Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<keyword id="19895040" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="real-estate" source="keywords">Real estate</keyword> was India's asset of choice for investment in the first half of 2024, noted a recent FICCI-ANAROCK report. About 59% of the 7,615 respondents across 14 Indian cities expressed their desire to invest in real estate. Out of these, 67% of respondents wanted to buy a house to live in it, while the remaining 33% viewed it as an investment. Out of this 33%, the majority (57%) wanted to earn rental yields from the same, while another 20% planned to sell their property after its price has appreciated significantly. The remaining 23% viewed real estate as an asset for securing their future. Even for millennials, buying a house featured at the top of their priorities. 66% of millennials and 41% of generation X respondents highlighted that they intended to utilize their investment gains to buy a house in the future. What was also notable was the significant decline in demand for ready-to-move in units and a corresponding rise in demand for under-construction units. During the first half of 2024, for every 20 individuals who preferred a ready-to-move-in house, 25 respondents chose a new launch or under-construction property. This ratio was at 32:21 in the first half of 2021. Some of the reasons why over 53% of homebuyers are dissatisfied with the current available options when it comes to <keyword id="20254620" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="affordable-housing" source="keywords">affordable housing</keyword> are location accessibility (92%), poor quality construction design (84%), and small unit sizes (68%). Even the supply in the affordable housing category across the top 7 Indian cities has considerably shrunk over the last 3 years, from 26% in 2021 to just 17% as of September 2024. However, this differed based on the city. While over 50% of respondents chose 3BHK apartments in cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, and Bengaluru, over 40% preferred a 2BHK in other metros like Kolkata. Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune. However, that does not mean that there is little demand for luxury homes. 28% of respondents preferred buying a house between the range of Rs 90 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore. This was a mere 18% prior to the pandemic. However, the most common budget range for houses remained between Rs 45-90 lakh, with 35% of respondents choosing the same. As far as under-construction properties are concerned, a staggering 98% of respondents prefer timely project completion, 93% choose improved construction quality, and 72% prefer a well-lit, ventilated home. The report further noted that Indians are increasingly inclined towards larger, more luxurious living spaces. 3BHKs and apartments remained the most preferred choice of residence and property type, with 51% and 58% of respondents opting for them, respectively. Residential plots were also seen gaining traction, particularly in southern India, with 30% of respondents in Chennai, 29% in Bengaluru, and 27% in Hyderabad preferring them. <keyword id="21483825" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="home-loan-interest-rates" source="keywords">Home loan interest rates</keyword> also significantly influenced home buying decisions. If the rates are below 8.5%, it would have minimal impact on buying decisions for around 71% of respondents. However, interest rates exceeding 9% would significantly impact 87% of buyers. With the RBI currently deciding to hold off on slashing interest rates in October for the 10th consecutive time, home loan rates are likely to stay elevated in the future. Experts estimate that the RBI will start cutting interest rates early next year.

Real estate continues to dominate India's investment portfolios, shows FICCI report

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Republicans are projected to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives.</li><li>That means Trump is set to have a trifecta, as he did in the first half of his first term.</li></ul>After more than a week counting outstanding ballots across several states, Republicans are officially projected to maintain control of the House of Representatives.According to projections from NBC and CNN, Republicans will win at least 218 House seats, enough to claim the majority. Several races still remain undecided, with ballots continuing to be counted. The GOP currently holds a 220-seat majority.Democrats picked up GOP-held seats in New York, Oregon, California, Louisiana, and Alabama, while Republicans flipped Democratic-held seats in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina.The GOP also <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/republicans-win-senate-election-majority-election-2024-11">retook control</a> of the Senate, meaning President-elect Donald Trump will enjoy a governing trifecta for at least the next two years, as he did during the first two years of his first term.As a result of the GOP keeping the House, Trump will <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-balance-of-power-results-competitive-republicans-democrats-2024-11">avoid the resistance</a> he encountered from a Democratic-led House during the last two years of his first term. Furthermore, he'll be dealing with a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-republican-party-more-compliant-this-time-2024-11">far more obedient GOP</a> than existed during the first two years — after several successive election cycles, the party has largely been remade in Trump's image.Congress is particularly important for Trump when it comes to<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tax-cut-tariff-plan-outlook-presidential-election-scenarios-harris-trump-2024-10"> tax policy</a>. Many of his other policy goals can be accomplished via executive orders, but the incoming president will need congressional action to exempt tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits from taxation, as he's promised.About three dozen House races were considered to be competitive, ranging from Republican-held swing districts in traditionally Democratic states like New York and California to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/david-schweikert-profile-trump-realignment-arizona-economic-interests-abortion-2024-10">suburban districts</a> across the country where Democrats have made inroads in recent election cycles.It took far longer to determine who controls the House than the Senate or White House in large part due to the slow counting of mail-in ballots in Arizona and California.Both House Speaker <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-mike-johnson-republican-speaker-house-louisiana-2023-10">Mike Johnson</a> and House Minority Leader <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hakeem-jeffries-early-honeymoon-house-democrats-tension-progressives-2023-5">Hakeem Jeffries</a> are expected to remain in their respective roles, with internal leadership elections set to take place later this month.

