A report from People. “Actor Bronson Pinchot is best known for his memorable roles in films like Beverly Hills Cop and series like Perfect Strangers. But aside from acting, the Yale School of Drama grad has long had a passion for home renovation. More than a decade ago, he decided to make that hobby his sole focus as he snatched up several properties in rural Pennsylvania. ‘I was able to buy six houses for the price of a New York condo,’ says Pinchot, who loved the historic architecture of the homes in Susquehanna County, Pa. He got in over his head when the now-defunct DIY Network filmed him for The Bronson Pinchot Project, home-renovation series that documented his work in 2012 and 2013. The show was canceled after two seasons, and the bills piled up. Several of the homes were foreclosed on and sold at auction. ‘I learned an amazing amount,’ says Pinchot, ‘and I lost my shirt.’ He shrugs off the ordeal now, adding, ‘What are you going to do?’”
News & Observer in North Carolina. “When Apple first announced that it planned a $552 million campus in Research Triangle Park, home prices surged. Local experts called it ‘the Apple effect,’ driving up prices by as much as 53% in nearby suburbs like Morrisville and west Cary. Now, more than three years later, the office market remains bleak, and the project in this fast-growing corridor along N.C. 540 is officially stalled. In April 2021, the month Apple announced its project, the median sale price in the same ZIP code (27560) as its proposed campus stood at $360,000. A year later, prices had jumped to $598,000, up 64%, Redfin found. (It also coincided with a pandemic-fueled surge in prices across the Triangle as out-of-state residents migrated to the region.) Since then, median price in this ZIP code has fallen by more than 15% — to $504,500 in May 2024.”
“Developers, meanwhile, are pushing forward. David Ferrell, a longtime Cary resident and property developer, said he’s moving ahead with plans to build 140 single-family homes on a 103-acre site in west Cary after the Town Council recently approved rezoning and annexation. ‘We’re full steam ahead,’ he said. ‘We’ve got a good job market here, Apple or no Apple. We’ll be fine.’”
The Boston Globe in Massachusetts. “If one image could summarize the state of housing construction in Greater Boston right now, it might be the vast open space at Suffolk Downs. At 10,000 units, the former horse racing track on the Boston-Revere border will be the single largest housing development in the region’s history when it’s done. But no more housing is underway here. There are no hammers clanging or cement trucks rumbling, just a sea of open land, mounds of dirt, materials, and equipment sitting unused. Developers such as HYM’s Tom O’Brien have all the hard-won permits they need. Amid high interest rates and materials costs, raising enough money is the real problem. ‘The whole dynamic of housing finance has shifted,’ said O’Brien. ‘It has become so much harder to make these projects work.’”
“The nearly 600-unit Riverside project has been paused since late 2022, and the formula for moving it forward ‘just doesn’t work’ anymore, said Howard Cohen, board chair of Beacon Communities, one of the developers. Part of the problem, said Cohen, is that the market for lab development, which was supposed to be the focus of the first phase of the Riverside project, has cratered.”
The Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. “Robin Bach knows her property is a work in progress. Room by room, she and her husband have chipped away at restoring their 19th-century Walker house in Concord. What they didn’t plan for, though, was the growing encampment in the woods on their property – where the police are often called to, gunshots have been heard and no one seems to have a response as to whose responsibility it is to manage. The windows of the small shed that Bach envisioned as a backyard hangout are boarded up with plywood. A no-trespassing sign is affixed to the door. Instead, balls, gloves and other toys line the front hallway to her house. Their house sits on an acre of land, but often her kids opt to play out front along the sidewalk. ‘I can’t even use my backyard. My kids can’t go out there,’ she said. ‘I would like my children to be independent and feel comfortable going outside and playing and they won’t.’”
