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New York Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
NYC's Carnegie Hall welcomes youngest piano prodigy ever to take stage
Alec Van Khajadourian plays to his strengths. And the five-year-old, a piano prodigy from Los Angeles, is poised to show off his strong suit — on one of NYC's most storied stages this Sunday. 'I can't wait to get on stage at Carnegie Hall and play for everyone,' little Alec enthused to The Post. 'I'm so excited!.' 5 Alec will shine as the youngest performer for the NY Classical Debut Awards Gala Concert at Carnegie Hall Sunday. @alecvanmusic/Instagram The ivory-tickling tot will be the youngest virtuoso performing at the NY Classical Debut Awards Gala Concert this weekend, when elementary and middle school age children from 10 countries — including Turkey, Macedonia, Macau and Poland — will show off their skills at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. 'Alec is our youngest performer ever,' said Pietro Molteni, the founder and artistic director for the Gala Concert. 'And, according to my records, the youngest performer in the history of Carnegie Hall.' Representatives for Carnegie Hall, however, told The Post they could not 'confirm anyone to be the youngest person to perform here since we don't have complete records of the Hall's earliest days.' In the summer of 2021, at age 3, pint-size pianist Brigitte Xie, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, was invited to perform at the world-famous venue after after winning a prestigious international music competition — but the top-of-her-game Tri-Stater reportedly wasn't able to make it due to a COVID-19-era snag. 5 Following his impressive winning streak, Alec was invited to perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in July. @alecvanmusic/Instagram Alec's triumphant journey to Carnegie started on a similar note — besting his pint-sized peers at not one, but three major events. Armed with perfect pitch — the ability to correctly identify or produce a musical note, a rarity found in only one in 10,000, or .01% of people, per reports — the bitty Beethoven buff began running his fingers across the piano keys shortly after taking his first steps. 'He would walk over to the piano when he first started walking, punching a few notes,' dad Joe Khajadourian, previously told ABC7. 'You could just see the huge grin on his face.' At age four, the talented tyke began fine-tuning his innate knack with piano lessons last year. 5 The tiny hotshot, a fan of Beethoven, began playing the piano while he was still in diapers, say his parents. . @alecvanmusic/Instagram In March 2025, he won first prize at the Charleston International Music Competition in South Carolina. He then dominated in the Big Apple, securing top honors at the 2025 NY Classical Debut Awards International Competition in April. And while most kids were busy dreaming about summer vacation, Alec was taking the gold at the 2025 Los Angeles Golden Classical Music Awards International Competition. The win earned him an exclusive invitation to perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall in the City of Angels on July 1. The mini maestro will continue his success streak at Gotham's acclaimed concert venue, where artists, from composers such as Antonín Dvořák and Gustav Mahler, to modern-day hitmakers like Jay Z, have, too, made their mark. 'I'm so excited and proud of Alec for all his hard work,' Joe tells The Post. 'It's such an amazing time for him.' 5 The five-year-old giddly tells The Post he's 'excited' to take one of NYC's most hallowed stages. @alecvanmusic/Instagram Both he and Alec's mother, Diana Sanders, have been granted permission to accompany the little luminary behind the curtains ahead of his W. 57th St. showcase, says Molteni. '[The NY Classical Debut Awards] and the Carnegie Hall staff made a few exceptions to the venue's strict rules — for instance, the policy prohibiting parents backstage,' Molteni explained, citing Alec's young age. 'The incredible Carnegie Hall team, including our amazing concert manager, Lorella Bergamo, immediately understood the uniqueness of the situation and accommodated it with great professionalism,' he added before emphasizing the importance of spotlighting gifted go-getters like Alec. 5 The boy's mother and father, Diana Sanders and Joe Khajadourian, expressed their abiding pride in Alec to The Post. @alecvanmusic/Instagram 'Taking the stage at such a prestigious venue allows these young musicians to see themselves as capable of achieving the highest levels of their craft,' he said. 'It's an extraordinary motivational boost for a young artist, who devotes countless hours to studying music in their room and pursuing one of the most demanding careers in the world.' Mom Diana agrees. 'It's beautiful to watch Alec share his love for the piano with so many people,' she gushed, 'and to inspire young kids to pursue music.'
