Russell McIntyre
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russellmcintyre.bsky.social
Russell McIntyre
@russellmcintyre.bsky.social
US Climate & Housing Policy
Senior Policy Analyst at Cotality
(views are my own)
Carolina sports, star wars, marvel, and memes
WNC / UNC '13 / GWU GSPM '16 / 📍DC
#greensky #climatesky #housing #urbanism
As someone who grew up in that part of the Carolinas...
December 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM
the affordability message is working ⤵️

“We’re living in the state of Florida, where we have people that are building cages for our residents rather than affordable housing for them.”

www.bisnow.com/south-florid...
Eileen Higgins Elected Next Mayor Of Miami With Real Estate's Backing
Some of South Florida's largest developers poured thousands of dollars into her campaign.
www.bisnow.com
December 11, 2025 at 4:08 PM
"a group of Southern California homeowners, including some that lost their houses in the Eaton and Palisades fires, fought the draft rules"

I mean, the mental gymnastics required to lose your home in a fire then turn around and protest Zone Zero, like what🤸‍♂️

www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/20...
California Again Delays Wildfire Protection Rules for Homes
A California state agency won't meet Gov. Gavin Newsom's year-end deadline to finish long-delayed regulations to protect homes from wildfires, rules that
www.insurancejournal.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Mixed thoughts.

On one hand, their data source isn't property-specific, so the risk scores weren't as accurate as they need to be for actual pricing conversations.

However, still sad that this could push the housing industry away from more transparency in hazard risk disclosures, b/c we need it
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · 11d
Zillow, the nation’s largest real estate listing website, has removed extreme weather risk data meant to help buyers figure out if the biggest purchase of their life is particularly susceptible to floods, high winds or wildfires. https://cnn.it/48gR0A5
December 2, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Excited to see someone who genuinely cares about affordable housing jump into the DC mayoral race. 🏡🏘️

Looking forward to some specific housing proposals over the course of the campaign.

Best of luck @cmlewisgeorgew4.bsky.social !
DC is in an affordable housing crisis. We cannot afford to waste money through mismanagement and backdoor deals for well-connected developers.
 
Our residents deserve a housing agency that actually uses available resources to build the affordable homes our city desperately needs.
December 2, 2025 at 6:10 PM
One of the BIGGEST problems in housing right now (in addition to the lack of supply) is the need to build homes that are more physically resilient to natural hazards but the lack of available funding to do so 🏡⛈️

Earlier this year, NC introduced a game-changer.

www.claimsjournal.com/news/nationa...
'Super Roofs' Are Rewarding Insurers, Cat Bond Investors and Homeowners
For years, experts have discussed whether cat bonds could do more than just clean up after disasters—whether they could incentivize mitigation work to would lessen damages in the first place.
www.claimsjournal.com
December 1, 2025 at 7:13 PM
For much of the past decade, climate change has been pushing insurance premiums higher and higher.

A new lawsuit might actually be able to pin those financial costs to the big oil companies that created this mess.

🤞🤞🤞

mynorthwest.com/local/big-oi...
Lawsuit: Big Oil’s decades of climate deception fueled WA’s soaring home insurance costs
A federal lawsuit reveals how climate deception by Big Oil drives up home insurance costs in Washington, impacting homeowners.
mynorthwest.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:44 PM
"One reason we don’t build enough affordable housing is we’ve made affordable housing unaffordable to build."

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
November 24, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Climate 👏 Science 👏 Saves 👏 Lives

When you show people how climate change will affect them (and their finances), they tend to make the right decisions.

www.redfin.com/news/climate...
Flood-Prone America Is Seeing More People Move Out Than In for the First Time Since 2019
High-flood-risk counties lost nearly 30,000 more residents than they gained last year—the first net outflow since 2019.
www.redfin.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:40 PM
The next housing crisis in a nutshell:

💸 16% increase in monthly property taxes
⛈️ 146% increase in homeowners insurance costs
🏘️ historic undersupply of affordable housing
📈 high mortgage rates creating lock-in effect
🏚️ high costs of labor & materials preventing repair

www.urban.org/research/pub...
A Perfect Storm of Rising Costs Threatens America’s Housing Market
This brief provides a case study of one housing market that many markets across the country can examine. The pressures on households, real estate and insuran…
www.urban.org
October 14, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Just another straw on the housing market's overly strained back.

We really need to consider federal limits on the amount of single-family homes that investors can purchase, especially in LMI areas (though it'll be at least another 3.5 years before that happens).

www.housingwire.com/articles/inv...
Investors drive up home prices, challenging first-time buyers
Real estate investors are outbidding first-time buyers, paying up to 4.3% over market value. Discover the impact on home prices.
www.housingwire.com
October 14, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Apparently we learned nothing from 2008...🤦‍♂️

Got a feeling that our next housing collapse is gonna look a lot like the last one.

www.cnbc.com/2025/10/08/b...
Borrowers head back to riskier mortgages, looking for any potential savings
Mortgage demand weakened again but for those in the market, adjustable-rate loans are getting more popular, as they offer lower interest rates.
www.cnbc.com
October 9, 2025 at 2:54 PM
The shutdown is bringing our housing market to a standstill and this is what HUD chooses to post on their front page today... 🤦‍♂️😒
October 1, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Fear of diversity.

