Where real estate meets rhythm | Developer, investor, live music enthusiast, and mountain seeker.

By Daniel Kaufman | May 2026 People ask me constantly where I see the next wave of real estate opportunity. They expect me to say Texas. Maybe Florida again. Sometimes they’re hoping I’ll say something contrarian like Cleveland or Gary, Indiana, so they can nod and feel sophisticated. I’m going to say Michigan. Not the Michigan of the rust belt narrative. Not “Detroit comeback story #47.” I’m talking about three specific markets that most coastal developers haven’t touched — and that’s exactly the point. The Upper Peninsula. Traverse City. Grand Rapids. Three completely different stories with one connecting thread: fresh water. You want to talk about the most undervalued long-term infrastructure asset in the world? It’s not data centers. It’s not lithium. It’s clean, abundant, accessible freshwater. And Michigan sits on top of more of it than almost anywhere on earth. Let me break this down market by market. THE UPPER PENINSULA: AMERICA’S LAST FRONTIER DISCOUNT Here’s a number that sho...

​ Kevin Warsh walked into the Federal Reserve on Friday as its new chairman. Jerome Powell walked out — sort of. Powell, whose term as chair expired, is staying on the Fed’s board of governors. That means Warsh will be voting on rate policy alongside the man he replaced. If you think that dynamic isn’t going to create friction, I have a bridge loan to sell you. Let’s be honest about what this moment is. It’s historic. It’s messy. And it has direct downstream consequences for every developer financing a deal right now. The Setup Is Complicated Trump pushed Powell out in all but name — hammering him publicly for over a year for keeping rates too high. Now he’s installed Warsh, a former Fed governor who served during the Great Recession, with a four-year term as chair and a 14-year seat on the board. The message from the White House is unmistakable: get rates down. The problem? The FOMC isn’t listening. At last month’s meeting, three hawks — Cleveland’s Beth Hammack, Minneapolis’s Neel Ka...

​ By Daniel Kaufman — May 2026 I've been developing workforce and affordable housing in New England long enough to recognize a zombie idea when I see one. The zombie in question: if you just build more units, prices will fall. It sounds so reasonable. It's Econ 101. Increase supply, reduce price. Works great for soybeans. Doesn't work nearly as cleanly for the thing people sleep in. A newly published study out of UVM — authored by economist Joe Ament and doctoral student Chris McElroy — just put some real data behind that skepticism, specifically in Burlington. The researchers analyzed more than 4,000 single- and two-family home sales over two decades, from 2003 to 2023, and what they found should reshape the policy conversation across all of New England, not just Vermont. THE NUMBERS THAT STOP YOU COLD Burlington's average home price nearly tripled over the study period, climbing from roughly $188,000 in 2003 to almost $500,000 by 2023 — with the steepest acceleration ...

Let me give you the number that should have every land-hungry developer paying attention: raw land prices surged 86.5% between early 2019 and March 2026. Not build-ready lots. Not partially improved parcels. Raw dirt. The stuff with no utilities, no clearing, no entitlements — just acreage and a dream. According to Realtor.com’s first-ever land listing analysis, overall land prices per acre climbed roughly 77% over that same stretch, while inventory of for-sale parcels cratered 24%. The pandemic lit a fire under a market that was already supply-constrained, and developers — chasing historically cheap debt — ran hard at every acre they could find. The result? A tiered appreciation story. • Raw land: +86.5% • Semideveloped parcels: +80% • Build-ready lots: +53.3% Why did raw land outrun everything else? Two reasons, according to Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner. First, it started from a lower price point — more room to run. Second, build-ready lots have a natural ceil...

​ Posted by Daniel Kaufman | April 2026 Let me be direct: LD 307 — Maine’s new moratorium on data center construction — is one of the most economically self-destructive pieces of legislation this state has passed in a generation. And I say that as someone who has spent years fighting for economic opportunity across this state’s forgotten mill towns, mountain communities, and post-industrial corridors. Maine just became the first state in the country to ban the construction of data centers larger than 20 megawatts. That ban runs until November 2027. The stated goal is to give the state time to “study” the potential energy impacts. The actual result? We just hung a “Closed for Business” sign on the door — and every competing state is already circling our opportunities like vultures. I have skin in this game. We have multiple micro data center projects in active planning stages across the state of Maine. Projects that would have brought hundreds of construction jobs, permanent technology ...

​ Last Wednesday, Las Vegas City Council voted unanimously to approve our project — Sunridge on Searles. Fifty tiny homes. 2.25 acres. A vacant lot turned into a real affordable housing community. Three years in the making. A lot of obstacles. Worth every one of them. Sunridge on Searles is a $6 million development built using Boxabl materials. Boxabl is a Las Vegas–based manufacturer building factory-produced, foldable modular homes. Their CEO Paolo Tiramani put it simply: the company exists to solve the housing crisis through technology and scale. That’s exactly why we partnered with them. Each unit is about 360 square feet and will rent for $1,000 a month — utilities included. The median asking rent in the Las Vegas metro right now is $1,423, still running 17.6% above pre-COVID levels. We’re coming in 30% below market. That’s the point. The units go on a pad, on grade, no steps. Permanent. Foundation-set. Accessible — designed with seniors in mind from the start. No wheels. No ambig...

As someone currently developing apartments and townhomes in Southern New Hampshire, I can tell you the headlines about a housing construction boom only tell part of the story. Yes, permitting is up. Yes, more units are coming. But the real question investors, developers, and policymakers should be asking is this: Is it enough? From what I see on the ground as both a real estate developer and long-term investor, the answer is still no. The Permitting Surge Is Real — But the Supply Gap Is Bigger New Hampshire issued permits for 5,822 housing units in 2024 — the most since 2005, reflecting a meaningful push to address supply shortages. Since 2020, housing stock has expanded by roughly 26,000 units, one of the strongest building cycles the state has seen in decades. But even with this progress, the state remains tens of thousands of units short of what’s needed for a balanced market. Estimates suggest New Hampshire still needs: Over 32,000 additional units just to stay o...