A report from the Boston Globe. "Massachusetts has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, at 11.3 percent. Unemployment in the service sector is higher than in any other job category, and many of the state’s 622,000 service workers are dependent on people returning to the office in order to resume their jobs. Paulina Bastidas used to arrive in the Financial District at 7:45 a.m., along with thousands of other people who streamed into office buildings in downtown Boston every weekday morning. When the pandemic hit, the roughly 500 lawyers and staff who worked in the offices Bastidas cleaned retreated to the safety of their homes."

"Bastidas hasn’t worked in more than six months. And she can’t go back to the WilmerHale offices until the lawyers do. Three years ago, Bastidas had enough saved up for a down payment on a four-bedroom condo she shares with her daughter’s family in Revere. Her son-in-law, who worked at a Boston hotel, also has been laid off for six months, and they are working through the last of their unemployment funds. So far, they’ve kept up on the mortgage, which they split, but Bastidas said the time has come to reach out to lender MassHousing for assistance."

"As the pandemic stretches on, the family’s foothold on the first rung of the economic ladder is becoming increasingly perilous. 'Now the stimulus is gone and my savings are gone,' said Bastidas, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. 'I’m very stressed now, especially about whether or not I’m ever going to return to work.'"

The Boston Herald. "Boston’s apartment vacancy rate remains through the roof, one large local market analyst says, with downtown and the college-heavy areas seeing the most available apartments. The city’s 'real-time vacancy rate' — the number of apartments unoccupied right now — is 8.91%, meaning that more than one in every 12 apartments in the city doesn’t have a renter, according to Boston Pads. The company said the downtown neighborhood has led the way with a vacancy rate more than 27 times higher than last year."

"The tony downtown neighborhood, packed with high-priced condos, was something of a surprise, Demetrios Salpoglou, the CEO of Boston Pads acknowledged. Salpoglou said he hadn’t realized how many of those apartments and condos are owned by companies that used them as shorter-term rentals. 'Those operators, they definitely had no choice but to send it back to the marketplace and rent it in any way shape or form they could' after the market for such places bottomed out under the coronavirus, Salpoglou said."

"'Even during recessions, we haven’t seen the type of incentives that we’ve seen like we’re seeing recently,' Salpoglou said."

From Crain's Chicago Business in Illinois. "The oversupply is basically concentrated in downtown neighborhoods, that are each dense with high-rises and near the scenes of looting on Michigan Avenue and within the Loop. 'River North, Gold Coast, Streeterville—these are probably the most troublesome markets proper now,' says Harry Maisel, an agent representing a unit at 21 E. Huron. Maisel says that he had 'zero showings in eight weeks' earlier than slicing the price on Sept. 27 by a bit of over $69,000, to $829,900. 'extra price cuts are approaching condos,' Maisel says."

From The Real Deal on Florida. "A Brazilian billionaire sold a Venetian Islands waterfront home for $10.2 million, The Real Deal has learned. Cana Brava Delaware LLC bought the 5,782-square-foot house for $12 million in 2015, records show. It was listed in 2018 for $13.5 million, according to Realtor.com. The price dropped multiple times, most recently to $10.9 million in November."

From WJCT in Florida. "St. Augustine operators of short-term rentals like Airbnbs, also called vacation rentals, must now register their properties and pay a fee along with facing zoning regulations that some say will cripple their businesses. Amy and Mason Cardin operate a small Airbnb studio apartment on their property in St. Augustine. 'They [the city of St. Augustine] let people come in and invest. They let young people like me and my family - we really depend on this income - like big time. It pays, you know, pays our living costs. So we're either going to be in a position where we'll have to sell our house, and our house value will be less, because you don't have the potential to make an income off of a studio apartment,' said Mason Cardin."

Cardin estimates there are about 500 small Airbnb owners in the area in a similar situation. WJCT News has not confirmed his estimate. 'We're all going to be out of the rental game here pretty soon,' he said."

