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REPUBLICA PRESS
Your Business & Political News Source

Texas

The Company is New to Dallas, but the Founder is Not: Glenn Gehan Launches DFW Division of GFO Home

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DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The name Gehan is a very familiar one in Dallas. Glenn Gehan co-founded Gehan Homes, now the ninth largest private homebuilder in the United States, with his father and brothers in 1991. In 2018 Gehan launched GFO Home in Austin, and has now expanded the company into Dallas, where they are already seeing massive demand and success.

As a fourth-generation homebuilder with deep roots in the city, expanding his new company to Dallas was always the plan, Gehan says.

“The residential market is strong in Dallas, with the second-highest number of people moving here compared to all U.S. metro regions. We specifically target the move-up homebuyer, and we’ve had tremendous success; far more than even our most optimistic expectations,” Gehan says.

GFO Home’s leadership team has together built more than 25,000 homes over two decades and all of that experience went into creating a new and different company, launched in the hottest real estate market in the U.S.

The company builds high-end, architect-designed homes aimed at the move-up homebuyer market. GFO Home houses tend to be the highest quality in every community they’re in, on larger than average homesites and with better designs, elevations, and standard features than their competitors.

In Dallas, GFO has 54 homes under construction, with 19 ready for quick-move in, in six communities and the company is in negotiations with eight additional communities. GFO just opened new model homes in Inspiration, an award-winning master-planned community in Wylie; and in Lakeview Downs, featuring one-acre homesites in the Highland Park peninsula on Lavon Lake. A model in the Woodbridge community will open this quarter as well.

As a corporate citizen, GFO is already giving back to the DFW area in a big way, investing a total of $80,000 in the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center, which improves the lives of abused children; and Genesis Women’s Shelter, which provides shelter and support for women who have experienced domestic violence.

GFO’s future plans include expansion into Houston, and eventually other large cities in Texas.

About GFO Home

GFO Home builds high-end modern homes in Dallas and Austin. The company was founded by Glenn Gehan in 2018 following the sale of Gehan Homes, the ninth largest private homebuilder in the United States. Gehan and his leadership team have collectively built more than 25,000 homes in two decades. GFO quickly became the fastest-growing homebuilder in Austin and is now building homes in six communities in Dallas. The company gives back to its communities and is a major donor to local charities in both cities.

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Your Inflation Questions, Answered

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Inflation is high and has been for months. It’s weighing on consumer confidence, making policymakers nervous and threatening to eat away at household paychecks well into 2022.

This is the first time many adults have experienced meaningful inflation: Price gains had been largely quiescent since the late 1980s. When the Consumer Price Index climbed 7 percent in the year through December, it was the fastest pace since 1982.

Naturally, people have questions about what this will mean for their pocketbooks, their finances and their economic futures.

Closely intertwined with price worries are concerns about interest rates: The Federal Reserve is poised to raise borrowing costs to try to slow down demand and keep the situation under control.

furniture and camping gear.

That rapid consumption is running up against constrained supply. Factories shut down early in the pandemic, and in parts of Asia, they continue to do so as Omicron cases surge. There aren’t enough containers to ship all of the goods people want to buy, and ports have become clogged trying to process so many imports.

expanding their profits.

In theory, competition should eat away at extra earnings over time. New firms should jump into the market to sell that same products for less and steal away the customer. Existing competitors should ramp up production to meet demand.

But this may be a unappealing time for new firms to enter the market. Established companies may be hesitant to expand production if doing so involved a lot of investment, because it is not clear how long today’s strong demand will last.

“It is a very uncertain environment,” said Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. “A new firm stepping in is a lot of investment, with a lot of financial risk.”

Until companies can produce and transport enough of a given product to go around — as long as shortages remain — companies will be able to raise prices without running much risk of losing customers to a competitor.

In past periods of inflation, do employers typically increase wages or award higher-than-average yearly increases to help employees offset inflation? If so, in what industries is this practice most common? — Annmarie Kutz, Erie, Pa.

There is no standard historical experience with wages and inflation, Mary C. Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said during an interview with The New York Times on Twitter Spaces last week.

lower-wage service industries have been competing mightily for workers in recent months, and pay is climbing faster there.

