A report from Mortgage News Daily. "Black Knight says condos have seen a large increase in availability. This is especially apparent in some of those very cities, such as San Francisco, that homeowners are leaving in droves. While delinquencies spiked among all housing types in the spring, the gain among condos was more pronounced than for single-family units and the company says the migration away from city centers and the increased inventory of condos and townhomes was probably responsible. However, the delinquency rate for condos is still much lower (4.7 percent in October) than for single families at 6.81 percent. Two-to-four units properties have the highest rate at 9.06 percent, most likely because homeowners are having difficulties with financially distressed tenants."

From DS News. "Foreclosure moratoria and forbearance programs eventually will come to an end, which could result in a foreclosure surge, say sources at Redfin. The Redfin study showed that 3.8% of homeowners nationwide fear foreclosure whereas some 13.5 % are delinquent on mortgage payments."

"'In my experience selling foreclosed properties, some people don’t take advantage of forbearance because they aren’t educated on what it entails,' said Redfin agent Gina Sapnar. 'There are people who are in forbearance who don’t understand how repayment works. For some people payments are tacked on to the end of the loan, but for others it may be a large payment due immediately at the end of forbearance as a lump sum, which could be very tough for people to repay. Some homeowners are underwater because they took on more debt than they could handle. I know of a restaurant owner who took equity out of his home to pay his workers during the pandemic. There are people suffering who have depleted their entire life savings, are drowning in debt and they aren’t paying their mortgages. But even those people have options.'"

From Housing Wire. "Mr. Cooper, the nation’s largest nonbank servicer of mortgage loans, will refund customers nearly $90 million and pay a civil penalty of more than $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it violated the rights of over 115,000 customers, some of whom it had illegally foreclosed on. When Mr. Cooper – then known as Nationstar – bought thousands of mortgages through MSR bulk purchases, it frequently failed to identify loans with existing modifications, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."

"Mr. Cooper services over 3 million mortgages in the U.S., with a total of over $500 billion in unpaid balance."

The Real Deal on New York. "If you think the interest charges on your loans are bad, try racking up fees of $17,000 per day. That’s what developer Levi Balkany of Happy Living Development is facing after allegedly defaulting on a $26 million loan for a 46-unit condo building in Harlem. An entity associated with lender Arena Investors filed a motion in New York State Supreme Court last week calling for summary judgment against Balkany, who personally guaranteed the loan last year."

"According to court records, the lender issued the $26 million loan to refinance an existing construction loan and finish work on the project at 308-310 West 133rd Street. A short time later, the developer defaulted and 'refused to make the required payments,' per the lawsuit. The lender is now calling for all principal, interest and fees owed under the loan to be paid back, totaling $35.7 million, with interest accruing at a rate of $17,333 per day."

"Balkany contacted Don Moses, Arena’s managing director of real estate, about renting the units in the building, but the lender refused. 'If you let me rent it and get the tax abatement, we can be in a much better position to sell,' Balkany wrote in an email to Moses. 'Don’t you understand an empty building is a disaster?'"

"While many lenders have been working with distressed developers over the past year, some are now taking a more hard-line stance as talks break down. In the past month, mezzanine lenders on Wonder Works’ Vitre condo on the Upper East Side and on four of HFZ’s Manhattan condos have commenced UCC foreclosure proceedings, with both developers condemning the actions as predatory ploys to take over their buildings."

"'I am trying everything and anything,' Balkany said in his email to Moses. 'I went to a bunch of bunch of veterans in the business who told me to wait and you will take much less in a few months. Basically no one is writing me a check.'"

From CNBC on New York. "The seller of a luxury condo apartment on Manhattan's Billionaires' Row took a loss of at least $12 million to offload the property, according to public filings. The 4,500-square-foot condo at 157 W. 57th St., or One57, went into contract last week after being listed for $22.5 million, according the Olshan Luxury Market Report, which tracks Manhattan sales contracts. The purchase price is unknown, and brokers declined to comment on price or the identity of the buyers or sellers."