Republicans keep the House, handing Trump a trifecta of government control

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Trump's victory over Harris raises questions about Republican control of the House.</li><li>Wall Street strategists are closely monitoring financial markets and potential policy impacts.</li></ul>It's fair to say that much of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-post-election-results-bullish-trump-trade-peter-tuchman-2024-11">Wall Street didn't get enough sleep</a> on election night after being caught off guard by the speed at which results began coming in.Dominic Pappalardo, the chief multi-asset strategist at Morningstar Wealth, was home watching <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/polymarket-prediction-betting-markets-vindicated-by-trumps-strong-showing-1033958821">prediction markets</a> and how percentages were skewing state by state. He was also keeping an eye on financial markets to see if they were making directional moves.Over in London, Richard Kelly, the head of global strategy at TD Securities, was on his firm's trading floor, busy answering endless client questions on 'What about this' and 'What about that'-type scenarios."As much as we all tried to think ahead of what the different policies would be, there are always a lot more questions that come up on the day, and they all have to be much more concrete," Kelly said. "So it's just been a whirlwind."Former President <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/election-results-trump-harris-presidential-election-2024-11">Donald Trump's victory</a> over Vice President Kamala Harris has been called for Tuesday's election, but Wall Street is still waiting on one more key answer: <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-balance-of-power-results-competitive-republicans-democrats-2024-11">Will Republicans take the House</a>, too? It seems increasingly likely. Yet, the result would be based on a handful of seats."Technically, we don't need to know until the first half of December legally, and these things are so close in terms of the margin of error," Kelly said. "There's some of these races where literally hundreds of ballots is the differential of Republican versus Democrat. So it's not going to be today."The small tilt in the House makes a big difference because a handful of seats are enough to create some friction on Trump policies, Kelly noted.<h2 id="e4827f7a-5ee5-4a62-aa3b-da6a8ce8b3ef">Stocks</h2>Sector rotations among stocks are slightly muddy because the overall <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/us-election-trump-stock-rally-rise-sp500-outlook-regulation-mergers-2024-11">market is up so much that everything rallied</a> with the broad market, Pappalardo said. But one noteworthy sector is financials, which performed better than the overall market into Wednesday's early trading hours. It's unsurprising since the Republicans campaigned on policies favorable to banks and financial stocks, including decreased regulation. The steepening yield curve is also positive for banks as it boosts their profit margins since they borrow on the front-end yield and lend at the back-end yield, he added.Technology is another sector the market is viewing favorably: Tech companies have been creating a lot of profit, so Trump's promised corporate tax cuts will be quite beneficial, Pappalardo said.Meanwhile, the utilities sector lagged the broader market the most as we moved into Wednesday's early trading hours. Investors moving away from defensives toward cyclicals is likely a sign that investors believe the economy is positioned for growth, Pappalardo noted.While the rallies are positive for stocks, looking ahead, Pappalardo expects things to return to normality. In other words, investors will focus on traditional fundamentals like corporate earnings and interest rate policy.<h2 id="5e50dfbb-c80b-4dee-8272-69eff4f2145f">Bonds</h2>Wednesday was a long day for Gennadiy Goldberg, the head of US rates strategy at TD Securities. He stayed up past midnight watching the yield move before passing the baton off to his colleagues in London."Once the polls started to close, the market already started to move," Goldberg said. "It took the market very little time to start penciling in higher odds of the Trump victory."The swift and strong Republican win pushed the 10-year yield up from around 4.3% to around 4.45%.The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/investing/what-is-a-bond#:~:text=Bonds%20are%20loans%20that%20investors,the%20principal%20investment%20at%20maturity.">bond market</a> was expressing signs of nervousness. This sector of the market is worried about who's going to pay the bill for potentially higher budget deficits. The result is a pricing-in of higher debt premiums, Goldberg said.Additionally, aggressive immigration and tariff policies could be inflationary. And if it looks like inflation pressures are either reaccelerating or just stubbornly high, it could leave the Fed nervous about cutting rates further, Goldberg said.Kelly added that the 10-year could still move higher to 4.75%, and that's where he thinks the market could get more comfortable buying.<h2 id="b628f761-842f-464c-a039-7d296873c4e9">Currencies</h2>Jayati Bharadwaj, a global FX strategist at TD Securities, was at home in front of multiple screens until about 1 a.m. as she watched <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/investing/what-is-forex">currencies move</a> amid the strong Trump lead. Initially, she expected the results to take a few days to become clear, but she was surprised by how quickly the outcome became evident. Currency markets also reacted swiftly against the backdrop of a strengthening dollar."The Chinese renminbi, the Mexican peso, and the euro were hit particularly hard because once markets saw the election results being called, they had to start pricing in the threat of tariffs," Bharadwaj said.She expects the euro to trade even weaker relative to the dollar once Trump takes office. Right now, it's trading at $1.07; expect it to move to $1.05, she said. If the Republicans take the House, then the euro could drop below $1.05, she added.Kelly added that China has been under the microscope since Trump talked about 60% tariffs on its imports. Other countries could face 10% tariffs across the board. So, if you're highly leveraged to trade, like Europe or the UK, it could be very negative for the euro and pound. He noted that it could also be negative on the currencies of Canada and Mexico, depending on how USMCA members will be impacted.On the flip side, the yen could weaken less than other currencies relative to the US dollar. The Bank of Japan may return to rate hikes over the next few months after it had paused, Kelly said. This means watch out for further unwinding in the yen carry trade. Therefore, the next question investors have to ask is: how many long equity positions have been funded at very low Japanese rates, Kelly said.For this reason, Bharadwaj cautions traders about jumping back into any carry trades because there will be a lot of currency volatility.<h2 id="2b454727-3f51-473d-b815-35fcf1e90886">Gold</h2>One surprise is that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/gold-price">gold hasn't weakened</a> as much as expected, Kelly said. As the dollar strengthened, he anticipated a more significant pullback. Given the uncertainty and volatility that took place the day after the elections, it might be too soon as investors digest results. However, he anticipates further weakening in gold, which is down 2% from Election Day.

Chief strategists project their outlooks on stocks, bonds, currencies, and gold amid a Trump victory 

<ul><li><keyword id="85530" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="new-projects" source="Orion">New projects</keyword> are selling out on launch day, highlighting the urgency among buyers to secure a property </li><li>The average rent increase has been higher than average salary increments across cities, prompting potential home buyers to take the plunge </li><li>Those who were initially considering homes in the 60-80 lakh range are now being priced out and are opting for more affordable options. </li></ul>India's major cities are experiencing a housing boom in 2024. <keyword id="6357824" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sales" source="Orion">Sales</keyword> have gone up by 20% in the first quarter so far (January 1 to March 15) with nearly 147,000 units sold across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune, according to a report by NoBroker, a property search portal. According to the report, this positive trend is likely to have been led by a combination of factors. The Indian economy is on a strong growth trajectory, and the government's stable economic policies are boosting buyer confidence in the real estate market. People feel secure about investing in property, despite ongoing increases in property prices, according to the report. Growing aspiration to own than to rent A clear desire for homeownership is evident, possibly driven by the security and stability that owning a physical asset like a house provides. Additionally, relatively affordable home loan interest rates, currently ranging between 8.30% and 11.15% per annum, are further greasing the wheels of the housing market. Says Amit Agarwal, CEO &amp; Co-founder of NoBroker.com, "The average rent increase has been higher than average salary increments across cities which has prompted potential home buyers to take the plunge. While rents may stabilise with more supply coming in gradually, they will not come down.” According to NoBroker’s annual report 2023, 74% of participants indicated that they favoured real estate as an option over other investment choices like Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs), stocks, gold, and Bitcoin. This momentum in <keyword id="1390483" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="housing-sales" source="Orion">housing sales</keyword> has been continuing for a while. Even in December 2023, housing sales were up 31% year on year, revealed a report by property consultant ANAROCK. Diverging implications on the <keyword id="6358021" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="budget" source="Orion">budget</keyword> of <keyword id="185169" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="homebuyers" source="Orion">homebuyers</keyword> However, an interesting trend is emerging within the buyer pool. Average urban buyers, who were previously looking at properties priced between ₹80 lakh and ₹1 crore, are now setting their sights on more expensive options, exceeding the ₹1 crore mark. This shift in preference suggests a desire for larger living spaces and the security of gated communities. On the other hand, those who were initially considering homes in the 60-80 lakh range are now being priced out. Such buyers are opting for even more affordable options albeit at faraway places with lesser amenities. It is important to acknowledge the uneven impact on different income groups — while some buyers are capitalising on the positive market conditions, others are struggling to keep up with rising prices. New projects in high demand New projects are selling out on launch day, highlighting the urgency among buyers to secure a property. This surge in demand is driving up prices, especially for near-completion properties, as buyers rush to lock in purchases before prices climb further. Interestingly, the gap between established developers (Grade A) and newer companies (Grade B) is narrowing. Grade B builders are commanding prices closer to their Grade A counterparts, suggesting a more competitive market. However, the recent easing of inflation in India could improve affordability for buyers, making it easier to get loans and participate in the market. This easing inflation might offer some relief for those looking to enter the Indian housing market.

