It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “A condominium association in Orlando is proposing a special assessment of up to $22,105 for each owner as part of an effort to fund its reserves as required by state law, and it would be due by the end of July. Residents of the Regency Gardens Condominiums learned of the proposal after receiving a letter in the mail. If the board of directors approves the special assessment at its May 15 meeting, owners like Osnose Orbisi will now be tasked with making up the roughly $17 million shortfall. ‘Right now, we’re all kind of scared and shocked, and we’re all just thinking, ‘Do we sell? Do we fight? Do we hold on?’ We’re trying to figure out what to do,’ he said.”
“Compared to last March, the median price of single-family homes in Sarasota County is only down by 2.5 percent, from $528,013 to $515,000. Among condos and townhomes in Sarasota County, the median price has dipped by almost 9 percent, from $423,245 last March to $385,775 a year later. In Manatee, the median price dropped by almost 3 percent. In good news for buyers, inventory is up across all home types and in both counties, giving them lots more options to choose from. ‘It’s a more favorable market for buyers now,’ says local realtor Kristina Bregu of Corcoran Dwellings. Bregu says sellers will have more luck if they price their property right at the beginning. ‘You’ll get momentum to start with,’ she says. ‘You have to be realistic now. If homes that cost less than yours aren’t moving, you probably have to drop the price.’”
“Real estate agents with Village Properties see Santa Barbara as a very active market right now. Realtor Jackie Walters of Village Properties sees buyers coming from all over the state as well as across the nation looking for homes in Santa Barbara. ‘Take a good look at the properties have been up for 30 or 60 days … those properties that have had price reductions,’ said Walters.”
“Dozens of Los Angeles residents tumbled out of buses in downtown Oakland on Monday afternoon. They’d driven up from Southern California to protest at the Oakland headquarters of a controversial solar and home-improvement lender. The homeowners and their family members, over 100 people total, are accusing the lender, Solar Mosaic, of teaming up with contractors to take advantage of them. Geraldin Alvara hired Viridi Construction in 2021 to convert a garage into an ADU at her family home in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. The whole idea was to rent out the new ADU and pay off the loan with the income. But the project was not done. ‘I was going nuts, losing it,’ said Alvara. Now debt collectors are hassling the family weekly, posting embarrassing letters on their house. Alvara is getting rejected from credit cards. ‘My fear is we’re going to end up homeless,’ she said. ‘This house is our livelihood.’”
“Falmouth’s newly formed Short-Term Rental Working Group has kicked off its work of studying the impact that short-term rentals have had on the town’s overall housing landscape and consider possible ways to regulate these rentals. Martina Kahn, from the audience, said that although most short-term rental property owners in her neighborhood are respectful, she has had issues with one neighboring short-term rental property that often exceeds the home’s six-person occupancy limit.”
“‘They have up to eight times that amount, 48 people,’ she said. ‘Apparently, we have been told that nothing can be done by the town. I apologize to use this word in public but they have sex orgies at the house, they have stripper shows, they have bachelor and bachelorette parties; nobody cares. We are told to call the cops,’ she said.”
“New York Community Bancorp’s new leadership has a long road ahead as the beleaguered bank reevaluates its loan portfolio. In its first earnings report since an investor group infused the multifamily lender with $1B, NYCB revealed that it ended the quarter with $798M in nonperforming loans, almost double the $428M it had at the end of December. Multifamily loan losses across the country have spiked in the last year, with the rate of multifamily losses hitting 16% in 2023, up from around 5% in the prior two years, according to MSCI data. In a call with investors, NYCB CEO Joseph Otting said the bank has experienced the same. ‘The office market is pretty stressed,’ Otting said. ‘It was a couple of stressed office loans that got to the point where the investors chose to just come to us, and we had to take over the property.’”
