A report from the Mercury News in California. “In an opportunity most would-be Bay Area homeowners can only dream about, a handful of buyers snagged nine condominiums in a downtown San Jose housing tower at auction — paying an eye-popping average of just $31,900 each. Despite hot tempers and court maneuvers to delay the sales, the hours-long auction of the condos at 188 West St. James Street proceeded on Monday, giving winning bidders a deal that seems too good to be true. And just might be. China-based Z&L Properties, which developed and owns the two-tower housing complex, had fallen behind in the payment of HOA dues on completed-but-unsold units. The HOA decided to auction the units to buyers who will begin paying the monthly fees after they take ownership. Z&L has 90 days to regain ownership of the just-sold units — if the company pays the delinquent dues, late fees and penalties for each condo.”
“For now, though, the buyers of the nine condos paid a stunning fraction of what people might expect to pay in a region where the average home goes for well north of $1 million — a move that could have long-range implications. ‘Prices this low,’ David Taxin, a partner with Meacham Oppenheimer, warned, ‘could affect the future values for the condos in the tower.’”
Fast Company. “At the height of the pandemic housing boom, this 5-bedroom house in Oakland, California, sold for a whopping $4.1 million in March 2022. Fast-forward to January 2024, and the home was listed for sale again at close to $3 million, or about 27% below the March 2022 sale price. That lower price tag doesn’t appear to be an agent tactic, given that on April 1, 2024, the price was cut to $2.55 million. This latest price tag is nearly 38% below its March 2022 sale price; however, it still remains almost 46% above its November 2020 sale price of $1.75 million.”
The Venice Gondolier Sun in Florida. “Projections of a very active and dangerous hurricane season aren’t lost on Dave Hollomon. Yet the 80-something Rotonda West resident is taking his chances and going without property insurance on his home. He said the last quote he received was just too much for him and his wife to afford. And, he said, he knows a lot more people who are in the same boat. ‘We had a claim after Ian with Citizens and it all worked out well,’ Dave Hollomon said. ‘But when it came time to renew, (our premium) doubled. I tried to call a couple of agents but had no luck.’ Hollomon said he is watching on the Internet and sees that dozens of people are making the same decision he is about taking their chances without insurance (other than liability). ‘I am absolutely worried about this hurricane season,’ he said. ‘But I feel I’m stuck. We’re in our 80s and have a modest income. I just hope the state can help.’”
WINK News in Florida. “The housing market is in shambles. Rent prices are up, property taxes are up and the only thing down is the amount of people buying homes. WINK spoke with a broker who said it’s not a buyer or seller’s market. He’s been telling sellers it’s a bargain hunters market. Inventory is higher than it’s been in years, homes are sitting on the market months longer and sellers who need to get out are slashing prices. Chad Osbourne, CEO of Call It Closed, said inventory is the highest it’s been in five or six years. ‘We’ve been telling some of our sellers that it’s not really even a buyer’s market right now. It’s actually a bargain hunters market,’ Osbourne said. Osbourne said homes stay on the market for an average of four months. Because homes are on the market longer, there are deals to be had.”
From Fortune. “Everyone seems to be having a tough time in today’s housing market. Even billionaire media mogul and proprietor Rupert Murdoch is struggling. Murdoch’s Manhattan penthouse was listed at such a high price, that he and his agent have had to cut the price by nearly 40% from $62 million to $38.5 million. At the current list price, Murdoch will take a loss on the property, since he purchased it for $57.9 million in 2014, according to a Wall Street Journal report. ‘Ultra-luxury property sales are challenging due to the limited buyer pool at these price points,’ Noah Rosenblatt, cofounder of New York City–based UrbanDigs, tells Fortune. ‘These unique trophy homes are more akin to the art market than the real estate market, with value determined mainly by a potential buyer’s perception.’”
Market Place. “As an apartment broker in Austin, Texas, Garrett Dominey helps out-of-towners find higher-end apartments and helps landlords find out-of-town renters. Back when every Tesla worker and their mother was moving to Texas, he used to have a lot of success posting apartment ads to Craigslist. ‘You’ll get a hit maybe even within the day. Now it’s weeks, a month,’ he said. A glut of newly constructed apartment buildings in the city has sent rents down 7% year over year, and landlords are getting more creative with their marketing. ‘We see gift cards,’ Dominey said. ‘You get, like, a $2,000 Amex gift card if you sign within 48 hours.’”
The Wall Street Journal. “The Railway Exchange Building was the heart of downtown St. Louis for a century. Every day, locals crowded into the sprawling, ornate 21-story office building to go to work, shop at the department store that filled its lower floors or dine on the famous French onion soup at its restaurant. Today, the building sits empty, with many of its windows boarded up. A fire broke out last year, which authorities suspect was the work of copper thieves. Police and firefighters send in occasional raids to search for missing people or to roust squatters. A search dog died during one of the raids last year when it fell through an open window.”
“Cities such as San Francisco and Chicago are trying to save their downtown office districts from spiraling into a doom loop. St. Louis is already trapped in one. The price for the AT&T Tower, three blocks from the Railway Exchange, was a sliver of the $205 million it sold for in 2006. Its value has been falling for years. In 2022, it changed hands for just $4 million.”
