Criminals vs. property owners
But adjudication processes by regulatory agencies are different, and sometimes result in property owners being treated worse than criminals.
In criminal law, due process works to ensure that innocent people are not convicted of crimes....
The one issue every economist can agree is bad: Rent control
But there are a few questions where there’s near unanimity, and rent control is one of them. Pretty much every economist agrees that rent controls are bad. And in the last decades of the...
Apartment industry responds to President Obama’s real estate owned initiative
We are pleased to see the Administration explicitly recognizing the importance of rental housing in meeting our nation's housing needs through the Real-Estate Owned (REO) Initiative announced February 1.
We will be analyzing the President's...
New York’s self-inflicted housing crunch
But there’s also the anxiety from New York’s crazy-quilt pattern of land use regulation, which a New York Times editorial recently labeled “High-Rise Anxiety.” The unease stems from the many overlapping restrictions both on...
State of Multifamily Financing
With uncertainty about what the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will bring, mandatory reductions in their portfolios scheduled for 2010, and questions about the capability of FHA to handle greatly expanded loan...
A reasonable proposal
Much has been made of the recent proposal by the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform to modify the current, virtually unlimited mortgage interest deductions available to homeowners. The NAHB, The National Association...
Restoring America’s exceptionalism
Regulatory relief and reform
To restore incentive and encourage growth we must reduce the regulatory burden on our economy. There is a place for regulations that ensure safety and soundness and protect people from danger,...
Agency borrowing: Why the multifamily industry relies on GSEs
First, there are the portfolio lenders including banks and insurance companies. These lenders retain loans "in their portfolio" by making loans using funds from deposits or insurance premiums and then keeping those loans on...
Rent control is illegal
New York City recently implemented its far-reaching Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. That law enacted extensive amendments, all plaintiff protective, to New York’s 1969 Rent Stabilization Law (RSL). The Act imposes...
Fusion wariness
Livermore National Laboratory’s announcement is certainly a breakthrough, but it’s a commercially limited one. Nuclear fusion has long been hailed as the next great energy source, capable of providing nearly limitless power without the...
10 ways to supercharge the American economy
He's spot-on since Obama's progressive pottage has left us with a sluggish economy, unemployment over 9 percent and a 14.3 percent poverty rate—more poor people than we have had in a half-century.
Our economy suffers...
Our perception of skilled trades needs to change
The U.S. is in the midst of a crisis of masculinity. According to a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, men without four-year college degrees, ages 25 to 54, have left...
Why business despairs of Obama
Those who might help us escape are now being held back by the anti-business policies of President Barack Obama.
Obama's administration predicted a V-shaped recovery, based on the historical experience of the 1970s and 1980s....
Housing’s recession already happened?
A lot of people still expect the U.S. to fall into a recession. But for the housing market, the recession could already be in the rearview mirror.
Builders are sounding less downbeat than they were...
Vacant apartments come from bad policy, not a conspiracy
On Halloween, 2022, some elected officials held a performative press conference to talk about “Zombie Apartments.” They claim property owners are engaging in a mass conspiracy to keep rent-stabilized apartments vacant in an attempt...