“As homelessness rises across the country – especially in New Hampshire, where the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development identified the state to have the largest percent increase – national conversations about shelter for unhoused people are taking center stage. Living by Horseshoe Pond has been an entirely different experience to her old house downtown. ‘We never locked our doors. We were pretty casual,’ she said. ‘Now we have a full-on security system.’ To Bach the solution is to create a sanctioned camping area in the city. To her this will concentrate resources in one place. ‘You can put your tent here, here’s bathrooms, dumpsters,’ she said. ‘They’ve come here and told them to move a million times, they don’t move.’”
The New York Post. “The influx of illegal migrants to the Big Apple over the past two years has meant a sea-change in the quality of life for workers and residents in zip codes swamped with shelters, they told The Post. ‘It’s overpopulated here [with migrants] and that’s a concern,’ said Maria Katirtzoglou, 38, who works for a Long Island City engineering firm next door to a hotel-turned-migrant shelter on Crescent Street. ‘That’s a concern for people who were born and raised here, people that have property here, because people that do own property and then they see all this coming in, they don’t like it,’ she said. ‘At night, I don’t feel safe in this area…It’s not safe. Things happen – robberies and knives, you know, people take out knives.’”
“Shawarn Shields, 50, of Queensbridge Houses, said parents are afraid to take their kids to local parks and playgrounds because migrants typically race electric scooters and have sex there. ‘This is not a third-world country,’ said Shields. ‘We can’t just let anyone come into our neighborhood and do whatever the f— they want!’”
“In Jamaica, one resident said his block has become a complete nightmare since a migrant shelter opened three doors down on Liberty Avenue, with many of the new arrivals spending their days outside drinking booze and smoking weed. Some were kicked out of the shelter, formerly the Van Wyck Hotel, for bad behavior but later returned in vehicles to park on the street and sleep, recalled videographer Craig Richardson. ‘I don’t know where they’re getting the money to buy cars,’ said Richardson, 53. ‘And when they have to go to the bathroom, where’d they go? In my backyard!’”
The Los Angeles Times in California. “When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling on anti-camping laws last month, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo was one of the local political leaders who welcomed it. Gordo said his city intends to toughen enforcement, but in a compassionate way — by offering shelter and other services while also regulating its parks and sidewalks. ‘Individuals will be offered the assistance they need,’ he said. ‘But we cannot allow people to simply take over public spaces and parks while they refuse the assistance that is being offered.’ City Councilmember Kevin de León said he fears the ruling will spur the smaller cities that abut his Eastside district to force their homeless populations out. ‘If you’re an unhoused person, and you’re feeling harassed constantly, you’re just going to self-evict and relocate to the city limits of L.A.,’ he said.”
“Shayla Myers, a Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles attorney who has sued L.A. repeatedly over its treatment of its homeless population said she hopes city attorneys will view the decision narrowly, taking into account protections in other parts of the U.S. Constitution, the California Constitution and the ‘necessity’ defense against prosecution for violation of anti-camping laws. ‘The Supreme Court tells us sometimes what jurisdictions can do, but they don’t tell us what jurisdictions should do,’ she said. ‘For a place like Los Angeles, with 89 jurisdictions, it would be disastrous for cities in this county to engage in a race to the bottom.’”
The Canadian Press. “The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says home sales in June declined 16.4 per cent from last year, with many potential buyers staying on the sidelines despite the highly anticipated Bank of Canada interest rate cut. ‘It’s got to be a lot more than 25 basis points,’ said Vy Ngo, a sales representative with Big City Realty Inc. Brokerage. Ngo said despite the lack of a significant uptick in buyer demand after the rate cut announcement, it did prompt an influx of supply around the GTA. She said sellers were more optimistic than buyers that the decision would spur a rebound in activity after there was essentially ‘no spring market’ this year.”
“‘I guess all the sellers have been holding off for some time now. Everyone probably had the same idea, like ‘let’s wait till the rate cut,’ she said. ‘So literally, as soon as that happened, there was this huge amount of new listings that came to the market.’ There were 23,613 active listings on the market last month, up 67.4 per cent from June 2023. New listings rose 12.3 per cent over the same period, with 17,964 properties put on the market last month.”
