A report from Toronto Storeys in Canada. "While Canadian real estate prices fell slightly in May — down 1.1% from April to an average of a little over $688,000 — Canada’s housing market is still flashing red warning signs that haven’t been seen since the lead up to the 2008 financial crisis. However, it’s not just Canada’s housing market that’s causing cause for concern, as real estate prices around the world are also showing bubble-risk warning signs, according to a new report from Bloomberg Economics."

"'The risk is greater when there’s a synchronized boom in house prices — as is the case in the current cycle,' economist Niraj Shah wrote in the report. Like the CMHC’s forecast, RBC economist Robert Hogue believes price increases will also be in the double-digits in 2021, although a 'much-desired soft landing' has been pushed into 2022."

From CBC News in Canada. "The average selling price of a Canadian home was $688,000 last month, a figure that has risen by more than 38 per cent in the past year. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), which represents real estate agents across the country, said that while prices are still up sharply from a year ago, the gains appear to be moderating. The $688,000 figure is down from $696,000 in April and just over $716,000 in March, which suggests that while comparisons to the early days of COVID show a red-hot market, it is in fact cooling."

"Home sales hit nearly 70,000 in March, but in the two months since, have fallen by 11 and now seven per cent. Sales fell in May in every province. Lindsay Gilliss of Stevensville, Ont., near Niagara Falls, says that despite having a good job, she's been priced out of her hometown's housing market, so she's relieved to see things cooling down a bit. 'I'm willing to dip my toes in, but I want to see how this plays out,' she told CBC News. 'Will it go back to pre-pandemic prices? Absolutely not…. But will we get to a calmer period where we can actually negotiate real prices and real conditions? That's what I'm hoping for.'"

From ABC News in Australia. "Jonty Dalton and Lucy Smith are about to achieve the Australian home ownership dream, but on a smaller scale. Rather than wait for house prices to go down or new government support to be announced, the Hobart couple have found a different solution: a tiny house. For Lucy and Jonty, the cost of their tiny house was around $120,000, including solar panels. Their solution isn't an option for everyone — for one, they needed a friend willing to let them use their land for a much smaller rental cost than buying their own block."

"It means they're now committed to a seven-year loan, instead of staring down the barrel of a 30-year mortgage. 'Tiny houses offer an affordable living solution that gives you everything you need for a much lower price,' Jonty said. 'In a way, that's different to any kind of system we currently have.'"

"There are several federal government schemes aimed at reducing the time people need to save before they can buy a home. '[The schemes] acknowledge that the barrier for first home buyers predominantly is getting that deposit together, particularly in a low interest rate environment like we are at the moment,' Federal Housing Minister Michael Sukkar told The Business. 'I think it's for that reason that we've seen first home buyers at their highest levels in nearly 15 years.'"

"The deposit schemes and stamp duty concessions may make it easier for some would-be buyers to save the required amount to enter the market. However, they also add to the demand for housing and therefore contribute to higher prices, as more people try to jump into the market sooner. Professor Ong ViforJ says additional reform is needed, to reduce tax incentives for housing investors."

"'Many of them already own a family home, but they're seeking that attractive investment by purchasing the second or the third property,' she said. 'All these concessions that are in place are actually over-stimulating demand for housing and we could look at reforming them.' That's not politically popular, however."

"'They're painful solutions … we do need political leadership and willingness amongst our policymakers to execute them,' Professor Ong ViforJ said. Labor lost the 2019 federal election after campaigning on scrapping negative gearing for existing properties and halving the capital gains tax discount."

From Interest New Zealand. "The average value of homes at both the top and bottom ends of the market is continuing to rise but at a slower pace than previously, according to Quotable Value (QV). Many of the biggest declines occurred in centres where the housing market has been hottest, such as Marlborough, Wellington City and Napier."

A comment: "Given that our Government and Reserve Bank have put housing front and center in driving our economy, with business firmly in the back seat being told to shut up, news of the moderation in house price growth is unfortunate. My guess is the average Kiwi, forced to scrape by on meager local wages, will turn very hostile towards those institutions. Home ownership is the New Zealand dream…and the Devil's bargain."

Another said: "We need DTI ratios urgently and they must also apply to everyone including first home buyers. IMO the reason they want to exclude first home buyers fib DTI ratios, is because then it could cause house prices to fall if FHBs aren't able or willing to pay the insane highly inflated house prices. DTI ratios need to be a circuit breaker to break the cycle."

From The Beacon. "Kansas City, Missouri, is in the top five housing markets with the greatest year-over-year decline in affordability: The median price of a Jackson County home has gone up to $240,000 as of May 2021. When Lauren Allen, 32, of Kansas City, Missouri, began looking for a home toward the end of 2020, there were times when she would be one of the top bidders. But there were other times when she noticed buyers offering cash down or waiving appraisal. 'There were times where I was still shocked by how far a buyer would go,' she said."

