A report from the Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee. "Knoxville is awaiting an increase in multifamily developments. There are more than 1,100 units under construction and scheduled to be completed in the next 24 months. 'When a market gets hot and investors start realizing it and they start to build, there always seems to be a tendency to overbuild,' said Clay Reed, president of the Apartment Association of Greater Knoxville."

"Heidi Adams, senior adviser with NAI Koella RM Moore, said she's been waiting for the multifamily market in Hardin Valley to reach saturation. And two more developments are on the way, she said. '(Developers) understand the risks involved, but I just think at some point in the near future, Hardin Valley is going to reach saturation,' she said."

"Avison Young senior vice president Rick Gentry said there may be areas of town with a need for more multifamily, but it's not as simple as that. 'The problem is that construction costs are so high that you just about have to build (multifamily) in high-income areas,' Gentry said."

"As space dwindles, developable land will come at more of a premium. That's changing the types of apartment and condo buildings that will be built in the future. Adams anticipates more five-story or higher Class A buildings, veering away from the sprawling, garden-style communities. It mirrors a national trend, she said."

"'In order to make the numbers work because construction costs continue to rise, they’re going to have to be upscale, 4-star developments,' Adams said."

The West Bloomfield Beacon in Minnesota. "A housing market study finalized in March reveals that the township of West Bloomfield has become oversaturated with senior living facilities. There are several senior housing projects in West Bloomfield that either have been recently completed or are being planned."

"'The market is currently over-built with independent and assisted living apartments,' it states. 'The township is carrying more than its share of the load for the county and region. There may be a need and justification for a longer-term moratorium on these super-size building formats.'"

From Bloomberg on New York. "A tony prewar building on Manhattan’s Park Avenue has a sprawling, fully renovated three-bedroom co-op for sale at a discount. Don’t expect to find it on a web search. After listing the unit unsuccessfully, the sellers took a break, cut the price by 15 percent and decided to try again -- this time offline, said Martin Eiden, a broker at Compass."

"The apartment’s owners didn’t want the world to know they were desperate enough to accept about $600,000 less than they initially sought, Eiden said, and that motivated their decision to keep it off the portals that publicly post such details."

"'Sellers don’t want to see their listings all over the internet, building up days on market and having buyers question what’s going on,' said Pamela Liebman, president of brokerage Corcoran Group. 'They want to be more private. It makes them feel that they’re doing something different in a market that’s not very tight.'"

The Marin Independent Journal in California. "A downtown San Jose residential and retail tower has defaulted on its development agreement with the city following construction delays for what would be a prominent project."

"An uncertain future confronts the development, which is located in the North San Pedro Square area of San Jose and was proposed by Z & L Properties. Z & L, a China-based developer with a Foster City office, has launched efforts to construct several ambitious projects in the urban core of the Bay Area’s largest city."

"'Z & L Properties is in default of its obligations pursuant to a disposition and development agreement for Block H in the North San Pedro Housing Project Area,' according to a staff report prepared for a San Jose City Council meeting scheduled for April 16."

"San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo indicated disappointment with the delays that have surfaced for this project, which is being developed by an affiliate of Z & L Properties. 'The firm has missed deadlines on several projects, including this one,' Liccardo said."

"While no final decision has been made, the city could seize ownership of the property. The other downtown San Jose projects launched by Z & L Properties are all residential. The projects have encountered differing difficulties."

"This news organization reported this week that an October 2018 default on an $8.8 million loan jolted the company’s Greyhound Station project. Z & L Properties was able to remedy the delinquency, which the developer said arose from a dispute with the property’s seller. In February, a Z & L affiliate obtained a $19.5 million loan from Shanghai Commercial Bank to provide funding until the Greyhound project construction begins, as well as cash for other activities."

"The 188 West St. James towers became the focal point of a federal investigation that determined 22 people who worked on construction of the development were forced to work without pay and held in captivity until they were freed in August 2017."

"Project developer Z & L expressed dismay when it learned of the violations. The probe eventually led to a federal jury conviction in March of Job Torres Hernandez, Hayward-based owner of several construction companies, on multiple charges arising from harboring and extracting labor from immigrant workers."

"At the North San Pedro site, Z & L hopes to work things out with the city. Z & L became involved with the site when it bought the property for $10 million in April 2017. A timetable to begin construction at the North San Pedro housing site, though, wasn’t immediately clear. The city document noted that construction should have begun by the end of 2017 — which didn’t occur."

"'I have no desire to excuse that non-performance in light of the worker abuse committed by a subcontractor on another of its projects,' Liccardo said, referring to the 188 West St. James complex being developed by Z & L Properties."