Free Republic

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Common Council is looking for community input before they vote to opt in or out of the state's Good Cause Eviction Law. The policy aims to protect tenants, requiring landlords to have a legitimate reason to raise their rent or evict them. The law is mandatory in New York City, but local municipalities outside New York City have the option to adopt the policy or remain without it. Outside Syracuse City Hall on Monday, the Syracuse Tenants Union voiced its support for Good Cause Eviction at a rally, arguing it would help more tenants stay...

States that have permissive policies on squatting—a growing phenomenon in the United States—need to make the practice a criminal offense, the writers of a new report from Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) say.Squatting is occupying an unoccupied or abandoned area of land or a building without having legal permission to use it. Although squatters don’t pay rent and sometimes damage the properties they take over, evicting them can be difficult and costly.Most states are reluctant to allow criminal prosecution of squatters as trespassers and prefer treating incidents as landlord and tenant disputes. Police who wish to avoid potentially violent confrontations often...

From furniture installers to plant whisperers, businesses are reeling from record-high office vacancy rates.Bay Area carpet and flooring company Conklin Bros. has existed in one form or another for nearly a century and a half, starting with a mule-drawn wagon and weathering the 1906 earthquake and a constant cycle of economic booms and busts. An employee for the past 35 years, JoAnn Edson, can’t remember business ever being as slow as it is now. “We’re struggling,” she said. “We’re just trying to stay open and stay afloat.” Before Covid, Conklin Bros. bustled with flooring orders for local offices, hotels and...

As the seller’s market persists throughout most of the United States, prices continue to rise and affordable housing appears to be slipping through the fingers of the average American.(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported the highest ever national median sales price of $419,300 for a single-family home in May.“We’re actually forecasting that home prices will continue to grow based on the lack of inventory and demand for home ownership,” Jessica Lautz, NAR deputy chief economist and vice president of research, told The Epoch Times.A $400,000 price tag translates to a $40,000 down payment—with the...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A judge recently placed a Louisville skyscraper in a receivership after its owners defaulted on a $28 million loan, according to new court documents. A lawsuit was filed in June by lender Wilmington Trust National Association in Jefferson County Circuit Court, and accused the owners of the Meidinger Tower of failing to make a monthly payment of $142,204.82 last November. The plaintiffs also claim the owners have not made a payment in any subsequent month.

Your government was fixing to auction off your real estate—including national parks, farmlands, precious ecosystems, and natural resources—to the highest bidder. According to a recent report by Elizabeth Nickson, the highly-credentialed journalist behind the Welcome to Absurdistan blog, there was a new federal rule set forth by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this past October is set to be implemented in November of this year—this rule would have seen public federal lands, including national parks and wildlife refuges, traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Here are the details, from Nickson:If not stopped, on November 17th, the U.S. government...

I have been a landlord for ten years and I manage 41 residential and commercial office units in Tompkins County. About 2/3 of these are low or moderate income residential. I currently employ three full time staff. I became a landlord because I wanted to work on converting existing buildings to not use fossil fuels - I made the capital in the first place in the tech industry not by real estate investing. I also have significant bank financing. When I started, I greatly under-estimated the challenges of being a landlord and have been in an intense learning process. I...

Having a troublesome neighbor can be a headache. It can be a longstanding issue you must deal with until one of you moves out, but you can also find ways to solve the problem. This was the situation for Reddit user Kid_Endmore. According to his account, a new neighbor demanded he remove his fence. He agreed after being threatened with legal action. However, the neighbor returned a week later, requesting to have the fence back. Read on for the full story.

Family dynamics can be a sensitive and thorny topic to navigate, especially when it comes to divvying up an inheritance. According to a New York Life Wealth Watch survey, a phenomenon known as the “great wealth transfer” is well underway. It’s projected that 15% of American adults are expected to receive a sizeable inheritance in the next decade from a parent, spouse, or another individual. Inheritances can be a fantastic financial windfall that can certainly help build generational wealth. However, it doesn’t always come without complications — especially if you already have a complex family situation. Rochelle, 36, from Houston,...

Hundreds of nursing homes in Florida have been forced to shut their doors over the past five years because of the soaring cost of commercial property insurance in the state. In the five-year period ending in 2023, an average of 146 nursing homes or assisted-living facilities in Florida have closed each year, according to the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration. During that same five-year period, commercial property insurance premiums rose 125% in Florida. Last year alone, annual premiums rose by around 27% in the state, according to Bloomberg News.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill on Friday that aimed to prevent companies of China and other “foreign adversaries” from acquiring real property near military installations in the state.Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly gives her inaugural address for her second four-year term on the south steps of the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan., on Jan. 9, 2023. (John Hanna/AP Photo)Senate Bill 172 aims to block individuals or companies from “countries of concern” from owning any interest in land located within a 100-mile radius of a military installation in Kansas.Under the bill, any foreign principal that owns or acquires any interest in...

