Monday Morning Cup of Coffee takes a look at news coming across HousingWire’s weekend desk, with more coverage to come on larger issues.
The deadline officially closed on applications to be the home of Amazon’s second headquarters. The winning location can expect Amazon's new presence to change the city forever, by bringing in up to 50,000 jobs.
With 238 city proposals submitted, the massive online shopping company has a lot to choose from.
According to an article in CNBC by Todd Haselton, Amazon received 238 proposals from cities and regions in 54 states, provinces, districts and territories around North America who want to host the company's second headquarters.
From CNBC:
Bids for the new headquarters were due to Amazon on Thursday, Oct. 19. Cities big and small, from Newark, NJ to Boston, MA are trying to woo Amazon and the more than $5 billion it plans to spend on its second headquarters.
The move from Amazon has spurred a lot of debate though on whether it would be good or bad for the city it chooses.
On the positive side, the new headquarters is projected to create up to 50,000 new jobs, that article in CNNMoney stated.
The rest of the impact varies a lot on which city the company chooses.
From the article:
While the project will bring high-paying jobs, it won't hit all places with equal force. In smaller cities where housing is more limited, home prices could rise. Meanwhile, big cities like New York that already employ a lot of white collar workers aren't likely to see a major economic transformation — they'll just get richer.
The city that scores the second headquarters can expect housing prices, along with other costs of living, to increase.
New research from Apartment List, a site that catalogs apartment rentals across the country, forecasts an annual rent increase of up to 2% per year in the city that houses HQ2. That's on top of organic price increases that already occur from year to year.
Keep in mind though home prices have already been steadily rising across the nation due a combination of factors.
Pinpointing just a couple of the cities in the running, Denver home prices increased 7.2% year-over-year in September, and Dallas home prices increased 7.3% year-over-year in September.
Halloween is this week, but some companies, including HousingWire as seen in the post below, have already celebrated at the office.
While mortgages may not sound “cool” to everyone, here is one funny Halloween story that comes from the mortgage industry.
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney was speaking about the latest tax reform efforts at a private business roundtable with around 40 business leaders at Movement Mortgage in Fort Mill, South Carolina on Friday, an article by David Thackham in The Herald stated.
But as he was speaking, Mulvaney found himself distracted by two Tyrannosaurus rexes in the building.
Turns out, Mulvaney was visiting the office at the same time as the company’s annual Halloween festivities and costume contest.
“Mulvaney joked that it was one of the more distracting backgrounds he’s spoken near,” the article stated.
To watch the whole comical situation happen, check out the video here.
On a more serious note on the proposed tax reform efforts, Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders and a homebuilder and developer from Kerrville, Texas, said on the tax plan from the Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee, “Lawmakers missed a golden opportunity to give the American people a tax reform package that would boost middle-class families and promote greater housing opportunity for Americans across the economic spectrum.”
"This plan is particularly disappointing, given that the nation's home builders warned that the proposal would severely diminish the effectiveness of the mortgage interest deduction and presented alternative policies that would retain an effective housing tax incentive in the tax code,” said MacDonald.
Associate Attorney General Tony West, who led the U.S. Department of Justice’s task force on toxic mortgages, has landed a job at Uber Technologies Inc., according to an article in Reuters by Heather Somerville.
Back in 2014, West announced he was leaving the DOJ to join the private sector.
West was the third in command at the DOJ, behind Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole. In his role, he headed the DOJ’s residential mortgage-backed security task force that secured massive settlements with Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and others over the banks’ toxic mortgage lending practices that led to the collapse of the housing economy.
Now, according to the article in Reuters, Uber Technologies hired West as its new chief legal officer to guide the company through its many legal quandaries, filling one of the crucial vacancies in its leadership.
From the article:
Tony West will join Uber next month from PepsiCo Inc, where as general counsel he led a team of lawyers across more than 200 countries. He was also a former federal prosecutor and senior official in the U.S. Department of Justice under former President Barack Obama.
On things to keep watch for this week, President Donald Trump is slated to announce who the next Federal Reserve Chair will be.
Trump revealed in an Instagram video that he will be announcing the news “sometime next week.” The full video is below.
In the video he said that it will be a person who will hopefully do a fantastic job.
“I have someone very specific in mind. I think everyone will be very impressed,” he said.
Most recently, Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to discuss his potential nomination as the next Fed chairman.
However, the list is longer than only his name.
Readers can also keep watch for Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s financial reports this week, along with the latest jobs numbers on Friday.
For now, hope you have a great start to your week and keep watch for any roaming Tyrannosaurus rexes.
