A report from the Bay Area Newsgroup in California. "Seventy-year-old Jeanine Fetterly’s dream since 1976 was to have her children build themselves a home on on a lot that she bought down the street from her house. But after the passage of Oakland’s Measure W last year, which put a $6,000 tax on vacant lots like hers, she fears that dream will never come true. She looked into selling the parcel, but since the passage of Measure W, it has lost around half its value, she said."

"Oakland realtor David Eckert confirmed that the tax has significantly brought down prices of certain vacant properties, which were already weakened by rising construction costs, impact fees and a spike in the cost to install utilities. Fetterly said she believes others in her situation would rather sell at a loss than pay the tax, which she thinks would empower corporate property owners to buy up a larger chunk of the city’s vacant properties — the opposite of what the tax was intended for."

"'Somebody who was going to sell a lot for $250,000 now has to sell it for $125,000, and the speculators will come in and buy them all up,' Fetterly said."

The Las Vegas Sun in Nevada. "Las Vegas ranks fourth among U.S. metro areas with the sharpest deceleration in home resale prices, according to a report. 'We’re still flat as of the last numbers we have,' said Janet Carpenter, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. 'There’s just not much going on. There’s not much appreciation at all, and appraisals are coming in low for the most part.'"

"Carpenter said people attempting to gauge their home’s value based on what a neighbor got in a sale six months ago are discovering a harsh reality. 'I think people are thinking they can get the same thing. Well, no they can’t right now,' Carpenter said."

The Los Angeles Times. "Former San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean has wrapped up a deal in the desert. His split-level home in Scottsdale, Ariz., has sold for $1.35 million. It chalks up as a loss, records show. Sabean shelled out $1.5 million for place in 2006. He first listed the home for $1.475 million in February, but a May price cut brought the tag down to $1.4 million."

From Mansion Global on Florida. "What was once the highest-listed home for sale in Palm Beach, Florida, at $84.5 million sold Monday for $40.87 million, nearly half its original listing price. The custom-built, oceanfront mansion first listed in March 2015 and has seen several price cuts since then, Mansion Global has previously reported. The house was reduced to $79.5 million, $74.5 million, $69.9 million, $64.9 million, and $59.9 million before closing at $40.87 million, according to listing records."

From Bisnow on New York. "The companies behind a luxury condominium in the Financial District missed loan repayments and are now facing foreclosure from their senior lender, according to a new lawsuit. Davide Bizzi’s Bizzi & Partners, Howard Lorber’s New Valley, investment firm Carlton Group and equity partner China Cindat own the project at 125 Greenwich, an 88-story skyscraper designed by Rafael Viñoly."

"Senior lender Singapore-based United Overseas Bank filed a notice to foreclose on the sponsors earlier this week, claiming it is owed $195M that it provided, plus unpaid interest, The Real Deal reports."

"The project topped out earlier this year, and a three-bedroom unit is asking just shy of $7M, per StreetEasy. The complaint was filed in New York State Supreme Court, and if the foreclosure goes ahead it will wipe out $130M in equity and preferred equity, as well as $200M in junior debt from various lenders, according to TRD. Earlier this year, the EB-5 lender on the project, Nick Mastroianni's U.S. Immigration Fund, issued a notice of intent to foreclose, though Mastroianni told TRD foreclosure would only be used as a 'last resort.'"

The Wall Street Journal. "Chinese authorities are directing Anbang Insurance Group to sell off assets more quickly, seeking to shrink the troubled companyto roughly half its previous size.
Regulators said in a briefing Thursday that Anbang has disposed of or is disposing of more than a trillion yuan ($145 billion) in assets, about half what it held when the government took it over last year, according to its website."

"That takeover in late May—the government cited severe credit risk—had sent borrowing costs up for smaller banks and financial institutions, sparking worries of a default. The regulator didn’t specify which assets would be sold. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Anbang is seeking to sell billions of dollars worth of U.S. property and hotels."

"The insurer was able to fund a global spending spree by selling high-yielding short-term investment products to ordinary Chinese consumers. The government put an end to that last year by taking over the company and sending its then-chairman, Wu Xiaohui, to prison for financial crimes. Regulators described Anbang’s breakneck expansion as a systemic risk to the country’s financial system."

The Port Townsend Leader in Washington. "Key City Public Theatre has been trying to sell its uptown property for four years with no luck. Now, time is running short. A notice of foreclosure has been filed to go into effect August 30. The nonprofit theatre organization bought the property at 1128 Lawrence Street in 2006 with the aim of building a larger theater in its place. The 8,500-square-foot lot is zoned for commercial use. On the property is a 1,293-square-foot house built in 1900."

"It was the peak of the local housing boom when Key City Public Theatre bought the property for $500,000. Ian Keith, a board member at the time, loaned KCPT the $500,000 to purchase the building. A $300,000 bequest from Reed Austin, an illustrator and former assistant art director at Playboy magazine who loved musical theater, helped pay down that loan."

"'There was a sense of urgency that if we don’t get this property now, there will never be another viable property,' said Denise Winter, artistic director of KCPT. 'So we did it. But it has never been worth half a million.'"