A report from the Reno/Sparks Gazette in Nevada. “‘If you’re going fishing for a buyer or waiting for someone to stop by the house and make an offer way over market price, those days are gone,’ said Gary MacDonald, president of the Reno/Sparks Association of Realtors.”
From WKRN on Tennessee. “A less chaotic housing market means exhausted buyers can finally breathe a breath of fresh air. ‘There’s still a lot of competition,’ said Amanda Peterson — realtor with the Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Advantage. ‘Fortunately, a few months ago, it was going way over list price, lots of cash buyers. Now, I’ve seen people with loans be able to get offers through and be able to negotiate somewhat here and there.’”
The Washingtonian. “The Washington housing market has been nuts, with prices breaking records, listings attracting dozens of bids, and buyers routinely paying six-figures over asking. But according to Bright MLS, things appear to have turned a corner, with the real-estate frenzy finally settling down. The trend began over the summer, with the area’s prices and number of sales dropping. Compared to August, the number of new listings spiked 15 percent last month.”
The Antelope Valley Press. “California’s famously high real estate prices saw a spike earlier this year, but that trend appears to be cooling now, Keny Terracciano of RE/MAX All Pro said. ‘It just can’t keep this pace too much longer,’ he said. In Palmdale, as of August, the median home price was $497,000, while in Lancaster it was $450,000, he said.”
The Los Angeles Times in California. “A planned foreclosure auction of the largest modern home in the country has been delayed after billionaire lender Don Hankey was accused of maneuvering to take control of the troubled Bel-Air project and leave other debt holders out in the cold. John Tedford, a partner at law firm Danning Gill in Los Angeles, who is not involved in the dispute involving The One, said that foreclosure sales typically leave little to nothing for junior lienholders and one possibly requiring a cash bid of $100 million or more could be particularly challenging. ‘What sort of Brinks truck is going to pull up with a briefcase full of cashier’s checks for over 100 million bucks?’ he quipped.”
The New York Post. “An 84-year-old man gunned down his real estate agent in a murder-suicide — because he was upset over the Virginia home he’d just bought sight unseen, authorities said. Albert Baglione fatally shot realtor Soren Arn-Oelschlegel, 41, Friday night in the Portsmouth home the octogenarian had just bought, then called 911 and admitted, ‘I shot my realtor,’ WAVY reported. Later, authorities heard a gunshot and discovered both men’s bodies, police said.”
“A neighbor said Baglione had only moved into the residence one day earlier. ‘He bought the house sight unseen from Alabama, moved in here Thursday and called a real estate agent Friday to return the house,’ the neighbor told WTKR.”
From CNBC. “Foreclosure starts jumped 32% in the third quarter of this year from the second quarter and were 67% higher than the third quarter of 2020. While the increases in foreclosures are dramatic, they are coming off extreme lows that were created by the forbearance programs. The number of active forbearance plans fell by 177,000, led by an 84,000-plan drop among FHA/VA loans. As of Oct. 5, nearly 1.4 million borrowers remained in pandemic-related forbearance plans, representing 2.6% of all active mortgages.”
From USA Today on Florida. “It was the first swanky high-rise condo in the tiny town, and it solidified the neighborhood as a gathering place for the rich and famous. For its residents – from millionaire cocaine smugglers to family vacationers – it was all about landing their little slice of paradise. ‘The era we’re talking about is when Miami suddenly came out of the ashes. So, how do you rush to fulfill the demand? You cut corners. You attached roofs with paper clips. You bribe the inspectors,’ said Jorge Valdes, who was not involved in Champlain South, but helped build dozens of homes, apartment complexes, and high rises in the Miami region as a chief money launderer for the Medellin Cartel.”
“In 1991, Rosello, a ‘cocaine cowboy,’ said he was weeks away from buying the fifth-floor, two-bedroom condo he was renting under an alias in Champlain South. Those plans changed when authorities indicted him for his role in Miami’s biggest cocaine ring. ‘Who knows? If I would have bought it, my son, ‘little Peter,’ could have been the one living there at the time of the collapse,’ he said. ‘But at the end, the building fell, just like our once cocaine empire.’”
“In 2001, Steve Rosenthal jumped at buying a two-bedroom unit with a view of the bay. ‘It was a bargain. It was the place to buy, well, until it wasn’t,’ said Rosenthal, who for the span of almost 20 years witnessed puddles appear in the parking garage during the full moon and high tide, as well as cracks snaking across balcony floors.”
The Daily Hive on Canada. “You don’t often hear about Vancouver real estate going on sale, but one of Shaughnessy’s most eye-catching properties is practically $10 million off. In February 2019, Daily Hive Urbanized reported that this mansion was listed for a staggering $44 million. Now, the new realtor has listed 1233 Tecumseh Avenue on the market for $33,990,000.”
The Standard on Kenya. “Land and property prices in Nairobi and its environs are self-correcting due to market forces with a new report revealing a drop of up to 27 per cent. It notes that prices in Nairobi’s satellite towns have dipped since quarter four of 2019. ‘Could this represent the early signs of a deeper correction in high-end property prices?’ posed the report.”
“‘Notably, Quarter One (Q1) of 2021 land prices in Runda were 27 per cent below their recent peaks in Q4 of 2017,’ reads the report in part. ‘In the middle-income segment, current land prices are also lower than their peak levels over the past four years, but not by as much as the high-end segment.’”
From Business Insider. “One-fifth of the homes in China – at least 65 million units – are empty. Li Gan is a professor of economics at Texas A&M University and the director of the Survey and Research Center for China Household Finance at Chengdu’s Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. He’s also considered one of the top experts on China’s housing market. When I asked him how many ghost towns there were in China, he didn’t have an answer. ‘I don’t know if there’s any definition of ‘ghost town,’ he said. ‘So I don’t know if there’s any number.’”
“Demand for units, however – and this is where the mismatch comes into play – has been affected by a series of factors, said Bernard Aw, an economist overseeing Asia Pacific for Coface. Among these factors is the increasing unaffordability of homes, an aging population, and slowing population growth. Aw pointed to China’s 2020 census, which recorded the slowest population growth since the 1970s. ‘They built an oversupply, and then they sold it,’ Gan said. ‘And that’s why you see the vacancies.’”
“When I asked Gan whether this was the scenario now unfolding in China, he said it wasn’t – but not because there aren’t cracks in the market. Instead, the government is making it so difficult to complete a sale that it’s dissuading homeowners from selling, Gan said. ‘China can stop a transaction. The government can change the number of years you have to own a home. Or if prices are too low, the government won’t give you a certificate of sale,’ Gan said. ‘That is what’s happening now.’”
“‘You won’t see the price drop substantially, but you will see the transaction volume drop massively,’ he added. ‘They’ll stop the sale. By doing that, they can prevent the look of a massive price drop. They can prevent the crash.’ This very move – suppressing home sales – stands to hurt those who need to sell their homes to access cash, Gan said. ‘Real estate is a massive chunk of people’s wealth,’ he said. ‘If they need that wealth for education, or health problems, or retirement, the liquidity sellers will suffer.’”