A report from Variety on California. "The Los Angeles historic cultural monument known as the Samuel-Navarro house has a notable new owner to chalk into its colorful history. Nearly four years after screenwriter Dale Launer first put the idiosyncratic Art Deco-meets-Mayan Revival masterpiece up for grabs, the home has finally sold for about $3.5 million. Launer picked up the property in 2014, for $3.8 million, before selling at a hefty loss."

The Real Deal on New York. "Last week, just four properties above $4 million went into contract in Manhattan — down from 12 the prior week, according to the latest market report from Olshan Realty. 'It’s summer; everyone is away,' said Donna Olshan, author of the report, noting that the pandemic had upended an already struggling market. 'It’s very sobering,' she added."

"The pricest deal was for a four-bedroom unit at 520 West 28th Street, designed by Zaha Hadid. The developer, Related Companies, originally listed the 3,840-square-foot unit for $12.5 million in 2016. It went into contract asking $8.95 million."

From Bisnow. "New York is facing down a reckoning that could roil real estate and financial institutions or leave thousands of renters homeless. The city’s current eviction moratorium allows tenants who can’t meet rent payments due to the coronavirus to stay in their homes, but it also means landlords who might barely have been breaking even financially before the crisis now have no legal recourse to replace nonpaying tenants. Eviction filings have been piling up in New York’s courts."

"'We haven’t seen the effects of the moratorium yet, but when they set in, we’ll be going off a cliff very quickly,' said Michael Carr, an attorney focused on landlord-tenant disputes at Rosenberg & Estis. 'Things are going to have to break. The question is: What breaks first, and how hard does it break?'"

"Carr said there is a considerable backlog of eviction cases waiting to be approved in the city courts. The city should expect a wave of new filings when it becomes clear that the moratorium will lift. In the meantime, the divide between what renters owe and what they’ve paid continues to grow. An estimated 25% of New Yorkers failed to pay rent in June."

"As the proportion of nonpaying tenants grows and unpaid rent accumulates, landlords are growing less confident that they will ever see that rent get paid. 'They can keep the beast at bay for as long as they want, but it’s just going to get bigger and bigger,' Carr said. 'It’s going to be a lot harder for landlords to recover two years of rent than three months of rent. When you think of the opportunity cost of undertaking a separate action for each tenant who is in arrears, that could be hundreds of millions of debt that becomes uncollectible.'"

"Because of the rent stabilization legislation passed last June, if landlords with regulated units offer relief now, they may not be legally allowed to raise rents again on those units when the economy begins to recover. 'The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act was passed when New York was in a boom, and it couldn’t anticipate an economic crash or recession,' Carr said. 'Landlords already felt betrayed, now they feel they’re bearing the whole cost of the current recession.'"

The Seattle Times in Washington. "An Eastside real estate investor being sued by former associates who say she funded her property acquisitions with money fraudulently acquired in a China-based Ponzi scheme received more than $150,000 in Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans, according to the federal agency in charge of the pot of cash. A loan database released by the Small Business Administration shows Kung Fu Panda LLC, a business owned by Jialin 'Kathy' Niu, received between $150,000 and $350,000 in federal funds to retain employees during the pandemic."

"In China, Niu headed up a chain of schools purporting to teach the secret of wealth creation through property investment, according to the suit filed in King County Superior Court by eight former students. The suit claims Niu 'brainwashed' students into borrowing fantastic sums to invest in shell companies she controlled. The companies initially appeared to pay dividends — so long as a steady stream of new investors poured in, according to the suit."

"Eventually, the plaintiffs say, Niu bankrupted them by funneling the cash back to Washington, where she used it to buy property including waterfront mansions and a major chunk of prime commercial real estate in downtown Bellevue. Niu said the allegations were baseless. 'I don’t think we did anything wrong,”' she said. 'It’s a normal business.'"

"Niu is far from the only real estate investor, property developer or broker to receive PPP funds. More than 300 local real estate businesses received federal pandemic loans. Most of the money went to property management firms and real estate brokerages, who say they’ve seen revenues plummet as a result of falling transaction volumes and low commercial rent collections."

"Home listings plunged in early April, dragging sales behind them. Real estate agents are independent contractors, but brokerages also directly employ personnel to manage marketing, events, accounting and communications, who were all affected by the downturn in revenues, said Windermere spokesperson Shelley Rossi. The brokerage headquarters received as much as $2 million to retain 75 of those jobs, according to the database."

"Since the pandemic, Seattle property management company Blanton Turner has seen two months of losses, said chief financial officer Alan Byars. The company — which manages 70 local retail, office, mixed-use residential and student housing properties — makes a percentage of rent collected. Collections at some commercial properties are down 50%, he said. At student housing, currently roughly half-occupied, collections aren’t much better."

"But as clients struggle to meet mortgage and tax obligations, they’re pushing Blanton Turner to cut staff. Future projections, Byars said, 'are not pretty.'"