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When Olivier Baroin moved into an apartment in Montmartre about 15 years ago, it felt like he was living in a village in the heart of Paris. Not anymore.Stores for residents are disappearing, along with the friendly atmosphere, he says. In their place are hordes of people taking selfies, shops selling tourist trinkets, and cafés whose seating spills into the narrow, cobbled streets as overtourism takes its toll.Baroin has had enough. He put his apartment up for sale after local streets were designated pedestrian-only while accommodating the growing number of visitors.“I told myself that I had no other choice but to leave since, as I have a disability, it’s even more complicated when you can no longer take your car, when you have to call a taxi from morning to night,” he told The Associated Press. Overtourism in European cities From Venice to Barcelona to Amsterdam, European cities are struggling to absorb surging numbers of tourists.Some residents in one of Paris’ most popular tourist neighborhoods are now pushing back. A black banner strung between two balconies in Montmartre reads, in English: “Behind the postcard: locals mistreated by the Mayor.” Another, in French, says: “Montmartre residents resisting.”Atop the hill where the Basilica of Sacré-Cur crowns the city’s skyline, residents lament what they call the “Disneyfication” of the once-bohemian slice of Paris. The basilica says it now attracts up to 11 million people a year even more than the Eiffel Tower while daily life in the neighborhood has been overtaken by tuk-tuks, tour groups, photo queues and short-term rentals.“Now, there are no more shops at all, there are no more food shops, so everything must be delivered,” said 56-year-old Baroin, a member of a residents’ protest group called Vivre a Montmartre, or Living in Montmartre.The unrest echoes tensions across town at the Louvre Museum, where staff in June staged a brief wildcat strike over chronic overcrowding, understaffing and deteriorating conditions. The Louvre logged 8.7 million visitors in 2024, more than double what its infrastructure was designed to handle. A postcard under pressure Paris, a city of just over 2 million residents if you count its sprawling suburbs, welcomed 48.7 million tourists in 2024, a 2% increase from the previous year.Sacré-Cur, the most visited monument in France in 2024, and the surrounding Montmartre neighborhood have turned into what some locals call an open-air theme park.Local staples like butchers, bakeries and grocers are vanishing, replaced by ice-cream stalls, bubble-tea vendors and souvenir T-shirt stands.Paris authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Visitors seemed largely to be enjoying the packed streets on a sunny Tuesday this week.“For the most part, all of Paris has been pretty busy, but full of life, for sure,” said American tourist Adam Davidson. “Coming from Washington, D.C., which is a lively city as well, I would say this is definitely full of life to a different degree for sure.” Europe’s breaking point In Barcelona, thousands have taken to the streets this year, some wielding water pistols, demanding limits on cruise ships and short-term tourist rentals. Venice now charges an entry fee for day-trippers and caps visitor numbers. And in Athens, authorities are imposing a daily limit on visitors to the Acropolis, to protect the ancient monument from record-breaking tourist crowds.Urban planners warn that historic neighborhoods risk becoming what some critics call “zombie cities” picturesque but lifeless, their residents displaced by short-term visitors.Paris is trying to mitigate the problems by cracking down on short-term rentals and unlicensed properties.But tourism pressures are growing. By 2050, the world’s population is projected to reach nearly 10 billion, according to United Nations estimates. With the global middle class expanding, low-cost flights booming and digital platforms guiding travelers to the same viral landmarks, many more visitors are expected in iconic cities like Paris.The question now, residents say, is whether any space is left for those who call it home. Thomas Adamson, Associated Press
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A lawsuit filed by families of the Uvalde school shooting victims alleging Instagram allowed gun manufacturers to promote firearms to minors should be thrown out, lawyers for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, argued Tuesday.Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the May 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.The families sued Meta in Los Angeles in May 2024, saying the social media platform failed to enforce its own rules forbidding firearms advertisements aimed at minors. The families, who were present at last month’s hearing, did not appear in court, with a lawyer citing the back-to-school season. Many plaintiffs attended the hearing virtually, he said.In one ad posted on Instagram, the Georgia-based gunmaker Daniel Defense shows Santa Claus holding an assault rifle. In another post by the same company, a rifle leans against a refrigerator, with the caption: “Let’s normalize kitchen Daniels. What Daniels do you use to protect your kitchen and home?”The lawsuit alleges those posts are marketed toward minors. The Uvalde gunman opened an online account with Daniel Defense before his 18th birthday and purchased the rifle as soon as he could, according to the lawsuit. He also owned various Instagram accounts and had an “obsessive relationship” with the platform, at times opening the app more than 100 times a day, plaintiffs’ lawyers found in an analysis of the shooter’s phone. Plaintiffs say minors can access gun content on Instagram Meta attorney Kristin Linsley argued that the families provided no proof that minors, including the Uvalde gunman, even read the Daniel Defense posts on Instagram. She also said the posts didn’t violate Meta’s policies because they weren’t direct advertisements and did not include links to purchase any products.Katie Mesner-Hage, representing the victims’ families, said the defense’s claim is “fundamentally unfair,” as the plaintiffs don’t have access to Meta data that would indicate whether the shooter encountered those posts. She added that if the content had landed on the shooter’s feed, as the plaintiffs allege, then Meta “not only knew about it, they designed the system so it would be delivered to him.”