“The history isn’t so clear that cost of living translates into higher wages, but that’s largely because inflation has been low and stable for a very long time,” Ms. Daly said.

in December projected that price gains will drop back below 3 percent by the end of the year, and will level off to normal levels over the longer term.

are adjusted for inflation, so those should keep pace with price gains. Bonds that pay back fixed rates do less well during periods of inflation, while stock investments — though riskier — tend to rise more quickly than consumer prices. Ms. Benz recommends holding assets across an array of securities, potentially including inflation-protected securities such as some exchange-traded funds or Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, commonly called TIPS.

“It argues against having too much in cash,” Ms. Benz said. “That’s too much dead money.”

We currently have low unemployment, strong wage growth (largely through attrition / voluntary retirements), easy monetary policy and now rising inflation. What are other periods of time when the United States had these conditions? How did things work out then? — Harshal Patel, Moorestown, N.J.

Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, pointed to the post-World War II period as a reference point for the present moment.

“Demand was strong, and supply was constrained,” he said in an interview. “That’s a very instructive path for us.”

The good news about that example is that supply eventually caught up, and prices came down without spurring any greater crisis.

Other, more worried commentators have drawn parallels between now and the 1970s, when the Fed was slow to raise rates as unemployment fell and prices rose — and inflation jumped out of control. But many economists have argued that important differences separate that period from this one: Workers were more heavily unionized and may have had more bargaining power to push for higher wages back then, and the Fed was slow to react for years on end. This time, it’s already gearing up to respond.

about price controls in a recent article, and vocal minority think the 1970s experience unfairly tarnished the idea and that it might be worthwhile to reopen the debate.

“This is a great suppressed topic,” said James K. Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas. “It was absolutely mainstream from the start of World War II until the Reagan administration.”

If inflation is being caused by supply chain problems, how will raising interest rates help? — Larry Harris, Ventura, Calif.

Kristin J. Forbes, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that a big part of today’s inflation ties to roiled supply chains, which monetary policy can’t do much to fix.

But trade is actually happening at elevated levels even amid the disruptions. Factories are producing, ships are shipping, and consumers are buying at a rapid clip. It is just that supply is not keeping up with that booming demand. Higher interest rates can relieve pressure on demand, making it more expensive to buy a boat or a car, cooling off the housing market and slowing business investment.

“A good part of the supply chain problems, you can’t do anything about,” Ms. Forbes said. “But you can affect demand. And it is the combination of the two which determines inflation.”

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Why Tesla Soared as Other Automakers Struggled to Make Cars

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For much of last year, established automakers like General Motors and Ford Motor operated in a different reality from Tesla, the electric car company.

G.M. and Ford closed one factory after another — sometimes for months on end — because of a shortage of computer chips, leaving dealer lots bare and sending car prices zooming. Yet Tesla racked up record sales quarter after quarter and ended the year having sold nearly twice as many vehicles as it did in 2020 unhindered by an industrywide crisis.

Tesla’s ability to conjure up critical components has a greater significance than one year’s car sales. It suggests that the company, and possibly other young electric car businesses, could threaten the dominance of giants like Volkswagen and G.M. sooner and more forcefully than most industry executives and policymakers realize. That would help the effort to reduce the emissions that are causing climate change by displacing more gasoline-powered cars sooner. But it could hurt the millions of workers, thousands of suppliers and numerous local and national governments that rely on traditional auto production for jobs, business and tax revenue.

Tesla and its enigmatic chief executive, Elon Musk, have said little about how the carmaker ran circles around the rest of the auto industry. Now it’s becoming clear that the company simply had a superior command of technology and its own supply chain. Tesla appeared to better forecast demand than businesses that produce many more cars than it does. Other automakers were surprised by how quickly the car market recovered from a steep drop early in the pandemic and had simply not ordered enough chips and parts fast enough.

G.M. and Stellantis, the company formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot, all sold fewer cars in 2021 than they did in 2020.

