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National vacancy rate holds as zombie home numbers ease
Investor-held properties widen the gap
Among the country’s 24.9 million investor-owned properties, 879,532 — or 3.5% — sat vacant in the third quarter, more than double the national rate. Indiana led with a 7% investor vacancy rate, followed by Illinois at 6.2% and Oklahoma at 6%.
At the metro level, Youngstown, Ohio led all major markets with a zombie foreclosure rate of 12.1%, followed by Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 11.6% and Baltimore, Maryland at 11.5%.
At the zip-code level, 33708 in Saint Petersburg, Florida recorded the highest single-area zombie rate in the country at 38.3%.
The concentration of vacant investor-held homes in Midwest and Sun Belt markets is a reminder of how the effects of elevated foreclosure activity on local housing affordability continue to play out differently region by region.
New Hampshire (0.3%), Vermont (0.4%) and New Jersey (0.5%) posted the tightest vacancy conditions nationally.
Business Management | One Shot | Complete Syllabus Revision in 1 Video | BBA/B.Com Part 2
Hello everyone!!
This is Niharika Tiwari. As you all know, Business Management is one of the important subjects in BBA , B.Com , MBA, and M.Com…
So in this video, I have given you a brief introduction to business management as your subject.
In this, I have explained in a very simple way about unit 2 of business management. This is a one-shot video for unit 2 covering the entire syllabus as per NEP.
I hope you enjoyed this video, and it is able to clear all your doubts related to this topic. Even if you have some doubts, then do let me know in the comments section. I will try to solve it ….
So if you liked my video, then do like, share, and subscribe to my channel for further updates related to the marketing research subject. @Study With Niharika Tiwari
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Pentagon Gives 30 Universities Until August 31 To Report Foreign Collaborations
The Department of War has ordered 30 U.S. colleges and universities to immediately review their academic, financial, and research collaborations with foreign entities of concern. The notifications, issued by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, target active ties to institutions on the Department’s Section 1286 list and to organizations linked to rebranded Confucius Institutes.
It’s the latest move in a year that has already seen federal grants frozen, cut, and litigated across higher education.
To stay eligible for future federal research funding, the notified schools must audit every identified foreign collaboration, assess exposure of sensitive or export-controlled research, and put mitigation plans in place, including ending partnerships the Department considers problematic.
Findings are due directly to the Department by August 31, 2026. The Department has not publicly named the 30 institutions, and that gap is worth watching alongside the broader fight over blocked education research money.
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Why It Matters
Defense-funded research is an important revenue stream at major research universities, and the Department is tying continued eligibility to compliance.
“The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” said Emil Michael, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, in the release.
A two-week window to audit and unwind international partnerships is short, and schools already dealing with shrinking international enrollment may face tough choices about which collaborations survive.
For students and researchers, the practical effects could include terminated joint programs, paused exchange agreements, and tighter rules around who can work on federally funded labs. International applicants to U.S. colleges already fell 10% for 2025-26, and more scrutiny of foreign academic ties adds to the uncertainty.
The Section 1286 List
- The Department updated its Section 1286 list on July 23, 2026, naming 130 foreign academic and research institutions in China, Russia, and Iran.
- The list, required under the FY19 National Defense Authorization Act, flags institutions the Department says engage in unauthorized technology transfer or misappropriation of U.S. government-funded research.
- The Department says it will refresh the list annually or as intelligence warrants.
- The audits also cover organizations tied to rebranded Confucius Institutes, the Chinese government-funded language and culture centers many campuses closed or renamed in recent years.
How This Connects
Foreign money and partnerships on campus have been a growing target in Washington.
The House-backed DETERRENT Act would drop the foreign gift reporting threshold from $250,000 to $50,000 and require disclosure of every dollar from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
The Heritage Foundation’s model state law for Trump’s higher education compact would require governor approval for agreements involving those same countries. The Department of War says it is coordinating this effort with the House and Senate Armed Services and Appropriations Committees and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
What’s Next
Watch for the Department to disclose which schools were notified and whether any lose funding eligibility after the August 31 deadline. Schools that end partnerships may announce program closures, and the DETERRENT Act still needs floor votes in both chambers.
Court challenges are also possible, given how often federal grant conditions have landed in front of judges this year.
Editor: Colin Graves
The post Pentagon Gives 30 Universities Until August 31 To Report Foreign Collaborations appeared first on The College Investor.
Marvell’s AI Bookings Are Stellar. But Its Gross Margin Guide Is What Moved the Stock.
