A report from WINK News in Florida. “Peter Davis, a broker based in Cape Coral, said he noticed a shift in the market this spring. ‘Junk doesn’t sell and buyers aren’t willing to overpay for junk right now because the inventory is creeping up, the days on market is creeping up. So they have more options now,’ David said.”
“During the pandemic, people flocking to Southwest Florida bought anything and everything. Limited inventory and high demand drove some homes in Cape Coral to sell for as must as 50% over their value. ‘We saw very low-interest rates that were the lowest for so long,’ said Amir Neto, director of the Regional Economic Research Institute at FGCU. ‘So people were going above and beyond to try to get that first house.’ But Neto does not believe what is happening is overpricing. ‘We haven’t seen those prices really correct yet,’ Neto said. ‘What we’re seeing instead is appraisals, catching up with prices. So we’re seeing that they’re closing the gap.’”
From Inside NOVA. “There seems to be a tug-of-war going on when it comes to the Virginia real-estate market, with positive data battling it out against figures that show reason for concern. For buyers who remember the olden days (way back in March and April!) when a for-sale sign brought buyers and their money in a feeding frenzy, the new situation may be disconcerting. But for buyers, ‘the expanding supply is good news,’ said Virginia Realtors CEO Ryan Price.”
“Among the eight geographic regions of Virginia as sliced up by Virginia Realtors, year-over-year sales prices rose by rates ranging from 2 percent in Southwest Virginia to 17.9 percent in Southside Virginia, while median sales prices were down by rates ranging from 9.9 percent in Southside Virginia to 32.1 percent in Northern Virginia.”
The Idaho Statesman. “Pawnee Green worried her rent would rise. Her lease lasted through August. Green thought it made sense for her and her husband, Kelly, to buy a home before then. Or at least try. They looked at seven houses, put in an offer on just one. The two-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Northwest Boise was listed at $359,000. They offered $352,000. No bidding war. No risky concessions. No rush to make a snap decision in the heat of the moment. ‘The market, thank God, came down,’ Green said.”
“‘Six months ago it would have been $450,000 for that small little house because of how the market was going,’ Green said. ‘So the fact that in six months, there actually was an opportunity for us to go ahead with it, it was really nice. It sucks for a lot of people that were selling, but it worked out in our favor.’ Green said her mortgage is about $2,500 per month, double her previous rent. It’s a bit of a stretch for Pawnee, who works in accounting for an information technology company, and Kelly, who’s a glass industry wholesaler, Pawnee Green said.”
The Post Independent in Colorado. “The question is regularly raised, ‘With stratospherically spiking home prices, and so called ‘Non-QM (Nonqualifying mortgages, meaning not conforming to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac guidelines) home loans’ making a comeback, are we headed for 2008 all over again.’ A lot of folks, much smarter than I, predict that we are. They cite runaway increases in sales price, year to year, and even month to month. They mention ‘Bank Statement’ borrower qualifying, i.e. the use of, say, six months’ worth of checking account records as opposed to securing employment verifications or tax returns. And they also cite the proliferation of high ratio (90% of value) conventional mortgages.”
The Star Telegram in Texas. “The cooling housing market may be welcome to unsuccessful Dallas-Fort Worth homebuyers, but these changes are already hurting local homeowners facing foreclosure. Foreclosures are up from 177 postings in July to 246 postings in August in Tarrant County, a 39% month-over-month increase. From this time last year, foreclosures have increased fourfold in Tarrant County, according to real estate data firm Foreclosure Listing Service.”
“Foreclosures are also spiking throughout the Metroplex. In Dallas County, foreclosures increased by 41% between July and August. Foreclosure Listing Service COO Curtis Roddy attributes the foreclosure surge to two factors: the end of the federal protections against evictions and foreclosures and the cooling of the housing market. ‘There was no reason for someone to go through the foreclosure process,’ Roddy said. ‘Now houses are sitting on the market … We’re not seeing that liquidity.’”
From Yahoo Finance. “Kenny Simpson, The Simpson Team Mortgage Advisor, joins Yahoo Finance: I came up with this concept. The sellers want the price of yesterday, and the buyers want the price of tomorrow. So this gap is slowly closing here. And so if you’re a seller, and you’re listing your property and you’re being unrealistic, it’s just going to sit there. And buyers know that. They’re smart. There’s so much media now. So you’re either going to get a lowball offer, or you’re just going to sit there.”
From KPIX 5 in California. “In the Bay Area’s hot housing market, there are new signs of breathing space for prospective buyers. Prices remain high, but leveled off in July, while the inventory of homes available for sale went up. ‘That is very good news for the buyers,’ said realtor Elena Clark. ‘It means instead of seeing 15 offers on everything, they’re seeing maybe 1 to 5 offers on most things. So, it makes it much easier for them.’”
“The rising inventory means homes for sale are lingering on the market, days or even weeks longer than they did just a few months ago. Along with it, prices are coming down after two years of record growth. According to Zillow, San Jose saw the largest drop in home values in the country in July, down 4.5%. San Francisco was second with a 2.8% decrease, followed by Phoenix and Austin.”
