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Newsweek
03-06-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
Florida's Housing Market 'Turning Down Fast'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Florida housing market is "turning down fast," according to real estate analyst Nick Gerli, as sellers are increasingly offering reluctant buyers dramatic price cuts to convince them to close a purchase. Gerli, founder and CEO of real-estate platform Reventure, shared on X, formerly Twitter, late last month, a Zillow listing of a home in Saint Petersburg, Florida, which was bought by an investor in 2022—the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic homebuying frenzy—for a staggering $550,000 and sold again in late March for a much more reasonable $391,000. "Twenty-eight percent loss in three years," Gerli wrote in his post. Why It Matters The Sunshine State's housing market exploded during the pandemic, when the rise of remote work enabled many out-of-state movers to relocate to more affordable parts of the country offering a better quality of life than the country's busiest metropolises. The newcomers rapidly increased demand as well as prices across Florida, investors flocked to the state chasing what at the time seemed like sure-fire opportunities, and builders received authorization for building thousands of new homes to keep up with buyers. But Florida's once red-hot housing market started showing signs of a significant cooldown over the past year, as domestic migration shrank compared to the pandemic boom, housing costs rose sharply, and the threat of more frequent, more severe natural disasters and higher home insurance premiums swayed some buyers away from the state. The result is that prices have started to drop across much of the state, as historically high mortgage rates are still putting a significant damper on demand, despite growing inventory giving buyers more options. The median sale price of a home in Florida in April, according to Redfin, was $409,900, down 3.2 percent from a year earlier. Home sales were down 8.8 percent from April 2024, at 33,667. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty What To Know Gerli pointed at a home listing in Saint Petersburg as a glaring example of the dynamics unfolding in the state. The property, a three-bedroom home built in 1960 and sitting on 1,703 square feet of land, is estimated by Zillow to be worth about $386,800, having risen in value by 157 percent in the past 10 years. According to the property's price history, the home was sold in July 1999 for $93,000 and then again in December 2021 for $255,000. At the peak of the pandemic homebuying frenzy, in March 2022, it was listed for sale for $499,900, but the listing was later removed. The property was listed and sold again in April 2022 for an even higher price tag—$550,000—to a Blackstone-owned entity, according to Gerli. The new owner then listed it for sale again in February 2024 for a lower price, $529,000 and then offered four different price cuts in the following months. The listing was removed and reposted several times, until the home was sold on March 21, 2025 for $391,000—a drop of nearly $160,000 from the amount it fetched in 2022. "The house sat on the market for a year, and they incrementally lowered the price until finally it sold," Gerli said. According to the analyst, there was no clear issue with the property. "This does not appear to be a hurricane-damaged property, as they had already cut the price down to $431K (22-percent loss from purchase) before the hurricanes hit," he wrote on X. "After the hurricane hit, the price went down another $40K (7 percent)." For Gerli, the fate of this home in Saint Petersburg shows what can happen when investors get involved in a market, contributing to its overheating and then its downturn. "Investors had a huge impact in driving the Florida real estate bubble during the pandemic boom years of 2020 and 2021," he told Newsweek. Gerli added: "In markets like Jacksonville and Orlando, investor purchases nearly doubled from the pre-pandemic norm. Since then, they have collapsed by 50-60 percent from peak, leaving a gaping hole in the market. Many investors are now also electing to sell, particularly big Wall Street Investors, because the economics of owning real estate in Florida no longer make sense due to stagnating rents and skyrocketing insurance costs." On X, he wrote: "Imagine being a neighbor on this street, and getting excited about how much the value of your neighborhood was increasing. Only to now look at the new sales comp, and realize that the marginal buyer is now paying 28 percent less than three years ago. This is what investors do. Make the boom bigger on the way up, but the crash bigger on the way down." According to Gerli, investors are backing out of Florida for three main reasons—including high interest rates, rising housing costs and falling rents. "Higher interest rates significantly increased the cost of capital for investors, who almost always use debt to finance their acquisitions. Higher debt costs mean it's difficult to earn cash flow, making owning real estate a less attractive option," he said. "Second are the costs of holding real estate in Florida. Both property tax and insurance rates have skyrocketed in Florida over the last three years, further hurting investor margins and lowering the incentive to buy," he added. Gerli continued: "Third is the rental market. Rents in many areas of Florida are now dropping on a year-over-year basis, which makes the whole thesis of owning cash-flow driven real estate hard to justify, especially in market that is in a bubble like Florida. Many investors see this as their last chance to sell out before the prices and rents drop further." What Happens Next According to Gerli and most housing experts who talked with Newsweek, what is happening in Florida is the natural correction that you would expect to follow years of overheating. Many locals in the Sunshine State have been priced out of the market in recent years, and without investors buying up properties, demand has naturally come down. Investors backing off the market could exacerbate these dynamics, accelerating downward pressure on prices and forcing other sellers to slash prices to sell their homes. "Investors rushing to the exits is already destabilizing the market in Florida and making the downturn worse," Gerli told Newsweek. "In some neighborhoods around Tampa and St. Petersburg, there are examples of investors selling houses at 20-25 percent losses from their purchase price in 2022. These sales are now entering the comps and significantly lowering the values of homes in the surrounding area."
