One mortgage lender making a big splash of late is NewRez, short for New Residential Investment Corp.
Thanks to their 2019 acquisition of Shellpoint Partners LLC, which was the parent company of New Penn Financial, they now have a robust loan origination platform to flank their expansive loan servicing business.
They are a publicly-traded company worth billions of dollars that has quickly become a top-20 mortgage lender nationwide.
The company also has joint ventures in place, including one with Shelter Mortgage known as Homeowners First Mortgage.
It provides mortgage financing to home buyers represented by real estate brokerage First Team Real Estate in Southern California.
NewRez and Shelter also have a partnership in place with a San Francisco-based company called Landed, collectively known as Landed Home Loans, which offers down payment assistance to teachers and other school employees.
In July 2020, NewRez created its 16th joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Verani Realty, which will be known as “Home Sense Lending LLC.”
It will serve home buyers throughout New England via 500 licensed real estate agents that work at the brokerage.
In September 2020, they launched “Sanctuary Home Mortgage,” a collaboration between NewRez and Shelter Mortgage Company, and Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty.
Then in December 2020 created “Mission Mortgage,” which will be headquartered in Washington, D.C. and service clients there and in Maryland and Virginia.
The pair’s newest joint venture is called “Coast One Mortgage,” a partnership with the Schmidt Family of Companies, a family-owned real estate brokerage.
NewRez Fast Facts
Founded in 2008, originally known as New Penn Financial
A direct-to-consumer mortgage lender based in Fort Washington, PA
Also runs a correspondent lending and wholesale division
Licensed to lend in 49 states and DC (pending approval in NY state)
Funded $61 billion in 2020 (a top-20 lender nationwide)
2,600+ employees and 616,000+ customers served
How to Get a Mortgage with NewRez
They say they’ve got cutting-edge technology and proprietary systems, including the NewRez app and “ezhub,” which is their digital mortgage offering.
It allows you to document income and assets electronically and take advantage of various automated underwriting tools.
Their smartphone app lets you to apply for a mortgage and make monthly mortgage payments once your loan is closed, assuming they service it too.
It’s also possible to get the loan process started online by filling out a short form on their website, at which point a loan advisor will make contact to guide you along.
You can also simply call them up directly or use their loan advisor directory to get in touch with someone specific if you’ve been referred.
Either way, you’ve got options when it comes to applying for a loan with NewRez.
Loan Types Offered by NewRez Mortgage
Home purchase and refinance loans (rate/term and cash out)
Home renovation loans and construction loans
Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA loans
Specialized products for self-employed borrowers
Jumbo loans that exceed the conforming loan limit
NewRez offers home purchase loans, refinance loans, and construction loans on all property types, including primary homes, vacation homes, and investment properties.
The company’s 2019 volume consisted of roughly 85% mortgage refinance and 15% home purchase, with 37% of their loans involving cash out to the borrower.
This is probably due to their massive loan servicing portfolio that allows them to get in contact with their many existing homeowners.
They offer both conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with government home loans including FHA loans, USDA loans, and VA loans.
You can also get a jumbo home loan from NewRez if the loan amount exceeds the conforming loan limit for your county.
Nearly 60% of their 2019 retail loan volume was conventional, with 25% FHA loans, 15% VA loans, and the remainder jumbo and USDA.
Those looking for a construction loan are in luck because they offer both FHA and VA construction loans, such as FHA 203k, and conventional construction loans like Fannie Mae HomeStyle.
You can get a fixed-rate mortgage, such as a 30-year fixed or 15-year fixed, and possibly other terms in between.
They also offer a variety of adjustable-rate mortgage options, including 5/1, 7/1 and 10/1 ARMs for those looking for a cheaper monthly payment.
NewRez Mortgage Rates
NewRez does not openly advertise its mortgage rates, which is a shame because it’s difficult to know how they stack up relative to other lenders.
You’ll only know their pricing if you fill out a mortgage quote request and/or speak with a loan specialist. Until then, you’re basically in the dark pricing-wise.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t competitive, it just remains an unknown at the moment until more data is collected on that front.
As such, be sure to take the time to shop around – do this regardless of whether they advertise their mortgage rates. You never know if there’s a better rate out there unless you put in the time.
The same goes for lender fees – it’s unclear how much or what they charge, so compare interest rate and fees (mortgage APR) when shopping your loan.
NewRez Mortgage Reviews
Unfortunately, NewRez mortgage reviews are scant at the moment, perhaps because they only recently launched after acquiring New Penn Financial.
The only information I could find was on Yelp, where they had 1.5 stars out of 5, which is obviously pretty dire.
However, if you go to Zillow and search their lender directory by inputting “NewRez” into the bank name field, you’ll see lots of individual reviews for NewRez loan officers.
From there, you can sift through the many names to find the loan officer with the best reviews, then contact that person directly if you want to work with NewRez.
This might be the best way to go for any large mortgage lender because ultimately customer experiences will vary widely when dealing with thousands of different employees.
I took a look at the NewRez loan officer reviews and found that several had perfect 5 out of 5-star ratings or very close to it. Many also indicated that mortgage rates and fees/closing costs were lower than expected.
Let me add that the company has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 2009, and has an A+ rating at the moment.
Their customer reviews on the BBB website aren’t favorable, with a star rating just over 1 out of 5. Of course, the BBB customer review rating system is based on complaints, so the rating is typically never very good.
Pros and Cons of NewRez Mortgage
The Good
Digital mortgage process
Expansive suite of loan programs to choose from
They have a free smartphone app
Lots of mortgage calculators on site
Loans are serviced by NewRez instead of being sold off
What to Watch Out For
Do not advertise mortgage rates
No information on lender fees or closing costs
Very limited review information (unclear how well-liked they are)
It’s time to check out the top mortgage lenders in Nevada based on their total loan volume.
Last year, more than 600 mortgage companies funded nearly $33 billion in The Silver State, down from roughly $68 billion a year earlier.
But as always, there can only be one #1, and those honors went to a company you’ve likely heard of.
Yes, Rocket Mortgage was the top lender in the state, and by a very wide margin. Just like they were in 2021.
Read on to see which other companies made the top 10 lists.
Top Mortgage Lenders in Nevada (Overall)
Ranking
Company Name
2022 Loan Volume
1.
Rocket Mortgage
$1.8 billion
2.
UWM
$1.6 billion
3.
Guild Mortgage
$1.5 billion
4.
loanDepot
$1.2 billion
5.
U.S. Bank
$788 million
6.
Wells Fargo
$772 million
7.
Zions Bancorp
$662 million
8.
Bank of America
$578 million
9.
DHI Mortgage
$558 million
10.
Lennar Mortgage
$514 million
Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage funded $1.8 billion in home loans in the state of Nevada in 2022, per HMDA data from Richey May.
That was a two hundred million more than necessary to beat out second place United Wholesale Mortgage, its crosstown rival.
UWM works exclusively with mortgage brokers via the wholesale lending channel.
Guild Mortgage, which hails out of San Diego, took third with a slightly smaller $1.2 billion in origination volume.
