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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe. Thanks for waking up with us.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Several cities in the Bay Area are just now ending their eviction moratoriums, nearly three years after they were imposed. What I want to see is justice being done. This is just not right. It has gone on too long. Wire landlords saying the government has stolen their property, and wire renters saying they still can't pay.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's July 1st, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire. Home sales remain strong despite a slight drop in prices, high mortgage rates, and reduced supply. What's driving the still-hot housing market? And should airlines accommodate plus-size passengers, or should obese travelers be forced to buy two airplane seats? As summer travel heats up, we dig into the debate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: COVID-era eviction moratoriums in some California cities are finally coming to an end, some three years after they were first implemented. Here to discuss the policy and the growing strain on fed-up property owners is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Hi, John. So eviction moratoriums are somehow still in place in some cities, where and why?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, some property owners still can't evict people not paying rent in numerous cities in the Bay Area. So that's in Oakland and San Francisco and Berkeley. These are finally set to be phased out this summer.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So in Oakland, for example, landlords can start the eviction process on July 15th, but they can't evict anyone for unpaid rent during the three-year moratorium if the renter's hardships were caused by COVID. They also can't evict anyone who owes less than one month of fair rent, and they can't raise rent until July of 2024. In San Fran, the eviction moratorium is set to expire on June 30th, but some renters not paying landlords have been granted extended protections until August 29th. And in Berkeley, the city is in a moratorium transition period, and that lasts until August 31st. So still two months out there.
--:-- John Bickley: Obviously, these suspensions are coming very late in the game. Most of the country is well past moratoriums on evictions. There isn't a single statewide moratorium policy still in place, for example. These policies started back during the pandemic in 2020, and it was intended to protect vulnerable people who were unable to work or barred from working due to restrictions and therefore unable to pay their rent. Landlords across the nation are owed in total an estimated $15 billion.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Who are these landlords that are footing this bill?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, most of the landlords during this time were sort of made out to be these rich corporations that could absorb the costs and should absorb the costs. But that's, of course, just not reality. Nearly half of all landlords are managing their own properties. And there are upwards of 20 million units in the U.S. overseen by mom and pop landlords. Now these are just individual investors. So in other words, a lot of these landlords are just regular people with slim profit margins who have been without assistance, at least for the last year, footing these bills and really struggling.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: And to that point, these mom and pop landlords have been speaking out about these crippling eviction moratoriums.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, that's right. These landlords have staged numerous protests and called out their city councils over these policies. In one protest, landlords held signs that read, quote, government enables abuse, save my home and stop the theft. I'll add that many of these landlords happen to be minorities. That's a point that's been highlighted by legacy media where this otherwise might not find the coverage it has.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: One of these landlords is Dorothy Wong from Alameda County. She voiced her frustration with the eviction moratorium months ago to a Fox affiliate. She said she's owed over $100,000 in rent. I am angry about the situation. I feel very hopeless for two years. There is just no reason for them to not pay for the rent and just take advantage of the moratorium.
--:-- John Bickley: Wong says her tenants make $200,000 a year and just bought another home while living rent-free in her property. That's really something that stood out. Most of these policies had no means to test if these renters couldn't actually pay rent. Tenants would often self-assess, and some could simply claim they were impacted by COVID and couldn't pay.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Another landlord named Lynn Trong, a woman from Oakland, she actually broke down in tears outside a city council vote over the moratorium. I can't sleep at night because I know I have to pay this bill tomorrow and that bill the next day, and I don't have enough money to pay. And I have to work day and night three jobs to get, you know, to get by.
--:-- John Bickley: And Michelle Haley, a landlord in Oakland who's owed $60,000 in rent, she wants support for property owners. Before they ask any further owners to take on this responsibility, there has to be funding because we're all going to be homeless if the banks get our property.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, California is known for its struggles with homelessness. Is this a heightened concern as these eviction moratoriums phase out?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, that's certainly the claim from advocates for the continuation of eviction moratoriums. They argue that at the least, these suspensions need to be phased out slowly to give people time to plan out their next move. Others argue that three years is already a pretty long time.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: I'll note that after the CDC's second federal eviction moratorium was struck down by the Supreme Court back in September of 2021, eviction averages that following month were well below pre-pandemic averages. That's a good sign, but keep in mind, some major cities still had their moratoriums in place at that time. A lot of other factors, of course, played into our tough economy.
--:-- John Bickley: Right, including some ill-conceived COVID policies. Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: According to new data, for the first time in over a decade, U.S. home prices declined in annual value this spring. Here with more on what's behind the decline and what it means for homebuyers and homeowners is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, according to the latest data from the U.S. National Home Price Index, in the month of April, home prices fell 0.2% compared to the same month last year, marking the first annual decline in home prices since April of 2012. Now while that may give the impression that the housing market is really cooling off, the numbers can be a bit deceiving.
--:-- John Bickley: The annual decrease is more the result of record price increases that we saw last summer than anything. So while home prices were down compared to the year before, they are still on an upward trend for a variety of reasons.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All right, so a subtle decline, but overall still very high prices. Yes, exactly. What's keeping prices so high?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, the market has been surprisingly resilient despite persistent predictions that it would crash. We just have not seen that play out. Last month, for example, prices rose in 19 of the 20 largest cities, and the only drop was seen in Phoenix, which has seen prices explode over the last two years.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The main factor keeping prices up is an incredibly limited supply. To put it simply, no one really wants to sell their house right now. For more on that, I spoke to Mitch Rochelle, managing director of Madison Ventures Plus.
