ReportWire

Tag: iab-real estate industry

  • In world’s most expensive property market, homes for the dead can cost more than for the living | CNN

    In world’s most expensive property market, homes for the dead can cost more than for the living | CNN

    [ad_1]


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Starting at $53,000 for a space not much larger than a shoebox, it is a pricey place to stay, even in a city famed for the world’s most expensive property market.

    But then the ornate white marble interiors of the 12 story Shan Sum tower in Hong Kong are not aimed at your average sort of buyer. They are meant for a more discerning type of customer altogether, one seeking that little something extra: a resting spot for the afterlife.

    This privately run high-rise columbarium, housed in a wavy, fan-shaped building designed by a German architect, is meant to store the cremated remains of 23,000 people. And it doesn’t come cheap.

    In addition to its single urn entry units, niches that can store two urns can go for up to $76,000 (HK$598,000), while family units that can house the ashes of up to eight people reach as much as $430,000 (HK$3.38 million).

    With standard niches measuring about one cubic square foot, it could be argued that a spot in this tower is relatively more costly than the city’s most expensive property for the living – a mansion in the ultra exclusive area of The Peak that in March attracted a bid of US$32,000 per square foot.

    But Shan Sum, which is tucked away in an old industrial district of Kwai Chung is not even Hong Kong’s most expensive place for the dead.

    According to Hong Kong’s Consumer Council, the most expensive niche of all is at a temple-like complex in the northern outskirts of Fanling. That auspicious resting spot goes for $660,000 (HK$5.2 million) – and that figure doesn’t even include the management fees of at least $25,000 (HK$200,000) to cover the upkeep and surcharges.

    Such an investment might still not seem too bad, given the long-term horizon of the afterlife, but private columbariums like Shan Sum are not offering a resting place for eternity. Ashes can be stored there only for the duration of the facility’s private license, which is issued by Hong Kong government. These licenses have a limit of 10 years and can take years of inspections to obtain. Shan Sum’s runs through 2033.

    Even so, at Shan Sum – whose name translates to “benevolent heart” – it’s more than just the urn space you pay for.

    Its architect Ulrich Kirchhoff told CNN there is an accessible rooftop and winding balconies lined with pocket gardens for families visiting their ancestors, while about a fifth of the building’s area is open space.

    The wavy exterior of Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.

    It has also been designed with aesthetics in mind, with its wavy, high-rise profile intended to mimic traditional Chinese graveyards and their preferred location on mountainsides to attract good Feng Shui.

    There are hints of modernity, too, such as dehumidifiers and air-conditioning systems and even an app through which families pre-book a time slot to bring offerings to deceased ancestors.

    The tower is the brainchild of Margaret Zee, a septuagenarian businesswoman who made her fortune in the jewelry and real estate businesses and now runs a charitable foundation in her name.

    Paying respect to the dead is important in Chinese culture, Zee told CNN, and many people are willing to go all out to honor the tradition.

    “Our loved ones’ last journey is not just so they can cross over to the afterlife, but it’s also for us who are left here on Earth to bid them farewell,” Zee said. “It’s not only to lay them to rest, but to give peace to those they’ve departed from.”

    Zee realized there was a shortage of homes to honor the dead when she struggled to find a place to hold a memorial for and bury her late husband in 2007 and she felt compelled to act.

    Architect Ulrich Kirchhoff at Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.

    In Hong Kong, the same mismatch of supply and demand that has driven up real estate prices to nosebleed levels also affects columbariums.

    Essentially, in a city home to more than 7 million people and some of the world’s most densely populated neighborhoods, competition for space is heating up – for both the living and the dead.

    While Hong Kong is not a small place – its area of 1,110 square kilometers is about 1.4 times the size of New York City – its mountainous terrain makes much of its land unsuitable for development.

    With space at a premium, property developers have traditionally favored high-rise towers that – not unlike the Shan Sum building – can pack in as many plots as possible. As a consequence, the average home size is just 430 square feet, according to the 2021 census, among the tiniest in the world, even though average home prices are north of a million dollars.

    This squeeze on space continues in the afterlife, exacerbated by Hong Kong’s rapidly aging population. More than one in five Hong Kongers is over 65, according to census data, and that number is projected to jump to more than one in three by 2069.

    Cemeteries in Hong Kong are running out of space.

    Even though more than 90% of Hong Kongers opt for cremation, space to store their remains is running out. This is partly because, rather than scattering the ashes, traditionally minded Chinese prefer a physical place where they can pay respects and give offerings to the dead.

    With the city’s death rate running at about 46,000 per year (roughly double the capacity of Shun Sum) in the past decade urn capacity has at times struggled to keep up.

    There are currently just under 135,000 public niches available in government-run facilities, where a 20-year lease goes for about $300, but competition for these is fierce and in recent years some families have reported waiting years to get a spot.

    The response by the government has been two-fold, boosting the number of public facilities while also approving the licenses of 14 privately-run columbarium operators, including Shan Sum, since 2017.

    The entrance of Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.

    A spokesperson for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department told CNN that between 2020 and 2022, around 77,000 urns had been allocated a niche “without the need to wait.” Another four new locations to be completed by 2025 would provide a further 167,000 units.

    “There is a marked improvement in the supply of public niches over the past few years. As of now, the supply of public niches is adequate,” the spokesperson said.

    Still, as with many things in this commercially-minded city, where the median monthly wage is just US$2,400 but there are plenty of billionaires (more than 100, according to Wealth X, a company that tracks high-net-worth individuals), there are options for those eager to splash out on something a little more distinguished.

    And that’s where places like Shan Sum really come in to their own.

    Niche compartments to store urns at Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.

    At the tower in Kwai Chung different floors are dedicated to different religions to suit a range of death customs, said Pan Tong, Zee’s son and the operational director of the building.

    For instance, he says, there are light and bright airy nooks designed to appeal to Buddhists and a section for followers of Guanyin, the Chinese goddess of mercy, whose image adorns the doors of the small compartments.

    There is even a separate secular floor, where each compartment has a Chinese-style “roof” and double doors decorated with gold coins to symbolize a prosperous afterlife.

    “I really had to imagine myself as someone ‘living’ inside one of these niches, and think about what kind of home I wanted to stay at when I’m gone,” Tong said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Biden administration announces more than $3 billion in funding to tackle homelessness with veterans focus | CNN Politics

    Biden administration announces more than $3 billion in funding to tackle homelessness with veterans focus | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration announced new actions Thursday to help prevent and reduce veteran homelessness across the country, including $3.1 billion in funding to support efforts to quickly rehouse homeless Americans.

    “These funds can be used for a wide range of critical interventions from rental assistance to supportive services to technology and data sharing,” said White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden, referring to the funding that will be made available through the Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Continuum of Care program.

    Additional actions being announced Thursday, according to a White House fact sheet, include: $11.5 million in funding for legal services for veterans experiencing homelessness; $58 million worth of funding to help homeless veterans find jobs; and a new series of “boot camps” by HUD and Veterans Affairs to help VA medical centers and public housing agencies more quickly rehouse veterans. The more than $3 billion in funding being announced by HUD is not specifically earmarked for veterans, although it will also go toward helping veterans struggling with homelessness, according to senior administration officials.

    “We like to say here that the phrase, homeless veteran, should not exist in the English language. Ending veteran homelessness has been and continues to be a top priority of the president and his relentless advocacy for that goal has led to very important investments and advancements, including robust funding,” said Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, who added that the VA is currently on track to meet its goal of rehousing 38,000 veterans in 2023.

    The VA put 40,401 homeless veterans into permanent housing last year with 2,443 of them returning to homelessness at some point that same year, according to the VA.

    While Thursday’s actions focus on the issue of homelessness for veterans, administration officials hope that progress made in rehousing former service members will help improve efforts to tackle the issue for all Americans experiencing homelessness.

    “Homelessness is a challenge we face as a nation. But most importantly, it is a solvable one,” Tanden told reporters, adding: “There are so many lessons there, that can help us tackle this problem for all Americans.”

    The $58 million in grant funding comes from the Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service and will help veterans learn occupational skills, participate in on-the-job training or apprenticeships and provide other support services to reintegrate into the workforce.

    The $11.5 million in legal services grants is a “first-of-its-kind,” according to the White House, and will help veterans obtain representation in landlord-tenant disputes, as well as assist with other court proceedings like child support, custody or estate planning.

    “Legal support can be the difference between becoming homeless in the first instance, or having a safe stable house and a roof over their heads,” McDonough said.

    President Joe Biden has made it a goal of his administration to reduce homelessness by 25% for all Americans by 2025, calling on the country in his State of the Union address this year to do more, including “helping veterans afford their rent because no one should be homeless in this country, especially not those who served it.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Gen Z and Millennials are scrimping. Boomers? Living it up | CNN Business

    Gen Z and Millennials are scrimping. Boomers? Living it up | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Baby Boomers are living it up, splurging on cruises and restaurants. Younger Americans are struggling just to keep up.

    Bank of America internal data shows a “significant gap” in spending has opened recently between older and younger generations.

    While Baby Boomers and even Traditionalists (born 1928-1945) are ramping up spending, Gen X, Gen Z and Millennials are cutting back as they grapple with high housing costs and looming student debt payments.

    “It’s fairly unusual,” David Tinsley, senior economist at the Bank of America Institute, told CNN in a phone interview.

    Overall, household spending dipped 0.2% year-over-year in May, according to the bank’s card data — but the generational breakdown showed a more varied picture.

    Spending increased by 5.3% for Traditionalists and 2.2% for Baby Boomers. In contrast, spending fell by about 1.5% for younger generations.

    If not for the aggressive spending by Boomers, Tinsley said, overall consumer spending would have been even more negative.

    So, what is going on?

    Older Americans are ramping up spending as they benefit from a spike in Social Security payments.

