It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Mortgage firms are bracing for a wave of missed payments starting April 1 as borrowers lose their jobs as a result of the coronavirus epidemic. The firms, which collect money from borrowers on behalf of investors, are concerned they will have to come up with tens of billions of dollars on short notice, a daunting task since most are nonbank firms that don’t have access to emergency lending from the Federal Reserve. In a worst-case scenario, the servicers could shut down en masse. 'If they’re all having financial difficulty, where do you move the servicing to,' said Ted Tozer, who ran Ginnie Mae for seven years after the financial crisis."

"'There is a big risk to our servicers from borrowers not sending in payments as they would still need to meet their obligations to investors,' said Tendayi Kapfidze, Chief Economist, Lending Tree. 'This is especially acute for non-bank lenders who do not have sufficient reserves in place. It was disappointing that the bill did not directly address this risk.'"

"The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is likely to weigh on the profitability of US homebuilders. But will lower demand, even though low mortgage rates are supportive, result in a supply glut of new homes? Fitch Ratings says that 'the surge in spec building activity by homebuilders in recent quarters could result in excess inventory of new homes if demand drops meaningfully in the near term.' This could mean increased discounting, again hitting homebuilder margins."

"On March 16, Angelo Acquista and his wife closed on a $19.5 million penthouse atop 252 East 57th Street, a luxury new development. Their agent Marina Bernshtein said her buyers got a great deal regardless of the pandemic, paying 48% off the apartment’s original listing price of $37.5 million in 2017. Agent Lisa Lippman of Brown Harris Stevens said she is working on three deals this week, including two where she already has accepted offers. 'In all three cases, the seller is taking less than they hoped to get, but that’s not really a change from the past few months anyway,' she said, referencing the recent softness in the New York luxury market. 'And the possibility that we have a recession coming was already baked into New York City prices.'"

"Adam Leitman Bailey, a New York real estate attorney who helped buyers wriggle out of contracts in the last financial meltdown using an old federal statute, said he’s already faced a barrage of calls from buyers looking to get out of condo contracts—and sellers looking to enforce them. For buyers who signed contracts for new development units in New York over the past several years, they’d risk losing deposits of 20% to 25% if they reneged, said appraiser Jonathan Miller."

"In Los Angeles, agents said they haven’t yet seen buyers try to renege on deals already in contract, but sellers are already more willing to negotiate on price. Ben Bacal, an agent with Revel Real Estate, said he’s received calls from buyers looking for discounts on major listings. 'Typically, I would never approach my sellers with these offers but now, a handful of my sellers are open to them,' he said."

"Rick Cunningham, who owns 27 real estate agencies in California and Hawaii from his base in Santa Monica, California, says that some sellers want their agents to show their homes and hold open houses, despite the governor’s order. Some buyers are also calling in attorneys. 'We’re still closing business that was in the pipeline. Some buyers have tried to get out of deals, and sellers are trying to hold them to it,' says Cunningham."

"Here in the Piedmont Triad area, experts say the market is pretty steady. 'We have had a pretty good market for a while we always knew eventually it would turn back to a buyer`s. We just didn't expect it to be in the form of a pandemic,' said Carmicia Booth, CKG realtor. It's a change in the market homeowner Chris says he's even seen in the past seven days. 'I get these alerts where it says price reduced by 15,000, price reduced by 8,000 and I'm like wow this is just happening within the past week,' said Wallace."

"National mortgage application volume fell 29 percent for the week ending March 20 compared to the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Rodney Anderson, branch manager and residential mortgage lender of Supreme Lending in Plano, said any decline in the number of applications in North Texas would not be that sharp. 'We’re starting to hear from people that buy investment properties that they’re getting their cash together because they think there’s going to be a wonderful opportunity over the next 30 to 60 days to go buy some nice properties cheaper than they would otherwise be.'"

"The Royal Bank of Canada moved Wednesday to unload hundreds of millions of dollars worth of commercial real-estate debt seized from clients in recent days, trying to protect itself from pain spreading through the mortgage market. Mortgage bonds of all kinds have tumbled in value in recent weeks, even those that had top ratings from credit agencies. Investors are worried borrowers will default en masse as the economy slows to a halt. That has prompted margin calls from banks that lend against these bonds. Borrowers can either try to sell the debt themselves at fire-sale prices or post more collateral to buy time—or the lender can seize the bonds and try to sell them itself."

