It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Ada County’s median home price last month was $20,000 less than August of 2023. Housing inventory for Ada County was 1,863, which is 21.8% higher than August 2023, and Canyon County’s inventory was at 1,152, or 42.6% higher than the previous year. ‘Inventory, or supply, has increased year-over-year in both counties for eight months now,’ said Rachel Moir, partner and agent with The Agency Boise. According to Moir, increased inventory puts downward pressure on prices since buyers have more options and sellers are trying to make properties stand out.”
“For the second time in a week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a roundtable in Pinellas Park to pressure the Florida Legislature to hold a special session to help condo owners who are facing rising assessment fees. ‘Nobody wants to hire me at 72, so I can make a little extra income to keep up with this,’ said Ronni Drimmer, who is facing a $7.000 assessment at her 40-year-old condo. ‘I just want to be able to help these people because they’re calling me on the phone going, ‘I was going to retire. How am I going to retire?’”
“Ivan Rodriguez, 76, told the Wall Street Journal that he liquidated his 401(k) retirement account to buy a two-bedroom North Miami condo in 2019. Five years later, after his condo board proposed a nearly $30 million special assessment for repairs, he joined 12 other unit owners in putting their homes up for sale. Rodriguez ultimately accepted an offer of 42% less than what he paid. When prospective buyers learned of the assessment they’d inherit by buying his home, he said, ‘They’d run in the opposite direction.’ John Cadden of Condominium Advisory Group, told WESH last month that the associations themselves are somewhat to blame for the issue. ‘It used to be, you did a reserve study, but you could vote as a condominium to waive reserves and not reserve any money,’ he said. ‘Of course, when people are asked to spend less money, they always agreed.’”
“New documents from the City of Cape Coral confirming the possibility of criminal charges against Paul Beattie, the owner of Beattie Development before the office was raided in early August. 288 people, including homeowners, companies, subcontractors, and others, will receive a letter in the mail. Beattie Development is liquidating all of its assets to pay the people it owes. That sounds like help, but it may not be. ‘This is not something that they’re not going to be made whole on. It’s going to be their best option to get money. But I think people will be sorely disappointed to see how much they’re going to actually get,’ Attorney Alan Hamisch said. Kristen and Matt Kramer, former Beattie customers say they are out $320,000 dollars and ended up hiring someone else to finish it. Beattie has placed a $271,000 dollar lien on their home. They are now having to hire an attorney to fight their home being listed as an Beattie Development asset. The Kramer’s say it is upsetting to see their home listed as an asset after all the trouble they’ve been through.”
“The Manhattan penthouse tied to convicted Chinese fraudster Guo Wengui is back on the market for $24 million, according to a StreetEasy listing update — a staggering downfall from its initial $86 million asking price. Guo turned into the co-op board’s worst nightmare. He lived in this unit, with its breathtaking views of Central Park, which he purchased for $67.5 million in 2015, while he waited for political asylum that never came. Instead, by March of 2023, the FBI showed up at dawn to arrest him for orchestrating a billion-dollar fraud scheme. But while FBI agents where still at the penthouse, a mysterious blaze erupted. Sources at the time told The Post they believed the fire was set off remotely, and that the entire apartment had been wired to record guests.”
“This past July, the self-exiled businessman was convicted by a court in Manhattan of defrauding his online followers in the investment and cryptocurrency scheme, in part, to buy a $26.5 million New Jersey mansion and a $37 million yacht. He was found guilty on nine of 12 criminal counts against him, including racketeering and money laundering. His sentencing is reportedly scheduled for Nov. 19.”
“Michael Cendejas, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Sacramento, CA, said some potential homebuyers also just haven’t realized mortgage rates are dropping. Cendejas is seeing renewed buyer interest now that it’s September but said a lot of house hunters still want to see rates in the 5% range before they jump into the market. ‘There’s no sense of urgency. Buyers are selective right now, especially if they have a house already. They’re looking for the perfect home at the right price,’ he said. ‘There aren’t a lot of desirable homes out there right now, and the ones that are in good shape go quickly if they’re priced well. My advice to sellers is to price your home fairly; if you don’t, it could end up sitting on the market.’”
“The pandemic’s effects on travel left San Francisco hotel owners and operators with a massive pile of debt. ‘If you’re investing in hospitality in San Francisco right now, you need to have a lot of runway to allow your assets to stabilize,’ Oxford Hotels & Resorts partner Sar Peruri said. ‘It’s not going to look like it did before.’ He pointed to the frothy prepandemic days of high RevPAR and average daily rates. After all three panels ended, none of the conference attendees mentioned the elephant in the room: San Francisco’s looming lodging debt issue.”
“The City of Bakersfield is tasked with rezoning parts of town in order to comply with state law and the Housing Element, and the effort includes a vacant lot off of Fairfax Road and College Avenue. However, for some neighbors in the area, they worry what this rezoning means for them. Gail Malouf said she and her neighbors were taken aback when they noticed a for sale sign on the vacant lot a few weeks back and even more surprised to learn the lot had been rezoned. ‘We feel blindsided,’ she said. ‘We are upset because they have changed it to an MX-1, which is mixed residential and commercial this is not a commercial area.’”