Tesla’s production and supply problems made it an industry laughingstock. Many of the manufacturing snafus stemmed from Mr. Musk’s insistence that the company make many parts itself.

Other car companies have realized that they need to do some of what Mr. Musk and Tesla have been doing all along and are in the process of taking control of their onboard computer systems.

Mercedes, for example, plans to use fewer specialized chips in coming models and more standardized semiconductors, and to write its own software, said Markus Schäfer, a member of the German carmaker’s management board who oversees procurement.

traced to the outbreak of Covid-19, which triggered an economic slowdown, mass layoffs and a halt to production. Here’s what happened next:

It also helps that Tesla is a much smaller company than Volkswagen and Toyota, which in a good year produce more than 10 million vehicles each. “It’s just a smaller supply chain to begin with,” said Mr. Melsert, who is now chief executive of American Battery Technology Company, a recycling and mining firm.

recall more than 475,000 cars for two separate defects. One could cause the rearview camera to fail, and the other could cause the front hood to open unexpectedly. And federal regulators are investigating the safety of Tesla’s Autopilot system, which can accelerate, brake and steer a car on its own.

“Tesla will continue to grow,” said Stephen Beck, managing partner at cg42, a management consulting firm in New York. “But they are facing more competition than they ever have, and the competition is getting stronger.”

The carmaker’s fundamental advantage, which allowed it to sail through the chip crisis, will remain, however. Tesla builds nothing but electric vehicles and is unencumbered by habits and procedures that have been rendered obsolete by new technology. “Tesla started from a clean sheet of paper,” Mr. Amsrud said.

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10 Homeowners Awarded Funding for Critical Home Repairs

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BEAUMONT, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Woodforest National Bank® (Woodforest) and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) worked together to disburse more than $49,000 in Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP) funding to nine homeowners in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area of Texas and a 10th in Ellis County south of Dallas, Texas, to make home repairs.

Through FHLB Dallas member institutions such as Woodforest, SNAP provides subsidies for the repair and rehabilitation of owner-occupied housing of eligible, special-needs individuals, who often are older homeowners or disabled persons living on fixed incomes.

In 2021, the maximum SNAP award per household was $6,000 unless the member or another lender contributed $350 toward the rehabilitation costs and/or inspection fees. In this case, the maximum award per household would be $7,000. Visit fhlb.com/snap for 2022 information.

“We are proud to join FHLB Dallas to provide these critical grants to residents with special needs across Texas,” said Krystian Reyes, community development relationship manager at Woodforest. “The fact that the program’s annual funding is typically fully allocated within days of it being made available to FHLB Dallas members is a testament to its immense need. We’ve seen first-hand how it has made a positive difference in the lives of these 10 homeowners.”

Karelyn Young, 81, of Beaumont, Texas, and a client of Helbig CDC who referred her to Woodforest, was one of the recipients. A $5,945 subsidy was used to install drywall and flooring in several rooms, add a new storm door and update a bathroom. Ms. Young said her home was damaged during Hurricane Harvey from water that got into the home.

“I have no idea what I would have done without this help,” Ms. Young said. “I thank God for this program because I didn’t have any money to do repairs.”

FHLB Dallas set aside $2.5 million of its 2021 Affordable Housing Program funds for SNAP, and the funds were allocated in January for the highly sought-after program. Last year, FHLB Dallas awarded $2.5 million in SNAP subsidies that assisted 421 families. Since the program’s 2009 inception, nearly $20.5 million in funding has been awarded across FHLB Dallas’ five-state District.

“Our members are best equipped to see the needs in the communities they serve,” said Greg Hettrick, first vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas. “Woodforest made a big impact in its first year to award SNAP funding, and we are thrilled to have them using this program.”

To learn more about SNAP, visit fhlb.com/snap.

About Woodforest National Bank

Celebrating 40 years of community banking service, Woodforest National Bank has successfully stood among the strongest community banks in the nation, proudly offering outstanding customer service since 1980. Woodforest currently operates over 760 branches in 17 states across the United States and is an Outstanding CRA rated institution. For more information about Woodforest National Bank, please visit woodforest.com.

