Good morning! Today is Monday, March 1. New York Gov. Cuomo apologized over interactions with staff and agreed to the state attorney general’s plan to set up a sex-harassment probe. The CDC recommends Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine, enabling inoculations to start this week. Toyota started building a “smart city” with self-driving cars, robots and Artificial Intelligence homes.
And in mortgage and housing news …
LENDER IPO’S: Between July and December, eight of the 30 largest U.S. mortgage lenders announced plans to go public. It hasn’t worked out quite the way all the companies were hoping.
RENTAL SCAM: New York’s rental market has been turned upside down by the pandemic, making it hard to tell a good deal from one that’s too good to be true.
AGENT EXODUS: As an industry, real estate should stop obsessing over things that can’t or won’t be fixed and look inward at the things that make agents special as individuals and organizations. Here’s why.
MODERN RETIREMENT: More senior homeowners are opting to build brand new, high-end houses.
AIRBNB LOSS: Airbnb posted a steep annual loss in its first earnings as a public company, as costs tied to its market debut capped a year in which the pandemic ravaged the travel industry.
RESTRICTIVE RACIAL COVENANTS: Discriminatory language is being uncovered in title documents that once sought to limit who could buy a property, and the real estate community and tech companies are stepping up to try to eliminate it.
RECOVERY: The housing boom is benefiting both the mega metropolitan areas that have seen so much success over the last decade and the mid-level metro areas that have struggled to catch up.
LOOMING BUBBLE: Philly housing market Is ‘White Hot.’ Is another real estate bubble looming?
REFURBISHED PROPERTIES: The growing attraction of short-term real estate loans during the pandemic is making it easier to borrow to refurbish properties.