A report from Arlington Now in Virginia. "The number of condos listed for sale in Arlington during September (261) ranks as the 2nd most in any month over the last 10+ years, trailing a record-setting April 2016 volume (268) by just seven. Our neighbors in D.C. blew past all-time highs over the last 10+ years with 969 condos listed for sale, well above the record set this past July (863). Three of the four months with 750+ condo listings in D.C. have taken place in the last three months. You have to go back to June 2011 for a month with more active condo inventory in D.C."

"The number of single-family homes listed for sale in the 3rd Quarter of 2020 is up 42.5% over Q3 2019. September is the first month in 2020 that the median asking price of active single-family listings dropped below $1.5M."

From Westfair Online. "There is growing anecdotal evidence of a buyer’s market taking shape in New York City. Gail Fattizzi, who is executive director of Westchester Real Estate Inc. told the Business Journal that while real estate professionals are seeing a strong demand for properties north of New York City, in the city itself rental prices are down 20% to 25% with a 50% increase in rental vacancies and a softening of sale prices."

"''There’s been a little activity since Labor Day but prior to that it’s been pretty darn quiet in the city,' Fattizzi said. 'The demand is less, there are no lines at open houses like we have up here, so there’s more negotiability. There’s going to be more inventory and less competition, which bodes well for buyers whether they’re investing or buying for personal use.'"

The Commercial Observer on New York. "As the slowdowns and shutdowns of the COVID-19 era seem likely to last deep into 2021, many analysts and real estate figures see a significant and sustained drop in demand threatening the ecosystem of restaurants, retail and residential developments that has attracted so much energy and so many residents. 'At the end of the day, it’s all connected,' James Famularo, president of Meridian Retail Leasing, said. 'There are three categories — tourists, commercial office workers and residential — that make New York City as diverse as it is. With two components missing, it’s not really the same city anymore.'"

The Wall Street Journal on New York. "Three buildings on Madison Avenue’s main retail corridor have sold for about 80% below peak sales prices in 2014, signaling that depressed Manhattan retail real-estate prices continue to tumble. Retail rents in the premium Madison strip, which stretches from East 57th Street to East 72nd street on Madison, have suffered, too. The average rent dropped to $822 a square foot in the second quarter this year from $1607 in 2015, the year rents reached a high for Madison Avenue, according to Cushman & Wakefield."

The Associated Press on Massachusetts. "When it comes to sympathetic figures, landlords aren’t exactly at the top of the list. But they, too, have fallen on hard times, demonstrating how the coronavirus outbreak spares almost no one. Take Shad Elia, who owns 24 single-family apartment units in the Boston area. 'We still have a mortgage. We still have expenses on these properties,' he said. 'But there comes a point where we will exhaust whatever reserves we have. At some point, we will fall behind on our payments. They can’t expect landlords to provide subsidized housing.'"

From Bloomberg. "The median monthly rate for a studio in the city tumbled 31% in September from a year earlier to $2,285, compared with a 0.5% decline nationally, according to Realtor.com. One-bedroom rents in San Francisco fell 24% and two-bedrooms were down 21%, to $2,873 and $3,931 a month, respectively. Bargains can be had in other high-cost areas, too. Studio rents dropped 15% to $2,495 a month in Manhattan. In King County, Washington, which includes Seattle, they fell 12% to $1,490."

The Star Tribune in Minnesota. "Cecil Smith, president of the Minnesota Multi Housing Association and a Minneapolis-based rental property owner, said the recent 'slippage' in those figures is the first meaningful decline since the beginning of the pandemic and a likely sign that many of the lowest income renters were relying on expanded federal benefits, which expired in September. 'That’s all burned off now,' he said. 'There’s financial stress.'"

"'Renters now have the upper hand over landlords in many of the nation’s most expensive cities,' said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com’s chief economist. 'As vacant apartments begin to stack up, many landlords are scrambling to lower rents and offer discounts in an effort to entice or keep a shrinking pool of renters.'"

The California Globe. "The average price for a studio apartment in San Francisco fell by 31% to $2,285 a month, a large fall compared to the 0.5% average decline nationwide. Three of the top five counties on the list were from the Bay area, with Santa Clara County and San Mateo County also seeing drops of close to 20%. Alameda County was also in the top 10 with a 12% drop."

"'So rents have been going down since then, and are showing no signs of stopping. A lot of these firms that bought these places up during the boom are now panicking because they aren’t getting the desired return on investment. And as more and more leases end, we’re going to see more apartments for cheaper prices,' noted San Francisco realtor Patricia Hayes-Faber, to the Globe."

From Socket Site in California. "Availability at ten of the larger apartment buildings in San Francisco, including buildings in Hayes Valley, Dogpatch, Mid-Market and Downtown, representing over 3,000 units combined, we’re seeing an average vacancy rate approaching 9 percent (which doesn’t include new buildings with even higher vacancy rates that were never fully leased, such as Related’s Hub District tower at 1550 Mission Street)."