Housing markets remain strong in 2024, sales rise 20% across six metro cities in Q1

New Delhi: Realty firm <keyword id="20847750" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="house-of-hiranandani" source="keywords">House of Hiranandani</keyword> will invest Rs 3,200 crore to redevelop five housing societies in <keyword id="19895282" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mumbai" source="keywords">Mumbai</keyword>. The company has presence in <keyword id="19932542" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mumbai-metropolitan-region" source="keywords">Mumbai Metropolitan Region</keyword> (MMR), Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. The company said it has signed additional redevelopment projects of 17 lakh square feet with a GDV (Gross Development Value) of Rs 5,000 crore. "The company has entered into registered development agreements with five major housing societies in Chembur and plans to invest Rs 3,200 crore," House of Hiranandani said in a statement. These five housing societies in Chembur comprising 459 tenants include redevelopment of Maitri Park in Chembur East, admeasuring about 9 acres and <keyword id="23131883" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shrinagar-society" source="keywords">Shrinagar Society</keyword> in Chembur West, a cluster of four societies admeasuring about six acres. The company said it is in the process of securing necessary approvals and plans to complete the redevelopment within the next 4-5 years. <keyword id="23140485" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="surendra-hiranandani" source="keywords">Surendra Hiranandani</keyword>, Chairman and Managing Director, House of Hiranandani said, "Redevelopment of established societies is a new opportunity that House of Hiranandani would like to explore. Today, Mumbai city has no space for expansion. The older regions of Mumbai are full of old and dilapidated buildings with insufficient infrastructure." "Considering the scarcity of space, redevelopment of these buildings is an ideal solution that can unlock the potential of these spaces, create world class infrastructure and amenities for the residents and also transform the clogged spaces into planned sustainable and liveable communities," he said. House of Hiranandani has an experience of over four decades in the real estate industry. Along with residential, House of Hiranandani has also constructed over 12 mn square feet of area in the commercial sector. Till date, House of Hiranandani has delivered 25,375 homes and developed 45.82 million square feet of residential and commercial real estate.

House of Hiranandani to invest Rs 3,200 crore to redevelop 5 housing societies in Mumbai

In a significant diplomatic move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu at <keyword id="20751669" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hyderabad-House" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Hyderabad House" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Hyderabad House">Hyderabad House</keyword> in Delhi on Monday. This visit is widely seen as an effort to reset ties between the two nations after a year of tense relations. <keyword id="20101322" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="President-Muizzu" source="keywords">President Muizzu</keyword>, who arrived in India on Sunday for a five-day visit, received a red carpet welcome. During a joint press briefing, President Muizzu expressed heartfelt gratitude to India, thanking President Droupadi Murmu, <keyword id="19899320" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="PM-Modi" source="keywords">PM Modi</keyword> and the people of India for their warm reception. He emphasised the Maldives' deep-rooted ties with India, noting that tourism — especially Indian visitors—remains a crucial pillar of the Maldivian economy. “India is our largest source market for tourists, and we hope to welcome even more Indian visitors in the future,” Muizzu remarked. Key areas of cooperation discussed included economic ties and maritime security, critical given the Maldives' position in the Indian Ocean. Following their talks, India granted the financially struggling Maldives a rollover of USD 100 million in Treasury bills, in addition to formalising a <keyword id="23458604" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="currency-swap-agreement" source="keywords">currency swap agreement</keyword> and a ₹3,000 crore currency swap. Prime Minister Modi characterised the "development partnership" as a key component of India-Maldives relations, asserting that India has consistently prioritised the needs of the Maldivian people. "Our development partnership is vital to our relationship with the Maldives, and we have always placed importance on the priorities of its people. This year, SBI rolled over USD 100 million in Treasury Bills, and a USD 400 million currency swap agreement was signed based on the Maldives' requirements," he explained. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="106837748" title="Withdraw troops by mid-March, Maldives tells India" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>In September, India announced that the <keyword id="19934368" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="State-Bank-of-India" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="State Bank of India" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="State Bank of India">State Bank of India</keyword> would purchase Maldivian government bonds worth USD 50 million, following a similar USD 50 million transaction in May 2024. Additionally, Prime Minister Modi and President Muizzu witnessed the first <keyword id="20563654" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="RuPay-card" source="keywords">RuPay card</keyword> payment transaction launched in the Maldives and virtually inaugurated the runway at Hanimaadhoo International Airport. Modi stated that India and the Maldives would soon be connected through UPI. "Recently, we launched the RuPay card in the Maldives, and in the future, we will link both countries via UPI," he said during a joint press briefing. Muizzu also expressed his desire to conclude a <keyword id="19945642" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Free-Trade-Agreement" source="keywords">Free Trade Agreement</keyword> with India, a step he believes will open the door to greater Indian investment in the Maldives. Modi emphasised India's commitment to supporting the Maldives through various initiatives, including supplying essential commodities and Covid vaccines, inaugurating airports, and constructing social housing. He noted that a new drinking water project is now operational on 28 islands, providing clean water to over 30,000 residents. The leaders also discussed the opening of consulates in Addu and Bengaluru. Tensions between India and the Maldives escalated following Muizzu's election last year, which saw a shift towards a pro-China stance and the promise to withdraw Indian troops stationed in the archipelago. His visit to China before India in January had raised eyebrows in New Delhi, as it was perceived as a slight. However, since attending Modi's swearing-in ceremony for a third term in June, Muizzu has moderated his anti-Indian rhetoric, signalling a thaw in relations. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has stated that the discussions provided "a new impetus" to the relationship. This meeting likely marks a positive turn in Indo-Maldivian relations, setting the stage for further cooperation between the two South Asian neighbours. (With inputs from agencies) <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112094153" title="Maldives President Muizzu thanks India for economic support, affirms hope of signing FTA" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>

Maldives President Muizzu met with PM Modi in Delhi today. Here’s how it went!

