That Sweetener Is Now Triggering Diabetes For Many

A report from CNN. “A month after losing her job at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Corinne Bazarnyj is still waiting to be approved for unemployment benefits. The disabled veteran who started at the agency as a training specialist in November was caught up in the Trump administration’s mass culling of probationary workers. ‘I was terminated based on performance, that is not true. So, I honestly don’t know if I’m going to get unemployment or not,’ said Bazarnyj, who recently bought a house in Frederick, Maryland, to be closer to her job.”

Pro Publica. “In 2008, as the Great Recession was starting to take hold, my travels reporting on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign took me to one American city after another that was reeling from major layoffs. After each trip, I would return to my home in Alexandria, Virginia, in the metro Washington, D.C., area, and be struck by how removed the nation’s capital seemed from the pain being felt in so much of the country. Not only was it insulated because of its high proportion of government employment, it actually prospered as a result of the recession, since so much of the federal economic stimulus ended up staying with the Beltway contractors who administered the spending.”

“When my growing family started looking for a larger home in 2009, we left our corner of Alexandria. As prices in every other metro area in the country were declining, they were still rising in the inner suburbs of Northern Virginia. The situation now is sharply reversed. Is the nation’s capital, so long blessed by being the government’s company town, at risk of a fate resembling that of so many other company towns through the years? And if it is, why aren’t people beyond metro Washington more concerned about it? By 2012, when the country was finally emerging from the recession, seven of the 10 wealthiest counties were in metro Washington; the area’s number of high-net-worth households, with investable assets of more than $1 million, had risen by 30% since 2008. While Midwestern communities such as Vice President JD Vance’s hometown, Middletown, Ohio, were being crushed by the opioid epidemic, the Aston Martin dealership in Tysons Corner, Virginia, was selling hundreds of the bespoke James Bond car for about $280,000, and home prices in the District were approaching a 400% increase from the early 1990s.”

“There is also more recent fuel for schadenfreude over Washington’s pain: Federal workers were much slower than those in other industries to return to the office after the pandemic, making it easier for the Trump administration to cast the entire lot of them as cosseted and unproductive.”

From WLOS. “‘The ceiling is caved in, the walls are caved in, it’s pretty dangerous to go in there,’ said Colleen Gormley of her McDowell County home. The couple’s home was pulverized during Hurricane Helene. The home is ‘not repairable,’ according to their insurance provider but it has also denied their damage claim. Records from North Carolina’s Department of Insurance reveal 20,253 Helene Residential claims or 24 percent through February that were closed without payment. Getting to Gormley’s and Grant Means’ Buck Creek home in McDowell County still requires a high-clearance vehicle. ‘It drives you nuts,’ said Means, ‘If the insurance company doesn’t pay, I can’t do it, we have a 20-year mortgage left on this property. I don’t see myself paying on a 20-year mortgage for a property we can’t live in, so yeah, we would probably end up walking away from it.'”

7 News Miami in Florida. “Residents in Bal Harbour are suing the owners of their glitzy condo buildings — saying living conditions have turned dangerous. 7’s Heather Walker investigates. At first glance, the three towers that make up The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort appear lavish and luxurious. But a closer look reveals trouble in paradise. Steven Leoni/resident: ‘You can see the rebar is all coming apart.’ Exposed rebar, rust, and cracking concrete. Leoni bought his condo here in 2019 and is on the association’s board. Steven Leoni: ‘What makes us unique is it’s a condo-hotel.’ People who own units here at the St. Regis spend tens of thousands of dollars in maintenance fees and assessments. But unlike a regular condominium, they don’t control how most of their money is spent. Steven Leoni: ‘The money is going somewhere, but it’s not going into the buildings.'”

“Juan Morillo/plaintiff’s attorney: ‘It’s going to take tens of millions of dollars to remediate, to fully remediate this building. It’s incomprehensible to us. It’s a building that’s owned by the Qataris, the common areas are owned by the Qataris, the hotel is owned by the Qataris. It doesn’t make any economic sense for them not to maintain the project. It’s losing value.'”

From CBS News. “Canadian snowbirds who spend their winters in South Florida are voicing frustration over new immigration rules being drafted by the Trump administration. For Annie Dupont, a condo owner in Hollywood, Florida, the new requirements feel like a personal slight. ‘We got a problem with (President Trump) personally, not with America,’ said Dupont, who is from Montreal. ‘(It’s) like he’s thinking he’s in a reality show.’ She and her husband had planned to retire in their beachside condo but are now considering moving their winter home to the Caribbean. For other Canadians, like Kristina and Aaron Consoli, who are visiting South Florida from Toronto, the proposed rule change is just one of several financial barriers to U.S. travel. ‘I can’t afford to be here longer than 30 days,’ said Aaron Consoli, pointing to the weakening Canadian dollar, which has been hit hard by U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports.”

