Free Republic

The Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed its ambition: to phase out gas-powered cars in favor of electric vehicles (EVs). Incredibly, this announcement comes as we are flooded with overwhelming evidence that EVs are a market loser. Indeed, the artificial boom and then meltdown of the EV market is a modern industrial calamity. It was created by government, social media, wild disease frenzy, far-flung thinking, and the irrational chasing of utopia, followed by a rude awakening by facts and reality. CEO of Hertz Stephen Scherr has been booted out due to a vast purchase of an EV fleet...

Dear Big Move, I’m struggling with the idea of selling a rental property that has both a high monthly maintenance fee and a high mortgage rate. The costs to keep this house are currently higher than the monthly income it generates. I recently refinanced in order to pull out $100,000, so now I owe $420,000 on the property, which is worth approximately $750,000. My recent refinancing increased my mortgage rate from 5.14% to 7.9%, essentially eating up all my cash flow. I’m on the fence. Should I sell, or should I refinance for a better rate to free up cash...

San Francisco's residential property market has hit troubled waters as a major investor landlord announced the sell-off of a large section of its rental empire this week. Landlord Mosser Companies defaulted on a 2018 loan for $88 million that was underwritten by its 459 rental units across 12 buildings in San Francisco. The company's creditor has now hired real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield to sell the multifamily home properties, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Freepers are the best and I need some information. My daughter has scored a big corporate promotion and isn't happy with the corporate agent assigned to help her and her family find a place to live/rent in SW Montgomery County, Maryland. There are websites that measure crime and most of them correlate quite well with voting patterns, which are easy to research. i.e. high concentration of Democrat voters = high crime.But as you know, Maryland is almost all blue, especially this part. Even if outside the target area by a little, we would appreciate guidance to where should be avoided...

Democrat Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has diverted rental assistance funding for struggling citizens and is using it to house illegal aliens. The Illinois Rental Payment Program was set up to allocate up to $25,000 a year to individuals struggling to pay for their housing. In 2022, the Pritzker administration proudly noted that one billion dollars in state taxes had been pumped into the program to help people still struggling after the coronavirus pandemic. When asked this month about his plans to pay for the increasing costs of housing caused by the illegal aliens pouring into the state thanks to President...

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/02/21/how-wall-street-bought-single-family-homes-and-put-them-up-for-rent.html KEY POINTS • Corporations backed by private equity groups such as Blackstone and Pretium Partners bought tens of thousands of homes across the U.S. Sun Belt. • Prices for detached homes have increased faster in key Sun Belt states than the national average. • Institutional investors do not yet control a large market share in housing, but analysts writing at MetLife Investment Management suggest they could by 2030. Institutional investors may control 40% of U.S. single-family rental homes by 2030, according to MetLife Investment Management. And a group of Washington, D.C., lawmakers say Wall Street needs to back...

I own a second home in Pagosa Springs, CO. A couple years ago the HOA for Pagosa Lakes went full dictator and declared war on short term rentals in Pagosa Lakes. We home owners were not able to vote on this; they simply declared it with minimal input from the owners. When I sent a scathing letter that included the “damn” word I was informed of another policy they enacted without input. If they don’t like your correspondence you are subject to a $500 fine for the first offense, $10,000 for the second and $20,000 for the third. Gee, what...

To own a vessel that’s worth more than $1 million would be a luxury for most of us, but in the case of a billionaire, this is just one of the tenders that come with the mothership, a fabulous superyacht. With the owner’s connection to the real estate market, it’s no surprise that this opulent pleasure craft feels like a true top-level resort on water. At just 45, Rene Benko is one of the richest men in Austria, with an estimated fortune of almost $5 billion. He founded the company that would become a real estate empire at age 22,...

