You Realize You’re In A Situation Where The Equity’s Not There
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “In the last five years, Minnesota’s median home sale prices have risen by $93,000 — or $18,000 annually — a huge boon for existing property owners poised to take advantage of equity in their houses. Monthly mortgage payments for a median-priced home have jumped from about $1,600 to $2,700 after insurance and interest. The good news for first-time buyers? The days of multiple offers for sight-unseen properties, waived home inspections and other frenzied buying activity appear to be largely over, though a seller might still receive some same-day offers ‘if the home is priced competitively,’ said Frank D’Angelo, president of the Minneapolis Area Realtors. Generally speaking, ‘buyers can breathe more freely while buying their home,’ D’Angelo said. ‘In some ways, 2023 and 2024 reflected a return of a more normal market.'”
“Power developer Al Adelson is courting the aging Portofino waterfront condominium in West Palm Beach with a $150 million offer that some owners call a life-changing windfall and others an unwanted eviction. ‘For some people it’s a second or third home. For other people, it’s their only home,’ said Portofino owner Cynthia Witter, who is undecided about a sale. ‘This is a very peaceful place, and it’s turned into a lot of pressure for people and a lot of fighting over money.’ The deal will only go through if both buildings agree to sell.”
“Chris Aumente, who owns a 450-square-foot studio apartment at the Portofino on North Flagler, is eager to sell to Adelson. He said he’s paying $600 a month in assessments and fees. ‘I think this is the most fortuitous opportunity of these peoples’ lives. There is a contingent that thinks they can get more, and that is laughable,’ said Aumente, who is also a real estate agent. ‘How are people who want to stay going to be received when you’re all sitting around the pool facing a $25,000 assessment?'”
“A suburban Chicago businessman was sentenced to three years in federal prison for a wide-ranging fraud scheme involving mortgage loans, vehicle loans and stolen identities, federal prosecutors announced. Yale Schiff, 50, of Riverwoods, fraudulently obtained millions of dollars in loans by submitting false information to financial institutions about his employment, income, and other financial details. He also filed false documents with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds to fraudulently remove liens from properties, allowing him to reuse the same properties as collateral for multiple loans. Schiff then pocketed the proceeds and caused significant losses to lenders.”
“In the wake of the deadly fires that ravaged Southern California in January, Airbnb received heaps of praise for its voucher program that offered free stays for displaced victims. Local and national media outlets lauded the effort, directing thousands of refugees to apply. But for many who needed the housing, reviews weren’t as glowing. ‘If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,’ said Todd Smoyer, who received a voucher after his house burned down in Altadena but wasn’t able to use it. ‘It just feels like a PR stunt. We spent over $8,000 on short-term rentals over three weeks, and we were just trying to recoup a little. We know they’re making so much money, so how hard would it be to apply the credit to a stay that’s already booked? It left such a nasty taste in my mouth.'”
“A downtown Oakland office tower has been bought for an ultra-low price that represents a nosedive from the property’s prior values. The Syndicate building at 1440 Broadway in downtown Oakland was bought for $5.5, according to documents filed on Jan. 27 with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office. The price paid by BrightSpire was a huge decline from the $43.5 million that the prior owner, Tidewater Capital, paid in 2018 to purchase the building.”
“Samuel Lloyd, the developer who converted the iconic The Peach building in Midtown Atlanta into apartments, is being sued by his partners in the project for allegedly faking leases and fraudulently inflating income statements to secure a mortgage. Lloyd refinanced the previous $17.5M loan on the property, which was set to mature in November, without alerting the equity partners, according to the lawsuit. PCH claims the property wasn’t generating enough income to justify the loan amount. According to the suit, the new loan valued the property at $35.8M, which would require The Peach to have been generating more than $2.2M in net operating income, $1M more than Lloyd told investors the apartment complex was producing.”
“‘The March 2024 refinance, executed without PCH’s knowledge or consent, is evidence of Defendants’ self-dealing and deliberate concealment of material financial transactions,’ the lawsuit says. ‘[Lloyd] admitted to fabricating leases to inflate the Property’s NOI, exposing the Company and its Members to legal risks, including potential claims of loan fraud.'”
