A report from People Magazine. "San Francisco has seen a massive drop in apartment rental prices, a new report shows. Many other big cities across the country are seeing similar trends. According to Bloomberg, studio rents in Manhattan fell 15 percent to 2,495. Likewise, in Seattle, prices for a studio dropped 12 percent to $1,490. Median rent prices for studios in the Bay Area dropped 31 percent year-over-year to $2,285, according to the report. One-bedroom prices fell 24.2 percent to $2,873, while two-bedrooms declined 21.3 percent to $3,931."

From Multi-Housing News. "Most multifamily loans are prudently underwritten and are performing well, but cracks are starting to appear in properties in Gateway markets that were stable pre-COVID-19, according to an analysis of properties in Yardi Matrix’s database. The analysis—which encompassed more than 41,000 multifamily properties—found that the median debt-service coverage ratio (DSCR) for loans backed by multifamily properties as of August was more than 1.54, which means net income is about 54 percent more than the mortgage payments."

"However, the proportion of properties with weaker DSCR and LTV metrics has grown in Class A properties in Gateway metros. The study found that just over a quarter (26 percent) of such properties had DSCRs of under 1.0 as of August, which means the net income is less than the mortgage payments. That’s about double the average for all properties in the study. The percentage of loans with a DSCR under 1.0 was 12.4 percent for Class B and C properties in Gateway areas, 12.5 percent for properties in Secondary markets and 11.4 percent in Tertiary markets."

From Connect Media. "To cut a long story short, 2020 got in the way of what market participants anticipated in January would be a record year for commercial/multifamily originations.The Mortgage Bankers Association publication recently interviewed senior professionals from a credit rating agency and highly rated servicers to get their perspective on forbearance, loan workouts and portfolio management challenges for agency and non-agency CMBS amid a very changed environment."

"Alex Killick, head of CWCapital’s special servicing business: 'While we have dealt with abandoned or closed assets in the past, it has never been this widespread.' Gina Sullivan, SVP of KeyBank Real Estate capital’s loan servicing and asset management division: 'Unfortunately, the pandemic spared no geographic location or property. Most properties, regardless of type, were impacted in some way. Beginning in March, we started to receive a high volume of debt relief and loan modification inquiries.'"

"Adam Fox, senior director in Fitch Ratings’ U.S. CMBS group: 'Beginning in March all servicers began to see a large influx of requests from borrowers for debt relief across all lending products. North American servicers responded by reallocating existing staff and, to a lesser extent, hiring new staff to increase resources to customer service to deal with the record levels of increased requests.'"

From Boston.com in Massachusetts. "Higher-than-usual apartment vacancy rates in some of Boston’s hottest neighborhoods have the city in a rare renter’s market. Neighborhoods with vacancy rates above 10 percent include downtown, Back Bay, the South End, the Seaport, South Boston, and Cambridge’s Alewife neighborhood. Rent concessions and incentives like landlord-paid broker fees aim to stimulate demand in a soft housing market. That is particularly true during a global pandemic, when college students, the source of much of Boston’s apartment demand, are learning remotely."

From Banker and Tradesman in Massachusetts. "Even though a number of new buildings are rising around Boston and a flurry of applications for more has begun to blanket local planning officials, signs abound that the commercial real estate industry could be in for a rough patch. New office leases are essentially at a standstill, and new luxury apartment projects around Boston are offering all manner of incentives to try and fill units that are suddenly not moving thanks to the coronavirus."

From Bisnow New York. "Asking rents in some of the world’s most famous retail high streets have seen stunning drops in the last few months, as landlords begin bending over backward to fill space. There is no doubt a major reset that was already in motion is accelerating. Silver Eagle Advisors co-founder Wendy Silverstein, who has worked at Citibank, Vornado, New York REIT and WeWork, described retail as 'clearly' distressed."

"There's been very little price discovery to what the 'new value' is of some of these properties,' she said. 'High street retail rents [in Manhattan] were so ridiculously high, they weren't sustainable, even when the market was good … The rents have just got to be a fraction of what they are so businesses feel safe to take the risk opening up.'"

The Real Deal on New York. "In a sign of deepening trouble for a problematic condo project, the funding agreement for Manhattan’s so-called Leaning Tower of Seaport has fallen apart. Fortis Property Group’s unfinished 60-story luxury building at 161 Maiden Lane has been besieged by construction delays and litigation for years. And now its lenders have stopped funding its construction loan. This month a lender group led by Bank Leumi USA claimed that the project’s construction loan it originated in 2016 is now delinquent. It tapped the brokerage Newmark Knight Frank to sell the $120 million loan."

