A weekend topic starting with First Coast News. “Florida regulators will soon weigh in on a 14% average rate hike proposed by Citizens Property Insurance, which could impact more than a million policyholders. ‘I remember I was around $1,000 a year, but now I’m well over $3,000 now,” says Al Landgraff, a homeowner in Safety Harbor, who like many in the state has seen firsthand insurance costs continue to rise. ‘There’s not much you can do. You pretty much have to pay it. Again, there’s not a lot of choices,’ Landgraff added. He and his wife are making the choice to move to South Carolina with hopes of retiring soon. ‘It’s a little more rural but compared to the cost of living here, it’s nothing. We’d love to stay here, but if we’re going to retire it’s not here,’ Landgraff added.”
The Review Journal in Nevada. “The Las Vegas Valley saw the biggest year-over-year jump in investor purchases of homes in the entire country, according to Redfin. Investor purchases were up 27 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, the highest in the U.S. (tied with San Jose, California), Redfin said. Redfin defines an investor purchase as one made by a company. A Lied Center for Real Estate at UNLV study from last year found corporate investors own approximately 14 percent of all residential single-family housing stock in the valley, and 25 percent of North Las Vegas specifically. ‘Investors could be attracted to Las Vegas because rents there are increasing more than the national median,’ said Redfin Economics Research lead Chen Zhao. ‘In addition, Las Vegas is a tourist destination, so short-term rentals are another reason for investors to want to buy there.’”
From Bloomberg. “Landlords for offices, apartment complexes and other commercial real estate have $1.5 trillion of debt due by the end of next year, and about a quarter of that borrowing could be hard to refinance, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Many US owners of the assets known as multifamily bought their properties using three-year floating rate loans during the easy money era. Interest rate increases since then have eaten up much of their rental income, making it a challenge to secure additional equity. ‘A large portion of the multifamily world is underwater at the moment,’ said Catie McKee, director and head of commercial-mortgage backed securities trading at Taconic Capital Advisors. ‘A lot of the equity is gone, but it’s an asset class that is pretty resilient over time. It’s underwritable, it just needs a capital infusion.’”
The Associated Press. “For years, Fartun Weli has been frustrated with the way low-income Somali Muslims in Minnesota have been targeted by shady home sellers edging their way into the community — by exploiting a principle of Islam meant to protect the poor. Weli says many are refugee immigrants who know little about the formal homebuying process and often have little or bad credit. Even when they qualify for traditional mortgages, they’re uncomfortable with the typical financing options because Islamic law forbids interest on loans. In comes a private seller who offers them seemingly low-priced homes without interest. In such sales, the two sides agree on a price outright, with a sizeable down payment and monthly installments. The seller claims there’s no interest payment because no banks are involved. But no banks also mean no appraisals, allowing the seller to inflate prices with no questions asked on the condition of the home.”
“Typically, the seller legally owns the home until the entire loan is paid off and all the seller’s conditions are met, while the buyer takes on ownership responsibilities like paying the property taxes, fixing it up to livable standards and all ongoing maintenance. ‘This is a community that has been scammed, there are so many of them that just folded quietly’ said Weli, who leads Isuroon, a community nonprofit that supports Somali refugee immigrant women and their families resettling in Minnesota. ‘There’s something about being an immigrant and being a refugee. You plan things so well and you strive. This homeownership thing, it’s the ultimate destination. It’s part of feeling completely safe.’”
From Realtor.com. “The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a new rule that aims to prevent nefarious actors from using residential real estate deals for money laundering. The final rule issued on Wednesday will require real estate professionals to report the true identity of all-cash homebuyers who use shell companies or other legal entities to purchase residential property in the U.S. The purpose of the new rule is to prevent illicit actors such as drug cartels, international criminals, or sanctioned foreign oligarchs from laundering money through the housing market using anonymous transactions. Similar reporting rules already apply to banks and other mortgage lenders. The new reporting rule for all-cash real estate deals will take effect on Dec. 1, 2025, while the new rule for investment advisers kicks in on Jan. 1, 2026.”
“In one recent case, the Justice Department seized a mansion in the upscale Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles that prosecutors say was purchased for the family of a former Armenian government minister as a bribe. Last month, the DOJ finalized a civil forfeiture settlement that gives the U.S. possession of the mansion. The property is currently listed for $39.7 million. A similar rule has applied since 2016 to cash deals above a certain threshold in Miami and Manhattan, which are popular markets for wealthy foreign buyers. Several other major cities have also been added under so-called geographic targeting orders since then.”
