A report from KRON in California. "Homes have sold for over $1 million over asking price. In the Bay Area, this was the case for a house in Mountain View which sold for about $5.5 million within days of posting. There was also a house in Berkeley that sold for $1 million over asking, after receiving a whopping 29 offers. But Redfin says the market is starting to cool down some. 'Home purchase applications have been falling since late March and are now 7% below their average levels in January and February 2020, despite low mortgage rates and easing access to credit,' the report said."

"Anyone who has been hesitant to enter the high stakes bidding wars can feel some relief about how much they can offer. Buyers who are offering $60,000 or less over asking are beginning to get the homes, compared to last month where buyers had to give at least $100,000 over asking to get the coveted key, RedFin real estate agent Candice Smith said."

From USA Today. "In this hot real estate market, competition for houses often leads to quick purchases which also can lead to buyer's remorse. According to a recent Bankrate survey, 64% of millennials aged 25 to 40 are facing regrets after buying a home compared with 33% of baby boomers aged 57 to 75. One factor that may explain this divide is desperation; younger homebuyers are more likely to rush into a purchase which can lead them to settle for properties that might not be to their liking. Factoring in the pandemic, the survey found that homebuyer regrets among millennials mainly fell into two categories: financial and physical."

"Mark Hamrick, senior economist analyst at Bankrate, explained that as home prices have been rising nationally, there's a risk that people have less flexibility with their finances, and the only way to mitigate that is to avoid paying too much or have sufficient emergency savings. 'The No. 1 financial regret among Americans is that they wish they had emergency savings,' Hamrick said. 'You know, you look around the house and it's just a series of things waiting to break.'"

"Given low interest rates nowadays, the cost burdens among millennial homeowners are largely due to the higher-than-expected price tags for their homes, according to Hyojung Lee, an assistant professor of housing and property management at Virginia Tech. 'Admittedly getting and comparing rates across lenders is burdensome and time-consuming, but it is important as it will determine how much you will pay for the next several years, if not decades,' Lee said."

"About 13% of homebuyers listed overpaying as one of their concerns, and 9% of homebuyers did not think their home was a good investment. According to the survey, about 15% of homeowners listed a bad location as one of their regrets for buying a house. 'The problem is that when there is huge demand and limited supply, there would be more and more mismatch between the two so that people might not be happy with what they got. This could be problematic as you cannot easily change your neighborhoods,' Lee said."

The Real Deal on New York. "After eight years on the market, the luxury duplex of Mets owner and Point72 Asset Management founder Steve Cohen finally sold for 3.4 percent above asking price — after a significant price cut. The five-bedroom duplex at 151 East 58th Street first hit the market at $115 million in 2013. It bounced between four brokerages, shedding millions of dollars from its price with each relisting, Bloomberg News reported."

"A final cut to $29.5 million — along with signs of New York City’s comeback — brought results. Two interested parties, one who had viewed the unit years back, then bid up the price, said Erin Boisson Aries, whose team at Christie’s International Real Estate spearheaded marketing. The apartment at One Beacon Court, between Midtown East and the Upper East Side, ultimately sold at $30.5 million in a deal that closed Friday. Cohen paid $24 million for the place in 2005, according to Bloomberg."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "209 Carnarvon St., No. 501, New Westminster, B.C. Buyer’s agent Shali Tark says her clients had been looking off and on for an investment property since late last year. They wrote an offer on the property but there were five offers and they lost out. But the winning offer was subject to financing and it didn’t go through. About a week later, the listing agent called and said, ‘Are you able to come back to the table because it looks like this is going to go sideways?’ Ms. Tark says. They made a new offer and it was accepted. 'It worked out for my buyers to wait that one week,' she says."

"Ms. Tark says investors are starting to return to the market now that prices have flat-lined and multiple offer scenarios aren’t always working out. 'There is definitely a shift in the market now, where the sellers are starting to notice that maybe those cash offers might not be the highest offer, but they can be the best offer.'"

From Business Live in South Africa. "Planning to sell your home to cash in on the mini-boom in housing sales and prices? Better do it sooner rather than later, since it looks like SA’s property market — which entered an unexpected bull run in the second half of 2020 — is losing steam. It’s not only a slowdown in price growth that’s pointing to rapidly deflating homebuyer enthusiasm. According to FNB’s latest Property Barometer, there has been a drop in mortgage application volumes over the past two months too."

