A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Airbnb Inc. said it is slashing 1,900 jobs, or a quarter of its workforce, and cutting investments in noncore operations. Chief Executive Brian Chesky told employees about the cuts in a memo Tuesday, adding that the company’s revenue forecast for this year is 'less than half' of last year’s level. The hit to Airbnb extends beyond the company to a vast network of hosts, and the cleaning services, interior designers and property maintenance workers that help make the Airbnb economy function."

"Some hosts borrowed large sums to build small property empires that are largely dependent on the business Airbnb brings them."

The Springfield Business Journal in Missouri. "Melinda Headrick says C-Street Airbnbs typically stay booked every weekend during the spring and summer, but the two lofts she manages on the street have no bookings for the summer months. The Airbnb website shows roughly 20 locations in the C-Street area. 'We’ve been hit hard,' Headrick said, declining to disclose financial details. 'We always stay busy and consistent, and going into our third year, we’re at a standstill right now.'"

From Spectrum News on New York. "The home that Krystle Clark and Martin Mundzik purchased in Arverne is more than just a home, it’s been a financial lifeline for the Queens couple. They rent out the second floor of their home on Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms. The Rockaways couple estimates they made $26,000 in bookings last year, enough to help pay their mortgage. Now they cannot rent the house at all because of the coronavirus. With unemployment benefits and savings, they think they can get by for a few more months. After that, they are not sure what the future holds."

The Ventura County Star in California. "Realtor Thelma Lyden took on a new client selling their Thousand Oaks home in March, just before the coronavirus closures began. It's now been on the market for almost a month, with very few potential buyers during the coronavirus outbreak. 'I truly believe if it weren't for the coronavirus I would have sold this house by now,' said Lyden. 'Buyers are scared and on hold right now. You can't buy a house without a job.'"

"Some sellers view the virus as more of a 'temporary phenomenon' than a 2008-level financial crisis, and are more likely to pull their homes off the market for a few months rather than make a significant price reduction, according to Jordan Levine, deputy chief economist for the California Association of Realtors."

From Bloomberg on California. "Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk listed two of his California homes for sale Sunday, days after announcing that he would get rid of most of his possessions. He’s seeking a combined $39.5 million for the Bel Air properties, according to the listings on Zillow. Both are for sale by owner. As for high-end Los Angeles real estate, it’s not exactly a seller’s market at the moment. Sales of luxury homes already were suffering from a supply glut and weak demand before the coronavirus pandemic stopped most showings."

The Real Deal on California. "The pandemic has slowed down Los Angeles’ housing market, but there are still buyers and sellers looking to transact. 25175 Jim Bridger Road | $8.1M | Hidden Hills. The home was listed for just under $9 million as recently as a year ago, and the price dropped to $8.6 million in late April. 7847 Torreyson Drive | $8.3M | Laurel Canyon. It last sold for $11.4 million in 2015 and was listed in July of last year asking $9.5 million."

From The Sun on California. "A mega mansion once owned by a newspaper tycoon has been put on the market for $70 million less than its asking price. But the 18-bed luxury home, with capacity for a whopping 400 guests, will still set you back a cool $125 million. The house is three blocks away from Sunset Boulevard and boasts an Olympic-size swimming pool, tennis court, cinemas and colossal terraces. It was originally put on sale for $195 million."

The Orange County Register in California. "We’ve seen this scenario before. A sudden shock to the economy. Jobs lost. Lenders in trouble. Some early reports on April activity suggest discounting may have begun already. Zillow looked at listing trends for existing homes and condos and found the median asking price in Los Angeles and Orange counties, as of April 19, was $856,575 — down 7% in a month. Yes, it’s up 7% in a year but this same metric was growing at an 18% annual pace as of mid-March."

"As for new homes, the Meyers Group is now polling homebuilders on a weekly basis. Its latest survey shows 60% of Southern California division presidents are offering 'concessions' — buyer incentives that can range from helping with financing costs to paying agents to bring in customers. Short-run price fluctuations can be volatile and, at times, tricky to read. They can vary by price niches (luxury homes are weak sellers today) or neighborhoods (think, beach-close). And some price cuts aren’t always seen in market stats, such as sellers picking up repair bills, upgrade expenses or closing costs that they’d otherwise skip."

