A report from 41 Kansas City. “Despite predictions of lower mortgage rates in 2024, that hasn’t happened yet. Realtor Susan Huff of Huff Realty has been selling homes for 30 years. She tells buyers to bite the bullet if they can, because competition is much lower right now than it was during the crazy 2021-2022 period. ‘If rates ever come down, hopefully in the next year or two, then they can just refinance,’ she said. Buyer Carolyn Marsh listened and decided to bid on a condo despite a 7% mortgage. ‘I knew we could refi if necessary,’ Marsh said, adding that she wasn’t worried about the interest rate.”
“Huff says buyers should look at higher rates as their friend since it has slowed down the competition. She says the bidding wars will return if rates fall to 5%. ‘When rates do drop, you’re going to see an influx of people like we did a couple of years ago,’ Huff said, ‘and people are going to try to outbid each other and prices are going to escalate even higher.’”
The Coeur d’Alene Press in Idaho. “According to the Coeur d’Alene Regional Realtors, several key indicators predict a strengthening real estate economy heading into summer. The housing market was quieter in the Silver Valley. The median price of a single-family home in the Shoshone County was $275,000, down 8.3% from one year ago. The number of residential listings, 76 on May 3, was up from 55 on the same date in 2023. Jared McFarland, a real estate agent with Century 21 Beutler and Associates, expects to see more sales and more inventory this year than last. ‘A seller who needs to sell can get their home sold if it is priced correctly, and a buyer who needs a house can find something that fits their needs and get it for asking price or just under,’ McFarland said.”
Arizona Family. “So far this year, home prices are on the rise. In March, the median sales price in the Phoenix metro was $445,000, according to the MLS, up $15,000 from January. Asher Cohen with BUYAZRE at Realty ONE Group added that ‘some sellers are just stubborn right now, but most of the time buyers are able to get into a property, they’re able to get seller concessions to help reduce that rate.’ Cohen said inventory has increased over the last few months. The most recent numbers from the MLS back that up. According to the latest report, there were 2,300 more homes on the market over a three-month span. If you’re hoping to buy in this current market, Cohen said ‘have your agent get seller concessions for you to reduce that rate and make sure that monthly payment is looking good for you.’ He also said to make sure you’re getting a home inspection and be sure to ‘make sure that your agent is getting those concessions, those repairs done as needed and don’t be afraid to ask.’”
The Review Journal in Nevada. “Former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels has sold his Henderson home, Clark County records show. The home in the Anthem Country Club in Henderson sold for $4.8 million, with the sale recorded by the county on May 1. McDaniels bought the 6,705-square-foot, 5-bedroom home in 2022 for $4.95 million. Renovations were done to the pool area and the interior of the house while McDaniels owned it, said the listing agent, Lia Barfield of Local Living LV. The home was on the market for 11 days and was in escrow for less than 10 days, Barfield said.”
Los Angeles Daily News in California. “Reality TV star Todrick Hall has avoided foreclosure by selling his Sherman Oaks home for $4.95 million. Records show that the 8,000-square-foot house with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms closed on May 3 for 18% less than the latest asking price of just under $6 million, 11 days before the trustee sale. The deal comes nearly six months after the property hit the market in December at $8.5 million. Since then, the asking price dropped multiple times. County records show Hall, 39, paid $6.1 million for the house in May 2022. A notice of default was filed on May 17, 2023, according to Property Shark.”
The Real Deal on Texas. “A modern ranch and residential compound just took an $8 million price cut as demand for rural luxury softens. The 656-acre Whitehall Ranch is asking $34.8 million, the Houston Business Journal reported. That’s $53,000 per acre and the latest price adjustment for the property, about an hour’s drive northwest of Houston in Grimes County. In October 2020, the ranch was listed for $21.6 million by Hall and Hall and Robertson Real Estate, but it didn’t sell. Nan & Company, which launched a farm and ranch division last summer, relisted it late last year for $42.8 million. The owner wanted an aggressive price cut to get the ranch sold, said Nancy Almodovar, CEO of Nan and Co. ‘The seller just decided that he’s ready to move, and he’s ready to receive some offers,’ she said.”
“After interest in rural Texas land peaked at the height of the pandemic, demand has cooled since mid-2022, largely because of higher interest rates, Lynn Krebs, research economist at Texas A&M University’s Texas Real Estate Research Center told the outlet. Demand remained strong in the luxury ranch market until recently, Krebs said. ‘There’s just not as many interested buyers as there were before,’ he said. ‘I think a lot of market participants have looked at what’s happened over the last year in comparable sales, and they’re starting to see that the market is not moving like it had the two or three years prior.’”
WSB Atlanta. “HOA nightmares are one of the most frequent calls into the Channel 2 Action News investigative tipline. Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray looked into how an HOA can take your house in Georgia. A big reason is attorney costs. Every email, every inquiry, every attempt to contest, fix, or even pay the overdue bill adds to the bill. By the time Juliet Graham finally sold her downtown Atlanta condo her HOA bill had reached $250,000. ‘You broke us. We’re broke,’ Graham said. Channel 2 Action News checked foreclosure records and found that just two metro Atlanta law firms that specialize in representing HOAs have filed 279 notices seeking damage and foreclosure notices in just the past three years. ‘I can’t imagine the mafia having been any worse than what my experience was with this,’ Graham said.”
