Chelsea Atkinson understood, at least in theory, that her father's house might one day be hers. She just didn't expect that day to arrive so soon.

The death of her father in 2019 came as a shock: He was just 58, but complications from an earlier bout with lung cancer led to a quick decline. "It was like, 'Boom,'" Atkinson says. She was 28, an only child, and had already purchased a house in Austin, where she'd grown up. Grief aside, the inheritance of her childhood home, with the mortgage fully paid off, might seem like a winning lottery ticket. But the property came with an endless stream of dilemmas that Atkinson was entirely unprepared to resolve.

She and her father hadn't been on speaking terms in his final years, and she had no desire to move back into a home weighted with memories. She briefly considered turning it into a rental, only to conclude that she had zero interest in becoming a landlord. That left Atkinson to sell, but the 40-year-old house was showing its age. She would have to choose between pouring thousands of dollars into upgrades or offloading the house for well below what it might be worth. There was also the conundrum of what to do with all the stuff inside: sentimental artifacts, antique furniture, and worthless clutter. She would have to pay someone to haul literal truckloads away.

"All those questions start popping up," Atkinson tells me. "Like, 'What are you going to do with this thing that you really didn't know you were going to be getting so soon?'"

Millions of millennials will soon have to wrestle with similar choices. The US is on the precipice of a colossal wealth transfer, with the oldest baby boomers set to turn 80 next year. As they find spots in nursing homes, move in with younger relatives, or die, members of the once-largest generation will leave behind a staggering heap of real estate. This Great Boomer Bequeathment will pose unique questions and challenges for their millennial offspring. Aside from the ever-present family drama and arcane tax considerations, baby boomers are staying in their homes far longer than previous generations, which means many of their homes will likely demand extensive renovations. Their inheritors, if they choose to sell, may find themselves thrust into a weaker market as housing demand slows due to sluggish population growth. It also remains to be seen how much of those real estate riches will actually make it to millennials' bank accounts after years of retirement spending and eldercare.

That's not to say that these inheritances will be all burden and no bounty. Far from it. Handing down real estate can extend a financial lifeline to the next generation, offering an immediate windfall, a potentially lucrative investment, or a homeownership cheat code. But to pull off that smooth transfer, boomers will need to have some frank conversations about their futures.

"I think most people just don't like to think about dying," says Scott Westfall, a 33-year-old real estate broker in Virginia Beach, a popular landing spot for the retirement crowd. "You've got to face that you will die someday, or your parents will die someday, and so it's better to have a conversation now than be surprised by it."

---

Baby boomers dominate America's housing market. They own roughly $19.7 trillion worth of US real estate, or 41% of the country's total value, despite accounting for only a fifth of the population. Millennials, by comparison, make up a slightly larger share of the population but own just $9.8 trillion of real estate, or 20%. The disparity is a product of both their relative youth and the stark advantages enjoyed by their elders. Flush with cash from prior home sales and burgeoning stock portfolios, boomers can afford to win bidding wars and upgrade, downsize, or collect rental properties like Monopoly pieces. Even last year, with millennials solidly in their peak homebuying years, baby boomers gobbled up the lion's share of the market. They accounted for 42% of buyers between July 2023 and June 2024, data from the National Association of Realtors found, well outpacing millennials' measly 29% share.

Boomers are a big reason Americans are stuck in place: People are staying in their homes almost twice as long as they used to, a Redfin analysis found, with nearly 40% of boomers having lived in their homes for at least 20 years and another 16% staying put for 10 to 19 years. A survey of 1,000 boomers by Leaf Home and Morning Consult found that 68% lived in homes that were at least three decades old, "with many never having done renovations or replacing major appliances, and most having no plans to move or make any type of home improvements." Their motivations for staying put range from lifestyle preferences to financial savvy. A number of surveys indicate that many boomers want to age in place rather than retreat to a nursing home or move in with family. They're also more likely to own their homes free and clear, with no pesky mortgage payments each month. Even if they do pull up stakes, they might hold onto their old place as a rental property rather than sell.

Soon, though, Father Time will force the generation to either pass along those homes to lucky inheritors or dump them on the market. While demographers emphasize that this will be more of a glacial shift rather than the well-publicized, instantaneous "silver tsunami," this changing of the guard will happen. Between 2025 and 2035, boomers' numbers are projected to decline by 23%, or about 15.6 million people, according to an analysis of Census data by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Between 2035 and 2045, their numbers are expected to drop by another 47%, or 23.4 million people.

I think the biggest problem is in the year or 10 years before inheritance.Ari Rubin, founder and CEO of Flock Homes

While a horizon of a decade or two may seem a long way off, financial planners and real estate agents warn against kicking the can down the road. By the time millennials actually inherit a house from their parents, Westfall tells me, it'll be "too late" to figure out the best way to set up that transfer. In many instances, questions around the fate of a house will crop up long before its owner dies. An aging baby boomer may be forced out of their home and into a nursing home, leaving their progeny to figure out how to balance paying for upkeep on the house, a mortgage if there is one, property taxes, and the necessary healthcare. Without money set aside for these things, along with clear instructions for what to do with the house in those final years and beyond, the situation can easily devolve into chaos. Unprepared millennials may end up with their hands tied. Ari Rubin, the founder and CEO of Flock Homes, a company that bills itself as a "retirement solution" for landlords and regular homeowners, warns that they could wind up inheriting responsibility for the home years before they actually assume the title.

"I think the biggest problem is in the year or 10 years before inheritance," Rubin says.

Millennial inheritors are often eager to climb the housing ladder, but they may not be prepared for all the monthly costs that go into paying off and maintaining a home that's a few rungs above their current costs. That's not to mention the big-ticket upgrades or repairs that are often required after someone has lived in a home for several decades. And even if your boomer parents move into a nursing home or the granny flat in your backyard, there may be good reasons, tax-wise, for waiting to sell or transfer the old home until they die, especially if the house's value has appreciated a lot (more on that later).

Flock Homes offers one answer to this common predicament. The company, which recently raised a $20 million Series B, gives aging homeowners (or their inheritors) the chance to exchange their burdensome homes for a stake in a diversified real estate fund — while deferring taxes — through a little-known maneuver known as a 721 exchange. That's far from the only option, though. There's a whole cottage industry devoted to greasing the handoff of homes from one generation to the next, offering products designed to minimize Uncle Sam's ability to put his hand in your coffers.

---

There's no "correct" way to pass down a home. For some families, a simple beneficiary deed, which transfers the title upon death, will do the trick. Others will need to make more complex arrangements. Setting up the house in a trust — a set of legal documents that define exactly who gets it and when, what they can (and can't) do with it, and maybe even set aside money to fund its upkeep — can provide a road map for inheritors and nip intrafamilial squabbling in the bud.

"It helps provide a structure with specific direction on how those assets are treated after they're gone," says Jeremy Taylor, who manages real estate advisory services at Commerce Trust.

On the other hand, overly restrictive trusts could leave millennial inheritors in a bind. Taylor cites examples in which the parents dictated that their house be held in the family for a set number of years, but underestimated the amount of money they'd need to leave behind in order to keep up the place during that time. "There's a trust with no cash and property to be maintained," Taylor tells me, "and not a lot of flexibility for the trustee to sell." The inheritors may end up stumbling through the court system for months to get permission to offload the property. And, of course, trusts can't completely solve the family tension that often arises when valuable assets need to be divvied up.

Then there's the tax question. One of the preoccupations among the investment management crowd is helping clients dodge what's known as the capital gains tax, which applies to the profits made from selling assets, like homes or stocks, that have grown more valuable over time. If your boomer parents sell a house while they're alive, they'll have to pay taxes — as much as nearly 40% — on the amount the home has appreciated since they bought it. Sure, the first $250,000 to $500,000 of those gains are tax-exempt, depending on your filing status, but given that many boomers have held onto their homes for decades, their profits may well exceed those thresholds. The IRS offers a nifty hack, though, called the "stepped-up cost basis," that allows inheritors to sell the property with a minimal tax bill. When a homeowner dies and passes along their property, the starting point used in those capital gains calculations gets bumped up to the house's current value, instead of the value at which it was purchased.

Let's take a theoretical example: Say your father bought a home back in 2010 for $400,000. He's a smart guy, picked a good neighborhood in an up-and-coming city, and did a little touching up of the home, so 15 years later the house is worth $1.1 million, which comes out to a hefty $700,000 gain. If he sold it before dying, he'd have to pay taxes on $450,000 of those gains after subtracting the aforementioned exemptions. But if he hands it down to you in his will, the starting point value of the house gets adjusted to $1.1 million — in other words, if you sell for that price, or even a little more, the government doesn't consider you to have "gained" any value since the inheritance, so your tax bill is nothing.

So many parents want their kids to have the house, and so many kids want to inherit the parents' house — until they hear about the property tax.

