A report from the Associated Press on Florida. “‘Prices never go up forever,’ said Ana Bozovic, analyst at Analytics Miami. ‘The steady ramp up we have had through mid-2022 was neither normal nor sustainable.’ Housing prices fell again last month in Miami-Dade County and dipped for the first time in months in neighboring Broward County. Miami-Dade’s median sale price dwindled to $551,250 for a single-family home in August, down from $570,000 the prior month, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. Condominium prices also dropped to a $375,000 midpoint from $380,000 in July. The price decreases in Miami-Dade represent the second consecutive month, after climbing steadily from September through June and reaching historic high marks of $579,000 for a house and $410,000 for a condo.”
From WTOP News. “A new RE/MAX National Housing Report ranks the D.C. metro area at the top of its list of the five markets with the biggest year-over-year decrease in close-to-list price ratio. In August, sellers in the D.C. region got, on average, 84% of their original list price, or about 16% less than what the home was on the market for. A year earlier, sellers here were getting an average of 101% of their listing price. The D.C. metro area also topped another RE/MAX list in August. No. 1 on the list of the five markets with the biggest year-over-year increase in new listings. In August, about 12,900 new residential properties came on the market, a 13% jump from a year earlier.”
“‘When our clients see what’s happening with interest rates, with the government trying to control inflation, although they may be politically liberal, they become very conservative financially. So they use that opportunity to start negotiating on properties,’ said Tommy Cammarota, an agent with RE/MAX Distinctive Real Estate in D.C. ‘People realize that the government is going to keep pushing rates up to control inflation. And if they have a reason to sell a property, they want to do it sooner rather than later, or try to do it sooner rather than later.’”
The Daily Mail. “A woman who says she moved to Portland, Oregon for its progressive values has accused the mayor of scoffing at her after she confronted him over the city’s homelessness crisis. Gillian Rose slammed Portland’s handling of its homeless population, saying the squalid encampments that are pervasive around the city make life miserable for residents. ‘You have to stop enabling this,’ said a visibly emotional Rose. ‘I’m angry and I’m sad and I’m fed up, and I’m so sick of having politicians pander to a woke agenda that’s been nothing short of an epic failure. I moved here in hopes of becoming part of a progressive city where it seemed like its leaders cared about social issues — what’s transpired here is not progressivism.’”
“‘A lot of people who live on the streets fill them with trash and their own feces while openly using drugs — it’s not progressive, it’s insane and unacceptable,’ added Rose. ‘Portland has become the laughing stock of the country, it really has,’ she told the city’s leaders. Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat chuckled audibly as he responded, saying, ‘thank you, you’ve made your point emphatically clear. Thank you for being here and sharing your perspective, we do appreciate it.’”
“Rose told how Powell Boulevard had become clogged with tents and trash, describing the area as an ‘open drug market’. She said that a homeless man had swung wildly at her partner on Spring Water Trail while they were out on a bike ride. ‘When you consider carrying a gun or bear mace while riding your bike, I think something is severely, severely wrong,’ she said. Rose told how her friend, a realtor, lost a deal because a homeless encampment sprung up in front of a house that his clients were about to buy, scuttling the deal.”
The Washington Post. “It’s normally peak season at Asurion Phone & Tech Repair, but Gean Rodriguez said foot traffic has slowed down in the last couple of weeks. The Chicago repair technician wonders if cooler weather is keeping customers at home, or if people are saving their money for the holidays. ‘We barely have anything at the moment,’ Rodriguez said. ‘We’re hopeful for more business. Some people might try to save their money for the holidays, presents, reunions, things like that.’”
“Dick Pfister, CEO of AlphaCore Wealth Advisory, said his clients — who generally are worth between $1 million and $15 million and are often planning for retirement or budgeting on a fixed income — are starting to be more proactive with budgeting as ‘stock, real estate and bonds have all gone down together,’ affecting their assets. ‘It’s taken them a little bit longer to feel the pain but it’s starting to affect them too,’ he said.”
From The Times in Georgia. “Tommy Howard, president of brokerage services for the Norton Agency, a Gainesville-based real estate firm, gave an update on the housing market. Here are some key takeaways. Homebuyers, don’t panic yet about interest rates. The ‘biggest indicator’ for the lack of affordable housing, he said, is the growing disparity between median income and housing prices. In 2022, the median sales price for a home in Hall County was about $400,000, which was 6.1 times higher than median household income the same year. In 2012, it was only 2.3 times higher. ‘If you talk to a mortgage banker, they will tell you that that’s about what they want to see,’ he said of the 2012 figure.”