The Globe and Mail in Canada. “16-16180 86 Ave., Surrey, B.C. Asking price: $759,000 (June, 2022). Previous asking prices: $848,000 (April, 2022); $820,000 (May, 2022); $799,000 (June, 2022). Selling price: $640,000 (August, 2022). This townhouse was originally listed in April for $848,000, and then the price was dropped to $820,000 a month later. In June, the seller dropped the price to $799,000 and at the end of June dropped the price again to $759,000. Agent Shali Tark received a cash offer for $640,000.”
“The price was adjusted several times for a couple of reasons, says Ms. Tark. The strata age restriction rules limited the buyers who qualified, and the market as a whole had softened. ‘Buyers who purchase these types of homes are downsizing, and many had a setback with the sale of their own home with the market adjusting. That inhibited their ability to purchase.’”
The Liverpool Echo. “Laura Hamilton was brought to tears after a buyer’s gamble on today’s A Place in the Sun. She was showing Diane and Gary around five homes in Cyprus as they aimed to find their perfect property abroad. The couple were looking for a two bedroom apartment with a pool in Paphos and had a maximum budget of £140,000. The search was proving to be tricky as Diane and Gary weren’t blown away by the properties on the search. However, Laura saved the best until last as she showed them around a two bed bungalow in Kato Paphos. The apartment boasted a small courtyard with a huge terrace which had amazing sea views.”
“The property had been on the market for eight months and had been reduced by £20,000 to £144,545. However, the buyers were hesitant as they revealed they would put in an offer of £125,000. Laura encouraged them to take the gamble and the owners came back with a counter offer of £127,000. The expert was blown away when the couple continued to barter and went back with an offer of £126,000. Viewers following the show on Twitter were similarly surprised by the gamble. Tina said: ‘The bargaining is plain insulting now.’”
“Terry added: ‘Now they’re quibbling over £1K?!’ Shrimpsy posted : ‘127, and she wants lower?’ Diane and Gary were thrilled when the offer of £126,000 was accepted. The buyers were brought to tears as their dream property was secured – and Laura admitted she was overwhelmed with emotion too. She said: ‘It’s brought me to tears as well. What a property, what a price.’”
From Domain News in Australia. “Loud amid the chaos of last year’s property boom were the headlines that reported, week after week, properties selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars – sometimes millions – over the reserve or asking price. Advertised price guides appeared redundant because they were routinely outstripped by actual sale prices.But that’s changed as the property market has shifted. Mark Ribarsky of Wise Real Estate is a buyer’s agent working across Victoria and says underquoting has all but disappeared since the property market changed. It’s come as a relief to buyers, he says.”
“‘Typically what you would see earlier last year was a property advertised and heavily underquoted. Everyone just knew that if they were any chance of buying, they needed to put another $100,000 to $200,000 on top of that,’ he says. ‘That’s not happening any more.’”
“Buyer’s agent and principal Michelle May says price guides have ‘certainly’ become more accurate since the property market cooled off. She says it’s often now going the other way. ‘We were astounded with what properties were guiding last year. Now the agents are calling me saying ‘what do you think it’s worth?’ she laughs. ‘So I’d say yes, price guides are certainly more accurate. We’re actually also getting quite a lot of emails on price adjustments where they’re going down.’”
“House price discounting is at its highest rate in almost three years in Sydney, and in Melbourne. The average discount in Melbourne, now at 5.8 per cent, equates to a $62,313 price cut to Melbourne’s median house price of $1,074,369, while the average discount in Sydney is now 6.7 per cent, or $103,985 off the median of $1,552,015.”
“Ribarsky says there are still plenty of buyers but many are sitting on their hands, holding off on purchasing and trying to pick the bottom of the market. ‘For some reason people want to buy when everyone else is, which is crazy,’ he says. ‘They’re more concerned when prices are falling and they shouldn’t be.’ He says some vendors have become jittery and he’s picking up homes for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than he would have six months ago.”
“‘A lot of properties are passing in these days. I walk in, negotiate, and I’m purchasing at a considerable discount,’ he says. ‘There is fear in a changing market and people are holding back but the ones who are brave right now are going to get a fantastic deal.’”
From the Grid. “This summer, hundreds of thousands of Chinese people have sent angry messages to developers, banks and local governments that have reverberated in Beijing’s halls of power. You stop construction, I stop paying my mortgage, says one letter, sent on behalf of 7,200 households that bought deeds in the same property development in Chongqing. ‘You hand over the apartment, I start paying.’”
“Similar threats have been made — and in some cases carried out — across 328 property developments in nearly 100 cities. What has prompted so many people to speak out? The short answer is that construction has stalled at apartment complexes across the country — apartments that have eaten up many people’s life savings. The long answer traces to deep-seated problems in China’s real estate sector that have been brewing for decades and laid bare over the past two years.”
“‘They’ve taken on too many loans to build too many buildings that no one really wants to live in,’ Jeremy Wallace, an associate professor at Cornell University who has studied urbanization in China, told Grid.”