A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Debt didn’t present a major problem before the coronavirus. The job market was booming and median household incomes were rising, allowing families to keep up with payments. Terri Smith, 64, said her job analyzing legal expenses for her employer was eliminated in a round of cost-cutting. Even with the extra $600 a week, unemployment didn’t cover her lost earnings, and she is now down to $285 after tax in weekly unemployment benefits. The monthly mortgage payment on her Charlotte, N.C., home is $1,550, she said."

"Her car payment is $550. Health insurance costs $600 a month, and a recent hospital visit cost $7,500 in out-of-pocket expenses. She has dipped into savings to keep up with bills and is thinking about withdrawing from her 401(k) or signing up for loan-deferment programs until she can find a job. 'I don’t have a plan. It’s very dire,' she said. 'I’m getting very nervous.'"

The Port Charlotte Sun in Florida. "Charlotte County home foreclosure filings soared back to the normal rates in August despite the federal and state COVID-related moratorium. How can foreclosures go up if there’s still a moratorium? Local real estate agent Cynthia Logan believes Gov. Ron DeSantis’ August moratorium law gives lenders more options than the April moratorium. And lenders appear to be using those options, she said. 'I’ve had an uptick where I’m doing more evaluations,' she said of her specialization in selling foreclosed properties."

The New Orleans Advocate in Louisiana. "Mahaley Smith dropped a file folder onto her kitchen table and pressed her palms to her forehead, despairing over the tenant who won’t pay rent and won’t go away. January was the last month Smith, 84, said she saw a dime for the ground-floor apartment that she lets for $800 a month in her fourplex, around the corner from her house in New Orleans' Hollygrove section."

"'What are we supposed to do? I have to pay my bills,' she said. 'The tenants have a right not to pay rent and they can live in your house? That’s just not fair. This woman ain’t paying nothing, and I can’t put her out. This is strictly the devil. She’s still in my house. I guess I’ll never get my money.'"

From WUSA on Washington DC. "WUSA 9 reached out to D.C. Realtor Justin Noble to get his take on your questions about moving during the pandemic. Q: Are rent prices actually falling in the District right now? A: Yes - if it's a sizable building with more than 15 units.' Noble says, due to the pandemic, you could be looking at anything from $100 to $400 of savings on a monthly rent. 'The biggest thing that we're seeing is vacancies, so larger buildings are really, really hurting,' he explained."

The Star Tribune in Minnesota. "As Minneapolis apartment buildings multiply, so do the lease discounts. During July more than 45% of the Twin Cities rental listings on Zillow included free rent, discounted parking and other concessions aimed at wooing renters. That’s four times higher than last year at this time and the seventh highest share in the country. 'It definitely feels like more of a renters’ market,' said Erik McLaughlin, who is using a six-week discount worth $3,500 to move from one apartment building in Minneapolis to another. 'There’s more supply than people wanting to rent.'"

From Bisnow. "The San Jose metro area is expected to double its apartment output from 2,912 last year to 5,829 in 2020, a rate not matched anywhere else in the country, according to RENTCafé. San Jose rents dropped by about 4% in Q2, according to CBRE. On top of falling rents, San Jose also saw negative net absorption of about 1,000 units, joining only a handful of markets around the country, like Los Angeles (negative 7,200 units) and New York (negative 3,600) in that regard, according to CBRE. San Francisco clocked a negative net absorption of 3,500 units."

The Orange County Register in California. "Real estate agent Adam Bray-Ali hopes to retire someday off the income from his small portfolio of triplexes and four-plexes. But lately, his side job as a landlord isn’t going so well. Tenants in three of his 20 units stopped paying rent after the coronavirus pandemic hit in March. One tenant moved out owing $6,000. Now Bray-Ali is losing money on two of his five buildings, and he’s thinking about selling one of them. Thanks to forbearance, he’s been able to skip some mortgage payments and about $10,000 in water and electric bills."

"'I’m paying what I can on the five properties … (but) I don’t have enough cash to pay everything,' Bray-Ali said. 'I’m absolutely dipping into savings.'"

"Meanwhile, the unpaid rent — estimated at nearly $100 billion dollars nationwide — continues to accumulate as a debt that out-of-work renters somehow are expected to repay down the road. And property owners are left holding the bag, more than a dozen landlords and property managers told the Southern News Group this month. Some have put their properties up for sale. Others face default or rising vacancies as problem tenants drive away good ones. Some property managers report they now have squatters invading their properties."

"Moratoriums have affected real estate sales as well. Agent Stephanie Mosher said her sale of a Laguna Niguel rental house fell through last month after the tenant backed out of a promise to move out. The home went back on the market and sold again. But the owner had to pay the tenant $10,000 and forgive $17,750 in back rent to induce him to leave. 'The laws aren’t protecting the sellers, a buyer coming in (or) me as an agent trying to support my family,' Mosher said."

The Bronx Times in New York. "Plans to construct affordable housing next to a historic church in Fordham led to a two-and-a-half hour heated debate between the Community Board 7 Housing Committee meeting on Sept. 15. Board member Myrna Calderon felt that this would not benefit CB7. She questioned if developers planned to meet with residents to see how they feel about the project. 'It does not meet the standard [for appropriateness],' she said. 'It changes the whole church landscape. I’m very concerned about the impact on the neighborhood. Yes we need low income housing, but we are oversaturated.'"

"Denise Relf shared Calderon’s concerns. 'We have a lot of new development and it’s overwhelming our community, especially when these developments provide nothing more than housing,' Relf said. 'The quality of life is being impacted by the community overcrowding.'"

"One resident, who chose to remain nameless, explained she is a homeowner and this new affordable housing will oversaturate the neighborhood and bring property values down. She noted it will block St. Mary’s Park and on top of that, there is affordable housing at St. James and Creston Avenue and Kingsbridge and E. 196th Street. 'I’m tired of this being a dump for every developer who comes in here,' she exclaimed. 'The building is going to be a complete eyesore.'"