“Construction workers are building all across downtown Durham, but thousands of existing apartments are still empty. There are also several new complexes that haven’t even opened yet. ‘It’s really been that extra supply, all the new buildings that have gotten built in the last few years have really pushed that vacancy rate up,’ CoStar Market Analytics Director Nick Leverett said. Overall, high apartment vacancy rates in downtown Durham are improving after they peaked at 12.5 percent earlier this year. But local experts tell CBS 17 construction is still outpacing the rental demand.”
“The median sales price of a single-family home in Bend was $706,000 in August, a $36,000 drop from the same period a year ago, according to the monthly report prepared by the Beacon Appraisal Group of Redmond. The median price of a single-family home in Redmond also took a tumble to $495,000 in August, a $10,000 price drop from the same time a year prior, according to the report. The median sales price in Redmond was $542,000 in September 2022. In Sisters, the median sales price for a single-family home dropped to $625,000, from $768,000 in July, according to the report. There is a five-month supply of homes on the market.”
“Tentative buyers in the Toronto-area real estate market appear more willing to approach the bargaining table as the fall market kicks off, but they are quick to back away when sellers seem immovable. In Bedford Park, Andre Kutyan, broker with Harvey Kalles Real Estate in Toronto sold a detached house for $3.3-million in late August after listing the property in early July with an asking price of $3.495-million. Prior to that, the four-bedroom home was listed with another agent for seven months with an asking price of $3.75-million. In the condo market, swelling inventory is giving buyers lots of power in negotiations.”
“The successful sellers in Bedford Park are downsizers who turned their search to a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in the $750,000 to $850,000 bracket in the area around Yonge and Eglinton. The buyers were able to bargain the seller down below $800,000, Mr. Kutyan says, because there were so many listings. ‘If I don’t buy yours, I’ve got 14 other options,’ Mr. Kutyan told the listing agent. With his own clients, James Warren, real estate agent with Chestnut Park Real Estate Ltd, stresses the importance of setting a realistic asking price from the start. ‘We need to price this aggressively instead of ambitiously,’ he advised the owner of a condo recently. In a segment awash in inventory, he recommends setting an asking price below the comparable units in the building. ‘The only way you’re going to entice them on the dance floor is your price,’ he says.”
“Angry residents have hit out at the state of a half-finished housing scheme. People living close to the site at Long Lee, Keighley, say a long list of problems is making their lives a misery. Urban Developments (York) Ltd, part of the Urban Group, is building 41 homes on the land off Redwood Close. Neighbouring householders complain that issues with the site have been ongoing for years, and are not being addressed. ‘There are all sorts of problems and we’re sick to death of it,’ says Anita Jackson, of Long Lee Lane. ‘We live a few doors down and have to use an access road at the site. There are big holes, and a drain with a wooden pallet over it. Fencing is unsafe, and there are half-built walls. This has been going on for nearly four years and it’s time something was done.’”
“With the spring selling season on the horizon New Zealand property sales continue their upward trend, however buyers remain in control with sales volumes below normal. CoreLogic NZ Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson said that with listings plentiful on the market, the relatively low levels of sales are more about buyer caution. ‘Buyers will be spoiled for choice, for example, in Wellington, Bay of Plenty, Auckland, and Otago, as total stock in each of these regions has risen by 20-25%,’ he said. ‘Clearly, lower mortgage rates will be boosting sentiment, but a reduction in job security will be pushing the other way in terms of buyers’ confidence. Of course, in this environment of low turnover, we’re also seeing property values drop, and that will tend to benefit some groups over others. Those who still feel confident about their jobs and can get the finance are in a position to take their time and secure a deal in their favour.’”
“Desperate Australians don’t know if their dream homes will ever be finished after their builder collapsed. Multiple customers of Melbourne builder Varaich Homes have revealed the crushing financial burden as building of their houses has been delayed, while others have documented disturbing vandalism to their homes. One customer is Harpreet Singh. The bus driver signed up to build with Varaich Homes in 2021 for $457,000. ‘The fence surrounding it has been taken off and people were going in and having beers, using the toilet, I found a used condom on the master bedroom floor and there are a few other damages,’ he told news.com.au. Prior to this in 2022, he was told the construction firm would need an extra $45,000 to continue with the project, which was money the family didn’t have. Then building started in June 2022 on his Lyndhurst home. But Mr Singh said work was very slow and caused ‘a lot of stress’ and cost them a ‘lot of money.’”
“The dad-of-three said his wife is working three jobs as they are under a huge financial strain paying off two mortgages. He claimed there had been no explanation from the company on why construction had been delayed. Now with Varaich Home’s collapse, the 39-year-old said he doesn’t even have the keys to his own house. He said it may mean the family have to take out a personal loan to even complete the house. ‘It’s very stressful,’ he added.”
“Tony Varghese is another customer who has been impacted but he is currently living in the Northern Territory with his family making it harder to oversee his house project in Melbourne. The social worker signed up with Varaich Homes in 2022, although construction didn’t kick off until March last year in the Melbourne suburb of Botanic Ridge. He said the home was meant to be delivered in 280 days, according to the contract, yet it still remains incomplete. The dad-of-one claimed he paid $125,000 for work that hasn’t been completed. ‘Given the current circumstances, this would be insufficient to finish the project. I am now staring at the possibility of being locked into a lifetime of mortgage payments without ever having a finished home. This is a hopeless situation.’”