    Starting in January, Social Security recipients received an 8.7% cost-of-living adjustment, the biggest increase since 1981. That increase — caused directly by high inflation — is boosting the average retirees’ monthly payments by an estimated $146.

    Bank of America spending data shows a noticeable bump in spending by households that received the cost-of-living boost.

    However, the bank noticed the spending surge by older Americans is happening among high-income households too. And those consumers are less likely to be impacted by the spike in Social Security payments.

    “That can’t be the whole story,” Tinsley said of the cost-of-living adjustments.

    To explain the drop in spending by younger Americans, Bank of America pointed to high housing costs. In recent years, rental rates spiked, home prices soared and mortgage rates surged.

    Younger Americans are also much more likely to move than older ones.

    “The people who do move are really facing quite significant cost increases,” said Tinsley.

    Bank of America has noted that older consumers are spending on travel, including hotels, airfare and cruises, now that the Covid emergency is over.

    Due to Covid fears, older generations held back on travel during the pandemic, but now they are “splurging,” Tinsley said.

    Beyond the high cost of living, Bank of America said many younger Americans are also likely bracing for the return of a significant monthly expense: student debt.

    The bipartisan debt ceiling deal included a provision that specifically prevented the Biden administration from extending the pause on federal student loan payments.

    The student debt freeze, in effect since March 2020 when the Covid pandemic erupted, is expected to conclude by the end of August.

    That is particularly painful to younger consumers. Americans are sitting on $1.6 trillion of student debt, according to the New York Federal Reserve, and the vast majority of that student debt is held by those under the age of 49.

    For millions of Gen Z and Millennials, the return of student debt payments will mean less money for spending on restaurants and vacations.

    Some consumers may be starting to pull back on spending ahead of that change, Tinsley said: “It’s coming down the tracks pretty fast now.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • How charging drivers to go downtown would transform American cities | CNN Business

    How charging drivers to go downtown would transform American cities | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden’s administration is set to allow New York City to move forward with a landmark program that will toll vehicles entering Lower Manhattan, after a public review period ends Monday.

    The toll is formally known as the Central Business District Tolling Program — but it’s commonly called “congestion pricing.”

    In practice it works like any other toll, but because it specifically charges people to drive in the traffic-choked area below 60th street in Manhattan, it would be the first program of its kind in the United States.

    Proposals range from charging vehicles $9 to $23 during peak hours, and it’s set to go into effect next spring.

    The plan had been delayed for years, but it cleared a milestone last month when the Federal Highway Administration signed off on the release of an environmental assessment. The public has until Monday to review the report, and the federal government is widely expected to approve it shortly after.

    From there, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) can finalize toll rates, as well as discounts and exemptions for certain drivers.

    New York City is still clawing out of from the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Congestion pricing advocates say it’s a crucial piece of the city’s recovery and a way to re-imagine the city for the future.

    “This program is critical to New York City’s long-term success,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said last month.

    The plan would also mark the culmination of more than a half-century of efforts to implement congestion pricing in New York City. Despite support from several New York City mayors and state governors, car and truck owners in outer boroughs and the suburbs helped defeat proposals.

    In 2007 Mayor Michael Bloomberg called congestion “the elephant in the room” when proposing a toll program, which state lawmakers killed. A decade later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who had long resisted congestion pricing — said it was “an idea whose time has come” and declared a subway state of emergency after increased delays and a derailment that injured dozens. Two years later, the state gave the MTA approval to design a congestion pricing program.

    Ultimately, it was the need to improve New York City’s public transit that became the rallying cry for congestion pricing.

    Each day 700,000 cars, taxis and trucks pour into Lower Manhattan, one of the busiest areas in the world with some of the worst gridlock in the United States.

    Car travel at just 7.1 mph on average in the congestion price zone, and it’s a downward trend. Public bus speeds have also declined 28% since 2010. New Yorkers lose 117 hours on average each year sitting in traffic, costing them nearly $2,000 in lost productivity and other costs, according to one estimate.

    The toll is designed to reduce the number of vehicles entering the congestion zone by at least 10% every day and slash the number of miles cars travel within the zone by 5%.

    Congestion comes with physical and societal costs, too: more accidents, carbon emissions and pollution happen as belching, honking cars take up space that could be optimized for pedestrians and outdoor dining.

    Proponents also note it will improve public transit, an essential part of New York life. About 75% of trips downtown are via public transit.

    But public-transit ridership is 35% to 45% lower compared to pre-pandemic levels. The MTA says congestion fees will generate a critical source of revenue to fund $15 billion in future investments to modernize the city’s 100-year-old public transit system.

    The improvements, like new subway cars and electric signals, are crucial to draw new riders and improve speed and accessibility — especially for low-income and minority residents, who are least likely to own cars, say plan advocates.

    New York City is “dependent on public transit,” said Kate Slevin, the executive vice president of the Regional Plan Association, an urban planning and policy group. “We’re relying on that revenue to pay for needed upgrades and investments that ensure reliable, good transit service.”

    Improving public transportation is also key to New York City’s post-pandemic economic recovery: If commutes to work are too unreliable, people are less likely to visit the office and shop at stores around their workplaces. Congestion charge advocates hope the program will create more space for amenities like wider sidewalks, bike lanes, plazas, benches, trees and public bathrooms.

    “100 years ago we decided the automobile was the way to go, so we narrowed sidewalks and built highways,” said Sam Schwartz, former New York City traffic commissioner and founder of an eponymous consulting firm. “But the future of New York City is that the pedestrian should be king and queen. Everything should be subservient to the pedestrian.”

    While no other US city has yet implemented congestion pricing, Stockholm, London and Singapore have had it for years.

    These cities have reported benefits like decreased carbon dioxide pollution, higher average speeds, and congestion reduction.

    Just one year after London added its charge in 2003, traffic congestion dropped by 30% and average speeds increased by the same percentage. In Stockholm, one study found the rate of children’s acute asthma visits to the doctor fell by about 50% compared to rates before the program launched in 2007.

    Some groups are fiercely opposed to congestion charges in New York City, however. Taxi and ride-share drivers, largely a low-income and immigrant workforce, fear it will hurt drivers already struggling to make ends meet. The MTA said congestion pricing could reduce demand for taxis by up to 17% in the zone.

    Commuters and legislators from New York City’s outer boroughs and New Jersey say the program hurts drivers who have no viable way to reach downtown Manhattan other than by car, and that this would disproportionately impact low-income drivers. (But out of a region of 28 million people, just an estimated 16,100 low-income people commute to work via car in Lower Manhattan, according to the MTA.)

    Other critics say it could divert more traffic and pollution from diesel trucks in Manhattan into lower-income areas like the Bronx, which has the highest rates of asthma hospitalization in the city.

    The MTA and other agencies have plans to mitigate many of these adverse effects, however.

    Taxis and for-hire vehicles will be tolled only once a day. Drivers who make less than $50,000 a year or are enrolled in certain government aid programs will get 25% discounts after their first 10 trips every month. Trucks and other vehicles will get 50% discounts during overnight hours.

    Additionally, the MTA pledged $10 million to install air filtration units in schools near highways, $20 million for a program to fight asthma, and other investments to improve air quality and the enviornment in areas where more traffic could be diverted.

    The stakes of New York City’s program are high, and leaders in other cities are watching the results closely.

    If successful, congestion pricing could be a model for other US cities, which are trying to recover from the pandemic and face similar challenges of climate change and aging public infrastructure.

    “It’s good to see New York City’s program is moving forward,” said the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board last month. “Los Angeles should watch, learn and go next.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 7 dead after car plows into a crowd in front of a Texas shelter that was housing migrants | CNN

    7 dead after car plows into a crowd in front of a Texas shelter that was housing migrants | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A driver plowed into a group outside a shelter that had been housing migrants in a Texas border town on Sunday, leaving seven people dead – including several immigrants – and others injured, authorities say.

    Authorities in Brownsville, Texas say they got a call around 8:30 am CT about a Land Rover that hit multiple people who were waiting at a bus stop across the street from the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center, a non-profit homeless shelter that has been helping house migrants.

    The crash left seven dead and others injured, Martin Sandoval, a Brownsville police spokesperson, told CNN. Sandoval added that several migrants were among the dead and Border Patrol was working to confirm the identities of the victims. It’s unclear whether the crash was intentional.

    CNN interviewed migrants staying at the center in December. At the time, the center’s director told CNN that migrants from all over the world were beginning to stay at the shelter and they were seeing an uptick in stays. The shelter is equipped to house and feed 200 people, according to its website.

    Witnesses at the scene detained the driver until officers arrived, Sandoval said during a Sunday news conference. He said the driver of the vehicle received medical care and has been arrested on a reckless driving charge. “More than likely” there will be other charges added, Sandoval said.

    Police have not released the name of the driver, but say it was a Hispanic man, Sandoval told CNN. Brownsville police are investigating with the help of Border Patrol, he added.

    Sandoval said authorities are still investigating whether the crash was intentional or accidental. He said witnesses described seeing the driver ignore a red light, drive up on a curb and run over a group of people waiting at the bus stop. Police are checking the driver’s toxicology, Sandoval added.

    The shelter has been housing immigrants while they wait for more permanent housing, he said.

    Brownsville, Texas is located on the southern tip of Texas, just across the Rio Grande River. The town’s population is nearly 95% Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2022 census.

    The crash happened just days before a Trump-era immigration restriction dubbed Title 42 is set to expire. The pandemic-era policy allowed immigration agents to swiftly return migrants to their home countries. Officials have predicted a rise in immigration in coming weeks when the restrictions are lifted Thursday.

    Victor Maldonado, the director of the Ozanam Center, told CNN that about 20 to 25 migrants were sitting on the curb waiting for a bus across the street from the shelter. He said surveillance video captured the deadly wreck with footage showing a vehicle driving very quickly, crashing about 30 feet from where the migrants were sitting and then losing control.

