Tag: private property

Judge Blocks Mamdani’s Pied-à-Terre Tax After Homeowners File Lawsuit

A New York judge on Monday temporarily blocked NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new pied-à-terre tax, which hits New Yorkers who own a valuable second home.

Last month, Mamdani implemented a so-called luxury property tax on second homes valued at $5 million or more. The property tax also affected certain co-ops valued over $1 million.

Mamdani doxxed the homeowners after his Department of Finance published a database listing the names and addresses of the 960,000 properties.

“As per State law, a property roll was released for public inspection. From this list, DOF will identify properties that may be subject to the new non-primary residence property surcharge,” a Mamdani spox previously told Fox News.

Affluent homeowners said the database and doxxing could lead to harassment and violence.

Homeowners filed a lawsuit in New York’s Supreme Court to stop Mamdani’s property tax

The lawsuit argues that New York City bungled the execution of the new tax by “arbitrarily and capriciously” forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to prove they do not owe the tax.

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These Are The States With The Most Empty Homes

America faces a housing shortage, yet about 14.5 million homes across the country are vacant. How can both be true?

Using the latest U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by LendingTree, Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld created this map showing the share of vacant housing units in every state.

About one in 10 U.S. housing units is vacant, but most are not permanently sitting unused.

Nearly 4.7 million vacant units are seasonal or recreational homes, 2.6 million are available for rent, and fewer than 800,000 are actively listed for sale. This helps explain why states with large vacation-home markets, including Maine, Vermont, Florida, and Hawaii, record some of the nation’s highest vacancy rates.

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Government Will Steal Your Land to Feed the AI Machine

Private land may be seized to construct transmission lines required by the rapidly expanding AI data-center industry. If a property owner refuses to sell an easement voluntarily, a utility may resort to eminent domain, provided the project is declared a “public use” and the owner receives what the government calls “just compensation.” Let us call this what it is: legalized theft.

The government does not ask whether the land has been in your family for generations, whether you built your home with your own hands, or whether the money offered would ever replace what is being destroyed. A bureaucrat determines the supposed market value, a judge blesses the taking, and armed government agents will eventually remove you if you continue to resist. They hide behind legal phrases because “confiscation for corporate benefit” would expose the practice for what it has become.

The United States already has more than 3,000 data centers, with another 1,500 under development. These facilities consumed more than 4% of total US electricity in 2024, and demand is rising rapidly as companies construct gigawatt-scale AI campuses. New transmission lines must cross somebody’s property, and when the owner says no, the state may simply decide that no does not matter.

Seventy percent of Americans reportedly oppose having a data center built near their community. These facilities can consume enormous quantities of electricity and water while creating noise, traffic, pollution, and higher infrastructure costs. Health risks are not fully understood although reports of increased cancer risks are prevalent in communities near these facilities. Yet the same governments that claim to represent the public are preparing to override that opposition because the technology companies have more influence than the families whose land stands in their way.

This is already happening. CBS News reported that Georgia Power acquired more than 300 parcels for a transmission project intended largely to serve data centers. The utility said that between 70% and 80% of the new line’s capacity would support data-center demand. Families were informed that if they refused the proposed sale, Georgia Power could pursue condemnation.

Ansley Brown’s family sold the home her grandparents had built after receiving an eminent-domain notice. She called the process “theft,” and she was absolutely correct. Georgia Power would not even identify the data-center companies benefiting from the project, citing customer confidentiality. The landowner must surrender everything, but the corporate beneficiary is permitted to remain hidden. That tells you exactly who the government serves.

The Fifth Amendment states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. The government has twisted those words beyond recognition. A transmission line that principally benefits unnamed private technology corporations is now presented as a public necessity merely because the electricity passes through the broader grid. Under that reasoning, nearly any private commercial project can be disguised as public infrastructure.

The Supreme Court opened the floodgates with Kelo v. City of New London in 2005. The Court ruled 5–4 that private property could be taken and transferred to another private party as part of an economic-development plan. The politicians promised jobs, tax revenue, and revitalization. The proposed Pfizer-related development never materialized as promised, and much of the condemned neighborhood remained vacant for years. Families lost their homes so politicians could gamble with property that was never theirs.