Business Mayor
12-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Plush city-centre offices are back in fashion
Unlock the Editor's Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The rise of remote working is transforming office markets, but not in the way investors might have expected. During the coronavirus pandemic, stark images of desolate city centres prompted warnings of a hollowing out, with traditional business districts empty while employees worked from home or from smaller local satellite offices. Five years on, the opposite is happening in cities like London: demand for prime central offices is surging, while those on the outskirts — or even just the slightly off-centre — are struggling. If companies are battling to lure staff into the office, it helps to make that office as convenient and attractive as possible — hence Great Portland Estates, for example, keeping more than 90 per cent of its portfolio within walking distance of London's Elizabeth line. The most high-profile illustration of the trend has been the stream of recent headlines about major companies abandoning Canary Wharf for the City of London. But it is not just a British phenomenon. Blackstone, the private equity group that owns €120bn worth of European real estate, says there are similar patterns across the continent. On average, rents in European central business districts have grown at more than twice the pace of non-CBDs over the past five years, according to Savills. In Milan, vacancy rates in the central business district were just 2.4 per cent in the first quarter, according to CBRE, compared with 11 per cent for the rest of the city. In Finland, Blackstone-owned Sponda reports a growing number of companies looking to relocate from the outskirts of Helsinki to the centre, a phenomenon that has helped drive prime rents up 14 per cent over the past year. Other investors are taking notice. The few commercial property deals that are getting done in the high interest rate environment are focused on major city centres. There were €26bn worth of office sales, financing or recapitalisations in European central business districts in the 12 months to March, according to MSCI data, up 25 per cent year on year. Outside of central business districts, in contrast, volumes fell 10 per cent to €20bn. Given the lack of new construction and the preponderance of long-term holders in many historic cities, the supply of quality buildings is likely to remain limited. That suggests rents can keep rising, and strengthens the argument that many listed property groups are undervalued. GPE trades at a 30 per cent discount to its book value despite focusing on precisely the sorts of buildings that are seeing the highest demand. Many of its peers around the UK and mainland Europe are trading at similar levels, like Derwent and Helical in the UK, or Covivio in France and Inmobiliaria Colonial in Spain. As workers go hybrid, so should investors — by sticking to those office properties that are best suited to a city-centre revival. An all-in bet on office real estate would be a high-risk move, because not all property companies are going to rebound. But that doesn't mean the whole industry needs a refurb.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cenlar Strengthens Board of Directors with Two Highly Regarded Mortgage Industry Leaders
EWING, N.J., May 12, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cenlar, a leading mortgage loan subservicer, announced today that Uday Devalla and Victoria (Vicki) Kiehl – both widely respected leaders in the mortgage industry – have been appointed members of the Board of Directors. "We are pleased to welcome Uday and Vicki," said David Applegate, Chairman of the Board of Directors. "Uday brings deep-rooted knowledge in leveraging innovative technologies while Vicki has an extensive background in legal, capital markets and home equity lines of credit. They add tremendous value to the company." These new board additions augment other significant talent investments Cenlar has made over the last two years. Uday Devalla Uday Devalla has been a mortgage innovation insider through every major advance in the modern era, from building the mortgage origination industry's first automated underwriting system at Countrywide to modernizing one of the largest nonbank tech platforms during the 2013 – 2019 digital mortgage era that powered Blackstone-owned Stearns as well as top fintech SoFi's mortgage lending. Most recently, Mr. Devalla was the Chief Technology Officer of mortgage servicing software leader Sagent, where he was leading the last mile of mortgage modernization by rewiring the servicing industry with the same consumer-first, bank-on-your-phone experience that people get in every other aspect of their lives. Victoria (Vicki) Kiehl Vicki Kiehl was appointed to the Cenlar Board of Directors in January 2025. She built a successful career at Citigroup Inc., with specific emphasis on the mortgage industry. Prior to retiring, she was general counsel of Citi's U.S. Consumer division including mortgage, retail banking and credit cards. She previously served in general counsel roles for Citi's retail banking and mortgage divisions, the latter during the financial crisis in 2008 and the organization's Consent Orders and settlements. Ms. Kiehl was also responsible for legal support for Citi's mortgage capital markets function, including several large company and portfolio acquisitions, and helped establish its mortgage divisions home equity products. About Cenlar Cenlar is a commercial bank and a leading subservicer, servicing loans in 50 states and its U.S. territories. Cenlar clients include banks, credit unions and mortgage bankers. Our employees, strategically located throughout the United States, are dedicated to customer satisfaction and teamwork that drives client solutions unparalleled in quality, flexibility and innovation. Headquartered in Ewing, NJ, Cenlar is industry rated and audited regularly by independent third parties. For more information, visit us on LinkedIn here: Follow us on Instagram here: View source version on Contacts Adrienne R. Kowalski Vice President of Corporate Communicationsarkowalski@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Wire