"In addition, the demand strength index, which reached record highs earlier this year, has made an abrupt U-turn in the past three months, suggesting that the shortage of housing stock for sale that developed in some areas last year was short-lived."

"FNB senior economist Siphamandla Mkhwanazi says that with both the mortgage and demand strength indicators declining over the past two months, housing demand may well have peaked. That’s hardly surprising. Last year’s three percentage point interest rate cuts, taking rates to near 50-year lows, understandably provided a colossal underpin for housing demand. But it would have been unrealistic to expect the rally to continue indefinitely, given SA’s depressing labour market stats."

"According to this Reuters report, US house prices have escalated to such an extent that homebuyer sentiment has soured to record lows. That article refers to a survey by home financing giant Fannie Mae, which reveals the growing concern that Americans are being priced out of the US housing market. In May, the percentage of consumers who said it is a good time to buy a home declined to 35%, the lowest level since Fannie Mae began its home purchase sentiment index about a decade ago."

"While the housing upswing in the UK, US and Australia may well be boosting homeowner returns, it does raise fears of a repeat of 2007/2008 when economies around the world came crashing down on the back of overheated housing markets."

The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. "Sydney renters in the inner city, eastern suburbs and northern beaches have reaped the benefits of a slump in the holiday rental market during the pandemic, as Airbnb landlords converted their properties to traditional long-term lettings. Researchers at the City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW found the suburbs in Sydney with the greatest Airbnb activity before the COVID-19 pandemic also experienced the biggest drops in typical weekly rents during 2020."

"'It’s a good opportunity for those renters wanting a home,' said Christopher Pettit, a professor of urban science. 'But we were seeing a growing dependency on Airbnb as a second income to pay the mortgage, so these hotspot suburbs could also be more susceptible to mortgage stress.'"

"Rents in eastern beachside suburb such as Bondi, Bronte and Coogee have started to recover but are still lower than before the pandemic. Meanwhile, rents have declined for the second year in a row for inner-city suburbs, such as Elizabeth Bay, Potts Point, Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Redfern, Chippendale, Newtown and Ultimo. The biggest fall is in Paddington, where median rent has declined 23.1 per cent since June 2019."

"Trish Burt, the convenor of Neighbours not Strangers, a lobby group opposed to short-term letting in residential homes, said rents had fallen up to 25 per cent in the Sydney CBD where she lives, including one building where dozens of apartments had converted from short to long-term letting at the same time."

"'It’s opened up the possibility of essential workers, such as nurses and hospitality staff, moving in,' Ms Burt said. 'It most definitely decreases the amount of income that investors are earning, but they are still able to earn what is basically the primary use of that property, which is rental return for residential occupation.'"

From Kent Online in the UK. "'Don't worry about getting through the gates, they're broken - like a lot of things here.' It's fair to say that quote was never on the brochure for The Hamiltons - a luxury development of 16 town houses off Upper Luton Road, which enjoys views stretching out across Chatham and Rochester and beyond from its hilltop vantage point."

"Developers AMG Chatham Ltd no doubt began with the best intentions of bringing a touch of style and elegance to this corner of Medway, until they went into administration in 2019 and the dream community was left unfinished and abandoned. The gated entrance was designed to offer security and an air of exclusivity, but the intended ambience has long since faded - let down by a deteriorating driveway that spits gravel as my car hauls itself up the slope, wheels spinning momentarily on the rough surface."

"Once up the drive the Hamiltons exudes an eerie quality - a row of 10 impressive three storey homes, smart and mostly finished, facing six half built homes - bare grey blocks that stand fenced off, cluttered with abandoned building materials and surrounded by signs warning you to keep out. The weeds have ignored them, and are slowly taking back the land outside."

"Over at Number 1, owners Ashlee Hincks and Georgie Perkins are less optimistic. 'It seems like they took over the site and purposefully ran it down to sell it on,' says Ashlee, 32. 'We reported this for months and months and they didn't do anything to prevent it. We don't want to be here. We're hoping the developer will come in and do what's needed but myself and my partner want to get away. At the moment we're stuck. We can't sell, and we can't leave.'"