A report from the Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado. “New residential real estate figures released this week indicate Pueblo’s market is not showing signs of significant improvement during the first three months of the year. The median sales price fell 4.7% in March and is down 1.3% year to date at $311,000, as sellers continue to offer price reductions to help get their properties sold, said Dave Anderson, spokersperson for the Pueblo Association of Realtors. ‘We sit at three months’ supply of homes to sell with few buyers as higher interest rates continue to be a holdup for many potential buyers. Builders continue to move slowly with just 14 new housing permits obtained in March,’ Anderson explained.”
The Palm Beach Post in Florida. “I wanted to remind everyone that the December 31, 2024 deadline for condominiums to obtain a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, or SIRS, is fast approaching. For any budget passed on or after December 31, 2024, the reserve funds mandated by this required report cannot be waived. That is going to amount to a huge sticker shock for many owners who have gotten used to waiving their reserves each year. I have seen condominiums where this is predicted to add six or even seven figures a year to the overall budget — a huge increase. This, when combined with the gigantic insurance increases everyone has experienced the last two or three years, means that large numbers of condominium owners across the state are going to have tremendous difficulty affording homes that were affordable just a year or two ago. Without intervention from the state, many people are going to lose their homes to foreclosure actions as a result.”
Boca News Now in Florida. “Another homeowners association says it’s had enough and is demanding payment from property owners allegedly disregarding their requirement to pay fees and dues. The Canyon Lakes Homeowners Association in Boynton Beach is initiating foreclosure action against homeowners Marie Krause and Wayne Holder. They allegedly owe $42,763.72 — one of the highest numbers we’ve ever seen when it comes to back payments owed to a non-country club association. The balance due includes a special assessment recorded in October of 2021 for $35,804.46. The home, at 10437 Willow Oaks Trail in Boynton, is valued at $658,868, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser. It was purchased in 2005 for $367,900. HOA fees and dues are not optional in Florida.”
The New York Post. “A crafty squatter bilked his landlord of at least $72,000 in rent for his Lower East Side apartment — then made tens of thousands in profit by subletting the unit, the owner charges. For three years, computer programmer Thor Boucher hasn’t paid a cent of his bargain-rate $2,000-a-month, two-bedroom, one-bathroom Essex Street pad, claiming he didn’t have to because the building was noisy and shook, according to landlord Ed Yau and Manhattan Civil Court documents. The alleged freeloader had no qualms renting the space out, though, charging as much as $1950 per room monthly since November 2021 on platforms including Airbnb and Craigslist.”
“‘I feel betrayed by my politicians, the bureaucracy, Yau told The Post. ‘The system needs to be fair because right now it’s easily exploited,’ he added. ‘Housing court is not functioning so rent is optional — they don’t have to pay and nothing is going to happen to them.’ Squatter horror stories like Yau’s, meanwhile, will scare landlords to pull their units from the market, warned Ann Korchak, president of the industry group Small Property Owners of New York. ‘If it’s a small building, if one person stops paying, that’s the difference between you being able to pay your taxes and mortgage or not,’ she said.”
KIRO in Washington. “We met Jason Roth in October. He was homeless and living in his van while his delinquent tenant, Kareem Hunter, lived rent free in Jason Roth’s house. A few weeks ago, Hunter’s free ride came to an abrupt end when King County Sheriff’s descended on Jason’s home. The Housing Justice Project (HJP) is the taxpayer funded law firm that defended Hunter in court. HJP received more than $4 million to represent tenants statewide. Jason lost more than $80,000 in back rent and legal fees. But in today’s housing market, this eviction was considered a win. ‘I’m shocked that this was considered a win. You know, providing housing for a complete scam artist for a year and having him walk away with no punishments is a win. That’s crazy,’ said Roth.”
“Currently, Washington state is the only state that provides delinquent tenants a free lawyer to represent them in eviction court. The current back log in King County, according to the Rental Housing Association of Washington, is 6 months.”