    Police took Maldonado’s copy of the surveillance video, he said.

    The migrants were from Venezuela and had arrived at the shelter about two or three days ago, Maldonado said.

    Maldonado said after the crash, he and a staff member at the shelter ran outside to find a very graphic scene, with body parts spread across the area.

    “I’ve got a staff [member] who is in shock,” Maldonado said, adding that he, too, was in shock.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Ohio’s governor wants Norfolk Southern to pay for toxic derailment’s long-term impacts, including lowered home values and potential health issues | CNN

    Ohio’s governor wants Norfolk Southern to pay for toxic derailment’s long-term impacts, including lowered home values and potential health issues | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Ohio’s govenor said Friday evening that he wants Norfolk Southern to pay East Palestine residents for the long-term impacts the February 3 toxic train derailment may have caused on the community.

    The rail operator should pay residents selling their house the difference of what their home value used to be in comparison to what it’s worth now, nearly three months since the accident, Gov. Mike DeWine told CNN’s Jake Tapper. Norfolk Southern should also set up a fund specifically for impacts on residents that may arise in the future, including medical issues, that could be connected to the derailment, he added.

    Since the accident, officials have said tests showed the air and municipal water were safe and allowed residents to return to their homes after a brief evacuation order. But those living in East Palestine have for months expressed concerns and frustration about both the economic impacts the crash had on their community and health problems, including rashes and nausea, they worry are linked to the derailment.

    Norfolk Southern has vowed to help East Palestine fully recover and has said it will remain in the community for “as long as it takes.”

    DeWine said Friday he has met with Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw and discussed those issues recently.

    “One of the things that I said to him is, if people sell their house and they do not get what that house was worth before the train wreck, I think you owe them the difference,” DeWine said. “I fully expect them to pay for that.”

    CNN reported on Friday about East Palestine residents who were concerned with their home values, including one woman whose home is just about a mile away from the derailment site and proved to be a “nightmare” to sell in the past few weeks.

    When asked for comment on that report, Norfolk Southern directed CNN to a statement from mid-March: “We are committed to working with the community to provide tailored protection for home sellers if their property loses value due to the impact of the derailment.”

    While the company has said it will work with the community to address concerns about losses in home values, details on the issue have been slow to materialize.

    “Everything we’ve asked (Norfolk Southern) to pay for so far, they’ve paid for,” DeWine said Friday. “And we expect them to continue to do that.”

    The governor said he also told Shaw he expects to see a fund set up “fairly quickly” for residents affected by the derailment, including those who may have health problems connected to the accident in the future.

    “(Residents) need to be reassured,” DeWine said. “I think that’s another thing that we can do to help assure the people in the community that we’re going to do everything and that we’re not going away.”

    Officials are continuing to conduct air, water and soil testing and have worked to set up a full-time clinic in the community in the aftermath to the derailment to address health concerns and to improve “the quality of life in the community,” the governor said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Texan turned Italian princess evicted from villa with original Caravaggio in Rome | CNN

    Texan turned Italian princess evicted from villa with original Caravaggio in Rome | CNN

    [ad_1]


    Rome
    CNN
     — 

    Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi – formerly Rita Carpenter, the former wife of Republican US Rep. John Jenrette – has been evicted from the home she once shared with the late Prince Nicolo Boncompagni, after an inheritance dispute with his children.

    Princess Rita confirmed her eviction from the historic Casino dell’Aurora in central Rome to CNN on Wednesday. The home features an original Caravaggio ceiling painting—the only known ceiling work from the master—and a Michelangelo statue recently unearthed in the garden.

    Rita was escorted from the home along with her dogs on Thursday. “I’ve been up for 72 hours, I’m being brutally evicted from a home [in] which I’ve lovingly taken care of for the past 20 years,” she tweeted early Thursday morning.

    The eviction was ordered by Rome Judge Miriam Iappelli, and carried out by Roman law enforcement, who also changed the locks per standard procedure for court-ordered evictions.

    A general view shows a room, with frescoes on the ceiling by Italian artists including Guercino and Domenichino, inside Villa Aurora.

    A view of the

    Italian courts have previously ruled that the home must be sold to resolve an inheritance dispute between the Texan and the prince’s children. Prince Nicolo Boncompagni died in 2018.

    The Casino dell’Aurora was put up for auction by state authorities four times in 2022 – its estimated value declining precipitously as bidders proved elusive.

    The first auction on January 18, 2022, estimated the home’s value at €471 million. A second auction April 30 set the price at €376 million, a third auction reduced the price to €301 million on June 30, and a final auction October 18 set the price at €180 million.

    No one bid on any of the auctions, and Princess Rita told CNN she believed that the Italian state auction house did not adequately advertise it.

    A statue of Pan by Michelangelo is seen outside Villa Aurora.

    Before becoming a princess, Rita Carpenter was married to John Jenrette, the former US lawmaker who was enmeshed in the Abscam corruption scandal, resigned in 1980 and subsequently went to prison.

    In 1981, she gave an much-publicized interview to Playboy magazine that detailed having sex with Jenrette on the steps of the US Capitol building. The episode led to a not-so-best selling memoir “My Capitol Secrets” published that year.

    She appeared in plays and movies, including Zombie Island Massacre, according to her official biography.

    Princess Rita told reporters at the Casino dell’Aurora as she left on Thursday that she is writing a new book about her latest ordeal.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Three investors on how to protect your portfolio | CNN Business

    Three investors on how to protect your portfolio | CNN Business

    [ad_1]

    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Wall Street has been hit with a barrage of complex signals about the economy’s health over the past month. From banking turmoil to weakening jobs data to slowing inflation, and now the start of earnings season, investors have remained largely resilient.

    But the Federal Reserve’s March meeting minutes revealed last week that officials believe the economy will enter a recession later this year. While that’s not new news to investors who have worried that a recession is on the horizon for the past year, it does mean that markets could take a turn for the worse.

    So, how should investors protect their portfolios? Investors say there isn’t one asset that Wall Street should pile all their bets on, but there are fundamentals that should underlie their investment strategies.

    Jimmy Chang, chief investment officer at Rockefeller Global Family Office, says he advises clients to be patient, defensive and selective when navigating the market.

    In other words, investors should make decisions based on logic, not a fear of missing out.

    “You chase these rallies and then it fizzles out — you’re left holding the bag,” he said.

    Chang also recommends that investors stay defensive by investing in high-quality blue chip stocks with solid balance sheets and keep dry powder.

    Doug Fincher, portfolio manager at Ionic Capital Management, says investors should brace their portfolios against inflation.

    The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index rose 5% for the 12 months ended in February, showing that inflation remains much higher than the Fed’s 2% target.

    Coupled with the fact that the central bank has signaled that it plans to pause interest rate hikes sometime this year, it’s possible inflation could prove stickier than Wall Street expects.

    “It is the boogeyman of traditional investments,” Fincher said.

    He manages the Ionic Inflation Protection exchange-traded fund, which seeks to specifically perform well during periods of high inflation. The portfolio’s core exposure is inflation swaps, which are transactions in which one investor agrees to swap fixed payments for floating payments tied to the inflation rate. The fund also invests in short-duration Treasury Inflation Protected Securities.

    Megan Horneman, chief investment officer at Verdence Capital Advisors, says that her firm has hedged its portfolio in cash. A well-known haven, cash is a better alternative to other perceived safe spots like gold, which tends to be volatile and run up too fast, she said.

    Investors have rushed into money market funds in recent weeks after the banking turmoil both shook their confidence in the banking system and sent ripples through the market.

    “Cash is actually earning you something at this point,” Horneman said. “You have to look long term.”

    Earnings season kicked off Friday with a bonanza of earnings from the nation’s largest banks.

    Perhaps most noteworthy out of the bunch was JPMorgan Chase, which reported record revenue and an earnings beat for its latest quarter.

    The bank has $3.67 trillion in assets, making it the largest bank in the country and a bellwether for the economy. Strong earnings reports from the New York-based bank and its peers including Wells Fargo, Citigroup and PNC Financial Services have shown a promising start to the earnings season.

    Charles Schwab, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley report next week.

    Here are some key takeaways from JPMorgan Chase’s first-quarter earnings:

    • The company guided net interest income to be about $81 billion in 2023, up $7 billion from its previous estimate. That’s especially important because this earnings season is all about guidance, as investors try to gauge whether the economy is headed for a recession and which companies will be able to weather a potential downturn.
    • CEO Jamie Dimon said in the post-earnings conference call that while financial conditions are a bit tighter after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, he doesn’t see a credit crunch. But chances of a recession are now higher, he said.
    • The company said that its portfolio’s exposure to the office sector is less than 10%, addressing concerns that the $20 trillion commercial real estate industry could be the next space to see turmoil.

    Read more here.

    Monday: Empire State manufacturing index and homebuilder confidence index. Earnings report from Charles Schwab (SCHW).

    Tuesday: Earnings reports from Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Netflix (NFLX), United Airlines (UAL) and Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL).

    Wednesday: Earnings reports from Citizens Financial Group (CFG), Morgan Stanley (MS), Tesla (TSLA) and International Business Machines (IBM). Speech from NY Federal Reserve President John Williams.

    Thursday: Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index, jobless claims, mortgage rates, US leading economic indicators and existing home sales. Earnings reports from AutoNation (AN) and American Express (AXP).

    Friday: Manufacturing PMI and services PMI. Earnings report from Procter & Gamble (PG).

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Some Black families say they are ‘whitewashing’ their homes to get higher appraisals | CNN

    Some Black families say they are ‘whitewashing’ their homes to get higher appraisals | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Erica and Aaron Parker first had their Loveland, Ohio, home appraised in 2020. It was a competitive selling market, they had made several renovations to the home, and houses in the neighborhood were generally selling above the asking price.

