A report from the Idaho Statesman. “Broker Kristin Scanlon predicts we will see home prices decrease again as existing home prices follow the decline of new home prices heading into winter. ‘There are huge subdivisions going in left and right,’ Scanlon said. ‘You’ve got all these production builders who are building standing inventory, sometimes 100 units at a time. We’ve seen a lot of them dropping their prices. You used to see primarily price increases all through the early parts of this year. Now you see probably 99% of those home price changes are reductions.’”
“‘It’s our market correcting itself,’ Scanlon said. ‘A lot of new builders in our area were pushing the envelope on price. Now I think sellers across the board are getting a little more realistic because inventory has increased. With the inventory increasing, it’s supply and demand. They have more competition so in order to move their inventory before snow flies, they need to adjust and get a little more realistic about their pricing.’”
From KREM 2 in Washington. “While Spokane is seeing a slight dip in prices and competition fall, local realtors say the housing market is still hot. Local realtor Marianne Bornhoft says a slight increase in inventory is also contributing to the cooldown. She said there are 3-5% more houses on the market compared to spring and summer 2021. Bornhoft added that sellers will need to be more realistic about pricing their homes. As for buyers, they will have more options on the market but should still expect inflated prices and competition against other buyers.”
“Despite the inflation, several local realtors shared that they are not expecting Spokane’s market to crash. ‘Spokane is its own little bubble,’ Bornhoft said.”
The Bend Bulletin in Oregon. “The single-family housing market in Redmond and Bend appears to have tempered and stabilized after months of low inventory and rising prices, according to the monthly Beacon report. Since April, the median price of a single-family home has bounced around the mid-$600,000 range in Bend, said Donnie Montagner, owner of Beacon Appraisal Group LLC of Redmond. In Redmond, the prices have stabilized around $450,000 since April, Montagner said.”
“‘It’s hard to say if we’ve hit the peak on the median sales prices,’ he said.’It’s good news for buyers and good for the community as a whole because there are more choices and a moderately increasing market that takes a lot of the guess work out of where we’re going in the real estate market.’ Homes are averaging a week on the market in Bend and Redmond, with some neighborhoods still receiving multiple offers and others having to reduce price, he said.”
The Dallas Morning News. “Four months in a row of declining North Texas home sales is an obvious indicator that the local housing market has peaked. After more than a year of runaway sales increases, single-family home sales by real estate agents have been down from last year since June. ‘Yes, I would say that the market is settling down from 12 months of insane buying frenzy,’ said Paige Shipp, vice president of market research with CDCG Asset Management. ‘The market is still very strong, just heading towards normalcy. And in real estate, normal is healthy.’”
The Maui News in Hawaii. “Maui County single-family home median sales prices dipped just below $1 million last month. The association’s president Keone Ball said that ‘I think that’s temporary’ as prices for real estate showed a slight dip from then. ‘I do think it will go back up,’ Ball added.”
“However, the Realtors Association of Maui’s September report said there are signs that the market may be shifting. ‘New listings have continued to hit the market, bucking seasonality trends commonly seen in the fall, a time when listing and sales activity typically slows as children return to school,’ according to the report. ‘As inventory increases, competition for homes may soften, and could even bring a moderation in sales prices, which, after 114 months of year-over-year gains, would be music to the ears of homebuyers throughout the country.’”
From Miami Community News in Florida. “Over the last 12 months, homeowners have been lulled into fantasy land as they read about bidding wars and hear about homes selling for many thousands of dollars more than asking price. Trying to capture some lightning in a bottle, they are becoming sellers thinking they can overprice their property too, but the market is now seeing a trend toward price reductions – 9.9 percent in September, up from 8.6 percent in July.”
“This Halloween may prove to be downright scary for greedy sellers who are chasing ghosts of months past. Many are setting their prices too high, attempting to get top dollar from buyers who they believe are willing to pay well over the asking price. A growing percentage of those sellers quickly learn that they have to get real. ‘Approximately 30 percent of all appraisals are now coming in below the Contract price in South Florida,’ remarks Phil Spool, a seasoned General Appraiser.”
“The market can certainly get spooked when, and this is true, almost 25 percent of sellers currently listed have put their homes on the market just to see how much profit they can make (according to a survey from realtor.com). Almost 30 percent said they were going to ask for more than their home was worth. Think about that for a moment. Sellers know they are overpriced and think that is perfectly OK.”