In fourth was nonbank loanDepot with $1.2 billion, followed by U.S. Bank’s $788 million.
The rest of the top 10 included Wells Fargo, Zions Bancorp, Bank of America, DHI Mortgage, and Lennar Mortgage.
No major surprises in the list, but also no Nevada-based mortgage companies either.
Interestingly, two home builders made the top-10 list, a testament to the purchase-driven housing market nowadays.
Top Nevada Mortgage Lenders (for Home Buyers)
Ranking
Company Name
2022 Loan Volume
1.
UWM
$1.2 billion
2.
Guild Mortgage
$1.2 billion
3.
loanDepot
$657 million
4.
Rocket Mortgage
$610 million
5.
DHI Mortgage
$558 million
6.
Lennar Mortgage
$513 million
7.
Wells Fargo
$435 million
8.
Pulte Mortgage
$413 million
9.
U.S. Bank
$398 million
10.
KBHS Home Loans
$396 million
When we only include home purchase loans, UWM took the top spot with $1.2 billion funded, followed very closely by 2021’s #1 Nevada home purchase lender Guild Mortgage.
In third was loanDepot with $657 million, a significant drop from the top two, which appear to be dominating in Nevada.
Fourth went to Rocket Mortgage with $610 million, followed by DHI Mortgage (home builder D.R. Horton’s financing company) with $558 million.
Another three home builder financing divisions made up the bottom half the top 10, including Lennar Mortgage, Pulte Mortgage, and KBHS Home Loans.
Depositories Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank also managed to land there.
Once again, zero Nevada-based mortgage lenders in the mix here, which is surprising as home purchase loans are usually dominated by hometown companies.
Although, local home builders have grabbed significant home purchase market share as they’re able to offer huge incentives like temporary buydowns and permanent ones as well.
Top Nevada Refinance Lenders (for Existing Homeowners)
Ranking
Company Name
2022 Loan Volume
1.
Rocket Mortgage
$1.2 billion
2.
loanDepot
$503 million
3.
UWM
$434 million
4.
Pennymac
$345 million
5.
Freedom Mortgage
$343 million
6.
U.S. Bank
$313 million
7.
Wells Fargo
$303 million
8.
PNC Bank
$293 million
9.
Guild Mortgage
$273 million
10.
Zions Bancorp
$271 million
Turning our attention to mortgage refinances, Rocket Mortgage was easily tops with $1.2 billion. Of course, they funded a whopping $3.6 billion in this category a year prior.
That was more than double second place loanDepot, which managed just $503 million in refis.
In third was UWM with $434 million, followed by Pennymac with $345 million, and Freedom Mortgage with $343 million.
Freedom was recently the top VA lender and mainly a refinance specialist, but that sector has been hit particularly hard lately.
It seems that California-based companies are leading the way (other than Michigan’s Rocket), which might have something to do with their geographical location bordering Nevada.
Others in the top 10 included U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, PNC Bank, Guild Mortgage, and Utah’s Zions Bancorp.
Top Mortgage Lenders in Las Vegas/Henderson
Ranking
Company Name
2022 Loan Volume
1.
Rocket Mortgage
$996 million
2.
UWM
$990 million
3.
loanDepot
$655 million
4.
Guild Mortgage
$471 million
5.
Zions Bancorp
$401 million
6.
Wells Fargo
$375 million
7.
KeyBank
$354 million
8.
U.S. Bank
$333 million
9.
Bank of America
$296 million
10.
Fairway Independent
$280 million
Top Mortgage Lenders in Reno
Ranking
Company Name
2022 Loan Volume
1.
Guild Mortgage
$283 million
2.
Rocket Mortgage
$186 million
3.
U.S. Bank
$141 million
4.
UWM
$130 million
5.
Wells Fargo
$115 million
6.
Bank of America
$101 million
7.
United FCU
$95 million
8.
Chase
$92 million
9.
loanDepot
$85 million
10.
DHI Mortgage
$81 million
The Best Nevada Mortgage Lenders?
As noted, none of the top 10 lenders (by volume) are Nevada-based companies. Instead, most are headquartered in nearby California.
While this makes sense, some folks might be interested in a local lender, as this can build trust when dealing with an important life decision such as a home purchase.
I went to Zillow to find some customer reviews, and found that All Western Mortgage, Inc. had the most reviews, over 700 of them. And more importantly, they have a 4.99/5 rating as of this writing.
That’s pretty much unbeatable, though as noted, they only managed to make 11th place in the purchase category, and 13th overall in the state of Nevada.
Still, when going up against the big boys, it’s not a bad ranking.
There’s also Valley West Mortgage out of Vegas with a 4.73/5 rating from over 200 reviews, along with Pinnacle Lending Group, Inc. (4.96/5) and Lone Mortgage (also 4.96/5), both with over 100 reviews.
It appears there are many, smaller entities operating within the state, likely some independent mortgage brokers with their own shops.
As far as the national brands are concerned, they also have strong reviews on Zillow, with Rocket Mortgage holding a 4.48/5, Guild Mortgage with a 4.96/5, and Wells Fargo with a 4.95/5.
So whether you go big or small, far away or local, you should be able to find a reliable mortgage partner in the state of Nevada.
Living in Santa Barbara offers a vibrant culinary and dining scene. Perhaps you’re a local seeking new flavors, a visitor exploring the city’s gastronomic offerings, or even searching for apartments for rent or homes for sale in Santa Barbara. This Redfin article will share 6 Santa Barbara restaurants that will satisfy your taste buds and leave you hungry for more.
Join us as we uncover elegant fine dining establishments to charming cafes and vegan havens. This is your opportunity to immerse yourself in the culinary tapestry of this enchanting town. Let’s get started.
1. Blackbird Restaurants
Located in the Hotel California in Santa Barbara, Blackbird offers a culinary experience combining elegance and a modern twist. The restaurant boasts a diverse menu featuring an array of delectable options. One standout item is the 1925 Cocktail, a beautiful blend of mezcal, lime, chartreuse, maraschino luxardo, and hickory smoke. Additionally, Blackbird presents the Sea Urchin plate, a delicacy for seafood enthusiasts.
2. Boathouse at Hendry’s Beach
The Boathouse at Hendry’s Beach is a picturesque waterfront restaurant that offers breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean. Whether you visit for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the Boathouse provides a delightful dining experience. The menu showcases a variety of options to satisfy all palates. Start your day with their signature breakfast, a scrumptious plate of crab, poached eggs, and a delightful hollandaise. Their benedicts are a popular choice for brunch or lunch, featuring classic favorites with a Boathouse twist. During dinner, indulge in their freshly shucked oysters dipped in cocktail sauce.
3. L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele
Nestled in downtown Santa Barbara on State Street, L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele captures the essence of Neapolitan cuisine. The restaurant is renowned for its authentic Neapolitan-style pizza, cooked perfectly in a traditional stone oven. As you step inside, you’ll be greeted by the inviting aromas of freshly baked dough and the ambiance of the dining area. Owned by Francesco Zimone, who hails from Naples, Italy, this eatery stays true to its roots. One must-try pizza is the Diavola, featuring a harmonious blend of flavors from tomato, dior di latte, pecorino, and basil.
