Free Republic

Getting The Brush-Off You’re searching for a home, scanning listings, barely able to contain your excitement; but your realtor seems to brush off every inquiry you make about a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) property. He keeps insisting that they’re “not worth the time,” but you somehow can’t shake the feeling he’s protecting his commission, not your interests. Here’s how FSBOs actually work and what options you have when an agent ignores them. What FSBO Listings Really Are FSBO homes are properties sold directly by the homeowners without the involvement of a listing agent. Sellers skip the listing commission but...

About one in three U.S. households rents, a ratio that has stayed surprisingly steady over the past six decades.But with mortgage rates soaring from 2.7% in 2020 to almost 7% today - and home prices continuing to climb - the share of renters has edged up.Today, it takes $121,400 to afford a typical home, or 43% higher than the average salary.This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows the share of Americans renting versus owning by state, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.A Closer Look at Renting vs. Owning in AmericaAs the table below shows, states with the...

A former Drug Enforcement Agency agent was indicted on federal charges of conspiring to traffic drugs and launder millions of dollars for a Mexican cartel. Paul Campo, who was a DEA agent for nearly 25 years, his associate Robert Sensi, are accused in a new indictment unsealed Friday of converting cash into cryptocurrency to buy 220 kilograms of cocaine, worth $5 million, and launder $750,000 in proceeds from drug sales for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG. The State Department designated CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year. Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York allege...

Minnesota once prided itself on its Scandinavian-style safety net – high taxes, generous benefits and a shared belief that no child should ever go hungry. But that image lies in ruins after a billion-dollar fraud spree that siphoned taxpayer money away from the needy and poured it straight into luxury mansions, high-end cars, overseas real estate and designer lifestyles. What authorities first hoped was a one-off pandemic scam has now been exposed as something far bigger – and far uglier. Federal prosecutors say that over the past five years, scores of scammers – many operating inside Minnesota’s Somali diaspora –...

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...

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...

It was only just over a week ago — Halloween day, actually — that I had a post on the scariest houses in Greenwich Village. As the scariest house of all, I picked the one at 80 Washington Place, which had recently been the alleged site of rigged poker games where wealthy marks had gotten fleeced out of millions of dollars. Today, in a weekly column titled “Gimme Shelter,” the New York Post provides an update on that very house. It’s on the market! The headline is “Luxury NYC pad used in the NBA gambling scandal has listed for $22.5M...

The greatest generational wealth shift in history has already begun.Baby Boomers, the largest retirement generation to date, will finish shifting up to $105 trillion to heirs by 2048. And according to a recent LegalZoom survey*, 62% of what will be left behind is anticipated to be real estate or property.But rising home maintenance costs could pose a problem for younger generations.For instance, property values have increased “almost 27% faster than inflation since 2020,” per the Tax Foundation. And with higher home valuations, heftier property tax bills typically follow.So will the inherited wealth be enough to support the higher costs of...

Sales of newly built homes rose a much larger-than-expected 20.5% in August compared with July to the highest level since January 2022, according to the U.S. Census. It is also the largest one-month gain since August 2022. Sales were 15.4% higher than August 2024. This count is based on people out shopping in August and signing deals, when the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was higher than it is today. That rate started August at 6.63%, according to Mortgage News Daily, and didn’t really move much during the month. The sharp decline in rates began in September, when...

Dear Chuck, My parents are retired and have a very low interest rate on a small amount of remaining mortgage. They told me they want to sell their home and rent, thinking they will save money. I am gathering information to help them. Would you suggest they rent or keep owning their home? Retired: Rent or Buy?Dear Retired: Rent or Buy?It depends. I don’t have the full financial picture of your parents, so I don’t want to give advice based on false assumptions. Let me disclose a few assumptions from your question:They are feeling financially insecure.Their home value is...

Homebuyers are backing out of property purchases last-minute at a higher rate than ever recorded due to fears that a financial crash is imminent. Just four years ago, homebuyers were bidding up house prices and waiving inspections in order to quickly secure fast-selling properties. Today's buyers are moving slowly through the process — negotiating lower prices and obsessing over property details. And they are increasingly getting cold feet and backing out, even after signing contracts. In fact, 58,000 home-purchase agreements were canceled in July alone, according to data collected by Redfin. That's 15.3 percent of all homes that went under...

