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@ISIDEWITH submitted…2mos2MO
It takes more money than ever to buy a home in America right now. And nearly a third of home buyers navigating the high mortgage rates, rising home prices and low inventory are somehow buying their homes entirely in cash.The share of home buyers paying all cash reached 33 percent through August this year, according to data from Redfin — one of the highest rates since the years following the Great Recession.As cash purchases have become more common, the median age of home buyers has been ticking up and now stands at 56 years old, according to NAR’s data from July 2023 to this June. Even for first-time buyers, the median age has risen to 38 compared to 35 last year.Many of the all-cash buyers are selling previously owned homes to fund their moves. But the rise of cash buys is making it even harder for first-time home buyers. Between July 2023 and June 2024, the share of first-time home buyers in the market was only 24 percent — a historic low.“If it’s a multiple offer situation, it’s likely going to be hard to beat an all-cash offer,” said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. Cash offers often move quicker and are seen as less risky for the sellers.And the struggle to break into the housing market may not ease anytime soon — property experts surveyed by Reuters expect affordability to get worse for first-time buyers over the next year.
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…3mos3MO
TOM COTTON is slated to be the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, putting “I think mass deportation is just talk, but the era of open borders will be over,” Scott McConnell, a co-founder of The American Conservative, wrote on X. In July a Mexican-born Trump backer told The Times, “Last time, he didn’t even finish the wall. What’s he going to do this time?”Now the answer is taking shape: He’s going to oversee a militarized mass roundup of the undocumented. On Sunday, Trump named Tom Homan, his former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as “border czar.”In a speech to this year’s National Conservatism Conference, Homan, who oversaw Trump’s family separation policy, promised a “historic deportation operation” from which no undocumented immigrant would be safe. “No one’s off the table in the next administration,” he said. “If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.”Then, on Monday, Trump named the obsessively anti-immigrant Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff. Miller’s portfolio, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported in The Times, “is expected to be vast and to far exceed what the eventual title will convey.” Miller has been forthright about his desire to purge immigrants here illegally, as well as many here legally, from the United States.Among other things, Miller has said that Trump would cancel the temporary protected status of thousands of Afghans who fled here after the Taliban’s takeover and take another stab at ending DACA, the program that protects from deportation some immigrants brought to the United States as children.Most significantly, he’s laid out plans to use National Guard troops to help arrest migrants en masse, warehousing them in military camps while they await deportation. No one should be shocked when this happens. I suspect some will be anyway.
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…3wks3W
President-elect Trump is preparing to invite the entire Senate Republican conference to Mar-a-Lago for a mega-MAGA party in the coming weeks, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.Trump is keen to celebrate a victory he sees as historic and fete the senators who helped him achieve it. He also wants to build trust with the lawmakers he needs to pass his sweeping legislative agenda."Mar-a-Lago is special to the president. He's at ease there. Everyone is," a Trump adviser told Axios."So it's a good place to get everyone together outside of Washington. It's team bonding. Trump is very much the player-coach."Final details have not been locked down, but the big bash could come before Trump's inauguration.It will serve as an informal and more fun follow-up to his meeting Wednesday evening with GOP senators at their weekly policy get-together.Trump is also hosting governors at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night, Politico reported.Also this week, Trump will welcome three House groups to his Florida club. There'll be separate meetings scheduled for the Freedom Caucus, committee chairs and the so-called SALT lawmakers from high-tax blue states.Zoom out: Trump likes to play the role of DJ at his Palm Beach club, but the background music will likely be dominated by the same talk that has consumed D.C. these last few weeks.Republicans are in a heated internal conversation on whether to use one — or two — legislative vehicles to implement Trump's immigration and tax reform policies.Trump isn't entirely indifferent, but he's indicated he can live with either approach."I like one, big, beautiful bill," Trump said at a press conference on Tuesday. "But if two is more certain, it does go a little bit quicker because you can do the immigration stuff early.""I can live either way," he added.Zoom in: This winter, Mar-a-Lago has been the warm-weather retreat for Trump's court — once in exile, but now preparing to return to power. (Mar-a-Lago was dubbed the "Winter White House" long before Trump bought it).Government leaders and high-profile executives have all visited Trump in Palm Beach, both to pay their respects, but also to understand Trump's intentions and shape his views.
