A report from the East Hampton Star in New York. “There is already evidence of a real estate slump in the United States. The average price of luxury home sales is falling, as is the number of sales. Long Island specifically is suffering as sales decrease and homes lose value. This is rather astonishing given that the rest of the economy is still on steroids.”
From Patch New York. “Hundreds of new buildings with thousands of units are slated to open up in 2020 during what promises to be a tumultuous year for New York City’s real estate market, experts say. The glut of high-priced luxury homes hitting the market during a presidential election means anything is possible in 2020, experts said. ‘There is a disconnect between what buyers are seeking and what developers are offering,’ added CORE market analyst Garrett Derderian.”
From Curbed Boston in Massachusetts. “Declining prices? Check. Slowing construction? Check. More cautious prospective buyers and shrinking inventory? Check and check. The Boston-area housing market is poised to have a much different 2020 compared with the previous few years. What seemed once like the surest thing—putting your place on the market in the Boston area at a desired price—seems less sure now.”
The Santa Cruz Sentinel in California. “November’s median price, the midpoint of single-family homes sold in the county, dropped from $911,250 a year ago to $889,500, according to Gary Gangnes of Real Options Realty, who tracks the numbers. One single-family home that sold close to the median in November, at $884,000, is at 161 Belmont St. in Santa Cruz. Frank Murphy and his team at Keller Williams Santa Cruz, were the seller’s agent in the sale. The home, originally listed at $949,000, was on the market for 29 days before the owner accepted an offer, he said. ‘Sale prices are holding steady,’ Murphy said.”
“A lot of what happens in real estate depends on what people perceive to be happening, Murphy said, and not what is actually happening. For example, people outside of the real estate market will see a price reduction on a home and think other houses will do the same, he said, when the seller had a ‘misinformed idea’ about the value of the home and needed to adjust it.”
The Star Beacon on Ohio. “Janis Dorsten, a broker for Gillespie Realty LLC., said she has been working with foreclosures for more than a decade and continues to be busy even though the volume and intensity of the crisis between 2008 and 2015 has abated. She said social and economic changes made foreclosing a way out of a bad situation that was formerly only a possibility in the worst of circumstances. ‘It is not happening as much,’ Dorsten said, but has noticed a slight uptick in 2019.”
“Working with people in foreclosure is very difficult because their financial situations have taken such a bad turn. Dorsten said people are just trying to keep the housing and lights on and haven’t paid their mortgage for months. She said they try and get the person to work with the bank to save the home, but it is often too late. ‘I work with houses where you go ‘Oh my goodness,’ she said of the condition of the homes.”
The Canadian Press. “Housing assessments are in the mail for nearly two million homeowners in British Columbia, but those in Vancouver may have already searched their properties online to learn that values have fallen dramatically. The figures released Thursday by BC Assessment show the typical value of a single-family home in Vancouver has dropped 11 per cent, from $1.76 million to $1.57 million, as of July 1, 2019. The decline is more dramatic in the costly University Endowment Lands on the city’s west side, where average single-family home values fell 16 per cent from $5.9 million to $4.95 million. The average value of condominiums in Vancouver also fell by seven per cent, from $740,000 to $686,000.”
“Vancouver’s housing prices saw large gains from 2015 to 2017 that were unrelated to local incomes, prompting a flurry of intervention by all three levels of government. The current downturn reflects the ongoing stabilization of the market, said Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program. ‘This is part of a really important conversation here, which is really, how precarious was the market? Is it realistic to expect 15, 20 per cent increases per year?’ he asked. ‘How much of this is really meant to tap on the brakes before the vehicle breaks down on you?’”
“Federal measures including the mortgage stress test and more rigorous identity and income verification have had an impact, along with new taxes imposed by the provincial and Vancouver governments, he said. The province levied a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers in Metro Vancouver in 2016 that recently rose to 20 per cent and expanded to other areas including Greater Victoria and the Fraser Valley. Yan also said China has made it more difficult to move money out of the country, potentially reducing the flow of foreign capital to B.C.”
“The new assessments may ground homeowners to a more realistic understanding of their actual wealth as opposed to their wealth on paper, he said. ‘Really, are you as rich as you think you are?’ he asked.”