Data shows that from 1996-2021, the Hudson Valley region lost a net total of 146,763 people to out migration, which calculates out to 5% of the Hudson Valley’s population.
Elected officials, seeking to appease vocal constituents, frequently uphold restrictive zoning laws that favor single-family residences over more diverse housing options.
In 2023, the Rockland County Office of Consumer Protection investigated 617 complaints and returned $66,000 to homeowners.
Realtors won a victory at the federal level when the Supreme Court struck down a CDC eviction moratorium by a 6-3 margin reasoning that the CDC exceeded its authority to issue the moratorium absent Congressional legislation. Forty-two billion dollars in rental assistance was passed by Congress in March. To date, nationally, only $11 billion has been spent. This appears to be due to the inability of states to distribute the funds as most had no process in place to do so.
In New York State, the eviction moratorium has been repeatedly extended and recently was further extended until Jan. 15, 2022 after Gov. Kathy Hochul called for a special session of the state legislature. Very little of the rental aid has reached the landlords. The site has been riddled with errors and has been virtually impossible to navigate and the tenant has to apply on behalf of the landlord which, generally speaking, tenants have been unmotivated to do.
The other federal legislative issue that Congress must act on is the federal debt ceiling (the amount of money the government can spend without Congressional action). The debt limit must be either raised or suspended every year or so. If Congress fails to act it would lead to a credit down grade, default on government obligations (e.g. Social Security payments) and roiling of financial markets.
The other two bills that may or may not pass are the social infrastructure bill, which would cost about $3.5 trillion and the bipartisan infrastructure deal which does not raise taxes. The bigger bill has not been paid for as yet. The bipartisan bill would use unspent coronavirus funds and require an additional $550 billion over what the government planned to spend on infrastructure over the next eight years.
Stay tuned for updates on these issues.
A significant portion of our end-of-session efforts was focused on opposing legislative proposals that would have negatively impacted New York’s real estate sector.
It is important for an attorney to inform the seller the Property Condition Disclosure Statement does not require a seller to make any independent investigations relating to the subject matter contained in each of the questions contained therein.
NAR had several topics it wanted HGAR and the rest of the Realtor community on the Hill that day to hammer home.
This dispute could have far-reaching implications beyond the real estate industry, as the split-decision ruling from the Circuit Court conflicts with the existing precedent of both the D.C. Circuit Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
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