Vantaca and Maegan Woytek are proud to present this week's news you need to know happening across the industry! We plan to bring you all the critical news, regulatory shifts, market shifts and operational insights that are impacting your business every other week, so you can stay ahead of it. What you need to know for this week's episode:

1. Mortgage rates just hit 6.64%, pending home sales dropped over 5% in June, and builder sentiment is at its lowest point in nearly a year — CNBC reports 37% of builders are now cutting prices just to move inventory, a sign that affordability pressure is rolling straight downhill to the communities managing these homes.
2. Our latest full episode features Alex Wolkomir, Partner at McKinsey & Company and leader of the firm's global real estate AI practice, on why pilot programs aren't moving the needle, what domain-level redesign actually means for operators, and the competitive risk no one's talking about when every company runs the same AI playbook.

Subscribe or follow us on the NEW Guilty by Association website for ongoing industry updates and more conversations from Vantaca: https://www.vantaca.com/gba

Everyone's talking about AI in real estate. But most of the conversation is still stuck on chatbots, copilots, and one-off pilot programs. McKinsey's latest report argues the real shift is something different. Agentic AI, where systems don't just help you understand your data, they help you get things done.

In this episode of Guilty by Association, host Maegen Woytek talks with Alex Wolkomir, Partner at McKinsey & Company and leader of the firm's global real estate AI and digital practice, about the vision behind the report and what it means for operators, investors, and service providers right now. They dig into why isolated use cases aren't moving the needle, what domain-level redesign actually looks like in practice, and the risk no one's talking about.... what happens to competitive advantage and brand differentiation when every operator in the market is running the same AI playbook.

Chapter Breakdown:

• 00:00 - 03:32 - Intro
• 03:32 - 05:50 - From Gen AI to Agentic AI
• 05:50 - 12:19 - The Leaking Pipe Example
• 12:19 - 19:19 - The "Goldilocks Mindset"
• 19:19 - 22:30 - Redesigning Human Roles
• 22:30 - 25:40 - Hospitality in Real Estate
• 25:40 - 29:58 - End Who Owns the Learning Loop?

About Alex Wolkomir

Alex leads McKinsey’s work in using digital, analytics, and design to improve the real estate sector globally and drive meaningful value from real assets. He has a deep passion for using technology to transform the built environment and how people interact with it.

He works with leading real estate developers, investors, owners, operators, architecture and engineering firms, and proptech and contech companies on innovation and digital strategy, new business and product building, advanced analytics, experience and brand strategy, digital transformation, and operating model redesign.

For more information on Alex's work:

• Original Report: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/real-estate/our-insights/how-agentic-ai-can-reshape-real-estates-operating-model?cid=pls-pso-lkn-mbm-AlexWolkomir-RealEstate-glb-com-mbm
• Latest Work: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/real-estate/our-insights/how-ai-is-reshaping-value-creation-in-residential-real-estate
• Bio: https://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/alex-wolkomir
• Follow Alex Wolkomir: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-wolkomir/

Vantaca and Maegan Woytek are proud to present this week's news you need to know happening across the industry! We plan to bring you all the critical news, regulatory shifts, market shifts and operational insights that are impacting your business every other week, so you can stay ahead of it. What you need to know for this week's episode:

1. Vantaca's data hit two major business outlets this week — Nicole Friedman's reporting in The Wall Street Journal and a Morning Brew newsletter breakdown both cited our research showing typical monthly HOA fees rose 51% from 2021 to 2025.
2. The bigger the spotlight on these numbers, the better the conversations between residents and their boards, the more visibility homeowners receive around what's actually driving association costs.
3. Our newest full episode of GBA features Jake Gold from the Foundation for Community Association Research, breaking down 21 years of homeowner satisfaction data and the finding that the overwhelming majority of the 74 million Americans living in community associations are satisfied with where they live.

Subscribe to Guilty by Association for ongoing industry updates and more conversations from Vantaca. Subscribe for more Guilty By Association.

We've all seen the viral HOA horror stories. But what do the people who actually live in a community association think? For 21 years — across 11 surveys, a housing crisis, a pandemic, and historic inflation — the Foundation for Community Association Research has asked residents directly, in a nationally representative survey representing the 74 million Americans who live in community associations. The answer keeps coming back the same: the overwhelming majority are satisfied with community association living.

In this episode of Guilty by Association, host Maegen Woytek talks with Jake Gold, CAE, Executive Director of FCAR, about the just-released 2026 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey, "Preferred Places to Call Home." They dig into why a consistent 21-year benchmark beats the one-off study that trends for a week and disappears, the gap between the headlines and the data, and the people the narrative usually overlooks — the volunteer boards and community managers running multi-million-dollar operations.

