A report from Oregon Public Broadcasting. "Calls are mounting in Portland for elected officials to temporarily ban evictions, as the coronavirus pandemic throws the ability of low-wage workers to make their next rent payment into question. To protect renters, lawmakers in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco are pressing for temporary eviction bans. Miami’s police say they won’t help landlords remove tenants while the city’s in a state of emergency. San Jose is poised to enact a monthlong eviction ban for renters who can show their loss of income is related to the virus."

"Deborah Imse, the head of landlord trade group Multifamily NW, urged city and state leaders to provide 'meaningful, financial relief to renters and housing providers alike' over the next two months, but stopped short of supporting a ban on evictions, which, she said, would make 'no sense' if it 'leads to a wave of foreclosures on rental properties.'"

"City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly's cousin, a stage manager at a local music venue, will be out of work for the next month, and will fall behind on mortgage payments as a result. A family member who owns a cafe in North Portland is seeing sales cut in half. Her friend Jim Brunberg, who runs three local music venues including Revolution Hall and Mississippi Studios, has shut down operations. Eudaly said the coronavirus has cost Brunberg about $2.5 million in economic activity already and forced him to lay off 179 employees. 'This is just one example of the economic devastation that’s coming,' Eudaly warned."

From Realtor.com. "For current homeowners who might find themselves in financial straits if they lose their job, lenders may offer forbearance and payment deferral programs to help them stave off a short sale or foreclosure, says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. 'They'll be very understanding,' Zandi says of lenders, particularly of government-sponsored loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and Federal Housing Administration loans."

"Booming markets that grew very quickly with big price gains could also experience a bit of a slowdown. Metro areas like Denver, Salt Lake City, and Boise, ID, could potentially be affected, says Moody's Zandi. These markets, which have growing tech scenes, have become popular with retirees and priced-out folks from California in recent years. 'You might see some price declines in the Western markets that got very juiced up, very speculative,' he says."

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Even before, some agents were seeing signs of caution creeping in. One potential concern for home shoppers going forward is what happens to the money they were counting on for a down payment. Stocks, bonds, gold, bitcoin — assets are falling in value across the board. John Underwood, who manages Redfin’s L.A. office, said he had a buyer pull back an offer for a roughly $700,000 three-bedroom house in Lakewood because 'most of his down payment was tied up in the stock market.'"

"Luxury home builder Toll Bros. has also had a handful of delayed closings because buyers from China had 'transportation or other logistical challenges … such as closed banks or offices in China,' said Christine Sciarrotta, the company’s vice president for brand management."

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. "Jim Gaines, chief economist for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, isn’t so sure that historically low mortgage rates will outshine economic fears with consumers. 'Right now, we are not 100% sure housing will win,' Gaines said. 'We are a little bit dubious about the housing market.'"

"In Texas, the steep slide in oil prices will negatively affect metro areas including Houston and Midland-Odessa, which have large oil and gas sector workforces, Gaines said. 'Dallas’ main concern is what the national economy does,' he said. 'It’s going to slow down — no doubt about that — but nobody knows how long or how deep it will be.'"

From Crain's New York Business. "An open house for a Manhattan apartment draws no visitors. A buyer backs out of a condo deal after the stock market plummets. Another jumps at a purchase when mortgage rates reach irresistible lows. Coronavirus is spreading in New York City. But when it comes to real estate, fear of contagion only slightly trumps fear of missing out on a deal. Buyers are sorting through what a pandemic might mean for a market that’s already struggling with an oversupply of homes and falling prices."

"Sellers who do list aren’t seeing much traffic. The virus has already had a tangible impact on some would-be buyers. One who was set to sign a contract for a condo near the Brooklyn waterfront will probably walk away from the deal because she was relying on pulling money from her stock portfolio, now in decline, to cover a down payment, said Melissa Leifer, a broker with Keller Williams."

From Bisnow on Washington. "As recently as the end of February, Seattle bustled. Finding a parking spot on the street was a futile quest. Today, there is plenty of parking to be had. No one knows when the coronavirus outbreak, which has its American epicenter in Seattle, will subside and streets will refill with people and commerce, but in the meantime, small businesses are taking the brunt of this sudden economic hit."

"Every time a ship docks, 5,000 tourists flood Seattle’s streets. But yesterday, the Port of Seattle canceled the April 1 and April 5 port of call sailings of the 2020 cruise season, temporarily ending the one-day stopovers in Seattle. Most sailings at the Port of Seattle are homeport sailings, which generate $4M each for the local economy. The cruise season typically generates $900M of business activity in Seattle and supports 5,500 jobs."

"CRE leaders in other states hit hard by the virus have been urging the commercial real estate industry to continue doing business as well as it can. Barry Broome, president and CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, said the best thing the commercial real estate industry can do to support the economy during this time is to keep going forward. 'If health officials do a good job handling the public health side, we can get through this in six to 12 months,' Broome said. 'If you plan on building a 500K SF office building or a 250K SF multifamily building, just keep building it. There may be a small drop in the price of construction material prices. The interest rates are low.'"

"The biggest impact will be on the small businesses, and the residual effect will be fewer taxes collected, he said. Wall Street is panicking, but it’s resilient, he said. There aren’t too many places that exhibit a bubble. Banking is strong. The housing market is strong. 'The builders need to keep building with confidence,' he said. 'This isn’t 2008. This is more like 2001. People will eventually see this as a blip on the radar screen.'"

From Yahoo Finance. "Bankruptcy veteran Dr. Edward Altman sees trouble brewing in corporate credit, with mass ratings downgrades and company bankruptcies on the horizon as the coronavirus outbreak shakes the global economy. Altman, who is a professor emeritus at NYU Stern School of Business added that even before the virus, the fundamentals of companies and markets were already showing 'a lot of warning signs.' A lot of companies kept afloat by cheap borrowing costs could be in real trouble. Altman contended that many of them should actually go bankrupt, because 'they are zombies and have been kept alive' by historically low rates."

"'That’s a very important thing — downgraded to high yield. If that happens, then you have problems in that market depending on the amount,' he said — adding that his model suggests the situation could be far worse than that 10% figure."

"'We ran our tests looking objectively at the health of BBB companies at the end of 2019 when everything was going great, and we came up with more than 30% looked vulnerable to a downgrade, in fact, looked like non-investment grade companies even then,' Altman told Yahoo Finance. 'And that’s going to happen, maybe not 30%, because we don’t do the rating change. But it does happen, and when that happens, a lot of marginal companies are going to be forced out of business,' he added."