“They knew more about him than anyone else on the planet,” she said.Linsley said content advertising firearms for sale on Instagram is allowed if posted by “brick-and-motor and online retailers,” but visibility of those posts was restricted for minors under Meta’s advertising policies from the end of 2021 to October 2022.“This is not a playbook for how to violate the rules. This is actually what the rules are,” Linsley said.The plaintiff’s team, however, showed a fake profile they created for a 17-year-old boy earlier this month, through which they were able to search Daniel Defense’s Instagram account and see a post that included a picture of a gun, as well as a link to the gun manufacturer’s website.When the link was clicked, the gun-maker’s website opened, and the team was able to select a firearm and add it to their cart, all within Instagram’s app an experiment that refutes Meta’s assertion that posts relating to firearms aren’t visible to users under 21, Mesner-Hage said.Linsley said in her rebuttal that the experiment was done this year and not in 2021 to 2022, which is when the policy she described was in effect.The families have also sued Daniel Defense and video game company Activision, which produces “Call of Duty.” Case hinges on social media’s responsibility for content creation Linsley said the Communications Decency Act allows social media platforms to moderate content without being treated as publishers of that content.“The only response a company can have is to not have these kinds of rules at all,” Linsley said. “It just gets you down a rabbit hole very quickly.”Mesner-Hage argued Meta is not protected by the act because social media platforms don’t just host speech, but help curate it through its algorithms. Daniel Defense, she said, didn’t have to pay for ads to get free access to Meta’s analytical data through its business account on Instagram. That data shows the company which age bracket and gender engaged most with a specific post.“Daniel Defense is not on Instagram to make friends. They’re on there to promote their product,” Mesner-Hage said. “It’s not a paid advertisement, but I would struggle to describe this as anything other than an advertisement.”The lawsuit alleges that firearm companies tweaked their online marketing to comply with Meta’s policies, including by avoiding the words “buy” or “sell” and not providing links to purchase, and that the social media company did not protect users against such strategies.Last month, lawyers for Activision also argued that legal proceedings against them should be thrown out, saying the families allegations are barred by the First Amendment. The families alleged that the war-themed video game Call of Duty trained and conditioned the Uvalde gunman to orchestrate his attack.Lawyers for the plaintiffs asked the judge to allow them to amend their lawsuit with the new information they presented Tuesday before ruling on the defense’s motion. The defense claimed that was unnecessary, as the case would not have merit even with the amendments.The judge has yet to rule on Activision’s motion and did not immediately rule on the Meta case. Itzel Luna, Associated Press
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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. This week, Zillow economists published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home pricesas measured by the Zillow Home Value Indexwill rise 0.4% between July 2025 and July 2026. Heading into 2025, Zillows 12-month forecast for U.S. home prices was +2.6%. However, many housing markets across the country softened faster than expected, prompting Zillow to issue several downward revisions. By April 2025, Zillow had cut its 12-month national home price outlook to -1.7%. However, in recent months, Zillow has stopped issuing downward revisionsand this revised 12-month outlook of +0.4% actually represents an upward adjustment. Home value appreciation is nearly flat at the national average, rising just +0.2% over the past year. Lower rates and low price growth have slightly improved affordability; monthly mortgage costs are down $19 over the past year, but the typical payment is still nearly $1,000 per month higher than before the pandemic, wrote Zillow economists this week. Zillow added that: Affordability and access is gradually improving where builders have been able to keep up with demand, showing why building more homes is so critical. Metros where price corrections are steepest are among those with the largest increase in inventory compared to before the pandemic. All of these metros except Miami rank among the top 10 for home building permits from 2020 to 2024. When demand for homes surged, builders were able to respond fastest in areas with fewer land-use restrictions. That gave buyers more options and sellers more homes to move into, freeing up existing supply. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}})}(); Among the 300 largest U.S. metro area housing markets, Zillow expects the biggest home price increase between July 2025 and July 2026 to occur in these 15 areas: Atlantic City, NJ 4.3% Torrington, CT 4.1% Saginaw, MI 3.8% Kingston, NY 3.8% Pottsville, PA 3.8% Rockford, IL 3.6% Concord, NH 3.6% Knoxville, TN 3.4% New Haven, CT 3.4% Norwich, CT 3.4% Hartford, CT 3.2% Fayetteville, AR 3.1% Hilton Head Island, SC 3.0% Vineland, NJ 3.0% Barnstable Town, MA 2.9% Among the 300 largest U.S. metro area housing markets, Zillow expects the biggest home price decline between July 2025 and July 2026 to occur in these 15 areas: Houma, LA -8.6% Lake Charles, LA -8.2% Alexandria, LA -6.6% Lafayette, LA -6.2% New Orleans, LA -5.8% Shreveport, LA -5.7% Beaumont, TX -5.3% San Francisco, CA -4.1% Corpus Christi, TX -3.8% Santa Rosa, CA -3.7% Monroe, LA -3.7% Odessa, TX -3.7% Austin, TX -3.5% Chico, CA -3.4% Texarkana, TX -3.3% Below is what the current year-over-year rate of home price growth looks like for single-family and condo home prices. The Sun Belt, in particular Southwest Florida, is currently the epicenter of housing market weakness right now. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}})}();
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