A report from Bloomberg. "The commercial property market has largely been frozen as buyers and sellers struggle to agree on what buildings are worth. Transactions for apartments plunged 70% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, according to Real Capital Analytics. Commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. is seeking buyers for more than $12 billion worth of apartment buildings. The push for investors comes as more and more renters struggle financially."

The Wall Street Journal. "Some hotel owners are faced with property sales at discounted prices and expensive financing now that federal aid is poised to expire. Watermark Lodging Trust, a Chicago-based hotel owner with properties such as the Ritz Carltons in San Francisco and Philadelphia and the Seattle Marriott Bellevue, is the latest example of how financially strapped owners are raising money however they can. The real-estate investment trust sold the Hutton Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., for $70 million last month. The 250-room hotel was valued between $90 million to $100 million before the Covid-19 outbreak, according to people familiar with the matter. Watermark sold it for less than the $77.3 million it spent to acquire and upgrade the property."

From Bisnow. "Data from hotel research company STRY cited by the travel news website AFAR shows that 2,069 of the nation's 57,528 hotels are shut because of the crisis. More than 3,000 hotels that had been closed have since reopened their doors at a limited capacity. Lenders have ratcheted up credit standards, making it difficult for many companies to secure the financing they need to stay afloat, according to Hersha CEO Naveen Kakarla."

"Getting deals done is also going to be a challenge since experts aren't expecting the sector to rebound for another year or two as lenders tighten requirements for borrowers. 'They have been more focused and have been insisting on pay downs and capital infusions to support the hotels,' Karkala said. 'In some cases, the owners can put that capital in, and in other cases, they cannot. I do think you will have lenders who will force the hands of some owners.'"

From KUTV in Utah. "Hank Van Orden and Ashley Dove, General Manager and Sales Manager of the Advenire, expected a banner year. Their new property in downtown St. George just opened this winter. Instead, the state shut down. And hardly anyone arrived. 'It was like somebody turned off the spicket,' says Orden. 'It was a such a stark, overnight, one day to the next. here were nights where we were housing two or three people.'"

The Los Angeles Times in California. "California office spaces are expected to keep getting emptier and their rent prices will likely keep declining for years as the fallout of the pandemic persists, according to a new survey of commercial real estate developers and financiers. Last quarter, office leasing in Los Angeles County was at its lowest point since the Great Recession. And this month, a deal was struck to sell the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles for 34% less than the $650-million valuation it had in 2019."

"And in California’s tight housing market, the market for multi-unit homes is likely to stay strong, the survey found. Three-quarters of respondents in Southern California said their plans in this area hadn’t changed. 'It is hard to envision a scenario in which COVID-19 and its fallout could remedy the underlying housing affordability issues that California faced coming into 2020,' Tim Hutter, a partner at Allen Matkins, said in the survey report. 'In light of that ongoing concern, we expect demand for multi-family housing to continue to be high.'"

The Monterey Herald in California. "Housing advocates in Monterey and along the Peninsula are extremely worried about what is going to happen on Friday when the $600 federal contribution to jobless benefits expires, despite eviction moratoriums in place. Rhonda Navarro, the president of the Monterey Bay Chapter of the National Association of Residential Property Managers, said that while tenants have had evictions stayed, the same can’t be said of owners’ responsibilities, be it loans or other obligations."

"'They’re worried that banks will file foreclosures on them,' Navarro said. 'We’re wearing the same shoes as renters.' She expressed that property managers are often caught in the middle in that they have a state-mandated fiduciary duty to owners but have a humanistic responsibility to renters. 'We’re like dogs chasing our tails,”' Navarro said."

The Daily Cal in California. "Many apartments throughout Berkeley sit empty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused difficulties in the process of renting out new units and a severe loss of income to some landlords. 'Property owners rely on prompt rental payments to meet their expenses for mortgage, taxes, maintenance, and to pay their employees and vendors,' said the East Bay Rental Housing Association in a statement. 'Indefinite delay of rental payments creates economic hardship.'"

From Bisnow on New York. "The Manhattan office leasing market has avoided the sublease spikes seen in other cities so far, but experts expect a fresh wave of subleases to hit the market in September. 'There’s more coming,' Savills New York and Tri-State Research Director Danny Mangru said. 'It’s going to shift the market to a more occupier-friendly market. If you are on the other side, it’s not that great.'"

"'I don’t think people have woken up to it … There will be a torrent,' said Michael Colacino, president of tenant representation firm SquareFoot. 'It takes a while to decide how to reconfigure your space for sublet … Everyone has had a lot of other things on their mind.'"

From Mansion Global on New York. "Manhattan’s high-end real estate market seems to have experienced a jolt from the Phase 4 reopening of the city last week, with 15 high-end homes going into contract during the week ending July 26, according to the weekly Olshan Realty report, which tracks homes at $4 million or more. And buyers on the high-end received significant discounts, with an 18% average discount from original ask to last asking price."

"The second priciest apartment last week was just a smidge less expensive, asking $17 million. The five-bedroom apartment at Olympic Tower, with views of Central Park, was once asking as much as $33 million. The apartment’s been on and off the market since 2016."

The Los Angeles Times. "Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard has taken care of some business outside of the NBA bubble in Orlando, selling a penthouse in Washington, D.C., for $2 million. Howard, who spent last season with the Wizards, bought the massive apartment in a converted schoolhouse building in 2018 for $2.3 million, records show."