A report from Bisnow New York. "Meridian Capital Group Senior Executive Managing Director David Schechtman noted he is working on a 'broken' condominium deal in Brooklyn upon which there is a $65M senior secured mortgage with $25M of equity behind it. 'The sponsors are so pragmatic, they are offering if anyone will give them $5M of their $25M back, they will hand you the keys,' he said. He expects there to be a 'precipitous' drop in values and there will be a larger wave of opportunity than following the events of 2008."

The Lo-Down on New York. "Deals are becoming more common on the Lower East Side. There appear to be plenty of available rentals at Essex Crossing. According to StreetEasy, you can get three months free for any of eight apartments in 'The Rollins' (145 Clinton St.) A report from M.N.S. Real Estate shows that prices for non-doorman one bedroom units on the Lower East Side dropped 3.4% from August to September. The picture was similar in many sought after neighborhoods throughout the city. The average price for a 1-bedroom non-doorman apartment in this neighborhood last month was $2,425. Compared with last year at this time, rental prices on the LES are down 15.2%."

The Bronx Times in New York. "Though Manhattan had the highest number of price drops last month, the Norwood area of the Bronx had the highest median percentage price drop with -39.6%, meaning the listing had a $78,800 price drop. Following not so closely behind was the Bronx’s Bedford Park-Fordham North with a -10.3% drop, meaning a drop of $33,433 on a listing, and the Steinway area of Queens with a -10.1% drop, a -101,000 decrease on the listing."

"Two neighborhoods in the Bronx round out the top five with high median percentage price drops last month: the Melrose South-Mott Haven North with a 9.6% drop, meaning a $96,000 price drop in the area, and the Claremont-Bathgate area with an 8.4% drop, equaling a $200,000 price drop in the neighborhood."

From Mortgage Professional America. "The National Multifamily Housing Council’s rent payment tracker found just under 80% of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by October 6. Jeffrey Adler, vice president at Yardi, agreed that more information is needed to paint a proper picture of the challenges in the multifamily space. Adler says occupancy in some of the major international gateway cities are seeing significant stress. 'Class A lease ups are stalling,' he said. 'Absorption of brand-new units are stalling, and the effective price that those could have rented at is dramatically reduced.'"

"'People value their personal credit scores, they value meeting their obligations, so they are meeting them to the extent that they can, but they are also taking actions to align their living arrangements with their means, and that is creating household destruction in downtown Chicago, San Francisco, LA and Seattle,' said Adler."

The Wall Street Journal. "Rents in central business districts in popular cities have been tumbling. San Francisco, where these rents are down 17% since the March peak, has been hardest hit, CoStar said. These district rents are down 9.2% in Boston and between 5% and 6% in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Landlords point out that even before the pandemic, renters were starting to move out of higher cost markets like New York City and San Francisco to places like Austin and Denver, where they could get more space for their money."

"'We’ve continued to see those patterns, but now they’re at a higher clip,' said Bob Faith, chief executive of Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC in Charleston, S.C., the country’s largest multifamily landlord, with 693,000 units owned and managed globally. "

From WFLA in Florida. "While she calls moratoriums 'crucial,' Ida Eskamani with the Florida Housing Justice Alliance, also described those measures as short term solutions for a long term problem. 'At the end of this year, folks are still going to owe thousands in unpaid rent,' she explained. 'So right now, we’re just kicking the can down the road.'"

The Miami Herald in Florida. "When hospitality development firm HES Group purchased a Midtown Miami lot in 2014, it planned to build a hotel. Monday, the company is putting the 1.02-acre site up for bid in a direct sale or joint-venture opportunity, said Francisco Arocha, the firm’s CEO. The mortgage on the lot at 3601 N. Miami Ave. is three weeks in arrears, and the mortgage holder has begun foreclosure proceedings, Arocha said, due to the pandemic’s severe impact on the hospitality industry. 'The hospitality industry has been hit,' Arocha said."

"South Florida’s hospitality industry has been severely impacted by the pandemic. HES Group’s original predictions of an overall 50% drop in occupancy rates in its South Florida hotels have proven optimistic; in September, hotels experienced a 37% occupancy rate in Miami-Dade County, according to industry data firm STR. Across the market, employee furloughs have been widespread."

The Bay Area Newsgroup in California. "A bankruptcy, mortgage default, and two federal legal cases have engulfed a big Fremont mixed-use development, a financial quagmire that has stalled construction on the prominently placed project. Mission Hills Square, a housing, retail, and restaurant project near Interstate 680 and Durham Road in Fremont, faces an uncertain future amid multiple formal proceedings."

"On paper at least, the project looks like a slam dunk with its high-visibility location perched next to busy Interstate 680 and residential component at a time when housing is in high demand. Once complete, Mission Hills Square would total 148 residential units and include 54,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. However, Mission Hills Square now lies fallow. In recent days, this news organization observed no indication of current — or recent — construction on the 12.6-acre development at 2501 Comack Road. Debris blocked a construction entrance. Graffiti was prominent."

