A report from the Wall Street Journal. “Board members of the Highland Park Community Association in Mission Viejo, Calif., braced last year for a rise in insurance costs. Yet they were still shocked to receive a quote for over $170,000, which was more than four times what the association paid in 2022. In the case of wildfire damage, the maximum coverage would be $2 million, said Mark Speros, the board’s president. ‘It was like a bombshell,” he said. The board raised residents’ dues by 20%, the most the association allows per year, to $474 a month. ‘This is not the direction any of us wanted to go, but there is simply no choice,’ Speros wrote to homeowners.”
“Some condo owners are looking to move rather than absorb higher fees. Mindy and John Dunbar, who are retired and live in a community of duplexes in Aurora, Colo., are paying $399 a month to their homeowner association, but they expect the cost to keep rising because of higher insurance premiums and maintenance needs. They plan to list their home for sale soon and rent instead. ‘The increased costs are driving us nuts,’ Mindy Dunbar said. ‘Obviously the HOA dues are going to continue to go up.’”
“The Pines at Keystone struggled to find insurance for 2023. The community of 144 condos and townhomes in Keystone, Colo., ended up with a $960,000 policy, up from about $110,000 the previous year, said Gretchen Davis, the board’s president. The association approved a special assessment of several thousand dollars a household to pay for it. ‘Basically we said, ‘If you do not pass this, we do not have insurance,’ she said.”
The Idaho Statesman. “If you’ve spent any time driving around neighborhoods in Boise, Meridian, Nampa or Caldwell recently, you might have seen a deluge of yard signs. No, not political signs — yet. ‘Home for sale’ signs. Much of the increase in supply comes from existing homes going back on the market. ‘If we look at inventories for resale homes we are up dramatically,’ said Mike Pennington, a long-time agent with John L. Scott Real Estate in Boise. ‘This tells us that there is a desire for homeowners to sell and relocate, but they are having difficulty in doing so.’ The new-house inventory is rising too. Ada County had 554 available homes in May, up by 166 units or 43% over May 2023, Pennington said. Canyon County had 373, up by 168 units or 82%.”
“Homeowners who bought their houses in 2020 or 2021 when mortgage rates were closer to 3% don’t want to lose those low rates and can’t afford to move up and purchase more expensive houses with rates now around 7% since their monthly payments could go up much higher, said Brett Hughes, the designated broker of Boise Premier Real Estate.. ‘You have a segment of people that feel trapped by a very good mortgage,’ Hughes said. Since people aren’t moving up or selling homes as much, homeowners are getting squeezed on both sides. ‘They’re super stuck,’ Hughes said. ‘There’s no good options.’”
The Star Tribune. “It seems everyone likes Airbnb until there’s one next door in Lake Country. Neighbors living next to vacation home rentals in Minnesota’s most lake-rich county are hoping a new ordinance will bring some reprieve after years of large, loud parties, but some vacation homeowners say the regulations are an overreach. Franci and Dan Gleason rent out their Paul Lake cabin just west of Perham and live down the street. Under the ordinance, only seven guests are allowed at their two-bedroom Airbnb. They are concerned about the broad wording of the ordinance that says owners can be held liable for any civil or criminal penalties incurred on behalf of renters. ‘Somehow or another I’m going to be responsible and someone can come sue me and take my property because of some stupid frisbee or that the dog got loose,’ Franci said.”
KENS 5 in Texas. “As part of an effort to rein in ‘party houses’ and increase the amount of money funneled directly to the city’s coffers, San Antonio City Council on Thursday approved a laundry list of changes to its six-year-old law regulating short-term rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo. At least one local host had reservations. ‘If I rent out my house to a guest that comes from a neighbor house – sometimes within the city – and they throw a party, it is not my responsibility,’ said Ruben Uribe. ‘I’m not the one who threw the party. So I don’t know why these people are attacking us hosts.’”
From Fortune. “There are unaffordable housing markets, and then there are ‘”impossibly unaffordable’ markets, four of which are in California, according to the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability report, which was produced by Chapman University in California and the Frontier Center for Public Policy in Canada. ‘High housing prices, relative to incomes, are having a distinctly feudalizing impact on our home state of California, where the primary victims are young people, minorities, and immigrants,’ wrote Chapman’s Joel Kotkin. ‘Restrictive housing policies may be packaged as progressive, but in social terms their impact could be better characterized as regressive.’”
“A price-to-income ratio of 3 and below was deemed affordable, with higher ratios corresponding to worsening levels of unaffordability. A ratio of 9 or above was labeled “impossibly unaffordable.” Of the 11 cities in that category, four of them are in California. 1. Hong Kong (16.7). 2. Sydney (13.8). 3. Vancouver (12.3). 4. San Jose (11.9). 5. Los Angeles (10.9). 6. Honolulu (10.5). 7. Melbourne (9.8). 8. San Francisco (9.7). 9. Adelaide (9.7). 10. San Diego (9.5). 11. Toronto (9.3).”
