A report from The M Report. "The share of mortgage loans that became delinquent in April outpaces anything seen during the Great Recession and is the highest rate on record in 21 years, according to CoreLogic’s data. During the month of April, 3.4% of mortgages went from current to 30 days past due, outpacing the 2% high recorded in late 2008. The overall national delinquency rate in April stood at 6.1%."

"New York had the highest loan delinquency rate of any state, at 10%. Louisiana, New Jersey, and Mississippi had the next-highest delinquency rates. Among metro areas, those that typically serve as tourist destinations are suffering high delinquency rates. For example, CoreLogic pointed out that Kahului, Hawaii; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Las Vegas all experienced a 5 percentage point or higher rises in delinquencies in April."

"Miami charted the highest delinquency rate among the major metros across the nation with 11.5% of all properties in some stage of delinquency, which is 6.7 percentage points higher than a year ago."

The Washington Post. "New mortgage delinquencies hit a record in April, well above anything seen during the Great Recession. If delinquencies lead to foreclosures, as the forbearance time period expires, we could see an increase in the number of properties on the market. It may be compounded by other stressed buyers, who need to cash out of their home to pay bills as the recession continues. The supply glut could increase further if shutdowns are lifted and homeowners who held off on selling during a pandemic suddenly flood the market."

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. "The share of North Texas homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments is spiking with the pandemic. In April, 6.6% of D-FW-area residents with home loans had missed at least one mortgage payment. That’s almost twice the local home loan delinquency rate a year ago and is even higher than the nationwide rate, according to CoreLogic. In Texas’ major metro areas, the Houston area had the highest late loan rate in April at 8.2%. San Antonio was second with 7.5% of mortgages at least one payment behind. Austin had the lowest delinquency level at 4.9%."

From Bisnow on Massachusetts. "Rents in executed leases in Boston were 5.8% lower in June than they were last year. The delta shows that landlords are being forced to discount market-rate units below their listed price, something that would have seemed unthinkable last year as Boston's housing prices soared. 'The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the Boston apartment market more severely than most other major markets in the U.S. as both rent change and occupancy continue to slip relative to pre-pandemic levels,' according to RealPage."

"The rent drops are reflective of more supply than demand in the Boston apartment market. One report found that Greater Boston's multifamily inventory in May was 59% higher than it was in 2019."

From WLOS in North Carolina. "In the early months of the pandemic, some real estate brokers reported the bottom dropped out of the Asheville market. One broker, who spoke on the condition News 13 not identify her, said she went four months without securing a home contract. But brokers report the sales market is trending up."

"'As landlords who had been renting out their properties sour on the idea of renting their properties because the rental market is softening, they’re looking to place those homes into the sales market,' said Mike Figura a longtime Asheville broker. Figura said the the home rental market is softening because families working in hospitality and the restaurant business have lost their jobs and are being forced to leave rentals they can’t afford. Those homes he said are going back to the landlords who may decide to sell them rather than lower their rental asking price in the changing market."

From Bloomberg. "Blackstone Group Inc. is closing a real estate fund that used leverage to load up on commercial mortgage backed securities, investments that have slumped during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Blackstone Real Estate Income Master Fund, with about $1.1 billion of total investments at year-end, including those purchased with leverage, will sell the assets and distribute the proceeds to shareholders, the company said in a regulatory filing this week. Its net assets have declined from almost $773 million at year-end to $553 million as of May 31."

"The fund suffered a 24% decline in March as markets swooned. CMBS delinquencies in the U.S. surged to 3.59% in June from 1.46% in May, the largest month-over-month increase on record, according to Fitch Ratings. With consumers staying home and shopping online, hotels and mall-based retailers are missing mortgage and rent payments."

The Real Deal on New York. "Deadbeat tenants on one side, demanding lenders on the other — it’s the classic landlord dilemma of the coronavirus era. The retail condominium at 170 Broadway in Lower Manhattan is among the latest properties to feel this double squeeze, as its CMBS lender has cancelled Covid-19 relief while the sole tenant, Gap Inc., refuses to pay rent — and is even demanding a refund."

"The property, of which 25 percent is owned by Crown Acquisitions and 73 percent by the Morgan Stanley-managed Prime Property Fund, is now more than 60 days delinquent on $70 million in CMBS financing it received in 2015, according to Trepp."

