A report from the Wall Street Journal. "In an analysis of revenue from Airbnb bookings, AirDNA, a Denver-based analyst of the short-term rental industry, found that on the days that would have seen bookings for the Boston Marathon, revenue in Boston was down over 78%. In Palm Springs, the Coachella and Stagecoach festival postponements led to a nearly 50% decline; postponing the Derby and scrapping Keeneland erased 42%; Austin’s South by Southwest cancellation led to a 40% drop."

"Jason Martin, 39, owns 15 condos and houses in Austin, Texas, most of them mortgaged and with between $3,200 and $5,900 in monthly carrying costs. Mr. Martin was on track to earn roughly $120,000; his strict cancellation policy mean that he should have held on to about $60,000 when all his bookings were wiped out. Airbnb’s relief program should yield him roughly $15,000, he said. 'It’s better than nothing so it helps,' said Mr. Martin, who calculates that 'the entire busy season of the year has been cut down to at best 12.5% expected revenue.'"

"Josh Reed, 24, is a newcomer to the vacation rental business: He closed on his second home in Austin three weeks ago. The former investment adviser left his job last month and launched UrbanStay, a company that both buys and manages short-term rental homes that rent for between $300 and $900 a night. His two properties were booked for a total of $17,840 for SXSW, he said."

"Nearly all those bookings evaporated. He still faces $13,400 in carrying costs for his two properties. He paid $720,000 for a home in October and $900,000 for another one that closed on March 13. His father cosigned the loans with him, he said. Mr. Reed said he has received 90 days’ forbearance on his two mortgages. The arrears will be tacked onto the end of the loan terms and he will not owe penalties or fees, Mr. Reed said."

From Fortune on Texas. "Greg Nino would prefer to see oil prices climb. A real estate agent in Harris County, in the suburbs of Houston, Nino's customers aren't usually the highly-paid engineers and businesspeople based in the city's corporate center. But the oil and gas sector has a way of impacting everything in Houston. 'One way or another here,' says Nino, 'people are tied into oil and gas.'"

"In March, as Houston started to weigh social-distancing measures, Nino was still running open houses and talking to potential buyers. Suddenly, a bidder from a big corporate oil company was no longer a great bet, he says, compared to someone who owns, say, a pawn shop. 'Ordinarily it’s the complete opposite,' says Nino. 'I would take the guy from Halliburton all day over the guy from the pawn shop.'"

From Community Impact on Texas. "Community Impact Newspaper chatted with Tim Sojka, a residential and commercial Realtor, to learn more about how real estate is adapting to the pandemic. The company offers real estate services throughout Houston but focuses on Katy, Fulshear, Richmond, Cypress and Sugar Land. Q: What types of homes are selling right now?"

"A: Anything less than $300,000 we’ve seen a lot of offers on. And we see multiple offers on anything sub $200,000. The higher-end stuff, I’ve seen offers on, but people are [giving low offers]. We’ll have a $1 million listing, and someone offers $850,000."

From Bethesda Magazine in Maryland. "JT Burton, a Bethesda-based real estate agent said the unknown elements of the coronavirus outbreak are 'crippling' his clients. 'People want [home buying and selling] to be scientific, but at the end of the day, it’s individuals making emotional decisions, and that’s a big part of it. My industry is hinged on people making emotional decisions, and people’s emotions are all over the map right now,' he said."

"Burton said that in 15 years in real estate, he hasn’t seen anything like the current situation. 'Three weeks ago, we were in the hottest market we’ve been in since 2007, and interest rates were better and inventory was down 24% from where it was last year,' he said. 'So it was a perfect storm and an incredible time to be a seller. And that literally fell off a cliff in 10 days.'"

From Mortgage Professional America. "Over 6 million Americans have already filed for unemployment. That is nauseating news for landlords across the country. 'Everything’s grinded to a halt, so until we start seeing some transactions flow, we don’t really know how bad the impact’s going to be on your $300,000 home. Is it now worth $200,000? $270,000? I think we’re going to know more in the next few weeks as we climb out of this and we start to see some transactions coming through,' said HouseCanary CEO Jeremy Sicklick."

"'Comparisons to the financial Chernobyl of 2008 abound, but Sicklick says it’s too early to say if the shockwaves from COVID-19 will be enough to completely destabilize the U.S. housing market. 'The real question is are there going to be a lot of foreclosures and deep distress in the market, or is the government, or government programs, going to help enough people bridge through so that we don’t have that kind of distress,' he says. 'If the government programs do not work and ultimately a lot of jobs don’t come back, it could look as big, if not much bigger than what we saw during the global financial crisis.'"

The Telegraph on the UK. "Landlords will suffer the effects of lockdown long after coronavirus restrictions are lifted as tenants fail to pay, viewings grind to a halt, vacancies rise and new rental properties crowd the market. Some will be forced to leave cities when rental contracts expire and return home, perhaps to parents’ houses or overseas, leaving landlords with empty properties."

"Buy-to-let investors must prepare for monthly rents to fall. Supply has started to outstrip demand as new properties have joined the rental market. In London, a large number of homes that were previously listed on short-term rental websites such as Airbnb have swamped the market as tourists have cancelled bookings. These properties are now being advertised to long-term tenants at lower prices."

From the Guardian on Australia. "In the decade before the pandemic, Airbnb became 'this very attractive thing,' says Chris Martin, a senior research fellow at the University of New South Wales’s City Futures Research Centre. A home is no longer just a home, Martin says. '[The company] tapped into the idea that a person’s house can also be viewed as an asset that has capacity for generating income.' This shift 'massively upped the scale of [short-term rental],' which in turn put pressure on residential rental markets."

"Lisa Porgazian and her husband have listed their three Gold Coast apartments on Airbnb for the past four years. Now the properties are empty, and the mortgage payments will come out of the couple’s superannuation. 'We were relying on this for our income, as well as our retirement plan,' she says, distraught. 'Now that’s completely died in the arse.'"

"Porgazian, a 46-year-old former IT contractor, has been managing her property portfolio full-time. She’s unable to work in many other jobs due to rheumatoid arthritis. 'I’m earning zero. My husband’s earning zero. And we’ve still got these mortgages to pay.'"

"With the spread of Covid-19, a downturn in business was inevitable. But many Airbnb hosts were shocked at how quickly it came. The company introduced a policy earlier this month allowing all guests who booked prior to 14 March (and were checking in no later than 31 May) to cancel existing bookings for free. Porgazian says this left hosts holding the cheque. 'We lost everything straight away … Everything is cancelled, basically until Christmas.'"

"Travis Lipshus, a real estate agent in Byron Bay, thinks this chaos for Airbnb hosts could result in cheaper long-term rent for locals. He’s getting flooded with properties from Airbnb hosts who now need permanent tenants. But with so many of the town’s hospitality staff and backpackers currently out of work 'there’s not enough tenants to fill these places.'"

"If rents did lower, it would be a massive relief. It’s notoriously difficult for locals to find affordable rentals in Byron Bay, as 17.6% of properties are listed as holiday accommodation. 'Airbnb should be banned up here,' Lipshus says. 'The cost of living is insane. I’ve lived in all sorts of places here, and it’s not uncommon to pay at least 50% of your wage in rent.'"

"'A lot of people have over-leveraged themselves with these properties,' Lipshus says. 'The upper-middle class are probably going to be fine. But the middle class – the ones taking risks, trying to get up that class ladder – they’re going to be pretty f*cked.'"

"Lisa Porgazian knows what people are saying. 'The criticism that we’re getting is ‘well you shouldn’t have a business if you can’t pay for it’, but who ever predicted something like this?'"