New listings on the rise, New York City’s mayor shoots his mouth off (twice), and the late Ted Turner’s property portfolio. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of May 4-8.
Hit: A Wider Inventory. New listings totaled more than 426,000 in April, according to data from Zillow. That’s a 2.1% year-over-year increase. Active inventory rose 3.7% from last April, putting the total number of homes for sale at 1.3 million nationwide. However, April’s home sales were down by a relatively mild 0.4% year-over-year, but that certainly cannot be blamed on a tight inventory. Mischa Fisher, chief economist at Zillow, observed, “With more homes to choose from and lower monthly costs than a year ago, the math has shifted in favor of buyers even if the moment may not feel like it. There’s still plenty of reason for optimism that we will see a quick rebound if rates cooperate.”
Hit and Miss: Griffin’s Revenge. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s stupid attempt to use hedge fund executive Ken Griffin as the target for his childish “tax the rich” online video backfired dramatically when Griffin announced a diversion of funds away from the Big Apple. “In reaction to New York, we filed the permit with the city of Miami,” he said in a CNBC interview. “We have added several hundred thousand square feet of new space in our new building. We will add far more jobs in Miami over the next decade as an immediate and direct consequence of the mayor’s poor decision here with respect to his posting of that video.” The Hit goes to Griffin for refusing to become the punching bag for Mamdani’s childish antics, and the Miss goes to Mamdani for creating a powerful enemy instead of a wealthy friend.
Hit and Miss: A Bronx Cheer. Mamdani is back with a story shared by The Gothamist regarding a $31 million judgment against the owners of two Bronx apartment buildings with long histories of dismal conditions, including rat infestations and extended periods without heat or hot water. The city’s housing agency secured the judgment against Karan Singh and Rajmattie Persaud, the owners of Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers. Mamdani is taking a victory lap for this legal win, which is the largest in city history. However, he has no claim to that success – the litigation began in 2024 under his predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams. While Mamdani gets the Miss for trying to hog the glory, the Hit goes to the city’s attorneys and investigators who did the heavy lifting and achieved this impressive legal victory.
Miss: Say What? This week saw a bizarre protest outside of a Walgreens in Chicago’s South Side that will be closing next month due to elevated theft levels in the store and excessive criminal activity in the surrounding area. “While this was not an easy decision, safety must remain our top priority,” said the company in a statement. But don’t tell that to Alderman William Hall. According to Block Club Chicago, Hall (no relation to the author of this article) believes in bringing criminal charges against Walgreens. Hall declared, “Walgreens should be charged with first-degree corporate abandonment. It should be a crime the way they’re treating our elders [and] our families.” Another politician, Alderman Lamont Robinson, said he was drafting a “big box ordinance” that would prohibit national chains like Walgreens from closing stores in Chicago neighborhoods. Do those politicians expect retailers to operate in areas where their property and employees are at risk of becoming crime victims?
Miss: An Unwanted Opinion. Bill Pulte has kept a relatively low profile recently, but the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency emerged this week with a prediction that no one requested or required. In a CNBC interview, Pulte was asked about the status of the investigation into Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook, who was the subject of dubious Pulte criminal referrals over alleged mortgage fraud. President Trump tried to use those referrals to bum-rush Cook off the Fed’s board of governors – she sued and the Supreme Court is now considering her complaints that Trump utterly overstepped his constitutional authority. A glum Pulte pushed ahead on this very weak case by insisting, “I do believe she will eventually be indicted. That’s just my own opinion.” Well, to date the Department of Justice has yet to bring any charges against Cook, and Supreme Court observers are doubtful Trump will be given the green light to fire her. It is looking as if Pulte’s opinion is strictly a minority-of-one viewpoint.
In Memoriam: Ted Turner. On Wednesday, we learned of the passing of Ted Turner at the age of 87. While most people will recall Turner for his innovative and often controversial effects on the media industry, he also had a profound impact on real estate. Turner was one of the nation’s largest private landowners, with roughly 2 million acres in nine states and in Argentina. But rather than use his holdings for development, Turner used his properties to focus on sustainable ranching, ecological restoration, and conservation – he was particularly active in preserving the buffalo population. Still, he was very much a capitalist, and his efforts to turn Atlanta into a media center with the 1980 launch of CNN helped fuel the expansion of the commercial and residential real estate sectors in that city. Turner was a larger-than-life character who enlivened the popular culture and the economy. Our condolences go to his family and friends, and our admiration goes to the amazing legacy he leaves behind.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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