It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The good news for buyers is that inventory is rising in places such as Arlington County and Alexandria, up 39% and 38% respectively compared to a year ago. 'We’re seeing huge increases in inventory in some areas in Northern Virginia,' said Larry Foster, president of Long & Foster Real Estate. 'This is due to people seeing opportunities to sell at the height of the market.'"

"Not even the reliably expensive West Village is immune to the COVID-induced housing price drops sweeping Manhattan. According to UrbanDigs, the median asking price for new listings in the area has decreased to the lowest figure in years, from $2.8 million in May to $1.765 million in August. Or, in sum: 'Buyers may soon start to find real deals in the West Village,' says John Walkup, CEO of UrbanDigs."

"A mega-mansion just got a mega price cut in Bel-Air, where a massive spec house known as Unica just relisted for $78 million. That’s a $22-million price chop for the Spanish villa. 'Unica is unequivocally worth $100 million; we just had to make an adjustment for today's market,' said listing agent Ben Bacal."

"At first, Stephanie Morris was nervous about leaving Modesto. She’d lived in the Central Valley her whole life, but her family couldn’t keep paying $850-a-month for her sons to share a living room while she, her husband and the baby slept in their apartment’s only bedroom. 'I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not moving out of California to a third-world country,' Morris said. 'I’m leaving a third-world country to join America.'"

"Though a foreclosure crisis is on the horizon, experts say recent fiscal policy will prevent a full collapse of the financial system. 'It’s a slow-moving process,' Bill Emmons, an economist at the St. Louis Federal Reserve, said during a presentation. 'It definitely looks like there will be another major event, but hopefully not as bad as the foreclosure crisis associated with the Great Recession.'"

"The actual level of distress is difficult to determine because of eviction and foreclosure bans across the country. But Emmons said the level of past-due mortgages is now at levels seen in the beginning of the Great Recession. The uneven recovery has led to a growing consensus around the idea that the recovery from Covid will be K-shaped, lifting more affluent people out of distress faster while the lower-income population sinks further into poverty. 'Probably the clearest massive supportive income were one-time payments and unemployment benefits, but those provisions expired at the end of July,' said Emmons. 'The V has been interrupted.'"

"There is a 'dangerous' oversupply of new, single-family homes in Calgary and Edmonton, on top of affordability issues in Vancouver and Toronto, the financial intelligence company said in a report this week. 'The housing market will no longer be able to escape the poor condition of the labour market,' said the report."

"The frenzy of July has calmed somewhat. Janice Goss, broker with ReMax Professionals Inc. says that the market at $1.5-million and below is very active in Mississauga, but it cools above that level. 'Some in that same sub-division are at $1.7-million and they haven’t sold.' At the $3-million mark and above, some sellers are reducing asking prices or taking offers at substantial discounts."

"We have a three-bedroom semi-detached house in good condition with a decent garden in a town about 35 miles from London, in an area popular with families. We've seen a number of places we'd quite like to buy but not been able to make any offers stick, because we aren't under offer ourselves. Do we just need to be more patient, or is there anything we can do to try to get our house sold?"

"Property expert Myra Butterworth said: By and large, if you're failing to sell your house, it is often because you're asking too much money for it. Sellers often fall into the trap of thinking they know what a property is worth, but it is the buyer who has the final say. They will decide what price they are prepared to pay for the bricks and mortar in front of them."

"The ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic and postponement of the long-awaited Dubai World Expo has led the Dubai housing market into a new price slump this year. Before the pandemic hit, average sales prices in Dubai’s luxury communities were already down 20% to 30% from their last peak in 2014, Mansion Global previously reported."

"A 1920s cottage in Sydney’s inner west has sold at auction for $8000 less than when it last traded at the height of the property market in 2017. The freestanding three-bedroom house sold for $1,372,000. said the vendors were a young family making a tree change and moving further out of the city. The owners purchased the 272-square-metre block in 2017 for $1.38 million, and knew they had bought at the peak of Sydney’s property market, said selling agent Chris Nunn."

"'They were aware they had bought it at the peak,' he said. 'There weren’t any illusions there – they knew it would be difficult to get back there.'"

"An article by senior economics correspondent Shane Wright examining how the collapse in Australia's population growth because of closed international borders may affect the housing market, was one of the most-commented on by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald readers in the past week. Many readers queried the pessimistic tone they detected in the article, saying the forecasts were a potential silver lining to the pandemic."

"Carmine: 'So, the Ponzi of bringing in more migrants is finally collapsing. About time.' MelbourneGuy: 'While some may see this as bad news, many of us, including home owners, see the madness of population growth led housing bubbles as our primary industry stalling as a complete blessing. Hopefully we now learn as a society that there are other ways to run an economy other than the aforementioned.'"

"Reflecting on the reader debate, Wright says population growth and housing are contentious areas at the best of times, so it was little surprise there were more than 400 comments. 'Overcrowding, congestion and the 'Ponzi scheme' refrain all came through loud and clear from many readers who face the consequences of Australia’s growing population on a daily basis…,' he says."

"In Palm Beach County, some questions are eternal. How do you get rid of all that horse poop in Wellington? The horse poop question has been a pungent and vexing one that has been answered in a variety of ways that always seem to be rejected. For a while, the answer was to put 32 tons of it each day on trucks and drive them to Martin County for dumping. But for some strange reason, the good people of Martin County grew tired of accepting our excremental offerings."

"The land bordering the poop plant is owned by the county’s Solid Waste Authority. But the surrounding area is also home to the outdoor concert amphitheater at the South Florida Fairgrounds, some high-end residential communities – such as Riverwalk, Breakers West, Andros Isles and Baywinds – and The King’s Academy, a private Christian school."

"As you might imagine, opposition is forming against the pending zoning change. 'They call me 'The Horse---t Man at Riverwalk,' Andre Budd said. Budd is rounding up signatures from his neighbors against the project. 'Can you imagine trying to host a barbecue in your backyard on a windy day?' asked another Riverwalk resident, Phyllis Kingsbury. 'Excited about seeing your favorite country star at the amphitheater? What are they thinking!'"

"If the facility is approved in November and gets built over the neighbors’ objections, the least the county could do is to give it a name that makes it sound like something else. For example, pretend it’s a new shopping center, and put a big sign out front calling it 'The Olfactory Outlet Mall.' Or better yet, make it appear to be a luxury housing community by landscaping the entrance with a waterfall and a dramatically landscaped guard-gate entrance. And, of course, giving it a name that suggests luxury guard-gate community living."

"Here’s my top-10 suggested names. If you have better ideas, please let me know so I can pass them on. 1. Stallion’s End. 2. Barnaggio. 3. Palomino Palms. 4. Palm Beach Poolo. 5. Olumpia. 6. The Droppings. 7. Breakers Wind. 8. Belle Merde. 9. Villas on the Brown. 10. Compostrano Estates."