4. Handlebar Coffee Roasters
Handlebar Coffee Roasters, with two locations in Santa Barbara, is a haven for coffee aficionados seeking a delightful cup of joe. Handlebar Coffee Roasters has you covered whether you’re in a hurry or prefer to relax and soak in the vibrant atmosphere. Grab a to-go cup of their meticulously crafted coffee and a delectable pastry, or immerse yourself in the bustling and social ambiance as they offer an abundance of seating options.
5. Mesa Verde Restaurant
Among the mix of Santa Barbara restaurants, discover Mesa Verde Restaurant, a vegan culinary gem that delivers vibrant Mediterranean flavors. This plant-based eatery offers a diverse menu that includes brussel mushroom tacos, Impossible meat-filled burritos, and other masterfully crafted dishes that showcase the versatility of plant-based ingredients.
6. Alessia Patisserie and Cafe
Alessia Patisserie and Cafe is a delightful culinary haven in Santa Barbara that offers a taste of Europe. This charming establishment caters to breakfast and brunch enthusiasts with various delectable options. Start your day with their flavorful quiches, each boasting a buttery crust and a delightful combination of savory fillings. If you prefer eggs, their omelets are perfect, prepared with skill, and accompanied by a selection of delectable ingredients.
Could 2016 be the year that the piggyback mortgage returns?
Well, one California credit union is taking things back to 2006 with their new “Premier Purchase Program.”
In a nutshell, the new program being offered by AltaOne Federal Credit Union is an 80/20 combo loan, or an 80% first mortgage and a piggyback second mortgage for the remaining 20%. Yes, that’s zero down if you’re following along.
They aren’t the first to provide 100% financing again, but they’re unique in that you get two loans instead of one, a practice that was very common during the boom in the early 2000s.
[Check out the zero down POPPYLOAN being offered by one Bay Area credit union.]
Similar and Different
This new loan program, which was announced in late December, comes with a 30-year fixed first mortgage and a 10-year fixed second mortgage.
It’s similar to the old offerings seen in 2006 but a little bit different because the second mortgage has a shorter term.
To me it’s a compromise to offering zero down financing in an age when such loans are seen as toxic.
The shorter term means the borrower will actually gain home equity at a decent clip despite putting nothing down at the outset.
This differs from the old 80/20 loans that often permitted interest-only payments on both loans, relying on home price appreciation to gain equity.
That didn’t work out over the long term so perhaps this will allow homeowners to keep their heads above water even if home prices remain flat or dip a bit.
Lenders will be protected if this is the case, which makes this seemingly high-risk loan product viable again.
The loans are also fixed, unlike their predecessors that were often adjustable-rate, another layer of risk.
If you’re interested, the product is available on owner-occupied homes, including both one- and two-unit properties.
I’m assuming you’ll need good credit to get approved for this program and the first mortgage amount will likely be limited to the conforming loan limit. After all, that was one of the purposes of splitting loans up into two parts, the other to avoid PMI.
The company simultaneously launched their “Equity Builder Loan,” which is a home equity loan that must be used for home improvement.
It’s a 10-year fixed loan that requires the use of a contractor for things like a new pool, solar installations, renovations and so on. Again, the property must be owner-occupied.
The benefit is the shorter loan term, which means you won’t pay as much interest (you should also get a lower interest rate), but the monthly payments will be higher as a result.
Look out for more and more lenders offering these types of solutions in 2016 thanks to rising home prices and rates. Let’s just hope they stay conservative for a while so things don’t get completely out of hand.
Minimum-wage workers shouldn’t bother trying to find a two-bedroom apartment — anywhere in the U.S.
According to a new federal report, “in no state, metropolitan area, or county in the U.S. can a worker earning the federal or prevailing state or local minimum wage afford a modest two-bedroom rental home at fair market rent by working a standard 40-hour work week.”
The “Out of Reach” report reveals in stark terms the financial challenges facing renters, particularly in California.
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A California renter needs to make $42.25 an hour to afford a two-bedroom rental unit, the highest figure in the nation, according to the new study. The mean hourly wage for California renters, by contrast, is only $33.67.
Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York and Washington were the next four most expensive states after California, with renters needing to make at least $35 hourly to afford a two-bedroom apartment.
In California, Cristian Morales, 33, is an example of the struggle facing hourly wage earners to secure decent housing.
He makes $21 an hour as a laundry attendant at the Hilton Pasadena. The job, which he has held for nearly five years, can be stressful. “We have to be moving all the time and sometimes there’s not time to get our 10-minute breaks,” he said.
The hotel is frequently short-staffed, Morales said, which sometimes means that a 14-story chute gets packed with linens “all the way to the sixth floor” before he can get to it.
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Along with his wife and five children, Morales lived in a rental apartment in North Hills until 2020, when they could no longer afford the apartment. “Rent in L.A. went up, it’s super up. Groceries are up,” he said.
The family moved in with Morales’ in-laws in Baldwin Park, where three of the kids live in the front house, with their grandparents and the rest of the family living in the back house.
“Of course, I want my own place,” Morales said. “It’s not the same living with your father- and mother-in-law.”
The eight most expensive counties for renters in America were all in California, including Santa Barbara and Orange counties in Southern California, according to the report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
In the four most expensive counties — Santa Cruz, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo — a renter needs to make more than $60 an hour to afford a two-bedroom unit.
Santa Cruz County, where the mean renter income was estimated at $22.39 an hour, had the biggest discrepancy between actual income and the income required to afford a two-bedroom. The mean renter only made 34% of the income necessary to afford such a unit, according to the study.
“The affordable housing crisis worsened over the past few years as the COVID-19 pandemic, unusually low housing vacancy rates, skyrocketing rental prices and record-breaking inflation exacerbated the financial insecurity of low-income renters,” the report states.
California is the most renter-heavy state in the country, with 45% of housing units occupied by renters. Within the state, Los Angeles and San Francisco counties, where the rates are 62% and 54%, respectively, stand out.
Apartment owners are also speaking out about rents.
“We have been screaming for years and years that the lack of supply and construction of new housing is leading to this increase,” said Fred Sutton, a spokesperson for the California Apartment Assn., a group representing the rental housing industry.
“The costs of operating housing have skyrocketed over the last several years,” he said, noting that rent control, inflation and operating costs are factors in adjusting rents.
“Housing is becoming more and more scarce in the state, and some of the local municipalities have made it ever-increasingly harder to obtain,” Sutton said. He argued for reduced regulations on housing construction.
In all but three of California’s 58 counties, the mean wage for renters was not enough to afford a two-bedroom rental. The three counties where wages were high enough were all high-rent locales in the Bay Area: San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo.
The report states that “renters are facing the effects of a long-standing trend in which rents have risen faster than wages.” Between 2001 and 2021, according to the report, median rents increased 17.9%, while median household income went up 3.2%.
In Arkansas, the nation’s cheapest state for renters, a renter can afford a two-bedroom unit with an hourly income of $16.27. That’s about one-third of the cost in California.
