Tuesday, July 14, 2026

On Tap Today

  • Long ROAD: The ROAD Act’s increase of the public welfare investment cap will have a big effect on affordable housing development.

  • Privacy shakedown: A proptech firm is covering legal costs for brokers threatened over website tracking.

  • Bought the farm: Pennsylvania farm families are striking eight-figure deals with data center developers.

  • AI in real estate capital raising: A live workshop for capital markets professionals on how AI can transform your fundraising. Sign up

Essential Metrics

Daily Market Snapshot
S&P 500 7,515.34 −60.05 (−0.79%)
FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs 860.77 +5.09 (+0.59%)
10-Year Treasury 4.61% +5 bps
SOFR 3.55% +2 bps
Data as of market close July 13, 2026. SOFR reflects the July 10 trade date.
President Trump's move to reinstate the Hormuz blockade sent oil up more than nine percent and knocked the S&P 500 down 0.79 percent to 7,515.34, with AI and chip names taking the worst of the selling. The FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs index bucked the selloff, rising 0.59 percent to 860.77, as investors rotated toward lease-backed cash flows and defensive income. The 10-year yield climbed five basis points to 4.61 percent, undoing Friday's relief for fixed-rate take-out math just as Tuesday's CPI print and Fed Chair Warsh's first congressional testimony come into view. SOFR rose two basis points to 3.55 percent, nudging floating-rate carry higher for borrowers on bridge and construction paper.

Editor’s Pick

The “ROAD to Housing Act’s” Possible Impact on Affordable Housing Investment

The most significant federal housing legislation in more than three decades is aimed at fixing a financing problem created by last year’s expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. More credits are now available, but falling credit values have widened the gap between what affordable housing projects cost and the equity they can attract.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act attempts to close that gap by raising the amount banks can invest in affordable housing and other community development projects. Increasing the public welfare investment cap from 15 percent to 20 percent could unlock an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion in additional bank investment each year.

That would be enough to address much of the capital needed to finance the 1.2 million additional affordable homes the expanded tax credit program could support. But the legislation only gives banks permission to invest more. Whether they actually deploy that capital into affordable housing will determine how much new construction the law ultimately produces.

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Fast Take

Proptech Firm Backs Brokers Against California Privacy Shakedown Suits

Lofty, a proptech firm serving more than 91,000 real estate professionals, launched a free legal defense program for customers targeted by demand letters alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act. The company says brokerages nationwide have received templated letters from serial litigants claiming standard website analytics tools like Google Analytics violate CIPA, with demands often reaching $50,000 and settlements typically between $5,000 and $15,000. On July 8, Lofty filed suit against Vivek Shah, who has filed at least 19 CIPA lawsuits and sent Lofty a demand letter in June threatening litigation over the company's use of third-party tracking code. Both Zillow and Redfin faced similar CIPA suits in 2024 from the same plaintiff over tracking pixels; both cases were voluntarily dismissed.
Lofty's CIPA Defense Program offers customers a review and written assessment of demand letters, a formal legal response to claimants, legal support if formal complaints are filed, and ongoing case updates. The company said it will not pressure customers to settle and aims for dismissal rather than settlement. Lofty argues the legal theory behind the claims is meritless, noting California's law was designed to regulate telephone surveillance, not commercial website analytics. The program covers CIPA-related demands targeting Lofty's standard analytics tools on Lofty-hosted websites and is open to active clients and new clients who migrate from rival platforms after receiving a demand letter.
Shah's draft complaint alleges Lofty engaged in unlawful internet surveillance by transmitting visitors' IP addresses and device identifiers to third parties for marketing and analytics without consent. Lofty filed its complaint to establish certainty about the legality of its conduct and protect its customers from ongoing threats. The company, a majority-owned subsidiary of Moatable and formerly known as Chime Technologies, says a ruling against its analytics tools would require months of staff resources and significant platform re-architecture. Lofty powers more than 30,000 websites and offers an agentic AI operating system designed to manage workflows for brokerages and agents.
 