The rising problem of squatters illegally occupying people’s homes has become so obvious that even the mainstream media have recently been paying some attention to it, and lawmakers are beginning to take action.A survey by the National Rental Home Council found 1,200 homes in Atlanta alone have been taken over by squatters, News Channel 8 in Atlanta reports. Georgia enacted a law in late April to speed up evictions of squatters. “We will be watching this develop over the next year,” Atlanta’s Fox 5 TV channel stated.NBC Nightly News ran a national story on property owners’ difficulties in getting governments...

A trend sweeping America is for people to break into unoccupied homes and resist eviction by claiming "squatter's rights." Some states, notably New York, explicitly facilitate this crime by declaring that a trespasser who can rebuff the owner's efforts to remove him for 30 days qualifies for "tenants rights." In an effort to ensure that intruders don't inflict these same crimes on Arizona home owners, the legislature passed a bipartisan bill (SB 1129) that would have permitted a homeowner to request law enforcement to immediately remove a squatter from his or her property. This bill was vetoed by Gov. Katie...

The state has confirmed an additional case of pertussis — or whooping cough — on Hawaii Island amid an outbreak that has so far sickened 11 since March. HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The state has confirmed an additional case of pertussis — or whooping cough — on Hawaii Island amid an outbreak that has so far sickened 11 since March. Several of the recent cases have been in infants too young to be fully vaccinated. Officials said the cases indicate “community spread” of pertussis on Hawaii Island. Because of that, the state Health Department is strongly recommending that parents stay up...

Opinion The scientific community celebrated April 14 as World Quantum Day to raise awareness of quantum science’s impact across diverse fields The world of science is on the cusp of a transformative era driven by the burgeoning field of quantum technology. Quantum science is founded on several key principles that underpin the behaviour of particles and systems at the quantum scale. The term “quantum scale” refers to the realm of physics that deals with phenomena occurring at very small scales, typically at the level of atoms, subatomic particles and fundamental particles. It encompasses the principles of quantum mechanics, which govern...

If you are planning a lengthy holiday getaway don’t leave your home unattended: beware the squatters. In some towns in the U.S. if homeowners take a lengthy vacation and squatters move into their home in the interim the intruders may wind up calling it their own “home sweet home.” And “yes,” it’s legal. The issue of squatter rights is not something new; squatters have been around since the first European settlers arrived in America. What is new is the emergence of squatters in growing numbers as a result of the Biden administration’s open borders policy. Texas Senator John Cornyn tells...

The state is awarding just over $15 million in bonds and subsidies for a project that will create 78 affordable homes in Ontario County. Sunlight Lane Apartments in Geneva will be for low-and-moderate low-income households. The net-zero development will be fully electric and feature rooftop solar panels. The financing is allocated through the New York State Homes and Community Renewal program.

The ultimate goal of Democrats and their far-left allies is to destroy property rights and replace capitalism with socialism.Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said last week that squatters have “no rights.” He should try to convince his Democrat colleagues and their far-left allies because their systemic effort to normalize property theft has led to the unprecedented squatter crisis in America. Their ultimate goal is to destroy property rights and replace capitalism with socialism.Squatting is a form of trespassing as squatters use properties without the owners’ permission or any legal documentation. Nor do squatters offer property owners financial compensation. Atlanta, Georgia, is...

Bidenomics is also a Highway To Hell for commercial real estate. Let’s say real estate is thunderstruck under Bidenomics. There are more dormant office towers in the United States than at any point since 1979, according to a new report from Moody’s Analytics, which began tracking office leasing vacancies that year. The rising supply of office space is due to a combination of surging remote and hybrid work that forces companies to reduce corporate footprints. Also, companies are exiting imploding progressive cities and high-taxed blue states for red ones while downsizing space. In the report, office tower vacancies rose to...

An anti-squatting "professional" is warning homeowners against taking squatters to court, amid ongoing issues relating to property rights. Flash Shelton, who describes himself as a professional squatter remover, on Wednesday spoke to Fox News' America's Newsroom about how to handle squatting incidents and different ways to remove uninvited dwellers from your home. "First thing, call law enforcement, it's dangerous, don't do anything yourself, it's property, don't risk your life. Call law enforcement and when they tell you there's nothing they can do, contact SquatterHunters.com, let us assess the situation, before you hire an attorney and go to civil process," Shelton...