The Dakotas, Mississippi and West Virginia, all with hourly wages between $16 and $18, rounded out the five least expensive states. Minimum wages in all five states are far below California’s $15.50 rate: Arkansas’ is the highest, at $11, and North Dakota and Mississippi are the lowest, benchmarked to the federal level of $7.25.
For Morales, affordable housing for his family is a pipe dream. “In reality, we checked about a year ago, but it’s too expensive. It’s not like we can move to a single — I’ve got five kids.”
“It’s super hard to even find a place that we can all fit and have a little freedom,” he said.
Higher wages could make a difference. Morales belongs to the Unite Here Local 11 hotel workers’ union, and plans to go on strike this weekend alongside thousands of others, calling for higher wages.
“We’re ready, we’re motivated, and we believe that we deserve what we’re asking for,” he said.
Minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting released on Wednesday show the Fed feels the country’s inflation rate remains “unacceptably high.”
While the central bank chose to hold the federal funds rate at 5.0% to 5.25% in its latest meeting back in June, the recently released minutes reveal the Fed has further rate hikes planned for the year, even if they won’t come as fast and furious as they have so far.
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If that news, along with sticky inflation, after a long winter of continuously climbing mortgage rates and steadily falling home prices, has you wringing your hands over the future of the housing market, don’t despair yet.
Despite the dreary outlook, data shows the market might not be crumbling just yet.
In fact, the median U.S. home is selling for around $383,000 — only about $4,000, or 0.9%, less than the all-time high set in June 2022. This marks the smallest year-over-year drop in close to four months, according to Redfin.
Here’s what’s keeping prices elevated, and why you shouldn’t worry about a major housing correction in the near future regardless of what the Fed has planned.
Inventory is tight, keeping prices high
High mortgage rates may be keeping some buyers at bay, but they’re also deterring plenty of potential sellers who are locked into low rates from just a couple years ago.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 6.71% last week, more than double what it averaged in 2021.
New listings plunged 27% compared to last year during the four weeks ending June 25 — the largest drop since the start of the pandemic. That’s also pushed the total number of homes for sale down by 11% — the first double-digit decline in over a year.
A lack of inventory means that with fewer options for buyers to choose from, they’re snagging homes faster than they’re being listed, which in turn keeps prices afloat.
Read more: 3 big mistakes people make with cash back credit cards that cost them every time they swipe
What does this mean for Americans entering the market?
It may not be a proper housing correction, but it’s safe to say buyers and sellers alike are finding the conditions challenging.
“The market isn’t nearly as fast as it was 18 months ago, when homes were flying off the market for well over asking price, and it’s not as slow as it was six or seven months ago, when mortgage rates first shot up,” said Oakland, California Redfin Premier agent Andrea Chopp.
Trying to follow the trends on a national level can be tricky. The typical property may be going for its asking price, but June was only the second month this has occurred since August 2022. And although sale prices are dropping the most in big metros like Las Vegas and Phoenix, areas like Milwaukee and Miami are seeing a rise.
Chopp says buyers should be aware that some desirable homes are attracting several offers and selling above asking.
“And sellers should know that their home may not attract as much competition as their neighbor’s home did two years ago, but it will sell if they price it fairly and put effort into marketing,” Chopp adds.
“Things like making small repairs and staging are important again.”
What to read next
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
ICE initially announced the merger with its rival, mortgage software firm Black Knight, in May 2022. The FTC then sued ICE to block the acquisition in March 2023.
The FTC alleges that a merger between the two largest providers of home mortgage loan origination systems and other key lender software tools will drive up costs, reduce innovation and reduce lenders’ options for the tools used to generate and service mortgages.
One month later, the FTC opened a new front in the fight against the planned acquisition.
In April 2023, the agency petitioned a California federal court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) and preliminary injunction (PI) that prevents ICE from going forward with the deal to buy Black Knight. The goal was to give the commission time to pursue in-house litigation against the merger.
“Preliminary relief is warranted and necessary,” a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco in April said.
“Should the Commission rule, after the full administrative proceeding, that the Acquisition is unlawful, reestablishing the status quo would be difficult, if not impossible, if the Acquisition has already occurred in the absence of preliminary relief.”
The federal preliminary injunction action hearing is set to begin on July 24.
In an effort to quell antitrust concerns regarding the merger, ICE and Black Knight amended the terms of the proposed deal to reduce Black Knight’s valuation to $11.8 billion — about 11% lower than its valuation when the agreement was announced last year.
Black Knight also sold its loan origination system, Empower, to a subsidiary of Canada’s Constellation Software Inc. in March, prior to the FTC’s suit against ICE.
The transaction is still pending regulatory approval, and ICE expects to close in the second half of this year, the company reiterated in its first quarter earnings call. ICE declined to comment.
A 1959 home in Los Angeles that was given a stylish face-lift just scored a buyer.
The sellers are the L.A. design team of Hollis Jordyn Design, and they picked up the midcentury modern gem in Nichols Canyon in May 2022 for $2,750,000. They updated the home and listed it in November 2022 for $3,850,000. The price was reduced to $2,999,999 by May 2023, and it was sold on June 21 for $2,825,911.
The three-bedroom, three-bath home spanning 2,500 square feet was originally designed by Edward Fickett. Fickett’s notable projects include Edwards Air Force Base and Dodger Stadium (both in Southern California) and the Sands Hotel (in Las Vegas).
Dubbed the Ophelia House, it’s named after one of the designer Jordyn Blum’s children, whom she shares with Dave Grohl, lead singer of Foo Fighters.
Blum’s design firm, Hollis Jordyn Design, which she owns with Hollis LaPlante, revamped the home while adding new air conditioning, electrical, and plumbing.
“It hasn’t been on the market for over 50 years,” says listing agent Tim Gavin, of Coldwell Banker Realty. The sellers “retouched everything. They preserved what they felt was special and necessary to keep.”
This includes a stone fireplace, terrazzo flooring in the foyer, a pass-through window, wood paneling, and a cinderblock wall in the primary suite. The kitchen cabinetry was updated with new hardware.
Modernizing the home meant adding marble countertops to the kitchen as well as new windows and sliders, and updating finishes in the three baths.
“We were seeking a celebrity buyer to some degree, with either a music or entertainment background, or a successful entrepreneur or someone with a creative background,” Gavin says.
Tucked into Nichols Canyon Colony, the locale, is “very private,” Gavin adds. “You’ve got wider streets and more of a neighborhood vibe.”
Housing supply in markets across the country is in extremely short supply, so much so that home buyers may well find it difficult to find a suitable property this spring.
Indeed, the country’s existing housing supply declined by its steepest year-over-year decrease for 4 years in January, falling by 13.6%, according to realtor.com. The supply of homes for sale in the U.S. is now at its lowest level since realtor.com began tracking the data in 2012, it said.
Worse
still, the shortage is unlikely to be relieved any time soon,
realtor.com said. Volume of newly listed homes is also down, by
10.6%, since last year.