    The couple expected the house to be valued at the list price of $525,000, but when the initial appraisal came back $60,000 short, the Parkers knew something wasn’t right.

    So they tried a different approach and also hired a different appraiser. The Parkers removed all items from the home that might signal they were Black, including artwork and family photos, and replaced them with photos and memorabilia borrowed from a White neighbor.

    The White neighbor sat in for the couple when the new appraiser came, and the result was a home appraisal of nearly $92,000 more than the first.

    “It was a weird feeling but we felt vindicated,” Erica Parker told CNN. “We were like, ‘Oh my God, we really were discriminated against.’”

    Parker’s account backs recent data showing that homes owned by Black people are significantly undervalued compared to White-owned homes. According to the Brookings Institute, homes in Black neighborhoods are valued at 23% less than those in non-Black neighborhoods despite having similar quality and amenities.

    Advocates for Black homeowners say this bias contributes to the racial wealth gap because it limits the financial returns of real estate for Black families.

    Some say it’s a systemic issue that industry leaders blame on a lack of diversity and a methodology that gives appraisers too much discretion in deciding the value of a home.

    According to the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 92% of property appraisers and assessors in 2022 were White and 4% were Black.

    Lydia Pope, president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, says her organization is working to recruit more Black people into the appraisal industry. The association hosts annual summits at HBCUs to encourage students to join the field, and Pope offers workshops and training for people already working in the real estate industry who want to learn how to do appraisals.

    “Our concern is that there aren’t enough Black appraisers in the business,” Pope says. “We just want to make a stand that we have to change the culture of appraising.”

    Pope calls it “disturbing” and “discouraging” that Black homeowners are having to “whitewash” their homes or conceal their race to get a higher appraisal.

    She says appraisers typically assess factors such as the condition of the property, upgrades and the value of recently sold comparable properties nearby.

    Jillian White, a Black appraiser who heads a consultancy that advises homeowners on disputing low appraisals, says, however, that appraisers are able to use their own discretion and opinion to make adjustments to the value of a home, and that leaves room for bias.

    “I think it’s systemic, implicit, explicit and structural,” White says of appraisal bias. “You have all these inflection points where making different decisions can lead to a very different result. The methodology is not so hard and fast that every appraiser is going to come up with the same value.”

    White says the industry needs to implement more guidance and protections so that appraisers have less autonomy in the process.

    Joshua Walitt, president of the National Association of Appraisers – which condemned discrimination among professional appraisers last year – says the methodology is not the problem. Instead, Walitt blames “bad apples” working in the profession for instances of bias.

    And even if there is bias, Walitt says it should have no influence on appraisal results given that these are based on market data.

    “If we follow methods and techniques which is what we focus on in education, then what it does is it pushes aside any bias that a person could have,” Walitt says. “If there is bad behavior then we need to let the investigations go through and take care of that.”

    Still, Walitt acknowledges that there is a need for more diversity in the industry. He says he is committed to expanding recruitment and supports programs such as Practical Applications of Real Estate Appraisal (PAREA) that make it easier for people to gain experience and join the industry.

    The issue of bias in home appraisals has gained the attention of President Joe Biden’s administration, which launched the Action Plan to Advance Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) last year to promote equity in the home appraisal process. In late March, the administration announced progress in this effort including publishing guidance so Federal Housing Administration (FHA) borrowers know how to request a “Reconsideration of Value” if they suspect bias in their appraisal.

    White says she wants Black homeowners to know their options when appraisals come in low. She advises her clients to appeal the first appraisal and if that doesn’t work request a second appraisal. If nothing changes, White says homeowners can file complaints with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the state appraiser board, or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

    Claims of bias have also to led to successful legal challenges from some homeowners. In March, San Francisco area Black couple Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin settled a discrimination lawsuit against a real estate appraisal company after their home was undervalued by nearly $500,000. As part of the settlement, the couple is set to receive an undisclosed amount of money and the firm is required to attend housing discrimination prevention training.

    “Having to erase our identity to get a better appraisal was a wrenching experience,” Tate-Austin said in a statement released by her lawyers to the San Francisco Chronicle. “We hope by bringing attention to our case and this lawsuit settlement, we can help change the way the appraisal industry operates.”

    Erica Parker says they ultimately sold the house in Loveland for $507,500 and bought a new home in Westchester, Ohio. However, she filed a discrimination complaint with both HUD and the Ohio Department of Commerce. Neither has yet been settled, she said.

    She says her experience only affirms that racism still exists in real estate.

    “We want the bank and appraisal company to be held responsible for what they did and to prevent this from happening to other people of color,” Parker said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose 2014 real estate deal with GOP megadonor, ProPublica report finds | CNN Politics

    Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose 2014 real estate deal with GOP megadonor, ProPublica report finds | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose a 2014 real estate deal he made with a GOP megadonor, according to a ProPublica report published Thursday.

    The deal involved the sale of three properties in Savannah, Georgia, that were owned by Thomas and his relatives to the megadonor, Harlan Crow, according to ProPublica, which said that tax and property records showed that Crow made the purchases through one of his companies for a total of $133,363.

    But Thomas “never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties,” the report said, noting that ethics law experts told the outlet that his failure to report it “appears to be a violation of the law.”

    “The transaction marks the first known instance of money flowing from the Republican megadonor to the Supreme Court justice,” ProPublica said in its report.

    Thursday’s report comes on the heels of a bombshell investigation published last week by ProPublica that detailed Thomas and his wife’s luxury travel with the Crows, which included trips on the donor’s yacht and private jet. The justice also did not disclose that travel, and he later defended the decision not to, saying in a rare statement last week that he was advised at the time that he did not have to report it.

    CNN has reached out for comment from the Supreme Court and Thomas.

    Crow said in a statement to CNN that he purchased the properties to “one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nation’s second black Supreme Court Justice.”

    He added that he made the purchases at “market rate based on many factors including the size, quality, and livability of the dwellings.”

    Though two of the properties were later sold by Crow, according to his statement, the real estate magnate still owns the property on which Thomas’ elderly mother lives. Citing county tax records, ProPublica said one of Crow’s companies pays the “roughly $1,500 in annual property taxes on Thomas’ mother’s house,” which had previously been paid by the justice and his wife, Ginni.

    Experts told ProPublica that Thomas’ failure to disclose the 2014 deal raises more questions about his relationship with Crow.

    “He needed to report his interest in the sale,” Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who now works for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told the outlet. “Given the role Crow has played in subsidizing the lifestyle of Thomas and his wife, you have to wonder if this was an effort to put cash in their pockets.”

    The report has already prompted the watchdog group to call for an investigation into Thomas’ decision not to disclose the real estate deal and the various trips and gifts.

    In a letter sent Friday to Chief Justice John Roberts and Attorney General Merrick Garland, CREW said that Thomas may have violated the Ethics in Government Act. The group said Roberts also should investigate whether Thomas violated his “ethical obligations” under Judicial Conference regulations.

    In the wake of last week’s revelations, congressional Democrats have also called for an investigation into the matter and for a stronger ethics code for the justices, and some federal judges have also spoken out.

    Earlier this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced it plans to hold a hearing “on the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards,” and at least one watchdog group has urged lawmakers to call Thomas as a witness in the upcoming hearing.

    This story has been updated with additional details Friday.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • What markets are watching after digesting the US jobs data | CNN Business

    What markets are watching after digesting the US jobs data | CNN Business

    [ad_1]

    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    In an unusual coincidence, the US jobs report was released on a holiday Friday — meaning stock markets were closed when the closely-watched economic data came out.

    It was the first monthly payroll report since Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed. It also marked a full year of jobs data since the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates in March 2022.

    While inflation has come down and other economic data point to a cooling economy, the labor market has remained remarkably resilient.

    Investors have had a long weekend to chew over the details of the report and will likely skip the typical gut-reaction to headline numbers.

    What happened: The US economy added 236,000 jobs in March, showing that hiring remained robust though the pace was slower than in previous months. The unemployment rate currently stands at 3.5%.

    Wages increased by 0.3% on the month and 4.2% from a year ago. The three-month wage growth average has dropped to 3.8%. That’s moving closer to what Fed policymakers “believe to be in line with stable wage and inflation expectations,” wrote Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM in a note.

    “That wage data tends to suggest that the risk of a wage price spiral is easing and that will create space in the near term for the Federal Reserve to engage in a strategic pause in its efforts to restore price stability,” he added.

    The March jobs report was the last before the Fed’s next policy meeting and announcement in early May. The labor market is cooling but not rapidly or significantly, and further rate hikes can’t be ruled out.

    At the same time Wall Street is beginning to see bad news as bad news. A slowing economy could mean a recession is forthcoming.

    Markets are still largely expecting the Fed to raise rates by another quarter point. So how will they react to Friday’s report?

    Before the Bell spoke with Michael Arone, State Street Global Advisors chief investment strategist, to find out.

    This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

    Before the Bell: How do you expect markets to react to this report on Monday?

    Michael Arone: I think that this has been a nice counterbalance to the weaker labor data earlier last week and all the recession fears. This data suggests that the economy is still in pretty good shape, 10-year Treasury yields increased on Friday indicating there’s less fear about an imminent recession.

    There’s this delicate balance between slower job growth and a weaker labor market without economic devastation. I think this report helps that.

    As it relates to the stock market, I would expect the cyclical sectors to do well — your industrials, your materials, your energy companies. If interest rates are rising, that’s going to weigh on growth stocks — technology and communication services sectors, for example. Less recession fears will mean investors won’t be as defensively positioned in classic staples like healthcare and utilities.

    Could this lead to a reverse in the current trend where tech companies are bolstering markets?

    Yes, exactly. It’s difficult to make too much out of any singular data point, but I think this report will hopefully lead to broader participation in the stock market. If those recession fears begin to abate somewhat, and investors recognize that recession isn’t imminent, there will be more investment.

    What else are investors looking at in this report?

    We’ve seen weakness in the interest rate sensitive parts of the market — areas that are typically the first to weaken as the economy slows down. So things like manufacturing, things like construction. That’s where the weakness in this jobs report is. And the services areas continue to remain strong. That’s where the shortage of qualified skilled workers remains. I think that you’re seeing continued job strength in those areas.

    What does this mean for this week’s inflation reports? It seems like the jobs report just pushed the tension forward.

    it did. I expect that inflation figures will continue to decelerate — or grow at a slower rate. But I do think that the sticky part of inflation continues to be on the wage front. And so I think, if anything, this helps alleviate some of those inflation pressures, but we’ll see how it flows through into the CPI report next week. And also the PPI report.

    Is the Federal Reserve addressing real structural changes to the labor market?

    The Fed was confused in February 2020 when we were in full employment and there was no inflation. They’re equally confused today, after raising rates from zero to 5%, that we haven’t had more job losses.

    I’m not sure why, but from my perspective, the Fed hasn’t taken into consideration the structural changes in the labor force, and they’re still confused by it. I think the risk here is that they’ll continue to focus on raising rates to stabilize prices, perhaps underestimating the kind of structural changes in the labor economy that haven’t resulted in the type of weakness that they’ve been anticipating. I think that’s a risk for the economy and markets.

    A few weeks ago, Before the Bell wrote about big problems brewing in the $20 trillion commercial real estate industry.

    After decades of thriving growth bolstered by low interest rates and easy credit, commercial real estate has hit a wall. Office and retail property valuations have been falling since the pandemic brought about lower occupancy rates and changes in where people work and how they shop. The Fed’s efforts to fight inflation by raising interest rates have also hurt the credit-dependent industry.

    Recent banking stress will likely add to those woes. Lending to commercial real estate developers and managers largely comes from small and mid-sized banks, where the pressure on liquidity has been most severe. About 80% of all bank loans for commercial properties come from regional banks, according to Goldman Sachs economists.

    Since then, things have gotten worse, CNN’s Julia Horowitz reports.

    In a worst-case scenario, anxiety about bank lending to commercial real estate could spiral, prompting customers to yank their deposits. A bank run is what toppled Silicon Valley Bank last month, roiling financial markets and raising fears of a recession.

    “We’re watching it pretty closely,” said Michael Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede, a wealth manager. While he doesn’t expect office loans to become a problem for all banks, “one or two” institutions could find themselves “caught offside.”

    Signs of strain are increasing. The proportion of commercial office mortgages where borrowers are behind with payments is rising, according to Trepp, which provides data on commercial real estate.

    High-profile defaults are making headlines. Earlier this year, a landlord owned by asset manager PIMCO defaulted on nearly $2 billion in debt for seven office buildings in San Francisco, New York City, Boston and Jersey City.

    Dig into Julia’s story here.

    Tech stocks led market losses in 2022, but seemed to rebound quickly at the start of this year. So as we enter earnings season, what should we expect from Big Tech?

    Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, says that he has high hopes.

    “Tech stocks have held up very well so far in 2023 and comfortably outpaced the overall market as we believe the tech sector has become the new ‘safety trade’ in this overall uncertain market,” he wrote in a note on Sunday evening.

    Even the recent spate of layoffs in Big Tech has upside, he wrote.

    “Significant cost cutting underway in the Valley led by Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and others, conservative guidance already given in the January earnings season ‘rip the band- aid off moment’, and tech fundamentals that are holding up in a shaky macro [environment] are setting up for a green light for tech stocks.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • What the OPEC cuts mean for Putin and Russia | CNN Business

    What the OPEC cuts mean for Putin and Russia | CNN Business

    [ad_1]

    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Some of the world’s largest oil exporters shocked markets over the weekend by announcing that they would cut oil production by more than 1.6 million barrels a day.

    OPEC+, an alliance between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a group of non-OPEC oil-producing countries, including Russia, Mexico, and Kazakhstan, said on Sunday that the cuts would start in May, running through the end of the year. The news sent both Brent crude futures — the global oil benchmark — and WTI — the US benchmark — up about 6% in trading Monday.

    OPEC+ was formed in 2016 to coordinate and regulate oil production and stabilize global oil prices. Its members produce about 40% of the world’s crude oil and have a significant impact on the global economy.

    What it means for Putin: OPEC+’s decision to cut oil production could have big implications for Russia.

    After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the United States and United Kingdom immediately stopped purchasing oil from the country. The European Union also stopped importing Russian oil that was sent by sea.

    Members of the G7 — an organization of leaders from some of the world’s largest economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — have also imposed a price cap of $60 per barrel on oil exported by Russia, keeping the country’s revenues artificially low. If oil prices continue to rise, some analysts have speculated that the US and other western nations may have to loosen that price cap.

    US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that the changes could lead to reassessing the price cap — though not yet. “Of course, that’s something that, if we’ve decided that it’s appropriate to revisit, could be changed, but I don’t see that that’s appropriate at this time,” she told reporters.

    “I don’t know that this is significant enough to have any impact on the appropriate level of the price cap,” she added.

    Russia also recently announced that it would lower its oil production by 500,000 barrels per day until the end of this year.

    Just last week Putin admitted that western sanctions could deal a blow to Russia’s economy.

    “The illegitimate restrictions imposed on the Russian economy may indeed have a negative impact on it in the medium term,” Putin said in televised remarks Wednesday reported by state news agency TASS.

    Putin said Russia’s economy had been growing since July, thanks in part to stronger ties with “countries of the East and South,” likely referring to China and some African countries.

    Russia, China and Saudi Arabia: The OPEC+ announcement came as a surprise this week. The group had already announced it would cut two million barrels a day in October of 2022 and Saudi Arabia previously said its production quotas would stay the same through the end of the year.

    “The move to reduce supply is fairly odd,” wrote Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING in a note Monday.

    “Oil prices have partly recovered from the turmoil seen in financial markets following developments in the banking sector,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, oil fundamentals are expected to tighten as we move through the year. Prior to these cuts, we were already expecting the oil market to see a fairly sizable deficit over the second half or 2023. Clearly, this will be even larger now.”

    Saudi Arabia stated that the cut is a “precautionary measure aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market,” but Patterson says it will likely “lead to further volatility in the market,” later this year as less available oil will add to inflationary feats.

    Still, the changes signal shifting global alliances with Russia, China and Saudi Arabia around oil prices, said analysts at ClearView Energy Partners. Higher-priced oil could help Russia pay for its war on Ukraine and also boosts revenue in Saudi Arabia.

    The White House, meanwhile, has spoken out against OPEC’s decision. “We don’t think cuts are advisable at this moment given market uncertainty – and we’ve made that clear,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

    – CNN’s Paul LeBlanc and Hanna Ziady contributed to this report

    The crisis triggered by the recent collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank is not over yet and will ripple through the economy for years to come, said JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday.

    In his closely watched annual letter to shareholders, the chief executive of the largest bank in the United States outlined the extensive damage the financial system meltdown had on all banks and urged lawmakers to think carefully before responding with regulatory policy.

    “These failures were not good for banks of any size,” wrote Dimon, responding to reports that large financial institution benefited greatly from the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank as wary customers sought safety by moving billions of dollars worth of money to big banks.

    In a note last month, Wells Fargo banking analyst Mike Mayo wrote “Goliath is winning.” JPMorgan in particular, he said, was benefiting from more deposits “in these less certain times.”

    “Any crisis that damages Americans’ trust in their banks damages all banks – a fact that was known even before this crisis,” said Dimon. “While it is true that this bank crisis ‘benefited’ larger banks due to the inflow of deposits they received from smaller institutions, the notion that this meltdown was good for them in any way is absurd.”

    The failures of SVB and Signature Bank, he argued, had little to do with banks bypassing regulations and that SVB’s high Interest rate exposure and large amount of uninsured deposits were already well-known to both regulators and to the marketplace at large.

    Current regulations, Dimon argued, could actually lull banks into complacency without actually addressing real system-wide banking issues. Abiding by these regulations, he wrote, has just “become an enormous, mind-numbingly complex task about crossing t’s and dotting i’s.”

    And while regulatory change will be a likely outcome of the recent banking crisis, Dimon argued that, “it is extremely important that we avoid knee-jerk, whack-a-mole or politically motivated responses that often result in achieving the opposite of what people intended.” Regulations, he said, are often put in place in one part of the framework but have adverse effects on other areas and just make things more complicated.

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has said it will propose new rule changes in May, while the Federal Reserve is currently conducting an internal review to assess what changes should be made. Lawmakers in Congress, like Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, have suggested that new legislation meant to regulate banks is in the works.

    But, wrote Dimon, “the debate should not always be about more or less regulation but about what mix of regulations will keep America’s banking system the best in the world.”

    Dimon’s letter to shareholders touched on a number of pressing issues, including climate change. “The window for action to avert the costliest impacts of global climate change is closing,” he wrote, expressing his frustration with slow growth in clean energy technology investments.

    “Permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way,” he wrote.

    One way to do that? “We may even need to evoke eminent domain,” he suggested. “We simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives.”

    Eminent domain is the government’s power to take private property for public use, so long as fair compensation is provided to the property owner.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • ‘This is a social emergency’: Thousands protest in Portugal over housing crisis | CNN

    ‘This is a social emergency’: Thousands protest in Portugal over housing crisis | CNN

    [ad_1]


    Lisbon
    Reuters
     — 

    Thousands of people took to the streets of Lisbon and other cities across Portugal on Saturday in protest against soaring rents and house prices at a time when high inflation is making it even tougher for people to make ends meet.

