Bill Pulte, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, talking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Sept. 4th, 2025.
CNBC
Close relatives of the federal official who has accused a Federal Reserve governor of improperly claiming major residence on two properties have declared the identical standing on two houses in two totally different states, public data present.
Mark and Julie Pulte, the daddy and stepmother of Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called “homestead exemptions” for residences in rich neighborhoods in each Michigan and Florida, in accordance to the data. The exemption is supposed to give a reduction to householders on taxes for properties they use as their major residence.
Local tax officers in each states informed Reuters that claiming multiple dwelling as a major residence is not typically allowed of their jurisdictions and could possibly be punishable by fines or again taxes. After Reuters contacted tax officers in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, to inquire concerning the twin claims, Darrin Kraatz, director of assessing, on Thursday mentioned the township “as of today” would revoke the exemption on the Pultes’ residence there.
According to public actual property data, and a resident on the Michigan home on Thursday night, the house was rented out by the Pultes this yr, a transfer that additionally violates guidelines for the exemption. “Revised tax bills will be issued to the Pultes, including all applicable penalty and interest,” Kraatz mentioned by e mail. He did not reply to a follow-up query concerning the worth of any cost now due and Reuters could not decide a exact determine for earlier tax funds they’ve made.
Officials in Florida, citing the declare for exemption in that state as older, mentioned any battle with the second exemption would wish to be addressed in Michigan.
A house listed as bought by Mark and Julie Pulte, on a quiet cul-de-sac in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, U.S., September 4, 2025.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters
Reuters was unable to attain Mark or Julie Pulte for remark. Representatives at Mark Pulte’s enterprise and a Pulte household basis did not reply to telephone calls or emails looking for remark for this story.
Officials on the FHFA, the federal company led by Bill Pulte, did not reply to a request for remark. The information company was unable to attain him in any other case.
The declare of multiple property as a major residence has been the idea for Bill Pulte’s accusations in opposition to Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor Trump fired in consequence and who has since filed go well with in opposition to the president to combat the dismissal. Pulte referred the matter to the legal professional basic, prompting a probe of Cook by the Justice Department.
In addition to that formal motion in opposition to Cook, Pulte in latest days has made a number of public statements in opposition to her, accusing her of defrauding mortgage lenders and the general public. “Financial fraud is a big deal,” Pulte wrote final weekend on X, the social media website, to his three million followers. “Don’t do it!”
He additionally criticized Cook after studying she rented out one of the houses that she had declared as a major residence. “Lisa Cook’s declared ‘PRIMARY RESIDENCE’ is being RENTED out to tenants,” he wrote in one other X submit.
Cook has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. “How Governor Cook described her properties,” her legal professional wrote in a press release on Thursday, is “not fraud.”
In the storage of the Michigan home, on a quiet cul-de-sac with wood-shingled houses and manicured yards, a person informed Reuters that he lives on the property as a tenant and does not know the identify of the home-owner. He declined to be recognized by identify or say by way of whom or how lengthy he has been renting the property.
A drone view reveals a house listed as bought by Mark and Julie Pulte at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida, U.S. September 5, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello
Marco Bello | Reuters
‘They obtained fortunate’
The Pulte household, which rose to prominence with a housing empire began in Michigan by Mark Pulte’s father, is lively in conservative circles. Both Mark and his spouse, electoral data present, have made a number of marketing campaign contributions to Republican candidates and causes.
In addition to founding his personal housing firm in Florida, the place he has specialised in constructing luxurious properties, Mark Pulte is a senior official at a Pulte household basis. His high-profile actual property actions have included the 2021 sale of a property for $122.7 million, a report for Palm Beach on the time. Years earlier, the property had been amongst Trump’s Florida holdings.
In his feedback to Senate officers for his affirmation as director of the federal housing company, Bill Pulte thanked his father and stepmother for his or her assist. He mentioned he grew up visiting building websites of houses constructed by his father and grandfather. In previous public statements he has mentioned that Mark helped finance Pulte Capital Partners, the Florida-based non-public fairness agency Bill based.
The homestead exemptions claimed by Mark and Julie Pulte, eight tax and actual property specialists informed Reuters, would usually be permissible solely in a uncommon exception that may be made for a pair wherein spouses are conducting solely impartial lives – dwelling individually on the two addresses, separating their funds and submitting their taxes individually. Reuters could not decide whether or not the Pultes certified for such an exemption or had used such grounds to justify their homestead claims.
“It’s not something that either state generally lets you get away with,” mentioned Lisa Bender, a longtime actual property agent in each Michigan and Florida. Bender mentioned she personally is aware of the ins-and-outs of the homestead exemptions as a result of she additionally owns properties in each states. “I wish I could claim both,” she mentioned. “Somehow they got lucky.”
No mortgage data exist for the Michigan and Florida properties, which suggests the Pultes seemingly paid for the houses in money, actual property specialists mentioned. By paying decrease taxes on each houses, they added, the couple is contributing lower than they in any other case would to public coffers, together with funding for space faculties.
On properties like these owned by the Pultes, the exemptions can add up to 1000’s of {dollars} in financial savings every year. On the Florida dwelling, in Boca Raton, the exemption saved the Pultes an estimated $158,000 in taxes for 2025, in accordance to officers with the tax assessor’s workplace in Palm Beach County, the property tax jurisdiction. The county granted an extra exemption on the property as a result of the home – a waterfront dwelling with marble flooring, in-ground pool, and a ship dock – surpasses a sure worth threshold, the data point out.
The Pultes purchased the Boca Raton home in 2016 for $4.25 million and later transferred the title to a authorized entity wherein they’re each listed as beneficiaries, the data present. Mark Pulte filed the exemption request.
On the Michigan property, listed as a four-bedroom dwelling with sauna and bought for almost $1 million in 2020, each spouses are named on a belief that owns the home. Julie Pulte claimed the exemption there.
When contacted by Reuters concerning the twin exemptions, Nery Mejia, an exemptions supervisor for the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office, mentioned the workplace would look into it. In a follow-up by e mail, she mentioned the paperwork in Florida is legitimate and predates the Michigan declare. “Based on this,” she wrote, “the matter should be handled by Michigan.”
It is not clear how a lot the Pultes might have saved every year as a result of of the Michigan declare, however on Friday property data already indicated the exemption there may be now zero.