Doug Emhoff’s Ex-Wife, Who Remains a Friend, Was ‘So Excited’ to Attend Biden-Harris Inauguration
Kerstin Emhoff attended the inaugural events with her children, Cole and Ella, whom she shares with ex-husband Doug Emhoff

Read in People: https://apple.news/AhK5xQQy_Q6O8H2G7-WoAQA

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“We All Could Use a Vacation After That”: Jared and Ivanka Are Planning Some Much-Needed Time Off After Wrecking the Country

Billionaire Ron Burkle offered Javanka the use of one of his vacation homes at a private ski club, but, with COVID protocols and the spotlight, the property objected. So they’re heading to Florida—where else?—instead.

Read in Vanity Fair: https://apple.news/APKQxpvb8QoGUT5Ylm1kBrA

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Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo gets canceled by CEOs, sources say

Some CEOs are denying interviews to Maria Bartiromo as she gets ready to try out on Fox News’ opinion lineup. Sources say Bartiromo’s noncritical Trump interview and controversial political statements make her too risky to be associated with. Fox News rejected the claims, sharing a list of Bartiromo’s sit-downs with the Goya CEO and healthcare bosses. Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Read in Business Insider: https://apple.news/AYO0BjraDQOmw-1rwUc9Vtw

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Microsoft won’t mandate COVID-19 vaccine for employees: Leaked audio

Microsoft at this time doesn’t plan to mandate vaccines for employees returning to the office. An exec said at an all-hands meeting the company encourages vaccination, but won’t require it. Insider obtained a recording of the meeting. Microsoft did not respond to a request for more information. Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Read in Business Insider: https://apple.news/A5V9UGp-nRX-nTEjlOlZLLQ

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Smart grocery carts are coming to change the way we shop – CNET

https://www.cnet.com/news/smart-grocery-carts-are-coming-to-change-the-way-we-shop/

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Instacart plans to terminate nearly 2,000 jobs

Instacart plans to lay off nearly 2,000 of its workers, including the 10 workers from the Kroger-owned Mariano’s who unionized early last year, Vice reports. These workers are responsible for in-store shopping and packing of groceries.

According to Vice, 10 of the workers affected unionized with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1546 in Skokie, Illinois. However, they have yet to negotiate a contract with Instacart, according to Vice. Instacart notified the union of the planned changes earlier this week. In the letter, Instacart said it planned to stop using in-store shoppers at Kroger-owned stores, which includes the Mariano’s store in Skokie, in Q1 and Q2 of this year, but no earlier than mid-March.

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Covid-19 Kindled Washington, D.C.’s Luxury Market. The New Administration Could Make It Even Hotter

Michael Stock’s Beaux-Arts Revival-style home on Washington, D.C.’s Embassy Row is asking $5.5 million. CESAR OLIVARES

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The pandemic lit a fire under the city’s high-end home market. Real-estate agents say it could become even more competitive, as President Biden appointees descend on the U.S. capital

By

Katherine ClarkeJan. 21, 2021 12:16 pm ET

For many years, Michael Stock said he never considered selling his handsome Beaux-Arts Revival-style home on Washington, D.C.’s prestigious Embassy Row—not even when representatives from a nearby embassy stopped by with a case of wine and an unsolicited bid of interest. 

Then the pandemic happened, sending the local luxury real-estate market on an unstoppable hot streak. The rise in prices, combined with the promise of fresh demand spurred by an incoming presidential administration, proved too good to pass up: Mr. Stock listed his home, which he bought in 2008 and spent years restoring, for $5.5 million earlier this month. 

Like many other cities whose luxury housing stock is dominated by single-family homes, Washington, D.C.’s market has only benefited from the Covid-19 crisis, as buyers—often spurred by ultralow interest rates plus the desire for dedicated home offices and large gardens—move to larger homes. As a result, the D.C. real-estate market is pricier than it has been in years, according to local agents. 

Now, with a new administration taking over the White House, those agents say they are busier than ever. “I’m on meetings and showings all day long,” said Daniel Heider of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, noting that he’s already shown Mr. Stock’s house to a couple relocating to the area to serve in President Biden’s administration.

“We didn’t know where we were going to be when Covid hit in March,” said Robert Hryniewicki. The luxury agent with HRL Partners of Washington Fine Properties said he is currently handling a bidding war for a Massachusetts Avenue Heights property priced at $5.65 million. “But after April, it really took off.”

The median price of a home sold in Washington, D.C., was $641,300 in December, a 1% increase from the same time a year prior, according to data from real-estate firm Long & Foster. The volume of sales was up 16% during that same period. The number of signed contracts in December was 731, up 40% from December 2019.

In December, there were just 1.7 months of housing supply available in Washington, D.C., down 12% from the prior year.

The ultra-high-end saw even more of an uptick. There were 72 transactions priced at $4 million and up in the capital region in 2020, compared with 53 in 2019, according to Washington Fine Properties. There were eight sales priced at $10 million or more, compared with zero the year before. 

Coe Magruder, a 67-year-old hedge-fund and asset-management entrepreneur, is one of the many beneficiaries of the hot market. He sold his Massachusetts Avenue Heights home, a redbrick Colonial formerly home to the embassy of Swaziland (now known as Eswatini), for $4 million in August after receiving an unsolicited offer, he said.

He said he and his wife Denise Magruder had already relocated to Vero Beach, Fla., and were planning to do some work to their home, including a paint job and a redo of the bathrooms, before listing it for sale.