Joe Metz, a Bay Area real estate agent and the founder of Senior Homeowner Solutions, has built an entire second career out of helping people pull maneuvers to avoid the capital gains tax. But for people who decide to keep their deceased parents' home, he says, there's another bill that people often don't consider: property taxes. People just don't think about the ongoing costs of homeownership as much as they should. Data from the real estate analytics firm Cotality found that the median annual property tax bill has jumped 42% since 2019, to more than $3,000. The tax hits can be especially jarring in Metz's home base of California, where they typically spike once a house is passed down. In San Francisco, for instance, property taxes on a $3 million home could stretch past $30,000 a year. And again, that doesn't include insurance, a mortgage, and the random repairs that often crop up.

"So many parents want their kids to have the house, and so many kids want to inherit the parents' house — until they hear about the property tax," Metz tells me.

Laura de Vera, a 35-year-old chef in Washington, DC, found that handling an inheritance can be tough even when all the specifics have already been accounted for. When her mother died from cancer in 2020, she left behind a trust with stipulations that detailed how long de Vera's stepfather could live in her old house and how the proceeds from a sale would be divided among him, de Vera, and her sister. She also accounted for every belonging, down to the jewelry inside the place. "She was very candid and just very practical," de Vera says of her mother. De Vera's stepfather opted to sell the home quickly for a handsome gain, which was fortunate — de Vera says she was lost in a fog of grief for months, and had to devote time to all the other logistics that come with death. Years later, she's still grateful for the steps her mother took ahead of time.

"We were as prepared as you possibly can be in that situation," de Vera tells me. "There's nothing my mom could have done better, and it was still just devastatingly difficult to slog through, because of how emotional the situation is."

---

For some millennials, stressing over what to do with their parents' assets may turn out to be a moot point. My colleagues at BI have thoroughly reported on all the outlays that eat into inheritances: living expenses during retirement, senior care for aging parents, home repairs, and the hundreds of other day-to-day costs that put a dent in our wallets. Given the rising expenses of growing old and the locations that boomers have chosen to spend their golden years, Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist at Redfin, says she's skeptical of the idea that all this wealth will trickle down to the next generation.

"I think some of it is going to kind of evaporate, because the homes are not the kind of homes that younger people want," Fairweather tells me. "Maybe the insurance costs are too high because they're in climate-risky areas, or they had to take out reverse mortgages to pay for all their eldercare" — which, in the most extreme cases, could mean little or no equity left in boomers' homes.

That won't be the case for all those millions of homes scattered around the country, though. Westfall, the broker in Virginia Beach, says homeowners in his area are keen to learn how they can protect their wealth for the next generation — so much so that he's begun hosting informational sessions in which he and a lawyer field questions from the silver-haired set. As for the young'uns, Westfall tells me the best way for millennials to prepare for the future is to simply have a conversation with their parents. You don't have to frame it as "I expect something," Westfall says, but it's the cleanest way to make sure that what should be a blessing doesn't turn into a nightmare.

The homes are not the kind of homes that younger people want.

Atkinson, the homeowner in Austin who inherited her father's house, eventually decided to sell to a neighbor who had helped care for her father late in his life. The price totaled $200,000 — well below the going rate in the area, Atkinson admits. But she was happy to leave the house in the hands of someone who felt like family, rather than a developer intent on tearing it down and erecting a McMansion. By the time she sold, in 2020, she'd spent about a year combing through the clutter and assessing her next move. She says she was glad to have the time to contemplate her decision instead of making a harried choice in the weeks after her father's death. She's even more grateful for the conversations she's had with her mother in the aftermath.

Atkinson's mother lives in a small Texas town, in a house she owns. Ever since her ex-husband died, she's been "very open about talking about death, which I think is really nice coming from a parent," Atkinson says. Her mother has gone through her possessions in detail, explaining the sentimental value of certain objects, the worthlessness of others, and her hopes for what will become of them after she dies. And, of course, she has a will.

"My dad had never really talked about dying and what happens after the fact," Atkinson tells me. "I think having that open communication with my parent will at least make the burden of what happens afterward easier."

---

James Rodriguez is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Discourse team.

• Gen Z and millennials are delaying homebuying, and more older adults are renting.
• High home prices and maintenance costs are making renting more appealing than buying for many.
• Wealthy people are also choosing the flexibility and amenities that come with renting.

Gen Zers and millennials are postponing buying their first home, a growing number of older people are renting, and tenants are staying in their rentals for longer. This adds up to a record-high number of renters and an increasing share of those renters in older generations.

"Renting today isn't just for young adults starting out," said Nadia Evangelou, a senior economist for the National Association of Realtors. "It's actually a much more mixed picture. Over the past decade, we have seen more older millennials and Gen Xers staying in rentals longer, and even some boomers, for example, opting to rent later in life."

The overall number of renters has grown over the last several years. There were 45.6 million renter-occupied housing units in the US in 2023, up from 39.7 million in 2010, based on the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

Are you renting a home longer than you thought you would, or have you become a renter again later in life? Share your experience with these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected].

The US is also seeing an uptick in older tenants. An Urban Institute projection found that the share of people 65 and older who rent their homes will grow from 22% in 2020 to 27% in 2040 — an additional 5.5 million renting households. Older Black renters will see the biggest jump, doubling in number between 2020 and 2040.

A smaller share of US renter-occupied housing units were headed by people under 35 years old in 2023 than in 2010. Meanwhile, the share of rental households headed by someone 65 or older grew over that period.

Renters are staying in their homes longer as well, per a Redfin analysis of Census Bureau data.

"Renting is becoming less of a short-term stop and more of a long-term reality for many households," Evangelou said.

Renting could be a smart financial move

The main reason people are renting for longer: the surging cost of homeownership. Home prices have soared across the country amid a housing shortage. At the same time, property taxes, home insurance, and home repair and maintenance costs are on the rise.

All of that has made renting a better deal than buying in many places — a reversal of the historic norm. Indeed, homebuyers purchasing starter homes in 50 major cities in 2024 spent over $1,000 more on housing costs each month than tenants do.

To be sure, many renters are struggling, too. Tenants' incomes aren't keeping up with rising housing costs, and a rising share of renters are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing.

Some Americans are renting for longer by choice. Rich renters are on the rise. Many millionaire millennials and boomers with healthy savings, who could afford to buy a home, are opting instead to rent. They like the flexibility of a lease, the convenience of having a landlord handle home maintenance, and the amenities luxury rentals offer, like in-building doggy day care, dry cleaning, and yoga classes.

"I think of renting as paying for a service, and liken it to a hotel," start-up founder Tori Dunlap, a 30-year-old multimillionaire, told BI last year. "Renting is flexible, and I don't have to worry about things that homeowners worry about, like committing to a particular place or neighborhood or dealing with a burst pipe."

Some of these affluent renters opt instead to keep their money in the market or other more flexible, higher-return investments.

"People are reevaluating whether or not they want their homes to be their asset wealth-builder," Doug Ressler, an analyst at Yardi Matrix, part of the property-management software firm Yardi, said. He added that higher-income tenants "want to have the freedom and mobility of time, and they don't want to be saddled with the things that a house brings with it."

Some financial advisors are also challenging the conventional wisdom that buying a home is a smarter financial decision than renting.

"You've been lied to about buying property," Ramit Sethi, a popular financial advisor and star of the Netflix show "How to get rich," said in a 2023 video titled "Why I Don't Own a House as a Multi-Millionaire."

Sethi recommends that those who buy a home take into account the "phantom" costs of maintenance, repairs, insurance, and buying and selling fees, and urges them to maintain diverse investments.

• When Preeti Ladwa was job-hunting, she woke up at 5 a.m. to apply for roles.
• She also focused on roles that had been posted within the last 24 hours.
• She believes those strategies helped her land interviews and a job offer.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Preeti Ladwa, a 30-year-old platform manager who lives in New Jersey. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I graduated with a master's in information systems in May 2023, and spent the rest of the year applying to dozens of jobs. After about 30 interviews, I still hadn't received an offer.

In January 2024, I decided to try something different: I began waking up at 5 a.m. every weekday, and after getting some coffee and taking my dog for a walk, I applied to jobs from about 6 a.m. to 10 or 11 a.m., focusing on roles that had been posted in the last 24 hours. I spent the rest of my days networking, attending events, and researching companies to see how my skills might align with their work.

This strategy worked wonders for me. From January to May, after I became more selective in my job search, I submitted seven applications and landed three interviews. On one occasion, I applied for a job at around 7 a.m. and got an interview request two hours later. The role I ultimately landed — a technical projects manager position at the American Association for Cancer Research — was one I applied for during my usual morning window. I believe my strategy didn't just improve my visibility — it helped me get hired.

I accepted the offer in May, and about four months later, I was promoted to platform manager, with my salary increasing into the six-figure range.