“On the one-year anniversary of one of the largest private mortgage insolvencies in Canadian history a group of lenders has turned the millions of dollars they were owed into the foundation of a ‘mom and pop’ private equity company that they believe offers the best chance of recovering their losses. BIG North Capital (BNC) was formed by a collection of 177 different individuals and corporations that had been in some cases unwitting lenders to close to half the homes purchased by former child actor Robby Clark, who borrowed as much as 100 per cent of the price on more than 600 properties around Ontario between 2019 and 2023.”
“The tsunami of debt that washed over Mr. Clark was unprecedented, not least because there was no large financial institution behind it but rather hundreds of so-called ‘mom and pop’ lenders who had been sold on private mortgages and promissory notes by former Mortgage Alliance mortgage broker Claire Drage through her Lion’s Share Group Inc. or Windrose Group businesses. Dan Uszynski, a retired industrial engineer from Windsor, Ont., was one of those lenders who had worked with Ms. Drage and is now the president of BNC.”
“Like many of Ms. Drage’s lenders, he at first believed her reassuring words. It wasn’t long before the scales fell from his eyes, he says. ‘Once you realize you’re in a situation where the equity’s not there …’ said Mr. Uszynski, who trailed off with a rueful shrug. ‘When we looked at the facts, the portfolio, it wasn’t worth $155-million in equity. We were guessing, maybe $75-million. There were no buyers for the portfolio.’ When it was all complete in late December, 2024, BNC held 185 properties worth roughly $44-million (current market prices according to Mr. Uszynski).”
“A quarter-point drop in the interest rate to three per cent, announced Wednesday by the Bank of Canada to help counter the threat of tariffs plotted by the U.S. government, should help some Prince George homebuyers waiting to take on a mortgage. ‘In Prince George we’re kind of in a wait-and-see mode,’ said Mike Hurrell, owner of Maxsave Real Estate Services. There’s been an overemphasis on government subsidies for new construction of multi-family housing and rental units and not enough support for builders of single-family homes, Hurrell said. ‘The federal government really geared all the housing programs, such as eliminating GST, for purpose-built rental properties and as a result you’re getting a lot of investment in these multi-family units and we have a lot of them coming on board now which is going to create an oversupply,’ he said.”
“Victoria’s whopping state debt has been blamed for keeping its housing market ‘stuck in neutral.’ New research from Hotspotting revealed four suburbs across Melbourne where investors are being warned off, after house sales slumped across last year — including Abbotsford, Cranbourne East, Croydon and Oakleigh South. And the unit market in Murrumbenna, a suburb in the city’s south east, had also experienced four quarters of falling sales. The firm’s founder Terry Ryder said most of Melbourne was now ‘stuck in neutral’ as there had been no impetus to drive prices higher for the past couple of years. ‘Investors are more likely to be selling than buying in Victoria,’ Mr Ryder said. He added that Victoria was the most indebted state of all the country, and as a result, property taxes had increased. ‘It’s just a heavily taxed state … and the property industry is always the one that state governments slug when they’re trying to raise a bit of revenue.'”
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‘Aumente, who owns a 450-square-foot studio apartment at the Portofino on North Flagler, is eager to sell to Adelson. He said he’s paying $600 a month in assessments and fees. ‘I think this is the most fortuitous opportunity of these peoples’ lives. There is a contingent that thinks they can get more, and that is laughable,’ said Aumente, who is also a real estate agent. ‘How are people who want to stay going to be received when you’re all sitting around the pool facing a $25,000 assessment?’
From what’s in the article that’s where yer headed Chris, you ain’t got the votes. This is more like what I blogged about in the 2000’s. Pissed off loanowners giving each other dirty looks and a pool they can’t maintain anymore, etc. Lawsuits.
First offer is always your best offer. It ain’t gonna get better.
‘He also filed false documents with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds to fraudulently remove liens from properties, allowing him to reuse the same properties as collateral for multiple loans’
That’s some sound lending right there.
Realtors are liars.
Do you get the feeling that the NVDIA rout was the mere beginning?
Finance·tech stocks
Black Swan’s Taleb says Nvidia rout is hint of what’s coming
BY Sonali Basak and Bloomberg
January 28, 2025 at 10:49 AM PST
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the book “The Black Swan.”
Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Black Swan author Nassim Taleb is warning that Monday’s brutal selloff in Nvidia Corp. is just a taste of what’s in store for investors who blindly piled into Wall Street’s AI-driven stock rally.
Future pullbacks could be two- or even three-times bigger than the 17% slump posted by Nvidia at the start of this week, Taleb said on the sidelines of what’s become known as Hedge Fund Week in Miami. That drop wiped $589 billion from the chip maker’s valuation, making it the worst in market history.
