A report from the Herald Tribune in Florida. "The good news: foreclosure activity has fallen to historic low levels in the Sarasota-Manatee region. The bad: more local homeowners are falling behind on their mortgage payments, a troubling sign that foreclosure rates could head up in the months ahead. Some experts believe foreclosure filings may soon explode. The 30-day delinquency rate for local mortgage payments has more than doubled in the past year, jumping from 2.6% to 5.8% in July, real estate database CoreLogic reported. The 'serious' delinquency rate – payments at least 90 days past due – is up from 1.0% to 3.8% in the past year."

"All states logged annual increases in overall and serious delinquency rates. COVID-19 hotspots were again impacted the most, with Florida posting the fourth-highest gain. 'Given the unsteadiness of the job market, many homeowners are beginning to feel the compounding pressures of unstable income and debt on personal savings buffers, creating heightened risk of falling behind on their mortgages,' said Frank Martell, president/CEO of CoreLogic."

The Boston Herald in Massachusetts. "Paulette Houston, landlord, Roxbury, 66, said her tenants of two years were already two months behind on rent when the pandemic struck and are now more than $12,000 in arrears. 'I’m at the point where I don’t know what to do,' Houston said. She has been forced to dip into her retirement account to cover the costs. She feels small landlords like her have been 'forgotten' by an eviction moratorium she says she was originally in favor of, but said tenants have 'learned to take advantage of.'"

"Houston said she doesn’t want to evict the family that lives in her three-bedroom apartment, but worries she 'won’t have enough money … to have a comfortable old age' as her savings keep going down."

"Leo Sheehan, landlord, Falmouth, 63, will be at Housing Court when 'the doors open' on Monday to move forward with evicting the sole tenant in his New Bedford condominium — a first for the landlord of nearly 30 years. The retired father of two had plans to sell his longtime rental property of 15 years even before the pandemic to help his son cover the cost of law school. His tenant of three years stopped paying the $800 rent and has 'ignored all communication' since the state enacted an eviction and foreclosure moratorium in April. She owes $5,600."

"'It’s not about the money. I’m a good guy. I pay my bills. I try to do the right thing, why should I be suffering for someone who is gaming the system?' he asked."

From The City on New York. "Mom-and-pop landlords across the city say they are reaching a breaking point, after half a year with many tenants paying no rent at all as pandemic-related unemployment has swelled. And they’re backing aid for tenants, which could also help them weather the ongoing crisis. On Friday, small landlords, many of them immigrants, rallied in pouring rain at City Hall, pleading for relief that will aid tenants — and by extension allow building owners to pay mounting mortgage, tax and utility bills."

"Landlords pleaded for property tax relief, beyond the state’s action to delay the sale of tax debts from property owners already in default before the pandemic. Some held signs in Chinese and English that said 'Expedite Housing Court Cases' — a reference to a statewide eviction moratorium that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has extended until Jan. 1."

"'A lot of people are dipping into their savings,' said Joanna Wong of the Small Property Owners of New York, a nonprofit representing mom-and-pop landlords. 'A lot of people are taking loans out. A lot of people are just deferring their mortgage.'"

"Nick Schmitt, a program director for New York Peace Institute, which is providing free mediation services through the project in Brooklyn and Manhattan, said both sides are encouraged to share their perspective and financial realities, which reveals how interconnected they are by the economic crisis. 'In the past, we’ve had landlords share that they had to completely wipe out their 401K in order to cover the mortgage while tenants haven’t been paying,' Schmitt said. 'They have no retirement fund left. They’ve basically sacrificed their entire future in order to help the tenants stay in the apartment … and that impacts people.'"

From Bisnow New York. "Avison Young Tri-State Investment Sales Group Head James Nelson discusses the strained investment sales market in New York City. There is activity, James says, and his team recently picked up 20 new listings. 'Half of those owners are clients that have owned their properties for more than 20 years, and this is a phenomenon that I did not see back in the last correction — where long-term owners were saying, ‘you know what, I’ve seen enough, I’m outta here,' he said. 'I think we can all agree this is not going to fix itself overnight, and a lot of our clients are saying, ‘I don’t have another cycle in me.’"

The Press Democrat in California. "For Keith Becker, owner of DeDe’s Rentals, one of the region’s largest property management firms, this is the most complicated time in 26 years in the business. Apart from property foreclosure protections, there has been little support for landlords, Becker said. They’ve been forced to absorb thousands of dollars of short-term losses with little recourse, and navigate constant changes to laws and regulations. He disputed the scale of the evictions taking place across the county. Of his roughly 480 occupied properties, which cover a broad range of income levels, 11 households are struggling because of the pandemic, Becker said."

"'I have tenants who are suffering and been genuinely impacted, but I also have tenants who are playing games with me,' he said."

From Cal Matters in California. "In the Bay Area, what used to be the packed parking lot of the San Francisco Giants is now a makeshift drive-thru food pantry. Collective food fridges popped up in front of Oakland houses so the hungry could eat. One in four Californians have filed for unemployment since March, and the state’s unemployment rate in August was still three points higher than the rest of the country, with 11.4% percent, according to the state Employment Development Department."

"Sarah Rivas was barely making rent since she moved to the city of Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley. Then, three months into the pandemic, she woke up to an email from her school announcing a nearly 7% cut in teachers’ pay, and she gave up a three-year battle. 'I moved into my parent’s house,' said Rivas, who’s been teaching her class of twelfth graders from Sacramento, three hours from their high school. 'Not what every 26-year-old wants to do.'"

"Rivas makes above the median household income in the U.S. and hasn’t lost her job due to pandemic closures. Yet her inability to financially survive the pandemic is the manifestation of a foundational economic fracture between California’s haves and have-nots. And for many middle-income workers, the pandemic marked the end of 'barely making it.'"

"She isn’t the only one struggling: one Mill Valley high school teacher, who asked not to be identified, described contemplating sex work to fill the gaps left by her roughly $65,000 salary. Others switched to gig or low wage work. Experts worry that, on top of increased distress for the poor, the state’s already-shrinking middle class is taking a hard hit too."

From Bloomberg. "The Federal Reserve and other central banks will eventually discover that breaking up isn’t easy after partnering with their governments and the financial markets to avert a pandemic-driven depression. Investors and lawmakers enamored with cheap money may well balk when monetary authorities try to throttle back their quantitative easing and other stimulus measures."

"'They are increasingly on what I call a no-exit paradigm,' Allianz SE chief economic adviser and Bloomberg Opinion columnist Mohamed El-Erian said on a panel discussion last week."

"The trouble may start after a virus vaccine is approved and distributed and the U.S. and world economies begin to return to normal. If the Fed and other central banks are constrained from scaling back emergency stimulus at that point, the continued flood of liquidity could spur asset bubbles and even too-rapid inflation."

"The big debts that governments are racking up are 'going to make it difficult for central banks to raise rates when they feel the need to do so' because that will increase borrowing costs, said former Fed Governor Randall Kroszner."

"Former Bank of England policy maker Paul Tucker agreed that the financial markets have come to expect periodic support from central banks after years in which monetary policy makers effectively delivered just that. 'I wait, longing for a central banker to do for financial stability what Paul Volcker did for inflation, which is to break that psychology that you, the capitalist markets, are actually utterly dependent on the Federal Reserve and other central banks, propping up prices come what may,' Tucker said."