12-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Cenlar Strengthens Board of Directors with Two Highly Regarded Mortgage Industry Leaders
EWING, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cenlar, a leading mortgage loan subservicer, announced today that Uday Devalla and Victoria (Vicki) Kiehl – both widely respected leaders in the mortgage industry – have been appointed members of the Board of Directors. 'We are pleased to welcome Uday and Vicki,' said David Applegate, Chairman of the Board of Directors. 'Uday brings deep-rooted knowledge in leveraging innovative technologies while Vicki has an extensive background in legal, capital markets and home equity lines of credit. They add tremendous value to the company.' These new board additions augment other significant talent investments Cenlar has made over the last two years. Uday Devalla Uday Devalla has been a mortgage innovation insider through every major advance in the modern era, from building the mortgage origination industry's first automated underwriting system at Countrywide to modernizing one of the largest nonbank tech platforms during the 2013 – 2019 digital mortgage era that powered Blackstone-owned Stearns as well as top fintech SoFi's mortgage lending. Most recently, Mr. Devalla was the Chief Technology Officer of mortgage servicing software leader Sagent, where he was leading the last mile of mortgage modernization by rewiring the servicing industry with the same consumer-first, bank-on-your-phone experience that people get in every other aspect of their lives. Victoria (Vicki) Kiehl Vicki Kiehl was appointed to the Cenlar Board of Directors in January 2025. She built a successful career at Citigroup Inc., with specific emphasis on the mortgage industry. Prior to retiring, she was general counsel of Citi's U.S. Consumer division including mortgage, retail banking and credit cards. She previously served in general counsel roles for Citi's retail banking and mortgage divisions, the latter during the financial crisis in 2008 and the organization's Consent Orders and settlements. Ms. Kiehl was also responsible for legal support for Citi's mortgage capital markets function, including several large company and portfolio acquisitions, and helped establish its mortgage divisions home equity products. About Cenlar Cenlar is a commercial bank and a leading subservicer, servicing loans in 50 states and its U.S. territories. Cenlar clients include banks, credit unions and mortgage bankers. Our employees, strategically located throughout the United States, are dedicated to customer satisfaction and teamwork that drives client solutions unparalleled in quality, flexibility and innovation. Headquartered in Ewing, NJ, Cenlar is industry rated and audited regularly by independent third parties.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NIMBYism hits US AI infrastructure buildout
The Scene MANASSAS, Va. — At a recent Prince William County meeting in Virginia, 71-year-old Elizabeth Martorana described living in a development area for Amazon, Microsoft, and Google data centers: 'It's like living in hell.' Martorana's retirement community sits within a few miles of more than 20 proposed data center parks under various stages of development, and is adjacent to a proposed AI campus expected to be the largest in the world once operational. Dump trucks crowd the roads, workers level trees, and the skyline is filled with a spaghetti of transmission lines. In the next town over, she said, she's heard the constant humming from the facilities is driving people crazy. Martorana told Semafor the buildout in her area is 'the biggest preventable environmental and humanitarian travesty.' In the high-stakes AI race, tech companies are straining to pay the hundreds of billions in capital expenditures and moving mountains to procure the elusive GPUs required to calculate the largest math equations humanity has ever seen. The biggest hurdle, though, may turn out to be the same obstacle that has long stymied the development of everything from housing to public transportation: the neighbors. Complaints revolve around the annoying noise permeating through nearby homes, schools, and parks. And residents just don't want to look at the brightly lit, endlessly long, gray complexes that power products like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini — and, they say, are erasing the character of their neighborhoods. In cities like Memphis, Tennessee, and Fayetteville, Georgia, local citizens are fighting to stop companies like xAI, Blackstone, and Equinix from breaking ground, potentially hindering the rapid expansion of compute power that companies need to meet AI demand and increase their models' capabilities. These efforts are also colliding with ongoing debates across the country on permitting