What did the Federal Reserve do at its last meeting of the year and what might they do next year? Are buyers more or less likely to wait for prices and rates to fall than they were six months ago? What Texas city was once the technology darling and now may be facing a corporate exodus largely because of an increased cost of living? Is Florida regretting its restrictive law that prohibits most Chinese real estate investment in the state? At the same time, rising costs in the state are also causing retirees to rethink their plans. Lastly, add Pennsylvania, Florida, and now California to the list of states facing commissions lawsuits. Learn more about each of these topics below.

Fed keeps interest rates unchanged, sees cuts coming in 2024
Bankrate

• The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at its final meeting of the year earlier this week.

• The Fed signaled that it has completed its cycle of raising interest rates to combat inflation.

• There could be potential for the Fed to cut interest rates three times in the following year.

• The Fed's key benchmark borrowing rate is expected to peak at 5.25-5.5 percent, the highest in 22 years.

• Since March 2022, the Fed has been rapidly raising interest rates to address high inflation.

• Despite the rate hikes, the economy has maintained healthy growth, with inflation easing to 3.1 percent in November.

• The unemployment rate has remained low, hovering around 3.7 percent in November.

• The Fed's decisions have significant implications for consumers' finances, affecting savings accounts, credit cards, loans, and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs).

• Analysts suggest that the Fed may only need to cut rates in 2024 if inflation eases further, aiming for a soft landing scenario to maintain tight monetary policy without loosening it.

Austin sees mass exodus of ex-Silicon Valley tech companies, here's why

San Antonio Express News

• Austin's status as a potential Silicon Valley successor is in jeopardy due to recent trends.

• Many tech companies had previously migrated to Austin, attracted by factors like lower costs of living.

• However, several startups are now leaving Austin due to rising living costs, limited funding opportunities, and a lack of diversity.

• In 2022, Meta and Google both scaled back their expansion plans in Austin, and TikTok delayed its move to the city.

• Laundris CEO Don Ward relocated his company to Tulsa, citing Austin's tech ecosystem being similar to what it was a decade ago.

• Startup unicorn Cart also decided to move its headquarters from Austin back to Houston.

• American Airlines has reduced its focus on Austin by cutting 21 routes from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

• The trend raises questions about what Austin must do to maintain its appeal as a tech hub.

Florida’s Retirees Are Fleeing: Here’s Where They’re Settling

Yahoo! Finance

• Florida, once popular for retirees, is losing its appeal due to rising home prices.

• In the past five years, the median price of a single-family home in Florida has increased by $150,000, or 60%.

• The average cost of a home in March 2018 was around $250,000, but by March 2023, it had risen to about $400,000.

• Retirees are also affected by inflation and stock market fluctuations, further straining their finances.

• As a result, many seniors are now searching for more affordable places to live.

Real Estate Titans Battle DeSantis Over China Property Crackdown

Bloomberg

• A group representing companies including Blackstone Inc., Related Cos., and Starwood Capital is seeking to overturn a Florida law that prohibits most Chinese investment in the state's real estate sector.

• Other developers, like Lennar Corp., are also opposing the law and lobbying state lawmakers to relax these restrictions in early next year.

• The law not only bans most Chinese capital from funding Florida projects but also prevents firms with Chinese investors from taking non-controlling stakes in real estate deals.

• Critics argue that the law is overly broad, confusing, and has unintended negative consequences for Florida's economy.

• The real estate industry in Florida is a significant source of jobs and wealth, accounting for 17% of the state's GDP (approximately $244 billion) and nearly a fifth of its tax revenue.

• Developers like Lennar and DR Horton Inc. typically use limited partnerships to pool funds from investors for land acquisition and construction projects, but the restrictions on Chinese investment have led to project delays for Lennar.

• Florida's law is among the most restrictive in the United States, with more than two dozen states imposing limits on Chinese property ownership.

• The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the law as discriminatory, and the US Department of Justice has deemed it unconstitutional.

• The law has not only affected investors and builders but has also complicated the buying and selling of homes by individuals in Florida.

Commission suits hit Realtors, brokerages in Florida, Pennsylvania

Inman News

• In separate lawsuits, homesellers allege the defendants — including Florida Realtors and West Penn MLS — conspired to enforce rules that inflated commissions on the sale of their homes.

• The suits were filed Monday, Dec. 4 and both seek class action status. They are the latest suits to generally attack the practice of requiring listing brokers to share commissions with buyer brokers in the wake of an Oct. 31 verdict in a case known as Sitzer | Burnett in which a Kansas City jury found the National Association of Realtors and major real estate franchisors conspired to inflate commissions and awarded damages that may end up costing the defendants nearly $5.4 billion.

• The Florida suit targets the state Realtor association and large brokerages.

• According to the complaint, the defendants and their co-conspirators — including local Realtor associations, multiple listing services, and the brokerages’ employees and agents — use their control of Florida’s Realtor-affiliated MLSs to impose certain anticompetitive rules from the National Association of Realtors regarding commissions.

• “In a raw demonstration of market power, the Florida Realtor MLSs overturn the natural order of a rational price system where home sellers and home buyers each separately bargain and pay for the services provided to each of them,” the complaint says.

• Pennsylvania suit hits MLS and alleges ‘nationwide collusion’ in the industry. The complaint alleges West Penn MLS’s rule “is manifestly anticompetitive because, among other ill-effects, it compels the seller to compensate the broker representing the purchaser even though that broker should be working for the purchaser, not the seller; it mandates a ‘blanket offer,’ meaning that the same compensation must be offered to every buyer’s broker, regardless of skill, experience, or the services provided; and it has the effect of encouraging ‘steering’ by buyer-brokers, because it incentivizes them to direct their clients to properties with higher commission offers.”

• The suit seeks to represent a class covering the same time period as the Parker complaint: “All persons or entities who, from December 4, 2019, through the present used a listing agent or broker affiliated with or employed by one of the Broker Defendants in the sale of a home listed on the West Penn MLS, and who paid a commission to the buyer’s broker in connection with the sale of the home.”