"Then Allen noticed a 'coming soon' sign in front of a home in Kansas City’s Hyde Park neighborhood. She bought the house for $250,000 — under her budget — and closed within 10 days."

"Robbie Wegley, 28, and his wife wanted a house with a basement, garage, more than one bathroom for the couple and their 5-year-old son. Wegley and his wife placed offers on five homes. They got beat every time. In early 2021, the couple’s real estate agent heard of a duplex that was back on the market after a previous deal had fallen through. 'They pretty much just said, ‘If you match the offer, and you do it tonight, you’ll get it,' Wegley said. “So we found out about it after work, saw it a couple hours later and had an offer within four hours of hearing about it, and it was accepted that night.'"

"The couple hadn’t originally wanted a duplex — they wanted a single-family home. But the circumstances meant making compromises. It’s not the market many young Kansas Citians thought they would find. 'That’s one of the things that, growing up, you hear is so great about Kansas City, is the cost of living here,' Wegley said. 'People my age grew up hearing that, and then they go to buy a house, and they find out that it’s actually not going to be that great anymore. And it’s getting worse.'"

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "Home values are up seemingly everywhere in the Bay Area except San Francisco. Yet while the city is an exception in the region, the 'San Francisco exodus' — people leaving the city, causing rents and home values to drop precipitously — has actually been the norm within major U.S. metropolitan areas, according to research."

"While most of the neighborhoods we looked at saw home values increase from January 2020 through April 2021, estimated values declined in 74 of them — 55 of which were in San Francisco. Additionally, San Francisco made up the top 37 neighborhoods in the Bay Area with the steepest declines in home values. The Tenderloin neighborhood saw the steepest decrease in home values over the pandemic; the neighborhood’s estimated median home value went from about $780,000 at the end of January 2020 to $690,000 at the end of April, a decrease of almost 12%."

"Home values sank in the more affluent neighborhoods of Cow Hollow and the Marina as well; both neighborhoods saw value declines of more than 11%, from roughly $3.7 million to $3.3 million, and $2.5 million to $2.2 million, respectively."

"In May, economists Arjun Ramani and Nicholas Bloom from Stanford University published a study examining pandemic migration patterns and real estate markets within the 12 biggest metropolitan areas. Nationwide, the study found that the 'doughnut effect' had created home value losses of around 15 percentage points in major cities’ densest urban ZIP codes relative to changes in less-dense surrounding ones."

From North Jersey. "Thea Gleason juggles jobs to support her family of four in Little Egg Harbor, supplementing her salary as a high school English teacher with a second job at a storage facility. She usually waitresses as well, but that gig fell through when the COVID pandemic hit, reducing her income. So her family applied to their lender for mortgage forbearance. It was granted, and allowed them to put off payments for a year, through the end of this month. 'So we could buy food instead,' Gleason said."

"Gleason, 47, recently received a letter from her mortgage lender that said the company would 'work with her,' and provided instructions to apply for additional mortgage assistance. Gleason’s understanding is that she can refinance her loan, or work out a repayment plan. She hopes they can move the nearly $10,000 she owes in delayed payments to the end of her mortgage, instead of increasing monthly payments or paying it back in one lump-sum check, which they can’t afford, she said."

"'I don’t have thousands of dollars to pay something back immediately because it’s not like I’ve built up savings,' Gleason said. 'So it’s scary. It would just be easier for everybody if whatever amounts you owe just get added to the end of your loan,' Gleason said. 'Anything other than that would kill us financially, or could result in foreclosure because we have no ways to come up with huge sums of money right now. I imagine that’s the case for most people who took advantage of assistance like this.'"

"Melissa Arcaro Burns was granted more than a year’s forbearance on the mortgage for her family home in Haddonfield, which she rents out to tenants. That has let her delay nearly $18,000 worth of mortgage payments. But her tenants were sporadic paying the $2,300 monthly rent even before the pandemic, she said. In landlord-tenant court filings, she lists $13,800 worth of unpaid rent from December 2019 through May 2020, and Arcaro Burns said the renters haven’t paid her in any month that followed."

"Her property’s bank account is now empty, she said, because she had to continue making about $13,000 in payments for property taxes, insurance, water and sewer, but didn’t have the rental income coming in to cover them."

"'If I don’t pay my taxes, I risk the township coming after me, placing a lien on my home, and having that lien sold and losing the house,' said Arcaro Burns, 45. 'This house has been in my family since the 1970s, and belonged to my grandparents until they sold it to us. My first child was born in that house and I envisioned passing it on to one of my kids. I’m really attached to that house.'"

"Arcaro Burns and her renters are in talks, trying to come to an agreement for a repayment plan. The tenants declined to comment. 'I just have no recourse,' Arcaro Burns said. 'Once our account was totally depleted, and I really felt like I’ve done everything by the books, I really felt like I didn’t have anywhere to go.'"