A report from the Washington Post. "Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave a speech a couple of weeks back that showed that financial regulators have learned many lessons from the 2008 financial crisis, but not the most important one, namely: If regulators wait to act until they can say with certainty that a credit bubble is about to burst, they’ve waited too long."

"That’s particularly true when it comes to the opaque and unregulated 'shadow' banking system on Wall Street that has now supplanted regulated banks as the leading source of credit for businesses and consumers. As before, too much of the lending growth is driven by investors’ search for yield rather than borrowers need for new capital. 'Anytime you have this much money chasing loans, you are going to have accidents,' a banker told me recently."

"During the first three months of this year, according to Trepp, a data company, interest-only loans — loans requiring no payback of principal until the loan is due — accounted for three-quarters of all new commercial real estate loans."

From Illinois Public Media. "If you live in Champaign-Urbana, you may have noticed a surge in new apartment construction in recent years, but this boom is part of a larger pattern of construction happening across the country. A 2016 market research report from Triad Real Estate Partners found that there were a half dozen private apartment projects with more than 100 beds constructed in Champaign-Urbana that year. These new additions to the housing market, which added over 2,000 rooms, and the current projects underway, have led to a rental housing surplus, particularly among students."

"Ben LeRoy, an associate planner with the city of Champaign, says it’s typically a business decision on the part of the developer whether or not to pursue a project in an oversaturated market, and not up to the city to greenlight most projects. 'We've set the rules, we've set the playing field and then it’s a financial decision and a development decision for a developer to come in and say ‘can I work within these rules.'"

The Jamestown Sun on North Dakota. "Property managers in Jamestown are looking for more tenants to fill vacancies that are as high as 20% to 30% for some classifications of apartment units. 'It seems every one of the properties has some sort of vacancy,' said Bonnie Etter, owner of Better Homes Property Management, referring to the apartment buildings with vacant units. 'Right now, two bedroom older units are the toughest to fill.'"

"Etter said Better Homes manages about 550 apartment units and currently has 134 vacancies. 'When construction was going on at Spiritwood we were full,' she said. 'At that time, more applicants than apartments. Now, more apartments than valid applicants.' Rents have also been decreasing since about 2014, she said."

From News Bytes on New York. "Would you ever want to buy a luxury apartment worth $85 million? How about if the deal included a Lamborghini, two Rolls Royces, and a space trip for two, all free of charge? So, that apartment that you can't afford is a 15,000-square-foot property located in the Atelier Building in Manhattan, The New York Times reports."

"Since the asking price is an outrageous $85mn, nobody has bought it since it went on the market six years ago."

The Davis Enterprise in California. "On April 7, the Drake Apartments in Davis served residents in nearly a fifth of their apartments eviction notices. Thirty-five tenants, almost all of them Chinese exchange students at UC Davis, were informed they had three days to 'pay rent or quit.'"

"Guanlin Li, a computer science student from China, was confused and anxious. 'It was a big shock,' he says. He had paid his rent in full. So had everyone else. As always, the students didn’t pay the Drake Apartments directly. They paid WeHousing, a company that leases apartments from nine complexes in Davis and rents them out unit by unit, mainly to international students."

"In April, WeHousing collected rent from the tenants but didn’t pay the apartments, leaving about 100 UC Davis students — and up to 400 tenants across the U.S. — puzzled over eviction notices. According to WeHousing founder Alan Gao, the company had been losing money since September after being unable to fill about a third of the units they leased for 2018-19."

"To stay afloat, Gao says, WeHousing 'borrowed money from all sorts of creditors.' He says the company ran up credit card debt and took loans from multiple banks. Last month, some of those loans came due. 'For April and May, we used most of the rents collected to pay off loans,' Gao says."

"One apartment representative went to Gao’s home and delivered an eviction notice in person, only for Gao to reportedly 'pretend not to be who he is' to evade the notice. 'He’s hiding,' says Kevin Schultz, the Drake Apartments manager. 'If he wanted to walk away, he could. Instead, he’s demanding the residents continue to pay him while he doesn’t intend to pay us.'"

"Guanlin Li will fly home to China in mid-June, a few days after he finishes final exams. He paid WeHousing a $2,100 security deposit, which he’s afraid he’ll never get back. 'We’re students,' he says. 'We don’t just want to put this money in the water.' At the same time, he says he might have to cut his losses."

The New York Times. "The cracks in the foundation of a Chicago nursing-home business began to appear almost immediately. The owners stopped making mortgage payments on their crown jewel, the Rosewood Care Centers, barely a year after buying it in 2013. Paperwork about the chain’s finances was never filed with the government. Some money meant for the 13 nursing homes and assisted-living facilities went to prop up another investment."

"In the end, the business defaulted last year on $146 million in government-backed mortgages — the biggest collapse in the history of a little-known loan-guarantee program run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development."

"By the government’s own admission, the federal agency’s stewardship of the program has been haphazard. Its oversight of nursing homes has been weak. When HUD officials have spotted problems, they often have been slow to respond. Sometimes it has taken years to intervene, allowing the finances at certain facilities to unravel to such an extent that the quality of care was undermined."

" The nursing home industry is increasingly being run by for-profit operators facing dwindling margins. Some homes — especially those in rural areas — are struggling to stay open, with operators blaming low occupancy and insufficient payments from Medicaid and Medicare."

"Edward Golding, a former top official with HUD during the Obama administration, defended the loan-guarantee program as essential to helping nursing homes and assisted-living facilities get access to credit. But, he said, the program 'could benefit from more transparency and public awareness.'"