About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $60.2 billion as of September 30, 2021, is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community development by providing competitively priced loans and other credit products to approximately 800 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. For more information, visit our website at fhlb.com.

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Bowman Expands Texas Operations Through Acquisition of Houston and San Antonio based Terra Associates, Inc.

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RESTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. (the “Company” or “Bowman”) (NASDAQ: BWMN), today announced it had entered into a definitive purchase agreement for the acquisition of Terra Associates, Inc. (“Terra”). Closing is scheduled to occur on December 31, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Terra delivers civil design and engineering solutions to clients focused on traffic and transportation planning, water-wastewater solutions, landscape and irrigation systems, office and industrial facilities, and multi-family development. Under the continuing leadership of Vickie Henkel, Terra’s staff of 30+ professionals work from offices in Houston and San Antonio for both public and private sector clients. In connection with their water-wastewater practice, Terra serves in the role of District Engineer for several Texas-based Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs).

“Terra is a company with a forty-year heritage of serving eastern Texas,” said Gary Bowman, CEO of Bowman. “The leadership of Terra has surrounded themselves with a team of committed and energetic professionals who will all be great additions to Bowman. We have been intent on growing our Texas operations and this acquisition, following closely on the heels of our acquisition of 1519 Surveying, fortifies Bowman’s presence in the Lone Star state. Terra’s experience in commercial site work, transportation design and utility district services are highly complementary to our portfolio of services and align with our growth plans and evolving market demand. I am pleased to welcome everyone at Terra to Bowman and I am excited about the potential for our future together.”

“Choosing to join Bowman was an easy decision,” said Vickie Henkel, CEO of Terra. “Bowman’s approach to growth is very exciting to all of us at Terra. We’ve gotten to know the leadership at Bowman over the course of the acquisition process and we all feel very comfortable with the decision. Their commitment to helping our leadership and staff grow without changing the core of who we are is a big part of what makes us excited about this opportunity. The opportunity to be a part of an entrepreneurial public company is both exciting and energizing. We are all looking forward to the future as a Bowman company.”

The acquisition, which the Company expects to be immediately accretive, was financed with a combination of cash, seller financing, and stock. The Company expects the Terra acquisition to initially contribute approximately $5.5 million of annualized net service billing.

“We are continuing to execute on our commitment to growth at a reasonable price,” said Bruce Labovitz, Bowman’s CFO. “This will be our last acquisition in 2021, and it brings our annualized acquired revenue for the year to approximately $36 million. The Terra acquisition is within our target multiple range and it meets all of our objectives for operating performance metrics. As is our practice, we will provide more detailed information on M&A activities and pipeline in connection with scheduled quarterly communications.”

About Terra, Inc.

Terra Associates, Inc. (Terra) has provided civil engineering, surveying, economical design, project management and permitting services for multi-family, retail developments, office/industrial projects, and municipalities for over forty years. During its award-winning history, the company has added traffic engineering, landscape architecture and irrigation design services. With multiple certifications including LEED, Texas HUB, and SBE, Terra’s team of 30+ professionals work every day to exceed client expectations for reliability and innovation. Additional information on Terra, its team, and its projects can be found at www.terraassoc.com.

About Bowman Consulting Group Ltd.

Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Bowman is an engineering services firm delivering innovative infrastructure solutions to customers who own, develop, and maintain the built environment. With 950 employees and more than 35 offices throughout the United Sates, Bowman provides a variety of planning, engineering, construction management, commissioning, environmental consulting, geomatics, survey, land procurement and other technical services to customers operating in a diverse set of regulated end markets. On May 11, 2021, Bowman completed its $51.7 million initial public offering and began trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol BWMN. For more information, visit www.bowman.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company cautions that these statements are qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected by the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. Such factors include: (a) changes in demand from the local and state government and private clients that we serve; (b) general economic conditions, nationally and globally, and their effect on the market for our services; (c) competitive pressures and trends in our industry and our ability to successfully compete with our competitors; (d) changes in laws, regulations, or policies; and (e) the “Risk Factors” set forth in the Company’s most recent SEC filings. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to update such statements, except as required by law.