KDVR in Colorado. “Denver Mayor Mike Johnston went face to face with residents directly affected by a homeless encampment in west Denver. Neighbors complained about human waste, drug use and violence at a camp near 8th Avenue and Navajo Street, and now the city will take steps to clear it out next Tuesday, April 16. Some residents said they still are not hopeful about the future of their neighborhood. ‘I was just passing by there the other day and this girl was selling some blues to these people,’ Sandra Montoya said, referring to the street name for counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl.”
“Johnston hosted a town hall Tuesday at a community center in the neighborhood, where folks had a chance to let him know what it’s like living near the encampment. ‘My niece is getting chased down the street. Nobody cares. How many reports do we have to have for attention from anybody?’ a resident named Yvonne said.”
Willamette Week in Oregon. “Talk to most commercial real estate experts and you’ll hear that downtown Portland is a smoking crater, occupancywise, and that things are only going to get worse as workers cling to home offices to avoid a downtown reeking of fentanyl. Any revival in the urban core comes too late for many buildings. Montgomery Park, for one, went to foreclosure auction in February. No one bid, so the building went to its lender, Natixis, based in Paris.”
CTV News in Canada. “Luxury home sales cooled in the first two months of the year in the city of Ottawa as affordability took a backseat to inventory, according to a new report. ‘Condominiums continue to be a popular choice amongst young professionals and downsizing empty nesters and retirees who want to be in the city’s core,’ RE/MAX said. ‘An ample supply of condominium apartments is available, with 39 properties currently listed for sale.’”
Plymouth Live in the UK. “Residents living on a Plymouth housing development say they are ‘gutted’ and feel ‘left in the lurch’ after a South West building firm announced it was going into administration. Halsall Construction Ltd has filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator after making losses of £2.3m – leaving the Silver Hill estate in Tamerton Foliot only half built. George Clark, who bought a three-bedroom semi at Silver Hill, said: ‘It’s concerning. We have all had issues since we moved in. I like the house and the neighbourhood but it is all very unfinished and now we are left in the lurch – will things get finished, and when? The worst case would be if they abandoned everything and we were left on an unfinished estate. It’s causing anxiety and stress.’”
“Another Silver Hill resident, the owner of one three-bedroom detached house, said he only found out from a site manager that Halsall was in difficulties and all work had ceased. He said: ‘We are gutted. What we have been left with is utter chaos. Some houses are half finished and the site is locked. We are living on a building site. It’s disastrous. We are all fed up.’”
News.com.au in Australia. “Workers at two NSW factories have slammed their former employer after the company went bust, leaving them and other creditors multiple millions out of pocket. Last month, two companies linked to the Sydney-based Apollo group, which manufactures kitchen and bathroom joinery, collapsed into liquidation after 56 years in business. Its main clients were big builders who will likely have to wear the cost in an already difficult market. Apollo also had showrooms in Sydney and the Central Coast where customers could come in to order cabinets or bench tops for their homes directly. One staff member, Ron*, who preferred to stay anonymous for future job prospects, hasn’t received any superannuation for 18 months, not since October 2022. ‘All staff are absolutely disgusted,’ Ron told news.com.au.”
From Sun Live. “Residential property values have continued to gently rise and fall throughout the first quarter of 2024, amidst a glut of listings and an ongoing dearth of sales across much of New Zealand Aotearoa. The average home value is now 1.9 per cent higher than the same time last year and 13.1 per cent below the market’s peak in late 2021. QV operations manager James Wilson says: ‘Although the pendulum has clearly swung in favour of prospective purchasers, with a relatively large number of properties on the market today giving them plenty of choice and helping to maintain downward pressure on prices overall, interest rates and credit constraints are continuing to make life very difficult for everyone.’”
“‘The recent influx of new listings on the market appears to have had more of a cooling effect within the main centres so far – most notably in Auckland, where home values have largely stalled in recent months,’ James says. ‘I expect to see this trend continue here and in some of our other larger cities over the next few months.’”
From Yicai Global. “A Beijing property developer is taking the unprecedented step of offering a holiday home in the coastal city of Yantai to buyers who make upfront payments for properties in its development in east Beijing. The move reflects the lengths to which Chinese real estate firms are going to boost sales, industry insiders said. Anyone who pays cash for a 77-square-meter apartment in the project in Beijing’s Tongzhou district before the end of the month will also receive a 108-sqm house with a sea view in Yantai, a city 700 kilometers away in eastern Shandong province, the developer said last week. The market price of the Beijing property is around CNY4.7 million (USD650,000) while that of the one in Yantai is around CNY450,000.”
“Although many developers are offering promotions, it is still quite rare to give away real estate, Guan Rongxue, a senior analyst at think tank Zhuge Data Research Center, told Yicai. It also highlights the difficulties that homebuilders are facing in Yantai, once a popular coastal get-away, Guan said. Many developers built holiday homes in the city, but there has been a high vacancy rate in recent years. In 2019, at the peak of property sales in Yantai, housing prices doubled. But since 2020, the Yantai real estate market has been on a downward slide and developers have had to slash the price of seafront properties.”
“The Yantai houses being offered for free used to cost around CNY6,000 (USD830) per square meter, but now prices have fallen to as little as CNY4,400 per square meter, a local real estate agent told Yicai.”