A report from the Port Charlotte Sun in Florida. "Matthew Harden turned himself in to law enforcement Monday in Hamilton County, Florida. Harden, 53, and his partner Stephen Dukes, 47, owned the now-defunct HD Custom Homes in Englewood. Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office detectives issued warrants for each man last week, charging them with one count each of fraud and 13 counts of misapplication of construction funds."

"The two are accused of leaving more than 50 homeowners with unfinished homes — in some cases never-started — while cleaning out construction accounts. Former customers including subcontractors estimate the pair took more than $8 million in deposits and services. former HD customer, Tammy LePoer, said she’s disgusted by HD Custom Homes practices. 'They would take photos of cabinets they put up in one home and send it to the out-of-state customer, saying the work was done,' she said. 'Then they would pull the cabinets out and put them in another customer’s home and take a picture and send it. Meanwhile, neither of them had cabinets, but these men had their customers’ money.'"

"According to the Charlotte County Clerk of Court documents, Matthew Harden’s unfinished Burwell Circle home was once listed at $479,999 in South Gulf Cove. The house went into foreclosure in August. The home, which has several liens on it and is overgrown with weeds and has cracks in the concrete, went on the auction block Monday for $372,858. It was sold for $2 more than the bank bid to a third-party bidder, court foreclosure records show."

The Greenville News in South Carolina. "For five years, Michael and Dana Roush offered a path to home ownership and financial freedom through Kingdom Connected Investments (KCI), a rent-to-own scheme that collapsed by 2018. Tuesday in Anderson, a federal judge sentenced both of them to prison. Raymond Fenner, of Charlotte, said he got a flyer in the mail offering to purchase the home he was 11 years into paying off. Months after he agreed to work with KCI, he got the foreclosure notice. 'They made a couple payments,' Fenner said. 'Then you couldn't get a hold of them, and I couldn't get a loan to fix the problem.'"

"Maria Girarfe, who now lives in Georgia, broke down in tears as she testified about how she used her own money to repair the home she got through KCI, only to lose everything she owned. 'I lost everything,' she said. 'Everything. Everything. Everything.'"

"After the hearing, Gustavo Cruz of Easley said he still felt helpless. He had lost about $40,000 he had spent to fix up a property he got through KCI before it entered foreclosure. 'I cried when I got the letter that these people were caught,' he said. 'I work every day to earn the money I had put into the house that was taken away from me.'"

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. "Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio are among the U.S. cities that are seeing the biggest increases in late payments on federally backed home loans. More than 17% of the Federal Housing Administration’s almost 8 million home loans nationwide were delinquent in August, according to a new study from the American Enterprise Institute."

"'Rising FHA delinquency rates threaten homeowners and neighborhoods in numerous other metro areas across the country,' American Enterprise Institute researchers said. 'It would be expected that these delinquency percentages will increase over time. At some point, a significant percentage of the then-delinquent loans would be expected to be placed on the market by owners under distressed conditions or become foreclosures, and then enter the market.'"

"In August, Houston had the second-largest share of FHA loans that were late — more than 22%. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, more than 19% of homeowners with FHA loans were behind in their payments. And in San Antonio, 19% of FHA loans were late in August."

From Reuters on California. "Hospitality workers - chefs, hotel staff, theme park workers, golf course attendants - make up nearly 10% of the workforce in Los Angeles. Before COVID-19, that added up to nearly half a million jobs. The pandemic has decimated the workforce. So far the only support Walter Almendarez has gotten from his employer was $5,000 from a fundraiser. But he is months behind on the mortgage for his home, which he bought in 2009."

"Almendarez has been cutting costs, withdrawing savings, buying fewer diapers for his baby and going to food banks. 'You don’t think of shame. It’s food. You do what you have to do,' he said."

"Elizabeth Mejia, an out-of-work waitress, vowed that she and her husband would not lose their home they bought in South Central Los Angeles six years ago for $250,000, where they are raising their young daughters. They have cut costs, cancelled their cable television and were about to pull their daughters out of Catholic school. The family has had a tradition of filling up unicorn piggy banks with coins. When the banks are full, the family breaks them open and puts the money toward a visit to a national park."

"But after she was laid off, Mejia broke open one of the banks to get the $100 of coins inside. 'We needed the money for food,' she said."

From Realtor.com. "The sports bettor Billy Walters is hoping that his luck will turn around with his real estate. He’s placed his massive mansion in Carlsbad, CA, on the market for an equally large sum: $26,950,000. The massive oceanfront estate has come on and off the market since 2011, when it featured a $29 million price tag. Even at that sky-high sum, it was reported to be a number 'a bit less than he spent assembling it,' the Wall Street Journal reported at the time."

From Mansion Global on New York. "Twenty-one homes asking $4 million or more went into contract in the week ending Sunday, the most since the second week of March, according to a weekly report from Olshan Realty. Luxury deals last week totaled $173 million, also a level not seen since before the lockdowns in March. That included two trophy homes asking $20 million or more—albeit after steep discounts. The second biggest deal was for a six-bedroom penthouse at 35 North Moore St. in Tribeca, asking $20 million—though it once asked as much as $33.5 million when it hit the market five years ago."

From Maui News in Hawaii. "Maui County vacation rentals logged 9.8 percent occupancy in August, which was close to the hotel rate of 8.6 percent for the month, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported. Maui continued to have the largest vacation rental supply of all four counties with 123,129 available unit nights — which was down 57.9 percent from a year ago."

The Aspen Times in Colorado. "A Woody Creek woman is facing as much as $10,000 in fines for renting out a room in her deed-restricted home on AirBnb, which is a violation of Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority regulations. Diane Kessler, who owns a house in the Woody Creek subdivision, appeared Monday during a virtual APCHA compliance hearing making her case that she was unaware of the rule that she can’t do short-term rentals on the property, or that she use it for income generation."

"Kessler, a massage therapist and ski instructor, as well as a single mother, told APCHA hearing officer Mick Ireland that she was using the income to help make ends meet with the mortgage, HOA fees, property taxes and special assessments, among other expenses. She asked to not have to pay the fines, as she struggles like many in the valley living paycheck to paycheck. 'Please show me some compassion; it was not intentional and I am already being penalized because now I have to find other ways (to pay for the house),' she said."