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Daikin Announces Daikin ATMOSPHERA with R-32 Refrigerant

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HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–For the first time in North America, Daikin is launching a home comfort product featuring R-32, a refrigerant with one-third the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the most common refrigerants currently being used in the United States and Canada.

The new Daikin ATMOSPHERA system featuring R-32 refrigerant from Daikin North America LLC is a single zone, ductless system that gains impressive efficiencies over its R-410A predecessor line, the LV Series, with up to 27.4 SEER, 13.8 HSPF and 16.3 EER ratings for ultra-efficient cooling and heating. Four sizes of indoor and outdoor heat pumps are available, from 9,000 to 24,000 BTU.

“Daikin has sold over 33 million R-32 systems in more than 100 countries and regions,” said Takayuki (Taka) Inoue, Executive Vice President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. “We are excited to be the first to bring this proven technology to North America. With an estimated 160 million R-32 systems sold by Daikin combined with other manufacturers worldwide, we are confident R-32 has the all-around performance benefits to make it the ideal replacement for R-410A.”

“Daikin ATMOSPHERA brings North America a powerful, new single-zone system that has a lower GWP, is more efficient and may help lower end-user electric bills compared to R-410A models,” explains Connie Schroder, Sr. Product Manager – Single and Multi-Zone Systems for Daikin. “We’ve also built advanced features into Daikin ATMOSPHERA heat pumps that improve comfort, cleanliness, and usability while simplifying maintenance.”

Daikin ATMOSPHERA’s heat pump performance over its R-410A predecessor is substantial, offering greatly enhanced heating and cooling capacities. The units feature up to 100 percent rated heating capacity at 5°F WB ( -15° C WB) and confirmed continuous operation as low as -13°F WB (-25°C WB). Rated cooling capacity is up to 100 percent at 115°F DB (46°C DB).

New hybrid cooling technology efficiently controls humidity, even in low-cooling loads, and maintains dehumidification effect after the target temperature is reached. Daikin ATMOSPHERA’s novel “CLEAN” operation dries the interior of the indoor unit to reduce the amount of condensation present, while a detachable drain pan allows for easy cleaning.

With the indoor unit’s built-in Wi-Fi, the system can be controlled via the internet with the Daikin Comfort Control App without the need for an additional adaptor. Daikin ATMOSPHERA’s Intelligent Eye employs an infrared sensor to detect movement in the room. If the room is empty for 20 minutes, the set point is changed to start saving energy.

Installation is now more flexible with 50 percent longer piping lengths up to 49 feet, compared to other Daikin single zone systems.

Indoor units include a wireless infrared controller and are compatible with the full suite of optional s21-based single and multi-zone controls solutions, including the Daikin One+ smart thermostat.

Daikin ATMOSPHERA is currently available in Washington, Oregon, and Florida.

Daikin ATMOSPHERA single zone systems are backed by a 12-year parts limited warranty. Complete warranty details available from your local dealer/contractor or at www.daikincomfort.com. To receive the 12-year parts limited warranty, online registration must be completed within 60 days of installation. Online registration is not required in California or Québec.

For more about Daikin ATMOSPHERA and the low-GWP potential benefits of R-32, visit www.DaikinAtmosphera.com and www.R32Reasons.com.

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About Daikin

Daikin Industries, Ltd. (DIL) is a Fortune 1,000 company with more than 84,870 employees worldwide and is the world’s number 1 air conditioning company. Daikin North America LLC (DNA) is a subsidiary of DIL. DNA and its affiliates manufacture heating and cooling systems for residential, commercial and industrial use and are sold via independent HVAC contractors. DNA engineering and manufacturing is located at Daikin Texas Technology Park near Houston, TX. For additional information, visit www.northamerica-daikin.com.

Additional Information:

Before purchasing this appliance, read important information about its estimated annual energy consumption, yearly operating cost, or energy efficiency rating that is available from your retailer.

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A Plan Forms in Mexico: Help Americans Get Abortions

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In Texas, a new law bars doctors from providing pills to induce abortions after seven weeks of pregnancy, and adds penalties of jail time and a fine of up to $10,000 for anyone who mails or delivers the medication.