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…21hrs21H
Proposal by Trump: U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that Egypt and Jordan should absorb most of Gaza's population to "clean out" the territory. He mentioned discussing this with Jordan’s King Abdullah and planning to talk with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.Implications: This proposal contrasts sharply with the long-standing U.S. policy advocating for a two-state solution. Trump's idea involves moving approximately 1.5 million people from Gaza, which he described as largely destroyed due to ongoing conflict.Reaction: Egypt and Jordan: Both countries have rejected this idea previously, citing concerns over the "liquidation of the Palestinian cause" and potential threats to their peace agreements with Israel.Hamas: Vehemently opposed, stating that Palestinians reject any displacement from their land.Arab Public Opinion: The suggestion could be seen as a second "Nakba", leading to significant outrage due to historical precedents where displaced Palestinians were not allowed to return.Expert Analysis: H.A. Hellyer from the Center for American Progress highlighted the destabilizing effects this could have, particularly for Jordan with its already significant Palestinian population, and Egypt, potentially leading to conflict if Palestinians were relocated to Sinai. He also noted the negative impact on normalization efforts between Israel and Saudi Arabia.Israeli Right-Wing Response: Leaders like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir praised the proposal, seeing it as innovative thinking for peace and security.Current Conflict Context: The proposal comes amidst a strained ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with issues around the release of hostages and the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza. Additionally, tensions are high with Lebanon where Israel has not withdrawn its forces as per agreement, leading to civilian casualties.Military Aid: Trump confirmed the release of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, reversing a previous hold by the Biden administration.This proposal, if pursued, could lead to significant regional instability and would likely face international condemnation due to its resemblance to ethnic cleansing.
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…4 days4D
Then there’s the Democrats’ own struggles, including the lack of a clear message or messenger to deliver it, according to interviews with dozens of lawmakers, campaign operatives and senior aides.“It’s not like everybody has surrendered,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, describing his party as being in a holding pattern as they engage in “cerebral” questions over the lessons learned from Trump victory.“People are sitting around in circles quietly talking about what the strategy ought to be,” he said. “Are there changes that we need to make? Do we hold Trump accountable on everything that we don’t like that he does? Or should we be selective?”As that messaging debate continues, Democrats are also grappling with how to play in a social media landscape they feel like they’ve fallen behind on.In a private Senate Democratic luncheon last week, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey led colleagues through the shifting dynamics of a media echo chamber that conservatives are thriving in. Democrats scoured examples of how conspiracy theories like one about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, spread rapidly in the conservative media sphere and how Democrats needed to try to harness their own tools to get their messages out better.One of the bright spots Democrats highlighted, according to a source familiar, was a viral video from the pandemic of Warner making a tuna melt in his kitchen that led to the lawmaker being cheered and jeered by people who questioned his culinary leanings.“The communications ecosystem has changed profoundly in ways that most people in their 60s and 70s don’t grasp,” one Democratic senator said of the message of the presentation.Senators talked about the need to repost each other’s social media posts to try and organically get their message out. But they also argued they can’t abandon traditional media altogether.At one point, a Democrat in the meeting asked if their party had their version of conservative influencers, according to a person who attended. Booker responded that the party didn’t have one.“They have a permanent information ecosystem. We don’t,” Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said following the lunch. “They define us and we don’t get to define them. No matter how good our messaging is here, it doesn’t get reflected, reverberated and amplified like theirs does.”
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…34mins34m
A Chinese official, Mao Ning, has refuted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) suggestion that the Covid-19 virus might have originated from a lab leak. Mao reiterated that a joint investigation by China and WHO concluded that a lab leak was "extremely unlikely," a view she claims is widely…
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