reform and the NIMBY versus YIMBY battles roiling communities. At the same time, the US is counting on the domestic buildout of data centers to maintain its technological edge against China, which is also racing to expand its AI infrastructure and has fewer regulatory or civic hurdles. Northern Virginia, where Martorana lives, is where much of the US infrastructure buildout is taking place. It has an existing ecosystem for data centers, an AI-supportive governor, a robust fiber optic network, and available land. But some projects are running up against opposition from locals, with some of them suing the county and data center firms — including Blackstone-owned QTS Realty Trust and Compass Datacenters — over the expansion. They are also voting tech sympathizers out of official positions and protesting nearly every new facility during town hall meetings. Locals are hounding companies to make their existing data centers quieter and better hidden. The outcry hasn't sent companies packing, but it has slowed the full-steam-ahead approach big tech has benefited from in recent years. Among the biggest setbacks in the state are the $26 billion QTS and Compass project tied up in court, and a $12 billion campus by Culpeper Acquisitions that has been delayed. Courtesy of Dale Browne The AI companies say they are trying to be good neighbors. They have made improvements to their facilities, donated to community organizations, sponsored local job training programs, and built parks. Amazon alone has pumped $75 billion into Northern Virginia since 2011, adding $24 billion to the state's gross domestic product in that time, according to the company. 'We connect and listen to residents and local leaders by taking their feedback and incorporating that input directly into our development and operational processes to improve our data center community presence,' Kevin Miller, Amazon Web Services' vice president of global data centers, told Semafor. But so far, those actions haven't appeased Martorana or many others. In one case, residents of a Manassas neighborhood called Great Oak complained about the constant buzzing coming from four nearby Amazon data center buildings — and specifically, from the 400 fans across their roofs that cool the servers inside, according to Dale Browne, who led the neighborhood's homeowners association at that time. Amazon replaced the fans in 2023, Browne said, costing roughly $40 million by his calculations. (Amazon wouldn't confirm the details.) 'Our engineers designed and implemented solutions that residents confirm have reduced sound levels, and those reductions have been validated by independent acoustic experts,' Miller said. A map showing data center campuses in Great Oak, Manassas. The updates reduced the tech campus' noise output but created a new problem that has residents grumbling: The changes lowered the pitch of the sound, which now sends picture frames and dishes rattling in nearby homes, Browne said. He and others are now working to change the county's noise ordinance so Amazon is no longer in compliance and must take further action. Great Oak 'was a wonderful place,' said Browne, who has lived in the neighborhood for 31 years. 'It's being destroyed.' Know More In Loudoun County, 45 miles from the nation's capital, operational data centers and those in development span roughly 50 million square feet — about 1,150 acres. Nearby Prince William County, known for its Civil War history and for the Marine base in Quantico, doesn't publicize an official count. Bill Wright, who lives in a neighborhood adjacent to a proposed data center campus, estimates it has 10 million square feet of operational data centers and 90 million more square feet planned based on public property documents. A chart showing the square footage of data center floor space in Loudoun County, Va. Residents who spoke with Semafor, about half of whom are retirees, weren't ideologically opposed to data centers — only the issues they cause when they're placed so close to homes and schools. 'We bought [our home] near farmland, and what was once scenic is now completely surrounded by data centers,' said Ben Keethler, who lives in Ashburn, Virginia. Across Northern Virginia, existing facilities — and sites that have been proposed or approved for construction — border schools, parks, cemeteries, homes, and Manassas National Battlefield Park, where two Civil War battles occurred. A map showing planned and operational data center campuses in Prince William County, Va. Prince William County has a number of campuses in development that shouldn't have been approved, according to Deshundra Jefferson, chair of the county's board of supervisors. 'Data centers had a lot of leeway' under the previous chairperson, she told Semafor. In seven years, the county's board has never rejected a data center application. While those years include Jefferson's administration, she said her board has taken a stricter approach to making sure facilities aren't too close to residential areas. That 'put a stop to a number of bad applications,' she said. 