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Kamala Harris’ new $8M mansion is in a neighborhood with virtually no black residents

Despite a career-long commitment to combating racial disparities in housing and touting the importance of living among Black people, former Vice President Kamala Harris’ new California mansion is situated in a neighborhood with virtually no racial diversity.

Harris’ new 4,000-square-foot property, which reports indicate she acquired for $8.15 million, is located in the exclusive seaside community of Point Dume and includes ocean views, multiple wine fridges, private golf greens and enough parking to accommodate five vehicles.

Point Dume is situated entirely within Census tract 8004.08, which the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimated was just 0.2% Black and roughly 94% White as of 2019.

Harris’ choice of neighborhood may surprise longtime observers given past comments she has made about the importance of living among other Black Americans.

“When you’re at (a historically Black college or university), and especially one with the size and with the history of Howard University — and also in the context of also being in D.C., which was known forever as being ‘Chocolate City’ — it just becomes about you understanding that there is a whole world of people who are like you,” Harris told a Washington Post reporter in 2019, reflecting on her experience growing up in primarily White social circles then attending a historically Black college in a predominantly African American city.

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What in the Actual? Mamdani Doxxes NYC’s Wealthy by Publishing Their Names and Addresses

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) just made it a whole lot easier for anyone to look up the names and home addresses of wealthy New Yorkers who own second properties in the city.

How? By publishing a searchable database of properties that could fall under the new pied-à-terre tax, complete with the owners’ full names and addresses.

The list covers unoccupied, non-primary residences worth more than $1 million across the five boroughs.

The New York Post reports that the move by the administration is “effectively doxxing thousands of wealthy New Yorkers.”

I’m almost certain that those individuals are thrilled to have their potentially empty homes’ addresses advertised to unhinged “tax the rich” leftists.

For property owners who already felt targeted by the city’s new tax push, having their personal information posted online is only pouring fuel on the fire, which is the intent, really. Mamdani is literally trying to drive wealthy individuals out of the city that serves as the economic engine of the nation.

It fits a clear pattern of taunting. RedState’s Nick Arama detailed how Mamdani recently mocked second-home owners online by gloating that notification letters for the new pied-à-terre tax were already in the mail and that “you’ve got mail.”

Arama accurately described the derisive message as “gross,” which might as well be an evergreen description going forward for Mamdani’s economically illiterate reign.

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Supreme Court rejects Michigan family’s claim that county committed ‘home equity theft’ over $2,200 tax debt

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously sided with Isabella County, Michigan, rejecting a family’s claim that local governments must pay homeowners the full fair market value of property seized and sold in tax foreclosures rather than the lower price obtained at public auction.

In the 9-0 decision, the court ruled that under the Fifth Amendment, “the proper baseline under the Takings Clause is the price obtained in a tax sale, at least when the sale is fairly conducted in light of our country’s history of tax sales.”

Writing for the court, Justice Samuel Alito explained that “neither the Fifth nor the Eighth Amendment requires the government to compensate former owners based on the hypothetical fair market value of their property.”

The high court noted that creating a fair-market-value baseline would impose “unprecedented burdens” on local governments seeking to collect unpaid taxes, making these sales “impractical.”

“Under Pung’s rule, a tax sale to collect $20,000 in delinquent taxes would net the government a $20,000 loss—a loss paid out to the delinquent taxpayer himself,” Alito continued. “The possibility of such a perverse result would render tax sales infeasible as a debt-collection mechanism.”

The ruling comes amid a decade-long legal battle between Isabella County and the Pung family over what they called “home equity theft.” Isabella County foreclosed on the family’s 3,000-square-foot home over a disputed $2,241.93 tax bill stemming from a revoked Principal Residence Exemption, subsequently selling the $194,400 property at auction for just $76,008. Michael Pung, acting as the personal representative of the estate, disputed the bill and brought the legal challenge on behalf of the family.

While the county eventually returned the surplus auction proceeds, the family argued the Constitution required “just compensation” based on the home’s actual worth, rather than a low-ball auction price that destroyed more than $118,000 in equity.

However, the court said on Tuesday it would not “resolve any of Pung’s newfound contentions that the procedure the County followed in seizing and selling his property was unfair.”

The court ultimately vacated and remanded the case, sending it back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to reconsider those procedural claims.