"Bank Leumi claimed that the project’s inability to receive the certificate has made it difficult to sell units in the project. At one point, buyers had signed contracts for 71 of 99 units, but because of the delays, all but eight have been rescinded, according to the Bank Leumi USA’s motion to dismiss."

The Real Deal on Florida. "Wilmington Trust is suing a joint venture between Simon Property Group and Hudson’s Bay Company for allegedly failing to make mortgage payments. Ten Saks Fifth Avenue and 24 Lord & Taylor locations are named in the lawsuit, which was filed earlier this month in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The lawsuit alleges that the borrowers have not made any payments since March. Wilmington, which filed the complaint as part of a commercial mortgage-backed securities trust, is suing Saks Dadeland Leasehold LLC, which leases the Saks Fifth Avenue at Dadeland Mall in Miami."

From Socket Site in California. "In addition to 5.6 million square feet of directly vacant, un-leased office space spread across the city, which is up from around 3.7 million square feet of un-leased space at the same time last year, there is now 6.2 million square feet of office space in San Francisco which has been leased but is sitting vacant and actively seeking a subletter, which is up from 770,000 square feet of sublettable space at the same time last year, according to Cushman & Wakefield."

"As such, there is now 11.8 million square feet of vacant office space spread across San Francisco for a citywide vacancy rate of 14.1 percent, which is up from an office vacancy rate of 9.8 percent at the end of the second quarter and versus a vacancy rate of 5.5 percent, representing 4.5 million square feet of vacant space, at the same time last year. At the same time, leasing activity over the past two quarters hit at a 30-year low, with only 385,000 square feet of leasing activity in the third quarter, versus a post DotCom-era nadir of 933,000 square feet in the second quarter of 2001, and with roughly 3.1 million square feet of office space now under construction as well."

The Los Angeles Times in California. "The impact of COVID-19 reverberated through the Los Angeles County office market in the third quarter. Office occupancy fell by 2.7 million square feet, a worsening of conditions in the second quarter when occupancy fell by 1.9 million square feet, real estate brokerage CBRE said. The weak third-quarter leasing was roughly in line with the drop in occupancy seen in early 2009, the worst quarter for the market in the Great Recession. Overall vacancy climbed to 15% in the third quarter, up from 13.7% in the previous quarter and 12.6% in the same period a year earlier."

"'Leasing activity is well below pre-COVID levels,' CBRE broker Todd Doney said. 'A big majority of deals getting done are short-term lease renewals, sort of kicking the can down the road.'"

"The market has also seen a burst of sublease space offered by tenants looking for some income by renting out space they’re paying for but not using, a common occurrence in a struggling economy. About 2 million square feet of sublease space has hit the L.A. market since the pandemic started, Doney said. 'Landlords are starting to get aggressive' on concessions to tenants, Doney said."

"One tenant well aware of that trend is Michael Pollack, vice president of real estate for Premier Workspaces. The Irvine-based company occupies about 2 million square feet in 93 locations in several states, providing co-working offices and executive suites. 'Right now, we are not looking to sign any new leases anywhere in the country,' Pollack said. 'We think rental rates will be going down.'"

"Pollack predicts that landlords will have to get more generous by the first quarter of next year as the economic downturn grinds on. 'At a minimum, concessions are going to go way up,' he said."

The Culver City Observer in California. "Have you noticed more lawn signs than last year advertising apartments for rent? Well, you could be seeing a trend. Santa Monica rents have decreased over 10% since the coronavirus lockdown began on March 19, 2020, according to Insurify. 'A recent study found that over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, California cities experienced some of the greatest drops in rent prices in the nation,' wrote Emily Leff, a spokesman for Insurify. 'Between March and September of 2020, Santa Monica's rents decreased by 10.3% (it is 15th on the list of 20 cities with the greatest rent reductions during the pandemic). As of September 2020, the average cost of rent for a 2-Bedroom unit in Santa Monica is $2,432. The year over year change in rent (from 2019-2020) is -11.1%.'"

The Oregonian. "The cost of renting an apartment in Portland is falling, reversing years of steady increases and outpacing declines in most other cities. 'Portland’s year-over-year rent drop is actually quite high,' Rob Warnock, research associate at Apartment List said. 'Seattle, Washington D.C., Oakland and Minneapolis are relatively similar sizes and have relatively similar price drops, but the majority of cities have I think more stable rents than we’re seeing in Portland.'"

"'The huge declines that we’re seeing are really concentrated in the markets that are the most undersupplied and the most overpriced historically,' Warnock said. 'I don’t think it’s a coincidence that San Francisco and New York are the two most expensive markets and are also seeing the two most dramatic decreases in rent right now.'"

