A report from WBTV in North Carolina. “Potential Charlotte-area homebuyer Amelia Serrano is relocating from California with her family and the interest rates are on the top of her mind. ‘Now we have to look for homes in a much lower price range than what we were initially pre-qualified for because of the interest rates,’ she said. Experts told WBTV that to offset the higher interest rates, homes in the Charlotte market would need to drop $30-40K. ‘If we find something, we find something. If we don’t, I’m considering holding back and not purchasing a home,’ Serrano said.”
From The Atlantic. “Even some winners of the competition have buyer’s remorse. In a recent survey from Zillow, roughly one-third of respondents reported regretting how much work or maintenance their home required, and roughly one-fifth concluded that they had paid too much. In addition to buying an assemblage of wood, glass, and other materials and committing to a host of unfamiliar chores, homeowners are also buying a psychological grab bag of new stressors, time sucks, comforts, perks, and trivial fixations—such as the neighbors’ comings and goings.”
“For starters, homeownership alters people’s relationship to the tangible stuff that makes up their house. ‘When I [rented] an apartment, I was like, ‘I’m hanging this photo on the wall. Whatever—not my wall!’ Maia Bittner, a 34-year-old in the Seattle area who works at a financial-technology company, told me. ‘Now I’m like, ‘Good God, I put every dollar I have into the down payment and this drywall is like a shrine.’”
From Market Watch. “My husband bought a nightmare flip house, and after legal battles with the contractor, the house is almost complete. However, we are out almost $130,000 in expenses related to this home. I should add that the home is located on an island next to a major teaching university and in a beach town near Galveston, Texas. As we come to the end of this journey, he wants to turn the home into a short-term rental, and I want to be done and sell it. Put it behind us!”
“Dear Flipper, Don’t try this at home kids. That should be the tag line for every one of those shows on HGTV where married couples try their hands at flipping homes. I myself have sat there, after watching the latest iteration of a program like ‘Flip or Flop,’ and have though, ‘How hard can it be?’ Unfortunately, it seems like you and your husband have learned the answer to that question in the most unfortunate way possible.”
From Socket Site in California. “Purchased for $2,305,000 in February of 2019, the two-bedroom, two-bath unit #3G at 288 Pacific Avenue, across from The Battery in Jackson Square, returned to the market priced at $2,538,000 last June. And having been relisted anew for $2,350,000 two months ago, the asking price for 288 Pacific #3G has just been reduced to $2,285,000, a sale at which would be considered to be ‘at asking’ according to all industry stats, despite being 10 percent below last year’s asking price and expectations, and down $20,000 on an apples-to-apples basis.”
The New York Post. “Olivier Sarkozy re-listed his combined Turtle Bay townhouse for $10.5 million — $1 million below its August 2021 asking price — following a broker switch. Sarkozy — through a limited liability company — purchased the 38-foot-wide property at 226-228 E. 49th St. in April 2014 for $13.5 million.”
The Guardian in the UK. “Homebuyers wanting to take out a mortgage could soon struggle to get the size of loan they need, as banks begin taking into account the cost of living crisis when calculating how much they can lend. Santander is now updating its affordability models as households experience a surge in the cost of living. Mortgage brokers told the Guardian that they expect the other big lenders to follow suit.”
“Ray Boulger, a senior analyst at the broker John Charcol, said: ‘This is arguably the biggest tightening in mortgage lending since 2009 because interest rates are increasing, and we are experiencing the largest rise in the cost of living since the 1980s. The difference between now and back then is that banks had a huge shortage of funds then, whereas now the banks are looking at what their customers can afford.’”
From Mortgage Professional New Zealand. “Christchurch’s housing market has seen house values drop for the first time in two years. Quotable Value’s (QV) latest report said the trend is being seen in all of New Zealand’s main centres, with QV’s national house price index experiencing its largest quarterly drop in more than a decade. David Nagel, QV general manager, said that ‘with the massive rise in listings over the past couple of months the balance of power has shifted firmly into the hands of buyers, after such a prolonged period of it being a sellers’ market.’”
From News.com.au. “A Western Australian family have been left destitute after the construction company meant to be making their dream house went into liquidation. Tiarna Nouwland and her husband, in their mid-30s, are wondering how they are going to keep a roof over the heads of their four daughters, aged 16, 11, eight and five respectively.”
“They shelled out a total of $509,000 to buy land and build a sprawling home on a plot of land at Gabbadah, near Guilderton, north of Perth, but this week their plans came crumbling down. The building company they were with, Home Innovation Builders joins a growing list of construction companies to bite the dust in recent months.”
“‘We’d always wanted to build our dream home, then we found the perfect block and signed the contracts,’ Ms Nouwland told news.com.au. ‘Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. Financially we are facing being ruined.’ The family stand to lose $300,000 and have been left with ‘just a shell of a house’ with brick walls but nothing else on the barren property.”
“‘We are facing an additional $300,000 on top of that to finish the house,’ she explained. ‘There’s no way we can come up with’ that kind of money, according to the mum. ‘We’re going to be nearly $300,000 out of pocket,’ she added, saying this made the family ‘absolutely crushed.’ If the Nouwlands can’t cover the cost of finishing their home themselves, they will have to sell it at a loss.”
“Another Western Australian company – New Sensation Homes – was placed in the hands of WA Insolvency Solutions the same day as Home Innovation Builders. Gold Coast firm Condev, Brisbane-based Probuild, and Hobart’s Hotondo Homes are among the other companies to collapse in 2022 as thousands of Australians find themselves in limbo and unsure when they will ever be able to move into their dream homes.”
From Bloomberg. “Chinese developer Sunac China Holdings Ltd. missed its first payment on a dollar bond since concerns about the firm’s financial health emerged late last year. Once viewed as one of the survivors of Beijing’s sweeping clampdown on the embattled real estate sector, Sunac is at a debt-payment crossroads. China’s fourth-largest developer by sales in the first quarter of this year faces $1.6 billion of other offshore and local bond payments due through June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The amount of dollar bonds from Chinese issuers yielding more than 15% now totals $85.8 billion.”