Scoop
12-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
The Corporate Takeover Of Housing
The 2025 U.S. housing market presents a paradox. Home sales are down, and there are far more sellers than buyers, yet prices continue to hit record highs. Over the past decade, home values have surged nationwide, including in once-affordable Sunbelt cities. Policymakers appear ill-equipped to respond to the situation. In a July 2025 interview with the New York Times, 16 U.S. mayors listed housing as one of their top concerns. During her 2024 presidential campaign, former Vice President Kamala Harris proposed tax credits for first-time buyers to alleviate the crisis, while President Donald Trump has renewed calls for interest rate cuts to help lower mortgage rates. Homeownership remains central to the American dream, and U.S. homeownership rates have typically hovered around 65 percent 'from 1965 until 2025,' according to Trading Economics. But the high-water mark came in 2004 when it reached 69 percent, and despite a temporary COVID-19-era spike, the rate has continued to inch downward. Worryingly, even among those who own homes, equity is shrinking. Many homeowners own less than half of their property's value today, with the balance tied up in debt. Many of the pressures are structural. Construction costs have soared, labor is in short supply, and tariffs have raised the price of materials. Zoning laws, tax regimes, and anti-density regulations have stifled urban growth, while sprawling development is hitting geographic and environmental limits. Mortgage rates remain high, and the national housing shortfall, now estimated to be more than 4.5 million, continues to worsen. But the crisis has opened the door for new kinds of investors. A growing cast of corporate actors is moving into residential real estate, lured by the prospect of stable returns in a tightening market. Though they still own a minority of U.S. housing, these firms are often concentrated in key regions and markets. Increasingly capable of setting the terms of access to housing, their rising influence threatens to reverse the post-World War II surge in widespread homeownership. Buildup Large-scale corporate ownership of homes and influence over rent prices is a relatively recent development. Before 2008, most institutional investors stuck to apartment buildings and urban areas, as single-family homes were seen as too dispersed and costly to manage. That changed after the housing crash, when a wave of foreclosures flooded the market, leading to the availability of deeply discounted homes in the suburbs. 'In the decade since the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, major institutional financial actors have invested heavily in U.S. single-family housing, acquiring anywhere up to three hundred thousand houses, and then letting them out,' stated a 2021 article in Sage Journals. In 2012, government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae began selling thousands of foreclosed homes in bulk to investors, showing single-family housing could be bought, held, and profited from at scale. At the same time, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expanded support for institutional buyers through favorable financing terms and lower rates. Homebuilding, meanwhile, had collapsed, and a supply shortage began to take hold. 'The crash badly hurt a variety of sectors, but it simply devastated the home construction industry, given that the crisis was directly centered there. … with a glut of foreclosures on the market and prices falling fast, America simply stopped building homes. New private home starts plummeted by almost 80 percent to the lowest level since 1959,' according to a 2024 article in the American Prospect. Investor interest surged as home prices recovered in the early 2010s. This era brought record-low interest rates and trillions in financial stimulus from the Federal Reserve and government, which helped stabilise the economy and flooded capital markets. With cheap borrowing and rising prices, housing became an attractive asset. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend. Remote work drove people from cities to suburbs, while eviction moratoriums pushed many small landlords to sell, opening the door for larger buyers. Digital platforms made it easier to browse, purchase, and manage properties remotely. Alongside traditional banks, a wide range of financial firms and platforms have been profiting from rising demand and tightening supply. Wall Street Landlords Blackstone, one of the world's largest private equity firms, became a pioneer in large-scale housing acquisitions after 2008. In 2012, it helped launch Invitation Homes, now the largest owner of single-family rentals in the U.S. Though Blackstone sold its stake in 2019, it reentered the market by acquiring Canadian real estate firm Tricon Residential in 2024, and sold 3,000 homes that year to UK's largest pension fund for approximately $550 million, showcasing its global influence in housing. Other major firms have followed suit. Progress Residential, backed by Pretium Partners, has come under fire for evictions, maintenance failures, and excessive fees. Amherst Holdings was profiled in Fortune in 2019 for using early predictive algorithms to identify and acquire homes, and advances in AI have only made this process more efficient. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS), originally designed in the 1960s to give everyday investors access to real estate profits, are now largely dominated by major institutional firms like BlackRock, Vanguard, and private equity funds. Invitation Homes agreed to pay $48 million to the Federal Trade Commission in 2024 for junk fees, unfairly holding security deposits, failing to inspect homes, and using improper eviction tactics. Professor Desiree Fields, in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in 2021, meanwhile, singled out Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent as 'particularly vocal about the use of extraneous fees to increase total revenue,' stated a 2022 article in the Charlotte Observer. Corporate homebuying continues to climb. Institutional investors bought 15 percent of U.S. homes for sale in the first quarter of 2021, which climbed to nearly 27 percent by early 2025. In some markets, the footprint is even larger: during the third quarter of 2024, investors accounted for 44 percent of all home flips. Some firms, like Rise48 Equity, focus on acquiring and renovating large multifamily buildings to raise rental income and property value. Others, like Amherst Holdings, are beginning to enter the rent-flipping space as part of a larger expansion policy. Unlike smaller flippers who tend to cash out quickly, these companies renovate and hold properties long term. A growing number of companies are focusing on build-to-rent subdivisions, with entire neighborhoods constructed specifically for rentals. No single company dominates nationally, but corporate influence is unmistakable in certain cities. In Atlanta, private equity owns more than 30 percent of single-family rental properties, with corporate ownership disproportionately affecting Black neighborhoods, intensifying housing insecurity and displacement. Large firms enjoy several structural advantages. They access cheaper institutional financing, often pay in cash, and benefit from early access to listings and local policy influence. Firms can use creative financing tools, like combining many homes into a single investment package and using the expected rent payments as collateral to borrow more money. Bulk purchases allow them to cut costs on repairs, insurance, and maintenance, while builders are more inclined to sell homes in large blocks at a discount rather than wait for individual buyers, helping firms to avoid bidding wars. Unlike individual homeowners who often sell for financial reasons, institutional landlords can hold assets for years and sell only when market conditions are favorable. Tax policies further tilt the scales. While individual sellers pay capital gains taxes on home sales, corporate buyers can use the 1031 exchange to defer taxes by reinvesting profits into like-kind properties, pushing tax burdens into the future. Rental property owners also get tax depreciation benefits, which allow them to deduct part of the building's value each year, reducing their taxes, which compound over time. Tech Big Tech, with similar vast financial resources, has also become essential to the expansion of corporate housing. It enables investors to scale up, manage properties remotely, and influence markets and consumers to their advantage. One of the most influential tools is YieldStar, a rent pricing software developed by RealPage, purchased by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in 2021. RealPage gathers extensive rental data from participating landlords and uses algorithms to recommend optimal prices. Landlords who don't use the technology are often left at a disadvantage. Many property managers adopt these recommendations automatically, often under performance monitoring that discourages underpricing or offering tenant concessions. In cities like Seattle, where a handful of property managers control large shares of the market, RealPage's pricing influence can be especially powerful. A ProPublica investigation found that in one neighborhood, 70 percent of apartments were handled by 10 firms, all using RealPage software. Recommendations by the software included accepting lower occupancy rates if it leads to higher overall rent revenue. Critics argue that RealPage enables coordinated 'rent-setting,' effectively encouraging landlords to behave like a cartel. The U.S. Justice Department opened a lawsuit against the company in 2024 for causing harm to American renters by using its 'algorithmic pricing software.' The investigation remains ongoing. At the same time, short-term rental platforms like Airbnb have also reshaped housing. With vast reach and deep legal resources, Airbnb has helped normalize rental conversions and contributed to higher rents in many cities. In 2025, the New York Post reported that the company funded $1 million to alleged grassroots groups, such as Communities for Homeowner Choice, to oppose a New York City law requiring hosts to be present during guest stays. It has also backed tax battles and filed lawsuits across the U.S., challenging occupancy taxes and other local regulations, costing cities millions in legal fees. In both long- and short-term markets, tech platforms have made large-scale rental operations possible. Through pricing tools, political lobbying, and data leverage, housing is emerging as a more managed commodity. As corporate consolidation deepens and larger landlords become more integrated with tech platforms, these companies, and increasingly the property owners themselves, will exert even greater control over rent markets with less transparency or oversight. Addressing the Issue Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, including the U.S., now have some of the lowest home ownership rates in the world, and the rise of institutional landlords will drive those numbers lower. The core problem remains supply, with Wall Street firms targeting homes precisely because there's a shortage—something they openly acknowledge and tout to investors as a profit opportunity. The city of Austin is a rare success story. After peaking at $550,000 in May 2022, median home prices fell to $409,000 by January 2025, and indicators point to a continual downward trend. The key difference has been that Austin has built more affordable housing, providing incentives to ease zoning laws. Homeownership remains most common in rural areas, while urban centers have been hardest hit by rising investor activity and housing scarcity. Public involvement is critical to reducing the problem. Landlord interests, represented by groups like the National Multifamily Housing Council, carry enormous influence, while tenants rely on thinner support networks like the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Federal agencies like the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency play a role, but lag behind corporate influence. In comparison, Blackstone has faced greater resistance in European countries with stronger tenant protections and better-organised renters' movements. Policies like taxing the unimproved value of land could encourage development and discourage speculation on vacant or underused properties. Without effective measures, the concentration of land in private hands will only grow, whether through corporate landlords, billionaires like Bill Gates (who owns 250,000 acres spread out over 17 states), or creeping attempts to privatize public land. At stake is not just affordability but also whether the public retains any real claim to land and housing or surrenders it entirely to private capital.