Trump's luxury apartment developer pals are furious his 2017 tax plan is crippling their businesses: report

According to a report from Politico, average U.S. taxpayers are not the only ones unhappy with Donald Trump's 2017 tax plan that saw deductions disappear and refunds shrink.

Luxury real estate developers in places like the president's own Manhattan are seeing profits shrink and potential buyers walk away because of a cap on interest that can be deducted and they blame Trump and have let him know.

According to the report, "But weakness in the construction of new homes, sales of existing homes and affordability for millennials looking to buy for the first time could contribute to a recession arriving as soon as next year or prolong any downturn... One area in which housing-market stress is obvious is the one Trump knows best: High-end apartments in Manhattan, where prices are now dropping as foreign buyers disappear and wealthy residents flee to lower-tax states."

“When you look at the New York metro area, we are moving from an extended period of stagnation to one of outright softening,” warned Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist for RSM, U.S. before adding, "People joke that they should have called the tax bill the ‘Everybody Moves to Austin Act.’ This wasn’t virtuous tax policy. It was punitive tax policy.”

Under the 2017 tax change, taxpayers can no longer deduct more than $10,000 in state and local taxes when filing with the federal government. Additionally, mortgage interest deductions were slashed from $1 million to $750,000.

As Politico notes, Trump's fellow developers working in the luxury market are not pleased -- and the overall effect could hurt him in the 2020 election.

"Trump himself has gotten an earful from wealthy New York friends complaining about the impact of the changes on the high-end real estate market," the reports states. "Taken together, the declines in high-end markets and across states hit by the tax law changes — coupled with affordability problems for new buyers and reduced construction of new homes — suggest that the market could contribute to the next recession and make life difficult for Trump."

You can read more about the housing market under Trump here.