A report from the Denver Channel in Colorado. "Daniel and Linda Sue Gonzalez are still moving into their home. The problem, according to the Gonzalez family, is the dozens of finishes and fixes that are still pending. They bought the house from Richmond American Homes before it was built. They say the many problems with the design have severely delayed their ability to settle in. 'We actually started to set this stuff up. And then when they redid the ceiling they were like, ‘you have to get it all out of the way,’ she said."

"Contact Denver7 has received numerous calls and emails from Richmond customers, who say they were pressured to move into their homes before the lots were complete. Now, they say, the company has left them to live in homes void of many finishing touches. 'Our final walk-through was going to be on the (December) 14th,' said Gonzales, explaining that the company promised to finish the home before they moved in a month later. 'That was the first week of January and we are halfway through September.'"

"Jon Goodman, senior partner at the law firm Frascona Joiner Goodman & Greenstein that deals with housing issues, says buyers need to be careful before signing a contract. If home buyers feel lost in a contract, calling a lawyer is probably the best option. 'Most buyers are not technicians in studying these contracts. In the same way, in theory, that I could do repair work on my own on my car, I don’t — I go to a professional.'"

"But for homeowners already locked in a contract, they say working with their builder is a work in progress."

The Star Tribune in Minnesota. "The homes in the Heritage Park neighborhood in north Minneapolis are impeccable, the lawns kept short and green, the trash cans lined up in a row. Behind that order lies a homeowners association that regularly sends violation letters and collects fines. Michael Roberson has admittedly always paid his annual fees late, arguing that he doesn’t know what they go toward and that he keeps his yard and front porch tidy of his own volition."

"He received a letter from the association this winter saying he owed $500 in unpaid fees, he said. Then the pandemic struck. His wife lost her job and he focused on paying off other bills. He got another letter in June informing him the association filed a foreclosure action on his house, he said. Roberson had to borrow money from friends to pay off more than $2,000, money he is still paying back."

"'Everything sounds threatening — that’s my biggest problem,' he said. 'You don’t have to threaten us. You just have to talk to us and let us know what it is that you need done.'"

The Astoria Post on New York. "The cost to rent an apartment in Queens has dropped by more than 5 percent from a year ago, according to a new report. Long Island City saw the steepest decline from last year to this year with a more than 15 percent decrease, according to the report. The amount paid for a Long Island City apartment is typically higher than what’s paid in other Queens neighborhoods and experts say the most expensive areas usually see the earliest and often largest decreases in rent when the market dips. Meanwhile, average rents in Astoria dropped by about 3.6 percent."

From My Wabash Valley on Illinois. "A recent report from Apartment Guide shows the cost of rent fluctuating up and down across the state of Illinois as officials have temporarily paused evictions to prevent a surge of homelessness during the Coronavirus pandemic. Champaign saw its average monthly rent costs for one-bedroom apartments drop off at the steepest rate in the state, from $729 in January down to $512 in June, a six-month change of -29.8%, and a year-over-year change of -16.1%."

"Industry insiders warned the moratorium on evictions could create a bankruptcy bubble for cash-strapped landlords and only delay the inevitable eviction for many jobless tenants. While the long term effects of the eviction ban have yet to be realized, in the short term, many property owners have lowered their prices, according to data from Apartment Guide."

"'Some of these higher priced units are actually coming down in price slightly depending on what landlords want to do,' explained Apartment Guide’s managing editor Brian Carberry, 'because landlords, it’s easier for them to rent something out for maybe $100 less than they might want to get for it, then have it sit vacant and not collect any rent on it at all.'"

The Daily Independent on Arizona. "Experts warn the economic crisis brought on by the novel coronavirus outbreak could continue and worsen. Of particular concern is a widely predicted eviction crisis, which when compounded by the preexisting shortage of affordable housing in the Phoenix metro, could push conditions for many moderate- and low-income residents from crisis to collapse. With additional unemployment boosts gone — and either returning significantly reduced or failing to materialize — renters remain protected only by a patchwork of federal and local protections set to expire between now and Christmas week."

