Free Republic

The City Council’s far-left majority is pushing the Big Apple into a “communist dystopia” with Stalinesque legislation designed to control how private property is sold — and penalizing owners $30,000 if they resist. The “Community Opportunity for Purchase Act,” or COPA, forces sellers to let “community land trusts” and other nonprofits providing affordable housing make first offers to buy residential buildings with at least three units once they’re on the market – and then match competing private-sector offers. The bill, sponsored by Brooklyn Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, was introduced in May 2024 and has gained steam in recent months after Democratic...

Landlords could no longer rely on rent-pricing software to quietly track each other’s moves and push rents higher using confidential data, under a settlement between RealPage Inc. and federal prosecutors to end what critics said was illegal “algorithmic collusion.”The deal announced Monday by the Department of Justice follows a yearlong federal antitrust lawsuit, launched during the Biden administration, against the Texas-based software company. RealPage would not have to pay any damages or admit any wrongdoing. The settlement must still be approved by a judge.RealPage software provides daily recommendations to help landlords and their employees nationwide price their available apartments. The...

A welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota reveals that large numbers of new arrivals aren't assimilating and are funneling our tax dollars to literal terrorist groups. An innocent woman was set on fire in Chicago as the mayor resists federal law enforcement resources to bring peace to one of our great cities. The Obamacare insurance system is buckling under its own weight. And the country is $38 trillion in debt. Our administration is working hard on addressing all of these problems. But you know what really fires up the beltway GOP? Not any of the above. Instead, the political class is...

Turning Point USA founder said in July that young Americans could start feeling like 'permanent renting class.' ... "How do we get more young people under the age of 35 to have equity in the system? Not the Democrat version of equity, where they want to have redistribution, but actually, are they paying a mortgage? Do they own stuff? Or are they permanent renters?" Kirk asked during a July 11 appearance on "Fox & Friends." "A permanent renting class in this country is the prerequisite, is the leading ingredient for radical politics that nobody wants to see," he continued. "We...

Good news for Southern California house hunters: estimated values of three-quarters of local homes have fallen in the past year... Most widespread drop was in Los Angeles and Orange counties, where 79% of homes experienced a value decline. That’s the 14th-highest among the 50 metros tracked. Average decline in L.A.-Orange County from recent high valuations was 7.5%, ranking the region No. 29 nationally. However, lower prices don’t always translate into more affordable options for house buyers. L.A.-Orange County owners are slow to sell, with median ownership at 12 years (the second-longest nationally). Despite recent dips, the median home remains valued...

The US housing market is now the strongest buyer's market in records dating back more than a decade, but that doesn't mean they are biting. New Redfin data shows home sellers outnumbered buyers by 36.8 percent in October, with 528,769 more sellers than buyers nationwide. That imbalance is the highest since the years following the 2008 financial crisis, and it has flooded the market with listings and forced sellers to slash prices across much of the country. In theory, buyers should now have the upper hand: more homes to choose from, more room to negotiate, and far less competition. But...

Home values are falling for more than half of America — the biggest share since the country was still clawing its way out of the Great Recession.New data from Zillow shows that 53 percent of US homes have lost value over the past year, the highest level since 2012, when the housing crash finally hit bottom.The national market looks flat on paper, but that average masks huge differences between regions, cities and even neighborhoods. Prices have been slipping in much of the South and West as more homes hit the market and buyers stay on the sidelines. Many would-be buyers...

Home Depot's recent earnings report has raised alarms about more than a retail slowdown, signalling stress in the U.S. housing market and financial pressures on homeowners and potential buyers alike. The home improvement giant posted a 0.2% gain in same-store sales for the quarter and lowered its full-year profit forecast, citing persistent challenges in housing and consumer spending. Analysts say the numbers reflect broader concerns about affordability and economic uncertainty in the nation's housing sector. Rising mortgage rates, higher building costs, and inflationary pressures are keeping many prospective homebuyers on the sidelines. Homeowners are also postponing major remodelling projects, opting...

