A weekend topic starting with WTMJ in Wisconsin. “Lou Ann Brandstetter moved into her new home Thursday, which she bought sight unseen to beat out the competition. She learned about the home in Waterford from some good friends in the neighborhood and made an offer within 24 hours. ‘I know I had to snap it up just like that,’ Brandstetter said, snapping her fingers, ‘Because the housing market here is so tight for condos. If I didn’t snap it up quickly, it would’ve been someone else’s home.’ Still, Brandstetter said she experienced sticker shock when shopping for and buying her new home. In 2017, Brandstetter and her husband sold their almost 3,000-square-foot home on 7 acres, also in Waterford, for roughly $489,000. Fast forward to 2024: for her 1,400-square-foot condo, she paid about $390,000.”

“With mortgage rates starting to come down, homeowners who were reluctant to sell because they bought their homes at a good rate a few years back to reconsider. Jeremy Rynders with Keller Williams Realty believes that shift has already begun. While he, too, considers it a sellers’ market, he believes it’s moving toward buyers. ‘The discussion was, ‘OK, we love this house. How much over asking are we going to have to pay to get it?’ he explained. ‘Now the discussion is, ‘Hey, we like this house. Do you think it’s priced right?’”

Wichita-Hutchinson Plus in Kansas. “For years, there has been a limited supply of homes, creating an ideal market for sellers. Richelle Knotts with Reece Nichols said it has been that way since the pandemic. ‘We saw multiple offer situations where people were competing against the same house, having to pay over, do some appraisal gaps, those sorts of things, which was really kind of unheard of, very unprecedented for our marketplace,’ she said. The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by a half point, meaning more homes could hit the market, benefiting buyers. ‘This time period, from now through the end of the year, our inventory is really solid and I would encourage anybody that is looking to buy to get out there now before it gets real competitive,’ said Knotts. ‘Don’t wait until spring because it’s going to get pretty competitive right now.’”

WKBN in Ohio. “The housing market has been hot, and now the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates. Housing prices continue to rise, but the Mahoning Valley is still less expensive when compared to most of the country. So what’s your best bet when it comes to buying right now? Samantha Aldish, president of the Youngstown Columbiana Association of Realtors said to buy an older home that needs some love and go from there. ‘Say you buy the home this year and you are in it for two years and it’s appreciating for 7% right now. You can’t get a savings account that’s appreciating at 7%, so you’re not losing,’ she said.”

WIFR in Illinois. “Buying and selling a home in Rockford, named one of the nation’s top housing markets, might seem inviting, but realtors say you should be strategic about the timing. Ryan and Susie Fritz sold their long-term home for more than their asking price, but in a fast moving market, they decided to pause and think about their next step. The Fritzes took advantage of a great seller’s market and sold high. Now, the couple is leasing an apartment in the Rockford area. ‘You know with the inventory being low and just not a lot of options are out there, this made sense,’ explains Susie. ‘Everything is kind of highly priced at this point so we are not looking to purchase anytime soon, we want to wait for the market to come down.’”

Summit Daily in Colorado. “Actor Jack Nicholson and record producer Lou Adler teamed up to purchase what’s called the Newberry House near downtown Aspen, a Victorian wooden structure built in 1895 — which, to help their pro basketball needs, has better TV reception. This was 1980. The purchase price was $555,000, according to Pitkin County property records. Factoring in inflation, this purchase price equates to about $2.1 million in today’s standards. Property records show Nicholson eventually sold the house in 2013 for $11 million. But on Tuesday this week, Nicholson’s one-time Lakers haven was sold to former National Hockey League goalie Patrick Dovigi for $59.75 million, property records show.”

“According to Scott Bayens, a realtor with Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s International Realty, the confluence of home-size restrictions and the luxury market is prompting more wealthy homebuyers to look for turnkey locations — like the 7,908 square-foot Newberry House — rather than building anew. ‘They’ll stay there for two to four weeks, for a couple of years, sleep in the beds, make a meal, flush the toilet, and then, within two or three years, see a return of 25 to 50%,’ he said.”