Danielle
Hale, realtor.com’s chief economist, said that homebuyers in the
past year have taken advantage of low mortgage rates and more stable
listing prices, and the result has been a depletion of an already
limit inventory of homes to buy.
“With
fewer homes coming up for sale, we’ve hit another new low of for
sale-listings in January,” Hale said. “This is a challenging sign
for the large numbers of Millennial and Gen Z buyers coming into the
housing market this homebuying season as it implies the potential for
rising prices and fast-selling homes—a competitive market. In fact,
markets such as San Jose in Northern California, which saw inventory
down nearly 40 percent last month, are also seeing prices grow by 10
percent while homes are selling at a blistering pace of 51 days.”
The
shortage of homes is being felt across all price points, not only the
entry-level segment, although that’s where it remains most evident.
In January, there was a 19% drop in inventory of homes priced under
$200,000, while homes in the $200,000 to $750,000 price bracket fell
12%. And even in the upper tier of homes priced above $750,000,
inventory fell by 5.9%
As
inventories fall, home prices are rising. The median U.S. listing
price increased by 3.4 percent year-over-year, reaching $299,995 in
January.
Mike Wheatley is the senior editor at Realty Biz News. Got a real estate related news article you wish to share, contact Mike at [email protected]
High above the Las Vegas Strip, solar panels blanketed the roof of Mandalay Bay Convention Center — 26,000 of them, rippling across an area larger than 20 football fields.
From this vantage point, the sun-dappled Mandalay Bay and Delano hotels dominated the horizon, emerging like comically large golden scepters from the glittering black panels.Snow-tipped mountains rose to the west.
It was a cold winter morning in the Mojave Desert. But there was plenty of sunlight to supply the solar array.
“This is really an ideal location,” said Michael Gulich, vice president of sustainability at MGM Resorts International.
The same goes for the rest of Las Vegas and its sprawling suburbs.
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Sin City already has more solar panels per person than any major U.S. metropolis outside Hawaii, according to one analysis. And the city is bursting with single-family homes, warehouses and parking lots untouched by solar.
L.A. Times energy reporter Sammy Roth heads to the Las Vegas Valley, where giant solar fields are beginning to carpet the desert. But what is the environmental cost? (Video by Jessica Q. Chen, Maggie Beidelman / Los Angeles Times)
There’s enormous opportunity to lower household utility bills and cut climate pollution — without damaging wildlife habitat or disrupting treasured landscapes.
But that hasn’t stopped corporations from making plans to carpet the desert surrounding Las Vegas with dozens of giant solar fields — some of them designed to supply power to California. The Biden administration has fueled that growth, taking steps to encourage solar and wind energy development across vast stretches of public lands in Nevada and other Western states.
Those energy generators could imperil rare plants and slow-footed tortoises already threatened by rising temperatures.
They could also lessen the death and suffering from the worsening heat waves, fires, droughts and storms of the climate crisis.
Researchers have found there’s not nearly enough space on rooftops to supply all U.S. electricity — especially as more people drive electric cars. Even an analysis funded by rooftop solar advocates and installers found that the most cost-effective route to phasing out fossil fuels involves six times more power from big solar and wind farms than from smaller local solar systems.
But the exact balance has yet to be determined. And Nevada is ground zero for figuring it out.
The outcome could be determined, in part, by billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
The so-called Oracle of Omaha owns NV Energy, the monopoly utility that supplies electricity to most Nevadans. NV Energy and its investor-owned utility brethren across the country can earn huge amounts of money paving over public lands with solar and wind farms and building long-distance transmission lines to cities.
But by regulatory design, those companies don’t profit off rooftop solar. And in many cases, they’ve fought to limit rooftop solar — which can reduce the need for large-scale infrastructure and result in lower returns for investors.
Mike Troncoso remembers the exact date of Nevada’s rooftop solar reckoning.
It was Dec. 23, 2015, and he was working for SolarCity. The rooftop installer abruptly ceased operations in the Silver State after NV Energy helped persuade officials to slash a program that pays solar customers for energy they send to the power grid.
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“I was out in the field working, and we got a call: ‘Stop everything you’re doing, don’t finish the project, come to the warehouse,’” Troncoso said. “It was right before Christmas, and they said, ‘Hey, guys, unfortunately we’re getting shut down.’”
After a public outcry, Nevada lawmakers partly reversed the reductions to rooftop solar incentives. Since then, NV Energy and the rooftop solar industry have maintained an uneasy political ceasefire. Installations now exceed pre-2015 levels.
Today, Troncoso is Nevada branch manager for Sunrun, the nation’s largest rooftop solar installer. The company has enough work in the state to support a dozen crews, each named for a different casino. On a chilly winter morning before sunrise, they prepared for the day ahead — laying out steel rails, hooking up microinverters and loading panels onto powder-blue trucks.
But even if Sunrun’s business continues to grow, it won’t eliminate the need for large solar farms in the desert.
Some habitat destruction is unavoidable — at least if we want to break our fossil fuel addiction. The key questions are: How many big solar farms are needed, and where should they be built? Can they be engineered to coexist with animals and plants?
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And if not, should Americans be willing to sacrifice a few endangered species in the name of tackling climate change?
To answer those questions, Los Angeles Times journalists spent a week in southern Nevada, touring solar construction sites, hiking up sand dunes and off-roading through the Mojave. We spoke with NV Energy executives, conservation activists battling Buffett’s company and desert rats who don’t want to see their favorite off-highway vehicle trails cut off by solar farms.
Odds are, no one will get everything they want.
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The tortoise in the coal mine
Biologist Bre Moyle easily spotted the small yellow flag affixed to a scraggly creosote bush — one of many hardy plants sprouting from the caliche soil, surrounded by rows of gleaming steel trusses that would soon hoist solar panels toward the sky.
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Moyle leaned down for a closer look, gently pulling aside branches to reveal a football-sized hole in the ground. It was the entrance to a desert tortoise burrow — one of thousands catalogued by her employer, Primergy Solar, during construction of one of the nation’s largest solar farms on public lands outside Las Vegas.
“I wouldn’t stand on this side of it,” Moyle advised us. “If you walk back there, you could collapse it, potentially.”
I’d seen plenty of solar construction sites in my decade reporting on energy. But none like this.
Instead of tearing out every cactus and other plant and leveling the land flat — the “blade and grade” method — Primergy had left much of the native vegetation in place and installed trusses of different heights to match the ground’s natural contours. The company had temporarily relocated more than 1,600 plants to an on-site nursery, with plans to put them back later.
The Oakland-based developer also went to great lengths to safeguard desert tortoises — an iconic reptile protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, and the biggest environmental roadblock to building solar in the Mojave.
Desert tortoises are sensitive to global warming, residential sprawl and other human encroachment on their habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated tortoise populations fell by more than one-third between 2004 and 2014.
Scientists consider much of the Primergy site high-quality tortoise habitat. It also straddles a connectivity corridor that could help the reptiles seek safer haven as hotter weather and more extreme droughts make their current homes increasingly unlivable.
