Trump’s 50-year mortgage plan, the continued upswing in foreclosure activity, and a military base’s unlikely neighbor. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of Nov. 10-14.
Miss: The Wrong Answer. The Miss of the week – perhaps, the year – is President Trump’s surprise advocacy of a 50-year mortgage as the answer to the evaporation of affordable homeownership opportunities. The problem is not with the product itself, although it does come with some burdensome caveats when compared to other home loans. Instead, the problem is that does nothing to address the core challenges facing today’s housing market: home prices that continue to accelerate to new highs, an unsteady economy, the absence of starter homes for new buyers, and property taxes that are generating mini-revolutions across the country. Trump has been curiously disinterested in the housing market since returning to the presidency – perhaps it is time that he pays a bit more attention.
Hit: The Right Focus. Kudos to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott who launched his re-election campaign this week by making property tax relief the centerpiece of his campaign. “Local governments are hiking your property taxes incessantly,” he said. “It’s time to drive a stake through the heart of local property tax hikes for good.” Abbott added Texans should be able to vote on abolishing school property taxes, adding that future property tax increases should require the approval of two-thirds of voters. With that kind of talk, Abbott should have no problem cruising to another term in office.
Miss: The Wrong Trend. A total of 36,766 residential properties in October had foreclosure filings, up 3% from the prior month and up 19% from one year earlier. According to data from ATTOM, this marks the eighth consecutive month with year-over-year increases. Lenders started the foreclosure process on 25,129 properties in October, up 6% month-over-month and up 20% year-over-year. Lenders repossessed 3,872 properties through completed foreclosures last month, an increase of 2% from September and up 32% from October 2024. ATTOM CEO Rob Barber observed, “Even with these increases, activity remains well below historic highs.” Still, they shouldn’t be increasing at such a considerable year-over-year pace.
Hit: The Right Stuff. The latest edition of the JD Power US Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study was released this week, and it found overall customer satisfaction with mortgage lenders at a 760 reading on a 1,000-point scale, up 33 points from one year ago when mortgage customer satisfaction was in decline. Mortgage lenders received top scores from a majority (79%) of their customers for providing useful guidance or advice, up from 76% in 2024. Bruce Gehrke, senior director of wealth and lending intelligence at JD Power, observed, “Mortgage lenders have come to recognize that the more educated their customers are about the details of their mortgage products, the more loyal and lucrative their relationships become.” Among the major lenders, Citi ranked highest in mortgage origination satisfaction with a score of 802, which marked the first time any lender scored above 800.
Miss: The Wrong Neighbor. A new report in The Daily Caller has found Whiteman Air Force Base in rural Missouri shares a fence with Knob Noster Trailer Park, which is owned by Miles Guo, a convicted fraudster with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The base was the launching pad of the B-2 Bomber strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities last June, and having Chinese snoops as a neighbor is not the best idea. Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of the nonprofit State Armor that is focused on countering CCP activities in this country, warned, “China is pre-positioning assets across the US in both the cyber and physical realm. They seek to be able to incapacitate us. Federal and state leaders should be rapidly assessing how China’s assets within the US — including industrial, residential, and commercial properties on top of agricultural land — will double for military use. China’s agents should be expelled accordingly.” Let’s see how the government responds to this finding.
Hit: The Right Person. Congratulations are extended to Mary-Frances Coleman, who was named the first executive director of the American Real Estate Association. Coleman is an attorney and real estate industry consultant who also once served as chief operating officer at eXp Realty. Coleman’s appointment was a long time coming – the organization, which promotes itself as an alternative to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), was launched in January 2024 by Jason Haber, a New York City-based agent with Compass, and Mauricio Umansky, the Los Angeles-based founder of the luxury brokerage The Agency and a celebrity on several reality television shows. As it approaches its second anniversary, perhaps this organization can finally begin to make an impact on the industry with Coleman at the steering wheel.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
