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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Earlier in the spring, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced that, starting in late May 2025, H-1B visa holders and other non-permanent residents would be banned from taking out new FHA mortgages. The result? Non-permanent residentsincluding H-1B visa holderssaw their share of FHA mortgage locks crater from 3.8% in September 2024 to 0.2% in September 2025, according to Optimal Blue. This sharp pullback comes after their share of FHA mortgage locks had spiked between 2020 and 2024. Keep in mind that FHA mortgages make up a much smaller share of overall borrowers than, say, GSE conventional borrowers. Indeed, Optimal Blue data reviewed by ResiClub shows that FHA mortgages accounted for 22.0% of total U.S. mortgage-purchase locks in September 2025. Meanwhile, according to the New York Fed, as of June 2025, FHA mortgages represent just 12% of the nations $12.94 trillion in mortgage debt. While FHA has pulled back on lending to H-1B visa holders, as far as ResiClub can tell there hasnt been a similar changeat least not yetin the conventional mortgage space (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac). This squeezes entry-level homebuying in some key housing markets already dealing with weak sales and too much supply, writes Eric Finnigan, president of Demographics Research at John Burns Research and Consulting. (JBREC published a report in October on the topic for its clients.) As an example of a potentially affected housing market, Finnigan points to Fayetteville, ARwhich is where Walmart is headquartered. Walmart HQ has reportedly paused new H-1B hiring in late 2025 after the Trump administration announced itd impose a $100,000 fee for certain new H-1B applications. Walmart HQ stops new H-1B hiring due to $100K fee. Lines up with research we sent to clients last week calling out Walmart HQ’s metro [Fayetteville] as 1 of ~15 local housing markets most exposed to H-1B changes, based on analysis of loan-level data by citizenship status, wrote Finnigan in October. While growth markets in the Southparticularly those with the higher levels of homebuilding, such as Dallas, TX; Fayetteville, AR; and Durham, NCmight feel a sharper housing-demand contraction from this specific FHA policy change, they arent necessarily the markets that would see the greatest softening if there were a broader pullback in H-1B activity. To run an apples-to-apples comparison that accounts for market size, ResiClub calculated H-1B visa petitions per 1,000 residents. The states with the highest exposure to high-salary H-1B workersand the housing and rental demand they generateinclude Washington, California, New York, New Jersey, Texas, and the District of Columbia. Click here for an interactive of the chart below Zooming out to the big picture, we are in something of an international migration bust following a boom in 2021-2024. Between summer 2021 and summer 2024, the U.S. sa a substantial upswing in net international migrationmuch of it coming through the Southern Border. As of July 2024, the U.S. population stood at 340.1 million, up 3.3 million from 336.8 million in July 2023. Of that population increase, 2.8 million (or 85%) came from net international migration. That international migration burst, of course, is behind us now. Recently, border crossings have plummeted. A July forecast by researchers at AEI expects that net international migration in 2025 will be somewhere between +115,000 and -525,000. What does this international migration slump mean for the U.S. housing market? All else being equal, an immediate and direct housing impact of fewer immigrants coming through the Southern Border, in my view, is lower aggregate rental demandspecifically at the lower end of the marketthan if that burst had continued. Rental markets likely to see the biggest impact are in metro areas that have experienced the most international immigration in recent years. In particular, major markets such as New York City, Miami, Dallas, and Houston could feel the greatest effects.
