Hello Brick Brief readers, 

Happy Friday. In recent news, Trump is advancing housing affordability through agency bond purchases, mortgage rates are lower but demand remains soft, and NVIDIA GPUs are moving inside triple-net leases.

🏠 Trump Continues Advancing Housing Affordability
President Donald Trump continued advancing his housing affordability agenda by directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200B of agency mortgage bonds to push borrowing costs lower. In reaction, mortgage bonds rallied and home-lender stocks jumped as markets priced in improved future mortgage execution that could allow lenders to pass through roughly a 0.25% reduction in consumer mortgage rates.

📉 Mortgage Rates Open 2026 Lower But Demand Remains Soft
Mortgage rates started 2026 at 6.16%, their lowest opening level since 2022, helping push monthly housing payments down 4.7% YoY to $2,365. Pending sales and new listings, however, are down 6.7% YoY and 8.3% YoY respectively, as early-year buyer and seller activity remains cautious despite improved affordability.

⚡ NVIDIA GPUs Move Inside The Lease
Apollo led a $3.5B financing for Valor Compute Infrastructure to support a $5.4B acquisition and triple-net lease backing xAI’s next-generation data center buildout. As part of the deal, the triple-net lease includes the NVIDIA GPUs themselves alongside the data center shell, embedding compute infrastructure directly into the real estate financing structure.

US unemployment likely held at 4.6% in December, Chicago Fed estimates – The low-hire, low-fire labor market keeps the Federal Reserve on a cautious path toward rate cuts (Reuters)

CBO sees the Federal Reserve cutting rates slightly in 2026 before pausing – Tariffs and Trump tax cuts are expected to keep inflation above the 2% target despite easing labor risks (Reuters)

US consumers grew more worried about the job market in December – New York Fed data show near-term inflation expectations rose to 3.4% (Reuters)

US jobless claims tick up to 208K while productivity surges at the fastest pace in two years – Firms are doing more with fewer workers, keeping layoffs low but hiring sluggish (Reuters)

CRE prices rose 2.3% YoY but remain 15.9% below the 2022 peak – Green Street expects commercial property values to appreciate ~2% in 2026 unless long-term interest rates move meaningfully lower. (ConnectCRE)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Trump’s proposed ban on institutional homebuying would be forward-looking only – PE firms would not be forced to sell existing single-family rentals; the policy aims to push out the marginal buyer while preserving mom-and-pop ownership (Bloomberg)

Boutique U.S. housing research firm Zelman says that institutions have likely been a net seller of existing homes over the last 2-3 years

Trump directs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200B of mortgage bonds to push down housing costs – The move could trim mortgage rates by roughly 0.25% by tightening MBS spreads, though some economists warn much of the rate relief may already be priced in (Bloomberg)

Mortgage bonds and home-lender stocks jump after Trump orders a $200B MBS purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – Spreads tightened and rates dipped, lifting Rocket, loanDepot, and Opendoor shares (Bloomberg)

Trump will decide within one to two months whether to pursue an IPO of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – William Pulte says the call rests entirely with the president as the administration weighs housing-affordability priorities (Reuters)

Recent developments and Trump’s housing affordability push here puts the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac IPO decision into question, as these agencies can more directly support President Donald Trump’s agenda through MBS purchases and spread compression while under government conservatorship. That leverage becomes harder to guarantee if they are taken public, where shareholder returns would compete with policy-driven housing objectives.

Mortgage rates opened 2026 at 6.16%, the lowest start to the year since 2022 – The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate ticked up just 1 bp from late-2025 lows as stable 10-year Treasury yields kept borrowing costs contained (Realtor.com)

Monthly housing payments fell 4.7% YoY to $2,365, the lowest level in two years – Mortgage rates dropped to 6.15%, but pending sales fell 6.7% YoY and new listings declined 8.3% as early-year demand remained soft (Redfin)

Inventory rose 12.1% YoY for the 26th straight month but growth slowed – Active listings fell 8.9% MoM in December and remain well below pre-pandemic levels despite steady supply recovery (Realtor.com)

Median list prices fell 0.6% YoY as homes took four days longer to sell – Demand stayed soft through year-end with buyer activity cooling across most regions (Realtor.com)

South and West inventory outpaced the Northeast and Midwest – Active listings rose 14.4% in the West and 12.3% in the South while price-per-square-foot gains held at 4.1% in the Northeast and 1.7% in the Midwest (Realtor.com)

65% of agents expect housing market conditions to improve, up from 48% in Q3 – The latest CNBC Housing Market Survey shows sentiment turning more optimistic (CNBC)

Law firm Gibson Dunn renews 362K SF at 200 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, NY – The long-term tenant has occupied the MetLife Building since 1982, reinforcing demand for trophy office space near Grand Central (CommercialObserver)

AI voice analysis company Rilla signs 57K SF lease at 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY – The 10-year deal expands the firm’s footprint at Global Holdings’ waterfront office property (CommercialObserver)

Public relations firm Purple signs 24K SF lease at 16 Madison Square West in Manhattan, NY – The tenant is relocating to Adams & Company’s Flatiron District office building (CommercialObserver)

Retailer Amiee Lynn renews 29K SF at 366 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, NY – The longtime tenant expands across the 10th and 11th floors of Joseph P. Day Realty’s Class B building (CommercialObserver)

Freebies and standout discounts drove the biggest QSR traffic spikes in 2025 – No-purchase giveaways and simple, clearly differentiated offers cut through a crowded everyday value landscape (Placerai)

Pop culture and promotion sequencing rivaled free offers – Krispy Kreme, McDonald’s, and Burger King saw peak traffic from culturally relevant activations and back-to-back launches that sustained momentum (Placerai)

Scarcity, storytelling, and food still moved traffic – Starbucks’ premium Bearista merch, nostalgia-driven menu revivals, and clearly positioned value items generated outsized visits without relying solely on discounts (Placerai)

American Electric Power signs a $2.65B deal to buy up to 1GW of solid oxide fuel cells from Bloom Energy – The agreement includes a 20-year offtake for a fuel cell power facility near Cheyenne, Wyoming (Reuters)

Apollo leads a $3.5B financing to back xAI’s next-generation data center infrastructure – The triple-net lease supports a $5.4B compute acquisition tied to NVIDIA GB200 GPUs (ConnectCRE)

What stands out in this deal is that the NVIDIA GPUs sit inside the triple-net lease, which encompasses not just the data center shell/real estate but the underlying compute infrastructure itself.

MCR fails to fund a $200M commitment in the $2.7B take-private of members-only club Soho House – The shortfall puts the deal at risk; Yucaipa Cos. is working to fill the gap alongside Apollo Global Management (Bisnow)

Benefit Street raises $3B for its second opportunistic real estate debt fund with $10B of deployable capital – The strategy targets senior and junior CRE loans as private credit fills the gap left by retreating regional banks (Bisnow)

Bondholders led by Bracebridge Capital and Pentwater Capital line up ~$1.25B debtor-in-possession financing for Saks Global ahead of Chapter 11 filing – The deal would fund bankruptcy and transfer control to creditors (WSJ)

Judge rejects city request to pause $451M auction of Pinnacle Group’s 5K-unit rent-stabilized apartment portfolio in New York, NY – The ruling clears the way for a Summit Properties takeover (TheRealDeal)

Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters buys 208K SF office property from Rialto Capital Management in Philadelphia, PA for $52M – The union acquires the former GSK Navy Yard HQ at roughly a 60% discount following foreclosure tied to a CMBS trust  (TheRealDeal)