It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Jeff Tucker, Windermere Real Estate principal economist, said the 2.8 months of inventory in the Regional MLS’ most recent Portland metro sales digest suggested a shift toward something resembling a buyer’s market. Having more listings generally swings the balance of negotiating power in buyers’ favor, Tucker said: ‘If you don’t accept this offer below list price, I can find a similar home down the block for that price.’ Buyers could also extract concessions from sellers like repair work or covering closing costs and fees. Homeowners who took out loans three years ago, Tucker said, are far less likely to sell now and trade their low rate for a much higher one. ‘They get to live in that time capsule until 2051 if they want to,’ the economist said. ‘When we do say ‘a buyer’s market’ with this many listings,’ Tucker said, ‘it doesn’t mean they’re giving them away for free.’”

“Sellers and builders are getting creative to make sure their homes make it off the market. Sellers are even using incentives called ‘concessions’ to their advantage. Stephanie Schrimsher has been a realtor in North Alabama for years. She says the Huntsville market is beginning to cool slightly after a pandemic boom. ‘More concessions are being offered than I’ve ever seen in my almost 2 decades in the industry. Concessions have gone up considerably with most of the production builders here in town,’ Schrimsher told News 19. ‘It comes off the bottom line of their margin, but it costs money to carry that inventory.’ Builders are working hard to make deals. With entire neighborhoods to sell, concessions have become a major tool to close deals quickly.”

“Condo developers in Miami have re-discovered the condo-hotel, and buyers are eating it up. But they may be disappointed with their returns once their units are completed. ‘It’s going to be a bit of a bloodbath of competition,’ said Craig Studnicky, CEO of Aventura-based brokerage firm ISG World. The brokers selling these projects are relying on hotel statistics, which Studnicky and others say is not an accurate comparison. That will become apparent for these owners if they decide to sell. ‘The forecasted income and occupancy rates are overstated and the management expenses are understated,’ he said. ‘All of that results in very little to zero NOI and that’s why they don’t appreciate [in value].’ Studnicky said he won’t sell condo-hotels, which he compared to time-shares. ‘It’s not the wisest place to put your money,’ he said.”

“The storm did millions of dollars in damage to the condo complex on Little Hickory. Ian’s 12-foot storm surge yanked all the greenery out by the roots and carried it away. It sucked the one-story pool house out to sea. Nearly two years later, condo owners have spent roughly $9 million in repairs, fronting about half of that themselves. They’re still waiting on their insurer to come through. Yet more work has gone uncompleted as the board awaits payment from wind carrier American Coastal. Stephen Miller and his wife bought a fourth-floor condo at Dolphin Way about 17 years ago. They closed at $464,000, which was, at the time, the highest price anyone had paid for a Dolphin Way condo. ‘The condo was part of my retirement plan,’ Miller said. But the condos didn’t even pass inspection until December 2023, leaving Miller and others who counted on the income from in-season rentals hard-up.”

“Now, Miller said, their finances are strained after so many assessments and the doubling of their quarterly dues, from $2,450 to $4,895. He’s taken out a line of credit on his business and a home equity line to float the tens of thousands he owed in assessments – and residents anticipate another $60,000 coming due in winter 2025. Jim Boehme and his wife, AnneMarie, own a modest one-bedroom condo in Dolphin Way. He’s watched his neighbors struggle to afford the assessments. Some have put their condos on the market; others wrestle with the decision to sell. While he and AnneMarie are sticking around, the three special assessments that have come due in the past two years pinched when he was forced to sell stocks. ‘I don’t have $54,000 in my checking account,’ Boehme said. ‘Most people don’t.’”

“For real estate agents like Sofia Dheming, it is becoming a bit more of a buyer’s market, which is much better than where we were a few weeks ago. ‘For a little bit we were no one’s market, we were… no market,’ she said. Several housing advocates in the New Orleans area sent a letter to Baton Rouge to get the insurance commissioner’s attention. For real estate agents, it’s heartbreaking to see people leave their recently bought forever homes and be forced to move out of state. Andreanecia Morris, the executive director of HousingNOLA, says if this problem doesn’t let up soon, it could become a bigger issue. ‘We’re going to see a lot of foreclosures, unfortunately. It’s not going to be due to people who cannot pay for their home, but rather people that can’t afford their home because of outside factors.’”

“According to Realtor.com, the number of sellers cutting home prices is at a two-year high. Inventory was notably higher in July, growing by 36.6% — a ninth straight month of growth and is now at a post-pandemic high. The biggest price drops were in Tampa, Charlotte and Phoenix, but all regions of the U.S. experienced price cuts. Realtor.com said sellers are having a hard time with the price cuts as they see comparable homes in their neighborhoods that sold a couple of years ago for higher prices. ‘Telling them that they missed the mark and have to settle for less is never a fun conversation,’ California realtor Sam Fitz-Simon told Realtor.com.”

