A report from DS News. “More than 77% of homebuyers and sellers believe there’s a housing price bubble in the area where they live, according to Redfin. ‘What we’re going through right now is closer to a ripple in the water than a bubble,’ said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. ‘There’s a very low likelihood that home prices will go down anytime soon.’”
From Market Watch. “The median sales price of new houses sold last month was $377,700, down significantly from November.”
The Real Deal on California. “A $28-million home at 2828 Vallejo Street on the market for the first time in more than 60 years had its price chopped by $8.5 million, its listing shows. The new price may be an indication of just how expensive and time-consuming it will be for a new owner to update the home while keeping its historic features intact. The $8 million price cut may prove a lucky number. A grand gothic mansion formerly owned by Nicolas Cage and also in need of updates just sold after years of price cuts – for $8.8 million.”
The Coloradoan. “Just three years ago, home buyers could go a few miles east to Severance, north to Wellington, south to Loveland and west to the foothills to find that white picket fence and yard for the dog for less than $350,000. That dream slowly eroded over the last three decades when The Group Real Estate co-founder Larry Kendall coined the term ‘drive till you qualify’ as Fort Collins’ home prices began to creep up. In those days, driving until you qualified meant just a handful of miles in any direction from Fort Collins.”
“Now, those boundaries have been pushed completely outside of Larimer County, into rural Weld County and even southeast Wyoming as the median single-family home price in Fort Collins topped $533,000 at the end of September.”
From CBC News in Canada. “Home inspectors in Ontario say the hot seller’s market is preventing most buyers from getting inspections done, which in turn, is forcing a large number of inspectors to leave the industry due to declining business. GTA home inspector Panos Loucaides says he’s seeing more people getting inspections done after they’ve already made the biggest purchase of their life. ‘We end up with people sometimes crying because of some serious defects and how much money they have to spend,’ he said.”
“Six months after Magdalena Bisson and her husband moved in, their house flooded. They hired a contractor to make repairs, but it flooded again. ‘There was water coming in from everywhere,’ she said. ‘We had one of the pipes back up and we had feces all over the washing machine.’”
From All Homes. “Australia’s auction market got off to a busier start than usual, with more sellers hitting the market over the traditionally quieter summer holiday period in a bid to get ahead of the competition before an increase in listings gives buyers more choice. Hundreds of homes had been scheduled for auction over the past two weeks, and more than 1150 more are set to go under the hammer this week – up 30 per cent year-on-year, CoreLogic figures show.”
“‘Also at the back of people’s minds is the growing outlook that the market will probably be softer this year and that, potentially, selling conditions could become more challenging as more stock comes onto the market … and [we see] a rebalance away from sellers back towards buyers,’ said CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless.”
The Wairarapa Times Age. “Median house prices in two of the three Wairarapa districts dropped from November to December 2021, according to new statistics from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand [REINZ]. The median price in Carterton dropped 19 per cent from $710,000 to $575,000, with 10 houses sold in December, down from 14 in November. Carterton was the only district where the median price also dropped compared with December 2020 [$601,000]. In South Wairarapa, the median price fell slightly from $870,000 to $835,000, with 15 houses sold, down from 17 in November.”
“REINZ chief executive officer Jen Baird said that across the Wellington region, properties were spending longer on the market due to new lending criteria. ‘If lending criteria stays as it is, it is expected that properties will continue to sit on the market,’ Baird said.”
From Reuters. “China Evergrande Group shares slumped on Thursday after the developer’s thinly detailed roadmap for restructuring left investors dissatisfied and its indebted peers also fell on concerns higher interest rates would raise financing costs. Evergrande’s stock slump on Thursday came after the company told investors in a call late on Wednesday that it hoped to work with them to achieve a risk management solution, and it would treat all categories of creditors ‘fairly and follow international practice.’ The company also urged creditors not to take any ‘aggressive legal actions.’”
“Adding to the pressure on Evergrande, the Financial Times said on Thursday that asset manager Oaktree Capital, who is a lender to Evergrande to develop a vast land plot in Hong Kong, moved this week to seize control of the asset by appointing a receiver after Evergrande defaulted on the loan. The move could cause Evergrande’s offshore debt restructuring plan to fail as the 2.2-million-square-foot (204,000-square-meter) luxury housing development was a crucial piece of collateral, the report said.”