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Mamdani Rent Freeze Will Effectively Take 40% of NYC Apartments off the Market

On June 25, 2026, the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) voted 7-1 to set the annual rent adjustment for rent-stabilized apartments at 0% for both one-year and two-year lease renewals commencing October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, fulfilling Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign pledge to “freeze the rent.” It is the first time in the board’s history, dating to 1969, that a two-year lease has been frozen at 0%; one-year freezes had occurred three times previously under Mayor de Blasio.

The board also set the hotel and single-room-occupancy (SRO) order at 0% for the same 2026-27 period, extending the freeze to every category the RGB regulates that year, including rooming and lodging houses.

Six of the nine board members were appointed by Mamdani before the vote. Owner representative Christina Smyth resigned hours before the final vote, calling the process predetermined. The lone dissent came from Arpit Gupta, a holdover appointee from former Mayor Eric Adams.

New York City has roughly 2.2 million rental units. Of those, about 1 million are rent-stabilized, close to 40-45% of the total rental stock, depending on the year’s survey, and are subject to annual RGB decisions. Nearly half of those stabilized units are occupied by people born outside the US.

Rent controls of any kind are a classic example of misguided socialist economic policies intended to solve a problem while, in reality, making it worse. Ultimately, suppressing rent increases reduces the number of units available for rent by encouraging landlord exit and tenant lock-in. A rent freeze does not simply cap future increases. It widens the gap between what a rent-stabilized unit can legally charge and what it could command on the open market.

As that gap grows, a landlord’s financial incentive shifts away from continuing to rent the unit and toward selling it to an owner-occupant, converting it to a condominium, combining units, or leaving it vacant rather than re-renting it at below-market rates. Each of these outcomes effectively removes the apartment from the rental market, even though the building itself remains.

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A judge decides that property owners in Wainfleet, Ont. deserve to be fined MILLIONS for renting their properties!

Government overreach has once again reared its ugly head in the Township of Wainfleet, Ont. (pop. approximately 7,000). And at least one Ontario judge is OK with this.

Here’s the skinny: Wainfleet council has effectively declared war on landowners who make their properties available for short-term rentals. And the township is fining these residents at least $10,000 per owner per dwelling per day!

Translation: as these daily fines mount, few can afford to pay these enormous sums. And that ultimately means “violators” risk having their properties seized by the township.

This seems like banana republic stuff to say the least.

Meanwhile, one dare not say anything negative about this council on social media. That’s because this council is trying to silence citizens via a lawsuit based on… copyright violation? Indeed, the township claims videos online depict the township’s crest and corporate log, emblems that are being used without consent or approval. Seriously.

It would appear that the Township of Wainfleet likes to carry out its shakedowns away from the public eye and will pursue censorship to ensure that goal if need be. All of which has many residents in the township pondering if Wainfleet is situated in the Dominion of Canada – or the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.

Rebel News interviewed Scott Wilson and Laural Duquette more than a year ago. They head up the Wainfleet Association of Responsible Short-Term Rentals (STR).

Wilson says he is facing a total fine threshold that now totals $175 million. As such, his family risks having their property confiscated by the township given that they are unable to pay those fines.

The township’s heavy-handed tactics are beyond the pale. Granted, Canadians do not enjoy private property rights under the constitution. But the questions arise: what is driving this short-term rental vendetta? What is the harm in a homeowner renting out his or her property? Those are key questions – and questions that deserve answers – except that nobody at the township will come on the record to comment.

And another query arises: what indeed is the unspoken strategy behind the short-term rental jihad? Is this all about Wainfleet councilors embracing a NIMBY initiative when it comes to short-term rentals in their township?

Recently, Wilson and his fellow renters had their day in court fighting these massive fines. It did not go well. Justice James Ramsay in the Superior Court of Justice in Welland ruled in favour of the township. Here are some excerpts from his decision:

  • “There is no evidence of bad faith [by the Township of Wainfleet].”
  • “The penalties are coercive, as opposed to punitive. They are not disproportionate.”
  • “The by-law is not discriminatory. Requiring the owner to own the property for two years before applying for a licence promotes stability of ownership and makes absenteeism by landlords less desirable. Operators who live in the community have a stake in the liveability [sic] of the neighbourhood.”

