Page F3From§Eachthe supper edition — 21 September 2026
A home you cannot sell is a home you only think you own.
“The industry buys airtime to tell you the shortage is regulation, and meanwhile 566 apartments at One Wall Street have been sitting on the market since 2021 with 137 sold. That's not a shortage of buildings, that's a shortage of buildings priced for you. And down at the bottom, a guy in Arizona misses $977 in HOA fees and the association ends up with his $475,000 house for $8,172 — while a new California law is set to jack assessments on 14 million people who thought the mortgage was the hard part.”
“Look, the deficit went from 2.5 million to 4.03 million in two years — that is a supply problem, and supply problems get solved by building, not by scolding the people who build. The condo fees? That is a local governance matter, homeowners voting on their own budgets, which is democracy, frankly. Did I say democracy? That doesn't sound like me. The point is nobody forced that gentleman to skip the assessment.”
The receipts
NAR puts the median first-time homebuyer at 40 years old - a record - and first-time buyers at a record-low 21% of the market National Association of Realtors, 2025 Profile
Lots of unsold units remain at One Wall Street — and pied-à-terre tax unlikely to helpAlthough some 566 apartments at Harry Macklowe's building have been on the market since 2021, ACRIS records only 137 completed sales, or just under 25%.
“Essentially going to directly lead to massive assessment increases on 14 million Californians."
The median first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old — a record — with first-time buyers a record-low 21% of the market National Association of Realtors, 2025 Profile
Real estate group launches national campaign as California housing crisis worsensAccording to industry leaders, the national housing supply gap has widened dramatically over the last three years — growing from a deficit of 2.5 million homes in 2023 to 3.8 million in 2024, and reaching 4.03 million homes in 2025.
Rising HOA fees, special assessments and insurance problems are making condos harder to finance and sell, leaving some owners feeling trapped.
· Newsom concedes California’s housing crisis is fair criticism from the morgue, 12 Sep 2026
· Billionaire-Backed Groups Launch Ad Blitz Against California Wealth Tax from the morgue, 25 Aug 2026
· HOA seizes man’s $450K home over $977 debt — and sells it for just $8K from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.