What If Housing Affordability Is Not About Supply and Demand?

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a few years now, but felt motivated to write on it after reading Ryan Gorman’s Medium post announcing what he’s working on now with btcRE. Gorman as the former CEO of Coldwell Banker understands real estate better than most people, and yet… there was something I felt was … Read more

What Does/Should NAR’s Victory in NAR v. US Mean?

Since I posted my questions (really, more of a “I don’t get it”) about NAR’s victory in the NAR v. US lawsuit, I’ve gotten a few questions from brokerage CEOs and intelligent agents all over. More concerning are the victory laps being taken, and the idea that “The DOJ threat is now gone!” I beg … Read more

NAR’s Victory in NAR v. United States of America: I Don’t Understand It

[This is a VIP post, but given its importance and the fact that I’d love to hear from antitrust experts outside of the industry, I am opening it up to the public for a while. But hey, if you dig this kind of thing, consider subscribing to VIP.] A while back, when this case was … Read more

Housing Market 2023: Another Prediction Sure to Be Wrong

I left out any predictions about the housing market in 2023 in my Seven Predictions post for a bunch of reasons. The most important being that it’s really kind of boring for people who are not super interested in the topic, which means just about everyone who isn’t a VIP subscriber. But now that 2023 … Read more

2023 Starts With Hopeful Signs, or Average People Are Smarter Than a Writer for The Atlantic

A reader sent me this provocative article in The Atlantic, with the provocative title, “The Homeownership Society Was a Mistake.” At first, as I read through the damn thing, I was concerned that the writer had tapped into something real in the psyche of younger Americans who are getting royally screwed by the economy generally, … Read more

The Seven Most Interesting People in Real Estate in 2022

Welcome to another installment of an annual tradition around here: the Seven Most Interesting People in Real Estate in 2022. I look forward to this post, as well as my Seven Predictions post, each year. As in earlier years, let me reiterate that Inman does the Influencers list, Swanepoel does the Power 200 list (I help out on … Read more

Seven Predictions for 2023: The Grime Edition

Welcome to yet another edition of the Seven Predictions, sure to be wrong or your money back. (Does not apply to VIP Subscriptions.) This is one of my favorite annual traditions around this time of year. For those keeping track at home, I just published my results from last year’s predictions, and my lifetime average … Read more

Exploring the Worst Case Scenario: Copycat Litigation & Peculiar Hell for the Local MLS

In my last post exploring the worst case scenario from the commission lawsuits (Sitzer, Moehrl), I mentioned that MLSs will be going through their own special hell. I thought I would expand on that. Because while NAR might be dealing with a huge crisis, NAR is very wealthy with enormous resources. They probably can cope … Read more