A report from The Wall Street Journal on Florida. "U.S. prosecutors are looking to seize a penthouse in a luxury condominium tower in Miami that they say a son of the Republic of the Congo’s president bought with money embezzled from the country’s state-owned oil company. Denis-Christel Sassou Nguesso, a parliament minister and son of Congo’s president Denis Sassou Nguesso, allegedly bought the 3,500-square-foot penthouse at 900 Biscayne Blvd. in 2012, according to a civil forfeiture complaint filed last week by federal prosecutors."

"The forfeiture action is the latest case in which U.S. prosecutors say illicit money from bribery or corruption has been laundered through South Florida real estate."

From Mortgage Professional America. "Last week, a former Tampa-area mortgage broker was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to making false statements to financial institutions on mortgage applications. Jonathan Marmol and real estate developer Mordechai Boaziz cooperated in a scam that saw Marmol’s lending partners lose more than $5 million. The scheme dates back to before the 2007 financial meltdown."

"While stories like Marmol’s are relatively uncommon, brokers who bend the rules are not. According to Fairway’s Ryan Grant, raising the bar for entry into the industry would help reduce the number of individuals polluting it. Citing data from the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System, Grant says that of the almost 38,000 applications to become licensed loan officers received by the NMLS in 2019, only 36 were denied."

"'This just goes to show you that as an industry, we are not focused on creative, value-based, financially literate, and fiscally responsible mortgage advisors. We are only interested in collecting licensing fees, and the consumer is always going to be negatively impacted by this,' he says. Grant explains that before becoming a licensed cosmetologist, a person needs to amass 1,600 hours of education and experience. To become a licensed mortgage professional – who, unless you’re a Kardashian, carries significantly more responsibility – that same person needs 20 hours of education; none of which, according to Grant, 'teaches you anything about actually providing financial advice or guidance.'"

From Bisnow on New York. "In the past few years, developers have rushed to build scores of glitzy new projects, flooding the market and spoiling buyers for choice. There are now more than 15,000 unsold condos in the city, according to data from real estate data analysis firm Marketproof. Of that 15,000 more than 15% — or around 2,600 units — is in just six buildings, Marketproof CEO Kael Goodman said."

"Miller Samuel President Jonathan Miller figures suggested more than 2,000 new development units would become available for sale this year. He said it could take almost nine years to chew through the unsold inventory on the market."

"Known as The Towers of the Waldorf Astoria, this much-hyped condominium development officially launched sales in early March. A total of 375 condominiums are on offer, but none have closed as yet, according to Marketproof. Anbang paid Hilton $1.95B for the hotel at 301 Park Ave. back in 2015, setting a record for a single-asset hotel purchase, then started its massive renovation. In 2018, the Chinese government took over the firm after its chairman, Wu Xiaohui, was charged with corruption and sentenced to 18 years in prison."

The Aspen Daily News in Colorado. "The penthouse atop Dancing Bear Aspen sold recently for $18.3 million, or more than $6,000 per square foot. Dancing Bear’s penthouse has been on and off the market since it was originally listed, as a finished and furnished unit in January 2017, for $29.95 million, or nearly $10,000 per square foot. 'That caught a lot of attention,' said broker associate Andrew Ernemann, but didn’t result in a sale. The property was eventually removed from the active listings 'because we felt the market was getting over supplied at the higher end levels,' he said."

The Midland Reporter Telegram in Texas. "The number of houses on the market in Midland County continues to climb. The Texas A&M Real Estate Center reports the number of available houses at the end of May climbed to 885, which was 82 more than April and the highest number since the real estate center began keeping statistics in 2015. Months of inventory also increased to 4.1, which tied the high set in July and August of 2016."

"The report also shows a two-month continuation in the dropping of price metrics. The first was that the average home sold for $321,339, which was a decline of nearly $16,000 compared to April and a drop of nearly $30,000 compared to May 2019. The median price for a home sold in May -- $285,000 -- dropped more than $19,000 month over month and year over year. Also, it was the lowest median price in May going back to 2017."

"The number of homes sold in May – 156 -- followed similar trends. The Texas A&M Real Estate Center reported 253 homes sold in May 2019 and 245 in May 2018. Data show that one has to go back to February 2016 to find a month when fewer homes were sold in a month. 'Texas’ existing-home sales plummeted 32 percent year over year on top of a 22 percent slide in April,' James Gaines, chief economist for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, said."

From Housing Wire. "California is seeing rents decrease in several areas. According to RealPage, operators in Los Angeles cut rents by 3.3% in May 2020 compared to May 2019. Oakland, California saw an annual loss in effective asking rents of about 3% in May. Bigger cuts were seen in San Jose at 4.4% and in San Francisco at 4.9%, RealPage said. Executed new lease rent has dropped at least 8%, which is double the norm in the U.S., in Boston, Detroit, New York, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and San Jose, California."

"In San Francisco, one-bedroom rents have dropped 9.2% since June 2019, according to SFGate. Boston has felt the impact from universities and colleges being out, as about 65,000 students live off-campus, the Boston Globe said, and rent is down 2%. Asking prices have also dropped, for the first time since the middle of 2010."

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "Summer in the Bay Area usually brings a flood of interns, students and new workers who fill spare rooms and snatch up months-long Airbnb vacancies. But this year, the coronavirus pandemic has upended the once-hot Bay Area housing market and kept people at home, leaving landlords bereft — and some renters on the hook for payments from subletters who never showed. A survey from the San Francisco Apartment Association estimated that 7.5% of renters in San Francisco have broken their leases in the past three months, an unprecedented number."

"Companies in the business of short-term rentals are also having difficulties. Airbnb laid off a quarter of its workforce in May, and Sonder, another hospitality company headquartered in San Francisco, had major layoffs in March. 'There’s been a lot who have just kind of disappeared, mailed in the keys, and just vacated, sometimes with furniture left there,' said Sarah Yaussi, vice president of business strategy for the National Multifamily Housing Council."

"The slack summer demand from students and interns likely will evolve into a more serious problem for the rental market as a whole in the fall if students do not return, according to Krista Gulbransen, executive director of the Berkeley Property Owners Association. 'The summer’s just shot. So for someone to go longer than the summer on a vacancy just to see if the students come back in January is probably not realistic and doable,' Gulbransen said."

From Socket Site in California. "The percentage of homes on the market in San Francisco which have undergone at least one official price reduction is currently running around 21 percent, which is six (6) percentage points, or roughly 39 percent, higher than at the same time last year. And with inventory levels up 60 percent on a year-over-year basis, there are now over twice as many reduced listings on the MLS in the absolute than there were at the same time last year."

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Retired football player Carson Palmer has finally sold his custom home in Del Mar for $18 million, according to the Multiple Listing Service. The wood-clad contemporary had been on and off the market since 2015, when it first listed at $24.995 million. In May, the median sale price for the area was $1.439 million, down 23.4% year-over-year, according to CoreLogic."

The Jersey Journal in New Jersey. "Four owners of an unregistered short-term rental in the Hilltop section of Jersey City could each face fines of up to $2,000 a day if the property does not register with the city, official said. Additionally, the 50 Trenton St. owners — Steven Ling, Joseph Peter Turro, Yang Ge and Hyun Soo Kim — would each cited for maintaining a nuisance, which carries with it fines of up to $1,000 fine and jail time or community service."

"Ward C Councilman Richard Boggiano said there have been several things going on at the property that include partying in the street, loud music and vomiting out of the window. Police have received more than 30 calls to the property, which is separated from neighboring homes by only an alleyway on each side, in the past few months, he said. He said there are a lot of short-term rentals causing trouble. People are just tired of them, Boggiano added."