    “There is a huge housing crisis today,” Rita Silva, from the Habita housing group, said at the Lisbon protest. “This is a social emergency.”

    Portugal is one of Western Europe’s poorest countries, with government data showing more than 50% of workers earned less than 1,000 euros ($1,084) per month last year. The monthly minimum wage is 760 euros ($826).

    Rents in Lisbon, a tourist hotspot, have jumped 65% since 2015 and sale prices have sky-rocketed 137% in that period, figures from Confidencial Imobiliario, which collects data on housing, show. Rents increased 37% last year alone, more than in Barcelona or Paris, according to another real estate data company, Casafari.

    The situation is particularly hard on the young.

    The average rent for a one-bedroom flat in Lisbon is around 1,350 euros, a study by housing portal Imovirtual showed.

    The Socialist government announced last month a housing package that, among other measures, ended the controversial “Golden Visa” scheme and banned new licenses for Airbnb properties but critics say it is not enough to lower prices in the short term.

    At the protest, which was organised by the movement “Home to Live” and other groups, 35-year-old illustrator Diogo Guerra said he hears stories about people struggling to access housing every day.

    “People who… work and are homeless, people are evicted because their house is turned into short-term accommodations (for tourists),” he said.

    Low wages and high rents make Lisbon the world’s third-least viable city to live in, according to a study by insurance brokers CIA Landlords. Portugal’s current 8.2% inflation rate has exacerbated the problem.

    “With my salary, which is higher than the average salary in Lisbon, I cannot afford renting a flat because it’s too expensive,” said Nuncio Renzi, a sales executive from Italy living in the capital.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • What the banking crisis means for mortgage rates | CNN Business

    What the banking crisis means for mortgage rates | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Mortgage rates have taken would-be buyers on a ride this year — and it’s only March.

    Generally, home buyers can anticipate mortgage rates to move down through the rest of this year as the banking crisis drags on, which could cool down inflation.

    But there are bound to be some bumps along the way. Here’s why rates have been bouncing around and where they could end up.

    After steadily rising last year as a result of the Federal Reserve’s historic campaign to rein in inflation, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage topped out at 7.08% in November, according to Freddie Mac. Then, with economic data suggesting inflation was retreating, the average rate drifted down through January.

    But a raft of robust economic reports in February brought concerns that inflation was not cooling as quickly or as much as many had hoped. As a result, after falling to 6.09%, average mortgage rates climbed back up, rising half a percentage point over the month.

    Then in March banks began collapsing. That sent rates falling again.

    Neither the actions of the Federal Reserve nor the bank failures directly impact mortgage rates. But rates are indirectly impacted by actions that the Fed takes or is expected to take, as well as the health of the broader financial system and any uncertainty that may be percolating.

    On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it would raise interest rates by a quarter point as it attempts to fight stubbornly high inflation while taking into account recent risks to financial stability.

    While the bank failures made the Fed’s work more complicated, analysts have said that, if contained, the banking meltdown may have actually done some work for the Fed, by bringing down prices without raising interest rates. To that point, the Fed suggested on Wednesday that it may be at the end of its rate hike cycle.

    Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds, which move based on a combination of anticipation about the Fed’s actions, what the Fed actually does and investors’ reactions. When Treasury yields go up, so do mortgage rates; when they go down, mortgage rates tend to follow.

    Following the Fed’s announcement on Wednesday, bond yields — and the mortgage rates that usually follow them — fell.

    But the relationship between mortgage rates and Treasurys has weakened slightly in recent weeks, said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow.

    “The secondary mortgage market may react to speculation that more financial entities may need to sell their long-term investments, like mortgage backed securities, to get more liquidity today,” he said.

    Even as Treasurys decline, he said, tighter credit conditions as a result of bank failures will likely limit any dramatic plunging of mortgage rates.

    “This could restrict mortgage lenders’ access to funding sources, resulting in higher rates than Treasuries would otherwise indicate,” Divounguy said. “For borrowers, lending standards were already quite strict, and tighter conditions may make it more difficult for some home shoppers to secure funding. In turn, for home sellers, the time it takes to sell could increase as buyers hesitate.”

    Inflation is still quite high, but it is slowing and analysts are anticipating a much slower economy over the next few quarters — which should further bring down inflation. This is good for mortgage borrowers, who can expect to see rates retreating through this year, said Mike Fratantoni, Mortgage Bankers Association senior vice president and chief economist.

    “Homebuyers in 2023 have shown themselves to be quite sensitive to any changes in mortgage rates,” Fratantoni said.

    The MBA forecasts that mortgage rates are likely to trend down over the course of this year, with the 30-year fixed rate falling to around 5.3% by the end of the year.

    “The housing market was the first sector to slow as the result of tighter monetary policy and should be the first to benefit as policymakers slow — and ultimately stop — hiking rates,” said Fratantoni.

    In second half of the year, the inflation picture is expected to improve, leading to mortgage rates that are more stable.

    “Expectations for slower economic growth or even a recession should bring inflation down and help mortgage rates decline,” said Divounguy.

    That’s good news for home buyers since it improves affordability, bringing down the cost to finance a home. It also benefits sellers, since it reduces the intensity of an interest-rate lock-in.

    Lower rates could also convince more homeowners to list their home for sale. With the inventory of homes for sale near historic lows, this would add badly needed inventory to an extremely limited pool.

    “Mortgage rates are steering both supply and demand in today’s costly environment,” said Divounguy. “Home sales picked up in January when rates were relatively low, then slacked off as they ramped back up.”

    But with cooling inflation comes a higher risk of job losses, which is typically bad for the housing market.

    “Of course, much uncertainty surrounding the state of inflation and this still-evolving banking turmoil remains,” said Divounguy.

    In his remarks on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said estimates of how much the recent banking developments could slow the economy amounted to “guesswork, almost, at this point.”

    But regardless of the tack the economy and banking concerns take, their impact will quickly be seen in mortgage rates.

    “Evidence — in either direction — of spillovers into the broader economy or accelerating inflation would likely cause another policy shift, which would materialize in mortgage rates,” said Divounguy.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Items from Murdaugh Moselle property will be auctioned on Thursday | CNN

    Items from Murdaugh Moselle property will be auctioned on Thursday | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    The contents of the home of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh and his family will be auctioned off on Thursday, according to a South Georgia auction house.

    The house is located in Colleton County, South Carolina, on a hunting property called Moselle. The property became a household name during the nationally televised trial of its former occupant, Alex Murdaugh. Murdaugh was convicted earlier this month of shooting and killing his wife and son on the property.

    The Savannah-based Liberty Auction house was hired to clean out the home and sell all its contents, according to owner Lori Mattingly. Cleaning out the Moselle estate was “just like any other job,” she said to CNN over the phone on Tuesday.

    “Their things are not any better or nicer than any other things that we pick up from other people’s homes,” Mattingly added. “We go into a lot of very nice expensive homes … And we’ve had much nicer things than theirs, but their things are nice.”

    Among the items being auctioned are beds, chests, tables, chairs and picture frames that once hung on the walls of the Moselle estate. The Murdaugh items will be sold among items from other estates, and each item will be identified by a lot number, according to Mattingly. The auction house did not have an exact number of items being auctioned from the Murdaugh estate.

    Photos of some of the items up for sale have been posted online and there are plans to post more photos in the coming days, Mattingly told CNN.

    Bids will only be taken in-person, according to Liberty Auction, which is selling the contents of the home

    The auction will take place on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Pembroke, Georgia, a small town just outside of Savannah. Bids will only be accepted in-person.

    “It’s unbelievable how many phone calls I have had, and I have only been able to answer so many,” said Mattingly. She told CNN the auctions usually draw a few hundred people, but they expect many more than normal for this sale.

    Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were found fatally shot on the property on June 7, 2021. He has maintained that he did not kill them. Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh committed the murders to distract and delay from investigations into his long string of alleged financial crimes and lies.

    Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murders. He is appealing the conviction. The former attorney is also facing additional charges for other alleged financial crimes for which he has yet to face trial.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Norfolk Southern balks at compensating homeowners in East Palestine | CNN Business

    Norfolk Southern balks at compensating homeowners in East Palestine | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    Washington, DC
    CNN
     — 

    Jim Stewart was getting ready to sell his home in East Palestine, Ohio, and retire. Then came the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train on February 3, releasing toxic chemicals into the air and nearby water, and he fears crashing the value of his home.

    He and his wife hoped to put their three-bedroom home on the market this spring, as prices were still high and inventory was low. Alternatively, they talked about his son’s family buying a house that was on the market down the street from Stewart.

    But even though state officials are saying the water is safe to drink, convincing potential homebuyers otherwise is an uphill battle.

    “Since the derailment, I lost all those options,” he said. “Who is going to buy contaminated land? The older people are willing to stay and live it out. The younger bunch, they are smarter. They’re thinking of their families. I wouldn’t want my grandchildren here. We don’t know if the ground is going to be good enough to grow grass. There are too many unknowns.”

    Stewart, 65, recently voiced his fury and sadness about what he lost to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw on a February 22 Town Hall about the derailment on CNN.

    “You burned me,” he told Shaw. “We were going to sell our house. Our value went phoom,” pointing his hands down.

    Shaw was asked point blank by another resident if Norfolk Southern was ready to buy Stewart’s house, he replied only, “we’re going to do what’s right for this community.” That wasn’t satisfactory for Stewart or many of the other participants at the Town Hall.

    “I lost everything now,” Stewart says he told Shaw.

    Stewart works as a manager at a commercial baking company.

    “I worked hard. I’m still working,” he says he told Shaw. “I’m in the 44th year at my job. I wanted to get out. Now I’m just stuck.”

    Stewart fears he lost a tremendous amount of the value of his home, which he bought in 2016 for $85,000.

