A report from the Post and Courier in South Carolina. “Put up a ‘For Sale’ sign, and wait for the cash to roll in. In a real estate market as hot as Greenville, where there’s precious little inventory and many homes can spark bidding wars, selling a home seems just that simple. If only it were that easy. In fact, market conditions in Greenville can sometimes even complicate the sale of homes that fetch too high a price, given that appraisals have become hold-your-breath affairs. Leaving a detailed list of any renovations done to the home, and how much they cost, can help facilitate the appraisal process—which have become such white-knuckle experiences because appraisers ‘don’t have many things to comp,’ said Nick Carlson, broker at Wilson Associates.”
“‘Our inventory is so low, that when you go to pull six month’s sales, you might not find anything. You might have to pull back a year or two,’ he added. ‘And with properties below a half million dollars, the likelihood of getting multiple offers is high. They typically go above and beyond list price. We have to inform appraisers that we’re getting above list price, just to let them know that this is what the market is bearing at this point in time.’”
From Boston Agent Magazine in Massachusetts. “While it’s a difficult time to be a buyer given the short supply, sellers nevertheless need to price their properties appropriately, said Denise Connell, who sits on the Greater Boston Association of Realtors board of directors. ‘Yes, there are bidding wars, but the buyers are smart, and if your home is overpriced, you are not going to get the needed audience for the home, and look out if you have to have an open house on a second weekend; the buyers will assume there is something ‘wrong’ with the house,’ she said. ‘It’s crazy, a house that hits 10 days on the market is considered ‘stigmatized.’ It’s nuts.’”
From Mansion Global. “The $50-million price tag on the classic Fifth Avenue co-op owned by legendary New York City arts patrons Charles and Jayne Wrightsman has been reduced to $39 million. The home, which occupies the entire third floor of the white-glove, limestone-clad building at East 63rd Street and Fifth Avenue, was placed on the market by the couple’s estate in November 2019 for $50 million, following Jayne’s death the same year at the age of 99. The $11 million price cut—amounting to a 22% discount—hit the listing on Wednesday.”
From Action News Jax in Florida. “You can return clothes that don’t fit, but a house? Not so much. Lindsey DellaSalla with the DJ & Lindsey Team says the housing market is so competitive and the demand is so high, people are buying homes sight unseen and waiving inspection periods. She says on the flipside, almost a third of home buyers report that they now regret their big purchase.”
“‘These people who are regretting their decision, once they’re moved in and living here, the only thing you’re not able to look up on Google or Google Maps is the actual lifestyle you’ll have in that neighborhood,’ DellaSalla explained. If, say, you’ve already purchased a home that you regret, DellaSalla says there’s still hope: ‘Inventory is still incredibly tight, there’s hardly any homes for sale, so let’s just turn around, get it back on the market,’ she said.”
The San Francisco Chronicle in California. “Home values rose across most of the Bay Area during the pandemic. But they fell flat in San Francisco. From February 2020 to February 2021, the city saw its home values decrease in almost every ZIP code, according to a Chronicle analysis of Zillow data. San Francisco’s average home values sank slightly from $1.46 million to a slightly less eye-popping $1.42 million. In 94123, a ZIP code representing the Marina and Cow Hollow, estimated home values fell by nearly 10%, to $2.35 million. And they dropped from $1.66 million to $1.45 million — a 12% decrease — in 94104, a ZIP code encompassing a tiny slice of the Financial District.”
From Ekathimerini in Greece. “House prices and rents in Greece dropped the most among EU countries in the period from 2010 to the end of 2020, a Eurostat analysis shows. Specifically, house prices dropped 28.1% and rents 25.1%. Rents in Greece declined 40% in 2010-12, at the onset of the financial crisis, and have been inching upwards since, without making up for that sharp loss. Bank of Greece data on house prices show a steady decline until 2017, with the total drop of nearly 42% and a recovery since: in 2019 prices went up 7.2% and 4.2% in 2020.”
“Drops in house value were registered, besides Greece, in Italy (-15.2%), Spain (-5.2%) and Cyprus (-3.4%).”
The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. “A Sydney woman has been told there is nothing the NSW Building Commissioner can do to help recover her life savings after she bought into a 300-apartment tower that had alleged major defects, despite him reportedly saying an investigation is ‘likely’ to uphold her concerns. It comes as the Herald can reveal a sharp decline in fines being handed out to private certifiers for signing off on dodgy buildings in the last 10 months, since the board responsible for policing them was abolished.”
“An expert consultant discovered ‘major defects’ during an inspection of her newly-constructed apartment in the Magnolia building at Kellyville, a claim backed by council officers who uncovered ‘considerable non-compliances.’ However the developer told her she must settle the $625,500 purchase because a private certifier had signed off an occupation certificate.”
“Maryam Behrouz is contemplating walking away from her deposit – her life savings – to avoid the cost of repairing future defects.”
The Toronto Sun in Canada. “There has been a drastic decline in condo prices in the Yonge-Eglinton neighbourhood, says a well-known Toronto real estate agent who works in the Midtown area. Patrick Rocca told me last week the prices of condos in the dense apartment and condo corridor from Yonge-Eglinton northeast have dropped about 15% in value over the past three months compared to the same time a year ago.”
“Sales statistics provided by Rocca show that while there were fewer condo listings from January to March of 2020, the average condo (one and two-bedroom) sold for $743,000. Fast forward to the last three months, which shows 324 listings and an average selling price of $629,000 — a drastic drop of 16%. He attributes the decline partly to COVID but says he’s encountered condo owners with a genuine fear of the area ‘who want to get out.’”
“The city of Toronto turned the Roehampton hotel into a shelter last spring and homeless clients began moving in there in early July of 2020. A Toronto Sun exclusive last Sunday showed that in the first three months after the shelter opened, all the major crime indicators in the surrounding neighbourhood skyrocketed by 30% compared to the previous summer. Toronto Police statistics indicate theft spiked by 225%, robbery by 100%, sexual violation by 175%, theft over by 150% and break-and-enter by 76.5%.”
“‘The reality is people I’m talking to don’t feel safe and are selling to move,’ Rocca said. ‘They want to get out of there.’”
“One client put his condo on the market last fall, Rocca said, and when he pulled in to a nearby Green P to park so he could show the condo, he saw a couple of guys ‘shooting up.’ The condo never sold. Rocca said the rental market has really been affected too with average rents dipping from $2,100 a month to $1,600 a month — nearly a 25% decline.”
“Nathen Mazri, the young founder of GarfieldEATS and Scooby-Doo EATS, moved into his brand new Roehampton Ave. condo (at the corner of Redpath) in early 2020 just before the pandemic having no idea the shelter was coming. Since then, he’s witnessed one murder at the shelter, another on Roehampton and a suicide (during the lockdown) from the 11th floor of his building. He hears ‘screaming and loud noises,’ and sees emergency vehicles constantly attending the shelter.”
“Nearly every day members of the Midtown Community Safety Facebook group post police calls or pictures of emergency vehicles parked out front of the Roehampton. Mazri doesn’t understand how the neighbourhood can continue to sustain pricey condo development with the mayhem of the nearby shelter. He said his neighbours are angry and contend they ‘feel fooled’ by their real estate agents.”