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TSX dividend stocks: CIBC predicts 'powerful' exodus from GICs through 2025
Yield-hungry investors will keep flocking to Canadian dividend stocks through the end of 2025, according to CIBC Capital Markets. Shares of Canadian banks, insurers and pipeline companies are expected to benefit the most from a slower-than-expected 'yield trade' away from GICs (guaranteed investment certificates). GICs, typically issued by banks, insurance firms and trust companies, offer a guaranteed return over a fixed timeframe. They surged in popularity when the Bank of Canada (BoC) began raising its trend-setting policy rate in March 2022 from COVID-19-era lows. Now, the tables have turned, with the BoC policy rate 225 basis points lower since last summer, following seven cuts from the central bank. The Bank of Canada is scheduled to announce its next rate decision on July 30. CIBC's Ian de Verteuil predicts a 'powerful fund flow' from GICs will continue to migrate to high dividend-yielding Canadian stocks. 'We are still early in the trade, and with further unwinding in GICs expected through the remainder of 2025, there is still a powerful fund flow support for high dividend-yielding Canadian equities,' he wrote in a note to clients earlier this week. So far in 2025, de Verteuil says performance has been brisk for most of the typical TSX dividend darling sectors, with utilities and REITs (real estate investment trusts) playing catch-up. 'Banks, insurers and pipelines have outperformed even the excellent returns of the S&P/TSX Composite – which has itself been bolstered by a rally in gold prices,' he wrote. 'Certainly, banks, insurers and pipelines will continue to benefit, but we would expect the 'yield trade' to broaden out further to include Utilities, REITs and Communications, which have not done as well.' de Verteuil says the exodus from GICs has been slower than expected, despite $100 billion in GICs repricing every quarter. 'There may be some surprise as to why GIC balances have not declined at an even faster pace. Part of this is simply the duration of the book and penalties for early cancellation of most GIC deposits,' he wrote. 'Another potential reason for the slow movement out of GICs is the equity market volatility earlier in the year, which may have encouraged investors to renew their low-risk GICs rather than switch to more volatile equities.' Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on X @jefflagerquist. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TSX dividend stocks: CIBC predicts 'powerful' exodus from GICs through 2025
Yield-hungry investors will keep flocking to Canadian dividend stocks through the end of 2025, according to CIBC Capital Markets. Shares of Canadian banks, insurers and pipeline companies are expected to benefit the most from a slower-than-expected 'yield trade' away from GICs (guaranteed investment certificates). GICs, typically issued by banks, insurance firms and trust companies, offer a guaranteed return over a fixed timeframe. They surged in popularity when the Bank of Canada (BoC) began raising its trend-setting policy rate in March 2022 from COVID-19-era lows. Now, the tables have turned, with the BoC policy rate 225 basis points lower since last summer, following seven cuts from the central bank. The Bank of Canada is scheduled to announce its next rate decision on July 30. CIBC's Ian de Verteuil predicts a 'powerful fund flow' from GICs will continue to migrate to high dividend-yielding Canadian stocks. 'We are still early in the trade, and with further unwinding in GICs expected through the remainder of 2025, there is still a powerful fund flow support for high dividend-yielding Canadian equities,' he wrote in a note to clients earlier this week. So far in 2025, de Verteuil says performance has been brisk for most of the typical TSX dividend darling sectors, with utilities and REITs (real estate investment trusts) playing catch-up. 'Banks, insurers and pipelines have outperformed even the excellent returns of the S&P/TSX Composite – which has itself been bolstered by a rally in gold prices,' he wrote. 'Certainly, banks, insurers and pipelines will continue to benefit, but we would expect the 'yield trade' to broaden out further to include Utilities, REITs and Communications, which have not done as well.' de Verteuil says the exodus from GICs has been slower than expected, despite $100 billion in GICs repricing every quarter. 'There may be some surprise as to why GIC balances have not declined at an even faster pace. Part of this is simply the duration of the book and penalties for early cancellation of most GIC deposits,' he wrote. 'Another potential reason for the slow movement out of GICs is the equity market volatility earlier in the year, which may have encouraged investors to renew their low-risk GICs rather than switch to more volatile equities.' Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on X @jefflagerquist. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
USA Today
31-05-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Sticker shock: Are American consumers learning to live with inflation?
