A report from the Wall Street Journal. "The coronavirus has been sending shares of elder-care facilities into a tailspin over concern that any additional contagion in senior-care buildings could hurt operations and lead to occupancy declines. Shares of health-care real estate investment trusts have fallen 50% since Feb. 24, according to FactSet, with the slide accelerating in March. The senior-housing sector was already coming under pressure from overbuilding from Chicago to New England that created an emerging supply glut in major markets. Last year, returns from senior-housing portfolios were around negative 7%."

From Spare Foot. "Continued overbuilding across the country is putting price pressures on self-storage facilities across most of the country – and nowhere are the price pressures greater than in Pittsburgh, Minnesota’s Twin Cities and South Carolina’s Charleston, according to a new Yardi Matrix report. There’s Pittsburgh, Minnesota’s Twin Cities and South Carolina’s Charleston – where year-over-year prices have fallen from 7 to 8 percent, according to data. All three markets have different characteristics and quirks, but their recent price plunges ultimately come down to one thing: Overbuilding."

"In Minnesota’s Minneapolis and St. Paul markets, Chris Kirwan, president of Acorn Mini Storage in the Twin Cities, says 'dozens and dozens' of new facilities have been built in recent years, increasing the overall supply by about 15 to 20 percent, and it’s 'really starting to catch up to everyone.' 'It’s all around the area,' he said of new self-storage facilities. 'It’s an over-supply situation, definitely.'"

"Tom Flannigan, a broker at Argus Self Storage Advisors, said he recently did a valuation for one self-storage property in the Twin Cities area – and found its value had fallen by more than $1 million compared to a few years earlier, thanks to falling rents and the spiking number of new facilities in the region. There’s 'tons of new supply' in the Twin Cities area, he said. Real estate investment trusts and other larger players are aggressively tapping into the market, among them Public Storage, which Flannigan said is currently building a new 200,000-square-foot facility in the area."

"In Charleston, SC, the story is roughly the same: Oversupply. A 'combination of everyone' seems to be building new facilities in South Carolina, but companies affiliated with large REITs are especially aggressive on the construction front, says Mike MacManus, first vice president of investments at Marcus & Millchap, a commercial real estate investment broker. Charleston and Greenville are 'hotbeds' of new construction, he said. 'There’s a touch of blind optimism in some markets,' MacManus said of construction in both in North and South Carolina."

The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio. "Six apartment complexes are about to open Downtown and two recently built ones are still filling up, adding up to 1,000 empty apartments in the center city and the biggest test yet of how deep the audience is for center city living. There is such a glut of new apartments that the real estate service CoStar concluded that Downtown’s 'explosive growth has finally outpaced demand.' Downtown’s 'demand drivers haven’t gone anywhere, but it does appear, for the first time in years, they have oversaturated the market with supply,' CoStar said."

"'With all these units coming online, we’re going to see them fighting for tenants a little bit,' said Rob Vogt, managing partner of Columbus real estate research firm VSI. 'We’ll see rent specials, free monthly rents, giveaways.'"

From Pro-Builder. "Cue sighs of relief from renters: Multifamily is going to have a big year in 2020. Experts forecast that builders will add 370,942 units over the year, a whopping 50 percent increase from 2019. These added units should bring relief to the mounting pressures on the rental market due to low inventory and spiking prices in many areas of the country. It may not always feel so easy to find an apartment that meets your needs at a price you can afford, but the situation could be improving in the Washington, D.C., region and across the country. This year, more apartment buildings are anticipated to be completed in the United States than at any other time in the past three decades, according to RealPage."

From Community Impact in Texas. "The effects of the coronavirus will be felt in the local real estate market, said Yolanda Ames, Bay Area real estate agent with Houston Properties Team. As a result of the outbreak and declining oil and gas prices, the stock market is dropping. Some buyers use stocks and bonds as down payments on homes, but with the drop, they are unable to afford houses and are backing out of deals, Ames said. 'We have seen some homes go back on the market as a result,' she said."

"More homes may hit the market as jobs are affected by the outbreak and residents sell houses to keep finances afloat, she said. Additionally, houses may become cheaper as more enter the market as a result of the coronavirus, making now a a good time for homebuyers, Ames said. 'The benefit for a buyer now … is that sellers may have to make some price adjustments to sell,' she said."

The Review Journal in Nevada. "Just a few weeks ago, Las Vegas’ economy was riding high. After years of clawing back from the gutter of the Great Recession, locals could point to billions of dollars’ worth of real estate projects. Tourism numbers were strong, the unemployment rate kept tumbling, and the housing market, after slumping in 2019, blasted off with huge boosts in sales totals to start the year. But then the coronavirus hit."

