A report from Reuters. "Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin on Tuesday said surging home prices are being driven by a jump in demand and constrained supply but not by excess leverage, reducing the potential risk to the broad financial system should prices fall."

"'I don't look at plummeting house prices as a first order risk, but if it were to happen, it only becomes a financial stability risk if you've got too much leverage against it,' Barkin told the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce in a virtual event. 'That's what I watch is the leverage in the housing market and again, based on what I can tell, I don't see it going to excess levels yet; that of course is something we are going to have to watch as we get into this.'"

From Housing Wire. "In 2020, the use of 'blind' appraisal waivers reached staggering, record highs. In these scenarios, no inspection or appraisal of any kind is performed on the property. While waivers make sense for certain loans — and certainly provided some temporary capacity relief to appraisers who were struggling to keep up with order volume — the rate at which they’ve been issued over the last year represents a new high-water mark."

"During peak months, 70–80% of all rate-and-term refinancing transactions have been executed without an appraisal. The lack of boots on the ground means that both the lender and the GSEs buying the loans have reduced visibility into the true condition of the property."

The Colorado Sun. "It’s not just Telluride. Across Colorado’s resort communities, a real estate frenzy is breaking records and transforming cultural landscapes. The record-setting pace of sales over the past year has turbo-charged a trend that has unfolded in recent years with more urban refugees relocating to mountain towns. This resort-home mania has happened before — and it didn’t end well."

"In the few years leading up to 2007, mountain real estate brokers trumpeted their successes like a broken record. And, in fact, every month, quarter and year did break a record, thanks largely to loose lending that pushed ill-qualified buyers into homes with no money down and principle-only mortgage payments. When that lending fiasco fell apart, a yearslong recession and mighty crash in real estate values followed, leaving long-lasting impacts."

"'If you are going back further than a couple months to look at comps, they are not really comps because the market has gone up so much in the last three months,' said Timm Kluender, a broker with Berkshire Hathaway. 'You almost have to look at active and pending sales to get an accurate comp right now.'"

"Brianna Anthony and her boyfriend, Keenan Montague, have lived in three homes over the past six months in Telluride. The five-bedroom house that the local bartenders rented with friends sold last fall, and the new owner, an East Coast doctor with a home in nearby Mountain Village, launched a major renovation. They moved into another house, which this spring sold — sight unseen — for $2.2 million. And they moved again as that owner began renovations."

"They found a rental home in Rico, about 30 minutes away. And, yes, that house just sold. Now they are looking again for a place to rent. Montague has an idea about what Colorado’s resort towns are going to look like when locals are priced out. Food will take hours at local restaurants. Galleries and shops will be closed for most of the week. Ski resorts will struggle to remain open. Long waits for everything will be the new normal."

"'The impacts will be known soon, when the customer service goes down at every business in town,' Montague said. 'I’m afraid that will be the only thing that will wake everyone up to the impacts of this real estate craziness. Everyone wants to come here and buy here for the atmosphere, but they are the ones who are actually killing that atmosphere.'"

From Bloomberg. "States and cities, including Philadelphia, are cracking down on a niche in house-flipping known as wholesaling conducted by a flood of largely unlicensed intermediaries lured in by YouTube tutorials and a torrid market."

"Bearing fast cash, wholesalers can help distressed homeowners sell quickly, but they have been accused of strong-arm tactics and misinformation. Unlike fix-and-flip investors, who take title to homes, renovate them, and put them back on the market, wholesalers typically negotiate with homeowners just to put homes under contract and sell those contracts to flippers."

"'I don’t buy houses. I solve problems,' said Scott Sekulow, who leads an Atlanta-area congregation of messianic Jews and bills himself as the Flipping Rabbi. He said clients come his way when they’re going through a divorce, can’t afford massive home repairs, or run into other trouble. Sekulow said he can get them cash while also beautifying a neighborhood."

"Hedge funds are paying top dollar for the contracts, he told a conference of prospective moguls: 'When you can get in with them, they’re there paying stupid money.'"

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "'Expectations becoming extrapolative.' The Bank of Canada isn’t known for poetic flourishes but, in its description of the mania at the heart of Canada’s housing market, there’s a delightful cadence, appealing alliteration and a lot of truth. In plain terms: Prices are soaring, in part because buyers believe they will keep on soaring. People are assuming a future of higher prices, by extrapolating from a present where prices are rising rapidly."

