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This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with John Santa Orta, 34, an assistant operations manager in St. Cloud, Florida. Santa Orta was a homeowner, but now prefers to rent. He’s renting a home at TW – a Quinn Residence, a build-to-rent townhouse community in St. Cloud. The community consists of townhomes intended for renters and operates like an apartment complex. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.Earlier this year, I was looking for an apartment in St. Cloud, Florida, and I was only finding one-bedroom apartments in the $2,000 range.I was driving one day when I saw…

Chicago homeowners are getting hit with a record property tax hike after the city’s downtown office buildings and other commercial real estate values fell again.The median residential bill climbed by 16.7% to $4,457, according to a Monday report from Maria Pappas, the Cook County treasurer. The record jump comes after commercial property values in Chicago’s Loop, the core area of skyscrapers, financial firms and offices that drives much of its economy, dropped by $379.2 million last year amid lower sale prices and vacancies, the report said. The lower values translate to less revenue collected on those properties and a bigger…

Disney recently gave sports fans a cause for celebration — and a reason for dread.The good news: Disney’s long-running fight with YouTube TV is over. Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, returned to YouTube TV on Friday night after a 15-day blackout, marking Disney’s longest carriage dispute to date.The bad news: Disney warned in its latest annual report that more TV blackouts may be ahead. Disney has distribution contracts with pay-TV providers expiring in its fiscal year 2026, and told investors in its yearly 10-K form that negotiations “could lead to temporary or longer-term service blackouts.” These contracts can vary in length…

Last summer, after a devastating house fire that left them homeless, our son, pregnant daughter-in-law, and 4-year-old grandson moved in with me and my husband. Considering their circumstances, it seemed like the most sensible option until they could rebuild. Still, we all felt pretty apprehensive heading into this living arrangement.For one, our lifestyles were quite different: My husband and I had been empty nesters for the past decade, and we had routine sleep and mealtimes. Meanwhile, they were young parents with a small child and a baby on the way — a lot of their schedules depended on seasonal and…

Can old Hollywood learn new tricks?That was the question hanging over a four-hour “master class” I recently sat in on to help people in the TV and movie industry pivot to the creator economy.With shows being canceled left and right, shoots moving to cheaper locales overseas, and layoffs wrought by industry consolidation, these are tough times, even for a workforce used to unpredictability. Meanwhile, the independent creator economy is booming.”I’m just trying to figure out if there’s a way to move into this creator economy as a person who’s behind the scenes,” one of the attendees, Rebecca Bregman, who was…

Safe Harbor, a financial technology company serving the regulated cannabis and hemp industries, launched a one-stop-shop platform with bookkeeping, payroll and CFO support.Safe Harbor’s platform aims to help operators bank, borrow and operate amid the uncertain policy, regulation, high taxes and limited access to qualified financial support. It can help cannabis businesses fill in the gaps of their existing finance teams or can operate as a fully outsourced financial solution. meboonstudio – stock.adobe.com “This is a transformational moment for Safe Harbor and for the cannabis industry,” Safe Harbor CEO Terry Mendez said in a statement. “We have expanded from a…

Resorts World, one of three bidders for a casino license in the greater New York City area, will ask the state to reconsider the company’s tax proposal after offering to pay far more than two other possible projects, a person with knowledge of the matter said.The company, part of Malaysia’s Genting Group, wants the state to lower its proposed tax rate or raise the levy that may be imposed on the other bidders, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information.Resorts World has proposed the highest tax at 56% on slot machines for its project in…

Signage is displayed outside the Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. headquarters in Cockeysville, Maryland, U.S.Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesSinclair disclosed a stake in fellow broadcast station owner E.W. Scripps on Monday, in a move to push toward a merger of the companies.Sinclair, which acquired a roughly 8% position in Scripps, per the filing, recently launched a strategic review of its own business that could result in a tie-up. Scripps, for its part, has seen its struggles mount in the competitive industry and is among the smallest of its peers.In the filing, Sinclair said it has been engaged in “constructive”…

The economy’s not in a recession, but the job market sure feels like we’re recovering from one.The labor market’s lack of movement, dubbed a “Great Freeze,” is becoming reminiscent of job availability following the 2008 financial crisis, writes BI’s Madison Hoff.The hiring rate in August was just 3.2%, a big drop off from the 4.6% rate in late 2021 as the economy was reopening. The last time hiring was consistently that low was in the early 2010s when the jobs market was still recovering from the Great Recession.The silver lining is that unemployment has remained relatively low, especially compared to…

In April 2024, my wife and I sold our 4,000-square-foot home in the small town of Concrete, Washington.Then, we moved into the 23-foot trailer on my in-laws’ property with our teenage son, three English bulldogs, and a territorial iguana named Rawr.This wasn’t some dreamy escape into the minimalist #vanlife trend. In reality, we were desperate to be free from a mortgage, and we wanted to live closer to my in-laws so we could assist them as they age.Though our Concrete house once felt full of character and potential for endless renovations, it had become a burden, with ever-rising property taxes…