A new chairman at the Federal Reserve, a new real estate tax to bite Big Apple homebuyers, and London’s most famous rooftop will open to the public. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of May 11-15.
Hit: A New Chapter at the Fed. Congratulations have to go out to Kevin Warsh, who was confirmed by the US Senate as the 17th chairman of the Federal Reserve. The 54-45 vote was along party lines, with Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania as the sole Democrat approving the nomination – and it was also the most divisive partisan vote for a Fed leader in Senate history. Warsh is stepping into a thorny environment that will be made sharper with a White House expecting immediate rate cuts. Still, the Fed is in critical need of better leadership and new ideas for addressing economic challenges, and Warsh could easily be the right person at the right time. Here’s hoping that he exceeds expectations.
Hit and Miss: A Constitutional Glitch. This week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill that capped property tax assessments at the rate of inflation while enabling cities and counties to increase sales taxes as a strategy for giving give homeowners additional property tax relief. However, The Georgia Recorder reports there might be a problem with how the bill was passed. State Rep. Scott Holcomb (D-Atlanta), who is also an attorney, warned Kemp that the bill he signed (Senate Bill 33) was unconstitutional because the state constitution mandates that revenue-raising bills start in the House of Representatives. Holcomb sent Kemp a 13-page letter that said he raised his concern “not from any partisan perspective or purpose but from a sense of responsibility to ensure that our state government complies with its own constitution.” Kemp didn’t express concern over Holcomb’s points. While we’re glad that Georgia homeowners are getting much-needed property tax relief, it isn’t assuring to realize state lawmakers might not be following the law when passing laws.
Miss: And Yet Another Real Estate Tax. Homebuyers in New York City who paid $1 million or more in cash for a residence could soon be paying a new tax on their properties. The Gothamist reports New York Gov. Kathy Hocul and state lawmakers are readying a new 1% tax on residential properties buyers who don’t rely on mortgage financing. According to State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, this new tax is “part of the plan to help close the city’s deficit.” Heastie’s office insists the tax could raise $160 million for the city, where the median sales price for cash purchases was $939,000 during the first half of 2025. This is separate from Hochul’s proposed “pied-a-terre tax” on New York City second homes worth $5 million or more, she estimates can generate $500 million annually for the city. But considering the city’s budget deficit is around $5.4 billion, one can assume more real estate taxes will be on the way.
Hit: Data Center Dust-up. One of the most contentious interviews this week involved conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s grilling of celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary over his proposed 40,000-acre data center in Utah that would consumer a massive 9 gigawatts of energy per year. Utah is offering O’Leary significant tax benefits on this endeavor, which has received pushback from many Utahns who only learned about it after elected officials quietly voted to move ahead on the project. O’Leary dismissed the critics as either being from out-of-state or foreign operatives, but Carlson questioned why Utah voters cannot have a say in the matter. “Taxpayers had no choice,” Carlson said. “They tried to say no to this data center and then they got laughed at. Then the governor, Spencer Cox of Utah, who really is a kind of living symbol of our ruling class, said that the state has an obligation to do this and basically, as you’re doing, waved away concerns as, like, foreign propaganda. I think there are probably non-crazy people who live in Utah that think, ‘Why is this good for me? Why should I pay for this?’” Carlson supports a voter referendum on the issue, which agitated O’Leary. When you have time, check out the full conversation here.
Hit: A Remarkable Career. This week, we learned that Sharon Smith will be retiring as CEO of Quad City Area Realtors (QCAR) after 13 years of leadership. Smith’s retirement will conclude a 47-year career in the real estate industry. She has also been a spirited community leader, supporting partnerships with such groups as United Way and Big Brothers Big Sisters. Smith will be stepping down on June 19 and QCAR, which serves over 900 realtors in Iowa and Illinois, announced that Julie Lide, an executive for Missouri’s Pulaski County Board of Realtors and Lebanon Board of Realtors, will succeed her. Congratulations are extended to Smith on her long and successful career, and good luck wishes are sent to Lide on this new chapter in her life.
Hit: New Ideas to Solve an Old Problem. This week saw the announcement of the winning entries for the of the 2026 Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability. These awards are presented by the Ivory Innovations, an operating foundation and research center based at the University of Utah, and this year’s competition included more than 200 nominations. The 2026 winners included the workforce nonprofit TradeFutures, which won the Construction & Design Category for its network of construction pre-apprenticeship program. Two cities – Chattanooga, Tennessee, and New Rochelle, New York – were co-winners in the Policy Category for their respective approaches to affordable housing development. And the city of Boston won the Finance Category for its Acquisition Fund, a public-private revolving loan initiative. Congratulations to the winners!
Hit: Up on the Roof. Beatles fans were happy this week to learn that London’s 3 Savile Row will soon be open to the public for the very first time. That building was the original headquarters of the band’s Apple Corps label and the location for the legendary 1969 rooftop concert that was the Beatles’ last public performance. The property will function as a Beatles museum with seven floors of rare archive material, rotating exhibitions, a fan store, and the recreation of the “Let it Be” recording studio. No opening date has been set, but clearly this property will quickly become one of London’s hottest attractions.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
Photo courtesy of Cinema-Crazed.com
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