I'm from rural NC - almost everyone was white & religious and many hated 'the big city' because you were more likely to see non-white, non-straight, non-middle class, non-religious folk (that Fox News has taught them to be afraid of)

Mind you the 'big city' was Spartanburg, SC 🙄
the amount of raw, unadulterated fear that many Americans have of even small cities is never going to stop being darkly hilarious to me
September 29, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Had a chance to sit down for a conversation on the current homeowners insurance crisis and the need to increase public funding for resiliency measures, at both the individual property and community level. 🏘️⛈️🌪

www.cotality.com/insights/art...
Prevention isn't popular- but it's good policy
There is a fault line straining the insurance industry which could trigger a housing shock with echoes of the last financial crisis. | Cotality
www.cotality.com
September 26, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Been meaning to share this phenomenal research piece from Matt Posner and @el-xav.bsky.social over at @brookings.edu.

Doesn't just outline the current problems we have financing resiliency investments, but actually provides a roadmap for potential solutions. 🏡🏘️

www.brookings.edu/articles/ret...
Rethinking our assumptions and financing tools for community resilience in the face of growing climate loss and risk | Brookings
This report explains that it is key to reorient public finance toward principles of shared risk, shared value, and new pricing.
www.brookings.edu
September 25, 2025 at 7:57 PM
the next housing crisis isn't just around the corner... it's already here.
September 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM
omg, it's like if we actually taxed the rich we could pay for things, who knew 🤷‍♂️

www.housingwire.com/articles/los...
Los Angeles 'mansion tax' fuels record affordable housing funding
Most of the money — $316 million — comes from Measure ULA, a transfer tax on property sales above $5 million that voters approved in 2022.
www.housingwire.com
September 9, 2025 at 1:00 PM
How... how did this take three weeks? Shoulda been day one. 🤦‍♂
September 4, 2025 at 3:47 PM
August 21, 2025 at 1:57 PM
"the median board is composed of 97 percent homeowners"

"all but 4 of the 66 organizations surveyed had a higher share of homeowners on their boards than living in their regions"

www.urban.org/urban-wire/m...
In Most Regions, Metropolitan Planning Boards Overrepresent Homeowners and Drivers
The appointed and elected officials who sit on the boards of a large share of regional planning organizations rarely reflect the people they serve.,Regional planning organizations help coordinate deci...
www.urban.org
August 21, 2025 at 1:47 PM
As a proud alum of @gspmgwu.bsky.social please - for the love of god - fight this.

They're trying to outlaw civil protests.

This attack on higher ed is peak authoritarianism.

www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
Trump administration says George Washington University violated law over Jewish students, faculty
The Trump administration said on Tuesday it found George Washington University had violated federal civil rights law regarding Jewish, American Israeli, and Israeli students and faculty and will seek "immediate remediation" from the school.
www.reuters.com
August 12, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Good thing we still have the BRIC progra- oh wait...

But what about the the Green & Resilient Retrof- hmm...

At least they're still funding the HOME and CDBG prog- no?

... well shit

www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/home-re...
Home Repairs Are Out of Reach for Many Lower-Income Homeowners
The housing stock requires continuous reinvestment to maintain decent conditions. Yet many homeowners lack the resources to invest in basic maintenanc
www.jchs.harvard.edu
July 31, 2025 at 3:32 PM
🚨 FHFA is repealing the Equitable Housing Finance Plan 🚨

This plan requires FHFA to identify barriers to housing for "underserved communities"

The administration says that establishing requirements for underserved communities "conflicts with current policy"

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
Fair Lending, Fair Housing, and Equitable Housing Finance Plans
The Federal Housing Finance Agency ("FHFA" or the "Agency") is requesting comment on the notice of proposed rulemaking repealing the Fair Lending, Fair Housing, and Equitable Housing Finance Plans reg...
www.federalregister.gov
July 28, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Allstate CEO compensation - $26.1M
Chubb CEO compensation - $30.1M
Travelers CEO compensation - $23.1M
Slide Insurance CEO compensation - $21M

US insurance firms' total investments in fossil fuels - $500M+

Shit like this is why it's so hard to fight climate change. 🤦‍♂️

prospect.org/power/2025-0...
Home Insurance Executives Are Raking It In—at Your Expense
Performance-based pay packages incentivize claim denials and other harmful practices.
prospect.org
July 24, 2025 at 3:07 PM