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Housing shortages and affordability problems are especially acute in America's swing states.</li><li>Arizona's population is surging and Pennsylvania's is shrinking; neither can build enough homes.</li></ul>Rising home prices and rents are weighing on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rent-housing-affordability-swing-state-voters-apartments-presidential-race-redfin-2024-9">voters' minds</a> this election season.Renters and homeowners in the handful of swing states that will likely determine the US presidential election — which include Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada — have been disproportionately hit by rising housing costs, caused by decades of underbuilding, a surge in new residents, high construction costs, and red tape.Since 2017, "in 6 of the 7 states, home prices have risen faster than the national average, and the national average is already quite high," Alex Horowitz, director of Pew's Housing Policy Project, told Business Insider, citing data from Zillow and Apartment List. "In all 7 states, rent growth has been higher than the national average."Two swing states — Arizona and Pennsylvania — exemplify in their own ways how housing markets across the country have failed to address the key issue they face: too few homes.In Arizona, sprawling subdivisions can only sprawl so far, and years of population growth have outstripped supply. While Pennsylvania's population shrank in recent years, it's still struggling to dig itself out of a construction worker shortage after years of underbuilding.<h2 id="1a859852-557b-4304-892a-c09040f80a6d">Zoning restricts housing for Arizona's population boom</h2>For years, Arizona has been among the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.newsweek.com/population-map-reveals-fastest-growing-us-states-this-century-1904724">fastest-growing</a> states in the country. Sprawling subdivisions helped accommodate the growing population and were enough to keep housing costs relatively low through the early 2010s.The pandemic supercharged pressure on the housing market. Since 2020, Arizona has welcomed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/AZ/PST045223">hundreds of thousands of new residents</a>. As demand spiked, snarled supply chains helped inflate construction costs. Since January 2020, home prices in Arizona have risen by 55%, compared to a national average of 45%, while rents have jumped 27%, compared to a national average of 22%, Horowitz said.<div type="image" title="A worker operates machinery during construction at a housing development in the Phoenix suburbs of Queen Creek, one of the fastest-growing communities in Arizona." height="832" width="1280" msid="114584579" hostid="261" sizebytes="114024"></div>Housing experts blame some of Arizona's home shortage on the restrictive zoning laws in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/sites/default/files/exclusionary_zoning_legal_barrier_to_affordable_housing.pdf">many of its cities and suburbs</a>, which tend to allow only large-lot, detached single-family homes. These homes are generally more expensive than denser housing and require far more land."The obvious land that's proximate to job centers is scarcer and scarcer after we've had 20 or 30 years of significant home building" in Arizona, Ben Metcalf, managing director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, told Business Insider.At the same time, the state is running out of water to support its new homes and residents. State officials <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/01/climate/arizona-phoenix-permits-housing-water.html">announced</a> last year that Arizona doesn't have enough groundwater to support all the future homes that have been approved for building in the Phoenix area.<h2 id="807b5340-f3a6-4d5d-a378-25a3d54b550f">Pennsylvania is up against construction worker shortages amid a shrinking population</h2>Two thousand miles away, in Pennsylvania, voters are also facing a housing shortage. Home prices have risen 39% since January 2020, Horowitz noted, even though the state's population is shrinking. Pennsylvania has lost <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pennlive.com/news/2024/03/amid-pockets-of-growth-pennsylvania-population-declines-worsen.html">an estimated 41,000 people</a> since 2020.Like many other states, Pennsylvania has underbuilt housing since the 2008 financial crisis, which tanked the housing market. In recent years, it's struggled with issues that plague the rest of the country, including elevated building material costs and high interest rates that make capital more expensive.But it's also dealing with a particularly severe construction worker shortage. Bureau of Labor Statistics data <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PACONS">shows</a> that after growing steadily during the 2010s, the total number of construction employees in Pennsylvania has plateaued since bouncing back after the pandemic recession, while construction jobs continue to boom in the nation as a whole.Horowitz noted that Pennsylvania ranked 48th out of the 50 states for homes permitted from 2017 to 2023."The aging workforce is a very big problem in residential construction in a place like Pennsylvania," Metcalf said, adding that restrictive federal immigration policies have limited the construction workforce, which is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://qz.com/immigrants-make-up-more-of-the-us-construction-labor-fo-1851118320">disproportionately made up of immigrants</a>.Horowitz noted that, like in Arizona, restrictive zoning policies are also preventing the construction of denser, cheaper housing in the state's suburban and exurban communities.Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro directed his administration in September to develop a statewide housing action plan. "While Governor Shapiro has made real progress in his first two years, he knows more needs to be done to fix the housing shortage and cut costs for Pennsylvanians," the administration spokesperson said.<h2 id="34ab4d96-8ac9-4d17-ba48-b2df8f02ca74">Housing policy on the campaign trail</h2>Swing-state voters list <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/09/09/issues-and-the-2024-election/">the economy</a> as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-harris-swing-state-poll-october-2024-c3ca9414">their top issue</a> in this election. But "when you drill down, it is about affording to live and pay their rent and pay their mortgages," Tucson Mayor Regina Romero told Business Insider. "Affordable opportunities help families stop worrying about where they're going to live next or sleep next and start worrying about how they can thrive in our economy."Housing affordability has become such an acute problem that Vice President Kamala Harris <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kamala-harris-plans-to-build-3-million-new-homes-2024-8">has promised to</a> build 3 million new homes over her first term, send $25,000 in downpayment assistance to first-time homebuyers, and spend billions on housing innovation.Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-biden-housing-crisis-policy-rising-home-prices-apartment-rents-2024-6">has said</a> he'll bring housing costs down by cutting interest rates — though the Federal Reserve, which controls rates, operates independently of the government. He's also promised to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/business/economy/trump-housing-crisis-deportations.html">deport millions of immigrants</a> to free up housing and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-freedom-cities-build-housing-conservatives-scoff-at-leftist-plan-2023-3">open up federal land</a> for home construction.To be sure, not all Americans are being adversely impacted by rising rents and home prices. Many homeowners who locked in relatively low mortgage rates years ago have watched their home equity soar as prices have skyrocketed.Renters are almost twice as likely as homeowners to say that housing affordability is a top-three issue in deciding who to vote for in this election, a recent <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.redfin.com/news/renters-vs-homeowners-housing-affordability-election/">Redfin survey found</a>. Almost a quarter of potential first-time homebuyers say they're waiting until after the election to buy a home, with many interested in Harris' downpayment support, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.redfin.com/news/homebuying-delay-election-survey-2024/">Redfin also reported</a>.Noah Sheidlower contributed reporting.