“Ready Capital, a key lender on the sinking syndicator ship, is selling distressed debt for cents on the dollar. The discount implies the properties many multifamily investors are struggling to buoy are already far underwater. The New York-based lender reported it sold $20 million in loans so far this year and another $450 million are in contract to trade in the third quarter, executives detailed on a Thursday morning earnings call. The loans that cleared sold at 70 cents on the dollars, Chief Financial Officer Andrew Ahlborn said. It expects that the total debt it wants to offload by years’ end —- both the debt in contract and another $130 million in the works — will sell for 50 cents on the dollar. Those loan pools awaiting sale contain both office and multifamily debt. Ahlborn said multifamily is driving the discount. ‘Office has been marked down 25 percent,’ Ahlborn said. ‘Multifamily is a little bit higher.’”

“A recovery in Canada’s housing market looks set to be a drawn-out process, with Toronto’s condo segment fighting an especially heavy malaise. ‘We have a lot of supply to work through in the city,’ says Christopher Bibby, broker with Re/Max Hallmark Bibby Group Realty. ‘If we’re going after prices of previous markets, we’re stuck.’ Recently, Toronto’s condo supply stood 86 per cent higher than at this time last year, while sales tumbled about 25 per cent in the same period, Mr. Bibby says. Mr. Bibby says he’s hearing from some potential sellers who seem out of touch with current market conditions. Many are holding out for aspirational prices. All of the deals he has put together recently are for people who plan to live in the property. ‘Right now, that’s the total of our business. There’s no case at the moment for why a condominium would make a great investment.’”

“In Toronto, Mr. Bibby notes that buyers who have made recent purchases are jittery about whether they overpaid or if the bottom is still to come.He sees signs of that anxiety. In high-rise towers where many identical units were designed for the investor market, units languish, he says. ‘These end users don’t want to live in these 50-storey buildings – mostly tenanted – with one elevator working. The build quality is horrendous, and the floor plans don’t make sense,’ he says. Without strong price appreciation in the near term, many owners are not willing to hold on. For one recent listing, he has set the asking price below the amount the seller paid for the unit in 2021. Mr. Bibby says in tough situations like that, he can only present a clear view of the numbers, then offer advice based on the individual’s finances, patience and risk tolerance. ‘I feel like I’m taking a role almost as a real estate therapist.’”

“Narinder Singh of Brampton, Ont., says he and his wife bought their condo apartment in Etobicoke as an investment for retirement. ‘We worked for decades to save, penny by penny, for our old age,’ said Singh. But since 2020, Singh says the female tenant has paid only intermittently: he produced a ledger showing Deeqa Rafle owes $41,600 in back rent and $5,249.35 in unpaid utilities. In the meantime, she’s still living in Singh’s 32nd-floor apartment steps from Lake Ontario. Singh says the experience with renting has left a lasting impression. He says once his tenant has moved out, he’ll likely sell the apartment — because he would never rent again. ‘I am aware of the housing crisis in the country but if people are here to abuse the law go find your own, I’m not a babysitter, I can’t help you.’”

“Property prices are dropping, fewer sales are taking place, and it is taking longer to sell houses. It took more than six months to sell a Guernsey property in the last quarter – a month more than at the same time last year. The final selling price is nearly 9% below the advertised price, compared with 6.9% in quarter two 2023. The mix-adjusted average purchase price for the local market properties sold in the second quarter of was £587,673. SPF brokers have been getting busier over the last three weeks, and managing director Pierre Blampied said he was hearing from estate agents that they were now busy with viewings. He said they knew it had been a difficult year. ‘Looking at house prices over the last 12 months, we have seen a 10% price correction,’ he said.”

“Another defendant in the SFO’s prosecution of a complex mortgage and investment fraud case can now be named. Christopher Peters has been charged with 23 counts of obtaining credit of $7.3 million by deception (14 as principal offender). He has also been charged with six counts of attempting to obtain a further $2.9 million by deception (all as principal offender), and four counts of obtaining property by deception (two as principal). In March 2024, the District Court at North Shore declined to grant name suppression to Christopher Peters, and in May 2024, the High Court at Auckland dismissed an appeal of that decision. A total of 37 charges have been filed in relation to an alleged mortgage fraud scheme, against Christopher Peters, Robert Peters and two other people who have name suppression, for obtaining credit or property by deception and attempting to obtain credit by deception. One of the unnamed defendants has pleaded guilty to four charges having admitted to providing misleading information to their bank as part of a 2018 loan application and is due to be sentenced in August 2024.”

“Distressed customers are contacting AMP’s call centre seeking to draw down their superannuation to help fund their mortgage repayments, as economic uncertainty and high-interest rates continue to weigh on Australians. ‘If you look at our customer base, there is an element of customers and the community doing it really tough, and you can see that in the arrears showing up in our [loan] book,’ said chief executive Alexis George. ‘You can see it in our call centre, you can hear it in our customers’ voices. People are looking for avenues to draw down their super. We’re in a situation economically, it’s still OK, but there is an element in our community doing it tough.’”