A report from WUSA 9. “In a major victory for homebuyers, a DC Court of Appeals judge ruled that the District can be held liable for substandard housing purchased through government assistance programs. The decision comes after six Black female low-to-moderate income first-time homebuyers sued developers and the city after facing unsafe living conditions in the new condos they purchased in southeast DC through the District’s Housing Purchase Assistance Program. ‘I went from homeless to homeownership, and at this point I feel hopeless and homeless again,’ Robin McKinney said in 2021. ‘I’m afraid every time I go into my house, I feel preyed on, betrayed.’ ‘Once upon a time this did feel like home, but now it just feels like a place that I’m kind of stuck in,’ Jaztina Somerville said. That’s when they turned to filing a lawsuit in 2020.”

“‘This decision affirms the principle that nobody is above the law, including government entities, especially when consumers are harmed in such egregious ways related to their homes,’ said Je Yon Jung, lead counsel for the plaintiffs. ‘Our clients did everything that the District required of them to participate in the American dream of homeownership. Instead, they have been forced to spend years in a house of horrors and nightmares fighting for accountability and justice.’”

WGHP in North Carolina. “The waiting game isn’t just costing one group of condo owners time. It’s also wracking up a considerable price tag since the condo building along Lawndale Drive burned down in March of 2023. Todd and Kim Trifari remember the day well. Neither one was in Greensboro, but their sons called and Facetimed them, sharing videos and pictures of flames shooting out of building 5004, where their son Thomas lived. Currently, there’s a concrete slab where the building used to stand. Thomas and other condo owners have paid more than $4,000 in HOA fees since the fire. ‘It’s crazy. He doesn’t want to pay for it. I’m paying for nothing. I’m paying for a slab,’ said Todd.”

Honolulu Star Advertiser in Hawaii. “A state agency is moving ahead with a plan to recover what it can on an unpaid $9.8 million loan to the developer of a nearly 3-year-old Kakaako affordable condominium complex where many units remain unsold. Of the 153 units at The Block, 61 remain unsold since the project opened in December 2021 despite prices as low as $276,102 for some studios. A perhaps bigger issue with sales is a lack of parking for many units. Of the 61 unsold units, 42 don’t have parking, according to HHFDC. Dean Minakami, HHFDC’s executive director, told the agency’s board at Thursday’s meeting that the idea of developing a residential building with limited parking seemed all right given the circumstances a decade ago. ‘Of course, it’s a different story today,’ he said. ‘Rail is not here. Units without parking are very challenging to sell. So if we could go back in time, I think we’d have treated this project very differently. But we are where we are right now.’”

From WLRN. “Redfin found monthly association fees were climbing across Florida, including up almost 6% in Miami, almost 13% in West Palm Beach and up more than 16% in Fort Lauderdale compared to a year ago. According to Realtor.com, the median price of a home sold in Sunrise, which includes both single family homes and condos, was $230,000 in July. That is down 30% from a year earlier. ‘All of this is interlocking when we start losing condo sales and our seniors can’t save their homes or they’re being sold at a loss or they just stop paying their maintenance fee. Then you start to have this cascade downward where associations get in worse trouble,’ said Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan. ‘None of us are beyond the reach of what’s coming.’”

Mansion Global. “The fallout is already leading to a deluge of discounted condos on the market, which is threatening to upend Florida’s condo-dense housing markets—particularly in South Florida. ‘The effects are already starting to be seen,’ said Joseph Hernandez, a real estate lawyer with Bilzin Sumberg, who has been following the issue closely. ‘There is an absolute glut of 30-plus-year-old units on the market right now, and they’re not moving. It’s not unusual for there to be six-figure special assessments.’”