Applying early helped me get noticed by recruiters

My job search strategy was partly an experiment, but it was also shaped by conversations I had with recruiters.

I learned that timing can play a big role in whether your application gets seen. When a job posting attracts a lot of applicants, hiring teams may review the first batch of submissions and pause to evaluate those before looking at newer ones. If they find strong candidates early, they might not go back. That's why I decided to start applying to jobs soon after they were posted.

But I decided to take it a step further. I figured that if recruiters start reviewing applications around 8 or 9 a.m. when they log on for the day, then applying early in the morning could help me land at the top of the applicant list — right where they might be looking first. I didn't want my résumé to get buried under hundreds of others, so I started waking up early to apply to the newest job postings.

I focused on roles that had been posted within the past 24 hours, whether they went up that morning or the night before, but always applied during my 6 to 11 a.m. window. The only exception was if I had a strong referral, in which case I'd sometimes apply even if the posting was older.

Visa needs shaped the employers I chased

I first started exploring job opportunities in January 2023 while I was finishing up my master's degree at Pace University. However, most companies I interviewed with said they needed someone who could start immediately.

This was a problem for me because I had moved to the US from India in 2021, and like many international students, couldn't begin working full time until I received my employment authorization. Once I received my authorization in July, I began applying more seriously.

As my search continued, I realized I needed to be highly strategic. The large tech companies and startups I applied to were subject to the H-1B visa lottery, and many had limited sponsorship opportunities for candidates who required a visa. However, I learned that some nonprofit organizations — including some universities and research institutions — are H-1B cap exempt, which means they can sponsor international applicants at any time of year without going through the lottery.

That was a game changer. I had overlooked nonprofits at first, but I soon realized they had real IT needs and could have far less competition than other tech roles. I noticed some nonprofit job postings had fewer than 30 applicants on LinkedIn — compared to hundreds for similar roles in the private sector — which made me feel like I had a better shot. So I decided to focus on nonprofit opportunities.

Cover letters could be more helpful than referrals

In addition to waking up early to apply, I only applied for roles where I met at least 80% of the qualifications listed in the posting. I used the same résumé for every application, which was about a page and a half long.

While I pursued employee referrals early in my search, they didn't lead to interviews unless my experience was a strong match. What I think made a bigger difference was submitting a cover letter. I was also volunteering at a nonprofit during my search, and I made sure to leverage that experience in my applications. It helped me show that I understood the space and was already contributing in a meaningful way.

I didn't have any income during my job search. I had saved money from my on-campus job, and my fiancé — who had started working — supported me and our dog. I'm so grateful for that support.

After months of experimenting, refining my approach, and waking up early, I finally found a strategy that worked.

• Legora cleans up $80 million in new funding round led by General Catalyst and Iconiq.
• The legal-tech platform, valued at $675 million, aids lawyers with legal research and drafting.
• Legora's funding highlights a trend in legal-tech investments, challenging rivals like Harvey.

General Catalyst and Iconiq Growth are co-leading an $80 million funding round into Legora, a startup that makes software to help bogged-down lawyers speed up legal research and drafting.

The new funding for the New York, London, and Stockholm-based Legora will value the company at $675 million, following last year's $35 million Series A. Existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Benchmark, and Y Combinator increased their stakes in this Series B round.

In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, Legora CEO Max Junestrand said the company wasn't actively seeking funding, but still, the offers flooded in. "I don't think it's a secret that things have been really working," Junestrand said.

When Seth Pierrepont heard whispers of Legora's fundraise, he boarded a flight to Stockholm. The Iconiq investor had done dozens of calls with law firms about the tools changing the way their attorneys work. The Legora name kept coming up.

"What they're looking for now is a partner," Pierrepont said, "someone that they know will build the features they ask for and will respond quickly to the questions they have. And I think that is the gap that Legora has stepped into."

Junestrand declined to provide revenue or growth figures, but said the company's revenue growth is "extremely positive." It has 250 clients in 20 markets, including big-league law firms like Cleary Gottlieb, Goodwin, Bird & Bird, and Mannheimer Swartling, Sweden's largest law firm.

Legora builds chatbots and agents — software that can perform basic tasks on their own — for things like redlining a contract, drafting, or filling in a checklist for a transaction. In recent months, it's added a Microsoft Word add-in and other features that large law firms demand.

Legora's closest analog is legal-tech heavyweight Harvey. The company works closely with major law firms to craft custom software, offering the agility of a startup with the tailored approach of a high-end consulting firm. Its annual recurring revenue surpassed $70 million in April, according to a spokesperson.

Legora's funding is the latest in a string of high-profile legal-tech investments, following companies like Harvey and Supio. General Catalyst, in particular, has been building a strong portfolio of startups reshaping the delivery of legal services. In February, it led a $105 million initial round for Eudia, a platform designed for Fortune 500 legal teams.

Mary O'Carroll, Goodwin's chief operating officer, said the firm piloted many tools before signing up with Legora. On the surface, some of the products seem quite similar, she said. But Legora edged out its competition with a clean, easy-to-use interface and a feature called tabular review, which lets users search thousands of files for exactly the information they need all at once.

Legora also stood out for its approach to empowering lawyers. The company meets regularly with firm leaders to tightly tailor the product to their needs.

"We feel like we're not just adopting the technology," O'Carroll told BI, "we're co-creating with them."

The new funding gives Legora fresh firepower to grow its team and chip away at Harvey's dominance. In addition, the company announced that General Catalyst's Jeannette zu Fürstenberg and Iconiq's Pierrepont have joined its board.

Investors are betting on the team just as much as the tech to drive growth. Jack Altman, an investor through his venture firm Alt Capital, described Junestrand as an "ambitious, gritty" European founder with a Silicon Valley ethos. Gradient's Darian Shirazi, who wrote an angel check into Legora, praised Junestrand's customer obsession, which he says is matched only by his focus on results.

With a team of around 100 employees, Legora is proving that smaller doesn't mean slower, and that being second to market doesn't mean it's out of the race.

Have a tip? Contact the reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at @MeliaRussell.01. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Mortgage rates and home prices have been prohibitively high for prospective buyers recently.
• It's unlikely that rates will come down in the near future, experts say.
• Here's why some homebuyers are sick of waiting and jumping into the market anyway.

Homebuyers in today's market are facing a tough question: buy a house now, or wait until mortgage rates and prices maybe come down?

If you buy now, you can start putting money into owning what, for most people, is their biggest asset, but you could be stuck paying a high monthly mortgage rate. On the other hand, staying on the sidelines means you could get a potentially lower rate later on at the risk of missing out on home price appreciation.

To make matters even more complicated, the threat of a recession is making it harder to make a financial decision as drastic as buying a house.

However, some homebuyers are sick of waiting for rates to come down or for the economic picture to clear up. Here's why they're ready to jump in headfirst.

Building up wealth

Aspiring homebuyers have watched prices skyrocket in recent years, and many aren't keen on missing out on future gains. These homebuyers are of the mindset that the most important thing is to simply buy in early and build up home equity, similar to the stock market mantra of "time in the market is better than timing the market."

To Bria Scott-Fleming, buying a house was one of her top priorities.

"I've been renting since I was 23, and I'm 32 now. I thought about how much money I've given away to landlords or apartment complexes. It's so much money that I spent without building any type of equity," Scott-Fleming told BI.

Scott-Fleming, a real-estate agent in the DC metro area, closed on a house earlier this month. She's also seeing similar sentiment from her clients, especially with rent prices climbing.

"People are still buying, people are still contacting me and saying they're interested," Scott-Fleming said. "Some people are intimidated by process, but the rents in DC are high, too."

Mortgage rates aren't coming down

Many homeowners aren't holding on to the hope of lower mortgage rates, especially not the sub-3% levels during the pandemic. It's unlikely the Federal Reserve will cut rates anytime soon, and mortgage rates are actually creeping up in response to Moody's downgrade of the US credit rating last week. On Monday, the average 30-year fixed rate crossed above 7% for the first time since early April.

"People have been saying mortgage rates are going to drop for the last three years, but they haven't yet," Oscar Martinez, who works at a plastic refinery in Texas, told BI. "I don't think they're going to drop anytime soon."

After living at home and saving up enough money, the 23-year-old Martinez recently took the plunge and bought a house in Texas last month, securing a 6.5% interest rate. From his perspective, it would be nice if interest rates came down — in which case he would refinance — but Martinez isn't counting on that happening. He's happy with his decision to buy and has plans to renovate the house to increase its property value.

"My opinion is that if you have the money, do it now," Martinez said of buying a house.

Lemount Griffin, a 36-year-old logistics manager, is in the market for a house in the greater Seattle area. He's not waiting for rates to drop before buying, either.

"I'm looking to buy pretty much whenever I can," Griffin said. "I'm not going to hold out for a certain rate and wait on the Fed to cut because they're probably not going to do it until September or something."

