In a seismic shift for U.S. housing policy, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to find ways to treat cryptocurrency as a legitimate reserve asset in mortgage risk assessments. Signed June 25, 2025, by FHFA Director William J. Pulte, the order means that bitcoin, and a short list of compliant crypto holdings, could soon help borrowers qualify for conventional home loans without converting their assets into dollars. Pulte made the announcement on X, saying he has “ordered the Great Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare their businesses to count cryptocurrency as an asset…

A series of recent studies have analyzed and identified the richest cities in several New England states, including the wealthiest in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. This time around, the study will identify and focus on the richest cities in Vermont. Read on to find out what the richest city in Vermont is, as well as the top 15 wealthiest cities in the state. What Is the Richest City in Vermont? In order to identify the richest cities in Vermont, multiple datasets were sourced from the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (which is the latest…

Yonkers. The very sound of the word provokes titters. True to its name, the community for many years served as a target of laughter and scorn. On top of a reputation for corruption, the burg was also scarred by redlining and persistent racial tensions. Today, the city of 211,000 is cultivating a new rep. With folks seeking a mix of suburban lifestyle and city living near the Hudson River waterfront at a price point within many renters’ budgets, the Empire State’s third-largest city has undergone the kind of metamorphosis that’s attracting newcomers from all over the New York City area.…

The Global Wellness Institute, a leading research resource for policymakers, analysts and writers on the international wellness industry, just released its June 2025 “Build Well To Live Well: The Future” report and it has some compelling new principles for real estate professionals, homeowners and homebuyers looking for their next place to live. The first point worth noting is that wellness real estate is now a $438 billion global industry, according to GWI, with the U.S. accounting for $180.6 billion and a first place global rank. “The wellness real estate market has grown by 19.5% annually over the five-year period from…

Beyond Yoga is one of the hottest activewear fashion brands right now. Like many companies, they’re focused not just on expanding their retail footprint but on creating chic, experiential places to shop. This is especially true of the brand’s eighth location—and its first on the East Coast—in Greenwich, Connecticut. Located at 197 Greenwich Avenue, the store was designed under the creative direction of the brand’s CEO, Nancy Green. She played an integral role in shaping the vision of the space to reflect Beyond Yoga’s core principles: comfort, authenticity, warmth, and connection. The rest was a collaboration between the Beyond Yoga…

The Man Putting Albania On The Architectural Map At 6 ft 7 inches tall, Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, casts quite a shadow over his fellow world leaders. At the recent European Political Community Summit in the Albanian capital of Tirana, Rama—a former pro basketball player, few will be surprised to hear—loomed head and shoulders over pocket-size presidents, leading some observers to ignore the pressing global issues of the day and instead muse: “Who is that tall guy?” Well, opinions vary, of course. But for the half or so of the Albanian population who voted for him in May…

You know what one of the best things about Oklahoma is? It has the lowest overall cost of living out of all 50 states (and D.C.), according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center’s (MERIC) Cost of Living Data Series. Of course, this does not mean Oklahoma is free of any wealthy residents or wealthy towns. Recently, a series of data-based studies have been analyzing states, identifying their richest cities based on data from the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey. This study analyzed 846 cities — what the Census Bureau designates as “places” — in Oklahoma that had…

Philippine billionaire Lance Gokongwei is hiving off about 30.7 billion pesos ($536 million) worth of shopping malls into his family’s RL Commercial REIT that will help the group’s diversified property arm Robinsons Land Corp. raise funds to bankroll its expansion plans. Robinsons Land—a developer of offices, residences and hotels controlled by the Gokongwei family’s JG Summit—will sell nine shopping malls to RL Commercial in exchange for 3.85 billion shares, priced at 8 pesos each, according to a Philippine Stock Exchange filing. The latest infusion of 324,108 square meters (sqm) of mall space to RL Commercial will boost the REIT’s portfolio…

Recently, a series of studies have been analyzing and identifying the richest cities in states across the country. Some of the most recent studies have included the wealthiest cities in Indiana, Montana, Oregon, Washington state, among others. It was decided to keep going with this Pacific Northwest trajectory and analyze Alaska next. This study analyzed 111 cities in Alaska with complete data from the Census Bureau, in terms of their median household income, mean (average) household income, median home value, and median property taxes paid per year, to come up with a list of the 15 richest cities in the…

The United States and many other parts of the world are currently experiencing an affordable housing crisis. While there are many levers driving that crisis, one critical factor is a shortage of skilled trade workers. New research from the Home Builders Institute and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) revealed that the skilled labor shortage is causing an annual economic impact of $10.8 billion in the single-family home building sector. While home builders face higher material costs and more regulation that adds to time delays and extra costs, they also are scrambling to find skilled labor to start new…