Chapter Breakdown:

• 00:00 - 03:45 - Intro
• 03:45 - 09:09 - The 2026 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey
• 09:09 -13:44 - Biggest Surprises from the Survey
• 13:44 - 16:31 - Can Technology Help CAMs Increase Satisfaction with Residents
• 16:31 - 19:28 - The Gap Between What Residents Want and What They're Getting Today
• 19:28 - 22:34- How Can the Ecosystem Best Use These Survey Findings
• 22:34 - 26:09 - What's Next for the Foundation?

For more information on the Foundation of Community Research:

• Website: https://foundation.caionline.org/
• The 2026 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey: https://foundation.caionline.org/research/survey_homeowner/
• Jake Gold: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-gold-a5b5b212/

Vantaca and Maegan Woytek are proud to present this week's news you need to know happening across the industry! We plan to bring you all the critical news, regulatory shifts, market shifts and operational insights that are impacting your business every other week, so you can stay ahead of it. What you need to know for this week's episode:

1. CNBC and Yahoo Finance both spotlighted Vantaca's data this week, reporting that median HOA dues jumped 44% in 2025 to $757 after years of holding steady around $500, based on our analysis of the same cohort of more than 3,300 associations covering over half a million homes from 2021-2025.
2. The why behind the spike: condo master policy premiums nearly doubled from $53 to $105 per door between 2021 and 2025.
3. With hurricane season officially opening June 1, every homeowner should be asking their board two questions before the first named storm.

Subscribe to Guilty by Association for ongoing industry updates and more conversations from Vantaca. Subscribe for more Guilty By Association:

• LinkedIn
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• Website
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

Vantaca and Maegan Woytek are proud to present this week's news you need to know happening across the industry! We plan to bring you all the critical news, regulatory shifts, market shifts and operational insights that are impacting your business every week, so you can stay ahead of it.

What you need to know for this week's episode:

1. Bankrate reports credit card delinquencies have hit their highest point since 2011, even as mortgage delinquencies stay low. New residents are carrying more financial stress than their paperwork shows.
2. TheStreet reports multigenerational households have climbed to nearly 4 million, up from 3.2 million a decade ago, as a $436,000 median home price pushes families to consolidate under one roof.
3. Minnesota just passed HOA reform after two years of resident pressure over reserve fund and special assessment confusion. 82% of new homes in the state are built inside an HOA.

Subscribe to Guilty by Association for ongoing industry updates and more conversations from Vantaca.

Out of 22M Floridians, 10M live in an HOA, and CEOMC member companies manage 6.5M of those, about 65% of the market. So what does it take to shift the perception of an entire industry?

In this episode of Guilty By Association, host Megan Woytek and special co-host Catie Marks sit down with Mark Anderson, Executive Director of CEOMC Florida, for a behind-the-scenes look at the 2026 Florida legislative session, the fights that almost ended community association management as we know it, and the playbook that turned a small coalition of management companies into one of the most underestimated political forces in the state.

Chapter Breakdown:

• 00:00 - 03:23 - Intro
• 03:23 - 06:20 - The HOA UPL Battle
• 06:20 -12:03 - David vs Goliath
• 12:03 - 16:21 - Defund the HOA?
• 16:21 - 19:00 - Fixing the Industry Perception
• 19:00 - 24:51 - Voting & Getting Involved
• 24:51 - 28:32 - How to Get Started TODAY

Guest Mark Anderson — Executive Director, CEO-MC Florida. For more than a decade, Mark has led the coalition representing 60+ community association management companies and 6.5 million of the 10 million Floridians who live in an HOA. His advocacy work helped pass the 2013 legislation that ended the Unlicensed Practice of Law (UPL) threat against the industry, and he's been instrumental in shaping every major piece of Florida HOA legislation since.

Follow Mark:

• LinkedIn
• Mark Anderson Governmental Consulting
• Learn more & get involved: info@ConsultAnderson.com

Subscribe for more Guilty By Association:

• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Website
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

Vantaca and Maegan Woytek are proud to present this week's news you need to know happening across the industry! We plan to bring you all the critical news, regulatory shifts, market shifts and operational insights that are impacting your business every week, so you can stay ahead of it.

What you need to know for this week's episode:

1. New homeowners are now spending 26% of their income on housing—far more than the 20% paid by long-time owners—the biggest gap in decades. The housing market isn’t just expensive, it’s structurally favoring incumbents, meaning today’s buyers are starting their ownership journey already financially behind.
2. Major metros in Florida and Texas have shifted to buyer’s markets due to rising costs, while cities in Ohio are seeing steady growth and increasing demand The long-assumed migration to the Sunbelt may be hitting a financial breaking point, signaling a potential rebalancing of where Americans actually want and can afford to live.
3. Buyers in HOA communities should closely review reserves, budgets, and assessment history to avoid costly surprises. In today’s market, the financial health of an HOA isn’t just a detail, it can be the difference between a stable investment and a hidden financial time bomb.

Subscribe to Guilty by Association for ongoing industry updates and more conversations from Vantaca.