“‘We will start to see a little bit of decline as the market changes,’ he said. ‘That buyer is a little more discerning. … They are not as affected by the interest rates, but they may be affected in other ways through their own businesses, or what they might be investing in. So they’re going to be a little more discerning moving forward, and we have seen some deals in those higher price points start to fall apart.’”
NBC Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. “In a growing community full of townhomes and a sprinkling of apartment buildings, the six-story Lenora is targeting a demographic that wants to own a home in the neighborhood, according to Larry McKnight, a managing partner at Riverwards Group. McKnight, who grew up in Fishtown and still lives there. While Riverwards has and will continue to develop rental properties in the area, McKnight said he Fishtown was in need of something different. ‘We don’t want to glut this market with rentals,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of [houses] for rent, so we really want to target people who want to live and buy and own in Fishtown, where there was really no product for people to buy. Now there’s 42 units.’”
Fox 8 on North Carolina. “A number of major U.S. cities, including Charlotte, saw the rental asking price fall in August, according to Apartments.com. ‘After a 20-month run of positive monthly growth dating back to December 2020, the market finally witnessed negative asking rent growth on a monthly sequential basis from July to August, with rents down 0.1% in July,’ said CoStar National Director of Multifamily Analytics Jay Lybik. ‘We’re seeing a complete reversal of market conditions in just 12 months, going from demand significantly outstripping available units to now new deliveries outpacing lackluster demand.’”
The Review Journal. “Southern Nevada landlords are dialing back the huge rent increases they gave tenants last year amid a broader slowdown in Las Vegas’ housing market. Susy Vasquez, interim executive director of the Nevada State Apartment Association, said the number of people moving here from out of state is down. She also indicated that units are sitting available longer, and that landlords appear to be offering more concessions to prospective tenants. Compared with last year, she said, the rental market is a ‘totally different picture.’”
The Tribune. “Here’s some good news for renters, including those living in some of California’s biggest cities. ‘Year-over-year price increases are also starting to moderate, driven by dips in prices in large cities,’ Rent.com said its report. ‘August data shows significant year-over-year decreases in major cities like Los Angeles; Jacksonville, Florida, and Saint Louis, Missouri.’ In Los Angeles, the average monthly cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment dropped by 15.7%, while Anaheim saw a decline of 22% and Long Beach saw a 24.4% decrease, putting them among the top 10 cities with the biggest rent decreases in the country, Rent.com said. The average monthly cost of renting a two-bedroom unit dropped 12.7% in Irvine, Rent.com said, putting that city in the top 10 for biggest price drops for two-bedrooms.”
From Oaklandside in California. “Days could be numbered for the Alameda County and Oakland eviction moratorium policies—if a judge accepts the arguments presented by landlord attorneys at a federal court hearing Thursday. Judge Laurel Beeler peppered lawyers for both sides with questions, it was not clear whether she was convinced that the substance of the eviction moratoriums violated landlords’ constitutional rights. But she said their indefinite time periods, and the fact that they’ve been permitted to remain in effect for more than two years, ‘raises a concern.’ ‘It’s a little odd, at this stage in the pandemic, to have an ordinance with no end date,’ she said.”
“The lawsuit says the policies have caused harm and financial challenges for small property owners like plaintiff John Williams, who ended up in the hospital from the stress of losing the $1,500 monthly rental income from a tenant in his West Oakland duplex and the fear of facing foreclosure.”
“Williams got emotional talking with The Oaklandside, recounting how his 10-year tenant hasn’t paid rent since the beginning of the pandemic and owes him $50,000. He said he tried unsuccessfully to sell the building, his only rental property, but the prospective buyer only wanted it if the renters left. ‘At the beginning, [the moratorium] was a no-brainer, to help the tenants impacted,’ Williams said. ‘But now tenants are like the owners, and I really have no say in my property anymore.’ He said that as a single person of color he’s faced discrimination trying to rent, himself, so he bought the place to have security and income for retirement. He also noted that his tenant sued him for harassment and won the case this week, in the amount of $65,000.”
