It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Some banks are offering borrowers a break, but it’s not really a break, Octavio Espinoza says. Espinoza: 'They can hold the payment up to 90 days, but at the end of the 90 days, you have to pay it all at once. What kind of help is that?' After we talked to Octavio’s bank, they reached out to him. Octavio said they gave him three options, including moving the loan payments to the end of the mortgage. He would then have to pay the insurance and property taxes at the end of that period. He is happy his bank worked with him but warns if other banks don’t, watch out."

"Espinoza: 'Everybody is going to be in foreclosure, I guess, because if you can’t pay, like I said, you have to choose between feeding your kids or paying the mortgage, you’re going to lose the house.'"

"An Arizona couple can no longer afford their monthly mortgage payment. They contacted their loan servicer to talk about their options. They were told they could miss payments for three months. Then came the catch. All of their back payments would need to be paid in a lump sum once the three months were over. Mike and his wife live in Southern Maryland and run a photo-booth rental business. The couple managed to make April’s mortgage payment, but they’ll struggle in the months to come. The forbearance allows them to pause their mortgage payments for three months. But under the agreement, they will have to come up with $4,800 at the end of that span."

"We’ve been here before. And it didn’t end so well for a lot of borrowers."

"Some sellers are adjusting their expectations. Sadie Mackay, a 29-year-old product manager for Amazon.com Inc. who recently bought a single-family home in Seattle, is getting ready to list her one-bedroom condo close to the company’s headquarters. Mackay said she’s not planning to price her condo aggressively. 'It’s going to become a hot potato if I can’t sell it for a few months,' she added."

"The experience of Michelle Medina Bunting, 34, and her husband, Tim, 35, who rent on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, suggests that sellers are in a mood to discount. The couple last month made a $990,000 offer on a renovated two-home property in Jersey City that was listed for $1.3 million. After some negotiation, they couldn’t reach agreement and moved on. 'Now, that agent has been calling us and saying, ‘Do you want to make another offer?' Michelle Bunting said."

"Jim Morris is on the hunt for a South Florida mansion, at a bargain price. He considered a nine-bedroom Fort Lauderdale property before coronavirus shut down the economy. The owner insisted he was firm at $15 million. But last month the owner called him to knock off 20%. 'I am expecting more of that -- there are going to be distressed situations and distressed situations lead to opportunities,' Morris said. 'I don’t want to overpay because we don’t know what the new market will look like when this is all over. What may look like a bargain today may actually be too high.'"

"Having purchased a 6,230-square-foot home in Mequon right before the 2008 housing crash, no one needs to remind Josh Liberman about the ups and downs of the real estate market. So it was a 'pretty nerve-wracking' experience when he listed the same home for sale on March 14 'when the bottom kind of started falling out of the financial world,' Liberman said. Liberman was fortunate, though. He got an offer within a week, albeit below the sale price from 2008."

"Q: The median home price in San Diego County was $587,000 in February. Will it be higher or lower by the end of the year (and why)? Norm Miller, University of San Diego: LOWER: High-end homes, often owned with no mortgages, are getting hit from the stock market declines, which reduces the ability to buy up. Middle to lower-tier homes will be hit by unemployment and increases in foreclosures. Ray Major, SANDAG: LOWER: Even before the crisis, housing prices were nearing their peak. The COVID-19 disruption has wiped out many people’s investment and retirement portfolios, consumer confidence is down, and many people will return to struggling businesses or find themselves out of work."

"Gary London, London Moeder Advisors: LOWER: The activity counts and listings in home sales have already plunged. Soon we will see distressed listings, further eroding value."

"Julian Castro and his partner found the perfect first home — a two-bedroom, single-bath house just east of Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village shopping center. In fact, the couple made a $499,000 offer for the house on March 14. Since then, the economy locally and nationwide has experienced a free fall, and the bottom remains unclear. They’re just reluctant to buy their first house at the 'top of the market,' Castro said. 'We’re kinda going back and forth every day,' Castro said. 'If there is a recession, how much will it affect home prices? Buying now means we can’t buy later.'"

"More than six in 10 Realtors say that homebuyers are already expecting a drop in home prices and less competition for properties. The median price of homes for sale in the Dallas-Fort Worth area was down 3% in March from a year ago — one of the first such declines seen in a major market, according to Realtor.com."