Before Primergy started building, the company scoured the site and removed 167 tortoises, with plans to let them return and live among the solar panels once the heavy lifting is over. Two-thirds of the project site will be repopulated with tortoises.
Workers removed more tortoises during construction. As of January, the company knew of just two tortoises killed — one that may have been hit by a car, and another that may have been entombed in its burrow by roadwork, then eaten by a kit fox.
Primergy Vice President Thomas Regenhard acknowledged the company can’t build solar here without doing any harm to the ecosystem — or spurring opposition from conservation activists. But as he watched union construction workers lift panels onto trusses, he said Primergy is “making the best of the worst-case situation” for solar opponents.
“What we’re trying to do is make it the least impactful on the environment and natural resources,” he said. “What we’re also doing is we’re sharing that knowledge, so that these projects can be built in a better way moving forward.”
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The company isn’t saving tortoises out of the goodness of its profit-seeking heart.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management conditioned its approval of the solar farm, called Gemini, on a long list of environmental protection measures — and only after some bureau staffers seemingly contemplated rejecting the project entirely.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife show the bureau’s Las Vegas field office drafted several versions of a “record of decision” that would have denied the permit application for Gemini. The drafts listed several objections, including harm to desert tortoises, loss of space for off-road vehicle drivers and disturbance of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail, which runs through the project site.
Separately, Primergy reached a legal settlement with conservationists — who challenged the project’s federal approval in court — in which the company agreed to additional steps to protect tortoises and a plant known as the three-corner milkvetch.
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The company estimates just 2.5% of the project site will be permanently disturbed — far less than the 33% allowed by Primergy’s federal permit. Regenhard is hopeful the lessons learned here will inform future solar development on public lands.
“This is something new. So we’re refining a lot of the processes,” he said. “We’re not perfect. We’re still learning.”
By the time construction wraps this fall, 1.8 million panels will cover nearly 4,000 football fields’ worth of land, just off the 15 Freeway. They’ll be able to produce 690 megawatts of power — as much as 115,000 typical home solar systems. And they’ll be paired with batteries, to store energy and help NV Energy customers keep running their air conditioners after sundown.
Unlike many solar fields, Gemini is close to the population it will serve — just a few dozen miles from the Strip. And the affected landscape is far from visually stunning, with none of the red-rock majesty found at nearby Valley of Fire State Park.
But desert tortoises don’t care if a place looks cool to humans. They care if it’s good tortoise habitat.
Moyle, Primergy’s environmental services manager, pointed to a small black structure at the bottom of a fence along the site’s edge — a shade shelter for tortoises. Workers installed them every 800 feet, so that if any relocated reptiles try to return to the solar farm too early, they don’t die pacing along the fence in the heat.
“They have a really, really good sense of direction,” Moyle said. “They know where their homes are. They want to come back.”
Primergy will study what happens when tortoises do come back. Will they benefit from the shade of the solar panels? Or will they struggle to survive on the industrialized landscape?
And looming over those uncertainties, a more existential query: With global warming beginning to devastate human and animal life around the world, should we really be slowing or stopping solar development to save a single type of reptile?
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Moyle was ready with an answer: Tortoises are a keystone species. If they’re doing well, it’s a good sign of a healthy ecosystem in which other desert creatures — such as burrowing owls, kit foxes and American badgers — are positioned to thrive, too.
And as the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, human survival is inextricably linked with a healthy natural world.
“We take one thing out, we don’t know what sort of disastrous effect it’s going to have on everything else,” Moyle said.
We do, however, know the consequences of relying on fossil fuels: entire towns burning to the ground, Lake Mead three-quarters empty, elderly Americans baking to death in their overheated homes. With worse to come.
The shifting sands of time
A few miles south, another solar project was rising in the desert. This one looked different.
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A fleet of bulldozers, scrapers, excavators and graders was nearly done flattening the land — a beige moonscape devoid of cacti and creosote. The solar panel support trusses were all the same height, forming an eerily rigid silver sea.
When I asked Carl Glass — construction manager for DEPCOM Power, the contractor building this project for Buffett’s NV Energy — why workers couldn’t leave vegetation in place like at Gemini, he offered a simple answer: drainage. Allowing the land to retain its natural contours, he said, would make it difficult to move stormwater off the site during summer monsoons.
Safety was another consideration, said Dani Strain, NV Energy’s senior manager for the project. Blading and grading the land meant workers wouldn’t have to carry solar panels and equipment across ground studded with tripping hazards.
“It’s nicer for the environment not to do it,” Strain said. “But it creates other problems. You can’t have everything.”
This kind of solar project has typified development in the Mojave Desert.
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And it helps explain why the Center for Biological Diversity’s Patrick Donnelly has fought so hard to limit that development.
The morning after touring the solar construction sites, we joined Donnelly for a hike up Big Dune, a giant pile of sand covering five square miles and towering 500 feet above the desert floor, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The sun was just beginning its ascent over the Mojave, bathing the sand in a smooth umber glow beneath pockets of wispy cloud.
On weekends, Donnelly said, the dune can be overrun by thousands of off-road vehicles. But on this day, it was quiet.
Energy companies have proposed more than a dozen solar farms on public lands surrounding Big Dune — some with overlapping footprints. Donnelly doesn’t oppose all of them. But he thinks federal agencies should limit solar to the least ecologically sensitive parts of Nevada, instead of letting companies pitch projects almost anywhere they choose.
“Developers are looking at this as low-hanging fruit,” he said. “The idea is, this is where California can build all of its solar.”
We trekked slowly up the dune, our bodies casting long shadows in the early morning light. When we took a breather and looked back down, a trail of footprints marked our path. Donnelly assured us a windy day would wipe them away.
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“This is why I live here, man,” he said. “It’s the most beautiful place on Earth, in my mind.”
Donnelly broke his back in a rock-climbing accident, so he used a walking stick to scale the dune. He lives not far from here, at the edge of Death Valley National Park, and works as the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity’s Great Basin director.
As we resumed our journey, the wind blowing hard, I asked Donnelly to rank the top human threats to the Mojave. He was quick to answer: The climate crisis was No. 1, followed by housing sprawl, solar development and off-road vehicles.
“There’s no good solar project in the desert. But there’s less bad,” he said. “And we’re at a point now where we have to settle for less bad, because the alternatives are more bad: more coal, more gas, climate apocalypse.”
That hasn’t stopped Donnelly and his colleagues from fighting renewable energy projects they fear would wipe out entire species — even little-known plants and animals with tiny ranges, such as Tiehm’s buckwheat and the Dixie Valley toad.
“I’m not a religious guy,” Donnelly said. “But all God’s creatures great and small.”
After a steep stretch of sand, we stopped along a ridge with sweeping views. To our west were the Funeral Mountains, across the California state line in Death Valley National Park — and far beyond them Mt. Whitney, its snow-covered facade just barely visible. To our east was Highway 95, cutting across the Amargosa Valley en route from Las Vegas to Reno.
It’s along this highway that so many developers want to build.
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“We would be in a sea of solar right now,” Donnelly said.
