A report from The Daily Ardmoreite. “The quick sales and higher costs have led broker Marcus Cunningham to notice an interesting new quirk in the market. That is the number of people who back out of purchasing after getting an offer accepted. ‘Typically when someone puts in an offer and it gets accepted, that sale will almost always make it to closing,’ said Cunningham. ‘Now I’m seeing more people back out of houses in the first week than I ever have in my career. I think what happens is people are getting jumpy because they know how tight the market is right now. They’ll put in an offer early then freak out because they think they’ve made a hasty decision. That’s always occurred at times, but it’s getting more common.’”
From Dakota News Now. “The hot housing market in the Sioux Falls area is driving buyers to compete fiercely against each other. That also means some are skipping on an important step in the process, to try and get an edge. Amy Stockberger, Broker and Owner of Amy Stockberger Real Estate, said her business has seen that competition ramp up to many skipping on home inspections, as a way to sweeten the deal for sellers. ‘They’re going to find some things. That’s just part of home ownership,’ said Stockberger. ‘We’re very clear with our buyers that it’s not a point of renegotiation. A homeownership does have some items that will need to be fixed. But that’s the luxury.’”
From Vail Daily in Colorado. “As town and county governments regulate short-term rentals, some Summit County Realtors worry about what the future has in store. Leah Canfield, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Mountain Properties, said she’s seen interest from buyers in Breckenridge slow since the regulations went into place. Steve Fisher, board president of the Summit Association of Realtors, said it’s too early to tell how exactly the new rules will impact sales. However, he has heard from Realtors like Canfield, who are struggling to sell in Breckenridge.”
From Spectrum News on New York. “Joan Zhu, a small property owner in Brooklyn, said she hasn’t received any rental income from her Sheepshead Bay apartment unit in nearly two years. She said once the eviction moratorium went into effect in March 2020, her tenant paid April’s rent and hasn’t paid a dime since. ‘He asked me to put the mortgage into forbearance, not paying my property tax bill. He said, ‘It’s pandemic. There’s nothing you can do about it. I just stay here,’ said Zhu.”
“Zhu said she pays $3,128 a month for mortgage, property taxes and water at the two-family home. Her tenant’s $2,500-a-month rent payment would have covered the majority of that. Renee Digrugilliers, who practices landlord-tenant law, said the pandemic protections are still hurting landlords. ‘The two family homeowners who are dependent on this rent to pay their mortgages are going to lose their homes because nobody’s doing anything to help them,’ Digrugilliers said.”
Southern Maryland News. “By a 5-0 vote, the St. Mary’s County commissioners rejected a request to rezone a 2-acre property at 29871 Charlotte Hall Road from split commercial/residential to completely commercial. Removing the split zoning would benefit the property owner by providing the clear rules for future development, according to local land use attorney Chris Longmore. Brian Lopez, executive vice president of Osprey Property Co. of Annapolis said Southern Maryland has a glut of low-income housing and typically has a tenant turnover of 50% each year.”
The Holland Sentinel in Michigan. “Holland Township is growing, and with it is growing housing demand. But a study of township housing needs, paid for by the township government, showed the pace of housing development is on track, and slightly ahead, of projected demand for the next 20 years. The study found the township does not have enough stock of owner-occupied housing, estimating there is a demand for 10,358 units with only 9,704 units available (either already owned and occupied or marketed to homeowners), while there is an oversupply of rental housing compared to demand, with a demand of 4,155 rental units and 4,693 units for rent.”
From Better Dwelling. “Canadian real estate prices are soaring, but the fastest growth is not coming from big cities. BMO chief economist Douglas Porter tells clients to really think hard about this growth. Home prices are now rising even faster than at the peak of the 1980s real estate bubble. Most of that growth isn’t coming from emerging global hubs, but small towns. He asks investors to consider: Do all small towns have supply shortages? Or is the madness of the crowd taking over?”
“The CREA HPI only goes back to 2000, so there might be questions about how it compares to the ‘80s bubble. For that, BMO has to use the average transaction price from land registries. ‘… But even on the somewhat more volatile average transaction price measure, where records go back to 1980, the two-year gain is also a record-hot 48%,’ says Porter.”
“Adding, ‘In other words, the Canadian housing market has just seen bigger increases than ever witnessed through any two years of the great housing bubble of the late 1980s. Just as a reminder, that episode ultimately saw the overnight rate climb to 14% to quell inflation and bring the market to heel. Prices then went into the wilderness for a decade.’ The bank rhetorically asks, ‘Do you seriously believe that each and every one of these smaller centers suddenly suffers from a supply shortage, or could it possibly be that a common demand factor is driving the madness across the entire region?’”
From Stuff New Zealand. “Westpac is picking the biggest fall in prices, with a forecast of a cumulative 13 per cent drop, starting from the second half of this year and running through 2023 to 2024. The bank’s acting chief economist, Michael Gordon, says Westpac has expected moderate price declines since late last year. ‘But the timing of that turn boiled down to when rising mortgage rates started to weigh on what people were willing to pay for a house.’”
“It was always a question of how much momentum was left in the market before it would cool, he said. ‘The latest Real Estate Institute figures have left us revising our forecasts around timing, as it now looks as though the turn is coming sooner than we had assumed.’”
“BNZ’s chief economist, Paul Conway, says it is unlikely there will be ongoing price inflation in the housing market, because mortgage rates are going up, population growth has slowed dramatically, and there is a building boom going on. There is no way the current value of houses can be justified, BNZ head of research Stephen Toplis agrees. ‘Prices are unsustainable, but we have generated a perfect environment for a correction.’”
From Bloomberg. “Chinese property stocks slid after Zhenro Properties Group Ltd. said it may not have enough cash to meet debt-payment obligations next month, in a move that may undermine efforts by the government to stem financial contagion in the sector. Meanwhile, a bondholder is suing some directors of Chinese developer Fantasia Holdings Group Co. in Hong Kong, alleging that the company made ‘inaccurate and misleading’ announcements last year, highlighting growing concern about surprise defaults by developers.”
“Only seven weeks ago, Zhenro looked like a rare beacon of strength in a Chinese real estate industry reeling from an unprecedented stretch of defaults. Now Zhenro has become the latest developer to warn it may not meet its obligations, an about-face that’s extreme even by the standards of an industry where negative surprises have multiplied over the past year.”
From Yahoo Finance. “‘When… the most reliable buyer with its own printing press and an incredible willingness to buy – when they step out of the market, that is a fundamental change to the marketplace,’ Mohamed El-Erian told Yahoo Finance Live this week. ‘So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that [stock prices] are lower, because $120 billion a month of asset purchases are disappearing.’”
“According to Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, investors have to try to factor in the shrinking of the balance sheet – what she called ‘a tightening cycle that is unlike any we have seen in the past’ – even if it’s uniquely challenging to do so.”