A report from the Orange County Register in California. "Gina Kirschenheiter of 'The Real Housewives of Orange County' has sold her four-bedroom Coto de Caza home, parting with it for $100,000 less than she and her husband sought when it hit the market a year ago. The 2,208-square-foot, single-story house closed sale on May 29 for $875,000. It was listed on the MLS in June 2018 for $975,000, dropping to $939,000 in March 2019 and then $914,988 in May. The couple paid $840,000 for the house in 2016, according to property records."

From Pop Culture on Texas. "After going on sale early last summer, the sensational Cherry Creek home known as the 'Faceless Bunker' featured on HGTV's Fixer Upper is back on the market and has been stewing for 100 days, according to Zillow. With a price cut of nearly $51,000 last April, the four-bedroom and bathroom home is now $899,000 USD."

"Located in Waco, Texas, the home was initially listed for $1.5 million last year. According to House Beautiful, the home was featured in season two, episode 12 and is located near shopping malls, schools, restaurants and churches."

From Honolulu Civil Beat in Hawaii. "By day, Howard Hughes Corporation’s Ward Village in Kakaako is a bustling hub of trendy restaurants and boutiques anchored by gleaming luxury condo towers, a multiplex movie theater and a two-story natural foods store."

"At night, however, the neighborhood has a different atmosphere. The street life dwindles, and the high-rises become dark monoliths. The buildings are so dark, in fact, they’ve inspired jokes by local business owners, says Tomas Kloosterboer, co-owner of Off the Wall, a hip craft beer and wine bar on Auahi Street."

"'We were laughing,' he said, after someone commented, 'Dude, there’s a power outage at the building.'"

"Despite the jokes, the nighttime slowdown is no laughing matter for businesses that invested in the area assuming the party would go on when the sun goes down. 'If you drive by Kakaako at night, most of the units are dark,' said Mayor Kirk Caldwell ’s chief of staff, Gary Kurokawa."

"Kakaako is hardly the only place where investors buy properties that they rarely live in. In fact, across Oahu, approximately 5.3% of the long-term housing inventory is vacant, the city reported last month in its Oahu Resiliency Strategy report. It describes the proposed tax as a way to encourage people to rent out properties or, alternatively, to raise money to pay for affordable housing units."

"According to the report, foreign investment in expensive vacation homes has doubled to approximately $1 billion annually in 2016 and 2017 from about $500 annually in 2008 to 2015. Mainland investors buy another $4 to 5 billion annually, the city reported."

"Just how many of Ward Village’s condos are actually occupied isn’t clear. For the past five years, Howard Hughes, a Dallas-based real estate investment trust, has been redeveloping Kakaako at an astounding pace. As of March, the company had either opened or was planning just under 2,700 condominiums in its master-planned Ward Village project at the east end of Kakaako."

"Neighborhood business owners welcome the idea of a vacancy tax designed to encourage more people to actually live in the residences. Among them is Brian Chan, owner of Scratch Kitchen and Meatery. After running the successful Scratch Kitchen and Bakeshop in Chinatown, Chan relocated to Ward Village in 2017."

"At the time, Chan said, he believed it would be a vibrant center with thousands of residents living in the nearby condo towers. 'That’s the main reason we got in there,' he said. 'We didn’t expect them all to be vacant. At night, it’s a ghost town down here.'"