Free Republic

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Thursday introduced for the second time a bill that would guarantee full payment forgiveness on rent and home mortgage payments throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Under the bill, titled the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act, there would be no accumulation of debt for renters or homeowners, as well as no negative impact on a person's credit rating or rental history. The legislation also calls on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to establish and oversee a "Landlord Relief Fund," to cover any losses landlords would receive as a result of the payment cancellations. Omar, under...

According to Bloomberg, real-estate data analytics firm Green Street released a new report outlining how the office space market in San Francisco will be the worst-preforming market in the US for 2021. Even though office vacancies in Manhattan are at record highs, it appears San Francisco tops New York City as companies reevaluating their space thanks to the pandemic. Green Street estimates that rent and occupancy may plunge 22% in San Francisco this year, the largest expected decline of any other city in the country. New York was number two with -17%, Los Angeles in third at -9%. Source: BloombergAll...

President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday outlined a $1.9 trillion emergency relief plan that would have major consequences for real estate and the economy at large. The proposal would extend a national moratorium on evictions and foreclosures to Sept. 30. The moratorium is set to expire Jan. 31,

New York City apartment tenants are more than $1 billion in debt from missed rent payments during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey measuring the depth of the rent crisis brought on by Covid-19. The debt figure is the most recent indicator that unemployment benefits and federal stimulus packages have so far been inadequate to alleviate the growing financial burden of missed rent payments across thousands of city households. Both landlord and tenant advocacy groups have lobbied heavily for more government rental assistance during the pandemic. The survey, conducted by the Community Housing Improvement Program, a landlord trade...

The 13th century Trisulti Charterhouse in the province of Frosinone, central Italy.The Dignitatis Humanae Institute, which is working with President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon to found an academy in Italy to defend Judeo-Christian civilisation, today fought off the Italian government’s latest attempt to remove the academy from an historic abbey near Rome. DHI chairman Benjamin Harnwell, who has always protested his innocence in the face of the state’s accusations, said the court action to remove him from the Trisulti Charterhouse has been entirely politically motivated. “The Ministry of Culture simply wanted me out because I proudly work...

Roy Fox hasn’t paid rent for his New York City apartment in more than 30 years. But he’s not sweating an eviction. In a city of 8.4 million people, Fox, 81, is one of just 23 lucky New Yorkers who reside in one of the city’s publicly owned historic sites spread across the five boroughs.

NEW YORK - Clarence Hamer doesn’t expect to hang on to his house much longer. His downstairs tenant owes him nearly $50,000 in back rent on the four-bedroom duplex in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Without those rental payments, Hamer has been unable to pay the thousands he owes in heat, hot water and property taxes. In September, after exhausting his life savings, he stopped paying the mortgage, too. “I don’t have any corporate backing or any other type of insurance,” said Hamer, a 46-year-old landlord who works for the city of New York. “All I have is my home, and it seems...

The bull market in hot urban retail and commercial real estate markets lasted for pretty much the entire post-crisis recovery period. But COVID has turned things around, and as people flee to the suburbs, it's worth taking a look at how valuations have declined.While urban real-estate markets have taken a hit as people flee to the suburbs and more space, it's worth taking a look at how much space costs in different cities around the world. While foreign cities are of course cheaper than the top American metropolises, the numbers in some cases might surprise you.Why $300K? On the one...

I suggest that the Senate offer the following Covid relief proposals in separate bills: 1. A federal unemployment weekly top-up of $300 (inclusive of Trump's diversionary payments) for up to 16 weeks prior to April 2021. 2. A retrospective residential rent/mortgage payment help program of up to 20% of amount paid by tenant/mortgagor for March through October 2020 rent/mortgage payment past due amounts, up to $2000 for a household, if requested by the tenant/mortgagor and accepted prior to December 22, 2020 by the landlord/mortgagee to cure all deliquency for that period, to be administered by a court empowered to issue...

Massachusetts landlords in need of rent payments are hoping a federal judge will soon end the state’s eviction ban amid the coronavirus pandemic, a lawyer representing property owners tells the Herald. Landlords in a federal lawsuit in Boston’s U.S. District Court are arguing that the eviction moratorium is unconstitutional, said attorney Richard Vetstein, lead counsel for the property owners. The suit is against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. “The state has never taken this drastic step,” Vetstein said of the eviction freeze on Wednesday. “Our main thrust is there’s never been a...