"The apartment was purchased by the seller in 2014, at the peak of the Manhattan real estate craze, for $34 million. Assuming that it sold for below the listing price — which is likely in the current market — the seller took a loss of about $12 million or more. 'This is the best buyer's market I've seen,' said broker Ryan Serhant, who advised the buyers. 'The smart purchasers are taking advantage.'"

"Even before the pandemic, One57's fortunes were turning. An even taller condo tower was rising next door and there was a glut of new condo apartments in midtown. State and local tax changes in 2017 made things even worse. Resale prices at One57 began to slide. Then came the coronavirus pandemic, and New York City residents moved to the suburbs. Apartment sales in Manhattan fell 46% in the third quarter, with average prices dropping anywhere between 5% and 10%."

"An apartment on the 88th floor sold in May for $28 million, which was $19 million less than the seller paid in 2014."

From Socket Site in California. "Measuring nearly 2,700 square feet, the three-bedroom unit #32B near the top of the Lumina tower at 201 Folsom Street was priced by the sale office at $5.385 million in mid-2017 and ended up selling for $5.25 million in August of 2018. The 'premier' unit returned to the market this past May priced at $5.595 million. Reduced to $5.395 million in July, dropped to $4.7999 million in September and then further reduced to $4.4999 million in October, the resale of 201 Folsom Street #32B now closed escrow with a contract price of $4.2 million or roughly $1,565 per square foot."

"The unit’s HOA dues, which include valet parking in the building’s garage, are currently running $1,461 per month. And while $1,565 per square foot certainly isn’t 'cheap,' it was 20 percent cheaper on an apples-to-apples basis than in August of 2018 (while the index for Bay Area condo values is only down 2.7 percent over the same period of time and 'median sale prices' are up)."

From WAMU on Washington DC. "The prices for rental apartments are falling in nearly every corner of the city. The drop is driven primarily by price reductions in 'Class A' apartments — newly-built units that have more luxurious amenities: Think buildings like The Apollo on H St. NE, or The Hepburn in Kalorama. As of October, the average rent for apartments like these dropped from $2,669 to $2,387 per month. Certain neighborhoods have seen striking drops in Class A rental prices, according to Delta Associates."

"Shaw, for example, has seen an average 16.2% drop in rental prices, while neighboring Dupont and Logan Circle saw a roughly 10.6% drop. The Southwest Waterfront and Navy Yard neighborhoods have also been particularly affected, with 12.8% and 11.9% drops, respectively. The vacancy rate in Southwest, for example, is near 12%, while Capitol Riverfront/Navy Yard is about 9%, per Delta Associates. (One exception is Shaw –– even though it has seen a staggering 16.2% drop in rent prices, it has a vacancy rate of only 5.7%, which is higher than the city’s average but lower than many other neighborhoods.)"

"'In most of the neighborhoods that we track, rents are down in the double digits,' says William Rich, president of Delta Associates, which surveyed a sample of 37,000 Class A apartments in the third quarter of 2020. 'There are a few exceptions — upper Northwest, for example, rents there decreased [by 3.6%]. Also, in the Northeast, part of the District’s rents decreased by 8.8%, which is still a significant decrease, but not as significant as we found in other submarkets.'"

"Stephanie Bastek, an organizer with tenant advocacy group Stomp Out Slumlords, says organizers have frequently come across buildings whose managers are offering one to three months’ worth of free rent to new tenants without offering any rent forgiveness to current residents, many of whom are struggling to pay in the face of pandemic-related job instability. 'Thus far the effect on current tenants is mostly to enrage them,' Bastek says, 'not offer less rent at all.'"

From Hawaii News Now. "The median price of a single-family on Oahu rose in November as prospective homebuyers offered over asking price in nearly half of transactions. 'They’re not buying toilet paper anymore, they’re buying houses,' said Hazel Unciano, a Locations real estate broker."

"Eathan Ozawa with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Advantage Realty said the entire year has been unpredictable and he’s unsure what 2021 will bring. 'You would think it would drop the market, but it didn’t,' Ozawa said. 'If renters aren’t able to pay their rent, and landlords aren’t able to make their mortgage payments, how is all that going to unfold when the moratorium is done?'"