Legal experts say such laws may be challenged after the F.D.A. decision, but for now, these state measures could discourage American doctors from sending pills to parts of the country with restrictive regulations.

“For the first time, Texas does have a way to protect women, through our criminal law, from people bringing dangerous abortion pills,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, an organization that helped craft the measure. “We’ll have to wait to see how well it is enforced in the coming months.”

Anti-abortion groups acknowledge that criminally punishing activists who distribute the pills, especially if they are from Mexico, may prove difficult. They would have to be caught and arrested in Texas, or extradited, experts say.

“This is a really terrible, lawless attack on life,” John Seago, the legislative director for Texas Right to Life, said of the Mexican activists’ plan to help women in Texas get abortions, adding that such efforts would “make it absolutely more difficult to do it, to enforce these laws.”

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, the leader of Aid Access, an Austria-based group that provides abortion pills to women across the world, confirmed she has been prescribing the medication to women in Texas — who then receive the drugs by mail from a pharmacy in India — even after the state’s law went into effect this month.

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It’s Been a Home for Decades, but Legal Only a Few Months

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As a designer who specializes in residential structures, Luis Martinez has lived this at home, and has now made it his career. His design business, Studioo15, has surged over the past two years as residents across Los Angeles have used the new state laws to add thousands of backyard units. Yet about half of his clients, he said, are people like his parents who want to have existing units legalized.

Bernardo and Tomasa Martinez, both in their early 60s, immigrated to Los Angeles from Mexico in 1989. Working in the low-wage service sector — she was a waitress; he worked as a laborer loading a truck — they settled in a two-bedroom house in South Los Angeles that had four families and 16 people. Luis Martinez, who crossed the border as a child, was surrounded by love and family, in a house where money was tight and privacy nonexistent.

Eventually the family was able to buy a small three-bedroom in Boyle Heights, on the east side of Los Angeles. It sits on a block of fading homes that have chain link fences in the front and a detached garage out back. To supplement the family income, the Martinezes converted the garage into a rental unit without a permit. Bernardo Martinez and a group of local handymen raised the floor and installed plumbing that fed into the main house, while Luis helped with painting.

Luis remembers that nobody complained, probably because the neighbors were doing the same thing. “It was normal,” he said, “like, ‘I live in the garage’ and some garages were nicer than others.”

Mr. Martinez went to East Los Angeles College after high school, then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he got an architecture degree in 2005. In the years after graduation, when the Great Recession struck, his father lost his job and, after a spell of unemployment, took a minimum wage job mowing the lawn at a golf course. To help with bills, they rented the garage unit to Bernardo Martinez’s brother for $500 a month. “With the minimum wage, you can’t afford to pay a mortgage and food for everybody,” Tomasa Martinez said.

The point of informal housing is that it’s hard to see — it is built to elude zoning authorities or anyone else who might notice from the street.

Jake Wegmann, a professor of urban planning at the University of Texas at Austin, describes this as “horizontal density,” by which he means additions that make use of driveways and yard space, instead of going up a second or third floor. Because both the tenants and owners of these units don’t want to be discovered, there is essentially no advocacy on behalf of illegal housing dwellers, even though the number of tenants easily goes into the millions nationwide.

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Battling for Bolivia’s Lithium That’s Vital to Electric Cars

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“The amount of lithium we need in any of our climate goals is incredible,” said Anna Shpitsberg, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for energy transformation. “Everyone is trying to build up their supply chains and think about how to be strategic.”

But Washington has little sway in Bolivia, whose leaders have long disagreed with the American approach to drug policy and Venezuela. That may explain why some energy executives do not think Bolivia is worth the risk.

“You’ve had 30 years’ worth of projects in Bolivia with almost nothing to show,” said Robert Mintak, chief executive of Standard Lithium, a publicly traded mining company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, referring to lithium development efforts dating back to 1990. “You have a landlocked country with no infrastructure, no work force, political risk, no intellectual property protection. So as a developer, I would choose someplace else that is safer.”

