Federal government charges Facebook with housing discrimination for allegedly allowing landlords and real estate brokers to shield who can see certain housing ads, reports NPR. Banks begin to be cautious financing WeWork-leased
buildings, according to Fortune. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.
- Housing Department Slaps Facebook with Discrimination Charge "The Department of Housing and Urban Development is suing social media giant Facebook for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act." (NPR)
- Amid its Breakneck Expansion, WeWork Finds that Banks Need More Convincing "The owner of a London office building negotiated a lease with a company that wanted all eight floors. To his surprise, his bankers at ING Groep NV shot it down." (Fortune)
- Foot Locker Plans to Stay at the Center of Sneaker Culture"Foot Locker, the largest U.S. specialty athletic-shoe retailer, no longer wants you to think of it just as a sneaker shop. Instead, try identifying it as a place for “youth culture empowerment.”" (Forbes)
- Self-Storage Rents Show Signs of Improvement "Although self storage rents slid in 2018, street-rate rents showed signs of improvement in February. Despite a 0.9 percent decline year-over-year for 10×10 non-climate-controlled units, the slide of street-rate rents actually slowed down by 80 basis points compared to the previous month’s rent rate decrease of 1.7 percent." (Commercial Property Executive)
- New Home Sales Rise to 11-Month High in February "Sales of new U.S. single-family homes increased to an 11-month high in February and sales for January were revised higher, suggesting that lower mortgage rates were starting to lift the struggling housing market." (CNBC)
- Former Goldman Partner Scaturro Joins Rush for Opportunity Zones "Former Goldman Sachs partner Peter Scaturro and real estate developer Lightstone Group are joining the rush into “opportunity zones” – designated areas that allow investors to claim tax breaks for putting money to work in low-income neighborhoods." (Bloomberg)
- U.S. Consumer Spending Misses Forecasts as Inflation Eases "U.S. consumer spending in January was short of projections while inflation eased, an early read on the economy in the first quarter that may add to concerns about the outlook." (Bloomberg)
- Consumer Sentiment Improves for Second Straight Month "The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index improved to a reading of 98.4 in March from 93.8 in the prior month. That was better than the mid-March reading of 97.8." (MarketWatch)
- 2019 First Quarter Restores Equilibrium in New York City Real Estate Market "New York city’s real estate market woke up during the first quarter of 2019. After an extremely slow fourth quarter at the end of last year, and after years of both price and transaction volume decline, we felt the stirrings of a waking market in the past two months." (Forbes)
- Barneys Is Downsizing its Signature Madison Avenue Store: Sources "Barneys New York is looking to reduce its Manhattan footprint in a move that could shrink its flagship store by more than half, The Post has learned." (New York Post)