American consumers may be learning to live with inflation. A long-running Gallup poll shows a steep drop in the share of Americans who name inflation as their biggest financial problem. Only 29% of consumers listed inflation as their top financial concern in April, down from 41% in April 2024. It's the lowest reading on the annual survey since 2021. Another recent survey, from the Ipsos Consumer Tracker, found fewer Americans think prices are rising. The share of consumers who said their household expenses are higher than a year ago slipped from 68% in February to 58% in May. Is inflation still top of mind for American consumers? Other surveys suggest, however, that inflation remains very much on consumers' minds. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. In a CBS News poll, taken in late May, 76% of Americans said their income wasn't keeping up with inflation. And a University of Michigan consumer survey, updated May 30, found that Americans expect prices to rise by 6.6% over the next year, twice the annual inflation rate they predicted a year ago. Economists say American consumers harbor complex feelings about inflation. On one hand, consumers have consistently cited rising prices as a top household concern, a sentiment that dates back to the dawn of the COVID-19-era inflation crisis in 2021. On the other hand, through four inflationary years, Americans have continued to spend. Consumer spending has risen steadily from 2021 through early 2025, despite rising prices. (Consumer spending slowed slightly in April, according to data released May 30.) 'We've had a remarkably robust consumer for the past 3 ½ years, when we've had a lot of inflation,' said Aditya Bhave, senior U.S. economist at Bank of America. Americans have had plenty of time to get used to inflation. The annual rate has hovered above 2% for every month since February 2021, federal data shows. The Federal Reserve sets 2% as its goal for a healthy inflation rate. The sky-high inflation of 2021 and 2022 is long gone. The annual rate hasn't topped 4% since early 2023. In April 2025, inflation registered at an unremarkable 2.3%. 'We don't have the super-high, 6%, 7% and 8% inflation numbers anymore,' said Yiming Ma, an associate professor at Columbia Business School. 'If you listen to the news, it's not as much about inflation anymore.' Financial fears in 2025 go beyond inflation For much of this year, other financial worries have dominated the financial headlines: Tariffs. Turbulent stocks. Instability at Social Security, the IRS and other federal agencies. Potential Medicaid cuts. Many of those fears peaked in April, the month President Donald Trump rolled out sweeping import tariffs. 'There's a lot of moving parts that were affecting consumers attitudes toward the economy in April,' said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank. Adams notes that Gallup polled consumers about financial worries in early April, just as the tariff drama was unfolding. Tariffs, of course, are widely presumed by economists to cause inflation. In the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, inflation fears spiked dramatically as the Trump administration pursued tariffs. In January, the average consumer expected prices to rise 3.3% in the next year. By May, the figure had risen to 6.6%. That data point, too, is complicated – and highly politicized. Is inflation still a thing? It depends on your politics. Democrats expect prices to rise by 8% over the next year, according to Michigan survey data from April. Republicans expect them to rise by 0.4%. The figures are three-month averages. The disparity suggests Democrats and Republicans occupy separate realities. Economists say it illustrates that one party expects Trump's economic policies to succeed, while the other expects them to fail. 'There's a huge amount of partisan influence when you see consumer sentiment,' Stephen Juneau, senior U.S. economist at Bank of America Securities, told USA TODAY in March. Americans seem largely united, however, in their disdain of higher prices. Consumer prices are about 24% higher now than in February 2020, at the dawn of the pandemic, Bankrate reports. 'The cumulative increase in prices over the last half-decade has been much higher than it was from 2015 to 2020,' said Adams of Comerica. 'And I think that is what has contributed to this sense of frustration about inflation among American consumers.' Before the current inflation outbreak, America had not experienced an inflation crisis in 40 years. The 8% annual inflation rate in 2022 was the highest figure recorded since 1981, according to Federal Reserve data. When will consumers forget about inflation? American consumers may have learned to live with inflation. Here's what it would take for them to forget about it, according to Adams and other economic experts: 2% inflation The Fed aims for a target of 2% annual inflation: A level so low that consumers tune it out. If the annual inflation rate reaches that range and stays there, the Fed reasons, most Americans won't notice it. 'I think you'd need an extended period of somewhat lower inflation, in the low 2s or high 1s, along with wages that are outpacing that inflation,' said Bhave of Bank of America. Time to adjust If inflation eases to 2%, the Fed's target rate, it might still take many months for consumers to adjust to permanently higher prices. 'It is not long ago that you can remember what eggs cost in 2021 or 2021, compared to now,' said Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the progressive Groundwork Collaborative. Consumer prices spiked dramatically in 2021 and 2022. Prices continued to rise in 2023 and 2024, but not so sharply. If inflation continues to cool, and wages continue to rise, Jacquez and other said, the day will come when prices no longer seem so high. 'I think we could see consumers adjusting to prices as they are today, if we see the rate of inflation going to where it used to be,' Adams said. 'But it'll take time.'
