A federal regulator did a rare about face, a municipal legislator raised a controversy over property protection by gun-carrying guards and a member of our team received a well-deserved honor for his illustrious career. Looking into the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for this week.
Hit: Voices Heard, Message Received. The real estate and mortgage industries scored a major victory this week when the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) did a policy about-face and rescinded its recently enacted upfront fees based on borrowers’ debt-to-income (DTI) ratios for home loans acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Kudos go to the industries’ professionals and trade groups for speaking up with intelligence and urgency – hey, it’s not every day that a regulator admits they were wrong. Which leads us to this…
Hit: A Sincere Acknowledgment of Error. FHFA Director Sandra L. Thompson is the very rare Biden administration appointee who listened to constituents and responded to outrage with speed and sincerity. Thompson’s announcement noted that she “appreciated the feedback” and she praised the input to her office as a “valuable dialogue” while vowing to “provide additional transparency on the process for setting the Enterprises’ single-family guarantee fees and will request public input on this issue.” Well, at least she didn’t pull a Biden and blame it on MAGA Republicans (too soon?).
Miss: A Bay Area Mistake. San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston was in the national spotlight this week when announced plans to draft legislation that would restrict the ability of security guards to use firearms when responding to crime on their watch. “Human life is more important than property,” he tweeted. “We need to change our local law so that security guards cannot un-holster their weapons just to protect property.” Preston’s proposal created a social media backlash with many angry folks questioning if Preston was aware of his city’s out-of-control property crime level – especially with Nordstrom becoming the 17th major retailer in three years to leave San Francisco because of unstopped property crime.
Miss: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. The British lender Halifax rejected a mortgage application renewal from a homeowner because he had two Ukrainian refugees living in an annex on his property. The lender claimed there was a risk that homeowner Dominik Kaum would rent out the space for commercial purposes in the future – ignoring that he was not renting it at the current time and never previously rented it. Halifax apologized and reversed itself after a BBC report highlighted its foolishness.
Miss: Start Spreading the News, I’m Leaving Today. New York City has an office vacancy problem. How bad is the problem? According to a data analysis published in the New York Times, there’s 74,582,671 square feet of vacant office space in the city – which is enough to fill more than 26 Empire State Buildings. Many of the city’s office buildings have occupancy around 50% of pre-pandemic levels. And while a few sites are trying to reinvent themselves – most notably the plan to turn 10 floors of empty office space at Rockefeller Plaza into a boutique hotel – most of the city’s office space is eerily empty of activity.
Hit: And the Award Goes to… Congratulations are deserved for our editorial director Rick Grant, who was honored earlier this week by Progress in Lending with its award honoring the top professionals in sales, marketing and public relations. It looks like Leo Durocher had it wrong – here’s an example of a nice guy who finished first. Way to go, Rick!
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