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February 2025 Editor’s Note: Wildfires and political firestorms 

With wildfires and political firestorms, it's hard to believe that we are only two months into 2025

It’s hard to believe that we are only two months into 2025.

It’s going to be a long year — one with a lot of news. So far, it’s been marked by fires in Los Angeles, as well as a veritable firestorm of directives coming out of the Trump administration that looks to affect the industry.  

Fortunately, this is our biggest issue of the year, too — a double issue, in fact, between the regular magazine and our 164-page Data Book. Now in its 20th year (also hard to believe), the Data Book includes all the real estate stats and facts you could need and covers all the major markets that The Real Deal reports on across the country. (You can also find the Data Book online at TRD Data, TheRealDeal.com/Data, our one-stop research portal — all the information is downloadable there too.)

Trump’s attempts to shake things up are breathtaking, but here’s what we are watching: 

There’s the federal government’s intent to sell two-thirds of its office portfolio (that’s around 200 million square feet, almost as much office space as Midtown Manhattan); the executive order calling federal workers back into the office, which could help markets like Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas that have a lot of government employees; a crackdown on immigrants that could affect construction, including rebuilding from the L.A. fires (more than 40 percent of California’s construction workers are immigrants); tariffs that could also affect the building trades significantly, with developers stockpiling materials; a federal funding freeze (or not) that could impact rent subsidies (or not); and foreign investment in the U.S. that could be curtailed by immigration policies. There’s the Opportunity Zones program, the Trump Organization and the high-end Palm Beach and D.C. residential real estate of those in the Trump universe. And the impact on local politics: For example, might Mayor Eric Adams be beholden to Trump if federal charges against him are dropped?  

Trump’s attempts to shake things up are breathtaking, but here’s what we are watching

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Real estate figures in the administration on our radar (besides Trump himself) include Steve Witkoff (the developer-slash-Middle East envoy, impressively credited for helping with the Gaza ceasefire), Howard Lutnick, Bill Pulte, Scott Turner and many others. Are we missing any big issues or players? DM me at @StuartwElliott.

Meanwhile, if you only read one story on the real estate impact of the L.A. fires, read ours. The piece by reporters Suzannah Cavanaugh and Kari Hamanaka addresses all the big questions about insurance, price gouging, rebuilding, what the market ahead will look like and what industry players are doing to assist. Also, don’t miss senior reporter Emily Landes’ story on the real estate recovery from the Tubbs Fire in the Bay Area that happened eight years ago, to get a sense of what might be in store for Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

Also in this issue is a story that I am particularly proud of. Senior reporter Keith Larsen went inside the town of Lakewood to find “faith, family, fortune and scandal in New Jersey’s booming real estate town.” As Larsen writes, the residents of the largely Orthodox township run title companies, brokerages and businesses in every obscure niche of commercial real estate. “For a while, swaths of New York City deals in the $10-to-$50-million range seemed to touch Lakewood: Some piece of the loan or the closing document would come from a Lakewood address.”

Yet the business has brought a darker reality, with fraud convictions, and last month, a suicide. It’s a story that we’ve been piecing together for months, and Larsen collects all the strands. Check out the story.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention a few other notable stories: a piece on Chicago’s largest land sale since the Great Fire of 1871, involving more than 800 properties previously owned by the city’s “worst landlord”; a profile of the power player who makes the New York City government’s real estate decisions and is caught up in the scandal surrounding Mayor Adams; and a look at the lobbyists, attorneys, brokers and other real estate pros who are part of billionaire Ken Griffin’s team in Miami, as the recently arrived billionaire looks to build massive projects and reshape the city. 

Enjoy the issue.

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