"The gravity of the situation is evident to Mark Stapp — a 30-year industry expert and Arizona State University professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business. 'We’re already in a situation where we’ve got one of the highest levels of foreclosure and eviction, so it’s not going to take a lot to tip this thing beyond crisis,' Mr. Stapp said. 'We’re actually probably on the edge of crisis. Without significant, continued support, it could go into catastrophe.'"

"Professor Stapp said while he grasps the political implications faced by both sides of the stalled stimulus debate, it’s incumbent on legislative leaders to act decisively if disaster can be averted. 'I am not a socialist, though that’s a term most people don’t really understand,' he said. 'But while we don’t want socialism, we do require social support, because we have an economy that is run by a lot of different types of people earning a lot of different wages, and we’ve got to able to support everybody.'"

From Community Impact on Texas. "In the six months since beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Houston, the region's apartments have lost all of their average rent gains from the past 12 months, according to a multifamily housing analytics firm. Houston apartments remain in a weakened position, due in large part to overall uncertainty in the job market and a surge of new construction adding supply, said Bruce McClenny, president of ApartmentData. 'Real estate markets really depend upon job growth to grow,' he said."

"The drops are even more precipitous for high-end Class A properties, where the average rent for August was $1,463, its lowest in over two years. Occupancy rates are down to around 80% for Class A, as compared to around 90% for the market overall, partly because so many new units have become available. 'We have so much new product, you know—we delivered 20,000-22,000 units in the last 12 months, and the timing of that just couldn't be worse,' McClenny said."

The Orange County Register in California. "Rent hikes in Los Angeles and Orange counties shrunk by the largest amount in 10 years, according to the Consumer Price Index. Landlords’ pricing power had been cut by the pandemic’s economic damage, which has been especially hard on lower-income households that tend to be renters. Meanwhile, low mortgage rates have lured some of the rental market’s higher-income customers to become homeowners."

"In addition, landlords have been unable to force to non-paying tenants due to government eviction moratoriums. One survey of owners of 31,500 downscale rentals in Orange and L.A. counties found just 63% of those landlords in mid-August had collected all of their rents."

From Socket Site in California. "Asking rents in San Francisco have dropped another 7 percent and are now down over 20 percent from peak. And with listing activity having jumped another 70 percent over the past two months alone, there are now nearly three times as many apartments listed for rent in San Francisco than there were at the same time last year (and climbing)."

The Santa Barbara Ed Hat in California. "This is a question that I would like publicly answered by Limone and Jackson about their AB 3088 housing anti eviction bill. Why have you put the the inability of millions of tenants to pay their rent during the Covid 19 Epidemic, squarely on the backs of landlords to finance? The bill is immoral! It places the cost of lost income of tenants during the Covid pandemic solely on the financial backs of landlords."

"Many landlords have mortgages and all have taxes, insurance and maintenance expenses, etc. They cannot operate on 25% of scheduled rents. A huge number of tenants, especially in the high rent areas and the rest of California are marginally able to pay rent during normal times. They will not be able to pay thousands in back rents when their payments are due."

"Eventually, landlords will raise rents higher than they normally do in order to recover the rents that they cannot recover. Some landlords will leave their units vacant until this bill is no longer in effect. Other landlords will lose their properties when they are foreclosed by lenders. AB 3038 does not protect landlords from foreclosure, it prevents them from collecting the 75% of their rents that they need to make mortgage, taxes, insurance and maintenance payments!"

"Why have Limone, Jackson and their associates in Sacramento, who all continue to receive their good sized taxpayer paid paychecks, health and pension benefits, put this Covid 19 crisis on the backs of just landlords? Why don't they pass a bill making gas stations cut their prices by 75%? The same for grocery stores, utilities and all other important resources: Cut all prices by 75%. Sounds crazy? Probably, but then this is what Jackson and Limone have thrust on landlords!"

"Is it no wonder that a majority of people living in California have said that they would leave, if they could. Many who can afford to leave, are leaving every day! Our state is going downhill in several measurable categories. We have 50% of our country's homeless population and 34% of our country's welfare recipients, but we are only 12% of our country's population! We have the highest median cost of housing in the entire USA!"

"Our state's GDP is up only about 1%! Its tax base is shrinking! More and more people are turning against government. They cannot be blamed for doing so. I am one of them! Remember in November!"