The calculus of consent
Enjoying the fruits of the world’s economic powerhouse make it hard to dismiss the attributes that set the U.S. on top. It also makes it a challenge to ignore those things that so clearly...
Multifamily industry excluded in FTC’s final rule on junk fees
The multifamily industry was excluded in the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) final "junk fees" rule that targets bait-and-switch pricing tactics that result in unfair competition. The FTC published its final rule on...
Multifamily scores ballot winners and losers
The USA is preparing to swear in President-elect Donald J. Trump as its 47th president, or what some housing experts call the return of the nation’s builder-in-chief. Housing was a major focus...
Redfin survey suggests a majority of Americans favor rent control
A recent survey commissioned by Redfin exposes a stark misconception among Americans about rent control. Although economists are in almost total agreement that rent control drives up rent rates over time and...
DOJ sues RealPage for housing inflation government caused
President Biden, Vice-President Harris and their Department of Justice have come out strongly against RealPage for their algorithm designed to help landlords better understand current market conditions in setting their rents. They claim it enables...
America’s spending problem
This will slim you down six ways from Sunday. The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money. —Margaret Thatcher $2.4 billion—federal losses under specially-created accounting rules by the federal government Creating...
Candidates move focus to housing
In the 2024 race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump for the U.S. presidency, housing is a major issue for the first time since the 1990s. One thing is certain, the...
RealPage reconfigures revenue management products after San Francisco bans rent-setting software
RealPage has reconfigured its revenue management products after San Francisco bans rent-setting software in a direct attack on the Richardson, Texas-based company. RealPage announced Thursday that it is offering its revenue management software...
The price of disorder
I was once pitched a deal in the heart of the Amazon—Manaus, Brazil. What was I buying? Firstly, a commercial asset. But I couldn’t shake my concern around governance. The sanctity of a contract...
Why housing costs remain a major hurdle for lowering inflation
Housing inflation continues to be a stubborn impediment to the consumer price index (CPI) falling back to the Federal Reserve’s target. Despite broader economic inflation cooling significantly from pandemic peaks, the shelter inflation index has...
Categories hit hardest by inflation
Despite inflation cooling to the lowest level in more than three years in July, there’s no way around the fact that consumer prices in the United States have risen sharply over the past three...
New game post-Chevron
For decades, the judicial doctrine called “Chevron deference” dominated American administrative law. In the aftermath of Chevron’s demise in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, however, a new legal debate is brewing over an 80-year-old judicial precedent:...