"Just before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Denver was booming with construction. But many contractors are already taking a major hit and bracing for the full impact of the outbreak. Joshua Vandenbrinck runs Colorado Metal Fabrication and One Nation Designs. Somehow, he’s holding out hope that he can work all this out, but as each day goes by Vandenbrinck says it’s going to be harder to stay afloat. 'For personal example, we’re in several $60,000-$70,000 contracts, and if this doesn’t come back online we’ll have to file bankruptcy.'"

"Over the last few weeks, Q13 FOX has been sharing ways for renters to stay afloat during these hard times. But it's also tough for homeowners and landlords who rely on rental income for their livelihoods. People like Lorraine Weeks and Ed Doyne are in that situation. The couple has worked hard for decades and they say their road to retirement was only possible because of their rental properties. 'Hope is not a business plan but we hope things will smooth out sooner than later,' Weeks said."

"They are losing sleep over how they are going to pay their mortgages and those kinds of concerns are causing many to call people like Dan Golden, with Cornerstone Home Lending. But refinancing isn’t for everyone leaving many landlords without a safety net. People who own rental properties may not be able to lock in the lowest interest rates compared to those refinancing a home they live in. Also anyone with a jumbo loan in Washington state or a loan more than $741,000 may find it harder to qualify for a refinance."

"The Nags Head Planning Board held a virtual meeting via the Zoom platform on April 1. David Elder asked to revisit the topic of additional dwelling units (ADUs). 'We have a residual level of structures that are being utilized as Airbnbs and since they have become a bit of a glut on the market, there is an amount of interest to move that into longer term rentals [or] seasonal rentals for workers,' Elder added."

"The people responsible for selling New York’s most expensive homes are sounding the alarm on what coronavirus has done to the luxury market. 'The sky has fallen,' said Frances Katzen, a residential broker at real estate agent Douglas Elliman. As New York City became the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in the U.S., brokers saw their pool of potential buyers disappear—and watch as clients with agreed-upon, but not-yet-closed, deals walk away. The knock-on effect may see developers miss sales milestones, which could in turn move lenders to seek recourse."

"A US housing crisis is coming and although it won’t be anything like the last one, that won’t make it any less painful. Even though there has been no rampant speculation or subprime mortgage fraud, housing is still overvalued. And the dearth of inventory that’s plagued the current cycle will reverse in violent fashion once the worst of the virus has passed as financially strapped homeowners seek to raise cash. And as affordability collapses with fewer buyers eligible to buy a home, the only way to rectify the mismatch between supply and demand will be via declining prices."

"Home prices historically meandered in a range of three to four times median incomes, jumping to 5.1 times in December 2005 before collapsing. The ratio is now at 4.4 times, a level that was unprecedented prior to June 2004. At the start of the last decade, about a fifth of the homes in the US were priced at $300,000 or higher. Ten years on, that’s true for more than half of all homes."

"The capping of deductions at $10,000 has already led to a 10-25 per cent discount on home prices in high tax states relative to their lower-tax counterparts. Anticipated increases in property taxes to offset collapsing state and municipal budgets will amplify the damage inflict on those on fixed incomes. A complete unknown that could increase the coming surge in supply is the pool of single-family rentals. About eight million landlords who own between one and 10 properties accounting for half the nation’s rental properties, according to Avail, a software company that caters to landlords."

"Financial duress will come swiftly for those carrying multiple mortgages. Also, a small cohort of institutional investors own roughly 250,000 of the roughly 16 million pool of rental homes, according to ATTOM Data Solutions. Making matters worse is the crash in demand for jumbo mortgages, which are those over the $510,400 conforming loan ceiling."

"It’s also impossible to quantify how Americans will perceive homeownership given the hardship so many will endure. If frugality is embraced as it was after the Great Depression, homes will once again be viewed as a utility. The McMansion mentality is at risk of extinction."

"The reason why the collapse in the subprime mortgage market hit the housing market so hard was because the lead up was predicated on the fact that there had never been a nationwide decline in home prices. But now for the second time in a little more than a decade, Americans are poised to witness the impossible."