Having heard plenty of rural residents say they don’t want to look at such a sea, I asked Donnelly if this was a bad spot for solar because it would ruin the glorious views. He told me he never makes that argument, “because honestly, views aren’t really the primary concern at this moment. The primary concern is stopping the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis.”
“There are certain places where we shouldn’t put solar because it’s a wild and undisturbed landscape,” he said.
As far as he’s concerned, though, the Amargosa Valley isn’t one of those landscapes, what with Highway 95 running through it. The same goes for Dry Lake Valley, where NV Energy’s solar construction site is already surrounded by energy infrastructure.
What Donnelly would like to see is better planning.
He pointed to California, where state and federal officials spent eight years crafting a desert conservation plan that allows solar and wind farms across a few hundred thousand acres while setting aside millions more for protection. He thinks a similar process is crucial in Nevada, where four-fifths of the land area is owned by the federal government — more than any other state.
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If Donnelly had his way, regulators would put the kibosh on solar farms immediately adjacent to Big Dune. He’s worried they could alter the movement of sand across the desert floor, affecting several rare beetles that call the dune home.
But if the feds want to allow solar projects along the highway to the south, near the Area 51 Alien Center?
“Might not be the end the world,” Donnelly said.
He shot me a grin.
“You know, one thing I like to do …”
Without warning, he took off racing down the dune, carried by momentum and love for the desert. He laughed as he reached a natural stopping point, calling for us to join him. His voice sounded free and full of possibility.
Some solar panels on the horizon wouldn’t have changed that.
Shout it from the rooftops
Laura Cunningham and Kevin Emmerich were a match made in Mojave Desert heaven.
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Cunningham was a wildlife biologist, Emmerich a park ranger when they met nearly 30 years ago at Death Valley. She studied tortoises for government agencies and later a private contractor. He worked with bighorn sheep and gave interpretive talks. They got married, bought property along the Amargosa River and started their own conservation group, Basin and Range Watch.
And they’ve been fighting solar development ever since.
That’s how we ended up in the back of their SUV, pulling open a rickety cattle gate off Highway 95 and driving past wild burros on a dirt road through Nevada’s Bullfrog Hills, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
They had told us Sarcobatus Flat was stunning, but I was still surprised by how stunning. I got my first look as we crested a ridge. The gently sloping valley spilled down toward Death Valley National Park, whose snowy mountain peaks towered over a landscape dotted with thousands of Joshua trees.
“Everything we’re looking at is proposed for solar development,” Cunningham said.
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Most environmentalists agree we need at least some large solar farms. Cunningham and Emmerich are different. They’re at the vanguard of a harder-core desert protection movement that sees all large-scale solar farms on public lands as bad news.
Why had so many companies converged on Sarcobatus Flat?
The main answer is transmission. NV Energy is seeking federal approval to build the 358-mile Greenlink West electric line, which would carry thousands of megawatts of renewable power between Reno and Las Vegas along the Highway 95 corridor.
The dirt road curved around a small hill, and suddenly we found ourselves on the valley floor, surrounded by Joshua trees. Some looked healthy; others had bark that had been chewed by rodents seeking water, a sign of drought stress. Scientists estimate the Joshua tree’s western subspecies could lose 90% of its range as the world gets hotter and droughts get more intense.
But asked whether climate change or solar posed a bigger threat to Sarcobatus Flat, Cunningham didn’t hesitate.
“Oh, solar development hands down,” she said.
Nearly 20 years ago, she said, she helped relocate desert tortoises to make way for a test track in California. One of them tried to return home, walking 20 miles before hitting a fence. It paced back and forth and eventually died of heat exhaustion.
Solar farms, she said, pose a similar threat to tortoises. And at Sarcobatus Flat, they would cover a high-elevation area that could otherwise serve as a climate refuge for Joshua trees, giving them a relatively cool place to reproduce as the planet heats up.
“It makes no sense to me that we’re going to bulldoze them down and throw them into trash piles. It’s just crazy,” she said.
In Cunningham and Emmerich’s view, every sun-baked parking lot in L.A. and Vegas and Phoenix should have a solar canopy, every warehouse and single-family home a solar roof. It’s a common argument among desert defenders: Why sacrifice sensitive ecosystems when there’s an easy alternative for fighting climate change? Especially when rooftop solar can reduce strain on an overtaxed electric grid and — when paired with batteries — help people keep their lights on during blackouts?
The answer isn’t especially satisfying to conservationists.
For all the virtues of rooftop solar, it’s an expensive way to generate clean power — and keeping energy costs low is crucial to ensure that lower-income families can afford electric cars, another key climate solution. A recent report from investment bank Lazard pegged the cost of rooftop solar at 11.7 cents per kilowatt-hour on the low end, compared with 2.4 cents for utility solar.
Even when factoring in pricey long-distance electric lines, utility-scale solar is typically cheaper, several experts told me.
“It’s three to six times more expensive to put solar on your roof than to put it in a large-scale project,” said Jesse Jenkins, an energy systems researcher at Princeton University. “There may be some added value to having solar in the Los Angeles Basin instead of the middle of the Mojave Desert. But is it 300% to 600% more value? Probably not. It’s probably not even close.”
There’s a practical challenge, too.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated U.S. rooftops could generate 1,432 terawatt-hours of electricity per year — just 13% of the power America will need to replace most of its coal, oil and gas, according to research led by Jenkins.
Add in parking lots and other areas within cities, and urban solar systems might conceivably supply one-quarter or even one-third of U.S. power, several experts told The Times — in an unlikely scenario where they’re installed in every suitable spot.
Energy researcher Chris Clack’s consulting firm has found that dramatic growth in rooftop and other small-scale solar installations could reduce the costs of slashing climate pollution by half a trillion dollars. But even Clack said rooftops alone won’t cut it.
“Realistically, 80% is going to end up being utility grid no matter what,” he said.
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All those industrial renewable energy projects will have to go somewhere.
Sarcobatus Flat may not be the answer. Federal officials classified all three solar proposals there as “low priority,” citing their proximity to Death Valley and potential harm to tortoise habitat. One developer withdrew its application last year.
Before leaving the area, Cunningham pointed to a wooden marker, one of at least half a dozen stretching out in a line. I walked over to take a closer look and discovered it was a mining claim for lithium — a main ingredient in electric-car batteries.
If solar development didn’t upend this valley, lithium extraction might.
On the beaten track
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The four-wheeler jerked violently as Erica Muxlow pressed her foot to the gas, sending us flying down a rough dirt road with no end in sight but the distant mountains. Five-point safety straps were the only things stopping us from flying out of our seats, the vehicle leaping through the air as we reached speeds of 40 mph, then 50 mph, the wind whipping our faces.
It was like riding Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds — just without the Yeti.
Ahead of us, Muxlow’s neighbor Jimmy Lewis led the way on an electric blue motorcycle, kicking up a stream of sand. He wanted us to see thousands of acres of public lands outside his adopted hometown of Pahrump, in Nevada’s Nye County, that could soon be blocked by solar projects — cutting off access to off-highway vehicle enthusiasts such as himself.
