A pushback against offshore wind turbines, an indefinite delay on an important decision and a landmark law turns 50. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of Oct. 28 to Nov. 1.
Hit: The Answer is Blowin’ in the Wind. Kudos to the resort town of Ocean City, Maryland, which is suing the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) regarding the US Wind offshore project that will place 114 offshore wind turbines 10.7 miles off the coast. The turbines are 938 feet tall and town officials have raised concern that having these installations off the coastline would negatively impact the view shed, local environment, tourism industry, and the fishing community. Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan declared, “For the past seven and half years we have been trying to work with the State of Maryland and the federal government to address our concerns with this project. All of our concerns were either ignored or considered insignificant.” The lawsuit – which is backed by local business organizations including the Coastal Association of Realtors, the Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association and the Delmarva Community Managers Association – should be a wake-up call about Washington’s ham-fisted efforts to push so-called “clean energy” on markets where it was neither requested nor required.
Miss: Anyone for Kick the Can? The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is neither ready, willing or able to rule on whether to keep or kill its Clear Cooperation Policy, so it is kicking the proverbial can down the road. NAR’s MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board, which has been studying whether to keep or drop the policy, came to the conclusion not to make a recommendation and passed the problem to NAR’s Leadership Team, which has yet to set a deadline on when a final decision would be reached. Smart money says a final ruling will not be seen before New Year’s Eve, though when or if a decision occurs in 2025 is difficult to guess.
Miss: When You Can’t Ensure Insurance. This week, a new survey by the California Association of Realtors membership found 13.4% of respondents admitting at least one of their transactions fell out of escrow this year due to insurance challenges, up from 6.9% in 2023. Among the reasons on what went wrong, nearly three-quarters of the situations (74.7%) involved insurance not being available to borrowers while 17.8% involved premiums being too high. Furthermore, 21% of realtor respondents said they had clients who are using the FAIR Plan, California’s insurer of last resort. Only three years ago, FAIR Plan policies accounted for roughly 3% of the total market. California is already the nation’s most expensive housing market, and now it is leading the states to become the least insurable.
Miss: Chaos at the Top. This isn’t the most serene time for the executive leadership at Douglas Elliman. This week began with the news that President and CEO Scott Durkin was abruptly fired, with no explanation given for the heave-ho. This follows last week’s news that Chairman Howard M. Lorber was suddenly retiring, even though his contract wasn’t due to expire at year’s end. The company has been facing a dismal financial performance and a scandal regarding its handling of sexual assault accusations against several brokers. It will be interesting to see who is brought in to get the company back in its groove.
Hit: Yee-Hah Pardner! Congratulations goes to the Dallas-Fort Worth market, which was forecast to be the number one location for development in 2025 in a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute. The Texas metro has been in the top 10 rankings for the last six years and placed third in 2023. Miami, Houston, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Nashville rounded out the top five, while eighth-placed Boston was the only top 10 market that was not in the South or the Sunbelt.
Hit: A Major Milestone Recalled. This week marked the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibited the access to credit based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age. This law was especially vital for the financial independence of American women. Prior to that legislation’s passage, many banks required women to have male co-signers or outright denied credit to women based on their gender or marital status. Single, divorced and widowed women faced hostility from lenders when trying to establish financial independence, while married woman would see their husbands’ creditworthiness given prior over their own. It is a shame that more national attention wasn’t given to the anniversary of this law’s passage, but at least we can celebrate its liberating effects on a daily basis.
Phil Hall is the editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
Photo courtesy of Cinema Crazed
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