Griffin's strategy is to buy mortgage points — meaning that he pays an upfront fee to the lender in exchange for a lower interest rate on the loan. And similar to Martinez, Griffin will also take advantage of an opportunity to refinance down the road, should one arise.

Lower rates aren't necessarily a good thing

Economic uncertainty can turn away potential buyers, but for Griffin, it's actually another reason to buy a house sooner rather than later.

"I do want to buy as soon as possible because I think it's possible that Trump is going to replace Powell with somebody crazy, and his replacement will drive up inflation and housing prices," Griffin said, referring to Powell's term as Fed chair ending in May 2026.

According to Chen Zhao, Redfin's economics research lead, if the president successfully pushes the Fed to cut rates, higher inflation and mortgage rates are likely outcomes. If bond investors perceive a threat to the Fed's independence, they'll anticipate a higher risk of inflation in the future and sell off bonds, sending long-end rates higher.

For that reason, Griffin thinks the housing market could get even more expensive, which is why he wants to buy now. "I feel like it should be done before 2026," Griffin said of buying a house.

Fed independence aside, there's also a concern that lower rates will disrupt supply and demand dynamics in a housing market with low inventory. Martinez is concerned that lower rates will send demand spiking as eager homebuyers snatch up homes, bidding up prices.

"If the interest rates drop, then I feel like the price of houses will go up," he said.

• Elon Musk told investors he plans to spend more time on Tesla than DOGE.
• But Musk is not saying goodbye to Washington just yet.
• Musk said he will be at the White House "every few weeks."

Elon Musk is scaling back his involvement with the White House DOGE office, but he's not saying goodbye to Washington yet.

Musk was speaking to CNBC's David Faber in an interview on Tuesday when he was asked if he would miss being in the White House.

"My rough plan on the White House is to be there for a couple days every few weeks. And to be helpful where I can be helpful," Musk told Faber.

Musk told investors in an earnings call for Tesla last month that "the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency" was done, and he would focus more on the car company.

Investors have repeatedly asked Musk to spend more time on Tesla instead of DOGE, after Musk's work at the cost-cutting outfit sparked protests and boycotts against the company.

Tesla has seen declining sales in European markets while facing increased competition from Chinese automakers like BYD. Tesla's stock is down nearly 15% this year.

Last month, President Donald Trump said he expects Musk to leave his administration "in a few months." Trump later told reporters in a Cabinet meeting at the White House that he doesn't really need Musk in his administration.

"Elon has done a fantastic job. Look, he's sitting here, and I don't care. I don't need Elon for anything other than I happen to like him," Trump said on April 10.

In a separate interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, Musk said he will reduce his political spending. In last year's elections, Musk spent at least $277 million supporting Trump and other GOP candidates.

"In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future," Musk told Bloomberg. "I think I've done enough."

Representatives for Musk at Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• A key rule at Spotify's weekly executive meeting: Do not say "We'll take that offline."
• "You're not allowed to say the word 'offline' or 'later' — because that person is in the room," said the co-president.
• Executives aren't allowed to bring direct reports, either.

Every Tuesday afternoon, Spotify's top brass — all of its vice presidents — pile into a room for a standing three-hour meeting with a key rule.

"You're not allowed to say the word 'offline' or 'later' — because that person is in the room," said Gustav Söderström, Spotify's co-president, on an episode of the "Invest Like The Best" podcast published Tuesday.

At other companies, when conversations get uncomfortable or someone hasn't delivered, people tend to punt the issue. But that's not Spotify's ethos, Söderström, who also leads tech and product, said.

Instead of circling back, people are expected to hash things out.

"It's real-time resolution — very simple in theory but incredibly powerful in practice. Most companies don't do it," he said.

Another rule: No bringing direct reports. Everyone in the room is expected to know the discussion's details.

"I'm trying to literally force the VPs to solve it themselves because I want them to be in the details. So, you're not allowed to bring anyone else in to explain your thing," Söderström said.

"You have to be on top of it enough to explain it to yourself," he added.

Without direct reports coming and going, the same group shows up each week. Over time, it becomes a tight-knit, high-trust team, Söderström said.

Spotify and Söderström did not respond to a request for comment.

Spotify's 'bets' process

The marathon Tuesday sessions are part of what Spotify calls its "bets" process — a structured way of deciding what the company builds next.

Every six months, each VP pitches a bet.

"It's very much like a startup process," Söderström said. "You don't get to use the fact that Gustav or Alex or Daniel may like you. This is like a VC meeting, you have to convince us."

After the pitches, the leaders "stack rank" the 30 to 50 pitches. Teams then allocate resources based on that list and execute what makes the cut over the next six months.

"It's a good mix of bottom-up innovation," Söderström said. Instead of relying on the company's top executives, Spotify brings in ideas from across its leadership and "all the layers below."

"You're going to be much better at delivering something if you were the one who said, 'I can do this,' than if your boss said you can do this," Söderström said.

The company's stock is up nearly 116% in the last year.

• Elon Musk gave media interviews to Bloomberg and CNBC on Tuesday.
• Musk has faced calls from investors to spend less time on DOGE and focus on Tesla.
• Musk reaffirmed his commitment to Tesla during his media blitz.

In a media blitz on Tuesday, Elon Musk spoke about his commitment to Tesla, his political spending, and the coming launch of Tesla's robotaxi service in Austin.

For months, the Tesla CEO has been deeply involved with the White House's DOGE office. During that time, the company has faced protests and seen its stock slide. In March, he said his companies are suffering because of his government work.

In a Tesla earnings call last month, Musk said he'll scale down his involvement with DOGE to spend more time on Tesla.

That message was on full display on Tuesday, after Musk hammered home his commitment to Tesla in his interviews with Bloomberg and CNBC.

Here are five major takeaways from Musk's media appearances on Tuesday. Representatives for Musk at Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

1. Musk said he will stay on as Tesla's CEO for the next five years

Musk's media day began with a video interview with Bloomberg's Mishal Husain at the Qatar Economic Forum. Husain asked if Musk will still be Tesla's CEO in five years.

"Yes," Musk replied.

"No doubt about that at all?" Husain continued.

"Well, no, I'd die," Musk said. "Let me see if I'm dead."

Musk has faced calls from investors to pay more attention to Tesla after his work at DOGE sparked protests and boycotts. The company has struggled with heightened competition from Chinese automakers like BYD and falling sales numbers in Europe.

"Lets call it like it is: Tesla is going through a crisis and there is one person who can fix it....Musk," Wedbush Securities analyst and Tesla bull Dan Ives wrote in a memo in March.

"If you agree or disagree with DOGE it misses the point that by Musk spending 110% of his time with DOGE (and not as Tesla CEO) since President Trump got back into the White House this has essentially turned Tesla into a political symbol....and this is a bad thing," Ives added in his note.

2. Musk said he's 'done enough' political spending

In the interview with Husain, Musk said he will cut down on his political spending. He did not say if the decision was due to the backlash he's faced for it.

"In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future," Musk told Husain. "I think I've done enough."

He added that he'll start contributing to political spending again if he sees a reason to do so.

Musk spent at least $277 million backing President Donald Trump and other GOP candidates in last year's elections, making him one of Trump's biggest supporters.

Last month, Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House that he doesn't really need Musk in his administration.

"Elon has done a fantastic job. Look, he's sitting here, and I don't care. I don't need Elon for anything other than I happen to like him," Trump said on April 10.

3. Musk said Tesla robotaxis will be geo-fenced and avoid intersections

Musk's media blitz continued with a two-part interview with CNBC's David Faber during which the topic of Tesla's robotaxis came up.

Earlier this month, BI conducted a test drive of Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised software. During the test, Tesla's FSD ran a red light at an intersection in San Francisco.

During Tuesday's interview, Faber asked Musk about BI's reporting on the incident.

In response, Musk said Tesla's robotaxis will be geo-fenced to certain parts of Austin and avoid intersections the company deems unsafe when the service launches next month.

"When we deploy the cars in Austin, we are actually going to deploy it not to the entire Austin region but only to the parts of Austin we consider to be the safest. So we will geo-fence it," Musk told Faber.

"It's not going to take intersections unless we are highly confident it's going to do well with that intersection. Or it will just take a route around that intersection," Musk added.

Musk announced Tesla's robotaxi during a launch event in October. On Tuesday, he told CNBC he expects to expand Tesla's robotaxi fleet in Austin to 1,000 vehicles "within a few months" before rolling out the service to other cities like San Francisco and San Antonio.

4. Musk said there's no need for Tesla to buy Uber

Musk told CNBC he didn't see a need for Tesla to buy Uber when Tesla can rely on its own fleet of autonomous vehicles.

"There's no need because we have a large number of cars. We have millions of cars that will be able to operate autonomously," Musk told Faber.