“This is the beginning,” Taleb told Bloomberg News in an interview after the close of markets on Monday. “The beginning of an adjustment of people to reality. Because now they realize, now, it’s no longer flawless. You have a small little chip on the glass.”
The frenzied selling was triggered by sudden fears that US tech giants may not dominate the field of artificial intelligence as expected. The concerns follow the emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that has demonstrated a lower-cost approach to developing the technology.
Investors interpreted that as a threat to both demand for and reliance on Nvidia’s advanced chips. Taleb said investors have until now been too focused on a single narrative: That the company’s shares would keep rising as it maintains its dominance of AI. Monday’s retreat was actually “very little” considering the risks in the industry, he said.
Crash Protection
Taleb, whose best-selling book explores the extreme impacts of rare and unpredictable occurrences, is also scientific adviser to Universa Investments. That’s a tail-risk hedge fund, which effectively offers a form of insurance to help protect portfolios from violent market events.
The former options trader is well-known on Wall Street for his gloomy pronouncements, not all of which have proved accurate. In early 2023, he said many investors were ill-prepared for the era of higher interest rates when assets may no longer be “inflating like crazy.” The benchmark US equity gauge is up almost 50% since, in large part because of the frenzy for all things AI.
Taleb and Universa’s argument is not that investors should run from the market, and hence miss such gains. Rather, they advocate allocating a sliver of portfolios toward protection from unexpected shocks.
Taleb said too many investors have been bidding up prices of firms related to AI without properly knowing the details of how it functions or is able to succeed. He described technology firms as “gray swans,” because investors underestimate the deviations in their prices that are possible in a day.
Meanwhile, Taleb on Monday also doubled down on his warnings of an unsustainable US debt load. He expressed concerns about the danger of “an explosion of inflation” if higher labor costs combine with aggressive tariffs, and said the bond market “is not a wise investment” given that risk.
…
https://fortune.com/2025/01/28/black-swan-tech-deepseek-taleb-nvidia-rout-hint-market-whats-coming/
You mean wall streets latest greatest thing is a flub? Has that ever happened before?
Pets dot com buying Souper Bowl ads.
Been there, done that.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP signed a sweeping executive order Sunday that told federal agencies to “immediately take action” to deliver more Central Valley water and eliminate rules that stand in the way, including endangered species protections.
In the new order, Trump cited the Los Angeles fires, even though the actions he is ordering — delivering more water from the federal Central Valley Project — would primarily serve farms. About 75% of Central Valley Project water is used for agriculture, while much of the rest goes to cities and towns in the San Joaquin Valley, including Sacramento and Fresno.
State reservoirs in Southern California are at above-average levels. “There is no shortage of water in Southern California, which is why the Governor has called for an investigation into the local response,” said Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-orders-release-of-more-water-to-fight-la-fires-but-valley-farmers-may-reap-benefits/ar-AA1y9iMM
A world away from the Palisades and Altadena, apartment landlords try to sell fire victims on living downtown
A social media campaign has been launched by members of the Historic Core Business Improvement District to get people searching for housing to consider moving into one of L.A.’s oldest neighborhoods, where century-old office and retail buildings on blocks south of City Hall have been converted to apartments.
The bulk of the units included in the business improvement district’s outreach program so far are in five historic buildings that have had problems of their own as a new owner took on deferred maintenance and ejected tenants who weren’t paying rent.
“COVID did a lot of damage to downtown in a lot of ways,” said Mark Sanders, co-founder of landlord Fifteen Group. “Habitually, people were not paying rent, and the eviction moratorium didn’t help.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/a-world-away-from-the-palisades-and-altadena-apartment-landlords-try-to-sell-fire-victims-on-living-downtown/ar-AA1y8KPJ
Man, that CCP virus was the slayer of entire downtown’s.
Doom loop gonna doom.
Coming up soon on 5 years since “2 weeks to flatten the curve”
“We’re all in this together” now, right? Where did all the FRAUD money go?
Amid message of unity, discord on immigration persists in SF
Surrounded by immigrant advocates on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins delivered a clear message to those in whom President Donald Trump has instilled fear.
“My office is doing nothing in coordination with any federal immigration enforcement whatsoever,” Jenkins told the crowd, urging them to feel safe reporting crimes to local police.