“Troubled syndicator Kenny Wolfe has yet to lasso his first office-to-residential success. Meanwhile, the foreclosure filings keep rolling in. The Dallas-based Wolfe faces foreclosure on 41 Marietta Street, an Atlanta office building slated for residential redevelopment after he and frequent collaborator Bluelofts defaulted on a $20 million mortgage, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The auction is scheduled for May 7. The developer, who previously focused on multifamily deals, fielded a second foreclosure suit this month after he defaulted on the debt tied to an apartment building in the Cleveland suburbs this month. He has already lost a multifamily building at auction this year.”
“‘You and The Real Deal know better than most that every city’s real estate market and the banking/finance environment are changing rapidly. This has been challenging for every company in the real estate industry,’ said Wolfe Investments spokesperson Christine Groffie. Wolfe has already lost two office buildings to foreclosure this year, plus an apartment complex, and has been named in six foreclosure filings, all told. The two office-to-residential projects Wolfe has already lost include a project in Dallas and another in Fort Worth. The former at 211 North Ervay fetched $8 million — a mere $42 per square foot — at a foreclosure auction in February. Wolfe had planned to turn the building apartments before he defaulted on a $13.2 million loan from Thistle Creek Capital.”
“Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 7,114 sales through the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board MLS System in April 2024 – down by five per cent compared to April 2023. New listings were up by 47.2 per cent over the same period. ‘Generally speaking, buyers are benefitting from ample choice in the GTA resale market in April,’ said TRREB Chief Market Analyst Jason Mercer.”
“On Thursday, Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors released its data for April 2024, which show slumping sales amid the spring surge of listings. ‘Apparently, the market is not crashing; so, buyers should come to the realization that you should not wait for it anymore,’ Maggie Chen, the president of WECAR told CTV News. She also has words of caution for sellers following the compilation of the latest data. Chen said sellers hoping to get the same price the market saw at its height in March 2022 may be chasing a horizon that never comes, which she says has set the stage for buyer-seller standoffs in the market. ‘I think the proportion is getting smaller,’ said Chen. ‘The sellers are getting a reality check. After almost two years of a waiting game, they’re starting to realize, ‘Okay, this is the market.’”
“Home owners have told the BBC they are living in fear of crippling bills after finding out a cheap version of concrete that could be at risk of collapse was used in their houses. Ashleigh Mitchell bought her home near Livingston in West Lothian in 2013. She lives there with her partner and small child. Ashleigh says she has been given estimates in the region of £40,000 for the whole house to be appropriately treated. ‘I’m devastated because this was meant to be our forever home,’ she says. ‘We’re in complete limbo. People are scared, people are terrified. They’re saying it’s dangerous, it could crumble, it could fall on us. The Scottish government need to step in and help homeowners.’”
“Another Craigshill resident, Karen Chappell, has been going to meetings with those residents like Ashleigh who are trying to press for more support. ‘I don’t feel particular well supported by the establishments around us that are supposed to be there to do so, there’s no information. We are scared, I’m scared about my house which I’ve poured all my savings into. It means a lot to me,’ Karen says”
“If you think investors and developers are confounded by China’s volatile property market, just ask home buyers and sellers. ‘I thought about selling our second home in 2022, but prices kept going down, so we decided to wait for a rebound. Some days I’m sure they’ll shoot up again; other days I wonder if we missed our chance for good,’ said Zhang Liwei, 61, who recently retired as a civil engineer in the western city of Chengdu. Zhang said he has a ‘modest’ pension for his retirement but that the housing investment had long been the family’s planned nest egg.”
“China’s real estate sector, which accounts for an estimated quarter of the country’s gross domestic product, is in its fourth year of deflation from a bubble that had sent prices soaring to stratospheric levels but is now draining the wealth from millions of homeowners and has crushed developers both large and small.”
“Meanwhile, lower-tier cities are hurting because of their outsize array of paid-for but unfinished units. ‘I’m one of the unlucky ones,’ said Wang Liyun, a 36-year-old white-collar worker in the third-tier city of Langfang. ‘I bought in early 2021, then prices began to fall. I’ll ride it out, and I have hope prices will swing back up. But I consider myself a smart financial person, so this will impact how I spend in other areas. This is the only rational reaction when your main source of investment falls.’”