(RECAP: A giant excavator shovels hundreds of crumbled cinderblocks along West Main Street, clearing the remnants of an ancient office building. A new six-tale apartment building called The Standard is set to take its place, adding nearly 650 bedrooms to Charlottesville’s rental market. But not one of these will be priced as affordable for lower-income residents in the city. Instead, they’re aimed at University of Virginia students. Most 2-bedrooms in Charlottesville range between $1,000 to $1,800 a month, according to a recent study commissioned by the city. That’s on par with Virginia Beach, according to U.S. Census data, and exceeds average rents in cities such as Richmond, Roanoke, and Harrisonburg. Anecdotally, people are moving away, to places within driving distance, such as Waynesboro or Scottsville, but where 2-bedrooms go for less than half as much.)

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(RECAP: President-elect Donald Trump’s fiscal policy plans are more a tale for 2018-2019 than this year, said St. Louis Fed President James Bullard on Thursday. In an interview on CNBC, Bullard said growth in 2017 is pretty much “baked in the cake.” He said he thinks the economy remains in a low interest-rate and slow growth environment that is not going to change by “snapping fingers.” Bullard said he still thinks economic conditions will justify only one interest rate this year and the Fed has time to wait and see what develops.)

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(RECAP: On Jan. 4, Dr. Doug Duncan, Executive VP and Chief Economic Officer of the Federal National Mortgage Association, otherwise known as Fannie Mae hosted the association’s quarterly strategy meeting in Washington D.C. What made this particular session an unprecedented event, but, was the representation of real estate investors among the invited attendees. This is the first time that guests outside of Capitol Hill have been invited to any sort of Fannie discussion, which has opened up a debate on the importance of real estate investors in the current housing market. The meeting proved the government’s interest in investors and has provided an optimistic future outlook for single-family, non-occupant loans to be based more on the income of the property, as opposed to the borrower. Fannie’s limit on the number of loans made to a single investor had previously made it hard for landlords and investors to be economically motivated to provide housing sufficient to meet demand.)

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