It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Amarillo Association of Realtors Board Member, Cindi Bulla, expressed that the biggest challenge right now in this market, including in Amarillo, is inventory. She continued to explain, 'By those people who are able to offer a cash price and a quick close and sometimes pay above the asking price or even above the appraisal price to be able to get it because we’re in such short supply that it is not healthy.'"

"Former 'trophy homes' continue to sell at crazy low prices. Sidney Kimmel just sold his full-floor Central Park South spread for $18.6 million. That’s almost $4 million less than the $22.34 million he paid for it back in 2001, according to property records. He and his wife first listed the condo at 50 Central Park South, known as the Ritz-Carlton Residences, for $39.5 million back in 2018."

"Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson put her Mediterranean-inspired, Los Angeles-area mansion back on the market on Monday with a near-$3 million discount. The California compound, now asking $16.8 million, 'invites lavish entertaining and luxurious living,' according to the listing. At that new listing price, Ms. Snyder-Ellingson is set for a loss on the spread, having bought the property for $17.4 million in 2012."

"Purchased for $1.05 million in December of 2017, the two-bedroom, two-bath unit #504 in the Rowan building at 338 Potrero returned to the market priced at $999,000 two months ago. And the resale has now closed escrow with a contract price of $925,000, down 11.9 percent on an apples-to-apples basis since the fourth quarter of 2017."

"A Gladwyne mansion has dropped in price for the second time in three months — this time by $2 million — and is co-listed for rent after its owner was once again made offers he couldn’t accept. The house at 100 Maplehill Road is now priced at $11.9 million, 57.5% below its original $28 million listing price. The estate reduced its price by $4 million in January after being on the market for the last five years."

"Broker Misha Haghani said homeowner Andrew Barroway hasn’t received an offer over $15 million that was without contingencies. Barroway purchased the land in 2006 for $12 million. He spent another $23 million and three years building his dream home, bringing the total investment up to $35 million. 'The seller is a committed seller,' Haghani said. 'He wants to sell, so we reduced the price in order to help that happen faster.'"

"The data from UK rental guarantor service, Housing Hand, has revealed the sharp drop in rents followed average rental values (compared to a year earlier) beginning to decline in June 2020, when rents dropped to 11% below their June 2019 level. Rents have continued to fall in many areas ever since. Unfortunately, it has also left many landlords unable to pay their mortgages. With rents now steadily declining in many areas, according to Housing Hand's figures, it seems that the misery is far from over for both landlords and letting agents as 2021 unfolds."

"Terry Mason, Group Operations Director, Housing Hand, comments: 'As the pandemic continues to push people from city centres to their outskirts, rents in central areas are likely to drop even further. Not only are landlords and letting agents slashing prices in many areas, we're seeing an increasing number of rental schemes offering one or even two months' free rent in order to encourage tenants to sign on the dotted line. Again, this is particularly prevalent in city centres. It begs the question: how far will landlords and letting agents go to attract new tenants?'"

"Data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed,that in the real estate sector in the country’s largest market, the National Capital Region, continued to soften, extending price declines across various categories for the second consecutive quarter. 'This is the second consecutive quarter that condominium prices declined,' the central bank said. 'The decrease in the prices of condominium units in both [Metro Manila] and [provincial areas] may be attributed to the postponement of new launches by developers and lackluster demand for transient dwelling amid the pandemic.'"

"With Covid-19 causing businesses renting townhouses in HCMC to shut shop and switch to online selling in many cases, rents have plummeted and vacancy rates have shot up. A survey by VnExpress found that townhouse rents have been falling since the pandemic first broke out. In the first quarter of 2020 they fell by up to 25 percent as social distancing was in place and businesses renting houses went belly-up. The second outbreak in the second half of 2020 caused another 25-40 percent fall. The third outbreak at the beginning of 2021 drove the rents down another 30-40 percent to their lowest levels ever."

"Nguyen Hong Hai, chairman of VNO Development and Investment Corporation, a company that converts residential buildings into offices for rent, said the fall in rents is due to oversupply. 'This is an unprecedented litmus test for townhouses for rent,' Hai said."

"Ripple effects from the novel coronavirus pandemic have led to the first drop in land prices across Japan in six years. Zuboraya, with a 100-year history, was a popular fugu restaurant in the area. Though six months have passed since the closure, the building Zuboraya used is still vacant. The site of the building had a land price of 8.05 million yen per square meter in 2020. The figure was a 4.7-fold increase over a seven-year period. But this year, the land price plunged 28 percent, the largest decrease anywhere in Japan. The land price drop was greater in the three major urban areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya compared to other regional areas."

"Property markets are hot. I was at an auction the other day where the place sold for $375,000 over the top of the advertised range. Aussies are making the most of very low interest rates and buying houses in a frenzy. Bizarrely, the city with the fastest house price growth – Melbourne – is also the one with the most empty homes. As the next graph shows, Melbourne has the country’s worst rental vacancy rate. 28,000 rental properties sit vacant – which is more than Sydney and over 4 per cent of all rentals in Melbourne."

"Does this make sense? Because population growth is at its lowest level in a very long time. As the next graph shows, the natural increase is pretty stable. That means the ratio of births to deaths is steady. But the rate of net overseas migration has plummeted enough to overcome the rate of births, leaving Australia with less people in it than before."

"Buyers in the Toronto real estate market are routinely willing to offer a bounty of $500,000 or more in order to beat out rival bidders for a house they want. Many sellers have come to expect it. Robert Hogue, senior economist at Royal Bank of Canada, labels the mindset of buyers in the Canadian housing market as 'a mix of exuberance and haste.' Mr. Hogue points out that in Toronto and other markets where supply is tight, competition for the few available properties has not only been fierce but increasingly driven by a sense of urgency or 'fear of missing out.'"

"Phyllis Henderson of Royal LePage Real Estate Services says that more listings are coming to the market with the arrival of warmer weather. 'There are definitely a lot of listings coming on every single day,' she says. Ms. Henderson adds that some buyers are becoming worn down by the relentless competition. Niels Christensen, a broker with Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd. also believes that the high-octane market will cause that buyer fatigue to spread eventually. 'It’s the buyers who will put an end to the silliness. If they all said ‘we’re not doing this,’ this would end.'"