Beyond the Buildings

Host Maiclaire Bolton Smith sits down with Cotality principal housing policy analyst Chay Halbert to break down the post-election ROAD to housing, analyzing how congressional oversight will impact federal agencies, what institutional investors are doing right now, and what a shift in the balance of power would mean for the future of residential real estate.

In this episode: 02:11 — The Rent Werewolf: Shifting single-family rents are changing the math and timelines for first-time homebuyers.   03:55 — The Construction Cost Curse: Where developers can find viable land-use opportunities as costs for land, labor, and lumber costs soar?   06:37 — The Lock-In Ghost: What interest rate threshold will it take to finally break the rate lock-in spell and unlock frozen housing supply? 08:54 — The Escrow Poltergeist: See exactly how surging property taxes and insurance premiums are driving up total ownership costs and delinquency risks.   11:03 — The Supply Shape-Shifter: How are hyper-local inventory splits impacting investor strategies?   12:45 — Allie Barefoot goes over the numbers in the housing market in The Sip   14:17 — Crystal ball: Will spooky market forces ease by late 2027 to bring back normal market liquidity, or is this the new normal? Links: https://www.cotality.com/insights/analysis/bend-it-like-buyers

In this episode: 2:32 - How agents ease buyer anxiety during dead-air moments in the mortgage process. 3:50 - Why real estate guidance matters most when interest rates require buyers to recalibrate their finances. 6:25 - How real estate pros translate complex property data on inspection, hazard, and permit reports into actionable decisions. 8:23 - Learn why a reliable closing beats a fast offer in today’s unpredictable housing market. 10:33 - Has human trust officially outpaced technology in modern real estate? Links: https://www.cotality.com/insights/analysis/bend-it-like-buyers

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is remapping the physical property landscape, creating a paradox between digital growth and local real-world constraints. While primary data center hubs face severe power grid delays and land scarcity, tech capital is surging into unexpected secondary markets, driving up local housing prices and straining municipal infrastructure. To resolve this friction, developers and city leaders must leverage high-granularity geospatial intelligence to locate prime development zones where data centers serve as long-term economic anchors rather than community burdens. In this episode: 1:41 - How are capacity constraints in primary hubs forcing AI infrastructure into secondary housing markets? 4:36 - Evaluating the critical geospatial layers: grid capacity, parcel land use, and fresh aerial imagery. 7:44 - The Quincy, Washington case study: Aligning hydropower, cool climates, and cheap land for a win-win. 11:21 – Allie Barefoot breaks down the latest numbers in the housing market. 12:28 – How do different layers of geospatial data help developers, power providers, and city leaders? Links: https://www.cotality.com/insights

Beyond the Buildings host Maiclaire Bolton Smith welcomes Cotality Senior Principal Economist Molly Boesel to examine five common myths about mortgages in the housing market, exploring how grounded data helps clarify today's property landscape. In this episode:   2:42 - Why is there a concern that suddenly people are going to cash out? 4:05 – Are homeowners turning to HELOCs and Home Equity Investments to extract value? 6:48 – Will delinquencies continue to rise? 9:10 – Will the "Silver Tsunami" of baby boomer downsizing flood the inventory market? 11:59 – Are institutional mega-investors really dominating single-family home purchases? 15:26 – Allie Barefoot breaks down the latest numbers in the housing market. 16:33 – Can we expect mortgage interest rates to drop back to pandemic-era record lows?