As the public defender’s office tells it, Jenkins’ office frequently files drug charges against a person in local court, but alerts federal prosecutors to the case. Federal officials swoop in and take over; a scene that has played out more than 100 times, the office contends. Federal prosecutors, who have no real intention of trying the case, back defendants into what the public defender describes as “coercive fast-track deals to funnel these individuals into immigration detention and deportation.”
“We believe the DA’s office does this because they are losing when they take these cases to trial and they are trying to get around the sanctuary ordinance to deport these individuals instead,” the public defender’s office told The Examiner in response to a series of questions.
“Federal prosecution provides a critical deterrent to drug dealing because if a person goes to trial in federal court, and they are convicted, they will be sentenced to time in prison,” Jenkins’ office said. “In contrast, in San Francisco state court the majority of judges do not treat drug dealing as a serious crime despite repeat offenses, and the grave consequences visited upon our communities; and the drug dealers therefore do not fear incarceration, or any significant consequence.”
The public defender’s office says it believes many of the people arrested for dealing drugs are actually victims of human trafficking who are coerced into dealing under threat of violence. They’ve used this defense on seven occasions, resulting in two guilty verdicts and four hung juries or mistrials. It had its first acquittal in October.
“That means five out of seven times, the prosecution has not been able to secure a conviction,” the office said. “This demonstrates that if juries are allowed to hear about the horrific experiences our clients in these cases have been through in their lives—the threats they have endured—juries will recognize the reality of labor trafficking. They will consider that putting such victims in cages creates more harm.”
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/brooke-jenkins-and-sf-public-defender-clash-on-immigration/article_5e761af6-df44-11ef-aa85-73e981e4ed14.html
City of Fresno tweaks city code for illegal camping enforcement
Council President Mike Karbassi of District 2 confirms a 24-hour notice complies with state law. Councilmembers also approved another measure, agreeing to prosecute other cities that send unhoused people to Fresno without their consent.
“We only have so many resources to help the homeless people in Fresno,” Karbassi said. “We can’t afford to have other cities just try to irresponsibly ship human beings here to get them out of sight and out of mind.”
Advocate Dez Martinez says it is still too short. “Giving me 24 hours to pack up everything that I unpacked and used to make it homey and not go insane just living in a box – I need more time,” she said.
Martinez wants at least 72 hours for people to pick up their things and move. “Sometimes they leave us alone for months,” Martinez said. “After a month, we’ve already made it our home. We’ve fixed it up. We’ve found an old sofa that was dropped off. We make it our home.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/city-of-fresno-tweaks-city-code-for-illegal-camping-enforcement/ar-AA1y9K1h
Portland area quality of life survey shows improvement, ongoing concerns
DHM polled 700 voters in Dec. 2024, 300 of whom lived in Portland and 400 in its suburbs. 59% of those surveyed report a worsening quality of life, down from 78% in the past two years and 80% in 2021.
Braedn Johnson and Becca Clark live in Happy Valley. They say the quality of life in Clackamas County is steady, but they are concerned about what they feel is a rise in crime.
Downtown Portland, though, they feel is slowly getting better.
“For a while, it had been really crappy,” Clark said. “I feel like they’ve turned things around to make it a lot better.”
Clark and Johnson, along with Shawna Case-Beckish in Washington County, say they’ll venture downtown for events, but cite homelessness, drug use, and cleanliness as the issues keeping them away.
“One of the last times that I was down in Portland was October for a concert and I literally double-questioned whether or not I was wearing open-toed shoes, stepping over excrement and not knowing if it was animal or human,” Case-Beckish said.
“It’s very trashed, a bunch of buildings are still boarded up,” Clark said. “There’s a bunch of burglaries, robberies, a bunch of not-fun things going on. It’s not great down there.”
“One? probably the lack of police,” Johnson said of his top issue.
Case-Beckish said she does not feel safe downtown alone but does not think a stronger police presence is necessarily the answer.
“I’m hopeful with the ban on illegal substances,” she said. “Now with the ban, I hope that that cleans it up. It’s very unnerving to walk by somebody that’s literally shooting up as you walk past them.”
“I think that a lot of people like to paint downtown and parts of Portland as this scary and unsafe area, but I think what needs to be happening is that people need to come to those areas,” said Sasha Poll, who lives in downtown Portland and loves it.
She said things won’t improve without more business from Portland’s suburban neighbors.