“At the Charter Club, a waterfront condo building in Edgewater built in 1973, the owner of a one-bedroom apartment recently received a special assessment of $74,000, according to Jaclyn Bild, a Douglass Elliman broker who is representing the seller. The unit is listed at around $400,000, already a discount from where it would have been priced a year ago, according to Bild. Previously, Bild had found a buyer for the Kendall unit, but when the prospective buyer went to visit, she got stuck in the elevator and had a panic attack. Needless to say, she canceled the contract. The unit was in contract a second time, but the buyer ran into trouble closing on a loan. ‘Our seller has to lower the price so much to make it enticing,’ she continued. ‘It’s price cut after price cut after price cut, and everyone’s competing on who can cut the price faster.’”

Houston Public Media in Texas. “Experts say the Houston market has shifted in favor of buyers and away from sellers who often had multiple above-asking price offers just a couple of years ago. Potential home buyers in Houston had more inventory to choose from in August, but sales were down again, continuing a persistent summer market slump. ‘Sellers are definitely motivated to move and buyers are maybe getting the upper hand in some transactions, it’s not in all transactions,’ HAR Vice-Chair Kat Robinson said. ‘Just because it takes a little bit longer to sell your home doesn’t mean we have a terrible market at all. It just means it’s taking a little bit longer for a buyer to make a decision.’”

Times of San Diego in California. “The OB Rag announced the top 3 winners of their ‘Worst ADU (accessory dwelling unit)’ contest, a tongue-in-cheek event meant to raise awareness about what critics deem predatory construction. While it is legal for homeowners to construct an ADU on their property in San Diego County, some residents argue that these units sacrifice the comfort and aesthetics of neighborhoods. ‘I don’t think most people want big ADUs,’ said Rag reporter Kate Callen. ‘I mean the whole, the whole point of the granny flat was maybe a bungalow in your backyard where your elderly mother could live, or where your adult child could live. This (contest) is about what are essentially apartment buildings, and in some cases, mansionettes.’ The gold went to a large ADU in the Bay Ho area, which the judges called a ‘monstrosity.’ The ADU crammed 14 units into a single lot, and the judges claimed that the developer is a ‘notorious neighborhood raider’ who threatens nearby residents with lawsuits.”

The Real Deal on California. “The value of Los Angeles offices collapsed after a pandemic shift to remote work, tumbling as much as 60 percent from their last sale. But like a bungee jumper from L.A.’s tallest skyscraper, prices have hit bottom and could begin to bounce back — providing opportunity for new investors, according to industry experts at an LA Real Estate Forum hosted Thursday by The Real Deal. Landlords, facing rising interest rates and falling occupancy and property values, defaulted on hundreds of millions in mortgage loans, with some surrendering offices to their lenders. Office real estate suffered more than any sector of the market, with an overabundance of workplace cubicles, according to Stuart Elliott, CEO of TRD. Office buildings sold at a fraction of their pre-pandemic market value. ‘There’s too much that we don’t need,’ Elliott said. ‘For a lot of buildings, the distress is really hitting the fan right now,’ especially in Downtown L.A.”

Bisnow on Georgia. “A massive South Buckhead property long known as the Darlington apartments, known for its sign displaying Atlanta’s population in real time, has been taken over by its lender. The Norfolk, Virginia-based investor took control of the property at 2025 Peachtree Road NE in a foreclosure sale valued at $92.5M, according to real estate tracking firm Databank. Westside Capital paid $136M to purchase the complex in July 2022 after an extensive renovation and rebranding, but it struggled to fill the units. The building was appraised at $149.9M shortly after its purchase, according to a DBRS Morningstar report on the building’s debt, based on Westside’s plan to raise rents. But that valuation turned out to be overly optimistic.”

“After generating $5.1M of net operating income in 2022, the building’s NOI was negative $168K in the trailing 12 months ending in March, and its net cash flow was $192K in the red, according to Morningstar Credit. ‘The floating-rate nature [of the loan] is what cratered it,’ said Ladson Haddow, who runs Haddow & Co. ‘Having walked through it, it seemed like a decent renovation.’ The Lofts are the latest casualty of high interest rates dragging apartment values underwater and pushing owners into distress. Frankforter Group is facing foreclosure on its $104M loan attached to Generation Atlanta, a luxury 17-story Downtown Atlanta apartment tower. The foreclosure sale is now scheduled for Oct. 1.”