"And I should say that it's a combination of a Tesla-owned fleet and also enabling Tesla owners to be able to add or subtract their car to the fleet, so that existing Tesla owners will be able to earn money by adding their car to the fleet for autonomous use," Musk added.

In February, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he would prefer not to compete with Musk and Tesla.

"Yeah, listen, no one wants to compete against Tesla or Elon, if you can help it," Khosrowshahi said in an interview with technology and media analyst Ben Thompson for his newsletter, Stratechery.

Khosrowshahi told Thompson it would be beneficial for Tesla to offer rides on Uber.

"Then, that Tesla that is both on Uber, and by the way, they could be both on Uber and the network, that is going to create much, much more revenue," Khosrowshahi said.

"Ultimately, we're hoping that my charm and the economic argument gets Tesla to work with us as well. If they want a direct channel, no problem," Khosrowshahi said.

5. Musk said he's not ruling out a merger between Tesla and xAI

When asked if a merger between Tesla and xAI was on the cards, Musk said "anything is possible," though there are "no plans to do so."

"It's not out of the question, but obviously it would require Tesla shareholder support," Musk told Faber.

Musk started xAI, his AI company, in 2023. Musk cofounded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 but left OpenAI's board in 2018.

In March, xAI acquired X, formerly Twitter, in an all-stock deal that valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022.

Musk said in a livestream in January that xAI's chatbot, Grok, will be included in Tesla's vehicles but did not give a specific launch date.

"Grok in Tesla's is coming soon. So you will just be able to talk to your Tesla and ask for anything," Musk said in the livestream.

• Duolingo's tech chief, Severin Hacker, uses a "reduce, automate, delegate" leadership strategy.
• He said it's important to strike a balance between being in "founder mode" and being a manager.
• Hacker said he adapted his leadership style as the company grew to 800 people.

Duolingo's cofounder has a three-part principle for striking the right balance between "founder mode" and having some hierarchy in the company.

"One of my principles is reduce, automate, delegate," said Severin Hacker, who is also the company's chief technology officer. He spoke on an episode of the "20VC" podcast published on Monday.

Hacker cofounded Duolingo in 2011 with Luis von Ahn, his doctoral supervisor at Carnegie Mellon University. The language-learning app has since gone public and employs about 800 people.

Speaking about "reduce," Hacker said that once a month or once a quarter, he thinks about what he needs to do — and what he can drop.

"If you just don't do it, is it the end of the world?" he said.

Once he decides that a task is necessary, he tries to gauge if it can be automated, such as using ChatGPT to write a report or answer a question.

Lastly, he said he delegates what cannot be automated.

"I've handed off most of the day-to-day engineering to our head of engineering," Hacker said. "I'm now a little bit out of the weeds."

He said he's focused on AI and its implications for Duolingo and deciding what the company should invest in.

"I probably spend 80% of my day thinking and acting on this AI question," the CTO said.

The company has doubled down on AI usage in the past year. It uses the technology to generate lessons, and last month, Duolingo's CEO von Ahn made headlines for outlining all the ways he plans to integrate AI at the company, including for hiring and evaluation decisions.

Duolingo's use of AI and growing user base have made it an investor darling. It hit over 46 million daily active users this year, and its stock is up 191% in the past year. Duolingo has expanded its offerings from about 40 languages to math, music, and, recently, chess.

Evolving leadership

Hacker said that his role has changed every year since he cofounded the company.

He added that it's important to find a balance between being in founder mode — Silicon Valley lingo for a leader who is very involved in the company day-to-day — and being a manager, who often delegates and prefers hierarchy.

"At a certain scale, you need to have managers or layers," Hacker said. "The oldest organization in the world, the Catholic Church, that is still around, it's very hierarchical and and I think there's probably some reason for it."

Earlier this month, von Ahn, too, said that his leadership style changed as the language learning company grew in size.

In an interview at Stanford University, the CEO said that he no longer gets into the fine details of every task, not because he doesn't want to, but because it's impossible to micromanage that many people.

"At this point, I also have learned that most of my job is culture carrier, mascot, and just making some of the kind of tough philosophical decisions," von Ahn said.

• Jensen Huang criticized US chip export rules that have hurt Nvidia's China market share.
• He said export controls have spurred Chinese tech development.
• "Our competition in China is really intense," Huang said.

Tech titan Jensen Huang slammed US rules on chip exports to China, which have hit Nvidia's business hard.

In a session with reporters and industry analysts at the Computex Taipei tech conference in Taiwan on Wednesday, Huang said the chipmaker's market share in China has decreased to 50%, down from 95% four years ago.

Huang also said Chinese tech companies have benefited from the crackdown.

"The export control gave them the spirit, the energy, and the government support to accelerate their development. So I think, all in all, the export control is a failure," he said.

The US started taking steps to limit China's use of high-tech chips in 2022. Huang's comments on Wednesday mark an escalation from his previous messaging about the US's controls.

In February, Huang told CNBC, "It's hard to tell whether export control is effective."

In April, Nvidia said the Trump administration tightened rules that effectively banned the sale of the kinds of chips — H20 — Nvidia had created to comply with the Biden administration's export controls. The company said it expected a $5.5 billion charge in first-quarter earnings due to the new restrictions.

About 13% of Nvidia's revenue in the year ending in January came from China and Hong Kong, down from 17% the year before.

"China is where 50% of the world's AI researchers are, and we want AI researchers to build on Nvidia. DeepSeek was built on Nvidia. That's a gift to us, that's a gift to the world," Huang said.

On Wednesday, Huang repeated past compliments for DeepSeek, the AI startup that took global financial markets by surprise in January with a competitive new model, and for tech giant Huawei. He again called the latter, which builds its own chips, "formidable."

"Our competition in China is really intense," Huang said. The CEO also said the US has no monopoly on AI development.

"Power is quite cost-effective in China, and there's plenty of land. So the ban on H20 is not effective," he said.

Huang added that there was no way to further "degrade" the company's current graphics processing unit architecture such that buyers would want it.

Bouts of broad market and tech sell-offs and angst about export controls, among other issues, have depressed investor darling Nvidia's stock recently. The company's shares are up nearly 41% in the past year but flat this year to date.

• Trump has officially unveiled his plan for the Golden Dome missile defense system.
• He told reporters on Tuesday that it would likely cost $175 billion and take three years to complete.
• Much of the cost is expected to come from an ambitious constellation of space-based interceptors.

President Donald Trump officially announced his plans on Tuesday for a Golden Dome system that focuses on countering potential missile threats from China and Russia.

The plan is ambitious, with the system meant to officially put American anti-missile weapons in space for the first time.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump estimated that the Golden Dome would be completed within three years and cost about $175 billion.

He's requested an initial $25 billion "to help construction get underway" through a tax break bill that Congress is deliberating.

"That's the initial sort of down, deposit," Trump said of the first tranche. "And we have, probably, you're talking about $175 billion total cost when this is completed."

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated in early May that it could cost between $161 billion and $542 billion to launch and operate a full constellation of space-based interceptors — the core aspect of the Golden Dome — for 20 years.

These satellite weapons would be designed to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles from orbit, and the congressional cost projection varies so much because it depends on how many interceptors would be purchased.

That answer would largely rely on how many interceptors the US thinks it needs to counter China and Russia, which Trump outlined in his January executive order as one of the Golden Dome's priorities.

"This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term," Trump told reporters. "So we'll have it done in about three years."

Overall, the Golden Dome is envisioned as a multi-layered shield, meaning it would mix both space and ground capabilities. Trump initially called it an Iron Dome, inspired by Israel's missile defense, but renamed it in February.

The system would be built to detect enemy strikes before they launch and destroy the missile before it can get in the air. If that fails, it would try to down the missile in mid- or early flight.

A final stopgap would be aimed at intercepting the missile just before it reached its target.

"It will be capable of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world," Trump said. "Even if they're launched from space."

Countering China and Russia from space

The president has repeatedly emphasized space warfare as a centerpiece for the Golden Dome. To that end, he also announced that Gen. Michael Guetlein, the Space Force's vice chief of space operations, would lead the project.

"While we have been focused on keeping the peace overseas, our adversaries have been quickly modernizing their nuclear forces," Guetlein said at Tuesday's announcement, warning that US rivals were "building space weapons."

Russia was reported last year to be building a nuclear space-based weapon, though it was unclear if this meant the asset was nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, of which Russia is a signatory, prohibits nuclear weapons or "weapons of mass destruction" from being put into space.

Guetlein also mentioned hypersonic missiles, which China has been developing in recent years. In 2021, Beijing startled the US with a successful test of a nuclear-capable missile that uses a hypersonic glide vehicle to travel faster than five times the speed of sound and potentially strike anywhere on the planet.

The missile also demonstrated an ability to exit and drop back into Earth's atmosphere during flight, also known as fractional orbital bombardment. This means that it can be fired from an unexpected direction and be even harder to detect or intercept.