2 swing states show why the US is struggling to build enough houses

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Fed's interest rate cut will ease financing conditions for homebuilders, analysts told BI.</li><li>But other issues will keep supply constrained, from material costs to labor shortages.</li></ul>The Federal Reserve's rate cut will surely impact the housing market, but its effect likely won't affect arguably the most important part of the equation: keeping affordability tight. To be sure, elevated borrowing costs are partially to blame for the affordability crisis plaguing US home buyers, and lowering them will offer relief.Rates soared to multi-decade highs a year ago, and further reductions in the Fed's benchmark rate should help bring borrowing costs down over time. However, it'll also add to the supply-demand imbalance, as more buyers are lured off the sidelines by cheaper mortgages. Pressures will rise for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-housing-affordability-home-shortage-market-construction-population-cities-zillow-2024-6">new housing construction to meet demand</a>, but financing is still tight for home builders, stifling momentum to bring more housing online.According to the National Association of Home Builders, manufacturing loans climbed from near 5% lows to 13% since March 2022."The more immediate effect for housing from the rate cut is going to be seen in the builder and the land developer loan conditions," Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington, NAHB's associate vice president of forecasting, told Business Insider.But how this translates into a much-needed supply boost is a different story, and there are factors the Fed cut won't fix.Lingering uncertaintiesFor instance, Nanayakkara-Skillington noted that material pricing, from drywall to steel mill products, has weighed heavily on homebuilders since the pandemic.While <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/lumber-prices-plunge-home-building-season-demand-falls-flat-2024-6">lumber costs</a> have normalized, she expects a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nahb.org/blog/2024/08/canadian-lumber-tariffs">recent tariff hike</a> on Canadian wood to increase prices in the coming months.Tariffs on Chinese transformers — which NAHB considers a "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.nahb.org/advocacy/top-priorities/material-costs/transformers">sorely</a>" needed component delaying housing projects — have caused prices to jump 73% in the last four years, she said.There are also shortages to consider. Nanayakkara-Skillington cited that 57% of surveyed homebuilders say there are not enough lots to build on, adding pricing pressure to the available supply.Urban Institute senior fellow Michael Neal told BI that local regulation is needed to remedy this issue. Zoning challenges should be addressed to unleash lot availability, he said, while inspection costs and timelines should be reduced.But the biggest issue is a lack of skilled workers, Nanayakkara-Skillington said. "Because we lost about a million construction workers during the Great Recession, we still lack that. So we need people desperately to come into the trades," she said, citing that there are about 250,000 open jobs right now.Nonetheless, the Fed cuts should improve homebuilder sentiment in the coming months after a period of declines amid high borrowing costs, both analysts said. Dim views on existing homesWhile it's difficult to forecast when the housing market will come back into balance, much depends on whether lower rates entice homeowners to start selling.According to Fitch Ratings, that's unlikely for now.Since most owners hold a mortgage rate well below the current 6% level, mortgage rates will need to fall significantly lower to boost supply, which will only happen if the Fed keeps cutting. The rating agency noted that about 24% of outstanding mortgages are priced above 5%, meaning that homeowners will stay put until rates hit that level. This won't happen until 2027, Fitch said."While new home inventory has grown by 29% since the start of the pandemic, improving the supply of existing homes, which are approximately 80% housing sales, is necessary to improve prices and housing market activity," the agency said.At the same time, easing Fed policy might not stir housing activity for another reason, Neal said."Part of the Fed's decision, I think, reflected concerns about whether or not people will have jobs," he noted. "At the same time, if you think rates are going to fall today, do you think rates are going to fall tomorrow?"This thinking might cause people to delay further, he said.Wherever supply comes to stand, a knock-on effect of lower rates and higher builder sentiment may be felt in the stock market. In the past three of five rate cutting cycles, the bank noted that homebuilder shares outperformed the S&amp;P 500 in the three-months following the first cut.

Rate cuts might make it cheaper to buy a house, but they won't fix the US housing market's biggest problem 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>We still don't know who will control the House next year, and it could take days to count votes.</li><li>Trump will have a GOP Senate, but either parties has a path to control of the lower chamber.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> is now the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-wins-presidential-election-race-2024-11">president-elect</a>, and Republicans have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/republicans-win-senate-election-majority-election-2024-11">gained control</a> of the US Senate.But we still don't know who controls the House of Representatives, and the outcome will have major implications for the first two years of Trump's second term.As of Wednesday morning, both Democrats and Republicans had a plausible path toward winning the 218 seats necessary to hold the majority, though Republicans were projecting confidence that they would pull it off."As more results come in it is clear that, as we have predicted all along, Republicans are poised to have unified government in the White House, Senate, and House," said House Speaker Mike Johnson in a statement on Wednesday morning. "We will continue to monitor the results and ensure every legal ballot is counted throughout this process."Democrats have declared victory in three GOP-held seats in New York, and the party is projected to pick up an additional seat in Alabama. But Republicans picked up Democratic-held seats in Pennsylvania and Michigan, along with three seats in North Carolina.In order to flip the chamber, Democrats would need to make a net gain of four seats.The results in several other battleground districts have yet to be determined, and many of them are in California, which has historically taken days to count ballots.<h2 id="0b437f38-9c8b-46ab-aa1e-9c60229bfcea">A Democratic House would be a major constraint on Trump's power</h2>Historically, newly elected presidents have typically enjoyed unified government at the beginning of their terms.The last time that a president entered office without control of both chambers of Congress was in 1988, when President George H.W. Bush was elected alongside Democratic majorities in both the Senate and House.But to get an idea of what it would look like for Trump to share power with a Democratic-led House, one only needs to look back to the 2018 midterm elections, when a Democratic takeover in the House drastically altered the course of Trump's first term.The most significant impact was that Democrats had the power to investigate and impeach Trump, which they ultimately did twice: Once in 2019 over Trump's attempt to leverage military aid in order to get Ukraine to investigate then-Vice President Joe Biden, and again in early 2021 after the January 6 insurrection. Trump was acquitted by the Senate both times.Furthermore, Trump was no longer able to pursue the kinds of party-line priorities of his first two years, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act.Aside from must-pass legislation like government funding and defense bills, the only major legislative accomplishments of that period included massive economic stimulus bills to address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.Many of the provisions that tax bill are set to expire next year, including income tax cuts, an expanded child tax credit, a deduction for small businesses, and a rollback of the estate tax. Allowing those provisions to simply expire would cause most Americans to experience a major tax hike.Republicans have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tax-cut-tariff-plan-outlook-presidential-election-scenarios-harris-trump-2024-10">promised to extend</a> those tax cuts, but if Democrats control the House, the parties will have to work together to get it done — and Democrats will be able to make demands.

