Housing on the debate stage, FEMA in a financial hole and a rapper’s heavily discounted home sale. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of Sept. 30 to Oct. 4.
Hit: Talking About Housing. Congratulations to CBS News for raising the subject of the housing market in this week’s vice-presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN). This is a subject in need of a national conversation, and it was a major omission in the earlier presidential debates. We’re not going to weigh in on which side was right and which side was wrong in their housing policy idea, but we are grateful that both men gave serious thought and preparation to explain their views on this complex subject.
Miss: No Insurance Against Bad Publicity. Two days before the debate, CBS News pointed its camera to another housing story, this one involving how insurance companies altered their repair estimates on Florida homes damaged in Hurricane Ian. According to Insurance Journal, part of the coverage included input by an attorney who said an adjuster from a claims handling firm hired by Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. estimated that damage to his metal roof was $231,400 – but a Heritage desk adjuster reduced the damage to about $15,000 and sent the report to the homeowners with the claims adjuster’s name on the revised estimate. While Heritage CEO Ernie Garateix insisted that story was “flat wrong,” a lot of people believed the homeowner – the day after the “60 Minutes” broadcast, the share price of Heritage stock nosedived. In a word: Ouch!
Miss: FEMA’s SOS. Hurricane Helene left a path of destruction through the Southeast, but another wallop was delivered this week when Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) lacks the money to cope with another hurricane. The Associated Press reported that while FEMA is working with Helene’s victims, the agency “does not have the funds to make it through the season.” Mayorkas did not say how much additional money would be needed by FEMA to handle another disaster, and this admission underscores the need to take a strong look at how FEMA is being budgeted and operates – and whether other federal priorities need to be shifted to ensure vulnerable Americans get the help they deserve from their government.
Hit: A Very Generous Gift. Cheers are deserved for engineer and venture capitalist Austin McChord and his wife Allison, who acquired Manresa Island, the site of a former power plant off the Connecticut coast, where they plan to create a 125-acre public park, beach and nature center. The Hartford Courant reported the McChords acquired the property from a New York City developer that was planning to build luxury housing at the site, which has been vacant since 2013. The defunct 250,000-square-foot power plant at the site will be redeveloped as a public exhibition space and environmental education center. This endeavor is especially winning because much of coastline in Connecticut is owned by wealthy homeowners or private associations that restrict public access – this effort brings a beautiful section of the state to all the people, not just the wealthy residents.
Hit: The House that Kanye Goofed Up. Belwood Investments wound up in the real estate and entertainment news this week thanks to its discounted acquisition of the Malibu property of Kanye West. The controversial rapper purchased the property in 2021 for $57 million and gained notoriety with a highly publicized but ill-fated renovation project that remained unfinished when he listed it for sale last January for $53 million. After a price reduction to $39 million in April, Belwood Investment’s CEO Bo Belmont made an initial offer of $20 million – the property changed hands for $21 million. Belmont promised to fix the interior that West never got around to renovating, though he might be a little distracted by the view from the property – there is 1,500 square feet of outdoor decks with Pacific Ocean views from every room.
Hit: A Place for Prince Fans. The Minnesota house featured in the 1984 Prince film “Purple Rain” is coming to Airbnb as a short-term rental. DJMag.com reported Prince acquired the property in 2015 (although he never lived there), and Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, co-stars in the film and members of the Revolution band, are making it available to the public for the first time. According to the Airbnb listing, “The place is jammed with epic memorabilia that will give you a rare perspective into Prince’s creative process during his Purple Rain era.” Bookings opened on Oct. 2 and will be available through Oct. 6, with 25 one-night stays priced at $7 per guest. And, yes, that’s a view from the house in the photo at the top of this article.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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