Mr. Egan sees the odds differently.

That Mr. Egan has gotten this far is a marvel. He learned about Bolivian lithium only by chance when he and a friend crisscrossed South America as tourists in 2018.

When they got to the salt flats, a guide explained that they were standing on the world’s largest lithium reserve. “I thought, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but I need to be involved,’” Mr. Egan said.

He had tried his hand as a sports and music agent and ran a small investment fund at the time. He had invested in Tesla in 2013 at $9 a share; it now trades around $975. (He would not reveal how many shares he had bought and how many he still had.)

But he felt that he wasn’t achieving much. Before Mr. Egan traveled to South America, his father, Michael, the founder of Alamo Rent A Car, advised him to make two lists — of his five biggest passions and of the five industries he thought would grow fastest in the coming decades. Renewable energy was on both lists.

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Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Expands Footprint in Latin America

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LOS CABOS, Mexico–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, a global residential real estate brokerage franchise network, is pleased to announce its further expansion into Mexico welcoming Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Los Cabos Properties. The brokerage will be led by industry trailblazer, Ian Gengos.

Originally from Australia, Ian lived and worked throughout Canada and the Caribbean for years before choosing to settle in Los Cabos. A working vacation turned into a career change, a fresh outlook on life, and a focus on the things in it that mattered most. Ian’s experience and knowledge of the Baja California Sur area provide clients with a seamless experience from start to finish.

“We joined Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices due to the exceptional global network, support and tools they offer,” said Ian Gengos. “My team and I are thrilled to bring this value to home buyers and sellers in Los Cabos. There has been tremendous evolution and growth in the Los Cabos luxury property market, and I am just as excited now for my clients as I was for my own family years ago when I moved to this location.”

The real estate market in Cabo San Lucas is booming like never before, and there’s no sign of a slowdown anytime soon. The destination is a mainstay vacation home spot for buyers from California and Texas, and while sales have generally been strong over the years, they’ve exploded since the onset of the pandemic.

“Our global network is extremely proud to welcome Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Los Cabos Properties. We are excited for their future with the network and look forward to having a larger footprint in Mexico,” said Christy Budnick, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Los Cabos Properties agents will have access to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ active referral and relocation networks, and its “FOREVER Cloud” technology suite, a powerful source for lead generation, marketing support, social media, video production/distribution and more. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices has aligned with best-in-class technology platforms to deliver world-class support to its network members far into the future.

The newly added brokerage will also have full access to the revolutionary Real Estate I.Q. System®. The system combines the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand, marketing resources and technology with continuing education, training, mentoring and consulting. The brand also provides global listing syndication, professional training and ongoing education and the exclusive Luxury Collection marketing program for premier listings. Its Prestige Magazine showcases network members’ premium listings with a strong lineup of feature stories covering topics that appeal to high-end real estate clients.

The brokerage celebrated its commencement with a ribbon-cutting on December 2, 2021, in the heart of the city at Plaza Mijares. During the event, Ian graciously welcomed the group and introduced an exceptional team of agents and shared the vision for the firm. Attendees included the agents, business partners, developers, board of tourism members and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices global leadership.

Gino Blefari, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, also welcomed the company to the network, “It is with great pleasure that we welcome Ian Gengos and his dynamic team of agents to our global network. We look forward to supporting them in their mission of opening additional offices throughout the region.”

To learn more visit: https://www.bhhs.com/los-cabos-properties-mx803

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Los Cabos Properties

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Los Cabos Properties is built on a tradition of excellence and fueled by an elite team of talented agents committed to providing exceptional service. The company strives to passionately serve trusted clientele with integrity, dedication and expertise in the pursuit of their real estate dreams. The company’s mission is to guide our clients passionately to achieve their real estate goals every step of the way while building trusted relationships.

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is a global residential real estate brokerage franchise network with more than 50,000 real estate professionals and nearly 1,500 offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, India and The Bahamas. In 2020, the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices global network represented more than $138 billion in real estate sales volume. The network, among the few organizations entrusted to use the world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway name, brings to the real estate market a definitive mark of trust, integrity, stability, and longevity.

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