A report from the Daily News Record. “Next week, ownership of the nearly 81-acre and still largely vacant site of the planned Summit Crossing subdivision on the north end of town could change hands during a foreclosure sale at a public auction. At 11 a.m. Thursday, the property will be offered for sale at the Shenandoah County Circuit Courthouse in Woodstock, according to a legal notice. ‘We’ve heard from the lender that the lender has foreclosed on the developer,’ said Brian Otis, Strasburg’s planning and zoning administrator. ‘I wasn’t given a reason as to why.’”
“Cedar Valley Development’s plans for Summit Crossing included the construction of 111 townhomes in the development’s first phase and 141 single-family houses in the second and third phases. A majority of the town council approved the subdivision’s latest preliminary development plan in December 2019. Thus far, though, only a portion of road has been built on the property. No residences have been constructed. In the housing construction industry, investors looking to get out of projects is ‘not abnormal,’ Otis said.”
The Southeast Missourian. “We are to the point now — and frankly, we’ve been here for a while — that people are tired of the COVID-19 comparisons. But there’s no question real estate was one segment of our economy that was affected by the pandemic in a big way. The federal government flooded the economy with cash. The Federal Reserve continues to increase interest rates, which is driving up borrowing costs for those looking to purchase homes even as list prices are declining.”
“In Poplar Bluff, the median sale price for homes in January 2023 was $123,500, down 8.5% from the previous year. The high point over the last five years was October 2022 when the median price for homes sold was $156,000. Jackson shows a median sale price of $213,000 in January 2023, down 9.57% from the previous year. Its highest point was in March when the median price reached $266,000.”
The Review Journal. “Southern Nevada builders sold far fewer homes and pulled substantially fewer permits last month than they did a year earlier, but the market overall had ‘a few glimmers of light shining through the fog,’ says a new report. But in a sign of ‘current market weakness,’ sales were still well below year-ago levels, according to the association’s chairman, Alicia Huey. Single-family homes sold for a median price of $425,000 last month, down about 2 percent from a year earlier, according to trade association Las Vegas Realtors. Southern Nevada’s median sales price has now dropped by $57,000 from a record high of $482,000 last May.”
“A total of 1,325 single-family homes traded hands last month, down about 48 percent from January 2022, and 5,450 houses were on the market without offers at the end of January, up 199 percent from a year earlier, according to the association.”
From Arizona‘s Family. “Arizona’s housing market is off to a slow start this year according to new MLS data showing Phoenix had its slowest January for home sales in 15 years. ‘In this marketplace, when we say seller’s market, it’s barely a seller’s market. So it’s not like it felt like it did in 2020 through 2022. It’s a soft seller’s market,’ Valley realtor Trevor Halpern said. Not every community is in a seller’s market, the Cromford Report says Surprise, Goodyear, Queen Creek, Maricopa, and Buckeye are all in a buyer’s market. If you’re hoping to buy this year, Halpern says you have room to negotiate.”
“According to the Cromford Report, 51% of transactions involve seller concessions meaning sellers giving the buyer some sort of credit at closing. So as a buyer in this marketplace, you still have the ability to go in and negotiate, you still have the ability to try to get a percentage off of list price.’ Halpern added. For those hoping to sell this Spring, Halpern tells Arizona’s Family you need to price your home well. ‘It has to look good, it has to smell good. It has to emote for a buyer, they have to walk in and want to buy your place and then expect there to be some negotiations, expect there to be some give and take and expect that you’re not going to get probably your list price,’ he added.”
This Garden Island. “A confluence of reluctant homebuyers and soft inventory levels led to a rough start to the new year for the County of Kaua‘i housing market. Sales of single-family residences sank to 16 in January from 52 in January 2022, according to monthly data pooled from multiple sources by the Hawai‘i Association of Realtors in Honolulu. That marked a decrease of 69.23 percent in the period, and marked the steepest percentage drop of the four major island markets featured in the monthly data.”
“At the same time, the median price of a single-family residence on Kaua‘i dropped 14.34 percent to $809,500 from $945,000. The percentage decrease was also the largest among the four islands. ‘It’s back to that logjam,’ said Jimmy Johnson, broker in charge at RE/MAX Kaua‘i, on the unwillingness of buyers to buy and sellers to sell in the first month of the year.”
“O‘ahu was the only other island to record drops in home prices and sales to start the new year. The median price for a single-family residence fell 7.62 percent to $970,000 in January from $1,050,000 in January 2022. At the same time, sales retreated 53.99 percent to 150 from 326.”