Chipmaker Marvell Technology (MRVL -10.28%) reported its fiscal second quarter of 2027 results after the market closed on Thursday, and by almost every measure the update was impressive. Revenue marked a quarterly record of $2.739 billion, up 37% year over year, data center revenue grew even faster, and management raised its revenue outlook for both this fiscal year and the next.
Still, the stock fell, dropping about 8% in after-hours trading.
“AI-related bookings remain exceptionally robust, and we expect our revenue growth to accelerate further through the remainder of fiscal 2027,” CEO Matt Murphy said in the press release announcing the results.
So what did investors find to complain about in a report like this? I would point to the only figure in the release that moved in the wrong direction: gross margin.
Image source: Getty Images.
Almost everything rose
Overall, the quarter was impressive. Revenue came in $39 million above the midpoint of management’s guidance, and the 37% year-over-year growth rate marked an acceleration from the 28% growth in the fiscal first quarter.
Additionally, GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, with net income up 58% year over year to $308 million, and non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share hit $0.94. The quarter also generated $605.5 million in operating cash flow.
The growth came from the data center end market, where revenue rose 46% year over year to $2.17 billion. That business now accounts for 79% of everything Marvell sells, compared with 74% in the same quarter a year ago.
Moreover, the outlook grew faster than the quarter itself. On the earnings call, Murphy put the company’s new revenue outlook for fiscal 2027 at about $12 billion, compared with the previous about $11.5 billion. He also raised the outlook for fiscal 2028 to about $18 billion, from the $16.5 billion he gave just a quarter ago.
So why did the stock fall?
The company’s non-GAAP gross margin hit 58.9%, unchanged from the fiscal first quarter but below the 59.4% it reported in the same period a year ago. And for the fiscal third quarter, management guided the number to a range of 57.5% to 58.5%.
In other words, the margin trend here doesn’t look good. It went from 59.4% a year ago, to 58.9% in each of the last two quarters, to a forecast centered near 58% — in a release where every other important number was going up.
Management was direct about the cause.
“Revenue levels and product mix remain key determinants of gross margin in any given quarter,” Dan Durn, its chief financial officer, said on the earnings call, pointing to the accelerating custom chip business as the reason. He added that the company expects to keep gross margin in that range in the fiscal fourth quarter as well.
All of this means that the custom chips Marvell designs for large cloud customers are scaling fast enough to tilt the company’s sales mix toward lower-margin work. And that ramp is just beginning — Murphy’s release points to significant acceleration in the custom business starting in the second half of fiscal 2027.
In short, the same thing fueling revenue growth is what is pressuring gross margin.
The cost of winning
With this said, demand is clearly extremely robust. Management’s forecast calls for fiscal third-quarter revenue of $3.15 billion, about 15% above the quarter just reported. And the company plans to lay out its longer-term strategy at an investor day on Oct. 6, where investors could get a more detailed look at how big management thinks the custom chip opportunity can become.
Today’s Change
(-10.28%) $-24.83
Current Price
$216.62
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$211BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.
Day’s Range
$215.55 – $228.88
52wk Range
$61.44 – $329.88
Volume
49M
Avg Vol
40.2M
Gross Margin
50.64%
Dividend Yield
0.10%
But on about $3.15 billion in quarterly revenue, each gross margin point the mix takes away costs about $30 million in quarterly gross profit — and the forecast implies giving up about one point.
Investors, I would say, spent Thursday night repricing what Marvell’s custom chip wins cost — not questioning the strong demand for its custom chips.
The trade-off seems worth it to me. I prefer owning the supplier that wins custom artificial intelligence (AI) contracts with a slightly lower gross margin over one that keeps its margin pristine while losing those designs.
With all of this said, the stock’s valuation arguably remains a concern — even after shares pulled back. Shares now trade at about 35 times expected earnings for the next fiscal year, even after the drop. The stock, after all, has more than tripled from its 52-week low of $61.44. At that price, investors may have assumed growth would come with margins intact.
Targeted Spending Offers for Hilton Cards: Earn Up to 5X Extra Points on All Purchases
Targeted Spending Offers for Hilton Cards
American Express is targeting many Hilton credit cardholders with Amex Offers that can earn you extra points on all purchases. These offers are showing up on personal and business cards, and can vary from one account to the other. Check out the details below.
Offer Details
Eligible American Express cards earn additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points by using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum amount one or more qualifying purchases. You can earn the bonus points up to 3 times during the offer period. Here are some of the offers that I have seen so far:
- Spend $1,000+, Get 5,000 Bonus Points. Up to 3 times.
- Spend $3,000+, Get 15,000 Bonus Points. Up to 3 times.
- Spend $4,500+, Get 13,500 Bonus Points. Up to 3 times.