--:-- John Bickley: If you have a house with a 3.5% mortgage and you sell it and borrow money to buy the new house, you're going to be looking at 6% or greater. So the unwillingness of sellers to sell is one of the factors that's keeping inventory low, and low inventory is what's protecting home prices.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: To give an idea of just how low the inventory has gotten, last month there were 1.3 million homes for sale nationwide. That's the lowest on record for the month of May, and a 25% annual decline from the same month the year before. For context, in May of 2019, there were a million more houses on the market.
--:-- John Bickley: Before we start getting nervous that there's a looming crash in the housing market, let's remember that there is an abundance of demand for housing with limited supply. And basic supply and demand economics suggests that if there's more demand than there is supply, prices will either hold steady or even go up gradually.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And remember, April and May are usually the hottest months for the housing market. So this lack of supply bucks a decades-long trend.
--:-- John Bickley: How has that low inventory impacted the market?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So a lot of homebuyers unsatisfied with what's available are turning to new construction instead. The low supply of existing houses on the market has led to an explosion of new construction projects. According to federal data last month, sales of newly constructed homes jumped 12% compared to the month before and 20% compared to the same month last year. That's the fastest increase in three decades.
--:-- John Bickley: Now the question becomes whether builders can even keep up with that increased demand. Remember, they're heavily reliant on construction and development loans, which have also become much more expensive after the Fed's interest rate hikes. For context, many of the houses and multifamily units now coming on the market secured their financing back last year when rates were considerably lower.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So much like homebuyers, builders are also cash-strapped and dealing with the effects of inflation. Yeah, so everybody being affected here in this equation.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: Obesity rates among Americans continue to rise at the same time that airlines are downsizing seats to pack in more passengers. This is leading to difficult questions about how to accommodate plus-size travelers. Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Elordi is here with more on this polarizing debate.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So, Maraid, we're heading into one of the biggest travel weekends of the year. This will almost certainly be an issue for some of our listeners, either because they require accommodations or because they're going to be seated next to someone who does. First of all, how prevalent of an issue is this?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hi, Georgia. Well, according to the CDC, about 4 in 10 American adults are now obese, and nearly 1 in 10 are severely obese. That's a high watermark. At the same time, over the past 10 years, many mainstream airlines have reduced their seat widths from an average of 18.5 inches to 17 inches, which a lot of travelers say is cramped even for healthy weight passengers. Low carriers like Spirit have also severely reduced their legroom from about 35 inches down to 28 inches.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So this is becoming a big issue for a lot of travelers. And as you mentioned, this is not just an issue for plus-size travelers. It's challenging for the passengers sitting beside them as well. The big question is, what should the airline do when a passenger can't fit in one seat?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, that's the issue. There's no standard protocol. Some airlines like Southwest allow passengers to purchase two adjacent seats ahead of time and they get refunded for the extra seat after the flight. They can also discuss it at the gate with the flight attendant. Other airlines like American require the passenger to purchase two seats ahead of time with no promise of a refund. And not all airlines guarantee they will have seatbelt extenders on hand, which is another issue.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Now, there are some fat activists who say it's time to standardize the management of travelers of size so people can know what to expect and plan accordingly. Here's Marilyn Wan, author of Fatso, on why fat travelers should be accommodated.
--:-- Marilyn Wan: I am really not interested in pushing up against someone sitting next to me on an airplane. The airlines are in the business of transferring human beings, not freight, and they need to find a way to accommodate all human beings.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Now, what are they asking for specifically? Well, in April, a plus-size influencer named Jalen Chaney started a petition demanding the FAA mandate that all airlines have a customer of size policy. According to the petition, this could include an extra seat, larger seats, seatbelt extenders, or alternative seating arrangements. The petition has collected more than 19,000 signatures.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In our society, there's a desperate need for accommodations for more than just one body type. Plus-sized individuals and those with bodies that fall outside the norm have been overlooked for far too long. We need to make sure that everyone has the same opportunities to travel and live their life to the fullest.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: The controversial aspect of her petition is that she wants these accommodations to be free of charge, up to and including extra seats. Activists say we wouldn't ask a blind traveler to pay extra for extra assistance, so larger passengers shouldn't be charged a double for their accommodation. This is where the debate gets contentious because a lot of people think it isn't fair to get an extra seat for free and that obesity is not in the same category as other disabilities.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, something I want to mention, too, is that this can actually be a pretty difficult and emotional situation for these larger travelers.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Yes, travel can be extremely stressful for plus-size people. We spoke to Jason Vaughn. He operates a website called Fat-Tested Travel. He encourages travel and advises plus-size travelers on how to have the best experience while navigating travel challenges. So a lot of it is fear of embarrassment. That's the main thing is that, you know, if you have to take what we call the walk of shame off of a roller coaster or just going through and getting those dirty looks going on to a plane. It's like, I hope they're not sitting by me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that's why I do what I do is to try to help people know what they can do so they get off the couch and start living their life and have a bigger vision for their life.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Jason doesn't think larger passengers should necessarily get extra seats for free, but he encourages consumers to vote with their dollars and support businesses that have accessible options for all travelers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, I hate to think that people wouldn't travel because of embarrassment. Right. Maybe some airlines are going to want to start specializing just to meet this market.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Maraid, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
