A report from the Real Deal on Florida. "Ken Griffin has left Faena House. The CEO of Chicago-based Citadel sold his remaining penthouse at the ultra-luxury Miami Beach condo building, a three-bedroom, 4,243-square-foot unit, for $11.2 million. Griffin paid $60 million for two penthouses in the building in 2015. The purchase was considered a record for residential real estate in South Florida at the time. He sold the larger unit, a four-bedroom, 7,433-square-foot condo, in December for $35 million. That means he sold the two for about 23 percent less than their combined purchase price, incurring a loss of about $13.8 million on the properties."

From New Jersey 101.5. "With real estate being snapped up the way it is here in New Jersey and buyers bidding for homes in a frenzy, it is rare to see a home that sits on the market not selling and then have to reduce its price. But that’s the case with New Jersey’s most expensive mansion, listed in 2020 for 39 million. It can now be bought for a cool 33 mill. You don’t see many $6 million price reductions in this real estate market! For $33 million, you could get this ornate, opulent mansion in Mahwah, NJ."

From Mansion Global. "Townhouses have long served as status symbols in New York City’s luxury market, but in recent years, facing stiff competition from amenity-packed condo developments, sales have slumped and prices have softened. 'These properties have been depressed for a long time and there’s a lot of value in them,' said Kobi Lahav, senior managing director of Living New York. 'Upper East Side townhouses that five years ago were going for $8 million or $9 million are now going for $5 million or $6 million, and there’s no way that won’t go back up, so there’s value there.'"

"Townhouse prices most recently peaked in 2017, and 'today we’re at about 20% below those peak prices,' said George Vanderploeg, a broker with Douglas Elliman in Manhattan, adding that such homes have lost about 10% just since the onset of the pandemic. 'But sales are strong, so at some point, prices will begin to firm, and that may even be happening now.'"

The Star Tribune in Minnesota. "By virtually every measure May was a record-setting month for Twin Cities home sales, but there's at least one indication that an ever-so-slight seasonal slowdown might be in the offing: an uptick in price cuts. 'It's a terrible time to buy, but we weren't going to wait and 'time the market,' said Alex Bauman of Minneapolis. 'We needed a place to live now, not whenever the market cools off.'"

"Bauman said that while they love the house and feel fortunate to be finished with the house hunt, he isn't without concern that at some point demand could slow and prices could ease or even tumble. 'Every time I look at the numbers I worry about the huge investment we've made and whether or not we'll get a return on that investment,' he said."

"Across the country, signs are emerging that point to a possible slowdown in the market. A Zillow market repor shows that the share of listings with a price cut in the Twin Cities metro area grew from 6.2% in April to 7.1% in May. That's the first time that stat has grown since November. Still, it's considerably lower than it was last May, when 12.9% of listings had cut their price."

The Los Angeles Times in California. "When Arthur and Rini Kraus bought their condo 19 years ago in Venice, every day was a postcard from paradise. A little over a decade ago, things began to change. The neighborhood took on some harder edges, more people began camping along the boardwalk, and the Krauses no longer felt as safe as they once had. 'I see people wake up, lower their pants and go to the bathroom,' Rini said. 'I can’t even have my grandchildren here now,' said Arthur."

"Twice, the Krauses have listed their condo for sale but didn’t get any offers to their liking. Prices are depressed because of what’s happened to the neighborhood, Arthur said, and they’re not yet fully committed to leaving a place they fell in love with almost 20 years ago."

The Epoch Times. "Some California landlords are pleading with state and local governments to end the eviction moratorium on rental properties as planned June 30, rather than extending it. Dan Faller, founder and chairman of the Apartment Owners Association of California, said some residents have been taking advantage of the moratorium. 'They’re stealing from apartment owners, and it’s legal,' Faller told The Epoch Times."

"He gave an example of a young man who told his landlord he was saving money for a house and wouldn’t be paying rent. Even with knowledge of tenants taking advantage of the moratorium, landlords are unable to evict them, Faller said. 'They can’t do anything about it,' he said. 'The big owners have the big buildings; they have enough units that spread it out, and they can stay in business. But it’s the older couple who owns a duplex or a triplex. … They save their money to buy it, and they were counting on it being their retirement, and now the tenants don’t pay.'"

