A report from Boston 25 News in Massachusetts. "Despite this persistent rise in prices, UMass Boston economics professor Keren Horn, doesn’t believe this is a bubble. Horn has been looking at the types of transactions taking place. 'I really don’t think it’s driven by speculation or unreasonable expectations. I think people just want more housing and there’s not enough supply. In some cases, yes, I think people are putting themselves in positions that are untenable,' Horn said. 'But there is no evidence that people are overstretching themselves financially to get these homes and that we’ll see ourselves in a foreclosure crisis.'"

"But for homebuyers out there today, it still feels like hand to hand combat. 'Sellers are accepting cash offers and when you think about the prices of these houses, who has that kind of money sitting around?' asked a buyer."

From San Angelo Live in Texas. "With an inexpensive money supply and easy home lending, the demand for homes has not abated. There is little price resistance. Ryan Newlin, broker for ERA Newlin and Co., said that every home is selling right now. 'We need more land to develop,' he said."

From Bay News 9 in Florida. "Sunny Alexander is a Tampa realtor. Both she and her husband served in the U.S. Army and say the military has opened a lot of doors for them. New legislation for the VA loan came out in 2019, but Sunny says a lot of agents, especially ones with smaller military populations, aren’t up to date. 'The veteran, as long as they qualify, their debt to income supports it, they can get up to 2 million or even higher for a VA loan,' she said. 'The veteran gets a lower interest rate, there is no down payment, the veteran is a strong buyer. Basically, the foreclosure rate on a VA loan is 1.98% compared to conventional foreclosure rate of 2.47%,' she said."

"For veteran buyers who don’t have a lot of cash on hand, she suggests looking at new constructions or homes where the seller had aggressively priced the home and are now chasing down the market."

From CNBC. "Nearly two-thirds, or 64%, of millennials (ages 25 to 40) say they have at least one regret about purchasing their current home, according to a new poll of more than 1,400 U.S. homeowners from Bankrate. 'These purchases, even for those who are well qualified, can be a leap of faith,' says Mark Hamrick, Bankrate’s senior economic analyst. People tend to focus so much on actually being able to buy a home that many times there’s a sense that everything else will resolve itself once the initial purchase is completed, he says."

"Beth Holmes-Roberts, 38, and her husband purchased their first home in January 2019. The 60-year-old home in San Antonio consists of four bedrooms and two bathrooms and was listed for $195,000. 'We literally walked into the house the first day that we were looking and said, ‘We need this one,’ Holmes-Roberts says. She does wish that she had done a little bit more research into what the homebuying process looked like ahead of time, especially around the mortgage procedures. 'It just sort of felt like a whirlwind of activity that ended up with us standing in front of this empty house with a set of keys going, ‘OK, here we are,’ she says."

"Beth Holmes-Roberts, 38, and her husband purchased their first home in January 2019. The 60-year-old home in San Antonio consists of four bedrooms and two bathrooms and was listed for $195,000. 'We literally walked into the house the first day that we were looking and said, ‘We need this one,’ Holmes-Roberts says. She does wish that she had done a little bit more research into what the homebuying process looked like ahead of time, especially around the mortgage procedures. 'It just sort of felt like a whirlwind of activity that ended up with us standing in front of this empty house with a set of keys going, ‘OK, here we are,’ she says."

"Home maintenance has been an ongoing challenge, Holmes-Roberts says. Over the past two years, they’ve had a lot of plumbing work done, including fixing toilets and a bathtub that didn’t drain properly. They also had to replace their entire garage door. All of the family’s stimulus payments over the past year, more than $6,500, have gone toward home maintenance."

From NPR. "Oregonians struggling to maintain their mortgage payments due to the economic stressors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will have until June 30 to begin repaying. According to Sen. Lee Beyer, who carried the bill in his chamber, this extension is aimed at helping those who have been unable to keep up with their mortgage payments through no fault of their own."

"'The one difference in this from the original one passed is in order to get this protection, the homeowner has to contact their lender and tell them that they are not able to pay their mortgage because of loss of income related to the pandemic,' Beyer said. 'But perhaps the secondary, and maybe more important to many of us, is by having this in place we keep all of those homes that could have been foreclosed on from going onto the market all at one time and devaluing the rest of the properties.'"

From Socket Site in California. "Having inched up 2 percent last week, the net number of homes for sale across San Francisco has since ticked up another 4 percent to around 920, which is 10 percent more homes on the market than at the same time last year, another 10-year seasonal high and 90 percent more inventory on the market than there was in mid-May of 2015. And while the number of homes in contract across San Francisco is still up around 50 percent versus the same time last year, pending sales dropped 6 percent over the past week with an average list price per square foot that’s down 7 percent, year-over-year."

The Los Angeles Times in California. "It took three years and six price cuts, but Houston Astros ace Zack Greinke finally took advantage of the hot market and sold his Studio City home for $4.75 million. That’s $175,000 shy of what he paid for the compound in 2013, records show."

From CBC News. "Canada's red-hot housing market showed small signs of cooling down in April, even as the average selling price is up by nearly half from the lows it hit in the early days of the pandemic. The group that represents Canadian Realtors says sales were down in 85 per cent of all markets across the country, including just about everywhere in Ontario and British Columbia. 'While housing markets across Canada remain very active, there is growing evidence that some of the extreme imbalances of the last year are beginning to unwind, which is what everyone wants to see happen,' CREA chair Cliff Stevenson said."

"Bank of Montreal economist Robert Kavcic says April's numbers still paint a picture of a booming housing market. 'Demand is extremely strong even if down from record levels,' he said. 'This market is still extremely strong across geography and segment, even if we've likely seen peak momentum — it's still a long way back from the moon.'"

The Herald Sun on Australia. "Experts warned that the mass 'hype' of Melbourne’s auction and opening of houses may be the disguise of the 'fragile' market being covered by the smokescreen. Simon Pressley, a market analyst and head of real estate research, said that compared with other capital cities, Melbourne’s economic weakness, population decline and record high rental supply paint a bleak picture."

"He said that increasing construction efforts to increase the number of locked jobs is a dangerous move. He said that it may exacerbate the problem of oversupply and push the city’s market into a downturn, similar to the city’s housing prices from 2018 to 2019. The median plummeted 134,000. 'The hype you see on an open house in Melbourne today is the same as the hype we saw on an open house in 2016,' said Mr. Presley."

"Melbourne’s weak economy, declining population, record high rental supply and increasing new housing construction are a series of fundamental factors that are as weak as Darwin and Perth have seen in the past decade. 'If you consider all our capitals and all regions, and talk about all these factors that affect the real estate market, then Melbourne is just as vulnerable as the rest of Australia.'"

"The Australian Bureau of Statistics data included in Propertyology’s latest report shows that Melbourne’s population has fallen by 26,000 in the past year. Mr. Pressley said that, coupled with the decline in the number of interstate and overseas immigrants caused by COVID-19 and the impact of the city’s long-term blockade on the local economy, there is a real risk of overstimulating construction and construction that may inhibit housing demand."

"Presley said: 'Melbourne usually grows by about 100,000 people a year, rounding it up to a whole number, but this is not only not adding new recruits, but also losing more people. There is a good balance. Every city needs to create jobs. The construction industry is an important industry in every city, but if you over-stimulate it, it will eventually lead to a downturn in the real estate market.'"