A report from the Indianapolis Star. “A single-family house in central Indiana sold at an average of $315,000 in May, according to Annie Caruso, president of the MIBOR Realtor Association. Active inventory in central Indiana has increased nearly 17% from 2023. Indiana Association of Realtors president Jennifer Parham believes the market has shifted in homebuyers’ favor despite the increased cost. ‘Property values and housing prices continue to rise across much of Indiana,’ Parham said. ‘But with more inventory, we’re also seeing more homes with price adjustments and final sale prices further below their original listing price – signs of buyers gaining a little more leverage.’”

The Star Tribune in Minnesota. “Home sellers in the Twin Cities still have a substantial advantage over buyers, but buyers gained considerable ground last month as listings increased and the competition eased slightly. Last month there was a nearly 16% annual increase in the number of homes for sale across the metro — the most for any May in at least four years, according to the Minneapolis Area Realtors. At the same time, buyers signed 5% fewer purchase agreements than they did a year ago, giving buyers more choices than they’ve had in many months. ‘While the market is undergoing corrections, it is not a balanced market yet,’ said Amy Peterson, president of the Saint Paul Area Association of Realtors.”

“The Twin Cities mirrors national trends. A U.S. report from Zillow shows that house listings in the Twin Cities increased 18% from April to May — the eighth largest bump among major metros. ‘While it’s true that each area and even market segment is unique, there are still some common threads,’ said Jamar Hardy, president of Minneapolis Area Realtors. ‘Rising inventory is one of those themes, yet those shopping for homes shouldn’t assume we’re suddenly in a buyer’s market because we’re not.’”

WJHL in Tennessee. “Losing tens of thousands of dollars and having their lives turned upside down when Wood Construction and Remodeling took their money and didn’t perform major remodeling jobs isn’t the only thing Sarah Fogle and Jacci Wallace have in common. Both women are also insistent that a proposed federal wire fraud plea deal for former owner Leighton ‘Joe’ Wood — even though it includes restitution for a number of victims — also include a jail sentence. ‘It is infuriating to think that someone could do this to so many individuals and deliberately know that’s their plan and walk or possibly get probation,’ said Fogle, who paid Wood $78,000 for a contract to rebuild a home gutted in a fire and lost it all. ”I’ve thought about this for so long and in a perfect world, it would be great if Joe Wood could get me my life back, give me that peace of not having to worry about things that (back) then I didn’t have to worry about. But I know that’s not feasible.’”

“News Channel 11 broke a series of investigative stories on the Johnson City-based company in the fall of 2021 as dozens of customers from multiple states were filing complaints. ‘If he does not have some kind of jail sentence, that’s not justice,’ said Wallace, who paid about $80,000 for Wood to renovate two homes after her family and her parents moved from Oregon in 2021. ‘He hurt way too many people to be let off with probation. Way too many people.’”

The Denver Post in Colorado. “Denver housing officials finally have zeroed in on how much they expect Mayor Mike Johnston’s All In Mile High homelessness initiative to cost the city on an ongoing basis: $57.5 million a year. It’s taken the Johnston administration almost a year to arrive at that budget estimate — which doesn’t include one-time start-up costs — much to the chagrin of some City Council members. ‘If we serve 2,000 people, which is what we anticipate serving, that is about a per-person cost of $28,750 per person. And this includes services, the temporary housing (and) the wraparound supports,’ Jamie Rife, executive director of the city’s Department of Housing Stability, told City Council members during a committee meeting.”

“Even during Tuesday’s presentation, Amanda Sawyer — who chairs the council’s Finance and Governance Committee — grew impatient with how administration officials presented the numbers. By her math, Denver is on pace to spend close to $155 million on the program before the end of the year. Stephanie Adams, the city’s deputy chief financial officer, told Sawyer she believes the total is slightly lower, but acknowledged the councilwoman’s estimate was close. ‘The total is not listed anywhere and that’s what I’m asking about,’ Sawyer said.”

KTLA in California. “Wednesday marks the grand opening of a new homeless housing tower in downtown Los Angeles‘ Skid Row that is drawing praise for its ambition while taking flack for its price tag. Weingart Tower contains 278 units, though it’s just the start for the Weingart Center Association. While the number of new units is large, so, too, is the 19-story high rise’s amenities list, which includes a gym, art room, music room, TV lounge and balconies with views of the L.A. skyline. While some are celebrating a new tool in the fight against homelessness in L.A., others are bemoaning the cost: about $600,000 per unit. While that figure may be eye-popping, it’s below the price of $837,000 for some units, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.”

The Union Tribune. “California saw some of the biggest rent declines year-over-year, Zumper said. Oakland was down 9.1 percent, Sacramento down 8.1 percent, Los Angeles down 5 percent and San Jose down 2.3 percent. Some of San Diego’s costliest markets saw the biggest drops: Coronado’s one-bedroom median was down 14.7 percent, and Encinitas down 13.8 percent. Alan Nevin, a San Diego real estate analyst said lower cost rental prices aren’t dropping because there is too much demand and not enough of them. He said the region has done a good job of pumping out moderate and luxury rooms, just not much below that. ‘We have a sufficient number of units to satisfy the needs of the market in all rent categories, except for the low rents,’ Nevin said. Nevin said rents are likely to be affected by more apartments being built, including roughly 3,000 units under construction downtown that he said are due to open in the next 12 months.”