Vail Daily in Colorado. “Eagle County and the Vail Valley’s residential real estate market continues to remain active. ‘Properties in Vail Village as well as Beaver Creek and Arrowhead have all been moving when priced well,’ said Craig Denton, managing broker for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties’ Vail Village office. ‘If a seller overreaches, they’re likely to sit on it.’ As an example, Denton cites a recent listing for a Vail Village home that started out at $34 million. The home wasn’t receiving the interest anticipated, prompting the seller and Denton to work together to adjust the price. Upon adjusting to $29.9 million, the home now has five interested prospects, and they are in negotiations with two of the parties. ‘The market is going to dictate the value, and today’s buyers won’t even make an offer if they think it’s overpriced,’ said Denton. ‘It doesn’t matter if it’s at the lower end or the higher end. If a seller is serious about selling, they have to price to market.’”

“Laurie Slaughter, managing broker for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties’ Gypsum office says that her office is seeing price reductions every day. ‘Buyers are hesitant to make an offer on properties they think might be overpriced, not in great condition, or have been on the market for a while. Conversely, the homes that are priced right can see multiple offers,’ Slaughter said. One particular single-family home that was priced right (under $700,000), received nine offers and sold for $25,000 over list price. Another listing has been on the market for 300 days and is still not under contract after at least two price reductions. ‘Today’s buyers get hesitant and then suspicious when homes are not priced right,’ Slaughter said. ‘A seller who prices their residence too high and then starts lowering it, has buyers assuming there are inherent flaws. Buyers don’t want to take too many risks, no matter what the price point.’”

KXRM Colorado Springs. “Colorado Housing Connects has seen an increasing number of inquiries from residents who are struggling to keep up with housing payments as the cost of housing and basic necessities continues to rise across the state. Since August, more than 7,000 Coloradans have contacted the housing helpline for assistance with affordable housing navigation and help with rent or mortgage payments. The inquiries represent a 37% increase over the monthly average of 5,336 inquiries in 2024. The recent numbers have exceeded those seen during the peak of the Great Recession when foreclosures were at an all-time high and the helpline received over 4,000 calls.”

“A poll by the Colorado Health Foundation found that 89% of respondents rated housing affordability as an extreme or very serious problem. A separate report from Forbes ranks Colorado as the 11th most expensive state in terms of cost of living.”

The Atlantic. “If you want to understand America’s strange relationship with housing in the 21st century, look at Austin, Texas. Since the beginning of the pandemic, even as rent inflation has gone berserk nationwide, no city has experienced anything like Austin’s growth in housing costs. This year, Austin is expected to add more apartment units as a share of its existing inventory than any other city in the country. Again as a share of existing inventory, Austin is adding homes more than twice as fast as the national average and nearly nine times faster than San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. (You read that right: nine times faster.)”

“The results are spectacular for renters and buyers. The surge in housing supply, alongside declining inbound domestic migration, has led to falling rents and home prices across the city. This is a surprisingly complex question for Americans today. In the U.S., our houses are meant to perform contrary roles in society: shelter for today and investment vehicle for tomorrow. If homeownership is best understood as an investment, like equities, we should root for prices to go up. If housing is an essential good, like food and clothing, we should cheer when prices stay flat—or even when they fall. Instead, many Americans seem to think of a home as existing in a quantum superposition between a present-day necessity and a future asset.”

“This magical thinking isn’t just a phenomenon of real-estate reporting. It is deeply rooted even in the highest echelons of policy making. Just look at the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform. The document reads (emphasis mine): ‘Homeownership has long been central to building generational wealth, and expanding access to homeownership to those who have been unfairly excluded and discriminated against is critical to closing the racial wealth gap.’ But then the same platform goes on to say (emphasis mine): ‘Housing in America should be stable, accessible, safe, healthy, energy efficient, and, above all, affordable. No one should have to spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, so families have ample resources left to meet their other needs and save for retirement.’”

“See the issue? On the one hand, the Democratic Party says we are all relying on homeownership to close the racial wealth gap, which implies that we should root for today’s home values to significantly rise, so that today’s minority owners can build wealth. On the other hand, the party says we need houses to be ‘above all, affordable.’ In that case, we should despair when home values rise too fast, because it implies that the next generation of owners will be priced out of the market.”

“I don’t think the authors of the Democratic Party platform are careless or clueless. I think they’re doing their best to articulate a folk wisdom: Housing should, somehow, deliver permanent affordability and constant appreciation, at the same time. The miracle of Austin is helpful to recognize, because it restores clarity to a simple truth: Houses are essential, but they are not magical. The normal rules of supply and demand apply.”

