A report from Westword in Colorado. "Victoria Macaskill, an independent broker and co-owner of Denver Homes, says there are things the average person can do to compete. Some of them carry a certain degree of risk, but all of them improve a house hunter's shot at winding up on top. 'Right now, all of the offers I've seen that are getting accepted have language about the appraisal gap, which is where the buyer guarantees the seller that they will pay either the total amount or some amount if there's a gap between the purchase price and the appraisal price. For example, if the purchase price is for $500,000 and the home appraises for $475,000, the buyer is guaranteeing the $25,000 difference. Sometimes the buyer will need to restructure the loan, which is why the lender is so important. Instead of saying 20 percent down, they might say 10 percent down and use that other 10 percent to cover the appraisal gap.'"

"'Single-family homes were up 6 percent in March over February, which is pretty significant, especially if prices keep going up. If buyers decide to wait three to six months to buy instead of paying $25,000 more than they'd planned now, the prices could be up a lot more than $25,000 by then. And it can take months to find a house right now. If a buyer sees that 'if it takes me six months to find something, I might be outpriced,' they may have to compromise on the features of a home today instead of waiting.'"

From KUSI in California. "Inventory of available homes is especially low right now, making home prices soar even more, explained Jim Bottrell, Owner at Jim Bottrell Real Estate Team. It’s important to remember that lenders qualify a person on a payment, not a purchase amount, Bottrell emphasized."

From ABC 7. "Southern California's blistering-hot real estate market isn't just driving up prices -- it's also driving sellers crazy trying to find a moving company. Trucking companies are having a hard time hiring enough big truck drivers. It also turns out considerably more people are moving out of California than are moving in. That means interstate moving trucks are piling up in other states."

"'Right now, it's such a volume out of California that these guys aren't getting shipments back in,' explained Jill Longo, owner of Andy's Transfer & Storage in Glendale. 'It's an exodus.'"

From Socket Site in California. "Despite some misreports in the media, apartment rents in San Francisco haven’t started to rebound. And in fact, the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in the city has now inched down to $3,050 month, which is down 24 percent on a year-over-year basis, down over 25 percent since the pandemic hit, and nearly 32 percent below a 2015-era peak, with the average asking rent for a studio in the city holding at under $1,900 a month and down nearly 35 percent from peak."

From Global News in Canada. "Affordable housing advocates say young workers who remain shut out of the housing market are the collateral damage of policymakers unwilling to make big moves to cool housing prices. Economists at the Bank of Montreal recently issued a report citing the need to break 'market psychology and the belief that prices will only rise further' and 'dampen the speculation and fear-of-missing-out that those expectations are creating.'"

"Policy responses to mounting calls have so far been muted. Realtors, economists and affordable housing advocates all point to the same thing driving bidding wars and climbing prices: a lack of supply. According to Paul Kershaw, founder of Generation Squeeze, which advocates for young workers, the other major factor is an unwillingness to enact policy that would meaningfully bring down prices."

"'On the one hand, we’ve wanted an affordable place to call home and on the other hand, we’ve wanted it to be a good return on investment. Those two things can’t hang together for very long because as soon as a home becomes an excellent return on investment, it grows out of reach for what locals earn,' Kershaw told Global News."

From The Age in Australia. "Melbourne’s glut of empty CBD offices and apartments could be used to revive the inner city’s ailing creative sector, according to a leading urban designer. Hodyl and Co managing director Leanne Hodyl, who conducted a built form review of the CBD for the Victorian government, said there was more empty office and student apartment accommodation in the city than there was demand for either."

"Ms Hodyl poured cold water on previous proposals to convert empty office space into residential accommodation, saying without international students there was little call for more apartments. 'There’s definitely not a high demand for apartment living in the city at the moment, we’ve lost international students, we’ve lost immigration, obviously. So there’s actually not a demand – you could convert them, but I don’t know who would be moving in.'"

"Office vacancy rates hit 13.2 per cent in March, according to Macquarie. And more than a year after international borders shut and much of Melbourne’s thriving international student population was forced to abandon the city, apartment vacancies are also high. A one-bedroom flat in the CBD recently sold for $180,000, 30 per cent less than its owners paid for it 15 years earlier."

From Stuff New Zealand. "An apartment in an Auckland CBD building sold for just $5000 at auction last week, and more units like it are expected to hit the market in the coming months. The apartment has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two car parks, and a balcony with views across the Waitamata harbour. But it is in the Scene One apartment block on Beach Road in downtown Auckland, a block plagued by remediation issues and ongoing litigation. It is also a leasehold property, which means it comes with annual ground rent costs of $22,004."

"Scene One doesn’t have a body corporate, so there is no body corp levy, but it does have an annual operating expenses fee. For this apartment, the fee is $9460. With rates costing $1683 a year, the apartment owner’s outgoings are $33,147 each year. Listing agent Rickus Moll, from Ray White City Apartments, said the apartment was rented at $750 a week but the outgoings cancelled out most of the rental earnings, leaving income of about $40 a week."

"While last week’s sale price was particularly low, apartments in the Scene One building often sell for prices well below the apartment market’s median value, and below what they were bought for. In 2019, a one-bedroom apartment in the building sold for $20,000. It was bought back in 2002 for $311,200, QV’s records show."

"City Sales recently listed an apartment in the building for auction with a $0 reserve. However, the vendors’ lawyers stopped the auction at the last moment. Scott Dunn, from City Sales, said the lawyers felt it was too risky to run the auction as the apartment might sell for nothing. 'We ended up selling it by negotiation for $30,000 unconditionally. An existing owner in the building bought it.'"