Real-estate marketplace firm Zillow is now offering 1% down payments to entice homebuyers (from Bloomberg on August 24)…

Zillow Group Inc. is offering mortgages with just a 1% down payment as it tries to attract house hunters facing the most-unaffordable market in almost four decades. The 1% down payment program is even lower than Freddie Mac’s best of 3%, with Zillow offering to pay 2% of the down payment at closing, according to

New York City unveils plan to encourage the (extremely costly) conversion of vacant offices into residential housing (from Bloomberg on August 17)…

New York City is rolling out a plan to convert vacant offices into as many as 20,000 new housing units by creating a multi-agency group to help developers cut through red tape and rezoning a section of Manhattan known as Midtown South. The moves come after Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul’s quest for