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E-Commerce
For budding influencers, class is now in session. Jessica Henig, founder of Unlocked Branding, is rolling out Social Media University, a new platform launching today that promises to decode the influencer industry for the next wave of creators and industry professionals. The platform is free to join. We wanted it to be accessible for anyone who is interested in building a career in media and their network, Henig tells Fast Company. This community was built on after years of successfully building talent into top tier brands themselves, and weve seen such high demand from others who want to know where to start. Henig knows the formula, after helping shape some of the internets It-talent, including Alicia Breuer, Millie Leer, Pia Mia, and Montana Brown among them. Those who sign up can expect a mix of online and in-person interactive masterclasses with leading industry voices, seminars, trips, and community events, as well as mentorship and behind-the-scenes access to Unlocked Brandings global network of creators and partners. The missing link from young people, over the past few years especially, has been that they are missing in person community, says Henig. Working for yourself can be isolating sometimes and we want to get everyone in the same room to foster connections and creativity. With rising unemployment and a college degree no longer guaranteeing a career path, the creator economy has become a bright spot for young people navigating a bleak job market. The number of creators globally is expected to grow at a compound annual rate between 10 and 20% and the total addressable market is expected to increase to a projected $500 billion by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are fully bought in. Over half of Gen Z wants to become influencers, according to a Morning Consult survey. A 2024 Whop survey found that the top two career aspirations among Gen Alpha are YouTuber and TikTok creator. With the influencer industry being so new in comparison to more ‘traditional’ career and education paths, theres a huge education context gap when it comes to breaking into the industry, says Henig. Ive built talent up from the start of their careers, many of which started as early as 16 years old, and found that the intense experiential nature of the social media industry set them up for incredible success and long term career paths in the real worldwithout having to go to a traditional university route. For those after a traditional education experience, Syracuse University recently announced its new Center for the Creator Economy, looking to train the new class of influencers, streamers, podcasters, and YouTubers. Still, one of the biggest selling points of a career in content creation is precisely the fact it doesnt require a degree or hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt that come with one. Starting out as a content creator has never been easier, you mostly need a phone and a dream. Yet, because of the low barrier to entry, the industry is saturated and some expert guidance could be that all-important leg up. People should sign up if they want valuable insight, to understand the economics of the industry and how it affects strategy and work, says Henig. And a community of people that share similar values to want to stay at the forefront of what is moving the needle.
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E-Commerce
Like many American cities, the streetscape in downtown Brooklyn was for a long time very heavy on the street: a great place to park a car or drive through. But over the past 20 years, the area itself has gone from being a 9-to-5 shopping and business district to one where a growing number of people live 24-7. Since 2004, more than 22,000 housing units have been added to the neighborhood, changing its character so much that its old streetscape just wasn’t cutting it. “There was a real evolution of the neighborhood,” says Regina Myer, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP), a business improvement district representing the area’s business owners, shopkeepers, and, increasingly, residential developers. “Frankly, the construction fences were down, and it was really time to look at the public realm afresh.” So in late 2018, DBP hired the urban design and architecture firms WXY and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to come up with some new ideas for Downtown Brooklyn’s streetscape. Myer says her organization wanted “infrastructure that really focused in on the pedestrian and mobility, shared streets, increased biodiversity, and also really making sure this was a bold plan for Brooklyn, that it didn’t look like something generic.” [Photos: courtesy Downtown Brooklyn Partnership] Now, after seven years of planning and prototypes, the designs have been fully installed. As these before-and-after images show, the transformation has been dramatic. The formerly congested streets of downtown Brooklyn have been augmented with planters, bollards, street bistro seating, and other traffic calming measures, as well as increased greenery and public open space. Redesigned tree pits add a larger and more refined space for street trees to grow, and curving benches follow cobblestone paving that hugs the edge of the sidewalk. Compare to the preexisting street furniture, which Myer calls “mean,” the new spaces invite pedestrians to sit and experience the city around them. [Photo: Hai Zhang/Downtown Brooklyn Partnership] Prototyping public space This work came about incrementally at first. WXY and BIG’s design guidance was first tested on the streetscape outside a Studio Gang-designed residential tower that was completed in 2021. Working with the city’s Department of Transportation during the project’s mid-pandemic construction, DBP convinced the city to allow sidewalks on two sides of the building to be widened to make space for these new streetscape amenities as an experimental pilot project. The resulting streetscape sparked a desire for other, more officially sanctioned improvements. A second pilot project was then built outside the city’s first all-electric skyscraper, and officials were fully on board. “They liked it so much that they actually asked us to go through the [Public Design Commission] process for a plan for the entire neighborhood,” Myer says, referring to the path for making improvements to public and civic spaces in the city. [Photos: courtesy Downtown Brooklyn Partnership] This work led to the 2021 release of a Public Realm Action Plan covering more than 40 blocks in the area. In 2023, the mayor’s office dedicated $40 million in funding to put the plan into action. “The prototyping process really worked for us,” Myer says. And in the four years since the plan was releasedrelative