From R Street. “What do the state’s insurance and housing crises have in common? Obviously, homeowner policies have an impact on housing costs, but I’m referring to something different, namely the concept of open-ended risk. Insurers are exiting the market because state policies limit their ability to price policies to reflect the risk of a major wildfire season. They rather pull out of California than risk the destruction of their assets. I’d argue the same thing is happening in the rental market, thanks to a fusillade of pro-tenant laws that subject landlords to an incalculable level of risk. It’s one thing to realize it might require x number of legal fees to remove a bad tenant and quite another to wrap one’s head around the possibility of someone staying in a rent-controlled unit forever.”
“We’ve seen the news stories. Someone moves into a short-term rental then refuses to leave. In Oakland, a group of organized homeless women commandeered a vacant house. In Los Angeles, alleged squatters turned an empty mansion into a party house. If housing is a ‘human right,’ then owners no longer have a right to their property.”
The Boston Globe in Massachusetts. “According to recent findings from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, underappraisals (when the appraised value of a home is less than the agreed-upon sales price) spiked to 15 percent in 2021 and hit 12 percent in 2022 in the United States. How did it happen, and why didn’t we hear more about it at the time? Rick Lipof of Lipof Real Estate Services in Newton said prices rose so quickly in those years, it’s not surprising that appraisals, which are based on recent closed sales, didn’t keep pace, even with the adjustments they are allowed to make when the market is moving quickly in either direction.”
“‘The lender does not want to lend at a maximum price in a frenzied market,’ Lipof said. ‘We’ve seen what happens when they do. People in 1987 purchased at the top of the market, and they couldn’t sell for that same number again for seven to ten years. So we do not need to be pushing values. It benefits nobody.’ He said lenders want accurate appraisal values, but that number is a fast-moving target in a frenzied market like the one Boston experienced. If the appraisals turn out to be a little low, that helps reduce the risk for lenders and keeps some buyers from overpaying.”
“‘It’s very difficult for appraisers to get enough of the right data to make a perfectly accurate adjustment, and we do our best,’ he said. ‘But if you’ve got an increasing market, we’re always going to be lagging a little behind, and the reason why we were off so much during the pandemic is because we’ve never had prices rise that fast.’”
From CBC News. “”RVs — along with boats, ATVs and other outdoor vehicles — sold like hotcakes during the pandemic, as people poured their vacation funds into goods that could be enjoyed closer to home. Like a lot of Canadians, Alan Hong and his wife bought a trailer in 2020. Air travel was out of the question because of pandemic restrictions, and it made sense to spend time and money exploring the great outdoors. But now, they’re looking to get off life on the open road and get back in the air. ‘People have a little bit less discretionary income,’ said Eleonore Hamm, the association’s president. People aren’t just putting off buying a new RV. Some are getting rid of the one they have altogether. ‘There’s quite a bit of pre-owned inventory on dealership lots at the moment.’”
“‘Right now what we’re seeing is a buyer’s market,’ said Chris Perera, who also owns BoatDealers.ca and says a similar trend is unfolding in that sector. Jason Huntley is an RV owner who’s been trying to sell his current model for about a year. The buyer’s market is tough news for sellers like Huntley. Huntley has bought and sold many RVs in his decades-long camping career, and has had one listed online for about a year. He said this is the longest it’s ever taken him to make a sale. ‘It feels to me like the market is pretty flooded,’ he said.”
The Sun in the UK. “Neighbours of a man who built a now-demolished ‘monster mansion’ are fuming after he failed to tidy up the rubble and rubbish. Gurwinder Singh and his wife Rajwinder Kaur sparked fury when they built a ‘Travelodge’ looking home which they knocked down following a council order. The pair were ordered to tear down their ‘dream’ new four-bed home which they had built without planning permission after knocking down their original semi. Locals had fumed the building work had made their ‘lives hell’ while others described the ‘eyesore’ as ‘like a Travelodge in the middle of a housing estate’ and dubbed it ‘monster mansion.’”
“The Punjabi-speaking home owner, who lives in a rented house in Walsall, believes he has been victimised and ‘taken advantage of’ because of his nationality and poor lack of the English language. He previously said: ‘Neighbours have been unfair about the house, they call is a monstrosity and I have no reason why. It’s all been very stressful, I have spent my life savings on this house for my family and we have never even lived there. We feel let down by the system. It is a planning nightmare.’ Next door neighbour Pat claims her home has been ‘wrecked’ by the unauthorised building and demolition works and has left it ‘unsaleable.’”