The Golden Dome's focus on countering China and Russia marks a shift from the US's past stated goal for missile defense, which traditionally has been to prevent strikes from rogue states such as North Korea.

Washington's usual strategy for deterring nuclear strikes from Beijing and Moscow, which are designated as peer or near-peer rivals, was instead to rely on American nuclear weapons as a counterthreat.

The Congressional Budget Office has said that if the Golden Dome were to deal with Chinese and Russian missile threats, it would need a much larger constellation of advanced space-based interceptors, thereby driving up the cost.

Speaking on Tuesday, Trump said he was confident he could get Congress to approve the needed money.

"You know, some funding is tough and some is easy," he said. "When we say we're going to save everyone's lives in a crazy world, it seems to be very easy to get."

Meanwhile, China and Russia have jointly condemned the Golden Dome as an "unconstrained, global and multi-tier missile defense system," saying on May 8 that it had a "deeply destabilizing character."

• Hailey Bieber says she experienced postpartum body dysmorphia after giving birth.
• It took her some time to accept that her body wouldn't look the way it used to.
• "You're not the same person that you were before. You change head to toe," she said.

Hailey Bieber is done pretending that becoming a new mom is easy.

In an interview with Vogue published on Tuesday, the Rhode Skin founder spoke about her childbirth and postpartum experiences. In August, she welcomed her son, Jack Blues, with her husband, Justin Bieber.

Bieber told Vogue that she struggled with postpartum body dysmorphia after giving birth.

"When people talk about 'bouncing back' — back where, because my hips are wider, my boobs are actually bigger than they were before. They did not go back. And great, I'll take it, but it's not the same body that it was before," Bieber said.

She added that she fell into the cycle of looking up mean comments online about her appearance, only to end up feeling even worse about herself.

It took her some time to accept that her body wouldn't look how it used to, she said.

"You're not the same person that you were before. You change head to toe. And I think there was a minute where I kept really hyper-fixating on getting back to what I was. And then I had to go through that acceptance of, I'm not going back. So it's really about how do I want to move forward? Who do I want to be?" Bieber said.

Her difficult postpartum journey was compounded by the internet rumours surrounding her marriage.

She said people speculating online that she was going through a divorce made it even worse. "I cannot even begin to explain it. It's a crazy life to live," she said.

"Being postpartum is the most sensitive time I've ever gone through in my life, and learning a new version of myself is very difficult," Bieber said.

Postpartum typically refers to the first six to eight weeks after giving birth. During that time, a lot changes in a woman's body. New moms might deal with things like breast engorgement or vaginal bleeding, and some also experience postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety.

Bieber isn't the only celebrity mom who has spoken about her postpartum experience.

Lindsay Lohan said in a March 2024 interview that she doesn't feel pressured to "snap back" to her old body after giving birth.

"I feel like everything always comes full circle again, so this is that moment, and this, too, shall pass," she said.

In a March interview, Ashley Tisdale said that welcoming her second child was a chance to experience motherhood again since she felt "robbed" of her first experience due to postpartum depression, or PPD.

A representative for Bieber did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

• UK fans of Labubu won't be able to snag the toy in stores for a bit.
• The toy's producer, Pop Mart, said it would temporarily pause physical Labubu sales in the UK.
• It said this was to "ensure the safety" of people after long lines formed outside UK Pop Mart stores.

Labubu fans in the UK have gone so wild for the toy, its seller has temporarily paused in-store sales.

Pop Mart, the Chinese toymaker behind the viral $85 doll that's taking the world by storm, announced the pause in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

"Due to the increasing demand for our beloved Labubus, we've seen a significant rise in customer turnout on restock days — with long queues forming outside our stores and Roboshops," the toymaker said.

Pop Mart sells products in 16 locations across the UK, including the vending machine-style Roboshops.

"To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone, we will temporarily pause all in-store and roboshop sales of THE MONSTERS plush toys until further notice," Pop Mart added.

Pop Mart said online drops of the toy would continue as usual.

At least a dozen videos on TikTok of Pop Mart's stores in the UK show snaking lines forming at its entrances ahead of product drops.

A video of the Pop Mart in Bullring, a shopping mall in Birmingham, showed a line stretching around the building. Barricades were set up at the start of the line to organize the queue.

This comes as Labubu fever spreads from Asia to the West, with fans queuing for hours to get their hands on the furry plushie with serrated teeth.

Labubus, which come in various designs, are sold in blind boxes, or toys that are not labeled. Customers do not know which design they are getting upon purchase.

Pop Mart staff in Singapore told BI in November that stores are restocked with a few hundred figurines twice a week, but they sell out in minutes.

Labubu and The Monsters toy line was a major cash cow for Pop Mart in 2024. According to the company's annual report, its sales totaled 3.04 billion yuan, or about $426 million, which was 23% of Pop Mart's total revenue.

Representatives for Pop Mart did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Short-term rental prices can surge by over 100% at some vacation hotspots, a Bankrate study found.
• The study named 20 places with the biggest rental prices surges, like Augusta, Georgia, and Vail.
• Travelers should book early and be flexible to avoid the hikes, a Bankrate data analyst said.

If you're heading to a vacation hotspot this summer, you could be paying a markup of more than 100% for a stay at a short-term rental.

A new study from Bankrate identified 20 vacation hotspots where short-term rental prices surge during their busy season — 10 in the fall and winter and 10 in the spring and summer.

The study used rental data compiled by AirDNA, a vacation rental analytics firm, to determine where rental prices hiked the most in 2024. It also focused on properties that were single-family homes with at least two bedrooms.

Augusta, Georgia, experienced the highest peak season markup, with the average daily rate for short-term rentals spiking 178% in the spring, due to the Masters Tournament. A family previously told Business Insider that renting their home out for Master's week paid their mortgage for the year.

Other locations that spiked in the spring and summer included water destinations, like Long Island, New York, and Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, as well as Bozeman, Montana, which is near Yellowstone National Park. Bozeman also was among the highest markups in the winter due to its skiing.

Places that saw the biggest markups in fall and winter included sport and skiing destinations such as Vail, Avon, and Steamboat Springs in Colorado, as well as Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. The biggest fall or winter markup was 125% in Oxford, Mississippi, which attracts thousands every fall to watch Ole Miss football.

Alex Gailey, a data analyst at Bankrate, told BI the big swings in rental prices at these popular destinations was "eye-popping." She also noted many Americans are saying they still plan to travel this year but that they are trying to be more budget-conscious.

"Flexibility is one of the best ways you can save on travel," Gailey said.

For travelers who do want to visit these hotspots in the busy season, Gailey said it's best to plan ahead of time and book early. Travelers who have flexibility in their travel dates should also use it, as short-term rentals tend to be a lot cheaper during the week than on the weekends.

She also said if you can avoid a busy season visit, you're likely to find better rates visiting these places in the shoulder seasons.

Another option is to stay in an adjacent city that is close by but does not experience the same level of price hike. For instance, staying in Salt Lake City can be a lot more budget-friendly than Park City, where short-term rentals can cost over 103% more on average in the fall or winter season, according to Bankrate.

Gailey also said taking advantage of credit card points and other travel rewards can be a good way to make travel more budget-friendly despite broader economic uncertainty.

Here's the full lists of locations and the average peak season markup for short-term rentals, according to the Bankrate study.

Spring and summer

1. Augusta, Georgia
Maximum average daily rate: $541
Minimum average daily rate: $194
Peak season markup: 178%

2. Long Island, New York
Maximum average daily rate: $785
Minimum average daily rate: $362
Peak season markup: 117%

3. Albany/Saratoga Springs, New York
Maximum average daily rate: $439
Minimum average daily rate: $224
Peak season markup: 96%

4. Bozeman/Yellowstone National Park
Maximum average daily rate: $611
Minimum average daily rate: $313
Peak season markup: 95%

5. Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri
Maximum average daily rate: $407
Minimum average daily rate: $212
Peak season markup: 92%

6. Lake Norman, North Carolina
Maximum average daily rate: $692
Minimum average daily rate: $364
Peak season markup: 90%

7. Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia
Maximum average daily rate: $435
Minimum average daily rate: $231
Peak season markup: 88%

8. Idaho Falls/Rexburg, Idaho
Maximum average daily rate: $377
Minimum average daily rate: $201
Peak season markup: 87%

9. Providence, Rhode Island
Maximum average daily rate: $388
Minimum average daily rate: $211
Peak season markup: 84%

10. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Maximum average daily rate: $349
Minimum average daily rate: $195
Peak season markup: 79%

Fall and winter

1. Oxford, Mississippi
Maximum average daily rate: $635
Minimum average daily rate: $283
Peak season markup: 125%

2. Vail/Avon, Colorado
Maximum average daily rate: $946
Minimum average daily rate: $424
Peak season markup: 123%

3. Green Bay, Wisconsin
Maximum average daily rate: $457
Minimum average daily rate: $215
Peak season markup: 113%

4. Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Maximum average daily rate: $694
Minimum average daily rate: $335
Peak season markup: 107%

5. Ann Arbor, Michigan
Maximum average daily rate: $414
Minimum average daily rate: $201
Peak season markup: 105%

6. Park City, Utah
Maximum average daily rate: $888
Minimum average daily rate: $436
Peak season markup: 103%

7. Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado
Maximum average daily rate: $1,082
Minimum average daily rate: $535
Peak season markup: 102%

8. State College, Pennsylvania
Maximum average daily rate: $642
Minimum average daily rate: $315
Peak season markup: 98%

9. Bozeman/Yellowstone National Park, Montana
Maximum average daily rate: $611
Minimum average daily rate: $313
Peak season markup: 95%

10. Mammoth Lakes, California
Maximum average daily rate: $554
Minimum average daily rate: $303
Peak season markup: 83%

• In a media blitz, Elon Musk said Tesla would roll out robotaxis in June using a "prudent" approach.
• Musk aims for rapid Optimus robot production, predicting one million units a year by 2030.
• Investor response remains lukewarm, and Musk has been wrong about his ambitious timelines before.