Bisnow on Texas. “A Dallas developer faces life in prison after allegedly scamming more than 100 Chinese investors out of $26M. Timothy Lynch Barton, president of JMJ Development and CEO of real estate investment firm Carnegie Development, was indicted on seven counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of securities fraud when he appeared in federal district court earlier this week. The charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 180 years.”
“Prosecutors claim Barton convinced a group of Hangzhou-based investors to spend millions of dollars on home lots in what he described as highly sought-after areas of the Metroplex. Investor funds were allegedly used to pay commissions — a breach of the initial loan agreement — as well as expenses related to other projects. Some early investors were repaid interest using funds from later projects, prosecutors allege. Earlier this week, the embattled developer also lost a bankruptcy court battle surrounding development of a 2-acre site in Turtle Creek, where he planned to build the Mandarin Oriental, a $395M luxury hotel and condo tower. That property is not involved in Barton’s federal fraud proceedings, according to the Dallas Business Journal.”
The Toronto Star in Canada. “Patience and timing were big factors in digital nomad Regan Beckett’s success, said her realtor, James Frodyma. The house was originally listed for $799,900 and reduced to $699,999. Beckett said the sellers had already moved to a new home. She negotiated a price of $672,500 with conditions and a frantic, two-week closing. Since prices began declining in March, some buyers have been able to purchase a property that would have been beyond their means last winter. At the same time, sellers have been distressed to learn their house or condo just won’t sell for what the neighbours’ fetched weeks or months earlier.”
“Frodyma said that six months ago, working with buyers was more challenging as they fought their way through bidding wars and bully offers. ‘That has been completely flipped on its head, where now buyers are getting their day in the sun and sellers are having to work a lot harder to sell a property.’”
“For every happy ending, he said, this fall probably holds more tales of seller disappointment. Frodyma said another client in a 905-area community approached him for help after she and her husband got caught in the market downturn by purchasing a new home before selling their old one in June. When they listed the old house, offers were coming in hundreds of thousands of dollars below the price they expected. ‘Suddenly, they were saddled with two homes,’ said Frodyma.”
“Within a week of taking possession of the new house, it was back on the market, he said. They sold it for a $60,000 loss, on top of expenses such as land transfer tax and lawyer’s fees.”
The Guardian. “‘People were worried about the energy crisis and how they were going to heat their homes, but this is a different type of fear,’ said Michael McLaughlin, a mortgage broker in Northern Ireland. ‘Now it’s ‘Are we going to have roofs over our heads?’ They just feel totally powerless. It’s like an icy fear, the speed at which this has happened compared with [the housing market crash in] 2008. The collapse has been seismic and so quick.’”
“Heather Tang, 34, had already missed out on her dream family home when the chain of buyers collapsed earlier this year. She and her family, who are planning a move from London to Macclesfield, Cheshire, found a different property to buy but are now waiting to find out what mortgage rate they have been accepted for. With the sale of their current home progressing and no clarity from the bank, they have been left in the dark about what the future holds.”
“‘We haven’t agreed anything, so I just don’t know what we’re going to do. I’m seeing people being offered 6% to 10% [interest rates],’ Tang, a librarian, said. ‘I know house prices are coming down but they’re not coming down that fast, and in the meantime we’re kind of homeless because we still have to sell our house. We can’t really do anything else now [except wait]. We’re so close to selling our house, so we can’t go back on that, and we need to move, so there’s not much else we can do.’”
From 7 News in Australia. “Treacy Sheehan was getting ready for a night out when police knocked on her door. The Sydney apartment building she had called home for four years was in danger of collapsing – and Sheehan, her young son, and her fellow residents of the 131-unit apartment block would have to leave immediately. ‘It was all a big mess,’ she told 7NEWS.com.au. ‘I moved five times in the first year.’”
“Three years on from that fateful 2019 night, Sheehan and her fellow residents are still struggling, despite an out-of-court settlement earlier this year. She and her five-year-old son can’t live in the apartment that she spent years saving for, she can’t sell it – and she is still forced to fork out thousands each month in bills. After assuming she had secured a stable home in which to raise a child, Sheehan is now struggling to make ends meet during Australia’s nightmare rental crisis. ‘Now I’m broke,’ Sheehan, who works as a recruiter, said. ‘I still don’t know where I’ll be in 12 months.’”