Justice Ramsay dismissed the application and awarded the Township of Wainfleet partial legal costs totaling $5,000. Then again, given that Wilson is already on the hook for $175 million, five grand amounts to chump change…

Check out our most recent interview with Wilson. While he and his fellow renters may be down, they are not out given they are appealing the decision.

That appeal is scheduled for next January. This story is far from over. Stay tuned.

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Sony Playstation Deletes 551 Movies People Already Paid For

Sony delivered a brutal reminder this week that if you don’t own the physical disc, you don’t own the movie.

Even if you paid the full price to purchase the movie, you don’t really own the movie.

Sony has “confirmed a substantial wipeout that will result in over 550 titles being permanently deleted from personal libraries.”

“The list of movies and series that will be pulled from digital spaces is extensive and spans a wide range of prominent blockbusters, indie hits, and critically acclaimed titles that people have previously purchased to watch at home or on the move — but not for much longer,” adds the report.

This includes popular movies such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall, and Rambo: First Blood, along with outright classics such as Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter. Even some TV shows, like American Gods and Versailles, will be yanked.

Here’s Sony’s announcement to all the suckers who purchased these 551 movies and TV series:

As of 1 September, 2026, due to our content licensing arrangements, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased StudioCanal content and the content will be removed from your video library.

That’s just another way of saying what came out of the fascist World Economic Forum ten years ago: “You’ll own nothing and be happy.”

Listen, I’m not trying to come off as superior here. About ten years ago, I naively decided to go full-digital with my obnoxiously huge movie collection. After converting, I sold my discs. Hundreds of them. Then came the realization that “owning” a digital copy meant nothing of the sort. It also meant that the Woke Gestapo was going into private digitized collections and vandalizing movies, even classics like The French Connection.

I have since rebuilt my physical media collection, but too many of the movies I once owned on Blu-ray are no longer available.

Oh, and it’s not just movies and TV shows anymore. You once owned a copy of computer programs by purchasing a CD. Remember that? Well, today you are forced to rent that program by the month or by the year.

Sony PlayStation also just announced that it will no longer sell physical copies of its games starting in 2028. You will only be allowed to buy a digital copy, which means Sony can censor it, alter it, or remove it any time it wishes.

If a movie or TV show, song, or novel means a lot to you, buy the physical copy or risk not only having your copy censored or removed, but also risk it disappearing forever — like Song of the South or The Path to 9/11 — for political reasons.

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NYC Landlord BLASTS Zohran Mamdani With Truth After Commie Rent Freeze Affects Millions

A New York City landlord, Jude Jean Paul Bernard, has gone viral on IG after tearing into Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his commie voters who backed his rent‑freeze agenda, calling the policy “socialism at its best.” Mamdani had celebrated the Rent Guidelines Board’s 7–1 vote to freeze rents on both one‑ and two‑year leases for roughly one million rent‑stabilized apartments with a social‑media clip from his kitchen freezer, telling more than two million affected residents “your rent’s gonna be frozen next year.”

In his response video, Bernard opens by sarcastically trolling by congratulating renters for “doing it” and “getting the rent frozen” for the next two years, before warning that the victory is not what they think it is. “Now, that doesn’t mean that expenses have gone down,” he tells the audience, listing taxes, insurance, water and energy as costs that have not fallen even as revenues are capped by the city.

“If we were struggling to make the numbers before, I’m not sure how we’re going to fix that boiler, fix that broken elevator, and do all those things that you tenants deserve,” Bernard continues, arguing that the freeze leaves owners without cash to maintain buildings. He goes on to note that “the same city that just passed this rent freeze has also said that they will be taking distressed properties from bad landlords,” suggesting that officials are setting up a scenario where owners are first starved of income and then punished for failing to keep up with repairs. “So, you don’t have the money to fix the properties, but if we don’t fix the properties, you guys are going to take it away,” Bernard says, capping his monologue with the line, “I love it (sarcasm). Socialism at its best!”

Social media users responded all over the country by calling out the freeze as a “Marxist” and “communist” agenda and presents Bernard’s video as proof that freezing rents for more than two million residents is already backfiring on the city’s housing stock and private ownership. Bernard’s warning dovetails with broader landlord and trade‑group complaints that the freeze, while politically popular with commies, will mean deferred maintenance, more “distressed” buildings and potential foreclosures as operating costs outpace frozen rents.

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