"These assumptions are a very human tendency. But they’re also dangerous, because extrapolated expectations eventually hit a wall. The central bank, in its annual financial system review released last week, cited 'imbalances in the housing market' as one of six key vulnerabilities. It also worried about 'many households' now shouldering large mortgages. In the event of a job loss or other shock, their debt burdens could quickly become unaffordable."

"The Bank is just the latest institution to worry about the direction of Canada’s housing market. Yet for all the concerns, there isn’t much any of this country’s policy makers are willing to do about it."

The Epoch Times. "Chinese companies are facing mounting pressure to repay their dollar debts, as more than $100 billion in Chinese corporate dollar bonds are due to mature this year—the largest wave of maturities in history. China’s wave of dollar maturities will reach $118 billion, according to Refinitiv, a global financial market data provider."

"According to the report, corporate debt risk is regional, with SOE bond prices in Hebei, Henan, Chongqing, Yunnan, and Xinjiang falling the most. 'This worsening market sentiment could spread to other regions where SOEs are under pressure to repay their debts,' the report says."

"In the first quarter of this year, Chinese companies defaulted on $15.1 billion in domestic and overseas debt, with real estate companies bailing in large numbers, accounting for 27 percent of those defaults. The default rate among Chinese property developers has risen rapidly in the past few years. According to China Securities Journal, data from some research institutions show that in 2021, the total maturing debts of Chinese real estate enterprises (excluding the ultra-short-term bonds to be issued in 2021) is expected to reach 1.2 trillion yuan ($193.5 billion), a year-on-year increase of 36 percent and a historic breakthrough of over a trillion yuan ($100 billion)."

From Stuff New Zealand. "The Government’s predicted halt in house price growth is already being felt in provincial centres like Whangārei, as investor interest falls away, real estate experts say. Finance Minister Grant Robertson said it was a 'very sharp adjustment in house prices, but a very necessary one,' as the Government comes under pressure to arrest New Zealand’s runaway housing market."

"Reserve Bank loan-to-value restrictions also kicked in on March 1, meaning most investors need at least 30 per cent equity in a property. The result has been some landlords selling their investment properties, and a lot fewer investors looking to buy at the moment, according to Whangārei real estate agents. From March to April, Whangārei median sales prices fell 7.6 per cent to $670,000, compared with a 1.8 per cent fall nationwide to $810,000, according to figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand."

"Infometrics senior economist Brad Olsen​, formerly of Whangārei, said Northland has experienced a bit of a slow-down in sales already, and he expected that to continue for the rest of the year. He thought provincial areas like Whangārei would feel this 'a touch quicker' than other areas as the new rules kick in, and investing in property becomes less viable for those who are heavily leveraged."

From Domain News in Australia. "More than 130,000 households in NSW and Victoria are on the brink of financial crisis as a result of mortgage stress, a shocking new report from consumer group CHOICE has revealed. As more people grow desperate to get into the rising property market and take on bigger mortgages, financial counsellors across the country admit they can barely keep up with their caseloads. And it’s now putting more pressure on the federal government’s plan to scrap responsible lending laws."

"'These are households where from fortnight to fortnight, people are spending more than they are earning,' said CHOICE CEO Alan Kirkland. 'That means that they have to make difficult choices, like whether to put food on the table or keep up with repayments. If they can’t maintain the juggling act, they risk losing their homes. Safe lending laws were put in place to avoid the huge damage to families and communities caused by mortgage stress – by making banks take care to avoid giving people loans they won’t be able to afford to repay.'"

"Figures show that more than 70,500 households in Victoria and more than 63,500 in NSW are in major trouble. The worst-hit Sydney suburbs are Airds, Appin, Glen Alpine, Casula, Liverpool, Moorebank and Warwick Farm. The Melbourne suburbs struggling the most are Fountain Gate, Narre Warren, Berwick, Harkaway, Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit and Truganina."

The Daily Mail Australia. "Cate Blanchett's former trophy home in Sydney's ritzy Hunters Hill has been sold for a loss of $750,000 despite surging house prices in the Harbour City. The home was sold by investment banker Chris Barter and his wife, Katrina, to expatriate lawyer Brooke Lindsay and her partner, Marcus Hill, for $17.25 million. The Barters had owned the historic home, named Bulwarra, for just three years after purchasing it from the Hollywood actress for $18 million in 2017."