The Oaklandside. “Over the past several years, dozens of tiny-home companies have sprung up in California and beyond. Many pitch ADUs and mobile homes to property owners. Others have designed short-term shelters for unhoused residents. These companies hawk their products to local governments and compete with each other for contracts. California is home to 28% of the country’s homeless population, more than any other state. Its numbers grew about 35% between 2017 and 2023 as housing prices skyrocketed. Meanwhile, Oakland’s homeless population has virtually doubled since 2017 — now at an estimated 5,490. One Oakland-based company that launched in 2022 to sell shipping-container shelters at a steep price has become the subject of the ongoing FBI probe in the city.”
“Has the proliferation of tiny homes helped ease the housing and homelessness crises? Opinions and results are mixed. The recent embrace of ADUs in California has also inspired the creation of new companies, which often make homeless housing as well. The state and local governments have made it easier for homeowners to build accessory units, promoting ADUs as a cheaper and less controversial method of increasing housing stock. ‘That’s why all of these companies are here, it’s the ADU laws,’ said Elizabeth Funk, CEO of Dignity Moves, speaking to The Oaklandside in Sacramento. ‘You can buy one of these things on Amazon.’”
KUTV in Utah. “A Salt Lake man said he is so fed up with the rising crime in his neighborhood that he’s ready to form an armed neighborhood watch. Despite efforts by Salt Lake Police to crack down on crime citywide, he believes it’s not enough — especially in his community. That man, Jason Seaton, lives in the Poplar Grove area. He said that his once peaceful neighborhood has become a hotspot for illegal activity, often involving drugs right in front of his home. ‘They’re just letting it happen,’ Seaton said. According to Seaton, he’s constantly calling law enforcement about dangerous incidents near his house. ‘Homeless people have been breaking into homes, have been stealing things from people’s houses, actually tearing down the door, going inside and emptying the house,’ he said. ‘If Governor Cox is going to say, ‘Well, we don’t want to manage a state like California,’ well, then get hot. Don’t manage a state like California. Come up with a plan.’”
The Christian Post. “Mayor Mike Coffman of Aurora, Colorado, said the Biden-Harris border policies are to blame for the criminal gang problem that has shone a negative spotlight on his largely safe community. Although Coffman stressed that the criminal element affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in Aurora is largely isolated to specific apartment complexes and the problem doesn’t affect the vast majority of the city’s over 400,000 residents, he blames the federal government, in conjunction with nonprofit organizations, that decided to house a large number of Venezuelan migrants in low-income apartments in his city.”
“‘The city of Aurora took a position early on that we were not going to participate in the migrant crisis. We were not going to provide taxpayer support, and we were not even going to be a conduit for federal dollars to come in to provide assistance,’ Coffman said in an interview with Fox31 Denver on Thursday. ‘This is not our problem; this is a problem created by the federal government at the border with bad policy. So, the federal government needs to solve this problem, not the city of Aurora. These people did not go there on their own; somebody put them there.’ In response to the governor’s claims that the criminal activity was the makings of the councilwoman’s ‘imagination,’ resident Cindy Romero told Fox News: ‘Polis wouldn’t last five minutes on that property.’”
The Canadian Press. “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday that his government is bringing back stricter rules to stem the flow of low-wage temporary foreign workers, and he urged businesses to hire and train Canadian workers. ‘Two years ago, in the aftermath of the pandemic and facing severe labour shortages, we adjusted the program for temporary foreign workers. That’s what the business community needed,’ Trudeau said at the Liberal cabinet retreat in Halifax. ‘But today’s economy is very different from it was two years ago. Inflation has started to come down. Employment is higher. We no longer need as many temporary foreign workers.’”
“While the loosening of rules happened under his watch, Trudeau did once staunchly criticize a similar rise in temporary foreign workers under the Harper government. In 2014, he wrote an op-ed calling for the temporary foreign worker program to be scaled back dramatically and refocused to its ‘original purpose’ of filling jobs when no Canadian workers can be found. ‘I believe it is wrong for Canada to follow the path of countries who exploit large numbers of guest workers, who have no realistic prospect of citizenship,’ Trudeau wrote in the Toronto Star. ‘It is bad for our economy in that it depresses wages for all Canadians, but it’s even worse for our country. It puts pressure on our commitment to diversity, and creates more opportunities for division and rancour.’”
CBC News in Canada. “A controversial homeless shelter located just steps from an elementary school in Montreal’s Saint-Henri neighbourhood is underscoring the problems with social cohabitation in multiple communities across the city. They say they’ve witnessed open drug use, aggressive behaviour and sexual conduct from frequenters of the day centre, including when children are around. The back door of the centre borders a park used by Victor-Rousselot elementary school. In February, a worker found a dead body in the daycare’s playground. Myrlène Sauveur, the director of a daycare in downtown Montreal, says parents have also been harassed by users of the shelter and some children have had nightmares from what they’ve seen. She says the daycare educates children about those experiencing homelessness, but ‘a child isn’t there to understand someone who … takes drugs, a naked person who screams at them and scares them,’ she said.”
