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
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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
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