It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Rising mortgage delinquency rates in Florida are raising fears that the coronavirus pandemic will lead to a foreclosure crisis as bad if not worse than the one that followed the 2008 housing crash. 'At some point, the foreclosure moratorium will end and lawyers for the banks will start filing foreclosures and scheduling sales,' said Bruce Jacobs, a Miami attorney. 'Courts will be inundated.'"

"While agencies that oversee government-backed mortgages require mortgage servicers to offer loan modifications to homeowners who can resume monthly payments at the end of their forbearance periods, borrowers won’t qualify if deemed unable to make those payments, he said. 'I think we stand on the precipice of a very sad era in America,' he said. 'Lots of very good people are going to lose their homes because the economy is not there to sustain them. It’s going to be far worse than 2008.'"

"It reads like the script for the business version of a disaster movie: office buildings lose 40% of their value, a third of hotels go bankrupt, residential rents plummet. Yet that, according to Barry Sternlicht, is the real-life future for New York real estate. 'I think a quarter, a third of hotels in New York City could go bankrupt,' Sternlicht said. 'It’s going to be ugly.'"

"And if jobs move elsewhere, the residential market will collapse too. landlords are 'desperate' to retain young tenants and increasingly willing to cut apartment rents by as much as 25%, Sternlicht said. That’s where his 'negative cycle' kicks in. As New York’s income base erodes and strains on social programs and infrastructure intensify, he predicted that quality of life will deteriorate, more wealthy residents will leave and tax rates will inevitably increase on those who remain."

"'I think sales (volume) easily will be down by half. I think prices will go down 15 to 25%,' said Hawaii real estate consultant Ricky Cassiday. He said studios in Waikiki have already seen significant declines due to the tourism shutdown and tougher new regulations and enforcement on illegal vacation rentals. He added that the real estate market will also be hurt by the exodus of thousands of Hawaii residents expected to relocate to the mainland to look for work. 'We see our major industry going to hell in a hand basket. We see our major industry falling off the cliff,' he said."

"The number of homes sold in Calaveras County has declined significantly, according to the California Association of Realtors. In Calaveras County, the median sold price of existing single-family homes dropped from $352,000 in March, to $332,250 in April, to $330,000 in May, which was down 12% from May of 2019. California home sales in May fell to the lowest level since the Great Recession."

"'As housing demand fell in May, home prices softened further, sending the statewide median home price below last year’s price for the first time since February 2012 and breaking the state’s 98-month year-over-year price gain streak,' the press release states. 'The May statewide median price of $588,070 for existing single-family homes in the state was down 3% from April and down 3.7% from May 2019, when the median price was a revised $610,940.'"

"Homes selling at a discount were a common theme for L.A.’s priciest deals, with all the top properties trading for significantly less than the original asking price. A newly built mansion on North Bedford Drive traded for $8 million less than the asking price of $31.5 million. The Georgian-inspired home originally sought as much as $36.5 million when it first came to market last year. On Pacific Coast Highway, a modern Mediterranean-style home changed hands for about $8.5 million less than the asking price of $29.95 million."

"On Clear View Drive, a contemporary-style home that was built last year sold for about $550,000 million less than the asking price. Originally listed in December for about $15 million, the multilevel house saw its price slashed to about $11 million in late March."

"Local realtor Len T. Wong said Calgary's housing market has definitely taken a hit lately. According to Wong, local sales volumes in April dropped by about 60 per cent compared with last year. 'Which put pressure on prices a little bit, by about five per cent,' he said. 'And what we noticed with everybody psychology-wise is that they were panicking adjusting to the times.'"

"'People have to realize that they have to price it right,' he said. 'We're in year six of a buyer's market, and so people have to recognize that you've got to be in front of people to see them because if you get too many houses in that area, it's not going to sell.'"