City News in Canada. “Housing in Toronto: it’s top of mind, it’s a part of daily banter and arguably one of the biggest concerns for city residents. The survey asked homeowners, who comprise 58 per cent of the sample, why the prices of home and condo units are now much higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic. They were given multiple reasons and asked to choose all that may apply. Forty-five per cent believe investors, developers and others have overvalued the worth of homes or condos for greater returns.”

“‘The real estate industry has been in a state of what we call financialization, that they’re really looking at housing as a commodity. They’re not thinking about families and homes and use value. They’re thinking about how much money they can make off of it,’ explains Karen Chapple, director of the School of Cities and Professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. She adds that financialization is being driven not just by real estate developers, investors or landlords, it’s also ordinary people.”

“‘It’s mom and pop that have equity in their home, and they thought that their home had increased [a certain amount] in price and that they would be able to sell and take out their home equity and finance their retirement. So they don’t want to lower the prices,’ she says. ‘So it’s across the board, it’s the industry — but it’s also ordinary people that are holding on, keeping the prices high because they’ve been sort of deceived into thinking this is the actual value of their property. And you can’t blame them. They counted on it for their retirement.’”

Blog TO in Canada. “A home in Ontario was sold at a loss of nearly $500k after a number of failed attempts to sell. It’s no secret that the real estate market in Ontario is in a tricky spot. After soaring to record highs in recent years, the market now finds itself in a tailspin, rife with homes and condos sitting unsold and a plummeting market while home prices only continue to go up. Navigating the real estate market — whether as a buyer or seller — both in Toronto and beyond is akin to walking on eggshells, and it’s forcing some sellers to take drastic measures to sell their homes.”

“In the most recent case of a dramatic home price loss, one Brampton home was recently sold at a significant loss of $487K after four failed sale attempts and a whopping 196 days on the market. According to data from HouseSigma.com, prior to the home’s most recent sale on Aug. 9, 2024, the home had been purchased in 2022 for $1.67 million. Just over a year later, an offer that would have seen the home sold for $1.3 million (already a $300K loss) was the first of four attempted sales, with the home’s price further reduced each time. Finally, the home has been sold at a final price of $1.18 million — a $487K loss for its previous owners.”

Daily Telegraph in Australia. “Home seekers are bagging properties for an average of up to 15 per cent below the list price in pockets of Sydney as experts declare the city has become a ‘buyer’s market.’ The huge discounts, historically rare in Sydney’s pressure cooker housing market, have helped buyers save over $1m in some areas, with more discounts expected to come as spring listings pile up. It’s followed what was Sydney’s busiest August for new property listings since records began in 2009.”

“The listings bump, which continued into September, took some heat out of the market and meant sellers had to adjust their expectations to bait buyers. The discounts have tended to be higher in the southwest because of its proximity to a slew of new housing estates, which mean home buyers are spoiled for choice, experts explained. There was a similar trend in Mays Hill, in the Parramatta area, where a large supply of units has helped push down apartment prices. Average vendor discounting in the suburb was 8.6 per cent.Apartment buyers in Neutral Bay were getting an average of 10.5 per cent off list prices – the highest for a suburb within 10km of the Sydney CBD.”

“Digital Finance Analytics director Martin North said discounting levels could rise as higher interest rates force more homeowners to sell. ‘We are also seeing more ‘forced’ sales due to mortgage pain (and) arrears, where vendors have to sell,’ he said. ‘Despite the expectation of lower interest rates, eventually, I suspect we will see vendor discounts rising after the summer selling season.’”

“Among the homes currently listed with the biggest discounts is an apartment on Bigge St in Warwick Farm. It was originally listed in June for $419,000 but the price has since dropped 19 per cent to $339,000. A house in Berowra Waters is currently listed for $1.55m, down from the original $1.79m list price, according to a SQM Research report. There were even bigger discounts in the top end of the Sydney market, agents revealed. This included a Bondi Beach apartment on Sir Thomas Mitchell Rd now listed for $8.5m, down from $9.5m earlier this year. In Palm Beach, a house on Bynya Rd is for sale at $6.3m – $900,000 lower than in August.