“I think that that hurts downtown. I think downtown is a great area but what makes downtown great is when people are here and engaging with local businesses and standing proud in downtown,” Poll said. “I think when you say you’re scared of it and you don’t want to come there, well-intentioned or not, you contribute to that issue.”
https://www.kptv.com/2025/01/31/portland-area-quality-life-survey-shows-improvement-ongoing-concerns/
Florida law enforcement prepares for increase in immigration detentions amid federal crackdown
Community members and legal professionals are voicing concern over the uncertainty surrounding immigration enforcement. Estefania Laurida, who works with The Immigration Advocates, said her office is receiving 50-60 extra calls per day from organizations and families seeking guidance.
She explained, “We’re getting calls from organizations on how to handle raids, families where not everyone has citizenship, and clients with pending cases.”
Laurida noted that even immigration attorneys who previously did not handle detainment cases now need to consider it.
“At this point, for immigration firms that weren’t doing detainment work, they need to consider. A lot more people are getting detained, and we need to get people out.”
Immigration attorneys are struggling to keep up with shifting policies, with Laurida noting that eligibility for protection can change suddenly. She highlighted the case of Venezuelan nationals.
“As the law evolves, things change. You may have been eligible for something before, and you’re not now. We’re seeing that with Venezuelans — TPS rescinded.”
https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/florida-law-enforcement-prepares-increase-immigration-detentions-amid-federal-crackdown
It doesn’t say elsewhere what TPS is.
‘Inhumane’ and ‘Disturbing’: Florida nonprofit in crisis following Trump’s executive order on refugee program
The nonprofit Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services operates several different programs. However, its refugee program, which helps refugees resettle in the United States, was told to “stop work” after the federal government pulled funding.
ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska interviewed Dr. Sandra Braham, the President and CEO of Gulf Coast JFCS.
On Jan. 17, Dr. Braham said 179 refugees arrived in Tampa to be resettled in the Bay Area with help from Gulf Coast JFCS.
“We are required to support them, initially for 90 days. We receive $1,325 per individual; not monthly, one time, to help them to resettle in the United States in a 90-day period. And so with that, we are helping them to find housing. We are trying to pay their first and last month’s rent to get them started.”
However, when the money runs out, the services will likely stop.
“Of course, we are going to go in the hole unless there is someone who can help us not go in the hole to do this, but it is not indefinite. We can’t bankrupt the whole agency to do this,” Dr. Braham said. “It’s based on the resources that we have that we are able to do it; we cannot bankrupt the agency. If it is 30 days, that’s all we can do then, then we humanely have done what we can, but we didn’t stop today. And what many people don’t understand is when you are contracting and subcontracting with the federal government and the state, we are expected to fork out all of this money, millions of dollars in advance, provide the services and then be reimbursed. And so we have already fronted millions of dollars, in some cases, for federal programs that we are awaiting a return on our investment, and we have provided the services. In the case of refugees, we provide those services. But again, we have families that have just arrived, and our order basically said, any services that you provide after the 24th you will likely not be reimbursed, and we can’t guarantee that.”
“How much would you need to keep going, stay afloat, and not have this hinder your services?” Paluska asked.
“I would say about $700,000,” Dr. Braham said. “We have a whole host of other refugee services that are funded directly from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Those are not on a cease work order yet. And I want to be clear: those funds are for different programs and different services, so they can’t be co-mingled and take the place of these other funds. And so those programs are still operating. But, we’re on pins and needles about that.”
According to the Migration Policy Institute, under the Biden Administration, “a record 100,034 refugees resettled in the United States in fiscal year (FY) 2024 represent the largest resettlement number in 30 years and a remarkable rebound from the approximately 11,400 admissions three years earlier(under the Trump administration)—the lowest in the U.S. refugee program’s history.”
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/inhumane-and-disturbing-florida-nonprofit-in-crisis-following-trumps-executive-order-on-refugee-program
Prices of condoms skyrocket in Zimbabwe after US cut HIV funding
“USAID supports the procurement and distribution of 98% of all condoms in Zimbabwe, both for sale and for free. The halt in funding has severely impacted locally available condom brands, such as PSH’s Protector Plus, which are sold in shops for cost recovery,” the report reads.
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/01/prices-of-condom-skyrocket-in-zimbabwe-after-us-stop-funding-for-hiv/
Renewables group Orsted replaces CEO to arrest share price slump
COPENHAGEN -Orsted Chief Executive Mads Nipper will step down to be replaced by company insider Rasmus Errboe, the Danish renewable energy company said on Friday as it seeks to arrest an 83% slump in its share price since its 2021 peak.
