Month: August 2020

Photo illustration of Mayor Carlos Gimenez (Getty, iStock) Restaurant dining rooms in Miami-Dade County can reopen beginning on Monday, more than a month after restaurants were ordered to close indoor seating due to spiking coronavirus cases. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said restaurants will be able to operate at 50 percent capacity indoors, as long as…

Attorney General Letitia James and President Donald Trump. Background from left: the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, Seven Springs Estate in Westchester County and 40 Wall Street in New York City (Photos via Getty; C R and Yuki Shimazu via Flickr; Wikipedia Commons) New documents reveal…

(iStock) Discrimination against Black homeowners in appraisals has been laid bare thanks to one Florida woman’s viral social media post. Abena Horton suspected something was wrong when the appraisal of her four-bedroom home in a white Jacksonville neighborhood came in surprisingly low, the New York Times reported. Horton, who is Black, removed all traces of…

California State Senator Scott Wiener and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins State lawmakers are considering a bill to end restrictive single-family zoning statewide, another measure aimed at addressing California’s mounting housing crunch. Senate Bill 1120 would allow a property owner to convert a single-family home into a duplex or demolish it entirely to build…

Real estate websites are facing that question when it comes to disclosing a property’s flood risk. (iStock) In the debate over flood risk for home buyers, real estate websites are choosing sides. Realtor.com has become the first site to disclose public and private data about flood risk for every home listing, but its competitors are…

Stuart Miller, Ken Griffin and 11 and 12 Star Island Drive (Credit: Google Maps) A company tied to billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin paid $37 million for a double-lot on Miami Beach’s Star Island, where a number of multimillion-dollar sales have closed in recent months. Stuart Miller, executive chairman of Lennar Corp., sold the…

Jose Huizar (Credit: Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) A lobbyist for Carmel Partners pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery in the massive pay-to-play scandal involving Los Angeles City Council member Jose Huizar. According to Tuesday’s plea deal, Morris Goldman said he helped save Carmel millions of dollars…

Donald Trump and Opportunity Zones across the U.S. (Getty, Enterprise Community Partners) President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to push federal agencies to move into Opportunity Zones as he continues to promote the program as a key part of his re-election campaign. The president’s order will direct some federal agencies such as the…

Clockwise from left: Costco, Walmart, Target and Home Depot (Getty Images) Despite fears of decreased spending amid the pandemic, big-box stores — plus Amazon — raked in the cash last quarter. Walmart, Amazon, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Costco accounted for 29.1 percent of all U.S. retail sales in the second quarter, up from 25.6…

Retail landlords such as  Dan Gilbert are offering their tenants additional concessions to keep them on the rent roll (Getty, iStock) Some retail landlords are offering additional concessions to tenants in case the government mandates another Covid-related shutdown. Landlords are including language in new leases that allows retail tenants to defer part of their rent…