I am considering renting a Chevrolet Tahoe for a vacation trip soon. Enterprise says No Towing allowed. I want to tow a 5x8 Enclosed Trailer from UHaul. I need the passenger space of the Tahoe. Questions?? Do Enterprise Tahoe vehicles have a 2x2 receiver and a 4 wire Flat lighting outlet? What are the likely consequences if I tow without Enterprise blessing?

A young man with his pants hanging half off his ass, two gold front teeth, and a half inch thick gold chain around his neck; walked into the local welfare office to pick up his check. He marched up to the counter and said, "Hi. You know, I just hate drawing welfare. I'd really rather have a job. I don't like taking advantage of the system, getting something for nothing." The social worker behind the counter said "Your timing is excellent. We Just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a chauffeur and bodyguard for...

Black and Hispanic Americans are paying extra money to secure rental housing in the U.S. compared with Whites, according to Zillow. In a report this week, the real estate data firm said that, regardless of race, Americans paid an average of $700 in security deposits when renting an apartment. Yet renters of color paid $750 while White renters paid $600. White renters typically paid $50 for a rental application fee while Black Americans paid $65; Hispanic applicants paid $80 and Asian Americans paid $10. People of color also typically must submit more rental applications in order to find a place...

Rents have exploded across the country, causing many to dig deep into their savings, downsize to subpar units or fall behind on payments and risk eviction now that a federal moratorium has ended. In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a Realtor.com analysis of properties with two or fewer bedrooms. And nowhere was the jump bigger than in the Miami metro area, where the median rent exploded to $2,850, 49.8% higher than the previous year. Other cities across Florida — Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville — and...

Democrats worry poor messaging will cost seats in midterms; reaction from ‘The Five.’

A judge in Ohio has announced that the county court will not be complying with the CDC’s eviction moratorium. On Thursday Franklin County Municipal Court Administrative and Presiding Judge Ted Barrows announced that the court is not obligated to abide by the moratorium, per an appeals-court decision last month.On July 23, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the CDC overstepped its bounds when it issued a moratorium last year to help curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.Based on that ruling, the Franklin County court release said, courts in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan are no longer bound...

The president knows what he ordered the CDC to do is illegal. He did it anyway to appease the left wing of his party.An astonishing thing happened this week in Washington that didn’t get much critical coverage from a media establishment loath to criticize President Biden. At the behest of congressional Democrats, Biden flouted the Constitution and broke his oath of office by issuing a ban on evictions that he and his advisers know to be illegal.By “ban on evictions” I mean the president issued a blatantly unconstitutional decree that renters all across America don’t have to pay rent. If...

Turning America from a nation of home owners into a nation of renters.

It’s going to be a scorcher of a summer when it comes to car rental prices, The Post has learned. The average daily cost to rent a car in the US jumped to a record $63.75 last month — with prices as much as 50 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels at some major brands — as the nation’s economy revved back to life, according to data collected by Jefferies, a New York investment bank. What’s more, demand is getting so hot — with fees for August already trending above $100 a day — that many vacationers can expect to pay...

A former Oklahoma resident got married and while trying to change her last name on her Texas driver’s license, found out she was a wanted woman in her old state. “I went to change my driver’s license, during this COVID thing you had to make an appointment, and so, I sent them an email (and) they sent me an email and they told me… that I had an issue in Oklahoma and this was the reference number for me to call this number and I did,” Caron McBride told the local Norman, Oklahoma Fox station. McBride was bowled over when...

So a friend sent this video today after he inspected a rental house following the termination of a rental agreement for non payment. These were items left behind. Back story is I painted the exterior over the summer. The tenants were Muslims. Very weird acting people when I interacted with them. You know, that gut feeling you have for some people.

Last year, Eric Trump was asked about Secret Service protection at Trump Organization properties. “If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free,” he said. “So everywhere that he goes, if he stays at one of his places, the government actually spends, meaning it saves a fortune because if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they’d be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know we charge them, like $50.” You will be stunned to learn this is not remotely true. Instead, as the indefatigable David Fahrenthold and three colleagues at The Washington Post...