It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Due to the rising cost of building, there may come a 'day of reckoning.' When a person pays $400,000 for a house that not much earlier was $300,000, 'you're going to be upside down from Day One,' meaning the house will cost more than it is worth, said Steve Magee, owner of Croft Windows and Doors in Magnolia, which sells its products around the country. One person, who asked not to be identified, said that there seems to be a lag between rapidly increasing house prices and 'comparables' that appraisers rely on."

"A legal tussle between China Vanke and its partner in a Manhattan real estate project took a dramatic turn this week as their creditor, Chinese banking giant ICBC, moved to foreclose on the joint venture’s midtown high-rise. By the time 100 East 53rd Street was topped out, the luxury segment in New York City housing had come to be seen as overbuilt. The development struggled to attract buyers. The foreclosure move is the latest chapter in a seven-year development saga for Vanke’s second-ever investment in the US, which spans a New York luxury condo boom and bust, as well as a since-stoppered wave of Chinese purchases of American homes."

"The number of closed sales of homes continued to rise in March from last month, according to The Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®. For single-family homes in February, there were 2,779 closed sales on single-family homes and 3,393 new listings, while this month jumped to 3,385 closed sales and 5,804 new listings."

"Steven Seagal is once again shooting for a sale in the Arizona desert, listing his 12-acre compound outside Scottsdale for $3.4 million. The martial artist-turned-actor bought the property for $3.5 million in 2010 and has offered it up multiple times in the last few years, most recently for $3.775 million in 2019."

"Scott Russell of Engel & Völkers Oakville shared with STOREYS that his team of advisors is reporting they are seeing fewer buyers come out on offer night — a major shift from the high-tension, FOMO situation seen happening recently throughout the province and the rest of the country. Russel explained to STOREYS that while they’re used to seeing properties receive between 15 and 25 offers on offer night, there are now 'two, three, maybe four people coming to the table instead.'"

"According to Anita Springate-Renaud of Engel & Volkers Toronto Central (Don Mills and Yorkville), the trend is also happening in Toronto and, reportedly, fewer buyers are coming out. 'People are not interested in getting into that bidding war,' she says, pointing to a recent example of a house for sale in Barrie, Ont. 'They held off on offers and nobody came.'"

"There are so many people lining up to bid on a single property in Burnaby that many people are taking 'bizarre risks,' according to a local real estate agent who spoke to me. 'I’m always shocked that people are willing to agree to not have an inspection done when bidding,' the agent said. 'It’s a lot of money to take that kind of risk.'"

"Kush Panatch, president of residential developer Panatch Group, told Western Investor that the market exuberance of the last 10 months, characterized by multiple offers and homes selling for well over the asking price, was based largely on buyers’ psychological fear of missing out. 'I saw some very intelligent people make less-than-stellar decisions,' Panatch said, who noted he has seen similar wild, short swings in the market half a dozen times through his 30 years in Metro Vancouver real estate."

"The fear of missing out will end soon, he predicted.' You have already missed out,' said Panatch. He believes Metro Vancouver sales are now cycling into a 'gentle market downturn' that will likely continue for some months. 'This is not a market correction, but the crazy froth in the market is ending,' he added."

"The easing of Covid restrictions has caused a boom in an already busy buyers market, but in Bushey homeowners are struggling to sell houses. In fact according to Rightmove, Bushey ranks seventh in the top 10 buyers’ market areas – where buyers are perceived to have an advantage because there is seemingly more demand in the area than supply. Since the start of the last year there were 31.8 per cent of properties for sale in Bushey. To compare, Newquay is the highest buyers’ market area with 82 per cent of properties for sale in the area."

"Australia's $40 billion international education sector has been devastated, with property landlords, small and institutional, headlining those most severely impacted. Landlords near universities in Melbourne and Sydney have been the hardest hit. Woeful resales by property investors have not surprisingly shown up, in what was already a seriously challenged sector. I spotted a $122,500 studio apartment in a Box Hill student accommodation complex. It reflected a 32 per cent price decline for the 17sqm studio space, which had previously traded at $182,000 in 2009."

"Rental prices for apartments in Melbourne’s inner suburbs have plummeted by up to 29 per cent in the year to March. Sarah Johnson is one of many Melburnians who have taken advantage of falling rents in the inner city over the past 12 months. In September last year, Ms Johnson moved out of her North Melbourne share house and into a spacious two-bedroom apartment in West Melbourne with her partner."

"'We found this apartment in West Melbourne, which had a second bedroom or study for us to work from, and we asked for a discount on the advertised rent, which had already been reduced,' she said. 'It had been sitting empty for some time and when it was originally advertised, they were asking an extra $500 a month. Without those reductions, we would never have considered renting a place like this.'"