“The last quarter of 2021 may turn somewhat ghoulish with this unsustainable attitude. Price cuts are inevitable, especially with the likelihood of interest rate hikes ahead. Widespread price cuts can be bad for the overall market as they cause buyers to be wary of trying to buy and they might back away. When sellers make price reductions to get them back to the property, they wonder what’s wrong with it.”
“The blood-sucking vampires of the last 18-months will soon have their day come. Buyers know when something is overpriced. Until recently, that seemed acceptable. But what goes up must eventually return to the ground.”
From Post Media on Canada. “Residential real estate sales in metropolitan Montreal dropped 28 per cent last month. ‘The market is slowing down, and the biggest factor is the lack of supply,’ said director of market analysis Charles Brant. ‘Inventory is reaching levels that we last saw in 2003. Many house purchase projects have already taken place, and as we approach year-end, we think the sales growth will turn negative.’”
“While Montreal’s real estate market is still showing ‘significant’ signs of overheating, the proportion of sales concluded above the asking price has weakened over the past five months, the association said. ‘At these price levels, there are fewer buyers for properties,’ Brant said. ‘The risk is that prices will continue to increase. And if speculative investors get involved, that could keep pushing prices up even though the economic fundamentals aren’t there. The market is in a much more vulnerable situation than it was several months ago.’”
From Kenyans. “The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy continue to be felt across all sectors with hundreds of Kenyans facing an unprecedented future. A majority of them, have fallen short of income with most businesses reporting a dip, a situation that has led to many falling into debt. The local newspapers are once again filled with hundreds of commercial property, homes, houses and parcels of land set for auction after owners failed to meet their financial obligations.”
“Most of the houses valued to the tunes of millions of shillings are set to be sold at throwaway prices as the auctioneers indicated that sales are subject to reserve prices. Defaults on mortgages jumped 48 per cent to Ksh70.5 billion in the year to March. The auctions are meant to cushion the banks from loans as the latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya banking sector supervision report indicates that the 14 microfinance banks recorded a 561 per cent growth in losses – from Ksh339 million in 2019 to Ksh2.2 billion as of December 2020.”
The New York Times. “As the troubles of a major property developer and its $300 billion mountain of debt drive a government effort to contain the peril, Beijing risks hurting a major driver of its crucial economic growth engine: home buyers like He Qiang. Mr. He was so optimistic about property in China that he bought an apartment from that property developer, China Evergrande Group, then became a real estate agent himself, selling the company’s apartments to hundreds of other families. ‘It was the peak of Evergrande’s glory,’ Mr. He said.”
“He is much more pessimistic these days. Mr. He, who is from the southern city of Yueyang, has yet to move into his apartment because Evergrande has stopped construction. So many other people are nervous about buying homes, he said, that he’s considering going back to selling cars. ‘People aren’t in the mood to buy property anymore,’ Mr. He said.”
“The real estate boom that once attracted young professionals like Mr. He is experiencing a dramatic overhaul. At one point, buying was so frenzied that properties would sell out within minutes of being offered. Speculation sent prices soaring. Real estate grew to provide more than a quarter of the country’s economic growth by some estimates, with homes becoming the main savings vehicle for Chinese families.”
“Mr. He said his friends and neighbors who were once interested in buying real estate now tell him they worry about putting a down payment on an apartment that might never be built. Families once lured by Evergrande’s slick sales offices and impressive marketing are staying away. ‘People worry, ‘If I buy now, what if the developer has a sale later?’ Mr. He said.”
“Online government forums designed to receive feedback from local citizens are now inundated with complaints from angry families who bought apartments from Evergrande. Some wondered if they should keep paying the mortgage on a property that hasn’t been completed. One used the forum to ask if his lifelong savings would simply be ‘thrown into the water’ if Evergrande were to go bankrupt.”
“A group of home buyers on a forum in Guangzhou said they learned that Evergrande had placed the money from their down payments in a private bank account and not the one stipulated by the local authority and monitored closely. Another home buyer in the city of Meishan in China’s Sichuan Province used the forum to plead with officials, ‘Please uphold justice for your people!’”
“Mr. He is still waiting to hear from Evergrande about his apartment. Though the developer has not sent him a notice of delay, he can see that construction on his building stopped several months ago, and has had to reconsider his plans to get married next May. The apartment was supposed to be finished by the end of the year, giving him time to decorate so that the space could feature prominently in the wedding festivities. ‘Now with this delayed construction,’ Mr. He said, ‘the wedding will be postponed, too.’”