"Gap argues that the only reason it agreed to pay 'enormous sums' in rent at the property, currently about $5 million a year or $310 a foot, was because of its location in a 'heavily trafficked and bustling tourist spot' in the Financial District — an advantage that was wiped out by the coronavirus. It’s also an advantage unlikely to be restored in the near future, due to social distancing measures and even the possibility of a second wave of infections."

"'The Landlord is not able to restore the Premises or Lower Manhattan to its former state, and Tenant will never be in a position to operate the Premises in the way in which it was contemplated when it entered into the Lease,' the suit says."

From CNBC. "On a Saturday in April, several executives from SoundCommerce rented a U-Haul, drove it to their office in Seattle and loaded up the truck with stand-up desks, 48-inch monitors and various other gadgets and personal belongings. For two days, they traversed town, dropping the items off at employees’ houses and apartments. With the coronavirus forcing non-essential employees to shelter in place, it had been weeks since any the start-up’s 20 or so staffers had worked at the office. It was clear they wouldn’t be going back."

"The lease expires July 31, and SoundCommerce CEO Eric Best said the company did not extend its contract. In the tech hubs of Seattle, Silicon Valley, New York and elsewhere, many CEOs are coming to the same conclusion — real estate is not a worthwhile expense."

"In May, CBRE was predicting about a 7% drop in office rents per square foot from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. It expected vacancy rates to rise as high as 14.9% in the first quarter of 2021, up from 12.3% in first three months of 2020. Across the country, Ian White is making a similar calculation at his early-stage start-up ChartHop, which develops software for human resources departments. On Jan. 15, White signed a six-month lease at a WeWork in Brooklyn for an office with about 15 desks."

"'I asked WeWork for any kind of concession, but they offered nothing, not even the slightest price break,' White said. 'What they finally came back to me with was, if I was willing to enter another 12-month commitment, they’d give me a free month.' Instead, White is letting the lease expire."

"Scott Orn said he’s hearing these anecdotes from across his client base. His company, Kruze Consulting, helps about 250 start-ups with tax, accounting and HR services. Orn looked at the data of his clients and concluded that as of May, half of them had eliminated the amount they’re spending on WeWork, while 26% had reduced their WeWork expenses. Orn said his company, which was based at a WeWork location in downtown San Francisco, also let its lease expire."

"'Pretty much everyone is doing it, who can do it,' Orn said. 'It was actually hard getting dates from WeWork where the elevators were not in use from others moving out.'"

From SFist in California. "It isn't the first utterly tone-deaf thing that Airbnb has done as a company, but amid a global pandemic and recession, it seems wildly inappropriate and dumb to be asking customers to pad the pockets of hosts — i.e. homeowners — who are suddenly out their side income."

"When times are tough for broad swaths of the populace in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, it seems less than wise, politically, for Airbnb to start soliciting gifts for people who are essentially landlords. This feels especially egregious in communities like San Francisco and New Orleans where the existence of Airbnb has been directly blamed for taking full-time rental housing off the market and driving up rents for longtime residents."

"'I’m not sure I will be contributing to the mortgage for anyone’s second house at this time,' writes Brianna Wu on Twitter, reacting to the company's solicitation of 'kindness cards' for hosts. 'Airbnb has lost its f-ing head,' writes another on Twitter, 'Why would I donate to my host? I can't even afford one house.'"

"New York Times tech columnist Mike Isaac today reacted to Airbnb's gaffe calling these mega-host empires like the 'mortgage-backed securities of the sharing economy.' The request for contributions is basically asking customers to 'donate money to landlords… many of whom have overextended themselves by leveraging multiple properties which they rented out pre-covid, and are now going empty,' he writes."

"To be clear, they've created this because their hosts absolutely hate them right now, due to the fact that their homes are largely uninhabited and Airbnb won't (can't) pay the hosts for their empty houses," Isaac continues. 'Crazy situation where basically the entire platform has turned on them.'"

From Business Insider. "The financial situation is especially dire for megahosts, some of whom bought up dozens of properties and built short-term-rental empires that made up their main source of income (about one-third of Airbnb properties are owned by hosts who manage at least 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA)."