"Zoopla found that where asking prices had been cut, sellers had offered the biggest discounts in Newcastle, with an average reduction of 11.2 per cent in May. Buying agent Henry Pryor said: 'It is always difficult for sellers and selling agents to decide whether they should quote a price that will get knocked down, or whether they should quote a realistic price that recognises the turmoil we’ve gone through. It’s like parachuting in the dark. We don’t know where the ground is and we don’t know how fast we are falling.'"

"In the past five years, high vacancy rate has existed in the luxury segment of the market, especially in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt, but worsened by depressed economic sentiment, and the excess supply of these properties – which is outstripping demand. 'The property sector is suffering a decline in all sectors but most especially in the high valued luxury areas. Demand has gone down while the rate of default in payment of rents has gone up,' according to Kola Akomolede, past president, International Real Estate Federation, (FIABCI) Nigeria Chapter."

"Until about January 20, it was going swimmingly well for landlords in Dubai. And then it all went belly up for short-stay landlords. Bookings were cancelled at the last minute, funds had to be returned, and the properties left without occupancy since. 'If this decline in travel continues into the second quarter, I am staring at steep losses, because there will be little or no interest during summer,' - Dubai landlord."

"Banks are being forced to reduce prices on foreclosed properties to recoup their loans, as buyers in Hong Kong become increasingly cautious. One foreclosed flat, measuring 468 sq ft at Cullinan West in western Kowloon, changed hands at HK$11.3 million in early May, about 27 per cent lower than its previous purchase price at HK$15.54 million in 2018, according to agents."

"The pandemic has affected every aspect of the Chinese economy. Domestic consumption has slumped, overseas orders have plummeted, and factory lines in manufacturing hubs like Guangdong have ground to a halt. One man in his 50s, who gave only his surname, Xiong, said he tried going back to work at the end of March but found his job no longer existed. He tried looking for work elsewhere but the most he could get was a handful of days so he decided to go home. 'I can’t pay the rent and have nothing to live on,' he said."

"By the middle of May, there were signs that things were getting even worse. Notices in the streets offered to sell the rights to factories. The official jobless rate in China was 5.9% in May. But that number only includes residents of urban areas, not the migrant workers who have returned home. China-based brokerage Zhongtai Securities estimates that the real number is above 20%, with more than 70 million now jobless throughout the country due to the pandemic."

"Inner city Melbourne and Sydney homeowners are reeling, with suburbs in these areas posting the largest declines in property prices over the last two months. The Perth district of Mandurah has fared the worst, posting the largest decline in dwelling market value over the past two months. In fact, its May dwelling values were a whopping 38 per cent below their 2006 peak."

"Homebuyers in Sydney’s new high-rise suburbs can party like its 2015 – apartment prices have become cheaper than they were five years ago. Suburbs where median prices are cheaper than in 2015 included North Ryde, Campsie, Forest Lodge and a cluster of suburbs around Parramatta such as Rosehill, North Parramatta and Granville. Median unit prices in these suburbs ranged from 2 to 18 per cent cheaper than in 2015, realestate.com.au data showed."

"Prices fell largely due to oversupply and weakened buyer demand, with COVID-19 accelerating a trend of falling activity from investors, who have traditionally been the main market for units in high-density areas. Median unit prices fell the hardest in North Ryde where a mass new high-rise buildings were constructed over recent years. The average unit in the suburb cost $805,000 in 2015 but has since slumped to $735,000."

"Some recent sellers who purchased their properties five years ago have had to accept prices below what they paid. A one-bedroom garden apartment on Whiteside St sold earlier this year for $615,000, $35,000 below the 2015 price of $650,000, while another one-bedder on Network Pl sold for $30,000 below the 2015 price. Prices in the inner west suburb of Forest Lodge are about 16 per cent lower than five years ago. A typical unit in the area currently costs about $837,500. In 2015 it was $994,500. Units recently sold for $45,000-$70,000 less than their 2015 prices included homes on Cullen Close and Ross St."