Fast Take

Rural Landowners Cash Out as AI Data Center Demand Surges

Marilee and David Kiliti sold their 89-acre Pennsylvania farm for more than $22 million to QTS, a Blackstone subsidiary, as part of a $586 million land assemblage for a data center. The Kilitis were among 96 families in Salem Township, Pennsylvania, who collectively sold about 1,700 acres at an average price of $330,000 per acre, earning $5.5 million per family on average. The couple, who raised hogs and struggled financially for years, are now building a hilltop dream home with a pool, theater room, and second-story hot tub. David Kiliti worked construction jobs while Marilee drove forklifts before the sale allowed them to retire comfortably.
Jack Sordoni, a land developer who previously worked on oil and gas deals, organized the property assemblage after learning Amazon was buying land in the area. He spent two years persuading landowners to sell, some of whom were skeptical after receiving lowball offers in the past. The land proved valuable because existing transmission lines and substation infrastructure serving a nearby natural-gas plant and nuclear plant were already in place. A second deal next door involving 200 landowners and $1.3 billion is now in the works, with Sordoni recently addressing a room of 200 prospective sellers at the Berwick Golf Club.
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, where the sales occurred, has a median household income below the national average and was largely bypassed by the natural-gas boom two decades ago. More than three-quarters of the land sellers are staying within 25 miles of the data-center site, buying more land and building new houses, while others are purchasing local businesses including a furniture store and a brewery. QTS projects 50 permanent jobs per building across 12 buildings, plus more than 1,500 construction jobs, though some residents in nearby Mifflinville have organized opposition to data center development, citing environmental concerns and threats to rural character.

Overheard

Popular Articles

How Z-Wave Is Expanding to Meet the Demands of Modern Buildings

Z-Wave has quietly become one of the most widely deployed IoT protocols in the world, with over 100 million devices installed and a new long-range specification that is opening up commercial and multifamily building applications that mesh networking could never reach.

https://propmodo.com/how-z-wave-is-expanding-to-meet-the-demands-of-modern-buildings/

Why the World's Top Data Center Market Is Now in Texas

Dallas tops the global rankings as the Texas data center market surges, with power availability, land, and grid policy redrawing where AI infrastructure gets built.

https://propmodo.com/why-the-worlds-top-data-center-market-is-now-in-texas/

The Pfizer Building Scare Shows Why Office Conversions Are Engineering Projects First

The Pfizer building scare does not undercut office conversions, but it does expose why structural engineering must sit at the center of adaptive reuse.

https://propmodo.com/playbook/the-pfizer-building-scare-shows-why-office-conversions-are-engineering-projects-first/

Spatial Branding Is Turning Offices Into a Company's Most Powerful Storytelling Tool

A growing number of companies are using spatial branding to translate brand identity into the physical environment of their offices, turning wayfinding, art, and material choices into tools for storytelling, orientation, and culture building.

https://propmodo.com/spatial-branding-is-turning-offices-into-a-companys-most-powerful-storytelling-tool/

Will Easier Conversions Delay Office Housing or Just Prove the Model Works?

School, hotel, and mall conversions are accelerating, but whether they're starving office-to-residential projects of capital depends on whether the conversion market is efficiently sequenced or genuinely crowded—evidence suggests the former is more likely.

https://propmodo.com/will-easier-conversions-delay-office-housing-or-just-prove-the-model-works/

The Cushman & Wakefield Cyberattack Is a Wake-Up Call for Commercial Real Estate

When two of the world's most prolific cybercrime groups simultaneously claimed attacks on Cushman & Wakefield in May 2026, the incident revealed how exposed commercial real estate firms are to social engineering attacks.

https://propmodo.com/the-cushman-wakefield-cyberattack-is-a-wake-up-call-for-commercial-real-estate/

What Owners Are Really Looking for in a Property Condition Assessment

Property management firms are losing clients silently through inadequate inspection reporting that fails to demonstrate active asset management.

https://propmodo.com/what-owners-are-really-looking-for-in-a-property-condition-assessment/

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