- Spend $5,000+, Get 15,000 Bonus Points. Up to 3 times.
Important Terms
- Expires December 31st, 2026.
- Enrollment limited.
- Once you add the offer to your Hilton Honors American Express Card, you will have 90 days to redeem.
- A “qualifying purchase” means a purchase made with your enrolled Card within 90 days upon adding the offer to your Card in accordance with these terms.
- Valid only on purchases made in US dollars.
- Cash advances, other fees and charges such as interest, annual fees and foreign currency conversion fees are not qualifying purchases and do not qualify for this offer.
- The enrolled Card account must be active, not be past due, canceled or have a returned payment outstanding to receive additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points.
- These additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points are in addition to any Hilton Honors Bonus Points you would normally receive for purchases on your Card under the terms of the Hilton Honors program account, but the number of additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points you receive will be based on the purchase price after any credit or other discount is applied.
Guru’s Wrap-up
With the best offers available, you can earn an extra 5X Hilton points for all your purchases. But the offers vary widely from one account to the other.
These offers might be worth considering even if you don’t have one of the better versions. If you already plan on spending on Hilton cards, for a welcome bonus or a free night, then these offers can get you extra points with no extra effort.
Let me know if you have an even better offer, or a laughable one!
How Inbound Marketing Is Changing in the Age of AI
Catch the Full Episode:
Overview
HubSpot spent over a decade teaching small businesses how to build inbound marketing funnels. Then AI-driven search cost the company 140 million visits in under a year, an 80% drop in traffic. Revenue kept climbing anyway.
John Jantsch talks with Kipp Bodnar about what replaced that lost traffic. They cover building a “taste profile” so AI tools produce work that sounds like you, the upside and risk of simulating customer reactions before spending a dollar, and why answer engine optimization means writing for machines that now read like humans.
This episode is for marketers, agency owners, and solopreneurs who’ve watched their own traffic slide and want a concrete next step versus another AI framework to file away.
Guest Bio
Kipp Bodnar is CMO at HubSpot, where he’s worked for over 15 years, joining when the company had under $10 million in revenue. He co-hosts the podcast Marketing Against the Grain and sits on the boards of Gusto and Similarweb. His new book, co-written with Kieran Flanagan, is Loop: Outlearn. Outmarket. Outgrow., releasing September 22, 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Build a taste profile (a few hours clarifying what you believe about your customers and your brand) before using AI for content. If writing it out is hard, have someone interview you and feed the recording to AI instead.
- AI buyer simulations get more predictable, but the trade-off is average results. Save your riskiest ideas for real-world tests instead of running everything through a simulation first.
- The 3 most-cited sources on tools like ChatGPT and Claude are currently YouTube, LinkedIn, and Reddit. If you’re not active there, you’re less likely to get mentioned.
- If you don’t publish your pricing, AI answer engines will guess it, and often get it wrong. Being transparent earlier in the buyer journey works in your favor.
- What separates strong content from AI sameness is what’s unique to you: your own data, your customers’ stories, your specific history.
Great Moments
- [01:36] – Bodnar explains HubSpot’s 140-million-visit traffic drop and the decision to diversify beyond the blog.
- [03:45] – The 4 steps of the Loop framework: express, personalize, amplify, evolve.
- [08:56] – The risk of over-relying on AI buyer simulations for predictable results.
- [12:37] – Answer engine optimization and the shift to writing for machines that now read like humans.
- [18:05] – The big question: is inbound marketing dead.
Memorable Quotes
- “My taste profile version is always way better. I’m normally a C with generic AI, and an A with a taste profile.” — Kipp Bodnar
- “When you’re trying to simulate customer reactions so your results are really predictable, the risk is you end up doing what everybody else is doing. You get a highly predictable result, but the magnitude is low or average.” — Kipp Bodnar
- “We spent the last 20 years writing for machines that were trying to parse information like humans. Now we have machines that act exactly like humans, so you need to write exactly like you’re writing to a human.” — Kipp Bodnar
- “Inbound marketing as we know it is dead because it was predicated on a world where information was scarce. Now knowledge is abundant, and actions and attention are the scarce things.” — Kipp Bodnar
- “When we saw our traffic drop that fast, it was like, there has to be a better way. If this is happening to us, I’m sure it’s happening to others, and we need to get ahead of it.” — Kipp Bodnar
Resources
AEO, AI content strategy, AI marketing, answer engine optimization, hubspot, inbound marketing, John Jantsch, Kipp Bodnar, Loop marketing book, marketing funnel, Small Business Marketing, taste profile
U.S. consumer sentiment drops, year-ahead inflation views fall
U.S. consumer sentiment fell in August for the first time in three months on a worsening economic outlook, even as expectations for inflation in the year ahead eased.
