It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “People seeking to buy a home in Delaware County were practically offering their first-born child to secure a property earlier this year, Realtor Jamie Kerezsi joked. Now, Kereszi is seeing more price reductions on listed homes and fewer cash offers from buyers. Appraisals are also helping stave off high prices. Last year, if a seller listed a $350,000 home at $450,000, it was likely that they could get a buyer at the latter price, Kerezsi said. Sellers listing far too high are now seeing crackdowns from appraisers who don’t value the home at the asking price.”
“Prospective buyers are also increasingly requesting inspections and thinking twice before buying ‘way overpriced,’ Kerezsi said. ‘The chaos of way over is dwindling,’ she said.”
“According to the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors, monthly home sales and prices declined from August. ‘Inventory is beginning to increase as some buyers are backing away from the sizzle,’ said Kristi Bailey, NETAR president.”
“Spokane County’s median home closing price in September was $380,000 , compared to $389,728 in August and a record-breaking peak of $395,000 in July. ‘Sellers over the year have become increasingly overconfident in the market and were pushing pricing up, and it hit a point where buyers aren’t going to pay that (amount) for the house,’ said Ken Sax, managing broker of counsel for Professional Realty Services. ‘Sellers are now having to lower their price and that’s going to lead to a decrease in sales price, and we are getting fewer multiple offers.’”
“Between August and September of this year the median home price dropped from $450,000 to $440,000, according new data from the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors. This dip follows some of the highest home prices and lowest inventory in Colorado Springs’ history. Housing inventory has increased by nearly 200 homes between August and last month. PPAR’s Board Chair George Nehme said prices may be plateauing. ‘We’ve peaked a little bit on the price point,’ Nehme said.”
“The market is pumping the brakes, not only on prices but on sales. Aldo Martinez, the President of Las Vegas Realtors, tells me the market remains healthy, but prices are taking a bit of a breather. ‘You’re gonna see some sellers panicking a bit,’ says Martinez, about sellers, worried their homes didn’t sell in a week.”
“Juanita Vanoy Jordan, the ex-wife of Michael Jordan, sold her Chicago mansion for $4.5 million, less than the $4.72 million she paid in 2007. After Jordan bought the house a year after her divorce, she upgraded the rooftop terrace and media room, suggesting her loss is bigger than $220,000, Crain’s reported. The $4.7 million price tag was a record for the then-new Kingsbury Estates neighborhood when Jordan bought the home in 2007.”
“The Toronto-area real estate market is moving into the fall in fits and starts. Sellers who think that every property sells quickly for an eye-watering price often confront a different reality. Elli Davis, a real estate agent with Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, has also noticed lots of price cuts recently on listings that have been sitting because the asking price was too high to start. Now that more inventory is trickling out, sellers are motivated to reduce their asking price. The sellers who are intent on getting a very lofty price are often just being opportunistic and they’re willing to let a house sit, in her opinion.”
“Listings like that can be costly to an agent in terms of time and expense, she adds. ‘I’m not interested in people who are just testing the market.’”
“Chinese property developers’ bonds and shares slumped on Friday. The Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday suspended trading of two bonds issued by smaller developer Fantasia Group China Co, with one dropping more than 50%, after controlling shareholder Fantasia Holdings Group missed the deadline on a $206 million international market debt payment on Monday. ‘Typically, a default by a small firm will be viewed as idiosyncratic. However, given tight liquidity for many Chinese developers now, market participants are questioning if this may be a precursor for voluntary defaults by other developers with healthy short-term liquidity positions, but large unsustainable longer-term debt,’ said Chang Wei Liang, Credit & FX Strategist at DBS Bank.”
“Evergrande said in an exchange filing that it would sell a 9.99 billion yuan ($1.5bn) stake it owns in Shengjing Bank Co Ltd to a state-owned asset management company. The bank, one of Evergrande’s main lenders, demanded all net proceeds from the sale go towards settling the developer’s debts with Shengjing. The move underscores how Evergrande is prioritising domestic creditors over offshore bondholders.”
“‘We are in the wait-and-see phase at the moment. The creditors are organising themselves and people are trying to figure out how this falling knife might be caught,’ said an adviser hired by one of the offshore Evergrande bondholders.”
“In Shenzhen, a straw poll of agents downtown suggested the price of homes in new developments has fallen between 5% and 10% in recent months, but they predicted the tapering in demand will be short-term. ‘Home prices are super low now, compared to last year, thanks to the government measures,’ said a salesperson at an office of Lianjia, China’s largest real estate broker. But if agents are bullish, buyers have mixed views. ‘Ten percent cheaper is still beyond my reach,’ said Shi Yong, an accountant in Shenzhen who has given up hope of owning an apartment.”
“Some property investors like Rebecca Hu worry that the government price curbs will dent the value of her new apartment in Zhongshan, a city about 100 km west of Shenzhen. Hu and her four colleagues working in a five-star hotel in Shenzhen chipped in their savings and invested this year in a waterfront apartment worth 2.4 million yuan ($372,000). ‘The salesperson said the value would double in three years’ time and our intention was to flip it for a profit,’ said Hu.”
“With falling retail sales to contracting manufacturing — and the Evergrande debacle ongoing, Hu was not convinced of a sustained increase in property prices. ‘We may have to wait longer than initially expected to achieve our intended return on investment,’ she said. ‘And that’s premised on the fact that we could still hold on to our existing job to service our mortgage.’”