It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "In the city of Los Angeles, where Greta Arceneaux’s property is, tenants who have been impacted by the virus will have up to 12 months from the end of the city’s emergency declaration to repay their back-rent without late fees. 'My retirement is going down the tubes because of this,' she says."

"We have vacation rentals in Kona. We have lost about $100,000 in income due to the shutdown. We do not think it is fair that hotels are allowed to operate but we face fines and jail time if we rent. We went through the expensive and arduous process to rent legally. We were only allowed to rent a few weeks after being licensed and then we were shut down with no hope in sight. We have mortgages to pay for our houses."

"With short-term rentals reopening in Grand County, some operators are adapting to regulations for the summer while other are reconsidering their investments. For Charles Phanumphai, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic meant he chose to convert his STR at the base of Granby Ranch to a long-term rental. Cancellations were a double whammy because he’d lose the money from that visit, and it’d be to short of a notice for a new booking for that same time period. 'Pretty much every week that a new booking came in, two were canceled that were closer to the date,' Phanumphai said. 'It was like one step forward, two steps back.'"

"Daisy Maldonado knew she was behind on her homeowners association dues. But when a collection agency mailed her a notice recently, she read a dire message. 'WARNING!' it declared. 'IF YOU FAIL TO PAY THE AMOUNT SPECIFIED IN THIS NOTICE, YOU COULD LOSE YOUR HOME, EVEN IF THE AMOUNT IS IN DISPUTE!' Around 230 notices of default were recorded with Clark County from March 30 through May 26, largely by homeowners associations, a county database indicates."

"Heather Kolb, a teacher, bought her south valley house last year. She’s not worried about losing her house, but it seems a little 'ridiculous' that a $250,000 home would face foreclosure over a default a fraction of that size, she said. 'But I don’t know,' Kolb said. 'Maybe that’s what they do.'"

"Home sales in Houston fell for the second straight month in May, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. The steepest declines were seen at the low and high ends of the market. Sales of homes priced below $100,000 fell more than 37% while homes priced above $750,000 dropped more than 56%. Prices were also down in May. The average price for a single-family home fell 7.4% to $289,199. The last time a decline in prices was seen occurred in January 2018."

"Pop star Ariana Grande has bought a newly built home in the Hollywood Hills’ Bird Streets area for $13.7 million. On paper, it appears Grande got quite a bargain. The contemporary home, which sold off-market, first came up for sale two years ago for $25.5 million, records show. More recently, it was offered for $17.495 million. The property is one of 138 properties tied to Sherman Oaks investment firm Woodbridge Group. Sound familiar? It should."

"Last year, Woodbridge’s owner, Robert H. Shapiro, pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $1.3-billion real estate fraud scheme that stole money from thousands of investors — many of them retirees — nationwide. Shapiro was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the sham."

"The developer of a 43-storey luxury condo building in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighbourhood has sued Malaysia’s biggest bank for reneging on agreements to provide more than $162 million in syndicated construction loans and 'effectively thwarting' the project. Over a decade ago, Sharif El-Gamal drew controversy with a proposal to build an Islamic cultural centre and mosque on the site. In 2011, he shelved that plan. He instead decided to build a 203m condo tower with financing from a consortium of international lenders still eager to back such projects, even as domestic banks were retreating amid signs that the city’s luxury real estate market was becoming over-saturated."

"The residential units at the building have been priced at an average of over US$3,000 per square foot. The syndicate filed a foreclosure action on the property in March."

"A former Cresford Developments property has officially hit the market. Located at 33 Yorkville Avenue, the zoning and site plan have already been approved by the City to construct approximately 912,700 sq. ft. of residential and retail components. The project, which was previously owned by Cresford Developments, one of Toronto’s luxury condo developers, entered into receivership on March 27, according to documents filed by the receiver, PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. 33 Yorkville is one of three Cresford Developments buildings to enter into receivership."

"Property investors already struggling with falling rents and rising vacancies face a further cash flow crunch as the number of empty rental homes languishing on the market starts to surge. An analysis conducted by industry data provider Suburbtrends for The Australian Financial Review showed more than half (53.8 per cent) of all rental listings have been on the market at least three weeks."

"Most investors only factor in two weeks of vacancy when calculating their cash flow buffers and the growing number of rentals still vacant after three weeks of advertising is creating a significant strain on many landlords, said director Kent Lardner. 'Property investors who are experiencing vacant properties are faced with serious cash flow pressures, especially those that rely on weekly rents to support mortgage repayments,' Mr Lardner said."

"More than 60,000 rental properties nationwide sit empty for more than 21 days – a 46.1 per cent jump compared with a month ago. Despite lower interest rates on mortgages, many investors were not covering their costs because of falling rents and rising vacancies, said Digital Finance Analytics director Martin North."

"'I think many property investors are being caught by cash flow issues,' Mr North said. 'Normally, around two-thirds of investors never make a positive return on their investments other than from tax breaks, so a lower rental income will make it even more difficult to hold on to an investment property. As such, one in eight investors are now seriously considering selling up.'"

"'It's actually still a pretty depressing scenario.' These are not the words of some fringe economic blogger: they are from Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe as he described the economy last week to the Senate Select Committee hearing into Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For most sober and impartial economists, there is no surprise in this description of the Australian economy."