A report from CNBC. "As the United States continues to face record unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic, 30% of Americans missed their housing payments in June, according to Apartment List. That’s up from 24% who missed their payment just two months earlier in April and about on par with the 31% who missed payments in May."

The Tampa Bay Times in Florida. "Christie Brand-Edwards and her husband, Robert Johnson, have for years rented out the one-story house in Tampa that they inherited from his parents. Both retired and in their 70s, the home brings in some welcome extra income and covers the cost of its homeowners association fees, taxes and sewer bills. But their tenants stopped paying rent in February. 'It’s another poorly thought-out action for which there are unintended consequences, which no one seems to care about,' Johnson said. '(People assume) you own property, so you must be rich.'"

From CNN Business. "The 'price of the pandemic,' as some agents call it. Many tenants have chosen to leave their apartments in major cities in the United States. In May, according to Zumper, the top four most expensive cities [San Francisco, New York, Boston and San Jose] recorded a decline in one-bedroom apartment rentals from a year ago. In San Francisco, the median rent for a room has dropped 9% from last year. 'I'm seeing rents are down 10-20%, with high-end and luxury units being the hardest hit,' said Dave Chesnosky, a Compass agent in San Francisco."

"In Manhattan, apartment rents with the highest prices are falling the fastest. The median rent for a luxury apartment in May was $ 7,825 a month, a 10% drop from April, according to Douglas Elliman and appraiser Miller Samuel. In New York, realistic homeowners who offer flexible leases, pay the broker fee, or offer incentives are the ones who find tenants, said Kristina Paces, agent for Douglas Elliman."

"'No one walks around saying, 'Great, I'd love to pay the full price' in this Covid-19 environment,' she said."

The San Francisco Examiner in California. "I know you don’t want to hear this, but these are challenging times for San Francisco landlords, and they may be fixing to get a lot worse. The party, which has lasted years, may be over — for who knows how long. That 9.2 percent drop we saw was just the warning shot. Between laid-off workers, who will lose $600 of their weekly unemployment (which was likely the reason they could pay rent in May) at the end of July, the local businesses shutting down and the shift to remote working, we’re about to see a glut of available rental units, followed by a sharp drop in rents."

"Bad news for small landlords who purchased their income properties late in the game and don’t have the equity to operate with reduced revenue."

From NBC Bay Area in California. "The pandemic continues to push down the cost of rent in parts of the Bay Area partially because demand is dropping. Real estate agent Patrick Sedillo said, 'I expected it, because of overcrowding, especially in downtown San Francisco. You are seeing social distancing actually taking the next step. Because of supply and demand. The more supply there is, the less demand there is and they need to get these places rented out,' Sedillo said."

From My News LA in California. "The Los Angeles City Council took a preliminary step Tuesday toward putting a vacancy tax measure before voters that would be aimed at compelling landlords to put vacant units on the market to alleviate the city’s housing crunch. According to Councilman David Ryu’s office, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates there are 111,810 empty housing units in the Los Angeles."

The Orange County Register in California. "The coronavirus lockdown walloped California house sales in May, resulting in a 41.4% drop in transactions from the previous year, the California Association of Realtors reported Tuesday. It was the biggest year-over-year decrease since November 2007. Median house prices, meanwhile, also fell from year-ago levels, the first such drop in eight years. The statewide median house price fell for the first time since February 2012, dropping 3.7% to $588,070."

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "The coronavirus pushed Bay Area home sales off a cliff in May. The number of existing, single-family home sales that closed last month fell 51.1% compared with the same month last year and the median price dropped 2.5%, according to the California Association of Realtors. 'San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities but between COVID and restaurants and bars closing down, that romantic feature is gone,” he said. 'Now (they’re) working from home in a two-bedroom apartment and it’s like, ‘Get me out of here,' Compass agent Paddy Keohe said."

"Chris Meadors, a Compass agent in Napa, said, 'The only phone calls we have received in the last three months' are from people wanting to move from San Francisco to someplace like Napa County."

From Illinois Policy. "Illinois’ housing market was one of the weakest in the nation prior to 2020. But as the state economy has been brought to a sudden standstill and nearly 1.5 million Illinoisans find themselves out of a job, the number of families struggling to make their mortgage payments will surge. Economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic was made worse by one of the harshest lockdown orders in the nation. As a result, analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute shows Illinois could see mortgage delinquency double, behind only the Great Recession as the worst housing crisis in 30 years."

"Growth in home equity is negatively associated with mortgage delinquency. If the value of your home goes up, then you are probably not going to experience delinquency. On the other hand, if you become unemployed and are already 'upside down' on your loan – owing more on your mortgage than your home is currently worth – then you are more likely to enter delinquency."

The Salem News in Massachusetts. "A Salem developer charged with being the alleged mastermind of a mortgage fraud scheme that cost banks and mortgage lenders more than $4 million — and almost two dozen apartments from the city's rental housing stock — is tentatively set to stand trial in October. George Kritopoulos was one of three people charged in a scheme that, prosecutors allege, involved purchasing multifamily homes and converting them to condominiums, using falsified financial information to obtain loans for the projects."

"Between 2006 and 2015, a dozen multifamily homes in Salem were turned into 21 condos. The condos then were sold to buyers who in many cases would not qualify for a mortgage, using fictitious financial information and documents that were prepared by other defendants, prosecutors allege. When the buyers failed to make payments, the condos would end up in foreclosure. The banks and lenders lost approximately $4.3 million as a result."

"David Plunkett, an accountant and former assistant register of deeds in Salem, pleaded guilty last year to charges stemming from his role in the scheme and is awaiting sentencing. The third defendant, Joseph Bates III, pleaded guilty in 2018 and has also not yet been sentenced."