It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage rate survey rate is standby for multiple news organizations to print their once-a-week mortgage rate color. The bigger problem is that Freddie’s survey headline often gives the wrong impression about where rates are and how they’ve been moving. Rates aren’t merely changing a lot from day to day, they’re changing multiple times per day in many recent occasions. The average lender is now definitively up and over 4.25% for the first time since early 2019. In other words, today’s rates are the highest in almost 3 years.”
“Dozens of homeowners in Denver’s Green Valley Ranch neighborhood are facing foreclosure due to homeowners association (HOA)-related fines and fees. Monica Villela said her special district was behind the recent foreclosure on her home. Villela said her family could not pay the fines, but she did not know that was grounds for foreclosure. ‘Three weeks ago, the new owner shows up… and he told me, I’m the new owner, I bought your house,’ Villela said.”
“Erie County Clerk Michael Kearns revealed data that showed 2,930 Erie County properties have received a pre-foreclosure default notice in the last six months. That does not include homeowners slightly behind or in a forbearance agreement. ‘This is the highest we’ve seen,’ said Sandy Becker, the Senior Housing Programs Director for Belmont Housing Resources of WNY.”
“The landlord who owns this Studio City duplex said the tenants stopped paying rent right when the pandemic began. ‘It was devastating when these people stopped paying rent,’ said Elizabeth (also not her real name — she’s seeking a restraining order and also fears retaliation). ‘It caused us to stop paying our mortgage payment. So now we’re in arrears.’”
“Elizabeth said she and her husband own just four rental units. She said their finances were wrecked by having tenants in one of of the units who stopped paying rent for a year and a half. ‘Everything snowballs when your primary source of income is suddenly cut off with no recourse,’ she said. Elizabeth said she and her husband lost more than $100,000. ‘I’m over 65, I don’t have a Roth IRA,’ she said. ‘I have nothing. I have no savings.’”
“The receiver of properties linked to SiliconSage Builders, accused of defrauding 250 investors, is having mixed success. David Stapleton, granted receivership by a federal judge, unloaded an apartment complex in downtown San Jose for $53.5 million, netting about $10.7 million, and a residential development site in Fremont for $13.5 million, generating about $2.6 million.”
“Yet net proceeds from the $5.5 million sale of a San Jose property, seized through a foreclosure, went to the lender to pay off a portion of the mortgage, leaving those who were defrauded with nothing from the sale. One victim, 81-year-old Charles Johnisee said he lost millions of dollars to Acharya through the sale of a property at 2101 Alum Rock. Instead of paying $9 million directly to Johnisee, Acharya persuaded him to enter a deal in which the retiree got a small amount from the Acharya-led affiliate.”
“A major development in the heart of Soho that went into receivership in 2020 is yet to find a buyer, and the lenders to the scheme are likely to face a loss on their loans. The development comprises a 110-bed hotel, 11 retail units and 16 apartments. One of the lenders to the scheme estimated that, when completed, it would be worth more than £100M. The senior lender is Close Brothers, which is owed £29.4M. The junior lender is Beaufort Ventures, which is owed £26M. A previous report from the administrators put the potential value of the scheme at £34M, meaning that Beaufort and other unsecured creditors would not recoup their money.”
“Four months on after Cambodia reopened its doors to foreign tourists and investors, recovery in Preah Sihanouk province’s real estate market has failed to gain real traction. Global Real Estate Association president Sam Soknoeun told The Post that the province’s property market has been relatively quiet since 2019, with market activity down ‘more than 90 per cent’ compared to the 2016-2018 period. ‘As real estate in Preah Sihanouk had already been quite pricey during 2016-2018, buying has become almost non-existent [among locals]. It may be possible to start things back up if foreign investors, especially the Chinese, were to get back in there,’ he said.”
“According to Soknoeun, despite the notable lack in transactions, Sihanoukville property prices are similar to 2018, with land prices as high as $7,000 per square metre in some areas, putting them out of reach for many locals. ‘The 2016-2018 period is considered to be the golden age of the real estate and construction market in [Sihanoukville], which at that time had seen unexpectedly rapid growth,’ he said.”
“Some dollar bonds of higher-rated Chinese developers were poised for their biggest-ever weekly drops, amid declines for many risk assets around the world, as ongoing worries about the property sector spread to stronger builders. Notes issued by CIFI Holdings Group Co. and Country Garden Holdings Co. fell at least 16 cents on the dollar this week to hit record lows, according to Bloomberg-compiled prices, plunging toward 50 cents. For China’s junk-rated dollar bonds overall, the average yield topped 25% for the first time Thursday in a Bloomberg index. Prices were poised for a 13th consecutive daily decline Friday, a streak not seen since 2018.”
“The stress has also started pressuring China’s much-larger onshore corporate-bond market, with spreads reaching their highest levels in at least a year. This week’s rout is a fresh reminder of how pervasive fallout from the property sector’s credit crunch has gotten for high-yield offshore bonds, which continue to search for a bottom. More than half of such debt from developers is trading below 50 cents on the dollar, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.”
“House-sellers in Nelson are being warned to adjust their ‘unrealistic’ price expectations as buyers shift from a fear of missing out to a fear of paying too much. Local QV senior property consultant Craig Russell said despite Nelson’s experience differing to the rest of New Zealand the growth of home values had slowed considerably since the start of the year, and values were starting to fall in Tasman.”
“The number of properties for sale was now ‘significantly above’ the lows seen in August 2021, which had seen ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) driving the market, he said. ‘With the increase in supply, purchasers are no longer afraid of missing out, but instead are wary of paying too much.’”
“That also meant properties were taking longer to sell, with some ‘sitting on the market for an extended period,’ he said. ‘In some cases this is a result of unrealistic price expectations and vendors not prepared to meet the market.’”