The Financial Post in Canada. "There was evidence last week that Canada’s latest bout of housing mania might have peaked, as the current price of a backyard and/or a home office clashes with the reality of what people are willing and/or able to pay. It’s possible the market overshot this spring and is now settling at a new, albeit higher, plateau."

"Builders such as RioCan aren’t betting on an exodus to the suburbs. The calculation could be that while the pandemic will be life-altering, it might not be life-changing. For Canadians, who seem bent on owning real-estate no matter what, the calculation could be as simple as this: if they are going to be house poor no matter where they go, they might as well settle in a big city, where they will at least be able to find something to do."

"The Canadian Real Estate Association reported on June 15 that monthly sales of existing homes dropped 7.4 per cent in May, following an 11-per-cent decline in April. 'More and more, there is anecdotal evidence of offer fatigue and frustration among buyers, and the urgency to lock down a place to ride out COVID would also be expected to fade at this point given where we are with the pandemic,' said Cliff Stevenson, the association’s chair."

From Mortgage Broker News in Canada. "After the frenetic pace of homebuying in Canada barely gave mortgage professionals the chance to catch their breath during the opening half of the year, the market appears to have cooled somewhat in recent weeks. That development was hardly unexpected: even before the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions’ (OSFI) decision to hike the stress test for uninsured mortgages came into effect (with the federal government following suit for insured products), a slowdown had been in the cards."

"In fact, an expected market surge as homebuyers rushed to complete deals before those changes took place appears to have failed to materialize. 'Most people in the industry expected to see a very frenzied couple of months before June 01, but we haven’t seen that,' John Pasalis of Realosophy Realty told BNN Bloomberg just before the qualifying rate hike."

"Shawn Stillman, principal broker at Mortgage Outlet, said that an eventual cooling off in the market was inevitable, with prospective homebuyers repeatedly frozen out in the hyperactive bidding process. 'In the past where there were 20 people bidding for a home, there are now four people bidding. There are still transactions going on, but you don’t have all these people chasing after something that was really unattainable,' he said."

"That change of pace has proven welcome for both homebuyers and mortgage professionals, with Stillman describing market activity in the first half of the year that simply couldn’t last. 'It was just not sustainable,' he said. 'The last three months have been our best months ever as a brokerage, and June will beat it. But July is definitely calming down to more manageable levels. I don’t think anybody ever thought that this could continue at its pace.'"

"'People are going to wait and see what happens with their jobs,' Stillman said. 'Some people are going to work remotely, but others are going to go back to the office. In that case, are you going to want to commute downtown if you’ve bought a house out in the middle of Barrie? Probably not.'"

From Domain News in Australia. "When Zoe Foster visited her doctor for a routine COVID-19 test, the doctor regarded her swab with horror. 'Your nose is black inside!' she exclaimed. 'It looks like … mould spores.' Ms Foster, 37, was, in turn, aghast. 'I couldn’t believe it,' she said. 'But I knew exactly what it must be. I’d had so many problems in my new apartment, including leaking balcony doors and water running down the balcony walls from upstairs. There was mould on the walls and, when I’d torn up the carpet, the underlay was covered in black mould. And now I realised it must also be affecting my health, especially with the lockdowns in Melbourne when I’d been confined to the apartment.'"

"Ms Foster purchased her two-bedroom unit in the 253-unit Atria Apartments in Hawthorn in April last year for $672,000."

"'This was my first home but it’s become a nightmare,' said Ms Foster, who works as an executive assistant in commercial property firm Cushman & Wakefield, and whose father is a builder and mother worked in real estate. 'I’m well-informed about real estate and I did everything I could to make sure there were no problems, but the system let me down. I should be in love with my home but at times I’ve absolutely hated it, and everything it’s put me through.'"

"'What I’m hearing more and more is that agents and buildings are keen to hide any possible defects in their buildings because they want to keep problems out of the public eye,' said Australian Apartment Advocacy CEO Sam Reece. 'We did a national survey of 3,600 apartment owners, which found that 60 per cent of Victorian apartment owners experienced defects of some sort. Only 25 per cent of those said their defects has been fixed, but 55 per cent said they’d only had part of the defects fixed and there were outstanding issues still to be resolved.'"