Two reports from the Los Angeles Times in California. "Adam Lambert couldn’t quite turn a profit in the Hollywood Hills. The 'American Idol' alum sold his modern digs last week for $2.92 million, or $75,000 shy of what he paid for the place in 2014."

"It was supposed to fetch a kingly sum but ended up selling last year at auction for a relative pauper’s price. Now, the Mountain of Beverly Hills is at the center of a new lawsuit seeking to recover more than $100 million in allegedly embezzled funds. The Justice Department filed seven lawsuits Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeking the forfeiture of real estate and other assets purchased using funds that the suits contend were embezzled by former officials in Kuwait’s Ministry of Defense."

"Touted as the city’s finest undeveloped piece of land, the Mountain made international headlines in 2018 when it hit the market with the highest price tag in L.A. real estate history: $1 billion. Although some dubbed the ambitious listing a publicity stunt, the prized piece of land offers more privacy and space than almost any other property in Southern California. Set at the highest point of the 90210 ZIP Code, it spans 157 acres — or roughly twice the size of Disneyland."

"Despite plenty of hype, no buyer materialized, and the price was eventually lowered to $650 million. The $45-million debt eventually ballooned to around $200 million, and the company tried and failed to declare bankruptcy last year. As a result, the Mountain was auctioned off at a sparsely attended, unceremonious foreclosure auction behind a fountain in Pomona’s Civic Center Plaza."

"Only one bid was placed, for a mere $100,000."

From Mansion Global. "Wilt Chamberlain’s former Los Angeles mansion was relisted Tuesday for $14.9 million, a more than 20% price cut from when it was last listed in 2018. The 9,395-square-foot home in L.A.’s Bel Air neighborhood has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms on two and a half acres. It was last listed in June 2018 for just under $19 million, and the listing was removed in November of that year."

From Socket Site. "Having hit a 9-year high last week, the number of homes on the market in San Francisco which have undergone at least one official price cut has ticked up another 10 percent in the absolute to 330. As such, there are now over 150 percent more reduced listings on the MLS than there were at the same time last year, six times (6x) more than there were in July of 2015, and the most reduced listings since the fourth quarter of 2011."

The International Business Times. "Rents in San Francisco fell nearly 12% year-on-year in June as tech workers continue to leave the city, the biggest drop among all the cities in the U.S., according to Zumper. Speaking to CNBC, Zumper’s CEO Anthemos Georgiades, said, 'Rent prices in San Francisco have historically only gone up and typically only incrementally, yet now we are seeing double-digit percent rent reductions. This is unprecedented for this generation of renters.'"

"The results of a survey conducted by the San Francisco Apartment Association (SFAA) of 300 landlords owning more than 10,000 apartments (approximately 6% of the city’s total rental units) support Zumper's findings. Nearly 7.5% of the respondents said tenants did not opt to renew their leases in the last three months (April to June). 'Anecdotally, we had been hearing from members that lots of their renters were turning in their keys and leaving,' SFAA’s policy director Charley Goss told CNBC."

"Interestingly, Bengaluru in south India, which was once the outsourcing capital of the world and is dubbed India’s Silicon Valley, is seeing a similar trend. 'Bengaluru has witnessed a sharp drop in commercial rentals of around 20%-30% in the last few months of the lockdown when the WFH model was adopted by tech companies,' Jayanth Kolla, a partner at Convergence Catalyst, told the International Business Times."

The Bakersfield Californian. "Local landlords have begun feeling the pinch of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s eviction moratorium. Now, some landlords say a portion of tenants are taking advantage of the moratorium to skip out on rent payments, not only cutting into those landlords' finances, but causing concerns about what might happen once evictions are reinstated."

"'As a small landlord, we’re being put in a situation where the law is not really protecting us,' said local Realtor and property owner Tony Ramirez. 'A lot of landlords are just in the middle, or we’re caught in this situation with tenants that are being abusive.'"

"Out of the 20 units he owns, Ramirez says around two tenants have stopped paying their rent. He admits it might not sound like much, but to a small landlord like himself it could mean the difference between making a profit or breaking even."

"'That eats all your cash flow, sometimes it puts you in a negative situation,' he said, noting he's seen a new vehicle in the driveway of one of his tenants who's not paying. 'I’m involved with a lot of landlords and they have the same problems.'"

"Some say the problem has worsened the longer the moratorium's lasted. In the beginning, property owners and rental assistance agencies say renters mostly paid their rents, but as word spread about the moratorium, that's begun to change. 'When COVID first hit, it was pretty quiet in regards to assistance,' said Ashley Vorhees, site director for the Bakersfield office of the Catholic Charities Diocese of Fresno, which provides rental assistance. 'Now we’re still stuck in the COVID moment, but obviously landlords still have to pay their own bills.'"

"Although evictions may be temporarily on hold, once the governor ends the moratorium, a wave of evictions may hit Kern County and the state as landlords seek to collect on rent that's been due for the past few months. 'The floodgates will open and we will be swarmed with assistance calls,' Vorhees said, adding some renters may be unable to come up with back rent, which could lead to more evictions. 'How do people come up with $3,000 at once to pay the landlord when they struggle monthly to get by as it is?' she said."

From ABC Bakersfield. "Even though it might seem counter-intuitive for a realtor to discourage people from making an offer, Benny Villarreal says if he thinks it's a bad idea he’s not afraid to tell clients to hold off. 'People falling behind on mortgages — there are plans to help,' he said. 'However when you fall behind its hard to come back from it.'"