The Los Angeles Times in California. “It was the graffiti that made the abandoned skyscrapers of Oceanwide Plaza in downtown Los Angeles infamous. But the illicit work is low on the list of problems facing the bankrupt, billion-dollar development. With a potential fire sale of the residential, hotel and retail project approaching, a far more complex and expensive question looms over one of the region’s all-time real estate catastrophes: Can it be saved from the wrecking ball? Some potential buyers and construction experts say that doing so is financially untenable, in large part because tenants would be scarce for the expansive retail space on the project’s bottom floors and a redesign would be very difficult for the oversized residential spaces in the towers above.”

“Instead, they say, the structures should be torn down to make way for something new. ‘Believe me, somebody would have jumped forward with a viable plan if there really was one,’ said developer Bill Witte, chief executive of Related California. Witte said he believes Oceanwide has ‘negative value because of the scale and the indeterminate amount of work that would have to be done to complete it.”

“Stuart Morkun, vice president of development at Mitsui Fudosan America, was one of several developers who tried to figure out how to acquire and complete Oceanwide Plaza profitably but concluded it wasn’t feasible. He finds the project mesmerizing. ‘It’s literally like walking into ‘Blade Runner,’ he said, referring to the 1982 film set in a dystopian future Los Angeles. ‘This postapocalyptic environment that could be from now or who-knows-when. It’s horrifying and thrilling to see at the same time. It would be daunting, as if you decided to pick up a pile of cards in a card game. You could be saying, ‘Holy smokes, what have I gotten myself into?”’

“Challenges for using the property as designed go well beyond construction issues, real estate observers say, largely because there is so much space that would need to be leased or sold. Oceanwide came to L.A. with a plan on a scale more commonly found in China, where developments often dwarf projects in the West. ‘The sheer scope of the project … was unprecedented,’ said Witte of Related California. He described Oceanwide in its current state as ‘a carcass of an overscale development.’”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “Sellers holding out for lofty prices in real estate markets around Ontario are seeing their ambitions crumble in many cases as listings continue to swell. Shawn Lackie, real estate agent with Our Neighbourhood Realty in Oshawa says some homeowners hold out for the price they want while spurning all offers below that amount. But if they have received a few offers around the same mark, the sellers should grasp that that’s the amount buyers have deemed the home is worth. ‘It becomes obvious that it’s not worth $1.5-million, it’s worth $1.2-million, because that’s what all the offers are coming in at,’ he says.”

“A little farther north, real estate agent Alexis Victor of Royal LePage Signature Realty has been seeing price reductions on year-round residences and cottages in the area around Washago, Ont., which is positioned between Lake Simcoe to the south and the Muskoka region to the north. Ms. Victor points to the example of a four-bedroom cottage on Lake Muskoka which traded hands for $3.65-million in 2021. In 2022, the property came back on the market with an asking price of $4.65-million, followed by a series of price cuts. In 2023, the cottage was relisted with an asking price of $4.179-million and another set of trims followed. In March, the property was relisted with an asking price of $3.695-million and recently sold conditionally for $3.2-million. ‘Seven out of 10 times, people always want to try at the higher price,’ she says.”

The Negotiator in the UK. “More than 60% of sold properties in South Kensington are being reduced prior to a deal being agreed, compared to 37% in Mayfair & St James’s says LonRes. Price reductions continued to blight the London prime sales market last month as house price growth in the capital remained negative with sales values in May 2.8% lower than a year earlier, latest data from LonRes reveals. Transactions were also 14.8% lower than a year earlier with the fewest sales in the month of May since 2017. Nick Gregori, Head of Research at LonRes, says: ‘Demand for homes is still out there but is tending to be price sensitive. Motivated vendors understand this and we are seeing asking prices being reduced in greater numbers than usual.’”

ABC News in Australia. “More than 700 Victorians have waited more than a year for their claim to be resolved by the state-run insurer after their builder went bust, adding to emotional and financial pain for distressed families. The state’s ombudsman is being urged to investigate the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority’s (VMIA) behaviour, following this week’s ABC Stateline report that detailed allegations that the authority was forcing low and unrealistic building quotes onto desperate families. In some cases the offer would not cover the completion of construction or a full remedy of defects.”

“A swag of builders — including Porter Davis — have folded in the past two years resulting in a surge of Victorians making claims with the VMIA. ‘You can’t image how bad and mismanaged, and untrustworthy, the VMIA is,’ Porter Davis customer Suzi Ralph said. When Porter Davis went under Ms Ralph was left with an unfinished home riddled with defects. Ms Ralph said the process was so bad she took on finishing the works herself by hiring tradesmen directly to avoid bleeding more money. The soaring cost of building materials and labour means delays to payouts can result in additional out-of-pocket expenses. ‘I’m still fighting to get the defects all fixed and paid for,’ she said. ‘I feel that they are dragging out the process to pay me less money.’”

From Nikkei Asia. “China has moved to bar housing construction in some areas in its latest attempt to shrink a mountain of unsold homes that is weighing on prices. The new restrictions stop local authorities from selling land usage rights to developers in cities with unsold housing inventories that would take three years or more to clear—a criterion that more than 40% of major cities meet. This is part of China’s efforts to deal with a property slump that has slowed the world’s second-largest economy.”

“Cities can resume selling once inventories drop below the three-year threshold. In cases where the clearance period is between 2–3 years, sales are capped based on the amount of existing housing that has been sold to buyers. Nationwide housing inventories were up 24% by floor area at the end of April compared with a year earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. As of March, more than 40% of China’s 100 largest cities would need more than three years to clear their stock of new housing, the threshold for the land auction ban, Caixin reported. This is up from less than 20% at the end of 2022 and around 30% at the end of 2023. At least one city would need more than a decade to clear its inventory at the current pace.”

“Sales of newly built housing during the Labor Day holiday in early May tumbled more than 40% on the year by floor area, according to the China Index Academy think tank. The figure is around 30% lower than in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.”