Trump's first 2 years will be shaped by who wins the House. We may not know the outcome for days.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="23254035" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="home-improvement-retailers" source="keywords">Home improvement retailers</keyword> are among the first to see a lift from the Fed's rate cut.</li><li>Share prices for <keyword id="20320193" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Home-Depot" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Home Depot" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Home Depot">Home Depot</keyword> and <keyword id="23254034" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lowes" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Lowe's" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Lowe's">Lowe's</keyword> are up, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fed-interest-rates-cut-jerome-powell-labor-market-mortgage-pantheon-2024-9">spending on projects is expected to follow</a>.</li></ul>The US Federal Reserve's decision Wednesday to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fed-cuts-interest-rates-how-much-september-fomc-powell-inflation-2024-9">cut rates by half a percentage point</a> has created a flurry of immediate reactions, but the real effects of the policy are likely to take several months to bear out. Still, some areas of the economy are already seeing a lift in response to the news — and the fact that the Fed went with the larger of the two most likely options under consideration. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comparing-lowes-vs-home-depot-2023-12">Home improvement retailers,</a> in particular, are among the companies who were primed to come out of the gate strong with a rate cut, and, true to form, shares for Home Depot and Lowe's were up as of Thursday's market close. "Home-related companies should soon see the beginnings of fundamental recovery exiting this year," Mizuho analyst David Bellinger told Business Insider. "Aside from any initial noise in the market, Home Depot and Lowe's should keep grinding higher as all this comes together." And while a rising <keyword id="19998639" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="stock-price" source="keywords">stock price</keyword> carries its own benefits for a company, the uptick is a signal of a much more important change still to come: sales. Executives for both Home Depot and Lowe's have characterized their businesses as being constrained by low housing turnover and high borrowing costs, both of which are results of the Fed's tight interest rate policy. Home Depot CFO Richard McPhail described his company's core customer as having "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/home-depot-earnings-americans-in-deferral-mindset-consumer-spending-2024-8">a deferral mindset</a>" in spite of being in a generally healthy financial position. In short, most <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-doing-less-diy-worrying-sign-economy-lowes-earnings-2024-8">big-ticket spending on home improvement</a> comes from one of two places: people buying and selling homes and homeowners renovating existing homes with borrowed money. Unless they have to fix something urgently, a lot of folks have decided they're better off waiting to upgrade. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell talked about the impact on the <keyword id="20759748" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="housing-market" source="keywords">housing market</keyword> in his remarks following Wednesday's announcement. "The housing market is in part frozen because of lock-in with low rates. People don't want to sell their home," he said. "As rates come down, people will start to move more, and that's probably beginning to happen already." What's more, Powell signaled in his speech that further cuts are likely if the data support them, which can encourage some of those sitting on the sidelines to go ahead with a new mortgage or credit line with the expectation that they can simply <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/personal-loans/how-to-refinance-personal-loan">refinance</a> in a few months when rates come down further. Additionally, Home Depot and Lowe's have taken great care to manage investor expectations through the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lowes-dicks-macys-sound-alarm-us-shoppers-spending-2023-8">slumping sales and slimmer profits</a> over the past year. In particular, both companies <a target="_blank" class="c-link" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/home-depot-1-billion-wage-boost-improved-worker-safety-satisfaction-2023-5">continued to invest in their stores</a> with the expectation that pent-up demand would eventually be unlocked. (Truist Securities analyst Scot Ciccarelli has referred several times to a "coiled spring" for the retailers.) Max Rakhlenko, a TD Securities analyst, said in a note on Wednesday that Lowe's management was expecting a "phased recovery" in which homeowners start with smaller projects before getting more comfortable with larger ones that require tapping into their house's equity. "We're aggressively working in this downturn," Lowe's CEO Marvin Ellison said during his earnings call last month, adding, "Whenever the macro inflection occurs, we just want to be ready to take advantage of it." It appears Ellison may not have to wait much longer. Correction: September 20, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the day a TD Securities analyst sent out his note on Lowe's. It was Wednesday, not Thursday.

Home Depot and Lowe's are already seeing the first of many likely benefits from the Fed's rate cut

