President Biden talks about housing (finally), Disney’s big real estate plans and a 14th century mansion for sale. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of March 4-8.
Miss: Too Little, Too Late? After a long and conspicuous silence, the Biden administration finally acknowledged the challenges facing the housing market in last night’s State of the Union speech, albeit in a last-minute manner. Shortly before Biden made the speech, the White House published a “fact sheet” claiming Biden was dealing with “the large shortage of affordable homes inherited from his predecessor” – never mind that the “large shortage” was not whittled down since his predecessor left office more than three years ago. This “fact sheet” offered a series of proposals that politicized supposedly independent agencies including the FHFA and the CFPB while suggesting tax credit proposals that will obviously not get passed by the politically divided Congress. Biden briefly cited housing in the speech, telling his congressional audience and the American voters watching at home, “I know the cost of housing is so important to you.” But if that is the case, why did he wait so long to say something?
Hit: The Mouse House Grows. Earlier this week, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger stated the entertainment giant’s future could involve the development of its vast real estate holdings. “We have thousands of acres of land still to develop,” he said during a business conference. “We could actually build seven new, full lands if we wanted to, around the world, including the ability to increase the size of Disneyland [Resort] in California, which everybody thinks is kind of land-locked, by 50%. You can look at every single location that we’ve got, and there’s land, opportunity, but most importantly, we have so much IP to mine that there’s opportunity there to create experiences that we know people will love to have in our parks.” Now, if only Disney could get back into the habit of making good movies.
Hit: Don’t Lien on Me. Also earlier this week, Ontario’s provisional government announced plans to prohibit liens placed on properties in exchange for the installation of certain HVAC appliances. CP24.com reported the legislation is designed to thwart scams involving Notice of Security Interests (NOSI) being applied without a homeowner’s knowledge when they purchase or rent HVAC appliances. In Ontario, a NOSI is a debt or lien placed on a property that must be repaid upon sale or refinancing. “Our government has heard from people of Ontario and we are taking swift action to address consumer harms in all forms,” said Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery Todd McCarthy. Yes, there are governments out there that listen to their constituents and act accordingly.
Miss: A Penny for Your Support. The financially troubled New York Community Bancorp closed the week on a cheap note – the Wall Street Journal reported the company reduced its quarterly dividend to 1 cent a share. The prior dividend was 5 cents a share. Hopefully, the bank – which has been hobbled by its commercial real estate portfolio – will have a few more pennies for its shareholders in the months to come. Earlier this week, NYCB received a lifeline in the form of a capital investment worth more than $1 billion from a group of investors while its new CEO, Alessandro DiNello, has put forth strategies to strengthen its balance sheet.
Miss: From Social Media to Social Isolation and Back Again. It was quite a week online, with Meta Platforms’ social media sites Facebook, Instagram and Threads plus its Facebook Messenger service going down for a few hours on Tuesday, followed the next day by a separate outage impacting LinkedIn. For real estate professionals who rely heavily on social media for their marketing, messaging and news, these disruptions offered a harsh reminder that we take the fragility of the online world’s structure for granted – and, perhaps, it could spark a reminder for businesses to double check their digital contingency plans in the event of a tech disruption closer to home.
Hit: Ye Olde House for Sale. Perhaps the oldest property on the market today is Hartree House, a 14th century mansion in Scotland. BNN reported the 22-acre estate was once the home of John Dickson, a judge and Member of Parliament who acquired the property in 1633. More recently, the site has been a popular venue for wedding ceremonies. The residence encompasses 20,000 square feet with 14 bedrooms, six bathrooms and eight living areas – among the more recent additions to the residence are an elevator, a reading room and an orangery. (Hey, when was the last time you saw a home where you could grow your own oranges?) The listing price is roughly $5.4 million, and that’s the estate in the photo at the top of the page.
And as this column is being published on March 8, I would like to wish our readers a Happy International Women’s Day!
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
Photo courtesy of Savills
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