"A Toronto-area real estate market that started the year by revisiting the market euphoria of 2016 abruptly feels like it’s reliving the financial market meltdown of 2008. 'A couple of weeks ago it felt like 2016 – now it feels like right after the crash,' says real estate agent Rochelle DeClute. Some property owners are afraid – not just financially but afraid for their family members, says Robin Pope of Pope Real Estate Ltd. in Toronto. 'If I were to sell, I would sell now. Like tomorrow,' Mr. Pope says. 'I certainly believe the situation is going to be worse in two or three months.'"

"Trading at two of Ireland’s biggest homebuilding companies suggests investors think house prices could drop by up to 20 per cent, Davy stockbrokers has said. Glenveagh’s share price has dropped by about 40 per cent since the start of March, while Cairn’s has fallen by 44 per cent over the same period. Davy said the sharp fall in both companies’ market capitalisation, or overall value, implied that investors 'have priced in falls of close to 50 per cent in land values at these levels.' Such a drop would be the most dramatic movement in house prices since the financial crisis."

"Property owners in Rosh HaAyin are not the only ones now lowering their expectations. A check of 14 cities by Yad2 analyst Nir Chen found that in comparison with the corresponding period last year, the number of cases in which people advertising properties are willing to lower the prices of their properties was five or six times as great. 'Many thousands of people are crowding into the mortgage banks now, each for his or her own reasons. We have received calls from property owners who have realized that their tenants will have trouble paying the rent, and whose economic model was to use the rent they get to pay their mortgage,' says AMG Mortgages CEO Amit Kaminsky."

"Hundreds of luxury apartments overlooking Tokyo Bay that were due to be converted from the athletes village have already been sold -- just one of the many headaches caused by the historic postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. Tomohiro Makino, an expert on Japanese real estate, told AFP that developers faced a 'double whammy' of a falling market generally and image problems with the Olympic Village project. 'There is a concern prices could drop. If excitement and anticipation (about the Olympics) fades away, the situation will be severe for the selling side. For now, cancellations are a critical problem for them,' said Makino."

"'Luxury homes will be more vulnerable as the sector largely relies on buyers from the mainland, where the economy has definitely been hurt by the Covid-19 pandemic,' said Joseph Tsang, chairman of JLL in Hong Kong, adding that luxury home prices may drop by at least 20 per cent this year. Home prices had already declined by 5.7 per cent between January and a peak in June 2019, amid the city’s protests. Rising unemployment also poses a threat to the Hong Kong property market. This has forced more people to sell their homes at losses. A 1,588 sq ft home changed hands for HK$21.3 million in late January when the coronavirus broke out in Hong Kong at a loss of HK$10 million, agents said."

"China Vanke, the country's second-largest property developer by sales, said the coronavirus pandemic is taking a toll on its business and surviving could become a real issue for the company and the industry as a whole, according to chairman Yu Liang. 'Survival is a real issue now,' Yu said. He added that when the company adopted 'to survive' slogan during the annual staff meeting in 2018, he never thought it would become a major issue as the coronavirus threatens the survival of the industry."

"As job losses continue to rise because of shutdowns in place to fight the coronavirus crisis, the number of Australians struggling to repay their mortgages is expected to lift to higher levels than seen during the global financial crisis. Digital Finance Analytics' Martin North, who analyses data from household surveys to predict where mortgage defaults could end up, said about 32 per cent of people with mortgage were already struggling."

"But now Mr North believes that figure could worsen in the coming months. 'I wouldn't be surprised to see over 40 per cent of households in mortgage stress, which would take that figure up to about 1.5 to 1.6 million households in mortgage stress,' Mr North said. 'We look at money in and money out — have you got enough money to meet all your spending needs, including your mortgage repayments?'"

"The stock of rental properties in Australia is the sector most at risk. A large share of housing in Australia’s capital cities is leased to the hundreds of thousands of foreign students in the country. With fewer foreign students around, some of those homes are empty. Some landlords may be forced to sell. Other landlords may find their tenants are suddenly out of work and unable to pay rents. During the 2018-19 house price dip, the nation’s economists came to a surprising revelation – the real estate industry is a bigger part of our economy than we realised."

"The Reserve Bank of Australia was quite willing to let house prices bounce back quickly and enjoy the rebound in economic growth. But now prices are set to fall for reasons beyond any central bank’s control. That will only add to the vicious cycle affecting Australia’s economy."