It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The contours of the ruin caused in New York City are emerging. City unemployment rate climbed to nearly 20 percent in July with nearly a fifth of jobs wiped out, year-to-year. Many of the jobless have neither the money to pay rent, nor to pick up and move. Squeezed between loan payments and property taxes, many landlords will face bankruptcy. Many of the city landlords don’t have the cash to absorb the losses, especially given that 'most of the properties are leveraged to the hilt,' said James Ryan​, founder of anti-homelessness nonprofit Time for Homes."

"The exodus from San Francisco is putting pressure on prospective sellers. 'I had one client who spent $50,000 renovating their home in Mission Dolores [San Francisco] – a very desirable, walkable neighborhood,' Redfin agent Gabrielle Bunker said. 'They put in new floors, fancy kitchen appliances and a high-power electric-car charger. They got zero offers, and now they're thinking about moving back in. Buyers here have so many choices right now.'"

"'While NAR appreciates and is supportive of administration efforts to ensure struggling Americans can remain in their homes, this order as-written will bring chaos to our nation’s critical rental housing sector and put countless property owners out of business,' National Association of Realtors President Vince Malta said. 'Absent rental income, these small mom-and-pop property owners must continue to pay their mortgage, property taxes, employees and cleaning/maintenance services,' National Association of Home Builders Chairman Chuck Fowke said.Without sufficient rental in 'come, a number of properties would be pushed into foreclosure.'"

"Rich McGimsey, the owner of 315 apartments in Virginia, described the CDC order, and the pressure it puts on landlords, as a 'burden.' 'What are we going to do? If nobody pays the rent, how are we going to pay our banks? How am I going to pay my employees?' McGimsey said."

"The nasty breakup between heavyweight builder John Fish and veteran developer Stephen Weiner just got nastier. Weiner has laid low since Fish filed a lawsuit in October that accused his former partner on a Boylston Street luxury condo project of backing out at the last minute, costing Fish tens of millions of dollars. Last spring, 'despite the writing on the wall that the Project was not going to proceed, let alone succeed,' Fish wanted to push ahead, according to Monday’s filing by the Weiners."

"'The Project had simply become too expensive and far too risky,' the Weiners said. 'At the time, and also in hindsight (and even without considering the current COVID-19 conditions), Stephen Weiner did John Fish a huge favor when he saved John Fish from himself.'"

"A mixture of coronavirus and social unrest may be setting portions of Chicago’s real estate market back by a year or more. Properties for sale have flooded neighborhoods such as Lakeshore East. It’s investors who have put much of the current supply on the market. New development has also contributed to oversupply. The city’s most saturated ZIP code, 60601, includes units at a 47-story tower called Cirrus, currently under construction. Vacant luxury condos, including new units at One Bennett Park, Vista Tower and No. 9, have also contributed to the glut."

"The lender for embattled Costa Hollywood Beach Resorts acquired the property’s unsold condos, avoiding a bankruptcy auction. A federal bankruptcy judge confirmed the plans last week as part of the property owner’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy exit plan, according to South Florida Business Journal. The lender, Madison Realty Capital, is paying $43 million for the units. No qualified bids for the 52 unsold units and the common areas for the condo-hotel at 777 North Ocean Drive in Hollywood came by an Aug. 13 deadline, resulting in the acquisition. Madison lent the development group $70 million in 2016. The foreclosure suit against the development group and its principal alleged the group was in default of $41 million."

"The coronavirus pandemic is speeding up an exodus to Toronto's suburbs and beyond as white-collar workers, frustrated with the city's lack of family-friendly homes, bet they will be able to continue working from home after the crisis ends. That exodus is putting pressure on Toronto's once red-hot condo market at a time when a near-record number of units are under construction, hinting at a potential glut in the making."

" The latest data shows apartment starts are up 22.9 per cent this year. 'We've definitely seen a problem... with a tall and sprawl development pattern,' said Cherise Burda, executive director at Ryerson University's City Building Institute."

"Low-deposit mortgage deals available to borrowers have plummeted in recent months as lenders play safer during the economic fall-out from coronavirus. Borrowers able to offer 10% of the value of a home as a deposit could have chosen from 779 deals at the start of March. Six months later, the choice was now down to around 60. Amy is relocating from Glasgow and had a mortgage agreed in principle, but has now been told she needs to offer more upfront. 'I now need to make the difference up with another £20,000,' the 38-year-old said. 'It was all totally manageable, I don't understand, it just seems ludicrous.'"

"During the confinement as a result of the Corona crisis, everything stopped in Spain. 'The trend that is taking place in the rental housing market is an increase in supply. If we look at the data from the Community of Madrid, before the corona crisis there was an offer of 15,000 apartments for rent and now there are 28,000 homes. An offer that in some places in the center of Madrid has even increased by up to 70% as tourist rentals have moved to residential rentals,' said David Caraballo, commercial director of Alquiler Seguro."

"In March, the coronavirus crisis threatened to bring the roof down on the rental market that houses one-in-three Australians, as incomes crashed and evictions loomed. Many landlords are heavily geared — in debt — or have lost jobs or other income. They have been unable to afford to offer tenants lower rent and still meet their mortgages. Landlords, particularly self-funded retirees, have said that during the crisis, they've been forced to accept the non-payment of rent that is often their only income."

"'Many landlords out there feel like they are the forgotten ones,' added Antonia Mercorella, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. 'We are hearing some very tragic and difficult stories of property owners who are in extreme financial distress.'"

"Land prices in 38 of 100 intensively developed commercial and residential districts in the major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and elsewhere dipped in the April to June quarter of this year. Experts say the latest descent could be a major catalyst for change, possibly matching the scale of that seen in 2008 during the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers."

"According to real estate analyst Kazuyuki Yamashita, 'the latest data represents a dramatic change and clearly marks a harbinger of weakening real estate prices in Japan.' Average condominium prices in the Tokyo metropolitan area remained high in July, at above ¥60 million, a Real Estate Economic Institute survey showed last month, on a par with the peak prices seen when the bubble economy burst three decades ago."

"'There are various reasons why the real estate prices won’t become cheaper easily, but basically the condominium developers would suffer losses if they lowered the prices of condominiums they built at high costs,' Yamashita said."

"Jumbo (and super jumbo) mortgages are those that exceed the maximum amount that can be sold to government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which in most areas is a loan north of $484,350 (though more expensive counties have a higher cut off). Without those mortgage giants, banks either keep the loan on their books or lump it with other non-conforming mortgages and sell them as securities to investors."

"But as Covid-19 gripped the U.S., that critical securities market reportedly dried up and banks became reluctant to add more risk to their portfolios. The pullback caused one measure of jumbo loan accessibility to plummet 50%-60%, according to the Mortgage Credit Availability Index compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). 'There was a huge drop-off,' said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting."

"Another, tertiary option that could yield a good deal could be seeking advice from your tax team or accountant, who could have lenders to suggest. 'They would be able to tell you if they may have other ways to structure that deal,' said Ilyce Glink, CEO of Chicago-based financial health platform Best Money Moves. 'If you’re very wealthy,' she said, 'you always assume you have a better place to park your money than in a house.'"