedly “setting families up to fail when they borrowed money to buy a manufactured home” and against the consumer reporting agency Experian, alleging that if failed to properly investigate consumer disputes. As with the Justice Department, why is the CFPB waiting until the waning days of the current administration to ratchet up its lawsuit mania? Let’s hope the incoming Trump administration hits the pause button on these new lawsuits to see what exactly is going on.
Miss: A Word of Advice. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has hired Sherry Chris, a former CEO of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate and ERA Real Estate, as an independent consultant and special advisor to CEO Nykia Wright. In a statement, NAR said Chris “will provide strategic counsel on strengthening relationships, building trust and enhancing collaboration with brokerage leaders.” Not to be rude, but wouldn’t it have made more sense if NAR had a CEO who didn’t need a special advisor? After all, Wright was a media and tech executive who never worked a day in real estate before she was tapped to run NAR. Of course, when you consider some of her leadership accomplishments, including NAR’s capitulation to the Sitzer/Burnett lawyers and an unnecessary feud with Phoenix Realtors, maybe Wright needs all the help she can get?
Hit: The Party’s Over, Ottawa-Style. This week, Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as Canada’s 23rd prime minister. Trudeau’s popularity has been in decline in recent years, with many Canadians blaming his economic policies for creating an affordable housing shortage while his immigration policies brought in a surplus number of newcomers that the country struggled to accommodate. Trudeau’s resignation announcement was conspicuously missing admissions of how he took his country’s economy in the wrong direction, but at least he had the honesty to acknowledge his leadership was a failure – compare that to the head of state in Canada’s immediate southern neighbor who thinks he did a brilliant job and imagines he could have won re-election.
Miss: Up, Up and Oh No? The new year is off to an expensive start as 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.93% as of Jan. 9, up from last week when it averaged 6.91%. A year ago at this time, it averaged 6.66%. Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. Observed, “The continued strength of the economy has put upward pressure on mortgage rates, and along with high home prices, continues to impact housing affordability. The lack of entry-level supply also remains an issue, especially for those looking to become first-time homeowners.” Does anyone think that 2025’s housing market will turn into 2024 V2.0?
Hit: Portraits in Heroism. A shout out is deserved to the firefighters and first responders who are currently working within the horrors of the wildfires scorching Los Angeles County. These heroes are struggling to work in an environment where incompetent political leadership at municipal and statewide levels created conditions that exacerbated the catastrophe. But unlike certain politicians who refuse to take responsibility for their errors, the heroes working to stop the fires and help its victims have gladly taken on responsibilities above and beyond the call of duty – these brave men and women deserve our respect and support.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
Photo: Clubfoto / Getty Images