On this episode of Beyond the Buildings, host Maiclaire Bolton Smith sits down with Cotality's Chief Scientist, Howard Botts, to explore Cotality's 2026 wildfire risk report. In this episode: 1:42 – Why are suburban homes miles from a forest still at severe risk? 4:52 – How much can home hardening actually reduce risk scores? 8:15 – How does El Niño affect wildfire seasons differently in California versus the Pacific Northwest? 10:41 – Why are so many homeowners in wildfire risk areas finding themselves underinsured? 13:28 – Allie Barefoot breaks down the latest numbers in the housing market. 14:14 – What will a truly resilient housing market look like in five to 10 years? Links: https://www.cotality.com/resources/reports/cotality-wildfire-risk-report-2026

In the latest episode of Beyond the Buildings, host Maiclaire Bolton Smith sits down with Cotality Chief Economist, Dr. Selma Hepp, and John Burns, founder and CEO of John Burns Research, to explore how built-to-rent communities and shifting investor strategies are reshaping the U.S. housing market. In this episode: 2:04 – Dr. Selma Hepp breaks down the hard, property-level data behind the true footprint of institutional real estate buyers. 5:46 - John Burns explains how housing starts and localized supply dynamics dictate where builders decide to place competing rental projects.  9:40 - Why have built-to-rent (BTR) communities suddenly become the preferred asset class for major developers and builders? 11:19 - Can we ever build enough single-family homes to satisfy the intense, overlapping demand from both first-time buyers and active investors? 16:27 – Why are attached living spaces like duplexes and townhomes in Texas and Phoenix suddenly catching the eye of yield-hungry investors? 20:12 – Allie Barefoot breaks down the latest numbers in the housing market. 21:22 – What will the relationship between institutional capital, homebuilders, and individual homeownership look like by 2030? Links: https://www.cotality.com/resources/webinars/navigating-the-institutional-investor-market

In the latest episode of Beyond the Buildings, host Maiclaire Bolton Smith sits down with Cotality policy experts Russell McIntyre and Chay Halbert to explore what the ROAD to Housing bill really means for the future of the U.S. property market. In this episode: 2:30 – Why this bill will incentivize cities to rewrite local zoning and fuel a massive surge in land use analytics. 5:58 - Changes to environmental reviews will speed up development pipelines, but it will make site-selection intelligence essential to find the most viable locations? 7:45 - Hybrid valuations and AVMs are finally taking center stage. How is this data-driven shift permanently reshaping traditional appraisals? 11:04 – Hear how new institutional investment limits will reshape single-family inventory. 12:34 – By cutting an outdated, costly regulatory requirement, can manufactured homes finally scale to close the affordability gap? 15:28 – Allie Barefoot breaks down the latest numbers in the housing market. 16:29 – Will the ROAD to Housing Act genuinely close the supply gap, or is the road ahead simply too steep? Links: https://www.cotality.com/insights/articles/wall-streets-canceled-contracts

The historical map of natural hazard risk is no longer the best way to navigate. Thirty-two million homeowners — many of whom have long considered their homes outside of hurricane paths — are seeing their perceptions of risk shift. This shift has the potential to destabilize markets across the U.S. In this episode: 2:46 – What does hurricane risk look like across the U.S.? 6:08 – Will El Niño affect property risk long-term? 8:38 – How big is this gap in structural preparedness between coastal communities and inland communities? 12:06 – Allie Barefoot breaks down the latest numbers in the housing market. 12:44 – Why does a homeowner's financial future depend so heavily on a speedy recovery process? Links: https://www.cotality.com/insights https://www.cotality.com/insights/articles/us-heatwaves-2026

On this episode of Beyond the Buildings, host Maiclaire Bolton Smith sits down with Amy Gromowski, Cotality's Head of Data Science, to walk through Cotality's new survey and make sense of what homebuyers are actually demanding from housing AI. 01:49 – There's a trust deficit in AI, but why are people increasingly skeptical? 03:38 – Why are mistakes human, but technology is expected to be infallible? 06:25 – There's value in human validation, and it’s good for business’ bottom lines. 08:21 –Will people ever trust AI more than human real estate professionals? 09:23 – Why is Gen Z actually the biggest skeptic of AI in real estate? 11:57 – Transparency is table stakes for encouraging buy in for AI technologies. 13:40 – What does good AI transparency look like anyway? 19:42 – The future of innovation belongs to those who use automation to elevate, rather than replace, human connection Links: https://www.cotality.com/insights/analysis/trust-but-verify-ai https://www.cotality.com/insights/articles/small-investors-big-squeeze