Fox 10 Phoenix. “As Canadians flock down to the Valley for the winter months, anyone looking to spend more than 30 days in Arizona will now have to register with the U.S. government. Some fear these changes could impact the Valley economy. ‘There’s going to be billions of dollars in tourism money that will disappear, billions of dollars of real estate purchases that will disappear. So, hopefully it’s not a long-term problem,’ Miles Zimbaluk, CEO of Canada to USA, said. ‘It’s partly because of the weaker Canadian dollar as well. The cost has just become too expensive for Canadians coming down. You know, when they first started coming down ten or 15 years ago, the dollar was near par.'”

KESQ in California. “Canadians who visit the Coachella Valley and stay for long periods of time will soon have to deal with new immigration requirements. That is not sitting well with local snowbirds, because the norm has been that Canadian citizens are able to come and go to the U.S. without a visa. Some are even reconsidering further travel to the U.S. ‘We sold our lot. We sold it yesterday actually,’ Greg Sibbald, visiting from British Columbia. ‘If we can’t come back, if there are too many issues, we’ll be selling our lot here and Canada is beautiful, we’ll start traveling around Canada,’ Sheree Byer, visiting from British Columbia.”

Wall Street Journal. “In her pop-art decorated office in the heart of Beverly Hills, real-estate broker Rochelle Maize got an early look at who would control the future of the Pacific Palisades. Her clients buy and sell mansions in crown-jewel neighborhoods where listings bottom out around the single-digit millions. Many pay in cash. But after the Palisades fire, deals in the area kept falling through. The question for Los Angeles isn’t so much how to rebuild the Palisades, a coastal community that is home to some 21,000 people, but who pays if it burns again. ‘Writing new policies doesn’t make any sense at this time,’ State Farm General, California’s largest property insurer, wrote Tuesday to the state insurance commissioner.”

“The price tags matter. California’s FAIR plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, covers up to $3 million of a home’s value. After that, private insurance either covers it or the homeowner eats the loss. Maize’s client got a plan that would cover $2.25 million in rebuilding costs, less than half of the homes’ value. The client plans to seek additional coverage next year, according to a person familiar with the policy.”

The Real Deal on New York. “It took over a year, but the nonprofit that won a stake in a Signature Bank loan book that few dared to touch has hurled the first pre-foreclosures against rent-stabilized borrowers on that debt. And the nonprofit venture, Community Stabilization Partners, alleges those borrowers are personally liable for what is owed. A dozen foreclosure complaints have hit the courts in 10 days. Community Preservation Corporation, one of three parties in the venture, said the suits were not its opening strategy for the $6 billion in loans, which were deemed toxic after a 2019 law devalued some of the deals to next to nothing. Two of those groups are among the most notorious alleged profiteers in the rent-regulated space: cutthroat private lender Madison Realty Capital and Ved Parkash, a frequent flyer on the public advocate’s worst landlord list.”

“Parkash faces four foreclosure actions over $20 million in debt. For Madison, the suit count totals eight, and the defaulted debt is $157 million, court records show. It’s no shocker that the so-called slumlord’s head is among the first to roll. Parkash has an inch-thick playbook for squeezing illegally high rents out of regulated apartments. CSP’s decision to personally pursue the borrowers for whatever the properties fail to fetch at auction could signal that the venture has little faith in the portfolios’ value. Recent rent-regulated deals have traded hands at major discounts to pre-2019 prices — 60 percent to 97 percent off. That’s if they trade at all.”

The Globe and Mail. “National Bank of Canada economist Daren King points out that sales in the Greater Toronto Area slid a seasonally adjusted 28.5 per cent last month from January. In a note to clients titled, ‘Home sales collapse in February with fear of tariffs,’ Mr. King points out that the tally erased all of the gains made since June, when the Bank of Canada cut its benchmark rate for the first time in four years. Sales in the GTA reached their lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis (excluding the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic). Active listings were at their highest level since 2008.”

“At Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, real estate agents Christian Vermast and Paul Maranger say they typically advise sellers against listing a family home during the annual one-week break for the public system and the two-week sojourn for private schools. In Rosedale, the agents relisted a circa-1911 Edwardian home that had been on the market for a three-month stretch. The five-bedroom house at 105 Cluny Dr. was listed in the fall of 2024 with an asking price of $5.995-million. In January, Mr. Maranger and Mr. Vermast set the asking price at $5.395-million, then reduced the price to $4.995-million. The price cut generated bids from three buyers and the property sold for $4.9-million in February. As a result of the recent loss of confidence, Mr. Maranger and Mr. Vermast are advising jittery clients to sell an existing home before buying the next one. ‘There’s greater security in selling first,’ Mr. Maranger says. If the sellers had been contemplating a strategy to generate multiple offers, it may be time to put that aside in a more cautious market, he adds.”

