Subscribe to ‘Housing Notes’ to receive Jonathan Miller’s insights and research.

A Narrative of The Housing Economy

The MRED PLN Is Different Than Compass Exclusives

Time to read [8 minutes] Takeways MRED’s Private Listing Network gives all member agents internal access, keeping listings hidden from public consumer sites that still promotes transparent price discovery but limits referral fees.​ Compass restricts listing access exclusively to its own agents, raising anticompetitive risks and reducing transparency for buyers in its dominant markets.​ Industry...

The NYC Higher End Is Where The Sales Are: Chart Edition

Time to read [4 minutes] Takeways Higherpriced NYC boroughs saw meaningful increases in sales, while the three lowerpriced boroughs recorded fewer sales, reflecting greater interestrate sensitivity for lowerpriced buyers.​ Manhattan has not set new price records and its prices have moved sideways for nearly a decade.​ Listing inventory has been generally flat or falling since the pandemic, unlike...

‘Stop Buying Lattes’ As The Path To Homeownership And Other Myths

Time to read [7 minutes] Takeways Homeownership hurdles are far higher for Millennials and Gen Z than for prior generations: Housing prices have outpaced wage growth, raising the average age of firsttime buyers and making small expense cuts (like skipping lattes) largely irrelevant to the broader affordability crisis. Popular solutions like 50year mortgages aren’t effective...

The NAR Membership Collapse Is Only Beginning

Time to read [5 minutes] Takeways NAR’s plan uses zerobased budgeting and sharp compliance to rebuild trust after scandals​ The strategy assumes 1.2M members, down sharply from the 2022 peak, reflecting continued erosion from lawsuits and leadership crises​ Ongoing membership declines risk NAR’s influence and threaten key industry research if the drop accelerates​ I was reading a piece in Real...

NYC Rentals Continued To Tax Affordability But 4 Exciting Housing Initiatives Were Just Passed

Time to read [6 minutes] Takeways NYC’s October rental market remained extremely strong, with rents and bidding wars intensifying just before the mayoral election, defying headlines about a city “exodus” and outpacing the decade’s thirdquarter sales average by 4.3%. In sharp contrast to national trends—where rents fell at the fastest rate in 15 years, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens saw...

The Buy Side Commission Collapse That Didn’t Happen

Time to read [8 minutes] Takeways Despite predictions of steep declines after the 2024 NAR and Sitzer‑Burnett settlements, buyer‑agent commissions have largely held steady or risen, supported by research from the Consumer Policy Center and the Federal Reserve. Slower sales cycles have increased demand for agent expertise and fullservice support, sustaining traditional commission structures even...

Tariffs May Be Repealed, Causing Mortgage Rates To Drift Lower

Time to read [7 minutes] Takeways Tariffs are a tax on Americans, driving inflation and keeping mortgage rates elevated The Supreme Court is expected to overturn the administration's tariffs as unconstitutional, which could help lower mortgage rates in a struggling US economy Tariffs have reduced housing affordability, yet their implementation lacked a tangible strategy My friend Barry Ritholtz...

NYC Housing Wealth Exodus Only In Headlines and Hearsay

Time to read [7 minutes] Takeways Highprofile articles shamelessly exaggerated outbound migration of wealthy New Yorkers by misinterpreting polls The claimed impact of Mamdani’s election is not based on existing empirical evidence but on viral, anecdotal broker stories. Actual market indicators and past experience, such as sales and rental trends, do not support predictions of a...

Racing A Ferrari In The Fog

Time to read [4 minutes] Takeways A government shutdown and the resulting data blackout may delay the next Fed rate cut. Luxury housing markets are thriving despite the slowdown, as affluent buyers, driven by stock wealth, not mortgage rates, speed up highend home purchases. Areas like the Hamptons and NYC remain strong magnets for the rich, showing robust activity and little sign of a...

Wall Street Makes It Rain, Real Estate Industry Brings The Umbrella

Time to read [6 minutes] Wall Street profits have surged for the second year in a row, fueling highend housing demand in NYC, the Hamptons, the North Shore of Long Island, and affluent suburbs like Greenwich, CT The NYC real estate industry is anxious about the incoming mayor’s “freeze rents” platform, with some pushing misleading narratives of wealthy residents fleeing the city—a claim...