About Howard Lorber
Howard Lorber, chairman of Douglas Elliman and CEO of Vector Group, has continued to comment on the real estate market, frequently cautioning against using 2021 as a benchmark. In a September 2024 podcast, he stated that 2021 was "an outlier" and that comparing current market performance to that year gives a "misleading impression of decline." He noted that while some markets like New York have been slow, others are performing well, and he expressed optimism about New York City's long-term prospects, calling it a potential "number one second home market for the world." Lorber also discussed his philanthropic work, including supporting a Holocaust studies program at West Point and a scholarship fund for children of fallen first responders.
Lorber has also spoken about his business philosophy and personal history. He described his approach to real estate brokerage as focusing on agents as customers, stating, "If you believe that, you should spend all your time with the brokers." He recounted his early career, including buying and selling companies like Nathan's Famous and Western Union, and shared an anecdote about driving his first Rolls-Royce to a McDonald's drive-thru. In a 2024 interview, he addressed rising antisemitism, saying that "the very light veil was lifted after October 7th" and that some schools have "allowed anti-Semitic voices under the guise of free speech."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Howard Lorber's recent appearances.
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Transcript (14 segments)
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Howard Lorber0:01
Falling in 18 months. Howard Lorber, Executive Chairman of Douglas Ellerman. How bad is the market pressured by the rising rates?
Rising rates have pressured the market, but realistically you can't use 2021 as a gauge for other years. I would say that our third quarter was probably the second best quarter we've ever had in business. The only one that surpassed it was 2021. So if you go back to like 2019, pre-COVID, we did better than that this year.
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Interviewer0:35
Right. So the comps are strong from last year.
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Howard Lorber0:40
Strong...
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Interviewer0:42
Holding up...
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Howard Lorber0:42
I'm not saying it's holding up. It's less than last year, but it's somewhat not a good judge just because you have one year which no one really understands how or why it happened. Okay.
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Howard Lorber0:56
And then you go back to more normalcy and everyone thinks business is terrible. It's not terrible. We're busy doing deals all the time. Maybe we have an advantage because we're in the luxury markets and those are better than low-end markets.
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Interviewer1:13
That's what I was going to ask, if luxury is holding up better. What about rents? Because rents have stayed high and actually climbed as people are sort of forced out of buying now into renting, and that's a part of the CPI which the Federal Reserve is targeting. When do rents come down?
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Howard Lorber1:34
I've read in a lot of markets rents are coming down already. For sure in Florida and in New York, the rents are still high. On the luxury rentals, the high end are astronomical pricing, things we've never seen before on a square foot basis. Rents are in pretty good shape, and maybe that's because people aren't buying as much as they did before and so they're renting and they don't mind paying more in rent.
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Interviewer2:04
You mentioned New York and Florida. I was going to ask about both of these markets because we got the results of the midterms, the governors stay the same overwhelmingly so. Do you think, when I talk to developers, why are people moving from New York to Florida? A lot comes down to the politics. Do you think the trends of business and hedge funds going to Florida from New York will continue?
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Howard Lorber2:28
Look, I don't agree those were the number one factor. I think the number one factor, I think there are two and they're close. One was taxes. Okay. No state taxes as opposed to New York, especially here in the city. Number two is quality of life. People are moving down. I think crime is less here. They're worried about the crime in New York. Having said all that, New York is not going away. And I've been talking to so many people and a lot of people moved here even though they moved with their families, they still kept the house or apartment they had in New York. So that shows you what they think about New York. I think, and I've said it before and quoted, that I think New York City, once they work a little bit more on the crime problem, get that crime problem down, I think will be the number one second home market in the world.
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Interviewer3:23
That's good news for us New Yorkers. So Howard, are you building right now? What is all this doing, the rising rates and changes in the market, doing to development and building pipelines, and ultimately how is that going to impact inventory?
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Howard Lorber3:42
In New York, no one really has started anything new for the last few years since COVID came. Florida is booming on new developments. There is so much new development in Florida and they're at all ends, the lower, mid, and really high-end luxury crazy prices. We're seeing prices we just saw a sale in a project that...
