A report from the Orlando Sentinel in Florida. "Orlando’s red-hot real estate market may be cooling off. The November real estate report from the Orlando Area Realtors Association shows sales fell 6.9 percent to during the month to 2,575 while the number of homes for sale grew to a 3.3-month supply, the biggest inventory since September 2017."

"'There has been a shock in how quickly interest rates have gone up,' said Eric Soto, a real estate agent and co-owner of TC Orlando Homes based in Altamonte Springs."

"Though there are more homes available, it’s still far from a buyers market, Soto said. 'There may be more homes than there were a few months ago but only a few hundred,' he said."

"Zillow economist Jeff Tucker said home supply is up in many markets across the country. But he, too, wouldn’t call it a huge increase. 'This is certainly not looking like an inventory spike,' he said. 'It’s just coming up from really low levels.'"

The Miami Herald in Florida. "Edgardo Defortuna has been flying high for years, hiring star architects and erecting a string of ultra-luxury condo and hotel towers on his way to becoming one of Miami’s most prominent developers."

But three separate lawsuits against Defortuna and his Fortune International Group suggests there may be a dark side to the Argentine-born developer’s success story. The complainants contend Defortuna has engaged in a series of dirty tricks, cheating small investors and lenders in one of his signature projects, and blocking the sale of a small condo next to another project through subterfuge to thwart potential competition."

"A third lawsuit is scheduled for trial in February, involves the Ritz-Carlton residential tower in Sunny Isles, which Defortuna developed in partnership with the Chateau Group and its principal, Manuel Grosskopf, who are also defendants in the suit."

"The gist of the condo owners’ complaint: That the developers put up straw buyers to purchase five units in the Tropicana, enough to vote against and thus thwart a deal to sell the 48-unit condo to another developer for $115 million, said the association’s attorney, Glen Waldman."

"Buying the units through fronts is legal. But Waldman said it was a dirty deal for the Tropicana’s mostly older and retired owners, who would have each cleared around $2 million for their units in a sale of the condo. 'It was a smart, calculated way to protect their substantial investment, to the detriment of forty-some unit owners who stood to have enough money to retire and live on for the rest of their lives,' Waldman said."

From Crain's New York Business. "Real estate experts are bracing for another year of uncertainty that at best will deliver anemic growth and at worst, more declines in prices and activity.  The culprit is a continued hangover from the postrecession party."

"Many real estate investors who saw the rapid appreciation of assets from 2013 to 2015 hoped prices would only keep rising. They didn't. And now owners of condos, rental housing, and commercial and retail spaces are reluctant to drop asking prices, fearing a loss of equity or falling behind on loan payments."

"Asking prices were inflated by around 10% in 2018, said Donna Olshan, head of Olshan Realty—meaning sellers had to make serious adjustments before striking a deal. The same will hold for next year as well. "

"'The market moves in New York when the prices are right,' Olshan said. 'When it is overpriced, it's like anything else: Inventory builds up, and you get a buyer's market.'"

"And more supply is on its way. Thousands of apartments are planned for Long Island City alone. 'Last year was clearly a reset in the real estate economy,' said Jonathan Miller, head of appraisal firm Miller Samuel. 'I think 2019 may shape up to be a little weaker.'"