The company’s woes reflect the changing fortunes of wind power globally as soaring costs, delays and limited supply chain investment prompt investors to reassess the speed of energy transition.
The former oil and gas company has taken big writedowns in recent years as it has struggled with soaring costs and delays.
Once a green investor favourite, Orsted’s market value stood at $15.1 billion at Thursday’s close, a far cry from its peak of $93.9 billion in January 2021, LSEG data shows.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/renewables-group-orsted-replaces-ceo-to-arrest-share-price-slump/ar-AA1yasMK
The LA Fires Burned Thousands of Homes. The Data Show Insurers Saw the Risks Coming.
What makes the Los Angeles wildfires uniquely devastating among the history of American natural disasters is their path through the Palisades, a neighborhood where the typical home value hovers around $3.4 million and the area’s aging structures were tightly packed in a recognized high-risk fire zone.
It’s a disastrous set of conditions for a home insurer. And the data show that the industry seemed to have recognized the financial risks and pulled out right before the fires struck.
In March 2024, less than a year before the fires, State Farm said it would not renew tens of thousands of California property insurance policies. The move was not evenly distributed across the state. In fact, its withdrawal from the Palisades was the most aggressive of any ZIP code in California, according to a filing by State Farm.
Increasingly, similar seven-figure price tags aren’t the anomaly they used to be. The number of ZIP codes where the typical home value is higher than $1 million more than doubled between the end of 2019 and 2024, Zillow data show.
Houses haven’t only become more expensive for buyers. They have also become more expensive to build—or rebuild.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/the-la-fires-burned-thousands-of-homes-the-data-show-insurers-saw-the-risks-coming/ar-AA1yacsJ
San Diego City Council will reconsider key ADU incentive in unexpected shift from pro-housing stance
San Diego may roll back or eliminate a controversial city incentive that allows the owner of a single-family lot to build as many as dozens of backyard apartments on it.
Contending the incentive is damaging community character in neighborhoods across San Diego, council members unanimously directed city planners this week to bring forward legislation that could kill the incentive.
The incentive’s most controversial element is that it lets property owners potentially build an unlimited number of bonus backyard apartments, which the city formally calls “accessory dwelling units,” or ADUs.
For every ADU a property owner is willing to build that is deed-restricted for low-income or moderate-income tenants, they can build one bonus ADU and charge market-rate rent for the bonus unit.
The only significant limitation is that property owners can’t exceed the maximum square footage allowed per acre — called the floor-area ratio — for the particular neighborhood. And in general, the incentive only applies to properties within 1 mile of an existing or future transit route.
It’s widely believed to be the most aggressive ADU incentive in California, and it goes far beyond what state law requires cities to allow regarding ADUs.
Most often, the San Diego incentive leads to a property owner building two ADUs: one unit with rent restrictions for low-income or moderate-income tenants, and one market-rate unit.
But in some circumstances, particularly on larger lots, property owners are building dozens of ADUs on one property zoned for a single-family home.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/urban-infrastructure/housing-and-urban-development/san-diego-city-council-will-reconsider-key-adu-incentive-in-unexpected-shift-from-pro-housing-stance/ar-AA1y7qBL
Residents shocked to learn hundreds of ADUs proposed in Encanto
San Diego’s plan to ease the housing crisis with accessory dwelling units (ADUs) might be backfiring in Encanto. Neighbors are upset after finding out more than 200 ADUs are planned for 20 properties in the area. Dozens are planned for just one lot.
Multi-story buildings proposed with dozens of units is how the nickname “granny flats” evolved to “granny towers.”
Xuchi Eggleton, an Encanto resident for more than 40 years, first found out about the ADUs coming to her neighborhood last month. Her neighbors told her 33 units were on the way to one lot at Brooklyn Avenue and 68th Street.
“When you think about 33 on one lot that would house one house, it just seems like kind of unbelievable because most people don’t think about ADUs in terms of like a massive apartment complex, essentially,” Eggleton said.
After some digging on the city’s website, she learned about 20 properties in Encanto alone have proposals to house more than 200 ADUs.
“In all the years that I’ve lived here, I have seen this neighborhood constantly getting the short end of everything, like community resources, infrastructure or any sort of economic incentive to bring sidewalks for any sort of beautification,” she said. “Should I be surprised that a Black, brown and economically disadvantaged community is not getting a fair representation?”