    The property was worth about $135,000 a month ago, according to an estimate from Zillow. Lack of transactions since then make a current estimate difficult.

    “I’ll never get that. I’ll be lucky to get what I paid for it, if that,” he said of the estimate. In addition, Stewart believes it would cost a lot to do the repairs and tests to ensure the home is safe.

    “At whose expense? That’s the biggest issue right now,” said Stewart. “At whose expense are we going to do things to make sure it’s okay?”

    Stewart isn’t the only one that was angry with Shaw and Norfolk Southern for the railroad’s refusal to offer to compensate the community for the property value that has been destroyed by the derailment.

    At Thursday’s Senate hearing on the crash, Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Shaw four different times to commit to compensating homeowners, only to hear Shaw repeatedly reply, “Senator, I’m committed to do what’s right.”

    Markey said that wasn’t an acceptable answer.

    “Will you commit to insuring that these families, these innocent families do no lose their life savings in their homes and small businesses? The right thing to do is to say, ‘Yes we will.’” Markey told Shaw. “These families want to know long term are they just going to be left behind. Once the cameras move on, once the national attention dies down, where will these families be? I think they’re going to be in the crosshairs of the accountants of Norfolk Southern saying ‘We’re not going to pay full compensation.’”

    Paying the homeowners and businesses wouldn’t necessarily be difficult for Norfolk Southern.

    With a population of about 5,000 people, there are roughly 2,600 residential properties in East Palestine according to Attom, a property data provider. The average value of a property there in January of this year, prior to the derailment, was $146,000, according to Attom.

    Taken together, the value of all residential real estate in the town adds up to about $380 million, including single family homes and multi-family properties.

    Those values are only a fraction of the money that Norfolk Southern earns. Last year it reported a record operating income of $4.8 billion, and a net income of $3.3 billion, up about 9% from a year earlier. It had $456 million in cash on hand on its books as of December 31.

    It’s been returning much of that profit to shareholders, repurchasing $3.1 billion in shares last year and spending $1.2 billion on dividends. And it announced a 9% increase in dividends just days before the accident.

    A year ago its board approved a $10 billion share repurchase plan, and it had the authority to buy $7.5 billion of that remaining on the plan as of December 31.

    Asked by Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, at Thursday’s hearing, “Will you pledge to no more stock buybacks until a raft of safety measures have been completed to reduce the risk of derailments and crashes in the future,” Shaw again dodged the question by answering only with, “I will commit to continuing to invest in safety.”

    And the company also invests a great deal of money in lobbying, spending $1.8 billion on lobbying in 2022, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks lobbying and political contributions expenditures.

    Those lobbying expenses also came under attack by senators at the hearing, especially since Shaw would not commit to supporting the bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate since the derailment to improve railroad safety. Asked if he would support or oppose the legislation, Shaw wouldn’t endorse all of the provisions of the bill, but he responded “we are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer.”

    A big payout probably isn’t what many in East Palestine are looking for, said Jim Warren, manager and co-owner of Kelly Warren and Associates Real Estate Solutions, in Boardman, which is about 15 miles away from East Palestine. They just want a home that’s safe to live in and to be made whole on its value, he said.

    “The people around here don’t want a lot,” he said. “We don’t chase the flashy items like other places in the world. We want to grow up, raise our kids, make a living, and have a nice place to live, that’s all we want.”

    This area, like the rest of the country, saw the real estate market heat up over the past few years with multiple offers on homes and properties selling over the asking price. But, Warren said, unlike other parts of the country the market stays fairly steady in this part of Ohio.

    “Our area doesn’t move up as much and it doesn’t move down as much,” he said. “We don’t have the big swings.”

    Warren’s firm currently has two listings in the town.

    “That’s no more nor less than usual,” he said. There are only ever about ten properties on the market there, he said.

    But, he added, “if your property is contaminated, that is a concern for yourself and for any buyer.”

    As with any real estate purchase, an appraisal and tests for safety would need to be done for homes in East Palestine. But like Stewart, Warren said it is not yet clear who will pay for the additional tests on water and ground contamination for that peace of mind.

    “For all we know, the county might cover it, or the EPA or Ohio state government. That remains to be seen,” he said.

    Overall, Warren said, he expects homes to continue to be bought and sold in East Palestine.

    “We don’t foresee the market tanking, we foresee steady growth,” he said. “After all the hype is gone, we are still living here. We’re going to have to figure it out because this is our home.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Pickleball is America’s fastest-growing sport. These people hate it | CNN Business

    Pickleball is America’s fastest-growing sport. These people hate it | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

    The sound and disruption from pickleball, America’s fastest-growing sport, is driving some neighbors, tennis players, parents of young children, and others crazy.

    Homeowners groups and local residents in dozens of towns and cities have rallied to limit pickleball play and block the development of new courts. They are circulating petitions, filing lawsuits, and speaking out at council and town hall meetings to slow the audible spread of pickleball frenzy across the country.

    The number of people playing pickleball grew by 159% over three years to 8.9 million in 2022, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, a trade group.

    The rapid spread has created dilemmas for public parks and recreation departments, which must balance competing interests with often limited space and funds. Retirement communities and country clubs also face challenges building space for people who enjoy the game, a scaled-down version of tennis with a smaller court, without antagonizing others.

    Pickleball can be noisier than tennis because the game can fit more players onto the same space as a tennis court. Hits during a pickleball rally are also more frequent than tennis. And it’s a more social sport, so the games tend to be louder with players bantering during and after points.

    Rob Mastroianni, a resident of Falmouth, Massachusetts, sold his house and moved after the town’s recreation department built pickleball courts 350 feet away from his home in a residential area.

    “It’s a percussive pop. It pierces the air and carries,” he said.

    He and a group of neighbors eventually filed a lawsuit last year against the town’s zoning board of appeals, claiming that the pickleball courts violated town bylaws prohibiting “daily injurious and obnoxious noise levels.” Their suit said the noise from the game was “substantially impacting [their] quiet and peaceful enjoyment of their respective homes.” (They won a temporary injunction and the courts are currently closed.)

    “It’s a tough sell to be against pickleball,” Mastroianni said. “But at the end of the day it was creating mental and physical health problems with neighbors butting heads.”

    “The constant popping 12 hours a day 7 days a week is borderline torture,” one resident who lives next to a park in Vienna, Virginia, wrote to the town parks department. “We cannot use our outdoor space anymore due to pickleball and cannot open our windows.” The town voted to restrict pickleball from seven to three days a week at local courts last month.

    Some tennis players are also frustrated because pickleball is taking over tennis courts. The tennis industry has taken note and is working with parks and recreation departments and other facilities to make sure pickleball doesn’t slow tennis’ popularity, too. The number of tennis players grew 33% between 2019 and 2022, according to the United States Tennis Association (USTA).

    “I say if pickleball is that popular let them build their own courts :)” tennis great Martina Navratilova tweeted last year.

    USTA, the governing body for US tennis, has put out guidance with best practices to ensure the two sports can co-exist and keep up with demand for each.

    “In an ideal world, tennis and pickleball have their own spaces,” said Craig Morris, the USTA’s chief executive of community tennis.

    And some parents are pushing back because their kids have less space to play in the park as crowds of pickleball players grow.

    “Players now endlessly swarm the playground daily,” said a petition in New York City to ban pickleball at a local playground with more than 3,000 signatures. “The children have been squeezed out and many have stopped going altogether.”

    Pickleball, which combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, began in 1965, but only recently skyrocketed.

    It originally won a following in retirement communities where it was beloved for its social aspect and exercise benefits. The ball travels slower than in tennis and the court is half the size, so it’s easier to play. It’s also accessible for a wide range of ages and the rules are simple.

    The game became more popular during the Covid-19 pandemic as people looked for safe, socially distanced ways to exercise outside. Celebrity backers like Tom Brady and increased media attention have also propelled the sport’s rise, and gyms and parks have built new courts to accommodate demand.

    The game can be played in singles or doubles, inside or outside on a 20-foot by 44-foot court — approximately the size of a badminton court — and lasts until one side reaches 11 points. Many people play on tennis courts that have been modified with lower nets and additional lines.

    As the sport has grown, the number of places to play has also increased.

    There were 11,000 places to play Pickleball at the end of 2022, an increase of around 130 new locations a month, according to USA Pickleball, the sport’s national governing body.

    Players use a plastic perforated ball, slightly heavier than a wiffle ball, and wooden or composite paddles that are about twice the size of ping-pong paddles.

    Pickleball players love the “pop” of their paddles smashing the plastic ball, but that same sound can bother others.

    “Cities should not simply convert tennis courts to pickleball. If they do that without considering sound, they’re likely to have unhappy people,” said Bob Unetich, an engineer by training who started Pickleball Sound Mitigation, a consulting firm that advises municipalities, country clubs, and upset neighbors on reducing noises associated with the game. Unetich, who is a trained pickleball referee and avid player, has advised more than 100 clients.

    People play pickleball on what were once tennis courts at Allendale Park in Pasadena, CA, in 2022.

    If there are several games going on at the same time, there can be multiple “pop” noises every second, Unetich said. Cheap pickleball paddles and balls are often the loudest.

    The “pitch” of pickleball hits is also more annoying to people than a tennis racquet with strings colliding with a soft tennis ball, he said. Tennis and some other common sport sounds are usually lower pitched than pickleball.

    New and existing pickleball sites need to take background noise into account, Unitech said.

    If courts are built near homes, they should block sound with barriers, enforce the use of quieter paddles and balls, or restrict playing hours, he said.

    “I’m an advocate of pickleball, but if it’s right across the street from people’s homes it’s quite a problem,” he said. “The right solution is often to put the court someplace else.”

    Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Woman missing more than 30 years and thought to be dead found living in Puerto Rico nursing home | CNN

    Woman missing more than 30 years and thought to be dead found living in Puerto Rico nursing home | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A Pennsylvania woman who disappeared more than 30 years ago and was believed to be dead by her family was recently found living in a nursing home in Puerto Rico, her family and police said at a news conference Thursday.

    Patricia Kopta, 83, was last seen in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1992, according to a missing person flier posted by the Pennsylvania Emergency Response Center.

    Her husband, Bob Kopta, reported her missing a few months later in the fall. At the time, he advised authorities that it wasn’t uncommon for his wife to “drop out of sight for short periods,” according to the flier.

    “I come home one night and she’s gone, and nobody knew where she was at,” Kopta said at the news conference with Ross Township Police.

    Police said they were first informed about the discovery of the missing woman when an agent from the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and a social worker from Puerto Rico contacted them last year saying that they believed Patricia was living in an adult care home in Puerto Rico.

    “What they reported to us was that she came into their care in 1999, when she was found in need in the streets of Puerto Rico,” Ross Township Deputy Chief Brian Kohlhepp said.

    INTERPOL and the social worker said Patricia was found wandering the streets and through the years she had “refused to ever discuss her private life or where she came from,” Kohlhepp said.

    In her advanced age, Patricia started revealing nuggets that would eventually spur those around her to contact Ross police, Kohlhepp said.

    When she was in Pittsburgh, Patricia was a “well-known street preacher,” according to the missing person flier. She would approach strangers, telling them she had visions of the Virgin Mary and that the world was coming to an end, the flier said.

    Police said her disappearance wasn’t overtly suspicious because they “knew she had a mental health history and she had made statements to other family individuals that she was leaving, that she was concerned that she was going to be placed into a care facility here,” Kohlhepp said. Kohlhepp said police knew she had likely left of her own volition.

    Her husband said that his wife had talked about wanting to go to Puerto Rico to live in a tropical environment.

    “I even advertised in the paper down in Puerto Rico looking for her,” Kopta said at the news conference, adding that he spent a lot of money over the years searching for her.

    Patricia and Bob were married for 20 years before she went missing, Kohlhepp told CNN. He added that Patricia had no known family or connections in Puerto Rico.

    Police determined the woman was in fact Patricia through a nine-month-long process in which they compared DNA samples provided by her sister, Gloria Smith, and her nephew.

    “We really thought she was dead all those years,” Smith said at the news conference.

    Even before DNA testing was completed, the family knew it was Patricia as soon as they saw her photo, Kohlhepp said.

    Smith said that she has called the adult care home in Puerto Rico several times but has been unable to hold a conversation with her sister because she has dementia.

    “We didn’t expect it. It was a very big shock to see – to know that she’s still alive,” her sister said. “You know, we’re so happy and I hope I can get down to see her.”

    CNN has not been able to directly contact the woman’s family.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • CFPB: What it does and why its future is in question | CNN Business

    CFPB: What it does and why its future is in question | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The US Supreme Court decided this week to hear a case that will consider the constitutionality of funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and, in doing so, test the constraints of US regulators’ power. The case would be heard in the fall, with a decision likely by summer 2024.

    But what is the CFPB? How does its work affect your wallet? And why is its future potentially at risk?

    The agency was created after the 2008 financial meltdown, as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That law was passed in the wake of the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis and the Great Recession that followed.

    The broad purpose of the CFPB is to protect consumers from financial abuses and to serve as the central agency for consumer financial protection authorities.

    Prior to its creation, as the agency notes on its site, “[c]onsumer financial protection had not been the primary focus of any federal agency, and no agency had effective tools to set the rules for and oversee the whole market.”

    The CFPB has regulatory authority over providers of many types of financial products and services, including credit cards, banking accounts, loan servicing, credit reporting and consumer debt collection.

    It is charged with implementing and enforcing consumer protection laws, making rules and issuing guidance for consumer financial institutions. And it is the place consumers can go to lodge complaints about financial products and services.

    Importantly, Dodd-Frank also gave the agency new authority to determine whether any given consumer financial product or service is unfair, deceptive or abusive and therefore unlawful.

    While there are critics of the agency’s current structure and funding, it has saved consumers money, made it easier for them to seek redress and to get better clarity and more tailored responses from companies when they have a problem with their accounts, loans or credit reports.

    “It has completely changed the consumer financial marketplace. Overall it has had a tremendous impact on making it more fair and transparent,” said Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center.

    For instance, the CFPB has taken action against bank overdraft policies. “Arguably, the focus on overdraft practices has led some banks to eliminate or reduce their overdraft fees,” said Christine Hines, legislative director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

    And it has gone after institutions for saddling consumers with pointless products, excessive fees and punitive terms.

    Both Hines and Saunders made a special note of CFPB’s actions against Wells Fargo, after the agency found the bank had been engaging in multiple abusive and unlawful consumer practices across several financial products between 2011 and 2022 — from auto loans to mortgage loans to bank accounts.

    Last month, the agency required the bank to pay more than $2 billion to customers who were harmed by such practices, plus a $1.7 billion fine that will go into a relief fund for victims.

    “More than 16 million accounts at Wells Fargo were subject to their illegal practices, including misapplied payments, wrongful foreclosures, and incorrect fees and interest charges,” the agency said in a blog post.

    In the area of mortgages, “CFPB has written rules to implement new protections so that mortgage lenders don’t make loans with tricks and traps that lead people to lose their homes,” Saunders said.

    It also has created other safeguards, including rules on how service providers should communicate with borrowers who want to find alternatives to foreclosure, Hines noted.

    Currently, the agency is in the midst of an effort to curb excessive or “junk” fees on a range of consumer financial products, such as credit card late fees.

    Critics of the CFPB have been trying for years to limit its power and independence, attacking the way the agency is structured and funded. Like federal banking regulators, its funding is not determined by lawmakers in Congress as part of the annual appropriations process. Rather, it gets its money from the Federal Reserve System’s earnings.

    “This nontraditional funding source limits congressional oversight of the agency and is the subject of legal challenges,” according to the Congressional Research Service.

    The latest challenge — arising from a federal appeals court ruling that CFPB’s funding violates the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause and separation of powers — is what the Supreme Court will take up in its October term.

    While it’s impossible to predict how the justices will rule, should they decide to uphold the appeals court ruling, that will put in doubt how the agency will be funded going forward, and whether it can continue to function effectively.

    It’s also unclear whether the agency’s actions and rule-making over the past 11 years would be invalidated, nor what impact it would have on banks and other financial institutions that have set up systems to be in compliance with CFPB rules and safe harbors.

    “The agency would be unable to do anything if the funding is invalidated. And prior rules could be challenged as the agency did not have a legal funding source that it could use to write those rules,” Cowen Washington Research Group analyst Jaret Seiberg said in a note to clients.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • One of China’s richest women takes over for her father at real estate developer Country Garden | CNN Business

    One of China’s richest women takes over for her father at real estate developer Country Garden | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    One of China’s richest women has fully taken over Country Garden, a top real estate developer, after her father resigned, which added to a string of prominent entrepreneurs retreating from their posts during a historic downturn in the property market.

    Yang Huiyan succeeded her father Yang Guoqiang as chairman of the company that he founded, according to a Wednesday filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, which said the appointment took effect the same day.

    Yang, 68, also known as Yeung Kwok Keung in Cantonese, had tendered his resignation from the position of chairman “due to age,” the statement said.

    The elder Yang was a farmer and construction worker before he founded Country Garden in 1992. In little more than a decade, he grew the firm into one of the largest real estate developers in the country.

    The company boasted a record-setting $1.7 billion IPO in Hong Kong in 2007. Last year, Country Garden was China’s No 1 developer by sales, which reached $67 billion.

    The younger Yang has served as a co-chairman of the company since 2018 and jointly managed the day-to-day operations with her father.

    Yang Huiyan, center, attends an alumni event in the city of Foshan in Guangdong province in June 2016.

    Yang, 41, had a net worth of $9.2 billion as of Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That placed her as China’s second richest woman, behind only Wu Yajun, the 59-year-old founder of Longfor Properties, who has a fortune of $9.7 billion.

    Yang Huiyan’s wealth comes mainly from her majority stake in Country Garden, which was largely transferred to her by her father in 2005, two years before the company’s IPO.

    Yang’s father resigned at a time when China’s property market is mired in a historic downturn.

    The real estate sector has been lurching from one crisis to another since 2020, when Beijing started cracking down on excessive borrowing by developers to rein in their high debt. A debt crisis hit the industry after Evergrande, the second largest property developer in China, suffered a severe cash crunch and defaulted on its debt in late 2021.

    Since then, a number of cash-strapped developers have sought protection from creditors.

    Country Garden’s stock price has lost more than half of its value in the past year.

    An aerial view of a residential project developed by Country Garden in Zhenjiang city in eastern China's Jiangsu province in October 2021.

    Home sales have plummeted alongside buyer confidence. Sentiment cooled even further last year after thousands of home buyers refused to continue paying mortgages on unfinished properties. The crash in the real estate market has dealt a blow to the finances of local governments, which rely heavily on land sales revenue.

    Authorities have shifted policy to rescue the industry, including easing restrictions on borrowing for developers and rolling out loans. But the recovery seems to be slow.

    Yang Guoqiang’s resignation is the latest in a string of departures by prominent property entrepreneurs.

    In November, Zhang Lei, founder and chairman of Modern Land, resigned from his positions at the company. Modern Land is a major developer based in Beijing building energy-saving homes throughout the country.

    In October, Wu Yajun, founder and chairwoman of Longfor Properties, stepped down due to health and age reasons, the company said.

    In September, Pan Shiyi and his wife Zhang Xin quit their roles as chairman and CEO of Soho China, a Beijing-based developer.

    [ad_2]

    Source link