Stephen Miller just shared a shocking statistic. Forty percent of rent controlled housing in New York City occupied by migrants. That affordable housing could be held by American citizens who desperately need a hand up, but too bad. https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1990586187745276040? 40 sec How about helping Americans support their families? ...more

We need a Marshall Plan for housing, a collection of broad initiatives to make homes more affordable and put the American dream back on trackHomeownership has long been part of the American dream, but that dream has been deferred.Households in their 30s have an ownership rate of just 42% — more than 20 points lower than the national average.The median age of all home buyers is a record-breaking 59, and the age of a first-time buyer is 40 — up from 29 in 1981.As a solution, the Trump administration is floating a 50-year mortgage.Though I disagree with that specific idea,...

Vice President JD Vance says that mass immigration under former President Joe Biden significantly skyrocketed the cost of rent and home prices.In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Vance attributed sky-high home prices to record-setting illegal immigration under Biden — noting that flooding the housing market increases prices on Americans, particularly those first-time home-buyers.“To me [this] is maybe the most important because I care so much about our young people being able to afford a good life, a lot of young people are saying, ‘Housing is way too expensive,'” Vance said: Why is that? Because we flooded the country...

Homeowners vote red. Renters vote blue. Will President Donald Trump's 50-year mortgage make a red voter out of you? That is what the president hoped on Saturday, when he posted the idea of stretching out the customary 30-year repayment terms for home mortgages to 50 years. Turns out, that idea is smoke and mirrors. But at least Trump is recognizing that home affordability is a real crisis, not fake news. "Affordability" is the campaign pledge that produced big wins on election day, and most of the winners were Democrats. Affording a home is increasingly out of reach. The median age...

Vice President J.D. Vance discussed the nation’s affordability crisis and the difficulty for young Americans to purchase homes during an interview with FOX News host Sean Hannity. "A lot of young people are saying housing is way too expensive," Vance told Hannity. "Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who were taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens, and at the same time, we weren't building enough new houses to begin with even for the population that we had, so what we're doing is trying to make it easier to build...

Joe Lavorgna, counselor to Treasury Secretary Bessent, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss the state of the government shutdown, what a reopened government will do to the economy and much more.

The property manager of a troubled South Shore apartment building raided last month by immigration agents helps run a political fund that made campaign contributions to more than a dozen members of the Chicago City Council this year. The recipients include now-former Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), Mayor Brandon Johnson’s choice to run the Chicago Housing Authority. One of Burnett’s campaign funds accepted a $500 contribution this year from the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance PAC. The political action committee’s leaders include Corey Oliver of Strength in Management LLC, which oversees the complex at 7500 S. South Shore Drive that was targeted...

President Trump proposed 50-year mortgages to improve housing affordability by lowering monthly payments. While longer terms reduce payments, they also slow equity buildup and are currently not allowed under the Dodd-Frank Act.

Fake rental applications are proliferating across the country as the U.S. rental market has become increasingly unaffordable and competitive. Greystar, the country’s largest apartment landlord, told FOX Business that it has seen a clear increase in fraudulent applications nationwide. "Fraud in rental applications has become increasingly sophisticated across the industry, with some of the most advanced cases involving AI-generated documents and fabricated payroll systems," Greystar said. Eric Taylor, lead for trust and safety at TurboTenant, a free online property management platform, is also seeing an uptick, telling FOX Business that nearly 75% of apartment owners across the nation reported a...

New York’s new mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has announced plans for a state-run luxury rehabilitation compound for homeless and addicted veterans — turning the relics of capitalist greed into centers of recovery, work, and collective renewal. The project, known as the Veterans’ Rebirth Compound, would combine housing, physical training, and political education to help veterans rebuild their lives through discipline, purpose, and solidarity. Empty hotels and abandoned corporate properties are being considered for conversion.

Why do New York City voters want to repeat this disaster from the 1960s and 1970s? https://reason.org/commentary/rent-control-laws-nearly-destroyed-parts-of-new-york-city-they-could-do-the-same-to-california/

This is my two cents, and the information arrived after some interesting texts with my little brother, Crusader.Some of it, now that last night's results are in, needs to be attended to immediately, as he said.Trump really needs to focus on what can be done for the economy... He needs to light a fire under congresscritters to ratchet down on outsourcing and h1bs; the job market is not getting better and grocery prices aren’t getting better eitherSome grocery prices are better, sure - those damn eggs, for one thing. But the hamburger you feed a family with is still through...