"Among the proceedings affecting the Mission Hills Square development and property: — The project’s principal owner, Fremont Hills Development, filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 9. — At least one lender has filed a notice of default on a mortgage provided to Fremont Hills. — Gadsden Properties, the owner of San Jose-based Fremont Hills Development, says it is the subject of a U.S. Justice Department criminal proceeding. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil complaint alleging fraud and other violations against individuals and entities associated with the property’s ownership."

"The defendants include Danghong 'Jean' Chen, an Atherton resident and San Jose attorney, along with her business partner and ex-husband, Jianyun 'Tony' Ye, who lives in Atherton. — A federal grand jury has indicted Chen and Ye for alleged visa fraud and other violations. 'The complaint alleges that Chen and Ye secretly acquired and operated an EB-5 regional center, Golden State Regional Center, and later advised clients to invest in the center’s projects without disclosing their ownership interest,' the SEC stated. The alleged scheme, according to the SEC, extended to Hong Kong in China."

"It isn’t clear why Gadsden Properties was willing to pay $1.6 million per residential unit for the unfinished and unproven Mission Hills Square in February 2019. In November 2019, Gadsden warned that it was in dire straits. 'Management has determined that there is substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,' Gadsden Properties stated in a quarterly SEC filing."

From Yo Venice in California. "A recent study suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may be driving rents down in Venice and the rest of the city. While the global coronavirus pandemic has impacted the economy, restaurants and elsewhere in Los Angeles, it is also impacting the housing market. Rent is down by 6.2% since the start of the pandemic. Year-over-year rent growth in Los Angeles currently stands at -7.4% compared to 0.8% at this time last year. Pasadena has seen the biggest rent drop in the metro, with a decline of 7.7%. On average two-bedrooms there cost $2,138, while one-bedrooms go for $1,609."

From City Watch on California. "A congresswoman tweets 'Cancel [rent].' Others take the sentiment further, writing: 'Every landlord is a fascist,' 'All landlords are evil scum,' 'Kill the landlords,'and 'Landlords are the devil.' Apart from social media postings like these, vilifying lessors has become common at rent-strike protests, such as the one in New York in which activists hurled furniture into the street."

"As a Realtor for 35 years, I have assisted lessors and lessees in the Los Angeles area. I have learned it is not unusual for a tenant to have a substantially higher income than a property owner. I have viewed credit reports, W-2s, 1099s, and profit-and-loss statements that establish this fact. Admittedly my experiences are rarely with large, multi-unit buildings, but instead with single family dwellings which are often owned by mom-and-pop landlords. Many of these owners are 'cash poor.'"

"In other words, they are barely able to meet their own family’s needs for food, housing, and other essentials. And this is before taking into account their rental property expenses, such as mortgage, property taxes, insurance, upkeep, and repairs. For these folks, receiving rent on time is crucial. It is how they cover their bills. When their rental income vanishes—as has been the case for many due to eviction moratoriums—these small landlords are left in disbelief and despair, confused as to why the government is forcing them to carry the financial burden of the pandemic on their already broken backs."

"The government’s destruction of small landlords in 2020 will be calamitous for tenants in 2021 and beyond. There will likely be an outbreak of foreclosures and sell-offs by those who are unable to endure the eviction-moratorium storm. When the small landlords disappear, so does much of the affordable housing. Corporate investors, real estate conglomerates, and Wall Street vultures will swoop down for the kill, snapping up properties, remodeling them, and raising rents. In the end, communities will be left with fewer economical rentals, and the chasm between the rich and poor will be a little wider."

"Although damage has already been done, there are ways to help struggling landlords. Politicians could: 1) cancel property taxes for needy landlords, 2) defer mortgage payments and foreclosures for all rental properties (not just those that are federally-backed, 3) allow all landlords access to forgivable PPP funds, and 4) establish programs that pay the rent for tenants who have been affected by the pandemic."

The Wall Street Journal. "One of the largest residential properties in Montecito, Calif., a popular haven for wealthy, has sold for $63.25 million, about half of its original $125 million asking price, property records show. The roughly 240-acre property initially came on the market in 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported."

The Nevada Independent. "Supreme Court Justice James Hardesty on Friday highlighted a Catch-22 that may stymie Nevada’s efforts to keep people in their homes during the pandemic: a federal eviction moratorium lasts to the end of the year, but federal funds to help renters must be used before the ban lifts. He noted that a legislatively approved eviction mediation program set to launch this week is backed by federal dollars that must be spent by the end of the calendar year, and then is scheduled to go away because it has no other set funding source."

"'There won’t be as much use this fall for the eviction program because of the presence of the CDC moratorium … and come January, there’ll be no moratorium but there’ll be no money to be able to handle eviction mediations,' Hardesty said. 'That seems to me to be a problem.'"

"He said Home Means Nevada, the entity that managed a foreclosure mediation program during the Great Recession and will manage the eviction mediation program, needs to set up a portal that can be used to schedule mediation and facilitate communication about settlements between tenants and landlords."