light speed in the realm of public space projectsit has materialized on sidewalks and shared streets across downtown Brooklyn. Bright yellow planters now sit in the spaces where cars once parked, carving out niches for outdoor seating and dining. Teardrop-shaped tree planters add flourish to the edges of sidewalks where trash once gathered. Swooping benches teem with life along streets packed with an increasing mix of uses. [Photos: courtesy Downtown Brooklyn Partnership] This could be just the start of a broader transformation in the area. WXY and BIG’s design has now become a system that developers can use to improve the streetscape of future projects. Myer says the plan was strategically minimal in its proposed interventions. The redesign requires little large-scale construction, utilizing existing street poles, for example, and making the most of the existing width of the sidewalk. Aside from the two pilot projects, no other sidewalks were extended, “because you know how gnarly that can get,” Myer says. The plan has sailed through approvals and construction, and downtown Brooklyn’s streetscapes are almost unrecognizable from what they looked like just a few years ago. Myer calls it an effort that appeals across the spectrum, from business owners to building tenants to the growing residential population to visitors and tourists. “What we really were seeking here was to use our existing space better for people,” she says. [Photos: courtesy Downtown Brooklyn Partnership]
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E-Commerce
Rare earth minerals are so ubiquitous and critical to much of todays technology, that tonights dinner might not have made it to the table without them. And according to USA Rare Earth CEO Barbara Humpton, for decades, the world has sat back and let China become the sole supplier of these minerals, even as the country has used its dominance in this market as a geopolitical game piece. We believe its time to take the game piece off the board,” Humpton said at last months World Changing Ideas Summit, cohosted by Fast Company and Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. USA Rare Earth is wholly dedicated to bringing rare earth metals mining to the U.S., and changing this dynamic is humanly possible, says Humptonthough it will require the support of governments, academia, and private industry. “We’re gonna have to use some real strategy to actually turn the tide,” she says. It may be difficult, but there are already some early signs of progress, as governments that include the U.S., Japan, and the European Union have collaborated to agree on supporting a rare earth supply chain beyond China. Getting academia involved to educate students in magnet-making and rare earth processing is also a priority, Humpton says, along with securing the support of major industries that rely on these minerals, like the automotive sector. A good chance to turn this around According to Humpton, many countriesthe U.S. includedwere perfectly happy to let China dominate this market, because it was cheaper and less messy for them. But Chinas behavior in recent years has led to this moment, she says, adding that there are many benefits to bringing this type of mining to the U.S., including the potential for economic development, and addressing some environmental concerns to mitigate consequences and utilize cleaner extraction techniques. Because we are in an area where it’s a relatively small market, a relatively small number of companies, we have a good chance to turn this around, she says. If we don’t get started, we’ll never get done.
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump has always been a master marketer. He is particularly adept at lending his name to products and buildings, which has proven to be a lucrative business. Now in office, he’s bringing that same licensing mindset to the very act of governing. Last week, the State Department said it renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) after Trump and put his name on its building in Washington, D.C. This comes after Trump fired the board members and nearly all U.S. employees of the USIP. The USIP’s open, natural-light-drenched headquarters was designed by Safdie Architects to symbolize conflict resolution. But it has ironically become the flashpoint of what former board members have described as a hostile takeover of the federally funded independent nonprofit in Trump’s second term. DOGE staff and police entered the building in March, but USIP took control two months later after a judge ruled the firings were illegal. Then a federal appeals court stayed the ruling in June. The building’s switched hands several times, and with it back in the Trump administration’s hands, they’re looking to make it formal with signage. The US Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington, D.C., on Friday, December 5. [Photo: Alex Kent/Bloomberg/Getty Images] The politics of unearned credit The building’s new “Donald J. Trump” signage is just the latest example of a larger trend where Trump has assigned his name to policies and initiatives that he once opposed. For example, Trump campaigned against the infrastructure bill signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in 2021, and yet Trump’s name went up earlier this year on new signage in Seattle for an Amtrak rain project funded by Biden’s bipartisan law. “President Donald J. Trump, Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure,” the bright “Make America Great Again” hat-red sign says. The words, “Funded by the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act,” are written in smaller type below. Then there’s the Nation Park Service (NPS), which Trump has taken an axe to, cutting staff 16.5% and the budget by more than a third. Still, Trump’s image is going on two designs for next year’s annual NPS passes. The Interior Department is also making Trump’s birthday, which falls on Flag Day, one of several “resident-only patriotic fee-free days” to parks next year while dropping it for MLK Day and Juneteenth. When Trump put his name on stimulus checks funded through the CARES ACT, passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it was unprecedented, the first time a president’s name had appeared on an IRS disbursement. Now, it seems, it’s just politics as usual. The man who once gave us Trump Steaks now seeks to gives us a Trump peace institute, and some might say its good politics. Biden called it “stupid” that he didn’t put his own name on stimulus checks funded through the 2021 American Rescue Plan. But with Trump’s approval at a second-term low of 36%, according to Gallup, these branding efforts don’t exactly seem to be working.
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E-Commerce
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