Agence France-Presse. “Vivienne Vetter is furious at what she says is an unchecked flood of refugees into her German city of Solingen, blaming it for a deadly knife rampage by a Syrian man. Vetter, who is originally from Poland but has lived in Germany for two decades, expressed anger at recently arrived migrants in Solingen who she said ‘don’t learn German.’ ‘They take away childcare places, take away daycare places, take away money, take away flats,’ the 26-year-old who works in the elder care sector told AFP, adding she herself was struggling to find an affordable apartment. ‘If they would integrate, I wouldn’t have a problem with it,’ she adding, noting she lives just minutes’ walk from the scene of the attack.”
The Telegraph. “Björn Höcke struts into Apolda’s town square to a rock star’s welcome. He grabs a microphone and launches into a tirade against the folly of war with Russia, asylum seekers, energy reforms and the erosion of cultural values. But ending German military support for Ukraine is the theme that keeps cropping up – and the one that gets some of the most raucous cheers from the crowd. ‘Domestic policy decides how we live, but foreign policy decides if we live,’ Mr Höcke, the leader of the far-Right AfD in Germany’s eastern state of Thuringia, shouts. ‘What is happening in German foreign policy should be questioned: this country is on the brink of war with Russia, this country is on the brink of atomic war with Russia. Friends, we as Germans, we as Thuringians, we as voters say – no more war!’”
“‘I’ve got nothing against immigrants but I am voting for the AfD,’ disclosed one 68-year-old, who gave her name as Frau Hesse, in Erfurt’s Nordpark. ‘There’s too much immigration. My daughter found it very hard to find an apartment when she moved here.’”
The Globe and Mail. “What are the trademark sounds and sights of Rome? In the era of mass tourism, I no longer associate the city with the tinkle of water in its glorious fountains. Instead, I think of the clatter of wheeled suitcases as they are dragged along cobblestone streets. And the sights? I see lockboxes everywhere, many attached to the lovely, elegantly decayed wooden doors in the historic centre. They contain the keys to the ubiquitous Airbnb apartments and those of other short-term rental businesses. I am not the only European resident of a popular city who is growing weary of the mob scene. The long, hot summer of 2024 in southern Europe may be remembered as the summer when several cities got fed up with the type of mass tourism that, at one point, turned Airbnb into a US$100-billion company.”
“Rome, in my view, is becoming the new Venice, Florence or Barcelona, where the locals are leaving in droves because they can’t afford to stay put; or they succumb to greed and list their apartments on Airbnb as they flee to the suburbs. Historic centres are being hollowed-out, losing their character and their utility for everyday life. My artist friend Chiara Rapaccini finds living in Monti, the once authentic Roman village-like neighbourhood near the Colosseum, virtually unbearable. As Airbnbs take over her street, and noisy, late-night bars crammed with tourists open below her apartment, she often finds herself dragging a mattress into her kitchen at the back of her place to escape the noise. ‘It’s all about money, money, money, not preservation. More tourism, more alcohol, more Airbnbs. I am so sad about this,’ she told me.”
Yahoo Finance. “A homeless man in Western Australia has asked a judge to send him to jail for up to two years because he can’t find any suitable housing. David Ambrosius started a fire while he was sleeping in an abandoned motor inn last year in Geraldton, but the blaze grew so large that firefighters were called in. The court case has highlighted the lengths some people are going to put a roof over their heads amid Australia’s housing crisis. According to the latest figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 7,636 Aussies were sleeping on the street, 24,291 people were in supported accommodation for the homeless, 16,597 people were in temporary housing, 22,137 people were in boarding houses, and 47,895 people were living in ‘severely’ crowded dwellings. According to the ABC, he added that if he was sent to prison then he could get employment skills and have more time to find somewhere suitable to live. ‘If I’m released, I’ll be reoffending,’ he said. ‘I’ll be in the same circumstances and will need to re-offend.’”
“It’s no secret that Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis that’s spurred on by record property and rental prices, a lack of supply, immigration, planning laws, and a bunch of other factors. ‘On one hand, we have disinvested in social housing and other forms of housing that are affordable,’ a report from the University of Queensland said. ‘And on the other, there has been a lot done at the policy level to ensure housing is a commodity to be speculated. Not simply a means for people to live, housing is a vehicle through which to become wealthy. For the lucky ones, anyway.’”