The island of Manhattan boasts so many soaring towers, that it’s hardly news when a new one shoots up—even if its spire pierces the clouds. That said, now and then, there’s an exception in the form of an ambitious architectural masterpiece, like the west side’s new 90-story Affirmation Tower, a five-tiered, terrazzo-clad skyscraper that, upon closer inspection, appears to be upside down. Developed by Don Peebles, the chief operating officer at the Peebles Corporation, and designed by AD100 architect Sir David Adjaye, Affirmation Tower is as symbolic as it is enormous (1,663 feet tall and two million square feet.) Not...

FinCEN says Chinese networks moving billions for Mexican cartels also push illicit cash through U.S. real estate, elder care centers, and human trafficking schemes. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a stark warning Thursday that Chinese money laundering networks have become a primary engine driving Mexico-based drug cartels’ expansion into the United States, flagging $312 billion in cartel-linked suspicious transactions and a further $53.7 billion in illicit real estate activity over the past four years. Officials underscored the systemic risks posed by what they described as a sprawling global underground economy.

Chinese property giant Evergrande's shares were taken off the Hong Kong stock market on Monday after more than a decade and a half of trading. It marks a grim milestone for what was once China's biggest real estate firm, with a stock market valuation of more than $50bn (£37.1bn). That was before its spectacular collapse under the weight of the huge debts that had powered its meteoric rise. Experts say the delisting was both inevitable and final. "Once delisted, there is no coming back," says Dan Wang, China director at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. Evergrande is now best-known for...

Thinking of buying a starter home? Be careful!The above image from John Burns Research.💭 When do you think owning will feel affordable again for first-time buyers?— John Burns Research and Consulting (@JBREC) July 2, 2025Burns CriteriaHome payment, entry-level home mortgage5 percent down, 30-year fixed mortgagePrincipal, Interest, Tax Payments, and Insurance (PITI) payment plus mortgage insurance payment Annual maintenance costs ranging from 0.85 percent to 1.25 percent of home price One might put down 10 percent to avoid mortgage insurance. Looking ahead Burns see homeownership costs stubbornly high, 95 percent premium all the way through 2028.That means home prices remain stubbornly...

President Donald Trump is responding to the decision by a New York appellate court Thursday to throw out the bogus $515 million fraud case brought against him by Attorney General Letitia James. Here is Trump's full reaction, which he posted on Truth Social: TOTAL VICTORY in the FAKE New York State Attorney General Letitia James Case! I greatly respect the fact that the Court had the Courage to throw out this unlawful and disgraceful Decision that was hurting Business all throughout New York State. Others were afraid to do business there. The amount, including Interest and Penalties, was over $550...

China’s richest man just bought an empty piece of land with only a warehouse in New Hampshire and they’re REFUSING to answer questions on what it’ll be used for.. The land cost $15 million, they paid 4X THE COST, $67 million.. It’s right next to important US military bases ... What would happen if we owned any land next to a military base in China? ... China doesn't allow foreigners to purchase land there.

Background: There are forces that create major shifts, and in the last years there has been a lot of talk about how "You'll own nothing and you'll be happy." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27ll_own_nothing_and_be_happy That is what I am seeing in the real estate sector. Does anybody have any solid sources on the topic that puts things together (an analytical piece that shows where policy changes are driving what is happening), concerning who actually owns the real estate in the US? It appears, but I have no solid sources, that real estate is getting bought up by commercial investors, and often is longer for...

Home prices are being slashed across the US as the housing market cools — with one city seeing them plunge almost seven percent. In July, prices dropped year-over-year in 14 of the 50 most populous US cities — with Florida, California and Texas hit hard, reports Redfin. 'Sellers need to come to terms with two things,' said Redfin agent James Gulden. 'Homes are going to sit longer, and buyers are gaining the upper hand.' Homes are lingering for weeks or months — a stark contrast to the days of bidding wars and same-day offers... the lower prices combined with a...

A Martha’s Vineyard estate once favored by the Obamas as a summer retreat has quietly changed hands for $37 million — $2 million below its May asking price. The buyer is a trust tied to billionaire retail magnate Les Wexner, the longtime head of L Brands and founder of Victoria’s Secret, according to the Real Deal. Known as Blue Heron Farm, the 28.5-acre Chilmark property had been off the market for more than a decade, following an extensive transformation under its previous owners, British architect Norman Foster and his wife, Elena Ochoa Foster.