A report from KING TV in Washington. “‘Literally houses are staying on market a lot longer. House prices are dropping anywhere from $50,000-100,000. I’ve seen houses drop $300,000,’ said real estate broker Ali Samael. Housing prices coming down are a welcome sight for those in Seattle looking to buy a home. For-sale signs and open houses dot lawns in West Seattle.”
From CNBC. “Markets seeing the sharpest drops are those that previously had the highest prices in the nation. Average home values in San Jose, California, have fallen 5.1% in the last two months, the biggest drop of any of the top markets. That chopped $75,000 off the price. In Seattle, prices are down 3.8% in the past two months, or a $30,000 reduction. San Francisco, San Diego and Denver round out the top five markets with the biggest price reductions.”
East Idaho News. “Some apartment complexes that have housed Brigham Young University-Idaho students for years as part of the university’s approved housing network are preparing to leave that network to sell units individually as condos. Erik Mattson is one of the owners of Abri Apartments. In his opinion, owners are getting out of that market because they don’t have a better choice. ‘The revenue model is broken,’ Mattson says. ‘The reason people are converting to condos is because they have no other option.’”
“‘In our company’s 50-year history, this is the only market we’ve ever lost money in, and the reason is really simple,’ Mattson says. ‘The university sold us on an idea and didn’t follow through.’ Mattson says he put Abri Apartments up for sale when most real estate markets across the country were hot, but nobody was interested. ‘People asked for information, but when they started to realize all the issues we were dealing with, they didn’t want to buy,’ Mattson says. ‘It’s an incredibly challenging market to operate in.’”
“Grant Collard is an owner with Redstone Residential, which owns several Rexburg housing complexes. Collard says Redstone does not plan to leave the BYU-Idaho-approved housing market, but he is aware of the challenges owners face. ‘More than half of Rexburg student housing is listed for sale, or informally for sale ‘off-market,’ Collard says in an email to EastIdahoNews.com ‘We aren’t seeing them sell either — there are very few buyers for these types of assets right now. This is not normal.’”
“‘A main contributor to our low-performing market is that we have a closed system and can only rent to BYUI single students,’ wrote Rachel Whoolery, president of the BYU-Idaho Off-Campus Housing Association. ‘When there are only 71.1% students enrolled, there are no other options to fill our beds. The beds must sit empty for 5 months!’”
From CBS Austin in Texas. “Over the past year, residents at The Standard – a new, luxurious student housing complex in West Campus – have dealt with a multitude of issues prompting a year-long search for answers. Troubles at The Standard located on West 23rd Street began almost immediately upon the beginning of lease terms in August. Residents told CBS Austin they were met with unexpected problems, during move-in some units were missing furniture, while others had mold, among several issues.”
“Allison Uebele, a resident of the building, said a rat infestation in her apartment forced her to live in a hotel room for weeks out of her own pocket. She cited additional problems at the building, such as a lack of outdoor street lighting for most of the school year, green, sulfur-smelling water upon move-in, and car break-ins in the garage as additional reasons why she says she “doesn’t approve” of The Standard. ‘It’s just not a safe place to live at all,’ Uebele said. ‘They branded it as a luxury building, but in reality a lot of the students don’t feel safe to live here.’”
“CBS Austin sent a poll as a Google Form to an apartment-wide group chat with questions regarding the residents’ experiences living in the building, freezing the poll after 75 responses. The answers were telling – one resident calling the apartment ‘an absolute joke.’ Another respondent said, ‘They literally just don’t care about their residents, it’s sad.’ Of those polled, over 75 percent say they do not plan on renewing their lease at The Standard.”
The Naples Daily News in Florida. “For sellers looking to sell at the top of the market the reality is it’s already too late. The market has peaked, and we are now on the downside of the record high prices we have experienced over the past two years. After a three-year consistent increase, we have seen the first dip in median sales prices over the past month.”
“In Lee County the median sales prices are down 4% and in Collier sales prices are down 7%. This downward trend has also been seen in the number of sales. Lee County sales are down 10% and Collier County sales are down 30%, making June sales in Collier County the lowest number since 2013. The active market is seeing price reductions of 20 to 1 as compared to price increases. Four months ago, we saw these numbers to be almost exactly the opposite, with most houses selling for above the asking price and even being raised once already on the market.”
From Mansion Global. “In New York City, many would-be buyers are taking a step back, compounding the typical summer slow down. The diminished demand from buyers may soon force sellers to come down in their pricing. ‘We had a very hot sellers market in April and May, but things have shifted and slowed down a bit,’ said Jessica Cohen, a broker with Douglas Elliman in New York. ‘Aspirational pricing is not working well for sellers, and brokers are not getting as much traction now. Buyers are not feeling as squeezed, and sellers are a bit more nervous.’”