Castanet in Canada. “A recent civil court case highlights the drastic dip in Kelowna’s real estate market in the spring and summer of 2022, with a group of potential buyers being ordered to pay more than $400,000 after they were unable to secure financing on a home despite signing a purchasing contract. In a recent decision, BC Supreme Court Justice Dennis Hori ordered Wai Ming Fong, Xiao Li Liu and Navdeep Singh Mahli to pay Jeffrey Mandl nearly $363,000, in addition to the $50,000 deposit they had already paid, for breaching their contract of purchase and sale.”
“The three people had agreed to purchase a home on Kelowna’s Ethel Street from Mandl for $1,115,000, which was $116,000 more than the listing price of the property. Mahli signed the contract on the very same day Mandl listed the home, and Liu and Fong were added to the contract eight days later. But when Mahli began to seek financing for the home, the Royal Bank of Canada sought their own appraisal of the home and determined the value of it was significantly lower than the agreed upon purchase price. As such, the bank refused to finance the purchase and Mahli was unable to find financing through any other institutions.”
“But by this time, the market had slowed considerably. The original re-listed sale price was set at $949,000, but Mandl managed to sell the home a little more than five months later for $740,000. Justice Hori ruled the damages suffered by Mandl as a result of Mahli, Fong and Liu’s breach of contract was the difference between their agreed upon sale price and the price Mandl was eventually able to sell at. ‘I also find it unreasonable to require [Mandl] to retain the Property until the market recovered and real estate prices increased,’ Justice Hori added.”
“Justice Hori also ruled that the buyers should pay the $29,000 to replace the home’s roof and air conditioner, a repair that was required to make the subsequent sale. Justice Hori found that Mandl would not have been stuck with this bill if the first sale had gone through. With the $375,000 loss on the resale of the property, along with the roof and A/C/ bill, legal fees and interest, Justice Hori ruled Mahli, Fong and Liu owe Mandl nearly $413,000. Taking into account the $50,000 deposit, the damages awarded totalled nearly $363,000.”
The New Zealand Herald. “Four prestige homes owned by Northland’s Carrington Estate golf course and lodge could sell for as little as $4 when they head to auction this month. The reserve for each property has been set at $1 – a first for Northland – as the estate’s owners look to cash out. Carrington Estate sits on the Karikari Peninsula, 35 minutes north of Kaitāia, and offers luxury accommodation overlooking the ocean and golf course. The four-bedroom houses for sale at 25, 27, 30, and 49 Banyan Road are in a subdivision between the estate and Whatuwhiwhi, where Carrington also owns the Top Ten holiday park.”
“William Tan, Carrington’s general manager, told OneRoof the four properties were built eight years ago as model houses, part of a larger development planned for the resort which was put on hold because of RMA and consent issues. ‘We’re cashing out,’ Tan said. ‘We had them to accommodate our guests from overseas.’ Tan said Ray White agent Hania Johnson had convinced Carrington to take the properties to auction with the ultra-low reserve. Johnson told OneRoof she was inspired by the success of $1 reserve auctions conducted by colleagues in Auckland.”
“‘We wanted to get some traction in this difficult market, so this bulk approach gives a sense of competition,’ she said, adding that one of the properties, 25 Banyan, had been on the market earlier, first with a set price and then as price-by-negotiation. Tan said Carrington had previously owned 12 properties in the development around Banyan Road, but these last four had been on the market for two to three years without success. ‘These have just become a burden for us. When people come to stay with us, they prefer to stay on-site near the golf course so other than peak Christmas New Year season they don’t get used much,’ he said. The houses were competing with the hundreds of Airbnb listings in the area and the rental income did not cover the almost $50,000 annual bill Carrington faced for costs like rates, insurance, and maintenance. Tan added: ‘We understand the economy and the current housing market. There are few sales in the Far North, lending is hard, and the overseas buyers aren’t there, so this time we try this.’”