A report from the Marin Independent Journal. “Beth Brody, a Compass agent in Mill Valley, is bullish about 2023 after a year in which the median home price in Marin plunged about 30%. The apex was $2.12 million in April. The median price for a detached home in Marin was $1.6 million last month, the assessor’s office reported. By comparison, the Bay Area median last month was $1 million, a year-over-year decline of 14.6%, the California Association of Realtors said. Brody, who says she has been an agent for 43 years, said she expects a much better inventory outlook this year, easing the competition among buyers. Her company alone has 300 homes in Marin set to list next month, she said.”
The Signal in California. “Local Realtors assisted the close of escrow on 126 homes and condominiums during January while the inventory of properties listed for sale rose to the highest level for the month since 2020, the Southland Regional Association of Realtors reported. The 406 active listings were up 31% from a year ago, with condominium active listings surging a whopping 89% and single-family home active listings rising 16%. ‘As prices moderate, or even decline slightly, and inventory increases, prospective buyers soon enough will realize there are opportunities out there,’ said Anthony Bedgood, the 2023 chairman of the Santa Clarita Division.”
“The median price of the 88 single-family homes that closed escrow last month came in at $815,000, which was off 2% from January 2022. It also was below the $890,000 median price posted in April. The 38 condominiums that changed owners last month had a median price of $490,000. That also was down 2% from a year ago and below the $593,000 median condo price reported in February 2022.”
The Real Deal. “Home sales and new home construction in Texas tumbled last year as interest rates dampened activity across the state’s housing markets, according to new data from the Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center. As construction slowed, so did demand. In Austin, where monthly starts dipped below 1,000 units for the first time since 2016, homes spent an average of 67 days on the market this year. The median home price statewide peaked in May at $349,900 and has been falling ever since. Still, it remains higher than it was a year ago. The median sale price in Austin has fallen more than $78,000 from its peak to $463,900. ‘The housing market took quite a spill last year, but if you look with a broader lens, it appears to be getting back to where things were,’ said Joshua Roberson, the paper’s lead author.”
From Urban Turf. “For years, the lack of homes for sale was a primary theme in the DC area housing market. That is changing. The inventory of homes for sale in the region is steadily increasing, up 43% compared to a year ago and approaching levels not seen since 2019. ‘Supply is still very low in the DC area housing market, but in some local markets, buyers are finding more options than they have had in more than three years,’ Bright MLS wrote in its January report.”
“In DC proper, supply is up 56%, but in some areas, the increase has been more substantial. For example, in Montgomery County, supply is up 87%, while in Prince George’s County, it has risen nearly 107%. The increase in supply is a little imbalanced when it comes to property type. In many markets, the condo inventory is more than double what it was prior to the pandemic.”
From People. “After denying that the home was in foreclosure in a video for her ‘haters’ in November, Kim Zolciak-Biermann and husband Kroy’s Alpharetta, Ga. mansion is now up for public auction. According to a notice shared Wednesday by Fulton County, Truist Bank will auction off the property on March 7 in front of the Fulton County Courthouse after the couple defaulted on a $1.65 million loan they took out for the property in Oct. 2012. The Real Housewives of Atlanta alum previously denied rumors the home was in foreclosure with a video on her Instagram Story captured by @BravoHousewives in November.”
“‘Ok you guys, my house has not sold for $257,000,’ she started in the clip, panning around the interior of her home. ‘If you guys think I would let my home that we’ve put millions and millions of dollars into go for $257,000, you’re an idiot, okay? For real. So, what are you gonna do, haters, when I’m here for Christmas, and I’m here for my birthday in May, and I’m here for all these amazing dates? I’m here until I f—ing want to move, until I decide I don’t want to live here anymore. So, enjoy the view, haters. You’re going to be seeing it for quite some time,’ added Zolciak-Biermann.”
KIRO in Washington. “Squatters took over a homeowner’s property in unincorporated Lynnwood on Locust Way. All the problems and crime stemming from the home led to a massive raid by Snohomish County law enforcement on Wednesday. Investigators found 52 cars on the land – some of them reported stolen – along with drugs and firearms. Neighbors and the property owner say they’ve been dealing with squatters at the property for about three years, since the beginning of the pandemic. Multiple neighbors said they were hopeful after seeing a raid was happening at the property. However, the squatters quickly returned.”
“‘A bunch of criminals,’ said Laleh Kashani, the homeowner. ‘They took over the house and we couldn’t collect a dollar of rent, and have a mortgage,’ she said. Kashani says after years of dealing with this, she’s about to give up and move out of state. She said her husband recently passed away, and now she’s left to raise kids, work, and deal with this alone. ‘I literally cry,’ she said. ‘I’m going to give up, I’m going to lose my house. Whatever we owe on it, let the bank take it,’ Kashani said.”
