A report from the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. Matt Wilson, President of the Mississippi Mortgage Bankers Association, believes the housing market’s current state is not something about which to be alarmed. ‘Mortgage rates are up, and they went up a little quicker than we all thought they would,’ he said. Wilson said 6% does not mean there is a recession on the way.”
“‘Everybody is saying this is an ’08-’09 situation when there was such a deep recession and economic downturn, and it’s just not. Nothing could be further from the truth,’ Wilson said. ‘Banks are lending money. Financial companies are lending money. We want to get people into houses,’ he said. “We have qualified clients who can buy houses. There just aren’t enough houses for everyone to buy. Back in ’08-’09, we couldn’t put people in houses because we couldn’t lend the money to them. That’s not the case here. We want to lend the money to people. I think that is the story.’”
From NPR on Washington DC. “The little house on First Street SE was supposed to fulfill a lifelong goal for Tasharn Richardson. The mother of 10 bought the three-bedroom bungalow in Congress Heights last summer — her first home purchase, after living in public housing her entire life. The excitement didn’t last. Richardson began to notice problems with the house weeks after her family moved in. The 100-year-old property sat vacant for seven years before Richardson purchased it, and her home inspection report revealed a long list of issues. But she says the seller and her realtor assured her that the problems had been fixed before she closed on the $475,000 property.”
“‘It took me months to talk about this,’ she says, wiping tears from her cheeks. ‘For me, it’s just the shame of bringing my family here.’ She may not need to fight on her own. A Wider Circle has found Richardson a lawyer. ‘My next step is, hopefully, to get compensated,’ Richardson says. ‘My family has been blaming each other for a lot of things that have gone on. But now we realize it’s not so much our fault.’”
From WMAR 2 on Maryland. “Talks of home ownership at the cost of a dollar was back on the table during a hearing at City Hall Tuesday. Baltimoreans and prospective property owners flooded City Hall with dreams of home ownership. Councilman Zeke Cohen told WMAR 2 News he’s concerned rehab of a vacant home would Baltimoreans underwater — owing more money than their new home would be worth. ‘In other words,’ said Cohen, ‘most of the stock that would be eligible to be a dollar home would require mass renovations. These are primarily shells in there surrounded by other vacants. It would leave people upside down.’”
From Bisnow New York. “Ashkenazy has amassed holdings that, five years ago, would have been the envy of the world. The company controls Union Station, owns a host of storefronts on Fifth and Madison avenues, as well as Bayside Marketplace in Miami and One Union Square in San Francisco and ground leases Fanueil Hall, the historic tourist-centric shopping hub at the heart of Boston. For a brief time before the pandemic, it co-owned the Plaza Hotel. The sheer number of legal actions against Ashkenazy and its affiliates in recent months has been dizzying.”
“‘There’s a bit of a mythical quality about Ashkenazy as it relates to the marketplace, the fact that they do it all themselves makes sense as to why everybody wouldn’t know them as well,’ Miller Walker Retail Real Estate principal Bill Miller, a D.C. retail specialist, told Bisnow. ‘Iconic real estate is expensive. If they can buy world-class assets regularly all over the East Coast, and to do that is not easy, so it’s interesting that they have given some back over the last 24 months, and I think generally people are wondering why they’ve had to pull out of so many projects.’”
From Calmatters. “In some parts of California, there is definitely a housing crunch. But a massive, multi-million-unit shortage? Maybe not. At least, so suggests a scathing springtime report from the non-partisan acting state auditor. ‘The (state) Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has made errors when completing its needs assessments because it does not sufficiently review and verify data it uses,’ the report deadpanned.”
“Maybe that’s why as he campaigned in 2018, Gov. Gavin Newsom insisted California would need 3.5 million new housing units within eight years just to keep up. Newsom’s administration now says California needs 1.8 million new homes by 2030, a huge drop in his needs assessment after less than four years. What happened to the other half of what Newsom said was needed? Maybe the need never existed.”
“Here’s a bit more of what Auditor Michael S. Tilden reported in a dramatic document so far studiously ignored by politicians: ‘HCD does not have adequate review processes to ensure that its staff members accurately enter data that it uses in the needs assessments.’ Which means leading state officials continually spout unsubstantiated, possibly phony, estimates of housing need.”
Independent American Communities. “This year, several states have considered new legislation to help — or force — condominium association and HOA-governed common interest developments (CID) to better manage and finance their long-term maintenance, using reserve studies as a tool. Let’s be honest. CID developers often don’t give a hoot about the long term viability of the CIDs they build. Their goal is short term profit on new construction sales — and perhaps slightly longer term revenue from holding onto a portion of units or amenities, generated by rental income. Most of the time, by the time multifamily buildings and private community infrastructure starts to wear out, the developer is long gone.”
“I want to emphasize: The HOA industry, local and state government, were never truly interested in a long-term future for condominiums and CIDs. And, for decades, the banking and finance industries didn’t care either. If long-term viability and safety had been the goal, these institutions would have required a 30-year reserve and asset depreciation plan to be in place at the time that construction was approved and permitted.”
“And, let’s not ignore the truth. The condo association that pushes for huge special assessments is almost always dominated by investors, not owner occupants. Essentially, any condo or HOA (residential or commercial) project is attractive to investors or developers, because the stakeholders can rely on a sizable portion of emotionally-attached (or economically trapped) owners to help finance their de facto rental apartment business or redevelopment project! When the investors eventually succeed at bleeding the owners dry, the HOA will either foreclose or force a buyout upon condominium termination.”
From Open Housing on Canada. “The pandemic may have been boom time for real estate speculators, but one home flipper has managed to make a serious loss with a failed property flip. The numbered company 1330138 B.C. LTD bought the condo at 1388-2088 Barclay Street, Vancouver, for $4,380,000 on Sep 23, 2021, according to BC Assessment. The owners put it back on the market on Jan 18, 2022, for $5,442,000 with John Kardos of Rennie & Associates Realty Ltd. as the listing agent.”
“The views, the location, and the amenities were clearly not enough to entice buyers willing to pay the hefty asking price, as the condo finally sold it last Friday for $3,500,000, according to records. The flip flop cost the flipper $880,000, or 20%, before selling costs. Deborah Paes-Braga is listed as the sole director of 1330138 B.C. LTD. This does not appear to be Deborah Paes-Braga’s first rodeo. Deborah Paes-Braga was listed as the sole director of 1141975 B.C. LTD, which once resold a property in West Vancouver for a $1.68 million dollar loss.”
From The Age in Australia. “A three-bedroom house in Yarraville that sold for $1.62 million in December, passed in at auction on Saturday on a bid of $1.405 million. The vendors were selling 76 Benbow Street, in inner-western Melbourne, after unforeseen circumstances in the family meant they were no longer able to move in. Bidding opened at $1.2 million and two parties made conservative offers before a vendor bid of $1.4 million was made. After one more bid, the property passed in for negotiation.”
“Ray White Seddon selling agent Mat Crothers said he was not surprised the home had passed in, with agents now negotiating with three to four interested buyers who had held back at the auction. ‘I think often what people will do is sit back and wait to see what happens,’ Crothers said. The vendors were also not surprised with the outcome but are hopeful the property will sell this week. They are also hopeful of getting a good price in the deal, Crothers said, even if it is below what they invested in the home.”
“‘They paid $1.62 million at Christmas … they knew what they paid and, in a perfect world, they would get it back,’ Crothers said. Agents said the frenzy of the market has slowed, with buyers shifting from FOMO (fear of missing out) to FOOP (fear of over-paying) at auctions over the Anzac Day long weekend.”