Readers may recall, as early as March, city dwellers in California fled to suburbs and remote areas to isolate from the virus pandemic. The proliferation of remote work arrangements has led this shift to become more permanent. At first, the exodus out of the city was due to virus-related lockdowns, then social unrest, and now it appears a steady flow of folks are leaving the San Francisco Bay Area for rural communities as their flexible work environment (i.e., remote access) allows them to work from anywhere, more specifically, outside city centers where the cost of living is a whole...

As the United States continues to face record unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic, 30% of Americans missed their housing payments in June, according to a survey by Apartment List, an online rental platform. That’s up from 24% who missed their payment just two months earlier in April and about on par with the 31% who missed payments in May. Renters, younger and lower-income households and urban dwellers were the groups most likely to miss their housing payments, Apartment List found.   At the same time that this “historically high” rate of Americans are missing their housing payments, eviction protections put in place at...

"Scores of apartments could be empty as thousands of renters face evictions after losing their jobs and as millennials in pricey spots like New York and San Francisco flee in search of cheaper pastures. Major companies significantly downsize, or simply give back their space in favor of remote work. Few tenants will be able to step in to fill their space. A large driver of recent leasing activity, coworking firms, struggle to get new members and are forced to shutter."

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Protestors across the nation are planning to take part in car demonstrations, Saturday, May 30, asking state leaders to temporarily cancel all rent and mortgage payments in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Here in the Midlands, they’ll be gathering at the parking lot of the Full Gospel Word and Worship Center on North Main Street in Columbia. Organizers have recently added a new component to the upcoming demonstration. In addition to calling on the cancellation of rents and mortgages, participants are also being asked to bring signs calling for an end to police brutality and violence...

California Democrats on Tuesday proposed giving tenants struggling during the coronavirus pandemic 10 years to pay their rent. The state would purchase unpaid rents and allow renters a decade, starting in 2024, to pay it back, under the proposal by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, tthe Sacramento Bee reported. Landlords would receive a tax credit dependent on committing to not evict tenants. “This is not a giveaway,” Democratic state Sen. Steven Bradford said, according to The Associated Press. "Our goal is to keep tenants houses and keep landlords out of foreclosure."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) issued an executive decree absolving all tenants from having to pay rent until August 20. "Since it was my previous decree barring all nonessential businesses from operating during the pandemic that ended the employment of millions of workers, it is only fair that I also decree that no one be required to pay rent until I deem it appropriate to allow these businesses to reopen," he said. The Governor acknowledged that "this may seem unfair to landlords who will lose their incomes during the rent holiday. But as former President Jimmy Carter said, 'life is unfair.'...

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that no one in the state can be evicted for not paying rent due to the coronavirus until August 20. "New York State will extend the moratorium on evictions for those facing COVID-related hardship for an additional 60 days - until August 20," he tweeted. "The No. 1 issue that people talk to me about probably is rent, and fear about being able to pay their rent, and this just takes that issue off the table until August 20," he said at his daily coronavirus briefing. Cuomo also said officials will ban any...

AUSTIN, Texas - Police say 22 people are behind bars after a group of over 30 cars drove onto I35 at a speed of 5 miles per hour to demand rent relief. “It's frustrating to see us working so hard for justice and to bring like these things to light, and then to be silenced like this by APD is expected, but still disappointing,” said one protester. A rent strike organized by Rent Strike ATX brought traffic to a near standstill after multiple cars protested rent on the interstate. “We were fighting no rent while we can't work during this...

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Bexar County is investigating after nearly 50 residents were locked out of their apartments at a San Antonio complex. They say they found their doorknobs bolted when they returned home on Monday. That’s despite a local moratorium on evictions that’s currently in effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It is sad. It is sad when somebody put a key on the door, even though they don’t have money for two or three months. Right now, we don’t need that,” says Luis Falcon, who son was locked out of his apartment. “This is the first flagrant...

Hasbro has announced a new version of Monopoly will be released where all rent will be suspended until further notice. In addition, the board game will now give players $1200 for passing the Go space. All railroads will be closed, though essential services such as the utilities and the income taxes will still be open. "These new rules will stimulate Monopoly's economy," said a Hasbro spokesperson. "Why just give out $200 when we can increase that number to $1200 and make everybody a winner?"