The Commercial Observer. “More distressed office moves are on the way. A new report from CommercialEdge expects a significant uptick in distressed activity for U.S. office real estate in 2023 due to the higher cost of debt, weak demand, falling prices and a potential recession, and predicts overall office transaction volume this year will be at its lowest level since the years following the Global Financial Crisis. CommercialEdge recorded just $1.9 billion of U.S. office trades so far this year, with properties trading at $202 per square foot. That’s far less than the $5.9 billion in office deals last January, and, so far, trades this year closed for 25 percent less than they sold for in the first quarter of 2022.”
“Higher interest rates have already put pressure on owners with floating-rate debt and created a substantial challenge for those who need to refinance this year. Companies that embraced remote and hybrid work mean offices often sit empty while waiting for leases to inch toward expiration, and the tech industry that drove much of the leasing in recent years is in a contraction. The lack of demand is leading to falling prices, and further distressed activity could trigger a ‘downward price spiral for offices.’”
“‘Due to the interest rate environment, economic uncertainty and remote work, we anticipate that there will not be much capital for office transactions this year,’ the report read. ‘Investors may still be able to find loans for well-located buildings with strong occupancy and cash flow, but for the most part deals for office buildings will fail to materialize.’”
“Manhattan and San Diego both recorded no sales of office buildings with at least 25,000 square feet in the first month of the year. CommercialEdge expects many of the distressed properties that are sold to be converted into life sciences or multifamily, with some properties razed and entirely redeveloped. Nationally, there are 123.6 million square feet of office space currently under construction, with Boston, Manhattan, Dallas, Austin and San Francisco accounting for more than a quarter of all new supply being built.”
The Stratford Beacon Herald. “The president of Huron-Perth’s real estate board says this year is going to be one of adjustment after the region’s residential sales dropped sharply last month. Bob Heimpel cited the Bank of Canada’s ‘rapid’ interest rate increases as the main reason for sales taking a 19.1 per cent hit in January. ‘Sales activity isn’t going to rebound overnight, so the theme of this year is going to be one of adjustment,’ Heimpel said.”
“The benchmark price last month in Huron-Perth — the value of a ‘typical’ home in a community, based on the most popular combination of features — was $534,000 for single-family homes, a decrease of more than 10 per cent from January 2022. The average price of homes sold last month was $577,312, a steep decline of 22.1 per cent from January 2022. New listings jumped 24.2 per cent to 159, which was the most for January in more than five years. There were 338 active listings at the end of January, more than double the levels from a year earlier and much higher than five- and 10-year averages.”
The Globe and Mail. “The financial difficulties of a Vancouver real estate development company sitting on close to a billion dollars in property has raised questions about the health of the housing market in Canada’s third-largest city. On Feb. 6, Coromandel Properties filed court papers seeking temporary protection from its creditors, to which it owes more than $700-million. Such filings often lead to the appointment of a receiver for the insolvent company whose assets may be restructured or sold off to satisfy its debts.”
“The company’s application is replete with examples of company paying top dollar for sites between 2016 and 2022, borrowing millions to hold on to them, and being unable to redevelop them into more profitable uses. In one example, Coromandel says it purchased a site called Southview Garden in 2017 for $72-million, and there are three loans registered on that property that total more than $80.5-million. The land is a little under three hectares with 140 townhouses and apartments on it that earn about $224,000 in rent monthly. This does not appear to be enough to satisfy the debt payments on loans, as three parties are named seeking repayment.”
“‘If you’re on a development treadmill and running 85 per cent loan to value, you need virtually nothing in terms of something that would go wrong to completely turn that apple cart over and basically you’re buried,’ said said John Nicola, CEO of Nicola Wealth, who described highly leveraged investing as no different than stock frenzies such as GameStop or pouring cash into crypto assets trying to make a market. ‘It’s not a gamble worth taking, not for us anyway,’ he said.”
The Daily Mail. “Billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff has slammed ‘silly’ interest rate rises claiming it won’t be enough to stop property prices rising. The Meriton Group managing director blasted the Reserve Bank of Australia while speaking on Friday. The RBA has increased interest rates nine consecutive times bringing the cash rate to 3.35 per cent and warned of more rate increases to come.”
“‘They say that because the interest rates go up, the prices will go down – I don’t believe that,’ Mr Triguboff said. ‘If there’s nowhere for people to live then the prices will go up despite that. This is the lucky country … we make silly little mistakes but we never make big mistakes. We make silly little ones, but thousands of them.’”
“The billionaire issued a blunt warning that housing supply will keep getting worse – forcing prices ever higher – until developers were given the green light to build more homes. ‘If the government needs housing so much then they should approve it,’ Mr Triguboff told the Sydney Morning Herald. ‘I don’t apologise, they can go to hell. They want production, they have to make sure I don’t go broke.’”