'And now that we're talking about sensible guardrails, a number of them are balking at it.' Ann Wheeler, who preceded Jefferson as chairperson, disputed the 'leeway' and said that if the data centers hadn't been approved, in many locations, townhomes or shopping centers would've been built instead. And the tax revenue brought in by the AI buildout — expected to be $364 million next year — has helped fund schools, social services, a new mental health center, roads, and parks. Data centers also support 74,000 jobs in the state, most of which are in construction. Condos at Village Place Condominiums in Gainesville costing $400,000. Rachyl Jones/Semafor. Power Struggle While the centers' noise and locations are the primary complaints from residents now, tomorrow's concerns revolve around energy. The growing footprint of data centers in Northern Virginia means utility companies must expand capacity to serve them at a cost that will take decades to recover, according to a report by a nonpartisan state advisory agency. While data centers are currently paying their fair share of energy costs, consumers can expect higher bills in the future, the report said — both because of increased energy prices and because they'll be shouldering the expense of building new infrastructure. By 2040, a Virginia household consuming an average amount of energy could pay an extra $400 a year, according to the report. However, Loudoun County, a data center-heavy area, says the revenue from its facilities has helped lower residents' property taxes. As a result, some households may see their tax benefits offset — or even outweigh — their increased energy costs. 'Where we require specific infrastructure to meet our needs (such as new substations), we work to make sure that we're covering those costs and that they aren't being passed on to other ratepayers,' Amazon's Miller said. Dominion Energy, which serves the area, has proposed to regulators raising energy rates for data centers more sharply than residential rates. If approved, large customers — which include data centers — would see an 18.5% price hike by Jan. 2027, compared to residents' 15% increase. The company is also trying to require data centers to sign 14-year agreements to pay for a set amount of power, even if they use less. 'That will protect residential customers from paying for costs that belong to large customers,' spokesperson Aaron Ruby told Semafor. Whether the state can actually build enough energy infrastructure is another question. Meeting even half of the demand spurred by data centers over the next 10 years will be 'difficult,' even with growth in renewable and nuclear power, the state report found. Dominion has a plan to produce 27 gigawatts of new power in the next 15 years — more than double what it generates today, Ruby said. 'It's a realistic and achievable plan, and we're already well on our way,' he said. Step Back Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has prioritized the buildout of data centers in the state. 'We should continue to be the data center capital of the world and make sure Richmond is doing what is necessary to support that goal,' Youngkin said during his State of the Commonwealth address earlier this year. And in Richmond, tech companies and Dominion are among the strongest lobbying forces. A dozen key players have hired 84 lobbyists in the state, 25 of whom work for Dominion, according to The Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), a nonprofit that tracks campaign donations and lobbying efforts. Dominion routinely spends some of the most on lobbying in the state, and two years ago shelled out an unusually high $4 million, more than 10 times the amount of the next-highest spender. Rachyl's view Drive through certain parts of Northern Virginia, and you'll see the data centers are indeed sprawling. I stayed in Virginia for three days to report this story, but I hardly noticed the low buzzing of facilities near me, including from an Amazon data center campus less than a mile away from my hotel. Locals are putting up a good fight — and the concessions they've gotten from tech companies have likely made small but meaningful improvements in their neighborhoods. And efforts like theirs epitomize what has become one of the Democratic Party's central internal fights now, over an 'abundance agenda' that would reshape decades of environmental protections and local power. But between pro-tech Republicans' control of Virginia and the US, a shifting Democratic debate over local autonomy, and the financial power of the world's biggest companies, the anti-data center locals appear to be losing more battles than they're winning. The lobbyists working against community organizations have been a 'David and Goliath struggle,' said Josh Thomas, a delegate representing Gainesville, a town in Prince William County. Energy and tech firms are also shoveling cash at the delegates who will have a say in their futures in Virginia. Since 2021, Dominion has donated $25 million to local campaigns, committees, and PACs, including $6.4 million in the most recent election cycle, according to VPAP. 'It's been a tough environment,' said Jefferson, the Prince William County official. 'There were a number of proposed bills that would have reined in data centers, and they were either rejected or watered down.' Room for Disagreement Resistance appears to be spreading, as national media covers the Virginians' stories and as the anti-data center whisper network grows. Browne said he has been contacted by people around the country — in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, and in Peculiar, Missouri, for example — who are weighing letting data centers expand in their communities and want to hear his experience. In August of last year, at the request of Peculiar locals, Browne posted in a city Facebook group about the noise problems in Great Oak. Two months later, Peculiar council members unanimously blocked a $1.5 billion data center bid by Diode Ventures.