"But there’s another wave of vacancies on the horizon as well. In fact, while the current average vacancy rate is approaching 9 percent in the buildings we reviewed, there are an equal number of apartments that are set to be newly vacated over the next two months as leases, which aren’t slated to be renewed, expire. And there is at least one big building in the city, which had been fully occupied, which is facing a vacancy rate of 20 percent by the end of November and another which is on track for a potential vacancy rate of over 30 percent by the end of the year."

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Prop. 21: Does expanding rent control make sense in a COVID recession? In Los Angeles County, rent for a vacant apartment fell 5.8% on average in September from a year earlier, even without factoring in concessions such as a month without a rent payment. In San Francisco and San Jose, double-digit declines were seen in the fanciest buildings, as well at the lower end. 'We call this the bankruptcy bill,' Daniel Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles said of Proposition 21. 'People are just going to get out of the business — they are already getting out of the business.'"

"'We’ve got to get vacancies up,' said Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. 'What is happening in San Francisco right now or downtown L.A. shows what vacancies do. You have these places being vacated and you have rents falling very rapidly.'"

The Coyote Chronicle in California. "The recent events with COVID-19 and the stimulus checks that were given out by the government are one explanation as to why there has not yet been a crash in the housing market, according to real estate experts and faculty members at CSUSB. Although the strong housing market is beneficial, the increased debt from the stimulus checks will have lasting consequences on taxpayers, according to CSUSB faculty member Montgomery Van Wart."

"Van Wart is a professor of public administration at CSUSB who has a doctorate in public administration. 'It’s not the housing market that is sustaining the broader market, it is government putting trillions of dollars into the economy and saying to you, ‘you will be paying taxes on this for at least a decade,’ says Van Wart."

"Though the prices are at record highs and it might be tempting to try and invest in the market now, all the experts agree that a price correction is coming soon and waiting to buy until at least after the election is probably the best course of action. 'It’s inevitable that the housing market is going to go down,' says Van Wart. 'It is not a ‘maybe,’ it is when and how much.'"

From Bankrate. "With their lenient standards for down payments and credit scores, Federal Housing Administration mortgages offer a lifeline to buyers trying to squeeze into an increasingly unaffordable housing market. However, the coronavirus recession has hit FHA borrowers hard — and that has led lenders to tighten the availability of FHA loans. As of mid-2020, a record 15.7 percent of FHA borrowers were behind on their mortgage payments, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. By contrast, the delinquency rate for conventional loans stood at just 6.7 percent."

"'It really has to do with the type of borrowers who get FHA loans,' says Marina Walsh, vice president of industry analysis at the Mortgage Bankers Association. 'You’re talking about low- to moderate-income workers. They’re more likely to work in leisure and hospitality.'"

"FHA loans allow borrowers to put down as little as 3.5 percent. Borrowers who take conventional loans — those backed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — typically make down payments of 20 percent. And FHA loans are available to borrowers with credit scores as low as 580, although the average credit score for FHA borrowers is about 100 points north of that mark."

"FHA lenders loosened their lending requirements in 2018 and 2019, perhaps because memories of the last financial crisis had faded. 'If you have a period where the economy is doing very well, risky mortgages don’t look risky because they’re not being stressed,' says Joseph Tracy, executive vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. 'But the risk shows up when the economy goes through a period of stress.'"

"That reality has led FHA lenders to grow stricter since the pandemic. 'Credit availability for FHA loans has tightened,' Walsh says. Scott Frame, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, says there’s a good reason that FHA lenders have stopped making loans to the riskiest borrowers: If a homeowner goes into default or forbearance soon after a loan is originated, the lender will have to accept a discount when selling the loan to investors."

"The FHA program also is known for allowing high debt-to-income ratios. A significant minority of FHA borrowers devote more than half their income to debt payments, Tracy and Frame say. All of those factors, combined with this year’s spike in unemployment, set the stage for a potential wave of foreclosures if the U.S. economy continues to struggle. 'This could become a problem,' Tracy says. 'Certainly, the conditions are ripe for a large set of these FHA borrowers.'"

The Denverite in Colorado. "A Denver-based hotline for Coloradans who need rental assistance and other housing help has doubled its staff and is working with new partners to meet needs created by the pandemic. 'Our call volume spiked through the roof in March,' said Patrick Noonan, who manages the Colorado Housing Connects hotline run by the nonprofit Brothers Redevelopment."

"The Colorado state housing division turned to Brothers Redevelopment to start what became Colorado Housing Connects in 2006 in response to what was then a growing foreclosure crisis. The program was expanded to address rental assistance and other housing issues in 2014. As the pandemic hit, Noonan said daily calls to Colorado Housing Connects doubled to about 200 in March. While the pace has slowed somewhat, the hotline has been averaging 3,000 calls a month recently, compared to about 2,000 monthly before the pandemic, Noonan said."

"'We’re hearing from a lot of folks who’ve found themselves unemployed and facing eviction or foreclosure,' Noonan said."