“‘This is where I resodded the whole thing,’ said James McAdoo, a homeowner in South Fulton County. The only way he could stop his HOA from intercepting his paycheck was by filing for bankruptcy. ‘They garnished my wages,’ McAdoo said. He owes $36,000 and counting predominantly because of weeds in his front yard. They were garnishing $600 from his paycheck every two weeks until he started the bankruptcy process. ‘What way do you see out of this?’ Gray asked McAdoo. ‘Selling my home and just getting out of this neighborhood,’ McAdoo said.”
Kelowna Now in Canada. “‘After the lukewarm activity in March, it’s nice to see that the bustling spring market has arrived,’ said Kaytee Sharun, president of the 2,600-member Association of Interior Realtors. The benchmark selling price of a typical single-family home in April was $1,009,000, up from $986,600 in March. However, compared to the same month last year, both sales and prices were down slightly, with 2.6% and 3.6% drops, respectively. Generally, activity is restrained and some potential buyers and sellers are sitting on the fence waiting for mortgage interest rates to come down before they spring into action. The record-high benchmark for a single-family home was $1,131,800 in April 2022 as the market boomed post-COVID when interest rates were rock bottom.”
“The benchmark selling price of a typical townhouse also rose from $719,600 in March to $734,600 in April. The townhouse benchmark peaked at $829,000 in May 2022. When it comes to condominiums, the benchmark selling price of a typical unit last month was $508,200, up from $496,000 in March. It was April 2022 when the condo benchmark was highest at $557,700.”
Windsor Star in Canada. “The average monthly sales price rose $17,884 to $581,194, which is slightly higher than prices in April 2023. It’s also the highest average sales price since last June. Local listings jumped 30.6 per cent over March to 1082, which was also a 22.5 per cent increase over 12 months ago. Both buyers and sellers have come to realize the current market is the new reality, said Manor Realty general manager Rob Agnew. ‘The days of the undervalued Windsor home market are gone,’ he said. ‘We lived with that advantage for many years — that’s over. But I don’t think we’re going to see spikes up to the $720,000 average price seen in COVID either.’”
“‘The number of sales dropping eight per cent from last year is kind of alarming,’ said Windsor-Essex Country Association of Realtors president Maggie Chen. ‘The listing numbers are opening up a gap with buyers. Sellers are ready to sell again. Buyers are still a little hesitant.’”
The Independent in the UK. “When Edward and Hazel Short put their life savings into building their fantasy home on the coast, they hoped it would change their lives for the better and give their two children a fabulous childhood. Instead, more than 12 years later, the luxury house has been relisted for sale once again at knockdown price, the couple’s marriage is over and millionaire Mr Short is still paying off some of the money he borrowed for the ambitious building project. It was first listed for sale in February 2022 but despite rumours of celebrities including Harry Styles expressing interest – a buyer failed to emerge.”
“And now the five-bedroom home is back on the market again, listed by Savills on behalf of Joint Receivers at a knockdown price of £5.5m on Rightmove. Chesil Cliff House in Croyde, Devon, divides opinion locally to this day. ‘There’s no doubt what I put Hazel through was horrendous,’ said the former music industry sales executive. ‘There’s a lot of guilt about that. But there was no way out, once we started. If we didn’t finish we’d have been in big trouble. It was awful for the family because I pulled the stability rug from under them, without being able to give answers of how we were going to get out of it, other than that I had to carry on.’”
South China Morning Post. “People from mainland China are buying as many as eight out of 10 new homes in some recent sales in Hong Kong following the removal of property cooling measures in February, according to agents. It’s not surprising that we see a high number of mainland buyers coming to the market,’ said Raymond Cheng, managing director and head of China and Hong property at CGS International. ‘Before the government scrapped all the property cooling measures, mainland buyers, who would have wanted to buy a HK$10 million [US$1.28 million] flat had to shell out HK$13 million because of a HK$3 million extra tax. Now with home prices dropping by 25 per cent, the same property will only cost HK$7.5 million. That’s a more than 40 per cent savings.’ Cheng said that despite robust demand from mainland Chinese buyers, a housing glut is likely to keep home prices in check.”
From Bloomberg. “China’s cryptic hints at a plan to address its property market woes have buoyed investors. But economists want more details before buying into the recovery story. The ruling Communist Party last week hinted at interest-rate cuts and said it would research ways of dealing with unsold properties — a shift from past plans to build more social housing which threatened to add to oversupply problems. It’s the first time the Politburo signaled that reducing housing inventory and improving policies for new supply are a key focus, state media reported. Top leaders are addressing the issue now because there’s limited room for new home demand to grow given a shrinking population and slower rate of urbanization, said Bruce Pang, chief economist for Greater China at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.”
“The statement ‘sparked hopes that the government may step in to acquire unsold homes such as via state-owned platforms, which would accelerate property destocking and benefit developers,’ Pang said by phone. The government last year announced plans to build more affordable housing for sale, in the hopes of reviving sentiment. Now policymakers instead seem to be focused on plans to address the oversupply problem.”