"The pandemic is putting cracks in the residential real estate game. Look at the ailing rental market. Some Southern Californians can’t pay their rent. In turn, local landlords are lowering rents to keep units full. This could dull the investment appeal of local homes."

From Bloomberg. "Sam Zell, the billionaire known for buying up troubled real estate, said the coronavirus pandemic will leave the same kind of impact on the economy and society as the Great Depression 80 years ago, with long-lasting changes in human behavior that imperil many business models. 'Those sellers that wanted to sell still remember the prices that were available seven or eight weeks ago. The buyers are looking at a very different world and expecting to see significant discounts,' he said. 'When you’ve got that big a spread, nothing happens.'"

"For years, Zell has been warning that the U.S. construction boom would result in oversupply and lower prices, and the current shutdown 'is going to dramatically make things much worse.' 'Just like we won’t see a lot of retailers reopen,' he said, 'I think we’ll see a lot of hotels that basically can’t reopen.'"

From Globe St. "In the space of six weeks, CRE has encountered high unemployment, tenants unable to pay their rent and radical shifts in consumers’ habits. GlobeSt.com caught up with Stan Johnson of Stan Johnson Co. to hear his opinion. What advice would you give to investors today looking ahead? 'Without a doubt, conditions have shifted to a buyer’s market overnight, which will present buyers with tremendous opportunities across many real estate asset classes. Competition for assets in the market is falling fast, which should favorably impact pricing in the coming months for buyers. RCA reported a 65% drop in unique buyers for the month of March.'"

The Commercial Property Executive. "Real estate assets across nearly every sector have been impacted on some level by the coronavirus pandemic. But with mixed-use properties, the hit is coming from more than one angle, causing more headaches and hardship for owners. 'A lot of owners are getting squeezed from a variety of directions,' said Deborah Riegel, a real estate attorney at law firm Rosenberg & Estis in New York City, pointing to residential buildings with ground-floor retail space in particular."

"'I think that any property that has a retail component to it that has non-credit tenancy is definitely going to be impacted,' said Kevin Welsh, an executive managing director of Newmark Knight Frank’s investment sales division in New Jersey. 'I can’t even imagine a mixed-use property with a hotel, because hotels are probably the worst asset class right now.'"

From KUNR in Nevada. "As the pandemic touches nearly every aspect of life as we know it, it’s also affecting rental prices. KUNR’s Bree Zender spoke with Susy Vasquez, the executive director of the Nevada State Apartment Association, which represents rental property owners in the state. Zender: Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has put a moratorium on evictions. I’d imagine that would come as a financial consequence to some property managers."

"Vasquez: Absolutely. The smaller property owners are definitely feeling it more so than a larger apartment community. However, you have to understand that there's a lot of new construction, so there's a lot of landlords that aren't technically in a position to absorb any losses."

From DS News. "Mortgage servicing is feeling the pressure brought on by the pandemic, from staffing concerns and shifts to remote working, to a liquidity crunch as homeowners go into forbearance but servicers remain obligated to pay investors for the mortgage-backed securities created from the bundled loans. Across the board, servicers are facing increased workloads, making loss-mitigation more crucial than ever."

"One possible source of relief? Financial services law firms. These firms, themselves struggling with lost business loads as foreclosures grind and courts close across the country, are now working to assist servicers with the ever-increasing volume of loss mitigation calls. Caren Castle, Senior Attorney at the Wolf Firm added that many law firms lived through the Great Recession more than a decade ago, and there are many lessons they learned from that, one of which being the amount of loss mitigation work that was involved."

"'Because of the sheer volume of law firms involved in the past, they’ve done the training, understand the process, understand how to communicate and reach out and put in the technology in place to be able to help our clients now that we are facing that situation again,' she said."

"Mike Sullivan, the Director of Marketing and Client Relations for Codilis and Associates PC, said that loss mitigation efforts are currently underway, and there are task forces working with the GSEs, HUD, and other agencies to ensure borrowers are supported. 'The industry will be hampered by the virus long after the moratorium ends. Loss mitigation will continue, bankruptcies will grow, foreclosure referrals will likely increase,' he said. 'Similarly to buying time to ‘flatten the curve’ of the pandemic, our industry will be buying time to ‘flatten the curve’ of the coming foreclosure crisis. By engaging experienced default servicing law firms we will also be buying time to ‘flatten the curve’ of the rapidly coming liquidity crises for the attorneys.'"