On Tuesday, Councilman Henry Foster III brought forth a motion that aims to ultimately remove the city’s ADU Density Bonus Program.
“I think the goal was to address affordable housing, to bring the cost of housing down,” he said. “And I think we are seeing a very adverse effect.”
Foster said forcing dozens of housing units onto a single-family lot raises major fire safety, parking and infrastructure concerns. “This area is not zoned for that,” the councilman said.
“I can’t even figure out how anyone would want to live long term in that setting,” Margarat Nee, who lives in Encanto, said. “They’re crammed together. They don’t provide parking. They don’t provide basic safety features that you have to provide when you build apartments, and that’s the loophole that we have a problem with.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/residents-shocked-to-learn-hundreds-of-adus-proposed-in-encanto/ar-AA1ya5Vs
One, who would put granny in a box in the yard? Two, everything California does turns to sh$t.
Canadian food companies plan to move production to U.S. as tariffs loom
Flourish Pancakes and Mid-Day Squares are rare examples of successful Canadian startups manufacturing and delivering food products consumers can readily prepare and eat. But with U.S. sales either the largest or fastest-growing part of their businesses, neither believes they can withstand the 25-per-cent tariffs President Donald Trump has said are coming Feb. 1 without making changes to their operations.
Canada’s second-largest pancake mix brand and a pioneer of high-protein refrigerated snacks are looking to move expanded production across the border, mirroring a KPMG survey that found almost half of Canadian businesses plan to move more investment and operations to the U.S.
The homegrown companies are not happy but feel they have no choice.
“I feel used,” said Flourish Pancakes founder Andrew Andriano. “I feel like we are a pawn on a chessboard.”
Mid-Day Squares fall into a subset of consumer packaged goods called refrigerated snacking. This is an established and popular category in the U.S., but not in Canada, said co-founder Jake Karls. Marketing in Canada is therefore more difficult and expensive.
“We need the U.S. as a business,” Mr. Karls said. “It’s critical.”
Queen Street Bakery, a gluten-free bakery startup and another of District Venture Capital’s investments, has a co-manufacturing plant in Toronto. In addition to its own products, Queen Street Bakery also manufactures for three other companies, including one U.S.-based company.
However, two of the bakery’s brands are considering leaving for the U.S., said president Tony Ayala. This is a double hit to the business: The U.S. accounts for around 50 per cent of its sales, and Mr. Ayala is also worried about the increased costs of ingredients – some of which he sources from the U.S. – should countertariffs come into play.
“The whole ecosystem is getting stressed,” he said, adding that this moment highlights the importance of free trade to both the U.S. and Canada, especially for food.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-trump-tariffs-canadian-food-manufacturers-mull-moving/
These snowbirds stayed home because of the weak dollar – and they’re having a blast
Brian and Susan Van Norman have spent eight winters in Florida, trading Canada’s cold, snowy first three months of the year for the Sunshine State’s warm beaches. But this year, the snowbirds decided to clip their wings.
The couple is staying put at their Waterloo, Ont., home, joining the ranks of other Canadians skipping their usual winter escape.
Soaring inflation, a weak Canadian dollar and rising rental prices have made the trip down south less affordable.
Kris Rossignoli, a cross-border tax and financial planner at Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC in New York, said he’s mostly seeing renters – rather than those who own property in the U.S. – cancel their trips down south this year.
For some of his clients, rent prices in the U.S. “have gone up 25 per cent,” Mr. Rossignoli said. “The reality is that they may not be able to afford to go.”
Mr. Van Norman, 75, estimates that he and his wife typically spend about $15,000 on their Florida trip each year, with a large chunk going toward rent. With the Canadian dollar trading at around 69 cents against the greenback, their expenses would have likely risen to about $20,000 this year, he estimated.
The final reason to cancel their trip was U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-election. “We don’t agree with the policies of Trump,” he said.
Like the Van Normans, Ms. Effinger, who is based near North Bay, Ont., is put off by the political climate in America and the weak Canadian dollar.
“We don’t feel comfortable right now with the political situation in the States, nor do we feel like supporting them too much,” she said. Ms. Effinger is also considering a trip within Canada – possibly to the West Coast. “There are a lot of places to go in Canada,” she said.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/retirement/article-snowbirds-staying-in-canada-weak-loonie-united-states-dollar/