A report from Forbes on New York. "'This certainly doesn’t look good,' Victor Rodriguez tells me. Rodriguez is Director of Market Analysts for real estate intelligence firm CoStar Group. 'The problem for New York City’s office and residential markets is that there’s now tons of available space with much more set to arrive over the next five years with all the developments already under construction. To put that into perspective, it took two years after the Great Recession for the market to reach its highest vacancy rate. But because of the ongoing pandemic, it’s only taken only six months this time around to hit maximum vacancy, and New York City hasn't even hit the bottom yet.'"

"Across New York City’s five boroughs, including Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn (Kings County), and Staten Island (Richmond County), the Big Apple is bleeding residents faster than at any time in recent memory, including the Great Recession and post-9/11. Vacancies, listings, and days on market are up. Rents and for-sale prices are down. And moving companies are putting sellers on waiting lists."

'''Stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and its early and devastating impact upon the city, New York’s housing market has experienced a noticeable slowdown in activity across the board,' Realtor.com’s chief economist George Ratiu tells me. 'Our current sales and pricing data show a decline in all five boroughs for both condos and single-family homes. Rents are also sliding and vacancy rates are rising at an increasing rate as the pandemic seems to have no end in sight.'"

"Year over year, Manhattan apartment rent rates are down -10.4% on average, according to Realtor.com. Studios are plummeting, at -15.4% year-over-year. On the sales side, the data are even more bruising. As of September 1, the average median sales price for condos and townhomes in Manhattan year-over-year has decreased -24.3%. Closed sales have dropped -37%, even accounting for the decline in prices."

"Brooklyn’s short-term outlook is even worse. The median sale price year-over-year for condos has fallen -17.9%. Closings are down -53%. Single-family homes have slipped similarly, -13.1% and -29%, respectively. Active for-sale listings across all five boroughs are up 53.2% year-over-year, tracking a similar trend in median days on market, which has nearly doubled in Manhattan to over 100 days and is up 46% in Brooklyn and 34% in Staten Island."

"Exacerbating New York City’s real estate crisis is the broader reality that property flight by definition also inevitably works its way upstream—from renter and owner, to landlord and developer, and eventually to the banks that hold the loans. Thanks to COVID, the alarms bells in New York City are now reaching full pitch at the highest levels."

From ABC Action News on Florida. "A moratorium on foreclosures offers protection to families unable to pay their mortgages because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But I-Team Investigator Kylie McGivern found foreclosure filings are on the rise with Florida currently ranked second in the nation. While some experts say this is different than the Great Recession, others are bracing for another housing crash."

"According to data from RealtyTrac’s parent company, ATTOM Data Solutions, as of September, Florida had the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country behind South Carolina. 'Florida is definitely an outlier. Most states have continued to see foreclosure activity dip. In Florida in July, we saw the numbers go up,' said Rick Sharga, the executive vice president of RealtyTrac, which publishes a nationwide database of foreclosure properties."

"The I-Team reviewed the data for Florida and found that in August, the number of properties subject to a foreclosure filing was 316% higher than in July. In Hillsborough County, during the same time period, foreclosure filings were nearly double that — a 612% increase. 'There are markets like Orlando, which for all intents and purposes could become ‘ground zero’ in this down-cycle, simply because of its extreme dependence on travel and tourism,' Sharga said."

"Sharga pointed to low-interest rates, a limited supply of housing and buyers bidding against each other. What Sharga interpreted as an indication of a strong market, Andrew Lyons saw as a red flag. 'We are on the precipice of a disaster right now,' the New Port Richey foreclosure defense attorney said. 'I’ve been doing this 25 years, I remember this cycle, when you list it and you’re getting offers that day, that’s not sustainable.'"

"Lyons anticipates a flood of foreclosures early next year, once government protections are lifted. 'You’ve got unemployment, which is through the roof,' Lyons said. 'I think there’s a major crash coming.' Lyons said he is seeing the uptick in banks filing for foreclosures. 'The mortgage is the last thing that people stop paying. So it’s a very good indicator, when we see mortgages not being paid, how bad things are,' Lyons said. 'The only thing that could possibly follow from that is a giant wave of foreclosures. The same problem we had in 2007-08 we’re going to have again.'"

"Mary Ellen and Richard DiPietra told the I-Team they don’t want to lose everything, not again. The couple’s St. Pete Beach home went into foreclosure in 2007. 'So many memories,' Mary Ellen told the I-Team, looking at the house she thought would be her forever home. 'We had seen that as our future. We saw grandchildren coming and playing in the pool.'"

"Richard’s nightmares from that time have resurfaced during the pandemic. 'That doesn’t really go away. That’ll always come back,' Richard said. 'It’s just a reel. You know, a reel of things happening to you that you wouldn’t expect would happen and you’re really almost powerless.'"

"For Mary Ellen, there was a feeling of déjà vu, she said. In the beginning of the shutdowns, the food pantries the couple relied on through local churches temporarily shut down. Then, the couple’s homeowner's insurance threatened to cancel due to a damaged roof. Expenses quickly mounted on the DiPietras’ fixed income. In order to make sure she had money for food, 'I immediately put my mortgage in forbearance,”' Mary Ellen said. Millions of Americans did the same."

