Free Republic

That our people should live in their own homes is a sentiment deep in the heart of our race and of American life,” said President Herbert Hoover, perhaps the most important advocate of mass homeownership in the country’s history, in 1931. “They never sing songs about a pile of rent receipts.” But a ballad about the rental market is overdue. When rich-world interest rates began to surge in 2022, renting became a better deal than buying. House prices have since stagnated or slumped in many places, and rates are falling. Even so, there is reason to think that the winning...

How Does Society Readjust its Direction in Case of Deviation from its Law? "If an instrument of governing is dictatorial, as in political systems in the world today, the society's vigilance towards deviation from law will have only one way to gain readjustment. That is violence, which means revolution against the instrument of governing. This violence or revolution, even if it is an expression of the feeling of the society against deviation, is not carried out by the whole society. It is undertaken only by those who have the initiative and boldness to proclaim the will of the society." The...

New York Councilwoman Vickie Paladino is sounding the alarm about a line in Mayor Zohran Mamdani's inaugural speech. There was a lot in Mamdani's remarks to parse, including his assertion that New York will move toward the "warmth of collectivism" rather than "rugged individualism." As many pointed out, collectivism has a pretty high body count.But socialists like Mamdani don't care. They'll do whatever it takes, and stack as many bodies as necessary, to achieve their utopia. Mamdani made a boatload of promises in his address, including free universal childcare, free buses, and a $30 minimum wage.There was also another line...

Zohran Mamdani used his first day in office Thursday to hit the ground running with new executive orders targeting city landlords and housing development. And he said the city will take what he called "precedent-setting action" to intervene in a private landlord bankruptcy case he said was tied to 93 buildings. "It is inauguration day. It is also the day that the rent is due." Speaking at a Brooklyn apartment building, Mamdani framed the moves as an early test of whether city government will directly confront landlords over housing conditions and step into court cases that could determine whether tenants...

Move over, Tim Walz, because Joe Biden looks to be giving you a run for your money when it comes to fraud. In the final year of the Biden administration, federal officials sprayed billions of taxpayer dollars meant to keep struggling families in their homes around the country like confetti, sending a shocking slice of that money to dead people, ineligible non-citizens, and tenants collecting more than the law allows. “A US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report found more than $5 billion in taxpayer funds went to ‘questionable’ rental assistance recipients during the final year of the...

Mission-driven groups will get an early chance to make offers on properties that can be rehabilitated and preserved as affordable. he New York City Council passed a revised version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), a law that gives certain nonprofits an early right to bid on available properties that could be rehabilitated and preserved as affordable housing. As Jeanmarie Evelly explains in City Limits, the law “specifically targets buildings with poor conditions or where an affordability provision is expiring.” The law allows “qualified entities” to purchase properties, make repairs, and maintain affordable rents. First introduced in 2020,...

That’s one hell of a markup. Whoever moves into NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s rent-stabilized apartment in Queens will be shelling out an extra $800 — or 35% — more per month than what the socialist “nepo baby” did, The Post has learned. The Astoria apartment — which has quietly attracted interest from potential tenants for the past few weeks — is now commanding $3,100 per month while still remaining rent stabilized, sources said. Mamdani — who’ll be moving into Gracie Mansion with his “aloof” artist wife Rama Duwaji sometime after being sworn in Jan. 1 — caught a break during...

Summers in the city could get a little cooler for apartment dwellers with the recent passing of a New York City Council bill. Intro 994, also known as the Cool Homes For All legislation, passed the City Council on Thursday, paving the way for tenants to get free cooling systems from landlords at their request. “All tenants deserve a safe, livable home, and as our summers get hotter, that means guaranteeing access to air conditioning,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler, who sponsored the bill. The legislation will require building landlords to provide cooling systems capable of maintaining 78 degrees in...

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...

Key Points: The national median rent for apartments fell 1% in November from October, and now stands at $1,367, according to Apartment List. The national multifamily vacancy rate was 7.2% in November, a record high. The historic surge in multifamily construction over the past few years is now pulling back, but a good supply of new units is still coming online at a time of much weaker demand. A slew of new supply is still making its way through the multifamily housing market. That, coupled with weakening demand, especially from the youngest workers, is pushing vacancies up and rents down....

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...

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...

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...

A Penn Yan woman is facing multiple charges after police say she refused to leave an apartment during a landlord-tenant dispute and then resisted arrest. Carol Briggs, 63, was arrested by Penn Yan Police for obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, and trespass following an incident at an apartment where she had no legal right to be. Officers responded to a call involving a dispute between a tenant and Briggs, who is a family member of the landlord. Police say Briggs entered the apartment without permission, became upset with the tenant, and demanded they leave the property. Police informed Briggs that...

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/

With a 1.4% vacancy rate, the city is in desperate need of housing, and fast. A special panel known as the Charter Revision Commission, established by Mayor Eric Adams, believes they have some solutions to the problem. What You Need To Know Housing-related proposals will appear as questions two through five on the November ballot. Voters will see them when they flip over their ballots Question two would create two new shortened processes for affordable housing: one for publicly financed projects and another for a newly created list of the 12 community districts with the least development Question three would...

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — The New York State Assembly Housing Committee held a public hearing in Albany on Tuesday to examine how municipalities outside of New York City can opt into laws that regulate rent, services, leases, and evictions to keep housing attainable. The hearing centered on the Rent Emergency Stabilization for Tenants Act (S4659A/A4877A), a proposed bill that could make it easier and less expensive to enact better tenant protections. Proponents of the REST Act—including tenants, local elected officials, and legal experts—testified that current state law is flawed and easy for landlords to manipulate. Opponents argued that the existing...

Rents for single-family residential homes rose just 1.4% in August compared with the year before, according to analytics and data firm Cotality, down from a 2.3% annual gain in July. That’s also much less than the 3% average gain seen last year and is the smallest increase in 15 years. Rent growth weakened across all price points, continuing a trend that has persisted in the second half of this year. Rents had been strengthening in the first half of this year. There were, however, strong variations regionally. Chicago saw the highest annual rent growth at 4.7% in August, followed by...

A once-crumbling factory in Seneca Falls just won one of New York’s top preservation honors — after being saved from the wrecking ball and transformed into a home for dozens of families and veterans. Huntington Apartments has received a 2025 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of New York State, the organization announced Monday. The building at 201 Fall Street was originally home to the National Yeast Company in the late 1800s. By the 2010s, it was deteriorating fast. A gas station proposal nearly sealed its fate — until local advocates stepped in. The Seneca Falls Historical...

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...