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The Biden administration today plans to announce steps aimed at addressing the U.S. shortage of entry-level homes, including expanding federally backed financing for affordable housing and directing grants toward localities that encourage construction, the Wall Street Journal reported. Each regulatory move is technical and modest, though the administration hopes they will collectively dent the estimated shortage of millions of homes over the coming years. “While the policies cover a wide range of issues and agencies, most are intended to do one thing: Make it easier and more economical to build affordable housing,” said Jim Parrott, a former Obama administration housing adviser, who had reviewed the proposal. “The total effect should be considerable.” The changes include encouraging greater land-use improvements at the local level by favoring jurisdictions that promote “density and rural main street revitalization” for funding from last year’s infrastructure bill, according to a fact sheet distributed by the White House. Two government agencies, the Federal Housing Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, will explore test pilots to boost financing for tiny homes to increase housing supply. In another move to encourage construction, government-controlled mortgage company Fannie Mae will consider purchasing loans made to builders prior to construction of multifamily housing. At present, Fannie generally only buys mortgages for homes already built and certified for occupancy, which is too late for smaller builders that lack access to affordable financing.

The mortgage refinancing boom is winding down and household debt levels are creeping up as consumers edge past the worst of the pandemic’s economic shock, the New York Times reported. Mortgage originations dropped sharply in the first quarter of 2022 compared with their 2021 peak, according to a quarterly report on household debt that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Tuesday. Last year’s spike was fueled by refinancings from homeowners chasing exceptionally low rates; as rates have risen, demand has cooled. But the overall amount of mortgage debt for new purchases is generally rising, with soaring home prices forcing buyers to borrow more for their homes.

The best-laid plans for a full-time return to the office remain bedeviled by COVID-19 case rates and a workforce reluctant to go back to their commutes, according to data published this week by the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group, the New York Times reported. Just 8 percent of Manhattan office workers are back in the office five days a week, and 28 percent are still fully remote, according to the group’s new survey of more than 160 major employers in New York. On the average weekday, 38 percent of Manhattan office workers are in the office, a figure that employers expect will rise to 49 percent by September. In the group’s January survey, many employers said they thought daily attendance would exceed 50 percent by April. The new survey’s most significant finding, according to the partnership’s president, Kathryn Wylde, is that 78 percent of workplaces have adopted a hybrid model, allowing a mix of remote and in-person work. That’s a leap from 6 percent before the pandemic. Many companies realize that their push to bring workers back to the office is colliding with summer restlessness: 30 percent of those surveyed are offering additional flexibility for the coming months, like summer Fridays or the option to work fully remote in August. And then there are those trying to make the office more enticing. Nearly two-thirds are offering workers incentives to return to the office, including 43 percent that are giving free or discounted meals.

Disbarred lawyer Mitchell Kossoff — who represented many multifamily landlords in New York City — was sentenced to up to 13.5 years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to bilking his clients out of more than $14.6 million, Commercial Observer reported. A judge sentenced Kossoff to between 4 and 1/2 to 13 and 1/2 years in prison on Friday morning for three counts of grand larceny and one count of scheme to defraud after he used funds stolen from his clients’ escrow accounts to fund his lifestyle expenses, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. In addition to his prison sentence, Kossoff will be required to pay back the $14.6 million and surrender a condominium in Highlands, N.J.

A beachfront home in Southampton, New York, appraised at $63 million — half of an estate marketed as “La Dune” — recently landed in bankruptcy court just days before a foreclosure auction, court papers show, Bloomberg News reported. The house at 366 Gin Lane is wrapped up in foreclosure proceedings stemming from an unpaid $26 million mortgage that has ballooned to about $40 million since 2019, according to Suffolk County Court records. The house is adjacent to another, larger waterfront mansion that is also in default. Both homes are controlled by once-ascendant art publisher and philanthropist Louise Blouin, bankruptcy court papers show. The entire compound was listed for sale at $140 million as recently as January 2020, according to real estate website Out East. The smaller home brought in $750,000 of rental income in 2021 and $250,000 in 2020, bankruptcy papers show. The estate boasts 22,000 square feet (2,044 square meters) of interior between the two homes and is situated on 4.2 acres that includes 400 feet of bulkhead beachfront, according to a listing from Sotheby’s International Realty. Buyers could also enjoy two custom gunite pools and an all-weather tennis court. The smaller home was set to be auctioned on May 2 to repay the mortgage. Blouin signed off on the property’s bankruptcy filing on Saturday, just two days before the scheduled auction. Bankruptcy filings typically halt lender efforts to collect on unpaid debts.

The World Class-controlled company that owns the Offices at Braker filed for chapter 11 protection on May 2, just days after a subsidiary of Karlin Real Estate scooped up the senior mortgage loan tied to the properties, the Austin Business Journal reported. The properties, owned by Nate Paul's World Class Holdings through an entity called WC Braker Portfolio LLC, are part of the sprawling North Austin office park near the intersection of Metric Boulevard and West Braker Lane in North Austin. Karlin's involvement adds an additional layer of intrigue, as the Los Angeles-based development firm has feuded in the past with World Class and is increasingly invested in the Texas capital. The WC Braker portfolio consists of nearly 45 acres valued for tax purposes at roughly $163 million, according to Travis Central Appraisal District records. It includes 13 single-story office buildings comprising 546,823 rentable square feet, according to court documents recently filed in New York. The true value of the properties could far exceed the taxable value. Legal disputes have been fought over the Braker portfolio since at least 2019. World Class is an Austin-based real estate investment firm that owns prominent development sites across the city. The embattled firm has faced a series of lawsuits, bankruptcies and foreclosures in the wake of a 2019 raid of its headquarters by federal investigators. No charges have resulted from the raid.

Creditors of bankrupt Sears Holdings Corp. have run out of money to continue litigating billion-dollar claims against former chairman Eddie Lampert and a host of other defendants who they say stripped the company of valuable brands and real estate assets as the retailer spiraled into insolvency, Reuters reported. The Sears bankruptcy plan called for the estate to set aside $25 million to pursue the claims, but that money is gone, along with another $7.1 million owed to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, lead counsel for the liquidating trust. Billions in claims and no money to litigate? That’s what litigation finance is for, according to an April 21 motion by the Sears creditors committee. The motion asks U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Drain of White Plains, New York, to approve an agreement between Sears, the creditors’ committee and the litigation funder Bench Walk Advisors LLC for up to $35 million in financing to continue prosecuting two adversarial proceedings, one against Lampert and his alleged allies, the other against 139 former Sears shareholders. The deal would put Bench Walk first in line to collect from any recovery from the cases but limits the litigation funder’s initial entitlement to its principal plus 15% annualized interest. Bench Walk will only receive additional returns on its investment if the recovery is enough to pay off administrative, priority and secured claims against the Sears estate.

More New York apartment renters are declining to renew leases as they’re being presented with post-pandemic rate increases, landlord Equity Residential said, Bloomberg News reported. Deal-seekers are “choosing to move out versus paying the higher current price,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Parrell said Wednesday on the real estate investment trust’s first quarter earnings call. “But not a concern since we are easily able to attract new residents at these higher rates.” The current renewal rate at the company’s buildings in the New York area is around 60%, down five percentage points from the beginning of the year, Parrell said. The drop comes as tenants who secured deep discounts during the pandemic leasing lull face the dilemma of paying more to renew or hunting for a cheaper place in a competitive market. Across Manhattan, the first-quarter vacancy rate was below 2%, and rents were up 25% from early 2021, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate.