A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Companies such as Opendoor aim to bring Wall Street-style efficiencies and Silicon Valley software to the housing business. Zillow came to Phoenix last spring to test its own computer-driven flipping strategy. In May 2018, Zillow bought its first house for $410,000. After a renovation, Zillow listed it 11 days later for $425,000—and ended up selling it for $403,000, around 2% less than it paid."

From Real Estate Weekly on New York. "The most sweeping changes ever made to New York City’s rent regulations have been roundly criticized by a real estate industry that is warning of crumbling housing stock and a worsening affordability crisis. 'There are many losers including small property owners, contractors as well as tenants,' said John Banks, president of the Real Estate Board of New York."

From Bisnow on Washington DC. "The continued rise in construction costs has made D.C.'s ongoing projects more expensive, and developers say the next wave of new projects will be hit the hardest. CBRE Vice Chairman David Webb, a leading finance broker, said the combination of rising costs and stagnant rents have impacted land values across the region. 'It makes it harder to get top dollar for land not just because of the cost increases, but because of the fear of more increases with tariffs and the labor shortage,' Webb said. 'If costs are going up and rents aren't going up, the land has to go down.'"

From Bisnow on Texas. "Shifting interest rates and product oversupply pose the greatest threats to expansion in the Dallas-Fort Worth commercial real estate market, a new survey by Henry S. Miller says. Real estate faces several major headwinds — from the impact of trade tariffs to interest rates and a glut of CRE production."

From KCRW in California. "Thousands live on the streets of Los Angeles and many others struggle to pay high rents. Yet, more than 100,000 units reportedly sit empty across our city. So four councilmembers have proposed a vacancy tax on property owners who keep rentals vacant."

"And it may provide an answer to the question many of us have pondered as we watch all the new residential towers going up in LA: Does anyone actually live there? For the past two years, Walter Dominguez and Brad Kane have been driving around their West LA neighborhoods, apartment hunting. But they’re not in the market for themselves. Instead, they just like to count the windows."

"'You can look up and see the building, more than half the lights are not on,' Kane said, pointing up at the Vision, an 18-story high-rise on the corner Wilshire and Crescent Heights Blvd. 'It gives you a good idea, that our estimate of about 40-50% vacancy is about right.'"

From Honolulu Civil Beat in Hawaii. "There is probably no truer symbol of the state of Honolulu’s housing market than the vast darkness of unoccupied condos in the new high rises of Kakaako.
Many of them belonging, no doubt, to out-of-state investors who collect residences in exotic places for occasional visits. People who not only can pay the units’ towering purchase prices, but can afford to let them sit empty most of the time instead of renting them out."

"And frankly, all the talk about designating certain proportions of the units in condo towers for affordable housing has been something of a smokescreen. The implication is that the city and state are really focusing on the problem when they’re actually still playing into the hands of developers looking to serve those lucrative upscale buyers who don’t even live here."

From Forbes on Florida. "The founder of a Miami-based private equity firm is doubling his initial target goal of $100 million for a fund dedicated to acquiring distressed commercial real estate loans. Ralph Serrano, principal of Safe Harbor Equity said a recently completed fundraising tour through Europe and Asia convinced him there's strong appetite among high net worth individuals and institutional investors abroad to put their capital in a distressed commercial real estate debt fund."

"'There has been a slight uptick in foreclosures statistically,' he said. 'They are bit higher than they were 12 months ago.'"

"Foreclosure starts in Florida were up 23% last month, the fourth highest among all 50 states, according to Attom Data Solutions' May 2019. In Miami-Dade County, foreclosure starts inched up 9.1% year-to-year, rose 18.7% in Broward County and jumped 33.9% in Palm Beach County."

"Among recent foreclosure actions involving South Florida commercial properties is the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach. Wells Fargo, acting as a trustee of GE Commercial Mortgage Corp., sued owner Cohen Brothers Realty Corp. on June 4. The lawsuit alleges the owners are delinquent on two loans worth $172.9 million."

"Last month, Madison Realty Capital filed a foreclosure lawsuit against the developer of the Costa Hollywood Beach Resort. The 326-unit condo-hotel at 777 North Ocean Drive in Hollywood opened last October. Madison is claiming $40.6 million of delinquent debt on a $70 million construction loan issued in 2016. And in March, the lender for the Midtown Doral condominium and retail complex filed a $11 million foreclosure lawsuit."

"Other private equity firms looking to capitalize on a potential rise on distressed loans include New York City-based Churchill Real Estate Holdings and London-based Cheyne Capital. In April, Churchill launched a $200 million distressed debt fund targeting failed condo projects and struggling retail properties valued under $100 million. Cheyne recently raised $1.1 billion for a fund that will buy the debt of stressed middle-market companies from European banks seeking to sell down loan portfolios in order to meet new accounting and regulatory standards."