"It’s too early to tell exactly how the coronavirus will affect Southern Nevada’s real estate industry. That probably will hinge on several factors, including if there are widespread job losses, if lenders cut back on funding future projects or if the overall economy starts spiraling, prompting developers to pull the plug on their projects. At least one thing is certain: You can’t overstate how important tourism is to Las Vegas and to its housing market, given all of the people across the valley who work in the industry, supply it or otherwise feed off it."

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "As much of the Bay Area’s economy sputters to a halt due to the new coronavirus, housing builders are plugging away — pouring concrete and hanging drywall. Currently, there are 10,000 units under construction in San Francisco. About 4,300 were completed in 2019. In addition, affordable projects in San Francisco are backed by the city’s top-notch credit, which makes them safe haven for investors in turbulent times, said Rebecca Foster, chief executive officer for the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund."

"But affordable developers also face increased uncertainty. The coronavirus is already disrupting the tax-exempt bond market, Foster said. Most affordable-housing projects in San Francisco are funded in part through the sale of tax-exempt bonds. Foster said she is getting ready to sell tax-exempt bonds in the next few months for a supportive-housing project for the formerly homeless in the South of Market. 'It’s possible the bonds will sell for less than expected, but also possible that there will be no buyers,' she said."

The California Globe. "The specter of California’s cities and counties becoming insolvent is nothing new. Three major California cities have already declared bankruptcy, Vallejo in 2008, Stockton and San Bernardino in 2012. In October 2019, the California State Auditor’s Office reported on the fiscal health of 471 California cities. On what the California State Auditor’s office describes as a 'Local Government High Risk Dashboard,' they identified 18 high risk communities: Compton, Atwater, Blythe, Lindsay, Calexico, San Fernando, El Cerrito, San Gabriel, Maywood, Monrovia, Vernon, Richmond, Oakland, Ione, Del Rey Oaks, Marysville, West Covina, and La Habra."

"On this zoomed in segment, the financially troubled cities of (from north to south) Richmond and El Cerrito (contiguous), and Oakland can be seen highlighted in red. Southern California also has its share of financially troubled cities, as shown on the next map segment taken from the California State Auditor’s dashboard. Clockwise, starting from the top, the most financially endangered cities are Monrovia, West Covina, La Habra, Compton, Vernon and Commerce (contiguous), and San Gabriel."

"Back in October 2019 when the California State Auditor warned Californians about 18 cities in immediate financial peril, the overall economic situation looked very different than it does today. And at that time, articles that reported on the auditor’s warning published by Reason, Governing, and Associated Press all pointed to underfunded pensions as a primary cause of their financial distress."

"But now what? Now that the economy is slowing, and the value of investments are correcting dramatically downward? One point needs to be reiterated at a time like this: While it is true that an 80 percent funded status is considered adequate for a pension fund, it refers to an average across the business cycle. It does not represent what should be necessary at the end of a bull market. California’s public employee pension funds, a few weeks ago and at what we now know was the end of an 11 year bull market, were only about 70 percent funded."

"A healthy pension system at the end of over a decade of extraordinary investment returns should be overfunded. Perhaps it is credible to be sanguine about falling a bit short of the 80 percent threshold after ten years of investment doldrums, but it is absurd, and dangerous, to pretend such a level of funding is adequate after ten or more years of spectacular investment gains."

"And it isn’t just pensions, anymore, that are going to affect the financial health of cities across California, from San Jose and Oakland in the north down to Los Angeles in the south. The recent and long overdue correction in the stock market was triggered by a global pandemic that is going to paralyze huge segments of the U.S. and global economy for the next several weeks, if not months. This will cause sales tax revenues to crater for as long as 'social distancing' mandates remain in place, and afterwards, even an extraordinary rebound is unlikely to make up for the loss."

"California’s state and local governments have had over a decade to get their financial house in order. Instead, they have largely ignored the pension problem, with even Gov. Jerry Brown calling the PEPRA reforms of 2014 an inadequate compromise offering only incremental improvements. They have continued to make punitive demands on businesses, increasing taxes and spending at every opportunity. They have enacted regulations that make affordable housing and energy financially impossible for private sector interests to develop. They have emptied the prisons and opened the borders, putting additional stress on public services. They have created a state where one little push will end the good times."

"That push has come. Even the nonreligious may find an apt parable for today’s dilemma in Genesis Chapter 41, verses 17 through 33. During good years, you prepare for bad years. Too bad the wisdom of the ages emphatically does not apply in woke California."