From Bisnow. “Prices for commercial properties fell at the most rapid pace since 2010 in January, with prices of apartments sinking most sharply month-over-month, a new report shows. CPPI National All-Property Index dropped 4.8% from a year ago and 2.7% from December, according to MSCI, which released the report. If the pace were to continue all year, it would result in a 27.9% annual decline, the biggest since 2010. Apartment values also took the biggest hit in that report, dropping 20% in a year with a 1% fall in the last month, Bisnow previously reported.”
The New York Post. “Is the Midtown office building half empty or half full? As the city approaches the third anniversary of COVID lockdowns, Manhattan’s skyscrapers hover around the 50% occupancy mark. Steven Roth, chief of Vornado, the commercial landlord, told investors this month that as far as the workweek goes, ‘Friday is dead forever. . . . Monday is touch and go.’ Major landlords are giving ‘the keys back to the bank’ on some buildings, particularly mid-aged buildings, as RXR’s Scott Rechler puts it.”
CBS Bay Area in California. “A new bill authored by Assemblyman Matt Haney would prevent cities from stalling or killing the conversion of empty office space into housing in an effort to utilize the state’s emptying downtowns.The bill is partially spurred by the hundreds of empty offices in downtown San Francisco. According to the commercial real estate firm CBRE, some 27 percent of San Francisco’s offices were vacant at the end of 2022. ‘How people work was permanently changed by the pandemic and the downtowns that relied on commuters are starting to look like ghost towns,’ said Haney, D-San Francisco.”
KIRO in Washington. “Even open-minded Seattle liberals have their limits. Two weeks ago, longtime listener Mike Goldenkranz saw the David Horsey cartoon in The Seattle Times – depicting a couple of super friendly Sound Transit ambassadors handing a gift to a fentanyl smoker as a bribe to get him to leave the train. And he fired off an email to me. ‘When I saw the David Horsey cartoon, light rail ambassadors politely inviting a fentanyl-smoking passenger to please leave, complete with an incentive gift, I lost it,’ Goldenkranz told me.”
“‘As a liberal Seattleite since 1980, I’ve been okay with increasing my taxes to pay for successful mental health drug rehab programs and even alternative housing for street campers. But we spent billions to try to catch up with other cities’ excellent public transit systems. Our light rail trains should not be a refuge or safe house for drug users. Paying more to have light rail Sound Transit ambassadors versus our already hired Sound Transit Police to cajole flagrant drug users off of the light rail. It’s absurd. Arrest them! Treat the problem, and invest in resources, but don’t turn our public transit into de facto pilot safe house programs.’”
The Edmonton Journal in Canada. “It’s a fine balance — at least compared with a year ago. Edmonton’s resale real estate market may be facing declining sales and prices on a year-over-year basis, but the increased balance between supply and demand today is making for a less hectic experience for many buyers and sellers. In January, the region saw 986 sales, down from 1,326 for the same month last year, a drop of nearly 26 per cent. Meanwhile, the average price was $370,068, down about six per cent year over year.”
Daily Mail Australia. “A young couple has been forced to watched their unfinished dream home rot before their eyes after their builder abandoned it for a year before finally going bust this week. Eliza Burke, 27, and partner Jai Green, 31, have put their wedding and plans to have a second child on hold since signing a $360,000 contract with Brisbane-based Pantha Homes in December 2020. More than two years later, they’re still no closer to moving into the four bedroom, two bathroom home in the coastal suburb of Newport, north of Brisbane.”
“The family has spent their life savings on legal fees and experts to try and salvage the disaster. They are already $120,000 out of pocket – and expect that will to soar to more than $150,000 even after they are bailed out by state construction industry insurance. In another blow, the final price of the couple’s home is now set to top $550,000 because of rising costs since they first signed the contract – which they may not even be able to afford. All work has stopped and they say the wooden frame is rotten with mould while the laminate is now peeling off, and weeds are growing out of the slab.”
“The couple has been in touch with several other families facing similar problems since finding out Pantha had gone bust this week. ‘For us, it was actually a relief and we can now move on,’ Ms Burke said. ‘We have our claim in with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission insurance. But there are others who have been waiting for more than three years for their home to be built – and the QBCC insurance cover runs out after two years. It’s terrible for them. These poor people will be left with absolutely nothing.’”