“You could build an apartment complex or a shopping mall here, and it would be the same thing to me,” he said.
To progressive-minded Angelenos or San Franciscans, preserving large chunks of public land for gas-guzzling, environmentally destructive dirt bikes might sound like a terrible reason not to build solar farms that would lessen the climate crisis.
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But here’s the reality: Rural Westerners such as Lewis will play a key role in determining how much clean energy gets built.
Not long before our Nevada trip, Nye County placed a six-month pause on new renewable energy projects, citing local concerns about loss of off-road vehicle trails. Similar fears have stymied development across the U.S., with rural residents attacking solar and wind farms as industrial intrusions on their way of life — and local governments throwing up roadblocks.
For Lewis, the conflict is deeply personal.
He moved here from Southern California more than a decade ago, trading life by the beach for a five-acre plot where he runs an off-roading school and test-drives motorcycles for manufacturers. His warehouse was packed with dozens of dirt bikes.
“This is my life. Motorcycles, motorcycles, motorcycles,” he said, laughing.
Lewis has worked to stir up opposition to three local solar farm proposals. So far, his efforts have been in vain.
One project is already under construction. Peering through a fence, we saw row after row of trusses, waiting for their photovoltaic panels. It’s called Yellow Pine, and it’s being built by Florida-based NextEra Energy to supply power to California.
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Lewis learned about Yellow Pine when he was riding one of his favorite trails and was surprised to find it cut off. He compared the experience to riding the best roller-coaster at a theme park, only to have it grind to a halt three-quarters of the way through.
“I don’t want my playground taken away from me,” he said.
“Me neither!” a voice called out from behind us.
We turned and were greeted by Shannon Salter, an activist who had previously spent nine months camping near the Yellow Pine site to protest the habitat destruction. She and Lewis had never met, but they quickly realized they had common cause.
“It’s the opposite of green!” Salter said.
“On my roof, not my backyard,” Lewis agreed.
Never mind that conservationists have long decried the ecological damage from desert off-roading. Salter and Lewis both cared about these lands. Neither wanted to see the solar industry lay claim to them. They talked about staying in touch.
It’s easy to imagine similar alliances forming across the West, the clean energy transition bringing together environmentalists and rural residents in a battle to defend their lifestyles, their landscapes and animals that can’t fight for themselves.
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It’s also easy to imagine major cities that badly need lots of solar and wind power — Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix — brushing off those complaints as insignificant compared with the climate emergency, or as fueled by right-wing misinformation.
But many of concerns raised by critics are legitimate. And their voices are only getting louder.
As night fell over the Mojave, Lewis shared his idea that any city buying electricity from a desert solar farm should be required to install a certain amount of rooftop solar back home first — on government buildings, at least. It only seemed fair.
“Some people see the desert as just a wasteland,” Lewis said. “I think it’s beautiful.”
The view from Black Mountain
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So how do we build enough renewable energy to replace fossil fuels without destroying too many ecosystems, or stoking too much political opposition from rural towns, or moving too slowly to save the planet?
Few people could do more to ease those tensions than Buffett.
Our conversation kept returning to the legendary investor as we hiked Black Mountain, just outside Vegas, on our last morning in the Silver State. We were joined by Jaina Moan, director of external affairs for the Nature Conservancy’s Nevada chapter. She had promised a view of massive solar fields from the peak — but only after a 3.5-mile trek with 2,000 feet of elevation gain.
“It’ll be a little StairMaster at the end,” she warned us.
The homes and hotels and casinos of the Las Vegas Valley retreated behind us as we climbed, looking ever smaller and more insignificant against the vast open desert. It was an illusion that will prove increasingly difficult to maintain as Sin City and its suburbs continue their march into the Mojave. Nevada politicians from both parties are pushing for legislation that would let federal officials auction off additional public lands for residential and commercial development.
Vegas and other Western cities could limit the need for more suburbs — and sprawling solar farms — by growing smarter, Moan said. Urban areas could embrace density, to help people drive fewer miles and reduce the demand for new power supplies to fuel electric vehicles. They could invest in electric buses and trains — and use less water, which would save a lot of energy.
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“As our spaces become more crowded, we’re going to have to come up with more creative ideas,” Moan said.
That’s where Buffett could make things easier.
The billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway company owns electric utilities that serve millions of people, from California to Nevada to Illinois. Those utilities, Moan said, could buck the industry trend of urging policymakers to reduce financial incentives for rooftop solar and instead encourage the technology — along with other small-scale clean energy solutions, such as local microgrids.
That would limit the need for big solar farms — at least somewhat.
Berkshire and other energy giants could also build solar on lands already altered by humans, such as abandoned mines, toxic Superfund sites, reservoirs, landfills, agricultural areas, highway corridors and canals that carry water to farms and cities.
The costs are typically higher than building on undisturbed public lands. And in many cases there are technical challenges yet to be resolved. But those kinds of “creative solutions” could at least lessen the loss of biodiversity, Moan said.
“There’s money to be made there, and there’s good to be done,” she said.
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It’s hard to know what Buffett thinks. A Berkshire spokesperson declined my request to interview him.
Tony Sanchez, NV Energy’s executive vice president for business development and external relations, was more forthcoming.
“The problem for us with rooftop solar,” he said, is that it’s “not controlled at all by us.” As a result, NV Energy can’t decide when and how rooftop solar power is used — and can’t rely on that power to help balance supply and demand on the grid.
Over time, Sanchez predicted, a lot more rooftop solar will get built. But he couldn’t say how much.
Rooftop solar faces a similarly uncertain future in California, where state officials voted last year to slash incentive payments, calling them an unfair subsidy. Industry leaders have warned of a dramatic decline in installations.
As we neared the top of Black Mountain, the solar farms on the other side came into view. They stretched across the Eldorado Valley far below — black rectangles that could help save life on Earth while also destroying bits and pieces of it.
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Moan believes the key to balancing clean energy and conservation is “go slow to go fast.” Government agencies, she said, should work with conservation activists, small-town residents and Native American tribes to study and map out the best places for clean energy, then reward companies that agree to build in those areas with faster approvals. Solar and wind development would slow down in the short term but speed up in the long run, with quicker environmental reviews and less risk of lawsuits.
It’s a tantalizing concept — but I confessed to Moan that I worried it would backfire.
What if the sparring factions couldn’t agree on the best spots to build solar and wind farms, and instead wasted years arguing? Or what if they did manage to hammer out some compromises, only for a handful of unhappy people or groups to take them to court, gumming up the works? Couldn’t “go slow to go fast” end up becoming “go slow to go slow”?
In other words, should we really bet our collective future on human beings working together, rather than fighting?
Moan was sympathetic to my fears. She also didn’t see another way forward.
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“We really need to think holistically about saving everything,” she said.
The sad truth is, not everything can be saved. Not if we want to keep the world livable for people and animals alike.
Some beloved landscapes will be left unrecognizable. Some families will be stuck paying high energy bills to monopoly utilities, even as some utility investors make less money. Some tortoises will probably die, pacing along fences in the heat.
The alternative is worse.
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