“For developments that launched during these slower months and are under pressure to meet sales thresholds, there may be opportunities to negotiate. ‘If you’re looking in a development where there are multiple units for sale at similar price points, or the development launched a bit late and the timing was bad, there could be real opportunities there,’ Ms. Cohen said. ‘No matter how special one unit is, if there are five available you can have the upper hand.’”
The Globe and Mail. “Stephen Brown, senior economist at Capital Economics, said he was surprised by the tepid estimate for June growth, given that hours worked that month jumped by 1.3 per cent. Moreover, he noted that Canada’s economic recovery from COVID-19 has lagged behind the U.S. pace, and therefore Canada’s better fortunes of late are not as impressive as they seem. ‘The fact that we’re already seeing a slowdown is a bit concerning,’ Mr. Brown said. ‘We’ve been fairly bearish on the outlook for Canada, just because of the housing sector, but it does seem that we’re getting broader weakness elsewhere than was maybe anticipated.’”
“‘We’re seeing a downturn in renovations and improvements, which is linked to the housing market,’ Mr. Brown said. ‘Obviously, to the extent fewer investors are flipping homes, that means they’re going to be putting less money into improving them.’ Mr. Brown also pointed to preconstruction home sales in Toronto, which have fallen sharply. ‘That suggests we’ll see a downturn in housing starts over the second half of the year, just because so many developers rely on those preconstruction sales to get the initial funding.’”
From Reuters. “This April, Australian home repairman Reis Saki put his parents’ house on the market in Melbourne’s outskirts, with hopes of a quick sale so they could move closer to family and health services. But six weeks and two interest rate hikes later, he withdrew the listing after receiving no offers, despite a 10% reduction in the asking price from what had been an average amount for similar properties in the area. ‘It was just nothing, nothing at all,’ Saki, 45, told Reuters by phone. ‘I was really losing my cool.’”
“Meanwhile, after deferring loan payments from pandemic-impacted home owners, lenders have resumed ‘mortgage enforcement’ activity like filing for repossession from people in default, according to court data. In the first six months of 2022, property repossession filings in Australia’s three most populous states totalled 997, up 56% from a year earlier. That was still well below pre-pandemic levels but signals mortgage stress, borrower advocates said.”
“‘There are letters of demand being issued, especially from the second and third tier lenders,’ said Claude Von Arx, a financial counsellor at the Consumer Action Law Centre. SQM Research said property advertisements with phrases like ‘mortgagee in possession’ or ‘bank forced sale’ hit a record low of 5,500 in April, the month before rates began rising, from about 15,000 pre-pandemic. By mid-July, the number had risen 10%.”
From Fox News. “The housing market in China has recorded a sharp drop-off in home sales throughout July as underlying economic troubles make themselves more apparent. Sales dropped 39.7% in July from the same period last year, marking a roughly $77.6 billion — or 523.14 billion yuan — decline. Just from Jun to July saw a drop of 28.6%, which ended a two-month rally. ‘China’s economy has been slowing for quite some time,’ Craig Singleton, a fellow at the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News. ‘What we’re witnessing now is a rapid economic slowdown.’”
From France 24. “An Irishman at risk of losing his farm. An American having suicidal thoughts. An 84-year-old widow’s lost life savings: People caught in the meltdown of crypto lender Celsius are pleading for their money back. Hundreds of letters have poured in to the judge overseeing the firm’s multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy and they are heavy with anger, shame, desperation and, frequently, regret. ‘I knew there were risks,’ said a client whose letter was unsigned. ‘It seemed a worthwhile risk.’”
“From that hard-working single mom in Texas struggling with past-due bills, to the teacher in India with all his hard-earned money deposited in Celsius — ‘I believe I can speak for most of us when I say I feel betrayed, ashamed, depressed, angry,’ wrote one client who signed their letter E.L. ‘By the time I finished the e-mail, I had collapsed onto the floor with my head in my hands and I fought back tears,’ wrote one man who had about $50,000 in assets with Celsius.”
“The clients who said they were hardest hit, including a man who said he placed $525,000 he got from a government loan on Celsius, disclosed they had considered killing themselves. Others reported heavy stress, lack of sleep and feelings of deep shame for putting their retirement savings or their children’s college money into a platform that was far riskier than they knew.”
“For people like one 84-year-old woman, who only had her roughly $30,000 in crypto savings on Celsius for a month, their hope lies in the bankruptcy proceedings. ‘It’s just not unusual for people to come out of something like this with zero,’ said Don Coker, an expert witness on banking and finance. ‘Obviously I feel sorry for anyone who loses an investment like this, but it is just something where they need to be aware of the risks.’”