The I Paper in the UK. “I’m surprised that people think Victorian terrace houses are aspirational. The houses pop up a lot on social media, with videos of people doing very expensive renovation projects. But, having lived in several Victorian terraces, I would never buy one again. Eight years ago, before I moved to a terrace in southeast London with my wife and our three children, I owned a terrace in Portsmouth. Just like the one I live in now, it was a nightmare to maintain. Now, I rent a terrace with my family of four. Right now I wouldn’t want to spend anywhere near the amount of money it would require to own a terrace in London. It would be around £700k to £800k for a house that has dust in the walls and needs a tonne of work. It’s not for me.”

From Globes. “There were 2,270 second-hand homes sold in Tel Aviv last year, while the city has 2,566 registered realtors. A ‘Globes’ investigation found that in the past two years, many real estate agents have been abandoning the profession. This trend is expected to continue in the near future. Israel Realtors Association chairman Itzik Levy adds that the number of people taking the broker licensing exam also declined last year. According to data from the Registrar of Realtors at the Ministry of Justice, at the end of 2024 there were 24,885 licensed real estate agents in Israel, double the number 15 years ago. The main reason for the increase has been the price increases recorded over these years, and a significant rise in the number of deals, which attracted more people to the profession, and try to obtain a license to enjoy the boom.”

“‘Globes’ analysis found that the industry is currently saturated with agents, not suitable for the current shrinking market conditions, and pressures for renewed price falls. Levy says, ‘A great many agents are in a difficult economic situation today, some are leaving the field and offices are closing. In the most recent exams of the Registrar of Realtors, there was a decline of almost 25% in the number of taking the exam who applied for brokerage, and from 2,300-2,400 taking the exam in recent years, the number has dropped to about 1,700.’ Thus, many who were seduced by the booming market of 2021, learned the profession and received a license in 2022, found in 2023 and 2024 that they had no income, and according to the current situation, it seems that in 2025 the number of agents quitting the profession will only increase.”

The Hindustan Times in India. “I am rarely optimistic in a room full of real estate professionals. Given the nature and complexity of the business, builders have to be positive to survive. Yet, over the past 3–6 months, that has been the common vibe I have felt in conclaves and events. Customer enquiries have dropped, and sales have fallen. Sentiment, however, has been crushed as the oversupply of homes meets the cascading impact of a battered stock market. The optically strong sales registration data met its opponent in ground-level reality for most builders. At the moment, the registration data feels akin to showing strong GDP growth data to an unemployed person.”

“What’s gone wrong here? The foundation was laid in 2021 when the municipal corporation of Mumbai provided a sweetener to builders to rescue the then-ravaged real estate industry. Builders jumped in joy and acquired projects to capitalise on the bonanza. The discount ended, but another sweetener emerged: builders were getting more construction area. Even this sweetener was gulped down with ferocity as builders scrambled to acquire land for developing new projects. That sweetener is now triggering diabetes for many builders as there is severe competition among projects in most markets of Mumbai.”

“There have been two fatal flaws in product development: 1) Excess supply of luxury apartments at high ticket prices. 2) Same product with no differentiation. The first category is reminiscent of the Lower Parel market between 2012-2020. Volumes of Maruti Suzuki were expected at price points of Mercedes Benz. Despite the presence of heavyweight developers – it was a long struggle. Now, those memories are being relived at a grander scale across Mumbai as the hunger to do luxury projects by one and all is once again being challenged by the size of the demand pool. Decision-making time has increased from three months to 7-8 months. With little differentiation at the product level, the only difference is price and payment plans.”

“Discounts have begun, and prices are negotiable, although in most cases, it is offered ‘on the table.’ It’s a tired, boring and unimaginative strategy destined to fail given the number of options for a home buyer. Eventually, prices will be cut publicly as select developers recognize the futility of the old approach. Real estate is not an investment. Theories and suggestions may float that a falling stock market will drive safety-seeking investors into real estate. It’s a dangerous strategy to deploy. Safe projects are priced at elevated prices anyway, while unsafe projects are as vulnerable as small-cap stocks. Buy a home. Buy it for the right reasons, with the right research, and, importantly, with the right counterpart. Diabetes may not be contagious, but once the home is purchased, your financial health is linked to the builder.”