It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “The St. George Metropolitan Area has ranked among the fastest-growing areas in the country for decades. But now, there are signs of a slowdown. Construction is down substantially from its peak in 2016 and 2017. But Vardell Curtis, CEO of the Washington County Board of Realtors, says that’s not necessarily a bad thing. ‘I think what we’re actually seeing is the market adjusting itself based on supply and demand,’ he said. ‘It’s more a tapping of the brakes than it is a crash.’”
“The leaders of a newly combined real estate company are bullish on the housing markets in Bloomington-Normal and Peoria, despite slowing sales and a dip in prices in 2019. ‘We’re in a bottleneck. I wouldn’t say the market is bad. But we’re just in a temporary stall,’ said Tammy Heard, executive vice president at Peoria-based Jim Maloof/Realtor. ‘We need to get it moving. In the absence of new construction, there’s not a lot of inventory out there that’s appealing at the moment.’”
“After years on the market, LUMINA recently announced another major price cut to its two remaining penthouses. High-rise high-rollers can now pick up the smaller of the two condos, which are still in an unfinished ‘shell’ stage, for a mere $7,495,000. The larger unit is asking just under $10 million. These two penthouses first came to market as one enormous full-floor unit in 2015 with an asking price of $49 million. This nearly 15,000-square-foot two-level unit would have been the biggest condo sale ever in San Francisco if it had sold anywhere near that price. But the glass-surrounded unit didn’t sell, even after several rounds of price cuts.”
“Manhattan residents have watched skinny condominium skyscrapers rise across the island. From 2011 to 2019, the average price of a newly listed condo in New York soared from $1.15 million to $3.77 million. But the bust is upon us. Today, nearly half of the Manhattan luxury-condo units that have come onto the market in the past five years are still unsold, according to The New York Times.”
“A Grosse Isle mansion that was under construction for more than a decade, and listed for $29 million in 2018, has sold for far $2.95 million, Sarah Rahal of The Detroit News reports. It was only 75-percent completed.”
“The Nashville, TN, mansion owned by former NFL star Jay Cutler and reality TV vet Kristin Cavallari had its price slashed yet again this week. The $800,000 reduction reignited interest in the property, propelling it to the top of this week’s most popular homes. In 2018, the couple listed the mansion for $7.9 million, and its asking price has been falling steadily ever since. It’s now available for $4.9 million, and the current price represents a 38% drop over two years.”
“The Baton Rouge metro area in 2019 saw the largest year-over-year uptick in foreclosure starts among the nation’s largest metros, according to a recent market report. Baton Rouge was included with five metros that have populations near 1 million residents that saw a double-digit percent increase in foreclosure starts from last year, reporting a 43% spike in lenders starting the foreclosure process. It was followed by Atlanta (25%); Salt Lake City, (17%); Orlando, Florida (16%); and Portland, Oregon (16%).”
“Louisiana was among 14 states seeing a year-over-year increase in foreclosure starts (11%), trailing Rhode Island (54%); Mississippi (39%); Georgia (24%); and Arkansas (14%). Experts say the continued decline in distressed properties points to a much-improved housing market, but note there is ‘some reason for concern about the potential for a change in the wrong direction,’ given that residential foreclosure starts increased in about one-third of the nation’s metro housing markets in 2019.”
“Luckily, the condo shortage may not last long. In Greater Vancouver, many apartment buildings currently under construction are expected to be completed in the next two years, noted Thomas Davidoff, professor of real estate finance at the University of British Columbia. ‘A lack of inventory in the condo market in Vancouver — I am not convinced that by the end of this year that will be the story,’ he said. In the Prairies and Newfoundland and Labrador, on the other hand, there are still lots of homes in search of buyers. Sellers are loath to take a big price cut, so the market has been adjusting slowly, added CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart.”
“The future of house raffles is in doubt after ticket sellers and punters alike labelled the prize draws ‘a nightmare.’ Lord Roger Hickman said: ‘It was hell. I’ve been harassed, chased in the street and I had to shut my Facebook page because I got so much abuse. I sold the property on the open market in the end. We ended up losing money but I was just glad to be rid of it. I can honestly say it’s one of the worst experiences of my life.’”
“According to the Knesset Research and Information Center, in 2017 there were some 163,000 empty apartments in Israel, of which around 73,000 had been unoccupied for long periods and were termed ‘ghost apartments. ‘It’s crazy,’ says Esther Fuerster, who lives in a new residential tower block on Jaffa Road, overlooking the shuk. ‘We live in this new building, and only a small number of the apartments are occupied. You have all these places, like Mamila (David’s Village) with no one living there. It’s not a nice feeling.’”
“In a first, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has decreased the rates of flats in Commonwealth Games (CWG) village by over 30%. When the CWG village came up about a decade ago, some luxury three-bedroom flats in the residential complex were sold for above Rs 7 crore, but there were no takers for them. Thus, the DDA is now trying to find buyers for unsold flats and has brought the prices down to Rs 4 crore. ‘It is a fact that the market rate has gone down. It is less than the price at which we had launched in 2010. Keeping in mind the market scenario, we have reduced the price for the first time and if needed, will do it again,’ another source told the news daily.”
“House prices should be lowered to effectively address the property overhang problem in the country and prices should be dictated by the market (buyers), said CBRE WTW managing director Foo Gee Jen. ‘The straightforward way to clear out the overhang situation is to reduce the price. It’s supply and demand,’ he said.”
“Given the subdued economic growth in 2019, Singapore saw the number of auction listings, including repeat listings, jump 23.9% year-on-year to 1,387 in 2019, revealed a Knight Frank report. The residential sector saw the number of listings under mortgagee sale increase for the third year in a row, rising 62.6% year-on-year to 356. ‘From 2014 to 2017, the surge in mortgage sale listings was due to higher retrenchments, hikes in interest rates, and drop in rental payments. However, from 2018 to 2019, the rise in listings seemed to correlate with more applications for bankruptcies and increased volatility within the equity markets. Slowing economic growth and the trade war between China and United States also led to an accumulation of bad debts and a fall in top-line growths, pressurising some owners to default on mortgage payments.’”
“The wheels are coming off the world’s biggest auto market after decades of blistering growth. In Tangshan, around five of the 30 dealerships in the Lunan Car Culture Industrial Park have closed in the past year, dealers said. Abandoned furniture sits in empty showrooms, while ‘For Rent’ signs appear behind shuttered glass doors. Similar scenes are unfolding across small and midsize cities like Tangshan that supercharged China’s auto-market expansion in recent years.”
“Pangda expanded rapidly, growing to more than 700 stores by late 2015. But as the company invested in land and the market slowed, debts mounted. Pangda said it has closed more than 300 stores. When Pangda listed, ‘the overall Chinese auto market was booming and growing rapidly,’ the company’s new president, Zhao Tieliu, said in an interview. ‘No one could see at that time the market was at a saturated stage and would quickly go down.’”
“Melbourne’s rental market has turned to become more favourable for tenants. Some houses were sitting on the market for a little longer than normal with renters spoilt for choice. ‘It is flooded for new houses,’ said Hodges Werribee director and property manager Melanie Simmonds.”