A Grand Home on Embassy Row

Michael Stock’s home sits directly across from the Japanese embassy in Kalorama.CESAR OLIVARES

The Venetian plaster was done by a restoration artist from Spain.CESAR OLIVARES

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The market wouldn’t wait. Mr. Hryniewicki, the couple’s agent, soon had a client for whom the house was perfect. Mr. Magruder agreed to a single showing and threw in a caveat: The buyer would have to meet the fixed asking price of $4 million, or he would continue with his plans to spruce up the property and list it publicly later. 

Within a week, a contract was signed for $4 million. Mr. Hryniewicki said the home sold for a notable premium over what it might have sold for prior to the Covid-19 crisis.

Being home with their two young children amid the pandemic made real-estate developer Michael Rocks and his wife Dana Rocks, who was pregnant with their third child, rethink their space. In November, they listed their four-bedroom Tudor in the leafy Wesley Heights neighborhood to move to a larger home in McLean, Va., where the children could each have their own rooms and a bigger yard. 

“Little kids have a lot of energy they need to expend,” said Mr. Rocks, 35, who became a father of three in December. “They want a jungle gym, and since they couldn’t go to the playground we wanted to create something like that for them in our own yard.”

The Rockses hosted one open house and about 12 separate tours and received four offers over their $1.795 million asking price, Mr. Rocks said. “What was shocking to us was how many offers there were,” he added. The house went into contract for $2.022 million just four days after it was listed. 

While they reveled in the success of a quick sale, the flip side of the market was trickier; the purchase of their new home in McLean required winning a three-way bidding war. “Everything is just so expensive and in such limited supply,” Mr. Rocks said.

Real-estate agents project the market will become even tighter in the next few months, as Mr. Biden continues to roll out new appointments.

Neighborhoods expected to be especially in demand include fashionable areas like Kalorama and Massachusetts Avenue Heights, which are known for drawing Washington high society, including major political donors, lobbyists and wealthy elected officials, as well as billionaires like Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos. In these neighborhoods, a short drive from the Capitol, high-end classic homes are clustered together on tree-lined streets. ADVERTISEMENThttps://

Despite for a heavy security presence in some pockets, designed to protect residents like Jared Kushner and first daughter Ivanka Trump, the Kalorama neighborhood was quiet on a recent Sunday. A few walkers with their dogs paid little attention to the security as they passed. 

Mr. Stock, 44, leads a nonprofit that trains peacekeepers and military forces in troubled parts of the world. While his home is close to the one owned by President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, he said the security is basically discreet and somewhat reassuring. “You couldn’t find a safer block probably anywhere in the country,” he said. “Sometimes, when there are people over for an event, I don’t lock the door.”

During the last presidential transition, administration officials like Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway all bought homes within the same tiny area.

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“This current administration threw everyone in the housing market for a loop,” Mr. Heider said. “There were people coming from New York and Palm Beach, who were extremely wealthy and that upper bracket market went on fire,” Mr. Heider said. 

It isn’t clear if Mr. Biden’s cabinet will be as affluent, or if those Trump administration officials will leave D.C. following President Donald Trump’s departure; as of now, none of their homes are publicly listed for sale. 

As for the recent riot at the Capitol, Mr. Heider said he expects it to have little to no effect on demand for homes. 

“Obviously, a breach of the Capitol building is not something to brush off, but Washington has been home to protest after protest for decades,” he said, though he noted that the curfews imposed because of the riot were inconvenient for residents. “This summer, there was looting and businesses being set on fire and it didn’t impact the real-estate market. It’s just part of living in Washington.”

The Trump Administration

After Donald Trump triumphed in the 2016 presidential election, real-estate agents reported a significant bump in interest in high-end homes in Washington, D.C., as some of President Trump’s wealthy appointees relocated to the district.

Some of the transactions included those by: 

Kellyanne Conway

In 2017, Kellyanne Conway, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump, and her husband, attorney George Conway, purchased a roughly 15,000-square-foot mansion in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights area for $7.785 million, according to records and people familiar with the deal. The eight-bedroom house dates back to the 1920s and had previously been owned by Moeen Qureshi, once the acting prime minister of Pakistan, who first listed it for $22 million and then dropped the price several times. 

Steven Mnuchin

In 2017, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin paid $12.6 million for a nine-bedroom mansion near Rock Creek Park, also in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights area, according to records and a person familiar with the deal. Built in 2001, the property spans about 16,000 square feet with a wine cellar and a media room. 

Rex Tillerson

In 2017, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his wife Renda St. Clair bought a four-bedroom Colonial Revival-style home in the Kalorama neighborhood for $5.5 million, according to public records, which indicate the couple still owns the property.

Wilbur Ross

At the close of 2016, President Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and his wife Hilary Ross paid $10.75 million for a gated limestone Beaux-Arts mansion in Massachusetts Avenue Heights, records show. The property, which dates back to 1927 and sits on over an acre of land, was formerly owned by philanthropist Adrienne Arsht. The house had been on the market for $12 million, Zillow shows.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

During her father’s administration, presidential adviser Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner rented a house in the Kalorama neighborhood from a company controlled by Andrónico Luksic. Mr. Luksic’s family is the wealthiest in Chile and controls a mining, banking and industrial empire worth billions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company had purchased the home for $5.5 million in December 2016. It wasn’t clear how much the couple was charged in rent.

Write to Katherine Clarke at katherine.clarke@wsj.com