A report from the Real Deal on Florida. "Former hedge fund manager Jim Pulaski bought a unit at Apogee in South Beach after selling his waterfront North Bay Road mansion. Property records show G Sofi Investments LLC, sold the four-bedroom, 4,154-square-foot at 800 South Pointe Drive for $12.2 million. Pulaski, who was previously a commodity trading portfolio manager at Tudor Investment Corp., paid a total of $14 million for unit 2004."

From Sinclair News. "Richard Brown is a landlord of several properties in Winchester, Virginia, mostly small, single-family homes. In August, Brown found himself having to pay the mortgages on his properties as well as maintenance and utilities while income from his tenants was dropping due to the pandemic. One of Brown's tenants hadn't paid him in months and owed close to $10,000 in back rent and he feared he would fall behind in his mortgage payments and lose his other properties."

"'They're never going to be able to collect on it and everyone knows that,' said Caleb Kruckenberg, a litigation counsel, noting none of his clients qualify for federal mortgage forbearance or other coronavirus relief. 'A lot of landlords are small mom and pops. They pay mortgages on these properties and if they don't get rent, they can't pay the mortgage.'"

From CBS Boston in Massachusetts. "Krista Cornchuck never thought searching for an apartment in Boston would be so much fun. 'This is amazing,' she said walking into an apartment at 30 Dalton Street with a massive window and a panoramic view of Boston’s Back Bay. Krista moved out of the city a few years ago to escape the steep downtown rents, but she is now looking at places that are hundreds of dollars below her budget. 'Which is pretty incredible compared to what it was a year ago,' she said."

"'We are seeing a lot of incentives,' said Krista’s Realtor Jacob Coro. 'One, Two, sometimes even three months free rent right off the top. ''It’s unlike any market we’ve seen before,' said Demetrios Salpaglou of Boston Pads, a real estate company that tracks vacancies across Boston. His data shows that back in the fall of 2019 Boston had about 1,200 apartments available. Right now there are about 5,500, which is great news for renters."

From CBS San Francisco in California. "Tenants living in so-called affordable housing units are now in many cases paying more than their market-rate neighbors. These affordable units are not tied to the traditional real estate market fluctuations and hopeful tenants like Christine McDow say they should be. 'I’m going to be working at a consulting non-profit and the financial district,' McDow said. While searching the city’s website she realized some of the affordable housing units are more expensive than some market rate units. 'I think the furnished one bedroom was actually cheaper than the unfurnished one,' McDow said."

"According to Apartment List rents in San Francisco are down 27% since the start of the pandemic. A one-bedroom used to average $3,500 a month; now it’s down to $1,983. Below Market Rate (BMR) units haven’t seen rent drops; in fact, in Dave Osgood’s building they’re seeing rent increases. There are 76 below market rate units in the Rincon tower, Osgood says all year he’s seen people move out as cheaper market rate units become available. 'There may be as many as 20% of them empty,' Osgood said."

"Studios on the city’s Dahlia website range from nearly $1,200 a month to more than $1,700 a month. One bedrooms can go as high as $2,800 a month. At the Avalon on King Street BMR tenants are locked into one bedroom leases at more than $2,700 a month, but now in that same building a market rate unit of the same size rents for less. The city’s affordable housing portal is filled with units that are more expensive than similar market rate units."

The Real Deal on New York. "The Musso Group is looking to sell its four-building multifamily portfolio in Briarwood, Queens, with an asking price of $99 million. The Long Island real estate firm bought a pair of apartment buildings at 80-08 and 81-10 135th Street in 2009 for $28 million. Those properties have a combined 278 residential units and one professional unit. The company then built two more luxury rental buildings with a total of 104 units."

"'There’s a lot more pricing discovery today than there was a year ago,' said Ariel’s president Shimon Shkury. 'There will be more pricing discoveries throughout this year.'"

From Bisnow on Texas. "Houston’s office market has one of the highest vacancy rates in the country, a carryover from the energy sector’s prior downturn in late 2014. The latest downturn, coupled with the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, has weakened the market further. Transwestern Executive Vice President Michelle Wogan said the court systems have been shut down and foreclosures have been on hold for months. That pent-up demand could translate to more distressed Houston office properties hitting the market."

"'There have been buildings that should have foreclosed last year that did not, that will foreclose this year. So that activity of servicers coming back into the market, servicing the loans, foreclosures — that will happen, it will be an uptick in 2021 and 2022,' Wogan said."

The Vancouver Sun in Canada. "The COVID pandemic has lowered demand for rental properties and thus what landlords are charging, but investors looking to buy apartment buildings to earn a financial return believe this is temporary, says Lance Coulson, an executive vice-president at commercial broker CBRE. He said that apartment buildings, which offer a basic need of shelter, are a 'defensive asset class' for institutional investors like REITs that want to offset some of the losses they face with their retail or office properties that have been hard hit by the pandemic."

"Critics of rising REIT ownership of apartment buildings say rent controls would temper rising costs. However, said Coulson, many of these existing rental apartment buildings need investment. 'If your operating expenses are going up and you can’t grow your rents, you’re getting negative cash flow,' said Coulson. 'That money is going to go somewhere else.'"

The Daily Post. "Bangor has been named as the UK’s most ambitious city. But like pretty much every other place in the country, the Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the city, with boarded-up shops and rising unemployment. The absence of university students has only added to the sense of desertion. 'People I’ve spoken to say that for every job vacancy there are 200-500 applicants, and often this is for manual work,' said dance instructor Tracy Hancock, owner of Pagan’s Pole. 'I can’t say I’ve thought about Bangor being particularly ambitious. There’s a lethargy about the place because of the number of boarded up shops and the lack of opportunities for young people.'"

"Fears that students may not return – that student numbers have peaked – have seen landlords jettison empty properties. 'There’s a huge glut of houses on the market,' said Gwynedd independent councillor Dylan Fernley. 'A couple of hundred former student houses are currently up for sale, with houses prices being stagnant, if not falling.'"

From Domain News in Australia. "First-home buyers have been snapping up apartments in buildings normally filled with international students as opportunities for bargain buys open up. Woodards Carlton North partner Glenn Bartlett said interest had not been overwhelming for smaller investor-grade apartments. 'We’ve noticed a drop off in investor enquiry on these investor style apartments,' Mr Bartlett said. 'These were generally appealing to people overseas.'"

"However, most vendors were hanging on to their empty student apartments, he said. Buildings like Woodards, which has a one-bedroom apartment listed for sale, is not seeing a rush to the market from distressed vendors needing to sell. 'Most are prepared to wait it out [until international students return] and significantly reduce their rents to attract a tenant for the next six to 12 months,' Mr Bartlett said."

"Domain’s latest rental data, released in January, showed rents in some of these suburbs had dropped to their lowest point in four years, with a $388 per week median rent across the city. The vacancy rate jumped to 9 per cent, up from 2.3 per cent just a year ago."