Beach Metro in Canada. “‘They say that the best views come after the hardest climb. But they have never been enveloped in the peaceful utopia of the panoramic vistas from The View,’ reads a statement on the official website of the developers responsible for 507-511 Kingston Rd. in the Beach. However, following initial work which consisted of tearing down houses and digging out the slope on the south side of Kingston Road (just west of Lee Avenue), residents have been left with unfavourable views as construction of the site’s proposed eight-storey condo was seemingly halted.It is currently unclear when the updated report will be presented to Toronto Council.”

“‘(Residents) want just an update on when the tearing down of the current houses will be, and a timeline of the project – start to finish – just so we can prepare,’ Sue Beres, a resident of the area, told Beach Metro Community News. ‘Just respect for the community as a whole and its visitors. It looks like an abandoned wasteland and people just throw junk there now. It’s horrible.’ With Ontario’s housing market in a tumultuous state – Toronto being ground zero – issues with abandoned-looking projects will continue to arise across the city. As many housing presale investors opt to relinquish their deposits as the housing market navigates the Bank of Canada’s changing interest rates which, as of Sept. 4, sits at 4.25 per cent, some developers are left with less incentive to complete projects as returns of investment appear grim. Unsold units in the second quarter climbed to a ‘record high 25,893 units,’ according to Urbanation. Most of these unsold units are in the pre-construction phase.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “4631 Crawford Court, Kelowna, B.C. Asking price: $1.249-million (May 24); $1.199-million (June 27). Selling price: $1.05-million (July 23). The kitchen and bathrooms are dated, but the 25-year-old house is well maintained and bright, with high ceilings in the living room, central vacuum and a large yard with built-in irrigation and rural views. But a new road means more traffic noise, which might have affected the sale. Agent Richard Deacon’s clients were new to the country and wanted to be near their daughter, who lives nearby. If priced too high, properties are sitting longer, says Mr. Deacon. His buyers had looked at the property in early June and asked him if they should make a lowball offer. But Mr. Deacon advised them to wait, because the sellers had just lowered the price. After a couple of weeks, they went in with an offer. They were firm on their $1-million budget, so it took some negotiation, but they settled on a price. He said that a lot of offers are falling apart due to financing. ‘In a market like this, if you really want to move, take the reasonable offer.’”

From News.com.au. “They have too many houses and not enough buyers who want them. Parts of Australia’s major capitals and urban centres have become oversupplied with housing to the point that property values are likely to fall or stay in the deep freeze for many years, new data shows. These pockets of oversupply have come at a time when developers and urban planners have been scrambling to address widespread housing shortages across Australia as a whole. And that means many of these areas have reached a threshold where supply far exceeds demand, with research from SuburbData revealing up to one in seven of the total homes in some suburbs are now up for sale.”

“The suburbs with the biggest oversupply tended to be in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, but there were also isolated areas with oversupply in smaller cities, SuburbData noted. Experts have revealed the oversupply – where the volume of property sales far exceeds demand – has created a rare dilemma for home seekers. This opportunity comes with a catch: those softer conditions also make these markets some of the riskiest to buy into because of the higher likelihood of prices falling after purchase. Buyer’s agent Lloyd Edge of Aus Property Professionals said oversupply was of more concern for investors. ‘If you are buying as an investment in an area where there are so many houses being built at the same time, it means there is no scarcity,’ he said. ‘That is going to put downward pressure on prices when you go to sell the property because there is so much choice for buyers. It’s the same when you to rent it. You risk ending up with the property sitting vacant for a much longer time.’”

“Buyer’s agent Veronica Morgan, who runs an academy for first-home buyers, said those hoping to get a ‘good deal’ needed to be wary of purchasing in an oversupplied market. ‘Generally, if something is easy to buy, it’s difficult to sell. If you’re a first-home buyer and this is not going to be your forever home think carefully about who the next person that you’ll sell to will be.’”