Elon Musk went on a media blitz to share plans on new robotics benchmarks and reiterate his commitment to Tesla.

The Tesla CEO spoke briefly with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the Microsoft Build conference on Monday, made a remote appearance at Bloomberg's Qatar Economic Forum, and appeared on CNBC twice on Tuesday.

At the Qatar Economic Forum, Musk said he is committed to leading Tesla for at least five more years, and said robotaxis will be rolled out in June as previously planned.

"Yes, no doubt about that at all," Musk said during a video call when asked about his leadership.

Tesla shares remained mostly unchanged after markets closed Tuesday, but they rebounded in May compared to previous months after Musk said he would scale back his involvement with DOGE on April 22. However, Tesla shares are still down in 2025 thus far, following revenue and income declines in Q1.

Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Here are the main takeaways on robotics from Musk's interviews.

A 'prudent' approach

Musk was asked about Tesla's Full Self-Driving Supervised software running a red light during a test drive by BI reporters and stressed the slow rollout of robotaxis for safety reasons

"I think it's prudent for us to start with a small number, confirm that things are going well, and then scale it up proportionate to how well we see it's doing," Musk told CNBC host David Faber.

Musk said they are now testing robotaxis "driving 24/7 with drivers in the cars" with "essentially no interventions," but he prefers caution because it would be "the first introduction of unsupervised full self-driving."

"We want to deliberately take it slow," Musk added. "We could start with 1,000 or 10,000 on day one, but I don't think that would be prudent. So we will start with probably 10 for a week, then increase it to 20, 30, 40."

Musk said that the goal would be to have 1,000 robotaxis within a few months in Austin, before expanding the operation to other cities like Los Angeles and San Antonio.

Though Musk did not directly address BI's reporting that the FDS made a critical error, he said Tesla's robotaxis will be geo-fenced to select areas of Austin. Alphabet's Waymo also limits its autonomous cars to specific zones.

"It's not going to take intersections unless we are highly confident," Musk told Faber. "Or it will just take a route around that intersection."

The future of Optimus

Musk is expecting to scale up the use of humanoid robots quickly.

"We expect to have thousands of Optimus robots working in Tesla factories by the end of this year, beginning this fall," Musk told Faber on CNBC, "And we expect to scale Optimus up faster than any product, I think, in history, to get to millions of units per year as soon as possible."

"I think we feel confident in getting to one million units per year in less than five years, maybe four years. So by 2030, I feel confident in predicting one million Optimus units per year — it might be 2029," Musk added.

Musk told Faber that Optimus will also be the "biggest product ever" with "insatiable" demand because "everyone" would want one.

"It's going to take a lot of compute resources and it'll take time," said Musk when asked what it would take to train a robot, "I think there's certain threshold breakthroughs that we think we can achieve."

In a short conversation with Microsoft CEO Nadella, Musk also reiterated that all kinds of robotics, including robotaxis and the humanoid robot Optimus, need to be "grounded in reality."

"As you mentioned with the car, it needs to drive safely and correctly. The humanoid robot Optimus needs to perform the task that it's being asked to perform," Musk told Nadella.

The market reacts

Musk's media blitz generated a lukewarm response from investors. Tesla shares rose around 0.5% at market closing on Tuesday compared to the day before, but stocks began to dip in the after-hours.

Musk has teased his plan to bring humanoid robots to market for years. In 2021, a dancing actor in a body suit gave us our first look at Optimus, also known as Tesla Bot. By 2022, a rough prototype was up and walking at the company's Artificial Intelligence Day event.

In October 2024, Business Insider's Hasan Chowdhury reported that Tesla's robotics technology has advanced since its early days. Chowdhury reported that Optimus prototypes at last year's Tesla's robotaxi day played rock-paper-scissors with the audience, poured drinks, and danced, though some attendees thought the bots were controlled by human operators.

As far as the timeline goes, Musk said in a post on X last July that Tesla would have "genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year," and larger-scale production enabling sales to other companies by 2026. Now, midway through 2025, large-scale production has not yet been announced, but in the company's Q1 2025 Update letter, Tesla said it is "on track" for its builds of Optimus on its Fremont pilot production line in 2025, "with wider deployment of bots doing useful work across our factories."

Musk has been wrong about timelines before. In 2018, he acknowledged that he tends to be overly optimistic about when his creations will come to market. In some instances, consumers are still waiting for his promises to come to fruition.

In 2019, Musk said Tesla would deploy over one million robotaxis by the end of 2020. While that hasn't yet materialized, the planned debut of its robotaxi service in Austin later this year gets Tesla a small step closer to that goal.

Still, if Tesla's robotics division manages to deliver on all it has promised with Optimus and its other applications, it'd be a major boon for the company — and its investors. Tesla bull and Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives has predicted that robotaxis will be a game changer for Tesla, and estimated that it could become a $2 trillion company within the next two years. Ives told CNBC on Tuesday that he believes 90% of Tesla's future value lies in its autonomous vehicle software and robotics division.

• Google cofounder Sergey Brin just made a surprise appearance at the company's I/O conference.
• Brin said he's back at Google "pretty much every day now," where he's been developing AI products.
• Brin also spoke about why Google Glass failed, though he's bullish about Google's new XR glasses.

Google cofounder Sergey Brin made a surprise appearance onstage at the company's flagship I/O developer conference Tuesday, where he explained why he's returned to the tech giant and what he's learned from the failure of Google Glass over a decade ago.

It's the latest sign that Google is going hardcore on AI. Brin has been back at Google to help develop its AI products since 2023 as the search giant races against OpenAI's ChatGPT, and he shared about what he's been up to since returning to the trenches.

Brin wasn't expected to speak at the talk, which Google billed solely as an interview of its DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. He joked, "I torture people like Demis, who is pretty amazing. He tolerated me crashing this fireside."

In the chat with Hassabis, Brin said he comes into Google "pretty much every day now" to chip in on training the latest models from Gemini. It's something that naturally interests him, the famously technical co-founder said.

"I tend to be pretty deep in the technical details," Brin said. "And that's a luxury I really enjoy, fortunately, because guys like Demis are minding the shop. And that's just where my scientific interest is."

Since returning to Google, Brin also attended last year's I/O, where he fielded reporters' questions about AI.

Learning from Google Glass

At the 2012 Google I/O conference, Brin famously demoed a video in which he wore Google Glass while skydiving to show off the tech giant's previous foray into wearables. This year, he also addressed Google Glass, which it stopped selling a decade ago.

At the Tuesday fireside, Brin said Google Glass's failure stemmed partly from his lack of knowledge about manufacturing and supply chains.

"I just didn't know anything about consumer electronic supply chains, really, and how hard it would be to build that and have it at a reasonable price point," he said.

Brin is far more bullish on Google's latest wearables venture: "XR," or Extended Reality, glasses. At the fireside chat, he said he thinks AI is far more capable now for such a product.

Business Insider was able to snap a picture of the normally reclusive billionaire trying the XR glasses on before the fireside chat, too:

• Elon Musk said it's "not out of the question" to merge his AI startup with Tesla if shareholders approve.
• xAI, which Musk founded in 2023, acquired X in March in an all-stock purchase.
• Tesla shares rose 0.5% but dipped in after-hours Tuesday, remaining around 10% down since January 2.

Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he isn't ruling out merging his AI startup with Tesla.

"Well, I guess anything is possible," Musk told CNBC show host David Faber in a two-part interview, when asked whether Musk would ever consider merging xAI into Tesla as a way to gain more control over the EV company.

"There are no plans to do so," Musk said. "It's not out of the question, but obviously it would require Tesla shareholder support."