Get 50¢ Off Per Gallon At Shell, Stacks With New User Discount
Reader Bockrr noted that McDonald’s users can now redeem rewards at Shell for a $0.5 per gallon discount at shell for 1,500 rewards points. The maximum discount is on 20 gallons or $10. This is good value as other rewards at the same tier are worth ~$3. Shell is often more expensive than other places so keep that in mind. In addition this McDonald’s discount does stack with other Shell discounts such as new customers (10¢ off your first fill-up, 20¢ off your second, and 30¢ off your third). The promotion says it’s for new Shell Rewards customers only, but seems to work for existing customers as well but YMMV.
You can find a full list of ways to save money on fuel by clicking here.
New York City sends 11,000 more pied-à-terre tax letters as it apologizes to 1,200 wrongly targeted
New York City’s Department of Finance is sending a second wave of pied-à-terre tax letters to roughly 10,800 property owners, even as it mails a very different kind of letter to other owners from the first round, telling them, in effect, never mind.
Roughly 17,000 owners received a notice this summer warning they might owe the surcharge, which applies only to non-primary residences amounts, with a rate of 0.8%–1.3% on homes over $5 million and 4%-6.5% on condos and co-ops over $1 million. But 1,210 are now being cleared outright, according to new court filings disclosed this week.
The reason has nothing to do with a change in the law and everything to do with timing: New York State sent the city’s DOF preliminary 2025 income-tax records on Aug. 12, several months earlier than the agency would normally begin receiving them. Of that group, 630 owners were cleared because their 2025 tax returns listed the property as their primary home address; another 580 were cleared using a mix of 2025 extension filings and 2024 returns.
“So by my last count, I think we sent out less than 20,000, ‘you may be subject to’ letters, I think it was about 17,000 or 18,000. And at the time that we sent those out, we did not have access to the 2025 income tax filings,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a Wednesday press conference. He noted the timing wasn’t unusual on the state’s end: 2025 filings are “typically released in February of the next calendar year,” and the state simply gave DOF early access this time.
Randy Mastro, the attorney suing the city over the rollout (and a longtime suer of the city in general), made his thoughts known in the court filing. “There are many thousands fewer property owners subject to this surcharge than this administration originally boasted when it flooded the landscape with 17,000 threatening Mailed Notices.”
“The City has now effectively admitted” that some people who received the letters, Mastro said, “do not actually owe this surcharge.” He also argued the timing undercuts the city’s excuse: “The City admits that, after this lawsuit was filed on August 7, it obtained 2025 tax information within five days,” which is evidence, he claimed, that DOF could have gotten the same data before mailing anything, not just after being sued.
Mamdani laid out three categories of properties the city is targeting. One is properties owned by a corporate entity like an LLC or a trust, about 6,400 households, where DOF doesn’t have enough information on primary residence holder. The 1,210 owners who were being cleared make up the second category. The third category, about 4,400 households, consists of properties where DOF doesn’t have 2025 tax returns that would indicate whether they are primary residences. The first and third categories make up the 10,800 letters going out to people.
A rocky rollout
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who stood alongside Mamdani when the tax was first announced in April, said this week she “wasn’t a fan of the rollout” and that City Hall was working to correct the problems. Mamdani, at the same press conference, held firm on the tax’s revenue target: “We continue to be confident in that assessment of what the annual revenue will look like.”
A DOF spokesperson, defending the process, said: “From the beginning, we have been committed to ensuring that New Yorkers have the time and information they need. Property owners have until October 6th to file an exemption application. We have received the tax information from the state for 2025 and want to give New Yorkers more time to apply for an exemption, if applicable.”
Mamdani noted Oct. 6 isn’t necessarily the final word for owners who miss it. “If New Yorkers still want to appeal an assessment, they can still appeal to the tax commission until early next year.”
New York City’s pied-à-terre tax initially began as a Tax Day pitch. Mamdani and Hochul announced it in April, with Mamdani unveiling the plan in a video filmed outside Citadel billionaire Ken Griffin’s $238 million penthouse. The state legislature passed it May 27, and Hochul signed it the next day.
The rollout is what actually caused the uproar. DOF’s supplemental roll, meant to flag properties that might owe the surcharge, ballooned into an unfiltered list of nearly a million properties, instantly branded a “rich hit list” online, and united the ultrawealthy and merely well-off alike in opposition once thousands of legitimate primary residences got needlessly swept into DOF’s notices. That confusion is now the subject of Mastro’s active lawsuit.