'Declines haven't happened in most places'

'Homes will be affordable again — just not anytime soon'

Conor Sen at Bloomberg

It will "probably take five years or more to approach the kind of purchasing power homebuyers enjoyed before the pandemic," says Conor Sen. Prices "may fall modestly in some parts of the country," but "widespread large-scale declines are unlikely." Government incentives to "increase construction and offer first-time buyers a hand can make a difference, but this will take time." Housing affordability "should improve every year from here, just not as fast as anxious homebuyers would like."

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'Democrats have lost young men to the GOP — Tim Walz can win them back'

Charlie Sabgir at The Hill

Tim Walz is the Democrats' "(not so) secret weapon to winning over everyone from Midwestern farmers to TikTok-ing Gen Z-ers," says Charlie Sabgir. In the "contest for young men, Coach Walz has an opportunity and an obligation to address young male grievances and provide a powerful contrast to the harmful masculinity represented by the Trump-Vance ticket." Democrats "have a moral and strategic imperative to promote Walz's embodiment of empathetic and principled masculinity."

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'Biden should treat 'Gold Bar Bob' Menendez pardon bid as an insult to his own integrity'

New York Post editorial board

Bob Menendez is "reportedly angling for a presidential pardon," but "even a party loyalist like President Biden should feel no call to reward that by letting 'Gold Bar' escape his richly deserved prison time," says the New York Post editorial board. Biden "will never face the voters again; his only concern can be for his duty and his legacy." He'll "serve both if he publicly and firmly rejects Menendez's pardon bid right now."

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'Real-time 'fact-checking' is the lowest form of journalism'

Chris Lehmann at The Nation

The "great enabling myth of corporate journalism is the just-so story of elite impartiality," says Chris Lehmann. The "elite press has created the ritualized real-time 'fact check' of political speech," and this "vision of reporters as above-the-fray priests of a higher empirical truth could not be more ill-suited to the Trumpified political age." The "vision of our political press as a performative fact-checking outlet functions as a kind of learned institutional helplessness."

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