In March 2023, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser anointed Anand Selva, as the bank's chief operating officer. His mandate: oversee a deeply unsexy yet crucial initiative to regain compliance with regulators. At the time, she praised his "long track record of delivering results."So far, Selva's tenure has been rocky.In July, two regulators <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-jane-fraser-regulatory-citigroup-transformation-2024-7">fined Citi $135.6 million</a> for failing to make enough progress in fixing its data-management issues. The bank had agreed in 2020 to work on this problem and others, including poor risk controls, after <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/citigroup-slammed-400-mln-fine-longstanding-deficiencies-regulation-occ-fed-2020-10-1029660295">paying $400 million</a> in fines to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The OCC said in July that the bank had made "meaningful progress overall" but that the agency wanted to ensure Citi allocated enough resources to address the "persistent weaknesses" regarding data.These new fines are despite Citi dedicating massive resources to a firmwide initiative to overhaul the bank's technology. This program, called the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-transformation-citigroup-regulatory-fine-anand-selvakesari-2024-7">"Transformation"</a> and overseen by Selva, has about 13,000 employees. Citi spent $7.4 billion on the endeavor from 2021 through 2023. This year's budget has been increased by $250 million, to more than $3 billion.The pressure is on, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren urging the OCC to "impose growth restrictions" on Citi, arguing that it has grown "too big to manage." The regulator and Citi declined to comment."We've always said that progress wouldn't be linear," Fraser said after the latest fines, "and we have no doubt that we will be successful in getting our firm where it needs to be in terms of our Transformation."For Selva, leading the Transformation is unlike any test he has faced in his three-decade career at Citi. Selva, who goes by the shortened version of his last name, Selvakesari, joined Citi as an assistant operations manager in Chennai, India, in 1991. He rose through the ranks in Asia before taking over the US consumer bank in 2019. When Fraser was made CEO in 2021, she chose Selva, who's now 57, to replace her as the global head of consumer banking.In his current role, his mandate is to make the bank safer, not to turn a profit. To do so, he has to solve for Citi's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-real-reasons-behind-citi-mike-corbat-early-retirement-2020-9">decades of underinvestment</a> in its infrastructure, which affects every business line of the bank.Business Insider talked to 14 current and former Citi employees who have worked under Selva to get a picture of the challenge facing him and why he was put in charge of the bank's No. 1 priority. All but two spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal or the sensitivity of regulatory matters. Three senior executives pointed to his experience navigating regulation and working with technology from running Citi's consumer bank. Gonzalo Luchetti, Selva's successor as the head of the US consumer business, told BI that serving 70 million customers required handling tremendous operational risk."If we mess it up, usually you don't mess it up for one; you mess it up for hundreds of thousands, if not millions," he said. "You have to be super good at process orientation and making sure that there's high discipline and rigor."Luchetti also emphasized Selva's longevity at Citi and experience across regions."He knows the fabric of the firm very well," Luchetti said. "The Transformation is about really repiping the machine. He's touched a lot of the machine himself."But touching the machine isn't the same as fixing it. Eight employees told BI that they were surprised that Selva was made the head of the Transformation given that he had never held a leadership role in technology or compliance. They described Citi's culture as a cliquey environment that rewards managing up over results, noting that the COO promotion followed dismal performance for the wealth unit he oversaw."The biggest job was given to a guy who with 1 ½ years in wealth wasn't able to do anything," a former managing director said.Selva has also come under scrutiny for a lawsuit filed against him and the bank by an ex-Transformation executive in May. Kathleen Martin, a former interim data chair, alleged that Selva pressured her to hide information from the OCC that would make Citi "look bad" and that she was fired in September 2023 after multiple refusals. Citi denied the accusations and filed a counterclaim in late August, alleging that Martin was fired for underperformance. Citi has recently made leadership changes to Selva's unit. The bank tapped its new tech head, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-data-tim-ryan-anand-selva-memo-transformation-regulators-2024-9">Tim Ryan</a>, to lead the data effort alongside Selva and take over management of the 800-employee data team. The work on data, along with risks and controls, is paramount to the Transformation.Splitting the burden may expedite the massive task, which requires coordinating work from employees across the entire bank. Citi declined to specify a timeline, citing the confidential nature of regulatory matters. A managing director in the Transformation estimated that the work required would take about two decades.Mike Mayo, a Wells Fargo analyst, said that until Citi meets the requirements of the OCC and the Federal Reserve, the bank is in "regulatory purgatory.""Citi has thrown over 10,000 people and $3 billion and more at this problem," Mayo told BI in July. "They just have to get it done."Selva does have a long track record at Citi. Born in Madurai, a large city in southern India, he studied engineering and played basketball at the Coimbatore Institute of Technology. He earned his master's in business administration at Madurai Kamaraj University before joining Citi in 1991.Selva made his name at Citi by shaping its consumer-bank businesses across Asia. He led retail banking in China and India before taking over the Asia Pacific market in 2015. His approach was digital-first, eschewing branches for banking apps. Despite closing 60% of bank branches in Asia from 2016 through 2018, Selva grew deposits by 10%.<div type="image" title="Citi's Anand Selva speaking at a panel, seated and wearing a pinstripe suit and a red tie." height="3307" width="4960" msid="114093573" hostid="261" sizebytes="2310830"></div>"He's very tech and digital-oriented," Luchetti said. "We've been to China together to look at startups and firms that were disrupting the world. He was always very connected with learning more about technology, had that curiosity, and then the execution chops to get it done here."In 2019, Selva moved from Singapore to New York, where he now lives with his family, to run the US consumer bank. He assumed the global consumer-banking business from Fraser in 2021. Selva leaned on credit-card and lending offerings, launching products like Citi Custom Cash which allowed customers to pick their reward categories, and Flex Pay, a buy-now, pay-later service. Under Selva, Citi was the No. 2 issuer of credit cards in the US, and deposits grew by more than a third, to about $220 billion.In 2021, Citi started divesting itself of more than a dozen consumer-bank markets across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Selva was an important player on both sides of the table, according to Adora Tidalgo, the head of operational risk management at Citi. She said he helped find Asian acquirers that maximized value for Citi while keeping the businesses running smoothly with low attrition."That skill of balancing how much you want to bring in terms of revenue and the credit loss you want to take is really a skill that very much needs to be honed in the consumer space," she said. "That balancing, to me, I have seen Anand over the year been very successful in doing that."There have been some bumps in the road. As part of Fraser's reorganization of the bank in 2021, Selva gained oversight of a newly formed wealth unit and its new leader, Jim O'Donnell. Six current and former managing directors told BI that Selva's approach focused more on scale and digital offerings than high-touch client service. For instance, he didn't approve loans that failed to meet a certain threshold of return, even if it meant losing an important client, two former managing directors said."The way that every private banker on earth thinks about relationships is you need to invest in relationships, and then as you start to do more business with clients, you start getting more and more valuable opportunities with them," one of the former managing directors said. "You have to look at the relationship. You can't just look at every single transaction."Employees argued that Selva's playbook may have worked to build scale in Asia but not to satisfy well-heeled — and much more sought-after — US clients."I think Anand's decisions were comparing everything to what he knew from his time in Asia, and they are completely different markets," another former managing director said. "In Asia, Citi has a very recognizable brand, and people actually want to bank with Citi. You don't have to sell it that hard."