A report from the Record Eagle in Michigan. "Linda Witulski fell in love with Elk Rapids about 15 years ago on a vacation. She bought a home in the Lake Michigan shoreline village and turned it into a short-term rental about a decade ago. But now she’s worried a proposed new zoning code in Elk Rapids may harm her ability to operate or even sell her short-term rental business, should she wish. 'Why they are determined to do it, we don’t really understand,' Witulski said."

"Village Manager Bill Cooper said officials have for a while been concerned about over-saturation of STR units in residential neighborhoods, basically operating homes as businesses that are left shuttered and dark during winter months. But officials haven’t been able to yet quantify the magnitude of the problem, he said. 'We had no idea how many places are being used as short-term rentals,' Cooper said."

From 8 On Your Side in Florida. "The move by Governor Ron DeSantis to extend the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures until August 1 is meant to help Floridians struggling to make ends meet. But, it is also taking a toll on landlords in Tampa Bay who may have missed out on more rent checks when the calendar flipped to July. Landlord Michelle Fields told 8 On Your Side she tried to evict one tenant shortly after he moved in back in February for reasons unrelated to the pandemic or recession. Now, she said he is exploiting the situation at her expense."

"'They have several deliveries through Amazon and FedEx,' Fields said. 'They’re just having a good time on my dime. They owe me about five months of rent right now.'"

From Realtor.com. "'House Hunters' is one of HGTV's most popular shows. In this episode, married couple Ralph and Cindy hire their son to find them a waterfront mansion. While their budget is already high at $1.5 million, they end up falling in love with a house priced at $1,825,000! Undeterred, Ralph manages to negotiate the price way down to $1.35 million. That’s almost a half-million in savings!"

"When the comedians learn of this price reduction, they’re stunned. 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' star J.B. Smoove calls Ralph a 'straight baller,' proving that with home prices, the number you see on the listing is often just a starting point."

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. "Summer is a good time to catch great deals on homes, said Keith Conlon, general manager for Allie Beth Allman & Associates. 'You will usually see a price drop during the summer on homes that were listed earlier in the year and have been sitting waiting for buyers,' said Conlon."

"But don’t delay too long, he said. Homes with lower prices are snatched up quickly in the hot Dallas market, especially with such low inventory and active buyers. Here are five homes with recently lowered prices that Allman associates recommend."

From NBC New York. "Landlords are dealing with more vacancies than they ever anticipated. And it's not just market-rate apartments that are being impacted, as even those with rent-regulated units are heading for the 'burbs. 'New York’s housing market teeters on the edge of an abyss. Lawmakers continue to use renters and small building owners as their piggy bank through exorbitant and unfair taxes. It’s clear renters are fed up, and owners are unable to continue to shoulder the tax burden for the entire city,' said CHIP Executive Director Jay Martin. 'We cannot continue this delusion that people will throw themselves into bankruptcy just for the privilege to live in the Big Apple.'"

From Real Estate Weekly on New York. "Manhattan apartment sales fell by 54 percent during the second quarter of this year. Median sales price dropped 17.7 percent to $1,000,000; Price per square foot declined 6.8 percent to $1,642; Average sales price decreased 10.2 percent to $1,881,512. 'It’s almost impossible to talk about the market during the second quarter; there barely was a market,' said Frederick Peters, a veteran apartment sales broker and CEO of Warburg Realty."

"Barbara Fox of Fox Residential is telling her clients to be reasonable as they go into the third quarter. 'Sellers should be reasonable in terms of pricing their property. What it could have sold for a year ago may well be notably higher than what they are able to get today. This ought to influence them both in setting their asking price and conducting the resulting negotiations.' Fox added, 'When an offer does come in – even one that is at a level well below their expectations – rather than trivializing the offer, sellers should instead consider themselves fortunate to have received interest in an evolving market.'"

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Donald Simon, son of late billionaire Norton Simon, just bagged $25 million for his regal home in Beverly Hills. The impressive estate first surfaced for sale last year at $42 million, but a January price cut brought it down to its most recent asking price of $38.5 million."

The Wall Street Journal on California. "Developer Nile Niami looked every bit the king of the city’s megamansion scene. 'Seven years ago, I had an idea to create the biggest, most expensive house in the urban world,' he boasted in a video. Almost. The house—a mammoth, roughly 100,000-square-foot Bel-Air spec mansion listing for $500 million—is still unfinished. Originally slated for completion three years ago, the home, called 'The One,' has been beset by years of financing and construction delays. The pool is an empty concrete hole, the video shows; the moat carved into the perimeter is also dry."

"Promoting such a pricey home before it is completed is an unusual move, but Mr. Niami is in unusual circumstances: He faces an October repayment deadline for an $82.5 million loan on the property. Mr. Niami hasn’t sold a major project since 2017. He has at least five other unsold megamansions, each seemingly more extravagant than the last. Building these palatial estates, collectively valued at roughly $700 million, has left him shouldering hundreds of millions in outstanding loans, mortgage records show."

"In April, a lender on his 14,000-square-foot West Hollywood house situated just above the Sunset Strip filed a notice of default against Mr. Niami, property records show, and the developer has already turned the keys over to his lender on Opus, a Beverly Hills mansion that came on the market for $100 million in 2017. 'Money was chasing him. It was too easy to get the money,' said Stephen Shapiro of Westside Estate Agency, a Southern California agent who doesn’t represent Mr. Niami."

"Following the completion of the project, Mr. Niami said he’s getting out of the real-estate business, 'I may do one or two more houses after this but I’m not going to do the level of houses I’m doing now. It’s too much stress,' he said. 'I’m exhausted.'"

From DS News. "Stanley Middleman is the CEO of Freedom Mortgage Corporation. Following the Great Recession, he was able to transform his company into a market leader in VA mortgages and government insured lending. How can the mortgage industry best assist homeowners coming out of forbearance?"

"First of all, we’ve been able to help, I guess, in excess of 85,000 consumers defer their payments or be eligible to defer their payments as a result of this COVID-19. The second thing that could happen is that we could modify their loan, and it just becomes part of their new loan at a lower interest rate, and we go through the normal waterfall of events. Another thing that could happen is that that loan amount, whatever it was that was deferred, gets added onto the end of the loan, and then at the end of the loan, interest free. And then that loan will come due, as stipulated in the CARES Act. Now, exactly how that all happens and the rules that have not been released by the FHA, it’s not as clear yet, but that’s the way it would work for a conforming loan."