A report from the Austin Business Journal in Texas. “More evidence is rolling in that indicates the period of rapidly increasing monthly housing prices may be coming to an end. The Austin Board of Realtors’ most recent market update, released Sept. 16, shows since June, prices have fallen slightly each month. Inventory — while admittedly still very low — is the highest it’s been in the metro since October. The city of Austin’s median price was $540,000 in August. This is less than the July median price of $574,975.”
“‘A lot of buyers actually are still sitting on the sidelines, because they were traumatized by what they were reading about and maybe even experiencing in the spring,’ said Lilly Rockwell, a Realtor with Compass. ‘There’s still a lot of buyers who are hesitant to dip their toe back into the market.’”
From WCNC in North Carolina. “Buyers fed up with losing bidding wars are now opting to just sit on the sidelines and wait it out. Charlotte’s housing prices are going down as a result. David Hoffman, a veteran real estate agent and broker, believes the market is showing signs of slowing down. ‘We are starting to see supply pick up just ever so slightly,’ Hoffman said. ‘We are also starting to see more and more buyers get buyer fatigue.’”
“So, buyers who want to move could be fading out of the picture for a moment compared to those who have to move, like those in a job transfer. When the housing market turns, experts say it tends to turn quickly. I am starting to see fewer bidding wars, fewer buyers where there are bidding wars, and a few extra days on the market,’ Hoffman said. ‘Just a little less excitement than the summer and spring that just passed.’”
The Idaho Statesman. “The ‘Boise Boys’ are putting a fresh coat of paint on their home-improvement concept. Instead of renovating and selling homes, the duo will help Idaho families retool their current places. With housing prices at jaw-dropping levels in the Treasure Valley, it made sense to move on from ‘Boise Boys.’ After all, how many house-flipping bargains remain in Idaho’s capital city?”
From CBS Los Angeles. “The Southern California housing market was booming this summer, and now experts said it is cooling off in the fall. Realtor Jennifer Eckert said once people got vaccinated they wanted to get out and travel due to buyer fatigue after things had been so competitive for so long. ‘It’s transitioning more to a bit of a normalized market so maybe where there were 10 to 12 offers or more maybe you got two to five, still great, you still have strong buyers, it’s just not as frenetic,’ said Eckert.”
The Orange County Register. “Southern California homebuyers took their feet off the gas pedal last month, causing the region’s white-hot housing market to level off after six months of record-setting price gains. Homes now are taking longer to sell, and there’s fewer bidding wars, agents say. The supply of homes for sale also has ticked up steadily over the past few months, giving buyers more selection and less incentive to bid higher for desired homes.”
“‘The real estate market right now is cooling down a little bit compared to a few months ago because there are more houses for sale and … the buyers are more cautious,’ said Lily Campbell, an agent with First Team Real Estate in Irvine. More sellers are reducing their asking prices, Zillow reported. Homes selling below asking prices increased 10.7% in Los Angeles and Orange counties and by 10.3% in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.”
“Agents across the region have been seeing this trend for two months. ‘Three months ago, (home shoppers) would buy no matter what. No matter the condition, no matter the price,’ said real estate broker Harma Hartouni of Keller Williams Encino-Sherman Oaks. ‘Now, they’re more cautious about what they’re getting.’”
“Homes that are priced too aggressively are sitting on the market longer, added Susan Stone, a broker associate at Beverly and Company Luxury Properties in Sherman Oaks. ‘There are fewer bidding wars,’ Stone said. ‘Prices are leveling off. They’re not going up like they were before.’”
The Real Deal on Florida. “Nicky Jam has a new pad in downtown Miami. The reggaeton artist paid $6 million for a 4,600-square-foot unit at One Thousand Museum. Earlier this year, the tower’s developers closed on a $90 million condo inventory loan from Cirrus Real Estate Partners. The closing came less than three weeks after an entity led by the Reuben Brothers filed a foreclosure lawsuit against the developers.”
From The Sun. “Shaquille O’Neal’s lavish £12million Florida mansion is still on the market having undergone a huge facelift. The NBA legend’s pad in Orlando has had £8MILLION slashed off the asking price in an attempt to find a buyer.”
From Patch New York. “Do you feel like affordable houses are pretty tough to find in your community? Don’t lose hope yet. A tour of the most recently foreclosed homes in the West Village area might be your best bet! We’ve gathered new foreclosures to help potential buyers in the area see what is out there.”
The New Daily in Australia. “Property investors keen on snapping up inner-city pads in Sydney and Melbourne have been warned not to expect to make a quick buck on their investment. CoreLogic shows in the 12 months leading up to March 2021, Sydney’s inner-city median asking rents fell by 14.5 per cent from $620 per week to $530.They fell even further in inner-city Melbourne – dropping by 18.9 per cent over the year from $475 per week to $385.”
“Suburbanite director Anna Porter said an oversupply of one-bedroom and studio units designed with students in mind had affected the market for years, with COVID-19 only exacerbating the issue. ‘That supply is starting to really cripple the market,’ she said. ‘It’s not balanced any more – there’s an oversupply issue that’s just not being absorbed.’”
“Even when Australia’s borders do open, it may take some time for international students and travellers to travel to Australia in the same numbers they did before the pandemic, especially while mandatory quarantine periods are still in place, said Wakelin Property Advisory director Jarrod McCabe. Although he referred to small inner-city units as ‘infinite assets,’ due to these properties being continuously built in major cities despite a lack of demand, he and Ms Porter agreed it could be wiser to invest in suburban or regional areas.”
The Globe and Mail. “Mounting problems at China Evergrande, the hugely indebted Chinese property developer, are rattling global financial markets as investors worry about the potential for an Asian reprise of the U.S. financial crisis of more than a decade ago. The disturbing parallel on many minds is the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. When Lehman Brothers, a major holder of subprime mortgage debt, filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008, the global financial system froze and stock markets plunged.”
“‘Evergrande has the potential to be the largest corporate debt default ever, with spillovers to other financial institutions, Evergrande’s suppliers, homeowners, wealth product holders, other property companies, and onward and outward,’ warned Alan Ruskin, a macro strategist at Deutsche Bank, in a note Monday.”
“‘The [Chinese] property sector is a mess and, no question, more pain is coming,’ said Leland Miller, chief executive officer of China Beige Book, a private analytics firm that tracks the country’s economy. ‘But there is no real risk of wider contagion because China is fundamentally a non-commercial financial system.’”