Musk launched xAI as a startup in 2023. The company acquired X, his social platform formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction valuing xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion in March. The AI chatbot Grok was also introduced to X and trained in part on the social media platform's data.

Elon Musk said in the Tuesday interview that Tesla and xAI will continue sourcing AI chips from Nvidia and AMD. He told Faber that xAI has deployed 200,000 GPUs at its Colossus facility in Memphis and plans a 1 million-GPU site nearby, but he did not disclose any specific chip orders.

Based on documents previously viewed by Business Insider, xAI is also spending at least $400 million on building a supercomputer in Memphis, and may encounter difficulties because the city's power grid might not yet be capable of powering a project of that magnitude.

Following the CNBC appearance, Tesla shares saw a 0.5% boost at market closing time compared to the day before, but dipped slightly in after-hours trading.

Though Tesla stocks have been on the rise in May since Musk said he would leave DOGE, the EV company's shares are still at around 10% down compared to where it was on January 2 this year amid struggling Q1 sales and declining confidence in Musk's priorities.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comments.

• Google announced a partnership with Warby Parker for smart glasses, challenging Meta's Ray-Ban line.
• The collaboration includes an investment of up to $150 million, with up to $75 million toward development.
• Google's Android XR platform includes see-through headsets and glasses that support AR and AI.

Google is taking aim at Meta's Ray-Ban glasses with a version of its own AI eyewear line, styled by Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.

"We want you to be able to wear glasses that match your personal taste," Google's Android XR lead Shahram Izadi said at Google I/O.

The glasses are part of Google's Android XR platform and are a partnership with Samsung, the company announced at its Google I/O developer conference on Tuesday. The platform includes see-through headsets, as well as glasses that support augmented reality and AI.

Google and Warby Parker plan to launch a series of products, with the first line of smart glasses with multimodal AI set to launch after 2025, an announcement from the lifestyle vision brand said. Android XR will also include Project Moohan, the first Android XR headset device, which will come out later this year.

Google has committed up to $150 million to the partnership, with as much as $75 million going toward product development and commercialization costs, and up to $75 million in equity, the announcement said. Warby Parker's stock is up nearly 15% following the news about the collaboration.

At the event, Izadi said the glasses prototypes "are already being used by trusted testers." The Google VP didn't share further details on availability or pricing. While Gentle Monster defines itself as a luxury eyewear brand, Warby Parker is better known for offering stylish but affordable options.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg projected in January that 2025 could be a "defining year" for the brand's Ray-Ban smart glasses, even if it's not a breakthrough.

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, which don't yet include AR capabilities, have become one of the company's few mainstream hardware hits. They allow users to take photos, livestream, and access Meta AI via voice.

During the company's latest earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said sales of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses had "tripled" over the past year. Meta's Ray Bans cost between $300 and $500.

Later this year, Meta is expected to release a new version of the Ray-Bans with a built-in display, its first step toward augmented reality in a mass-market product. According to Bloomberg, the upcoming model could cost between $1,000 and $1,400.

Meanwhile, Meta is developing a separate, more ambitious line of AR glasses, internally codenamed "Artemis," which it aims to release by 2027. These are distinct from both the Ray-Bans and "Orion," an early prototype Meta unveiled last year as a preview of its AR ambitions.

Google is taking aim at Orion with its own "Project Aura" glasses, part of its broader Android XR platform. Google's Aura glasses include a built-in camera, microphone, speakers, and in-lens display, and they are already being tested.

Google has been exploring the concept of smart glasses for over a decade, and it's had some flops along the way — like Google Glass, which was discontinued in 2023, after launching in 2013. Last year at I/O, Google teased Project Astra, a vision of what Google Assistant could be like if it could hear and see around you. Google CEO Sundar Pichai hinted that Google was "working on prototypes" for the AI assistant that could be glasses.

Google did a live demo of the Project Aura glasses on Tuesday at I/O, showing how users could message friends, make appointments, ask for directions, and take photos. It also demoed a live language translation, which appeared a bit glitchy in the onstage demonstration, but still offered an impressive first look at what the tech could offer.

Google I/O also included a series of other product rollouts and AI updates, including a conversation version of Search called AI Mode, as well as gen-AI media models like Veo 3, and Imagen 4.

• Tesla is planning to debut its robotaxi service next month in Austin.
• Business Insider tested Tesla's FSD Supervised software ahead of the launch.
• Tesla's FSD ran a red light at a complex intersection in San Francisco.

Elon Musk said Tesla's robotaxis will be limited to certain parts of Austin and avoid intersections the company deems unsafe after the CEO was asked on TV about Business Insider's reporting on a critical error made by Tesla's Full Self-Driving Supervised software.

In a May 17 story, two BI reporters took rides in a Waymo and a 2024 Tesla Model 3 equipped with the latest FSD software to compare both companies' autonomous driving technologies. Toward the end of the test, Tesla's FSD ran a red light at a complex intersection in San Francisco.

During a discussion about Tesla's robotaxi launch, which is set for June in Austin, CNBC's David Faber asked Musk about BI's report.

"I guess my question is, is that a concern at all for you in terms of it encountering things that are still sort of a crucial test, and perhaps it fails," Faber said.

Musk said BI's test "made no sense" because it compared Tesla's FSD Supervised, which he said assumes a driver is behind the wheel and ready to take over, rather than FSD Unsupervised.

BI noted in the story that the test compared a piece of Tesla technology that could be different from the software that will power the company's robotaxis. BI reported one of the test's goals was to see how far FSD had come since its beta rollout in 2020.

Musk and a Tesla spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. A Tesla spokesperson also didn't respond to a request for comment to BI's previous story about the driving test on May 17.

In the CNBC interview, Musk didn't address specific details in BI's reporting. However, he said Tesla's robotaxis will be geo-fenced to certain parts of Austin.

Alphabet's Waymo also uses geo-fencing to limit its autonomous cars to certain parts of a given city, including, for the moment, highways.

"When we deploy the cars in Austin, we are actually going to deploy it not to the entire Austin region but only to the parts of Austin we consider to be the safest," Musk said on CNBC. "So we will geo-fence it."

He added: "It's not going to take intersections unless we are highly confident it's going to do well with that intersection. Or it will just take a route around that intersection."

BI's test showed that Waymo appeared to avoid the same intersection where Tesla FSD made the error. Instead, Waymo took BI through a route that was farther and less time-efficient, based on estimated time arrivals provided by Google Maps.

During the CNBC interview, the Tesla CEO reiterated his prediction that Tesla's robotaxis will see a quick ramp-up after a limited rollout next month.

"We'll start with probably 10 for a week, then increase it to 20, 30, 40," Musk said. "It will probably be at 1,000 within a few months."

• Elon Musk on Tuesday told CNBC there's "no need" for Tesla to buy Uber.
• Tesla owners could one day be able to earn money by lending their car to Tesla's autonomous fleet, he said.
• Tesla will debut its invitation-only robotaxi service in Austin next month, BI previously reported.

Elon Musk on Tuesday dismissed a hypothetical Tesla-Uber deal, saying there's "no need" for Tesla to buy the ubiquitous rideshare app.

Musk told CNBC that he envisions a world where, instead of calling an Uber, you can call an autonomous Tesla to get you to your destination without a dedicated driver.

"We have millions of cars that will be able to operate autonomously," Musk told CNBC's David Faber. "And I should say that it's a combination of a Tesla-owned fleet and also enabling Tesla owners to be able to add or subtract their car to the fleet, so that existing Tesla owners will be able to earn money by adding their car to the fleet for autonomous use."

Musk's proposed business model would allow Tesla drivers to rent out their cars for autonomous ride-hailing, "just like" one can rent out a spare bedroom through Airbnb.

Representatives for Tesla and Uber did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

After years of delays, Tesla plans to debut its much-anticipated robotaxi service in Austin next month, Business Insider previously reported. Musk confirmed the plans in the CNBC interview Tuesday.

"We'll start with probably 10 for a week, then increase it to 20, 30, 40," he said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. "It will probably be at 1,000 within a few months."

Tesla has not yet unveiled the commercial version of its Full Self-Driving software, called FSD Unsupervised. This software will be used in its robotaxi fleet and does not require a driver behind the wheel like its personal vehicles.

When asked by Faber whether Tesla needed to make any improvements or changes to its technology or fleet in order to prepare to launch a large-scale robotaxi service, Musk demurred.

"I don't think we're missing anything," Musk said. "Tesla has all the ingredients necessary to offer a vast self-driving fleet."

Although Uber and Lyft have long bowed out of developing autonomous cars in-house, both companies plan to offer robotaxis on their platforms through partnerships with other self-driving-focused companies.

Uber, for example, already offers Alphabet's Waymo on its app in Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta.

Lyft said it has partnered with companies like May Mobility, Mobileye, and Japan's Marubeni to begin offering autonomous vehicles as soon as summer of 2025.