From Multi-Housing News. "Prior to the pandemic, the thought of eliminating vacancy decontrol—the ability for landlords to rent a vacant unit at market rate—would have been deemed as reckless government overreach by most reasonable people. Since the pandemic, however, an increasing number of cities throughout the country are seriously considering the idea of vacancy control—which would restrict the amount that landlords may charge tenants when a unit becomes vacant. California has a ballot measure that voters will decide on next week that would allow for vacancy control. And what happens in California could eventually happen everywhere else."

"So if vacancy control is implemented in major cities throughout the country, what would it mean for the multifamily industry? The answer is very simple—the value of many buildings would decrease dramatically overnight."

"One of the main reasons investors buy apartments is to bring rents to market rates by renovating units and upgrading the condition of the building, thereby increasing its value and overall cash flow. The opportunity to add value would disappear should vacancy control be implemented. Why would owners want to invest in upgrades if there is little or no upside?"

The Seattle Times in Washington. "A rift is emerging in the Seattle-area apartment market, the result of the very different pandemic realities for the city’s wealthy and less-wealthy residents. Plummeting demand for luxury, city-center living has led high-end apartments to slash rents and offer gangbuster deals to lure new tenants. Meanwhile, rents in less-expensive markets have stayed flat or even ticked up since March as remote workers seek more space — and many laid off due to the pandemic migrate out of the city to cut costs."

"Rents in Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond, the area’s most expensive markets, where two-bedroom apartments typically lease for between $1,850 and $2,130, have fallen by as much at 14% since the start of the pandemic, according to ApartmentList. This month Seattle rents dropped 4.2% from September, marking the seventh straight month the city has seen rent decreases."

"The actual price drops, though, are likely even steeper. The ApartmentList data doesn’t factor in lease concessions like months of free rent, parking fee waivers or cashback deals — incentives that are now common among the Seattle area’s glassy, top-tier apartment complexes wooing new tenants. More than 70% of large Seattle-area apartments built after 2017 — which tend to be concentrated in urban cores and packed with amenities — are offering lease deals equivalent to more than one month of free rent, on average, according to CoStar."

"The last time area landlords dangled so many freebies in front of renters was in 2018, when a burst of new construction led to an apartment glut, causing vacancy rates to top 14% in South Lake Union. The local developments mirror nationwide trends of rents falling fastest in pricey coastal cities, according to ApartmentList, especially those — like Seattle, San Francisco and New York."

From Bisnow on Illinois. "'Single-tenant office buildings in Fulton Market are still selling for big money, but a luxury apartment building in the neighborhood got snapped up at a discount. Chicago-based investor Dwelle acquired the 72-unit 1247-1249 West Madison St. for $32.8M, or about $405 per SF, according to company officials. They couldn’t resist the price. 'It’s a COVID-19-era deal,' Dwelle Managing Principal Drew Breneman said. 'The going-in cap rate is higher than anything we’ve come across in years of comparable size and quality. We like the price per pound we are getting here, too.'"

"Even though most of the property’s tenants’ incomes have not been hurt by the pandemic, he added, the per SF price is 20% lower than what the Monroe Aberdeen apartment building around the corner at 1050 West Monroe St. sold for in March."

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. "Even with the stronger third quarter leasing, average asking apartment rents in North Texas are off about 1% his year. That’s better than in Austin, where rents are down 5% percent, or Houston with its 3% decline in apartment rents. 'We think the rents will be basically flat in D-FW and San Antonio, with a little bit more rent loss in Houston,' said Greg Willett, chief economist for Richardson-based RealPage."

"'D-FW has one of the strongest occupancies,' Willett said. 'To the degree there is a struggle it is in the Class A units, partially because we continue to deliver new supply.' North Texas has led the country in apartment building for several years. 'We love to build in Texas,' Willett said. 'D-FW has the most product on the way any where across the country. We’ve got about 40,000 units still under construction that will deliver over the next 18 to 24 months.'"

"'It was really those Sun Belt markets that led the way back. You still have massive move outs in metro New York and metro San Francisco,' he said."

From Palm Springs Life in California. "There is only so much inventory to go around for buyers and real estate agent Brady Sandahl says it is 'literally drying up,' in the valley. The solution would seem to be to build more housing, but the cost of land has risen coupled with all of the steps necessary to have a major development approved makes builders less likely to invest at this point. 'You can’t really build for the market you’re in,' Sandahl says, 'hoping the market will be around in three or four years.'"

"On the commercial side, Michael Meade of Wilson Meade Commercial Real Estate says the vacancy rate may rise a point a two to 10 or 11 percent, but he expects it to stabilize despite the impact on businesses that have had to close due to navigating restrictions from Riverside County health officials. 'We should be in the 6 to 7 percent vacancy factor for the Coachella Valley,' Meade says. 'And we just didn’t get there since our last recession (in 2008). And so this pandemic is going to delay that and it could delay it for quite some time, but again, I don’t think its going to be as bad, in office space, as it will be in some other segments of commercial real estate.'"

From Realtor.com. "New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is looking to pass his townhome in Princeville, HI, to a buyer for $2.05 million. Purchased in 2007 for $2.26 million, the condo on the lush island of Kauai offers three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms spread across 2,864 square feet. Brees also owned another condo in Kauai, which he listed in 2015 for $1.75 million, the Los Angeles Times reported. The NFL star purchased the place in 2006 for the slightly higher price of $1.76 million."