Sitting in prison, Jodi Hildebrandt can’t see her luxurious Utah home anymore — but millions of people on the Internet can. Her four-bedroom house on a 1.4-acre property with a guesthouse in Ivins was the most-viewed listing on Realtor.com last week, the real estate website said.
Initially listed for $5.3 million, the “concrete fortress” went on the market in January, shortly before Hildebrandt and her business partner, parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke, were sentenced to up to 30 years in a Utah court on child abuse charges.
Last year, Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped from the home and ran to a neighbor’s house for help, and to ask for food and water. He was emaciated and had duct tape and burns on his wrists and legs, authorities said. Franke’s 10-year-old malnourished daughter was also found by officers in Hildebrandt’s house. She was taken to the hospital.
Hildebrandt and Franke were arrested after authorities found evidence the children were tortured in the home.
This image taken from body camera footage provided by Washington County Attorney’s Office shows Jodi Hildebrandt, left, and Ruby Franke, center, being arrested on child abuse charges on Aug. 30, 2023, in Ivins, Utah.
/ AP
The arresting officer said Hildebrandt had “knowledge of the abuse, malnourishment, and neglect in the home.”
Franke’s popular “8 Passengers” YouTube channel dispensed advice, often from the basement of Hildebrandt’s home. She also appeared in a video posted online by Hildebrandt’s counseling business, ConneXions Classroom.
Nestled behind striking sandstone foothills, the Utah property, which has a “concrete storage room under the garage” has floor-to-ceiling glass windows and expansive views of the craggy desert landscape from almost every room. There are built-in closets and a granite countertop kitchen overlooking the backyard and in-ground pool. In addition to the four bedrooms, the house, which was built in 2017, has a five-car garage, and three-and-a-half baths.
Hildebrandt’s house has dropped in price by $305,000, according to Realtor.com, and is now listed for $4,995,000.
The listing beat views on nine other properties, including the country’s most expensive listing — Gordon’s Pointe in Naples, Florida. Listed at $295,000 million the property has 1,655 feet of water frontage.
Cara Tabachnick is a news editor and journalist at CBSNews.com. Cara began her career on the crime beat at Newsday. She has written for Marie Claire, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She reports on justice and human rights issues. Contact her at cara.tabachnick@cbsinteractive.com
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