From KOAT in New Mexico. "There are three short term rentals in Cindi Maxwell’s neighborhood. And there have been two shootings. 'The blood on the sidewalk, the noise in the street, people screaming and it was all very disruptive to the neighborhood,' Maxwell said. 'This is a neighborhood that is filled with retired individuals and young families. It scares the children, it upsets the senior citizens it is just not beneficial to the neighborhood at all.'"

From Bisnow Washington DC. "The drop in rent collections and leasing demand has created a difficult landscape for D.C. apartment owners this year, and D.C. policies responding to the pandemic appear to be making it more challenging. 'Small landlords are being hurt right now by increased rent delinquencies and higher vacancies because students aren't here, and other people who would be working in D.C. aren't here,' Small Multifamily Owners Association CEO Dean Hunter said. 'They're getting squeezed on both ends. They have tenants not paying rent and units that are vacant.'"

"RealPage Market Analyst Adam Couch said D.C. is typically in the top 10 in apartment demand among the 50 largest Metro areas, but last quarter it was in the bottom 10. He said metro areas with higher-than-average rents have been particularly hurt by the crisis as people have had the flexibility to move to cheaper locations. 'Demand is significantly lower in the D.C. area, that's why rents and occupancy have fallen so much,' Couch said."

"Greysteel Senior Associate Nigel Crayton, an apartment investment sales broker in D.C., said the only sales that have been able to close are for vacant buildings, and the majority of deals remain stuck. 'A lot of deals we're working on have been caught up and owners are upset because they're holding onto an asset that's underperforming, and they can't do anything about it,' Crayton said."

The Saratoga Wire in New York. "During the lockdown period, all hotels were shut as per government orders. And now as things are getting back to normal these hotels are finding it difficult to deal with the loss. Despite being allowed to operate several hotels in NYC have permanently shut down due to massive financial loss. As of now out of approximately 700 hotels in NYC, more than 200 hotels are closed. And we don’t know if they are going to operate again."

"Even the hostels that have decided to operate are facing massive loss due to price drop. NYC’s hotel industry is going through tough times. According to the executive officer of the Hotel Association of NYC, Vijay Dandapani, their hotel occupancy as of now is less than 10%. And this is because of the travel restrictions due to the ongoing pandemic. It has also resulted in heavy price drops. The hotel who used to charge $336 daily is charging just $135 now. Also, due to the cancellation of events in NYC, the hotels are not getting enough customers. Therefore many hotels have decided to shut down their business temporarily once again."

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "As rents continue to fall in San Francisco, the unique incentives to entice new tenants keep on coming. This listing for a unit in the Dogpatch caught our eye this week, offering free rent until 2021. It goes for … drumroll … $3,486/month! Zumper reported the median rent of a two-bedroom in the Dogpatch is $3,973."

From DS News. "Californians continue to feel the economic effects of the pandemic, including its impact on the housing market. The state’s rising unemployment rate along with its competitive and costly housing market has caused a housing crisis throughout the state. A recent study from UC Berkeley reports that nearly half of all Californian households have lost employment income since this March, and over 20% of households report 'no or only slight confidence that they have the ability to pay their mortgage or rent next month.'''

"Californians now find themselves struggling to keep up with their housing payments. Berkeley’s study shows that 14% of renters and 9% of homeowners with a mortgage in California had fallen behind on their housing payments as of August."

"That same month, nearly 18% of homeowners in the state reported that they might have to face foreclosures within the next couple of months. Californian renters are grappling with even greater fears of eviction. In August, 42% of Californian renters reported they were likely to be evicted from their homes in the next couple of months."

"Paying rent and mortgages isn’t the only financial hardship on the minds of Californians right now. Nearly 38% of households that have fallen behind on rent and mortgage payments are also facing credit card and loan debts that they needed to get in order to pay for housing."

"Landlords are also facing the impact of Covid-19, as more than half of all California renters who are behind on paying rent are living in smaller properties with four or fewer units. This puts extra strain on landlords trying to make ends meet while handling smaller properties. In the wake of the pandemic, households are now not only dealing with the loss of employment and housing security--they will also have to confront missed payments in the long run."