Name: Inside the mortgage fraud scandal rattling real estate | Deconstruct
Uploaded: 2026-03-04T17:57:52Z
Description: After the 2008 financial crisis, regulators imposed strict safeguards on single-family mortgages: income verification, tighter underwriting, and new oversight designed to prevent fraud.

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After the 2008 financial crisis, regulators imposed strict safeguards on single-family mortgages: income verification, tighter underwriting, and new oversight designed to prevent fraud.

Inside the mortgage fraud scandal rattling real estate | Deconstruct

The unlikely bromance between Zohran Mamdani and President Trump could have major implications for New York real estate. After meeting last week, Mamdani said he pitched $21 billion in federal grants to build affordable housing over Sunnyside Yard in Queens — and that Trump was “interested.” It’s a striking turn in their once-combative relationship, and in the long, fraught history of the rail yard itself.

Mamdani asks Trump for $21B for Sunnyside Yard megadevelopment #shorts

San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid is in contract. 

Shvo and partners in contract to sell Transamerica Pyramid #shorts

Welcome to “Neumannville”? Ex-WeWork CEO Adam Neumann is now the biggest property owner in the small Florida village of El Portal — and his Flow-backed plans include a private school and a massive mixed-use development.

El Portal residents to Adam Neumann: “You punched us in the face”

A man who claimed he owned the New Yorker Hotel has a new status: convicted. Watch as we unpack the saga of Mickey Barreto, who after a three-year legal fight pleaded guilty this week to forging property records in an attempt to seize the Hell’s Kitchen landmark, complete with fake deeds and even demanding rent from tenants.

New Yorker Hotel takeover artist pleads guilty to fraud #shorts

Enter the "asshole awards": As week three of the Alexander brothers' federal trial comes to a close, the defense is leaning hard on the jet-set, party-boy image, arguing it may be ugly, but it isn't criminal.

The “Asshole Awards”: Inside the Alexanders’ defense strategy

ICE is expanding detention capacity—and the ripple effects could be felt far beyond immigration policy. How is the industrial real estate sector responding?

Where is ICE buying industrial real estate? | Deconstruct

TRD’s Seth Rogin stopped by the Home Depot Pro booth at the Miami Forum to learn how the leading home improvement brand serves building professionals as well as consumers.

The new one-stop shop for everything from materials to repairs | Brand Studio

In Season 5, Episode 2 of Deconstruct, hosts Lilah Burke and Hannah Kramer talk about the latest in the Alexander brothers court case, the drama over Manhattan's Worldwide Plaza, and interview senior reporter Keith Larsen about fraud within the multifamily mortgage industry. Watch the full episode here, and listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or TheRealDeal.com. 

Silverback Development’s Josh Schuster once told TRD: “There’s one particular lawsuit that has a lot of bad words… and there is my own way of seeking remedy…” Fast forward to Feb 2026 — he’s now expected to plead guilty to a $10M “Ponzi-like scheme,” facing up to 20 years in prison.

Josh Schuster to plead guilty to $10M Ponzi scheme

Is San Francisco actually back? After a pandemic-era retail exodus, AT&amp;T and The RealReal are reopening in the same Union Square locations they left in 2023 — joining other returners (and new arrivals) testing the waters downtown.

San Francisco's Union Square hums back to life with return of AT&T, The RealReal stores #shorts

New York’s ultra-luxury rental market is hitting staggering numbers. 💸
Seagram liquor heir Eli Bronfman just signed a $120,000/month lease for his SoHo triplex penthouse, while a West Chelsea residence owned by former Howard Hughes CEO David Weinreb landed $177,500/month.  As mortgage rates stay elevated and the luxury market surges, more of the city’s wealthiest are choosing to rent — at six figures a month.

You won't believe what luxury apartments cost in NYC now #shorts

On July 13, 2026, the real estate industry’s heavy hitters return to The Village Club of Sands Point for The Real Deal Golf Classic.

Tee Off with TRD in 2026 at The Village Club of Sands Point

Who’s getting cut out of the housing market? 🏠 The White House is weighing a ban on firms that own 100+ single-family homes — a threshold that could sideline not just mega-landlords, but hundreds of mid-size investors.

More details emerge on Trump’s single-family home investor ban #shorts

Florida condo boards are making headlines for all the wrong reasons. From alleged multimillion-dollar fraud at Florida's second-largest HOA to special assessment battles and boardroom election brawls, a pattern keeps emerging: big money, limited oversight and residents left footing the bill.

Hammocks fraud case drags into year four #shorts

"Freeze the rent.” It was Zohran Mamdani's loudest campaign refrain. Now City Hall has the votes to try.

Next up, rent freeze? Mayor Mamdani names five new members to rent board #shorts

Deconstruct is back. New hosts from The Real Deal's newsroom are bringing you the most important news for New York City's real estate world. Up first: the Epstein files reveal how top townhouse brokers tried to claw their way into Jeffrey Epstein's Upper East Side mansion. Plus, early impacts on real estate from the Mamdani administration, Mark Zuckerberg's maybe-buy in Miami, and more.

How real estate brokers scrambled to get inside the Epstein house

In a new episode of Coffee Talk with TRD’s Amir Korangy, LPT Realty’s Robert Palmer gets candid on his company’s explosive growth, how he’s using tech to reinvent the brokerage model, his 2017 purchase of the Jacksonville Armada soccer team, and whether he’s really selling to Compass CEO Robert Reffkin.

Is Robert Palmer selling LPT Realty to Compass CEO Robert Reffkin? | Coffee Talk

Mayor Mamdani’s upcoming “Rental Ripoff Hearings” are already igniting fierce backlash across NYC. Some landlords aren’t holding back — including H.L. Dynasty’s Humberto Lopes, who suggested property owners should “bankrupt the city” by withholding taxes in protest. Is this accountability or political theater? And have rents really become a “ripoff”? Sound off in the comments below!

Landlord calls for NYC property owners to stop paying taxes

After eight years of shutdowns, endless renovations, billion-dollar cost overruns, a global pandemic, and even a takeover by the Chinese government, the legendary Waldorf Astoria New York is finally back on the market.