From Culture Map Austin in Texas. "The median one-bedroom rent in Texas was $1,054 in January. It fell to $1,005 in October, a significant 4.7 percent decrease. Two-bedroom units that began 2020 at a median $1,306 dropped 2.3 percent to $1,276 in October. The declines in Texas can be attributed, at least in part, to oil prices, notes Abodo. Abodo recently explained the depth of the West Texas oil bust in terms of lodging prices: 'During the recent oil boom, motel prices — even for budget brands like Motel 6 — were commonly listed $350 per night or more. Now, rooms are available for about $50.'"

"The cost of oil and other challenges in apartment leasing amid the pandemic have impacted Texas rent prices, and Abodo expects statewide rents to stay at their current levels or decrease slightly as we head into 2021. The Austin market is falling right in line with Texas' downward trend. Abodo attributes the 'slight weakness' in Austin rents to the general economic slowdown, as well as a lack of renewed interest in living downtown."

From Huffington Post Canada. "With the COVID-19 pandemic severely reducing the demand for rental housing in cities, and all but killing off Airbnb rentals, Toronto’s supply of condos for sale has shot up to record highs over the past few months. The number of resale condos available in the City of Toronto more than quadrupled from around 1,500 before the pandemic to 6,455 in mid-October, the highest number ever recorded in the market. It has been climbing steeply upward from week to week."

"'I don’t know when this is going to stop. As long as it keeps going up, things are going to keep softening,' said Scott Ingram, a Toronto real estate agent."

"And that doesn’t include newly-built condos, which are set to hit the market in record numbers over the next few years. The area has had a record of nearly 80,000 condo units under construction over the past year, according to Urbanation. Toronto had more cranes in the sky in the third quarter of this year than New York, L.A., Chicago and San Francisco combined, according to a recent survey. Toronto isn’t the only place where the supply of condos is soaring, though other cities aren’t seeing it to the same extent. Vancouver’s active listings were up 44 per cent in September, compared to a year earlier."

"Re/Max declared that Toronto 'condo prices, as well as rents, are expected to decline in the coming months.' It pointed the finger at the 'collapse' of the Airbnb market, which has convinced many owners to either sell their units or rent them out in the long-term rental market ― where rents have been falling precipitously in recent months in many large cities in Canada."

"'Rental rates falling are a major reason why supply is growing,' Ingram told HuffPost Canada. 'You’ve got some investors cashing out, and to double down, you’ve got fewer investors who’ve been snapping these things up.' Ingram noted that, in recent years, many condo investors accepted negative cash flow (rents that didn’t cover their costs) because they expected price appreciation on their condos. Now many are beginning to realize that might not happen."

"'Now that price appreciation isn’t there it’s a different ballgame,' he said. '(Investors are) saying, ‘Oh wait a sec, there’s some risk in there.’… The risk is up in peoples’ faces a lot more now.'"

From Domain News in Australia. "Apartment rents in one of Sydney’s most sought-after inner-city areas have plummeted by nearly 27 per cent over the past year in a massive windfall for tenants seeking homes that were previously out of their budget. The weekly unit rent in Millers Point has dropped by 26.9 per cent to a new median of $708, the biggest fall of all the reductions mainly hitting apartments in the city and eastern suburbs, according to the Domain Rent Report."

"'I am lucky enough to have a very, very compassionate landlord,' said award-winning wedding photographer John Laham, 67, who rents an apartment in the prestigious Highgate building in Millers Point in the northern CBD. 'He agreed to give me a great reduction where my rent almost halved until things pick up.'"

"At the same time, many of the old terraces in the suburb that were converted into apartments for short-term lets for tourists are now back in the residential pool, says John McInerney, the past president of the Millers Point Residents Action Group. 'That’s been the biggest change, so rents have fallen with a lot more supply when before they’d priced out the long-term residents,' he said."

"Malabar, in the east, is another suburb where house rents, this time, have dropped by 20.8 per cent to $950, while Pyrmont house rents are down by 16.5 per cent to $710 and unit rents by 15.1 per cent to $620. Meanwhile, Haymarket units are down 15.2 per cent to $700, units in The Rocks by 15 per cent to $850, and those in the city of Sydney by 14.7 per cent to $640."

"Unit rents in other areas beyond the city and east have been hit too as tenants relocate to houses, taking advantage of cheaper rents, according to Domain senior research analyst Dr Nicola Powell. Apartment rents have dropped by 18.2 per cent in Bass Hill for instance, 17.3 per cent in Dundas Valley on the Upper North Shore and 14.3 per cent in Tempe in the inner west."