A report from the Sun Sentinel in Florida. “In the wee hours of Thursday morning, the folks who want a private 30-story condo built on a prized piece of taxpayer-owned beach in Hollywood went home without a deal. The project had a fan in longtime Hollywood resident Jack Izzo. ‘You’re looking at a gift right now,’ he told commissioners. ‘They’re not your normal shyster developers. This is something we need. I don’t want to say we’re down in the dumps. But we need money. The needs of the many outweigh the wants of the few.’”
A press release. “A new Zillow survey finds even those who are successful often make compromises and can suffer from buyer’s remorse. Zillow’s survey finds three-quarters of those who successfully purchased a home in the past two years say they have at least one regret about the home they bought (75%).”
From Redfin. “Price decreases at the metro level are starting to show up in a variety of locales. As buyers show signs of fatigue from the competitive market and greater concerns about affordability as prices rise, decreases are becoming more common across the board. The metros with the most price decreases this year include fast-growing and expensive metros like Seattle, growing but affordable markets like Fresno, and slow-growth markets like Buffalo.”
“3. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO.Percentage of listings with a price cut: 31.8%. 4. Salt Lake City, UT. Percentage of listings with a price cut: 30.6%. 1. Fresno, CA.Percentage of listings with a price cut: 42.4%.”
From WFAA in Texas. “A significant number of Dallas-area homes saw their prices decrease in 2021. The analysis from a home services online marketplace, found that 18.4% of listings experienced a price cut in the Dallas metropolitan area. This 18.4% mark earned by Dallas was the 28th largest among large cities in the U.S. The only large cities in Texas ranked above the Dallas metropolitan area include Houston (11th) and San Antonio (25th).”
“The five large cities with the biggest drop in home prices include: Fresno, Calif. (42.4%), Indianapolis, Ind. (33.1%), Denver, Colo. (31.8%), Salt Lake City, Utah (30.6%), Portland, Ore. (28.5%).”
From WMTV in Idaho. “The booming Twin Falls housing market may be cooling off just a bit, according to data presented by Chief Financial Officer Breanna Howard. During the presentation of the first-quarter numbers, Howard announced Twin Falls has given out only 38 single-family permits, compared to 156 at this point last year. She admits this could signal that the housing market, which has set permit and fee records in 2020 and 2021, could be on the downturn. However, Howard says it might be too early to know how significant these numbers are.”
“‘It’s not the summer months when people are building, as well. It will be interesting to see where we come out in the second and possibly third quarter of the year, but we’re definitely not on track to have a stellar year so far. Which actually might be good,’ said Howard.”
The Los Angeles Times in California. “Sandra Bullock just let go of one in West Hollywood, selling her condo in the Sierra Towers high-rise for $4.4 million. It’s the second home Bullock has sold in the building so far this year — but the first that made a profit. In January, she unloaded a slightly larger unit a few floors away for $3.6 million, or $1.53 million less than what she paid in 2017. Records show she bought this one for $3.55 million in 2014, so the sale marks a profit of $850,000. Remodeled during her stay, it showcases Midcentury style with clean lines and walls of wood across 1,759 square feet.”
The Mercury News in California. “A big complex of homes and retail that’s been snarled in loan default, federal legal proceedings and two bankruptcy cases has been bought by the property’s lender. Mission Hills Square, a housing, retail, and restaurant project near Interstate 680 and Durham Road in Fremont, has been bought by an affiliate of Los Angeles-based Parkview Financial, according to documents filed on Feb. 2 with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office.”
“Construction began in 2017, but by sometime in 2019, construction halted and hasn’t resumed. In 2019, an appraisal of the partly completed mixed-use complex placed its value at $81.7 million with construction yet to finish. If complete and made available to residential and retail tenants, the project’s value would soar to $164 million, according to the appraisal. But by March 2021, the project’s value in its incomplete stage had plummeted to $24.8 million. If complete, it would be worth $138.2 million, according to a new estimate by the Joseph Blake appraisal firm.”
“‘Since the June 2019 appraisal, the property and market have changed, influenced by the following factors: (1) the COVID-19 pandemic, after which condominiums became disfavored over single-family residences; (2) a sharp increase in material costs and an increase in labor costs; (3) the need to renew permits; (4) apprehension regarding the future condominium market,’ the court papers stated.”
The Independent on the UK. “Property experts have called the top of the latest housing peak, as the average price of a UK home reaches a record high of almost £277,000. Buyers are becoming more tactical and sellers are having to rein in their pricing aspirations, and after a frenzied 2021 the number of transactions are already falling back to more ‘normal’ levels. We’ve been here before, though, and recently, when the artificial support of the housing market through the economic uncertainty of the pandemic, better known as the stamp duty holiday, was withdrawn.”
“But there’s no doubt that the data shows the recent run of huge house price rises has already started to show signs of the drop off. If only in the last month. ‘While forecasts of a housing price reduction have not yet fully materialised it seems inevitable that there will be some sort of slowdown in the coming year. House price growth continues to far outstrip wage growth and now, with a cost-of-living crisis looming, the run of ever-increasing property prices is simply unsustainable,’ says Karen Noye, mortgage specialist for wealth management firm Quilter.”
From Bloomberg. “Iceland’s central bank delivered its biggest interest-rate hike since the 2008 crisis, trying to quell inflation spurred by a rampant housing market. The Monetary Policy Committee in Reykjavik lifted the seven-day term deposit rate by 75 basis points to 2.75%, the highest level in almost two years.”
From CNBC. “Singapore introduced new measures in mid-December aimed at cooling the private and public residential real estate market, which included higher taxes on second and subsequent property purchases and tighter limits on loans. Foreign buyers appear to have been deterred by the new rules. Trisni Djohari, a PropNex real estate agent whose clients mostly come from Indonesia, said she used to receive around 10 to 12 enquiries a month.”
“But she said she only received one enquiry since the cooling measures were announced in mid-December until the time she spoke to CNBC in late January. ‘Most of them state that now they have to think twice [before they] buy property in Singapore,’ she said.”
“Demand was so strong that prices jumped multiple times in a day during one property launch. There were six rounds of price increases, and units sold ranged from $1,400 Singapore dollars per square foot to S$2,000 (between $1,042 to $1,490) per square foot. ‘Pasir Ris 8 was the iconic one,’ said Chantel Neo, a property agent at Huttons, referring to the private condominium in the eastern side of the island, which saw prices climbing during its launch. She said it was ‘quite a shock to the market.’ A number of potential buyers chose not to bid for a unit because the revised prices were too high, she added.”
The South China Morning Post. “Investors seem to have lost their appetite for bonds issued by Chinese developers while rising defaults by an increasing number of cash-strapped companies have pushed the cost of funding for the sector to more than a decade high. Chinese real estate companies issued 48.1 billion yuan (US$7.6 billion) worth of bonds in January in both local and foreign currencies, according to a research arm of KE Holdings, China’s biggest online property broker. That is a 70 per cent slide from a year earlier.”
“Chinese junk bonds have lost 34 per cent over the past six months, according to an ICE BofA Index that tracks US$56 billion of dollar bonds dominated by home developers. The yield has risen to about 23 per cent this week, from 10.5 per cent in June, shutting out borrowers. It reached 25 per cent in November, a level not seen since March 2009.”
“The confidence of the bond investors has been damaged since late last year when one home builder after another defaulted on their debts or pleaded with creditors to extend payment deadlines. While China Evergrande Group, Fantasia, Modern Land and Kaisa Group Holdings were among the major developers that defaulted on their offshore debt amid a liquidity crunch, others such as China Aoyuan Group and Yuzhou Group have joined the list this year.”