It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Kootenai County's housing trend has become a looming menace in the area, but Jennifer Smock of Windermere/Coeur d'Alene Realty, Inc. believes that it is not a bubble waiting to pop. A sign that this housing boom won't burst is a new trend of what Smock calls 'pushback' from buyers who are refusing to purchase an overpriced property simply because the market is hot. 'We do see some price reductions,' she said. 'That's a good thing. The price reduction shows that consumers that got greedy couldn't make it work, and now they're 10 days on the market and coming down in price. Then people are making offers at a realistic price.'"

"Laconia Development says it's relaunching sales at Spire, a $350 million, 41-story luxury condominium tower near the Space Needle. About a third of the units have sold, but the developer is looking for a boost after taking a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, which depressed urban condo sales for much of 2020. To that end, Laconia is temporarily lowering asking prices by as much as 10% for the tower's one- and two-bedroom units. Larger units are also being discounted."

"'It’s no secret that the pandemic has impacted the condominium market in major cities across the country. With the end of the pandemic in sight, we want to react to what has happened by offering a significant, limited-time discount on many of the residences at Spire,' said Paul Menzies, CEO of Laconia."

"Commit to buy a condo at one of Toll Brothers' Manhattan towers, and the company will pay to break your apartment lease. Agree to tour a unit at the builder's Tribeca project, and they'll send a car to get you. As New York condo developers struggle to attract buyers amid mounting competition, Toll is getting creative. Toll is doing what it can to get to the finish line on some of its longest-running efforts - before thousands more newly constructed units reach Manhattan's already saturated market. 'It's been a long ride for some of these developers,' said Jonathan Miller, president of New York appraiser Miller Samuel. 'The lack of certainty might be pushing this drive to exit quickly.'"

"There's still a lot of inventory coming. Manhattan has an estimated 8,400 unsold new development units - many of which haven't yet been listed for sale, according to Marketproof. And the borough's rental market, glutted with nearly 20,000 vacant apartments at the end of last month, is proving a stiff competitor for deal seekers' attention, as landlords offer record levels of incentives and discounts to attract tenants."

"I always try to be positive about the future of Calgary's city centre. Like many urban analysts, I've wondered for several years now why builders keep constructing new highrise residential towers when the downtown employment numbers are falling. The west coast contingent was so dominant, I heard Calgary's downtown referred to as 'Vancouver East' a few years ago. However, some Vancouver developers have quietly begun their exodus, as the demand for highrise residential development in our greater downtown declines. If Calgary's downtown residential market crashes, it will have a major impact on the completion of East Village, which is only half finished."

"Here we reveal which neighbourhoods saw their prices fall in the year to September 2020. The biggest price drop was in Lincoln Green and St James where the average price fell to £100,487, down by 35.4% on the year to September 2019. Overall, 22 houses changed hands here between October 2019 and September 2020, a drop of 77% in property sales. The second biggest price drop was in New Farnley and Lower Wortley where the average price fell to £158,973, down by 11.1% on the year to September 2019. Overall, 81 houses changed hands here between October 2019 and September 2020, a drop of 40% in property sales."

"The real estate sector continues to stagnate in Mumbai as a staggering 108,929 housing units remain unsold in the city. From January to March, 6,780 housing units were launched in Mumbai, of which 5,775 houses were sold. As an average of 1,908 housing units is sold every month in Mumbai, it will take at least 57 months to sell its unsold inventory, according to Liases Foras, which pointed out the realty sector’s grim situation, especially amid the second wave of Covid-19 lockdown, where the entire sector has been paralysed."

"According to Pankaj Kapoor, managing director, Liases Foras, this huge inventory is a cause of worry. 'The second wave of Covid-19 will only make things difficult for the real estate sector as the sales volume will decrease significantly,' said Kapoor, adding, 'In addition, the state government has made things more difficult by withdrawing the stamp duty cut in March-end. The stamp duty cut had helped drive the sales in the past few months.'"

"'An owner of a real estate asset will not often willingly describe their ownership position as distressed. Instead, a sign of this might be that they are willing to sell the asset at below what they purchased it for, have restructured their mortgage or stopped construction,' James Hodge, managing director of CBRE Cambodia shared in a brief interview last month. These consequences, though subtle, have been apparent since mid last year."

"According to Anthony Galliano, CEO of Cambodian Investment Management Co Ltd, the transaction volume in the condominium market fell 15 to 20 per cent over the year whereas sales price contracted by 20 to 30 per cent. This does not include a fire sale of the assets which saw prices retreating further between 40 and 50 per cent. 'There is a short-term depression or recession in the market, and that has to also do with the [percentage] of foreign ownership,' said Galliano."

"Galliano believes that the present situation might provide opportunities to buy properties from foreign investors who are not seeing a return on their investment. 'Holding on to an inventory without a GRR scheme will cost you money because you are paying maintenance fees and are not getting any return on it. It is a horrible thing especially when the market is going south. I see an opportunity in that area where foreigners who can’t come here would want to get rid of them, willing to take a hit rather than continue to hold on to something that is not giving them returns.'"

"Independent economist Tony Alexander says extending the bright-line test to 10 years and wiping away investors’ ability to use mortgage interest for tax deductibility could lead to a situation where buyers start to question the ability of the residential real estate market to keep rising. 'Many will worry they are buying at the peak and could be in a falling paper wealth situation in the near future.'"

"Alexander points out this is not the same as saying people are fearing negative equity. This is when a house price falls to below the size of the mortgage. 'Such a situation is extremely unlikely except for those buyers buying at the peak with a 5% deposit.'"

"In his monthly REINZ & Tony Alexander Real Estate Survey agents around New Zealand are asked which things buyers are most concerned about. In the latest survey a gross 25% of agents said worries about prices falling is the biggest concern for buyers. Alexander says he wouldn’t call it a high degree of fear of over-paying (FOOP) yet. As a result of the Government’s changes targeting property investors, Alexander says he can safely say price expectations are shifting, although the shift in the degree of strength in the housing market was underway beforehand."

"'The net per cent of agents noticing more investors in the market has been falling since December, as has the pace of monthly change in house prices before the buying binge to beat the 40% deposit requirement occurred,' Alexander said."