A report from Mortgage Professional America. "The Federal Housing Finance Agency on Monday warned Congress that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could not withstand a serious economic downturn and asked for the authority to develop more stringent capital standards for the GSEs. FHFA Director Mark Calabria warned Congress that Fannie and Freddie were 'inarguably undercapitalized for their size, risk, and systemic importance.'"

"'As of December 31, 2019, the Enterprises owned or guaranteed approximately $5.7 trillion in single-family and multifamily mortgages, nearly half of all mortgage debt outstanding in the United States, and their combined leverage ratio was approximately 300 to 1,' Calabria wrote in the report. 'By contrast, the largest financial institutions in the nation have an average leverage ratio of approximately 12 to 1. Given their risks and financial position, the Enterprises do not have the capital necessary to withstand a serious downturn in the housing market.'"

"Calabria said that the 'lack of safety and soundness' at Fannie and Freddie jeopardized their mission to support sustainable homeownership. 'It also puts taxpayers at risk of absorbing their losses, as we saw after the housing and financial crisis of 2008, and it threatens every sector of the nation’s housing and mortgage finance systems,' Calabria said."

From Patch New York. "Woefully out of step. Not the time to flood the market with a glut of luxury housing units. Unjust and financially irresponsible. That's how a group called Voice of Gowanus described an on-again, off-again effort to rezone the Gowanus area in a letter sent to local politicians. They called for a moratorium on the rezoning effort."

"'In the wake of COVID-19, while the city, state, and Brooklyn residents are in a state of financial decline, the city is seeing an enormous number of residents fleeing the city, and massive numbers of citizens are out of work, subsidizing luxury towers built by wealthy developers is UNJUST and FINANCIALLY IRRESPONSIBLE,' the letter states."

From E! on California. "How does one sell houses for a living when they can't even leave their own? That's something Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles star Josh Altman was forced to figure out when the coronavirus pandemic hit earlier this year. 'It is a buyer's market right now,' Altman noted. 'It was dead before. And you know, we just kind of roll with [it]. We got to adjust.'"

"He continued, 'Because rates are low, right? So you see people like Kylie Jenner, who obviously is extremely wealthy, right, saying, 'You know what, now's the time to buy. It's a buyers market, I can get something that might have been 25 million for 15 million.'"

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Demi Lovato couldn’t quite turn a profit on her Hollywood Hills home. After shelling out $8.3 million for the sleek three-story in 2016, the singer-actress just sold it for $8.25 million, records show. The sale wraps up a multiyear effort from Lovato, who first asked $9.495 million for the property in 2018 before trimming the price to $8.995 million last year."

The Santa Fe New Mexican. "Is it a doomsday scenario for vacation rentals in Santa Fe? Some rental owners and managers think so. A draft city ordinance would tighten regulations for short-term rental properties, in part prohibiting new permits to be issued for units in residential areas that lie within 75 feet of an existing rental. The goal of the provision is to limit the density of vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods, the draft ordinance says."

"'It’s just a complete decimation of short-term rentals,' said Richard Woodruff, co-owner of Adobe Casitas Vacation Rentals, who manages 18 short-term rentals in the city. 'If you look at the turnover of homes in Santa Fe, over the longer term, four to 10 years, a majority of short-term rentals would not be granted licenses,' he said."

"As of May 28, Santa Fe had 830 permitted vacation rentals — 743 in residential areas and 87 in areas zoned nonresidential, according to city data. Woodruff said he has analyzed how short-term rental properties are situated and believes as few as 250 would comply with the 75-foot rule as ownerships change."

From Inman News. "April rent prices grew at the lowest level in nine years — a drop caused by widespread, pandemic-induced unemployment. Experts had been predicting the drop in price growth as the coronavirus pandemic closed down large swaths of the economy and put millions in industries such as travel and hospitality out of work this spring. Unemployment in April reached an 80-year high, and tenants struggled to pay rent while owners in all but some luxury markets struggled to find tenants to pay the same prices that they had asked in the past."

"'As the pandemic-induced recession took hold in April, the single-family rent index posted its lowest growth rate in over nine years,' said Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic. 'While disruptions in the economy affect all parts of the housing market, the impact can often be seen in the rental market sooner than the for-sale market. This means changes in rents can foreshadow changes in home prices.'"

From Crain's Cleveland Business. "New data from Solon-based MRI Software, a producer of real estate software, underscore the way the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping the U.S. multifamily property market. Among the trends it identified: Lower prices: Pricing for new leases of 8-14 months decreased by 5% in May 2020 compared to May 2019. Last month's pricing is also 7% lower than that of February 2020."

"Wider use of credit cards for rent payments: Card usage in May was 58% greater than that of February 2020. Brian Zrimsek, industry principal at MRI, in a statement raised one red flag, noting, 'The use of credit cards could signal increased risks if residents are paying with cards because of restricted cash flows as opposed to a desire to accumulate reward points.'"

From Austin Culture Map in Texas. "The impact of COVID-19 has not been lost on Austin's hot housing market — including the rental sector. When the pandemic hit Texas, Austin's upward trend of rent prices stopped. These losses are even more significant because they have occurred during the traditionally strong summer rental season."

"In order to fill apartments, some landlords are offering concessions and making deals they would not have pre-pandemic. One condo renter recently reported that he was able to negotiate a three-year lease for new construction in a very hot area, even though he did not want to move in until September. The landlord even agreed to leave the property vacant (without trying to find an interim tenant) until the fall."

From Community Impact in Texas. "Median house prices in five of the seven ZIP codes in The Woodlands area decreased in May compared to the previous year, according to data gathered by Community Impact Newspaper. House prices increased by about 5% in the 77384 and 77386 ZIP codes, and the largest price drop occurred in 77389, a 17.55% decrease."