Kelowna Now in Canada. “May saw a decrease of 3.55% on the average price of a home, while the median price dropped from $990,000 to $985,000. ‘We’re up to about 20% more listings this year compared to last year, which I think is great for the buyer coming into the market … you’re not having to battle for everything as you did a few years ago,’ said Jerry Redman, managing director of RE/MAX Kelowna. ‘ Pre-approvals are really important when you’re out shopping too because it’s actually quite surprising how many offers in the last while have been collapsing because of financing.’”
Radio New Zealand. “Rental listings across New Zealand are up 40 percent in the three months to May with some property managers warning landlords they may need to lower expectations to meet the market. the website’s data shows Auckland listings were up 40 percent, Wellington 56 percent, and Canterbury 35 percent, over the last quarter. Trade Me data showed Auckland had 1450 additional homes for rent between 28 February and 28 May – a 41 percent increase in stock. An Auckland Ray White property manager, Shane Ryder, said it had been noticeably harder to rent out homes since April.”
“‘Back in February, to rent a property you just do one viewing, and then it will be rented, you would have quite a few people lined up at the door and you’d have a number of applications to choose from. And now is, you may only get one or two people coming to the viewing and you may get no applications, so you do another viewing, and then you do another view…so it could be four or five viewings, there are houses that are gonna take longer than that,’ he said. ‘We’ve actually already introduced some properties where we’ve reduced the rent already to meet the market.’”
“Realestate.co.nz’s spokesperson Vanessa Williams said they had noticed a trend in landlords shifting to longer term rentals. ‘It is a significant increase in rental stock, and anecdotally what we’re hearing is that people are shifting away from shorter term rentals like Airbnbs and book-a-bach, and they’re moving to longer term rentals due to the economic climate that we’re in at the moment,’ she said.”
ABC News in Australia. “When Siddarth Prakash and Chetna Mahadik’s builder went bust and fled the country in 2020, they were confident Victoria’s state-run domestic building insurer would guide them through the stressful situation. But they say it turned into a nightmare. Their inner-city dream home remains unfinished, five years after work began. ‘It’s been very, very difficult,’ Mr Prakash told the ABC inside the building. ‘It’s been very trying and it’s really taken me to places which I had never expected to go just for making an insurance claim and building an ordinary family home.’”
“Following the collapse, Jared and Shontel Ford’s incomplete home was riddled with defects, including warped walls and uneven floorboards. When the ABC visited, Ms Ford was able to bounce on the floor of the master bedroom like a trampoline. Mr Ford said the VMIA’s offer does not cover all the defects — the couple are legally challenging the VMIA but feel let down by the insurance process, saying it had been adversarial throughout. ‘I feel sick, it’s frustrating. I feel the system has completely turned its back on us,’ Mr Ford said. The impasse is costing the family money and heartache. ‘What’s the point of having insurance if they’re not going to help you when you’re in trouble? Isn’t that the whole point?’ Ms Ford said.”
9 News in Australia. “Collapses within the building industry are all too common these days, leaving subcontractors out of pocket. One group of small business owners is pleading for help after the company it was contracted to went bust on a state government project, owing them more than $1 million. Rork Projects was contracted by Transport for NSW to refurbish one building at a depot in Yennora, in Western Sydney, and extend another one. The subcontractors did the work – completing the first building – and were about to start on the second. Rork then went into liquidation. Electrical contractor Nikolai Pavlovic is owed $200,000 for work done and another $160,000 for lighting and switchboards that can only be used on that second stage – meaning he can’t return any of it.”
“‘There’s been no contact from Transport (for NSW),’ he said. ‘No contact from anyone, with bills to pay. These days in the construction industry you’re working on tiny margins so it’s a massive hit. It’s a kick in the guts.’ Concreter Tony Habib is owed $560,000. ‘We bought lots of concrete and steel. We have our houses under guarantor,’ he said. ‘So, if I don’t pay these companies, I will be losing my houses and my family will be living on the street. It’s a government job. They should look after the trades.’”
From AFP. “Rows and rows of partially inhabited high-rises sprawl into the suburbs of the northern Chinese metropolis of Tianjin, their empty balconies emblematic of a slowing economy that has not kept pace with the country’s ambitions. In Tianjin, grandmother Wang Dongmei told AFP that in 2016, she and her daughter purchased a house near a riverside promenade for 870,000 yuan ($120,000). It was now worth just over 600,000 yuan, she said. ‘It’s the lowest the price has been in the last 10 years,’ she sighed, but ‘we want to sell… that’s just how it is.’”
“At a housing estate in Tianjin, customer manager Zhao Xin said there were signs of a slight recovery in the market, driven in part by the new measures. ‘But it is not realistic to say that it will reach the same high level as before,’ warned Zhao. The job market’s problems stretch deeper than just China’s young people, though. One employer told AFP it was ‘very difficult’ for people over 30 in the current climate. The issue, said a graduate surnamed Shen, was simply that ‘there are too many jobseekers relative to positions available.’ Top candidates who might once have nabbed a job paying 30,000 yuan a month would probably get a third of that now, said Shen.”