<div type="image" title="Citi CEO Jane Fraser testifying at Congress" height="3828" width="5846" msid="114093582" hostid="261" sizebytes="314760"></div>The wealth business' revenue dropped by 6% year over year at the end of 2022. Fraser called the division's performance "disappointing." O'Donnell's reign over wealth was cut short in January 2023, and it was later placed under <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/andy-sieg-citi-wealth-management-ceo-2024-6">Andy Sieg</a>, the former head of Merrill Wealth Management. With Citi on a campaign to divest itself of 14 international consumer-bank markets, Selva's remit shrank.His appointment as COO thrust him into the spotlight. Tidalgo told BI that he was no stranger to the task of dealing with regulators."When you are the head of a country, you are the face of Citi to the regulators. Good, bad, or indifferent, you have to face them," she said. "That's part of the job."Citi's Transformation and its challenges predate Selva's appointment as COO. It existed as a firmwide initiative before the October 2020 fines but was kicked into overdrive after Citi entered consent orders with the OCC and the Federal Reserve.It can be viewed as two parts. The most visible is the strategy to simplify and modernize the bank, such as divesting Asian consumer businesses, removing five layers of management, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citigroup-reorganization-layoffs-management-overhaul-reorganization-jane-fraser-stock-price-2023-9">reorganizing</a> so that the five business lines report directly to Fraser.The second part is meant to address the 2020 consent orders. The initiative is separated into seven programs, including finance, compliance, and risk and controls. While some 13,000 employees are dedicated to the Transformation, much of this work is carried out by employees across the bank. Selva sits at the center, coordinating these efforts. He's in a tough position, as much of the Transformation's work is executed by employees in other divisions."The challenge with the Transformation role is you are accountable yet not responsible," the managing director in the Transformation said. "The role is really coordinating and getting others to do what they need to do, which is very different from running a business where the entire team follows your lead, you own it, you have the ability to actually get them to do this stuff."When everyone is accountable, effectively no one is, a former senior vice president in the Transformation said. Matters got stuck in bureaucracy, bouncing from one department to another and being debated in committee for months.A senior executive in the Transformation acknowledged that the programs often rely on each other's work. For example, a delay in data work can lead to one for a finance project."When we are asked sometimes why it is challenging to execute on the Transformation, one of the challenges is the interconnectivity of those seven works," she said.The senior executive said the Transformation's successes had been overlooked, partly because the bank is limited in what it can say on regulatory matters. For instance, Citi has retired or replaced a quarter of its applications, halfway to its overall goal. The bank declined to specify the number of existing or terminated applications, but as of July, it had retired nearly 300 applications this year. The senior executive also touted the bank's streamlining its risk-management workflow.But the Transformation has earned a middling grade from Citi itself. The bank evaluates the initiative's success for the purposes of a bonus program applicable to about 200 senior employees, including Selva. In 2022, an internal committee gave it a score of 94%, citing targets it met, such as submitting remediation plans to regulators.For 2023, the score sank to 80%, calculated by measuring the timeliness of executing scheduled work, the percentage of work deemed complete by the bank's internal auditors, and a "qualitative consideration of Citi's cultural change" derived from the bank's employee surveys.<div type="image" title="Headshot of Citi's new tech head Tim Ryan, smiling and wearing a black suit jacket with a light blue shirt" height="739" width="985" msid="114093578" hostid="261" sizebytes="32120"></div>Bringing in Ryan, the bank's head of technology and business enablement, to help the bank catch up makes sense. The recruiter Phil Waxelbaum argued that a more traditional candidate to help lead the Transformation would be a seasoned, high-ranking person from a regulatory agency. But someone with a nonbanking background such as consulting or technology can work, too, according to recruiter Jeffrey Warren. Ryan joined Citi in June after seven years leading the US business of PricewaterhouseCoopers."In situations like this when you are looking to drive transformation, you need someone who can work at the intersection of people, processes, and technology," said Warren, managing director at Russell Reynolds Associates. "That includes working from within and likely driving some change with new people who have experience in new technologies or new ways of doing things."Ryan is now sharing data, a significant component of the Transformation, with Selva. Another PwC alum, Citi's head of enterprise risk management, Ashutosh Nawani, will take over the chief data office from one of Selva's lieutenants, Japan Mehta, and report to Ryan. Mehta will move to another role that the bank declined to specify.Employees told BI that they thought bringing in Ryan and Nawani would help."Sure, there might be some reservation that more consultants are coming in to run Citi, but there is a positive vibe of changing senior leadership," the former senior vice president in the Transformation said. "Legacy Citi culture is what got us into this spot in the first place."While the July fines did not meaningfully move Citi's stock, they have placed the bank and the Transformation under greater scrutiny. The OCC has ordered Citi to provide a resource-review plan each quarter to ensure the bank is providing enough resources for the effort. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also required the bank to address the Transformation's progress in future filings.The outstanding issues have also impeded Citi from expanding in China. According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-23/citigroup-s-china-expansion-plan-put-on-hold-by-us-regulators">Bloomberg</a>, the bank is still waiting on a clearance letter from the Federal Reserve to set up a securities office. The bank declined to comment on the process but said it was "fully committed to supporting clients" in China.<div type="image" title="Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts at a hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2024." height="1333" width="2000" msid="114093583" hostid="261" sizebytes="96482"></div>Regulators placing an asset cap on Citi, as Senator Warren has requested, isn't out of the realm of possibility, said Timothy Coffey, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott."At what point do the regulators just get fed up with Citi's inability to adequately resolve these issues or stick to the timeline that they've laid out?" he said. "That's an open-ended question."But the consent orders and the lack of progress are distractions in themselves. When Fraser took over Citi nearly four years ago, she said the Transformation was her No. 1 priority and asked for patience. Now her requests for time are wearing thin. Regardless of who leads the Transformation, Fraser is still accountable."This stays out here in terms of headline risk, and I think it puts a cap on the valuation that Citi can achieve," said Stephen Biggar, an Argus Research analyst. "It's an overhang on the stock. It's an overhang on the reputation of Fraser."Do you work for Citi? Have a tip or story to share? Reach out to Hayley Cuccinello at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:hcuccinello@businessinsider.com">hcuccinello@businessinsider.com</a> or 917 740 5340, which works for calls, text, and the encrypted messaging app Signal.

You Searched For "housing projects" and got 11 results

Real estate continues to dominate India's investment portfolios, shows FICCI report

Ira Alok Puranik

Republicans keep the House, handing Trump a trifecta of government control

Bryan Metzger

Chief strategists project their outlooks on stocks, bonds, currencies, and gold amid a Trump victory

Laila Maidan

Housing markets remain strong in 2024, sales rise 20% across six metro cities in Q1

Anagh Pal

House of Hiranandani to invest Rs 3,200 crore to redevelop 5 housing societies in Mumbai

PTI

Maldives President Muizzu met with PM Modi in Delhi today. Here’s how it went!

BI India Bureau

2 swing states show why the US is struggling to build enough houses

Eliza Relman

Rate cuts might make it cheaper to buy a house, but they won't fix the US housing market's biggest problem

Filip De Mott

Trump's first 2 years will be shaped by who wins the House. We may not know the outcome for days.

Bryan Metzger

Home Depot and Lowe's are already seeing the first of many likely benefits from the Fed's rate cut

Dominick Reuter

Meet the executive tasked with Citi's hardest challenge: getting the bank's house in order

Hayley Cuccinello

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides