A report from CBS News. "First Republic Bank's stock price continued to plunge Wednesday. After shedding half their value on Tuesday, First Republic shares tumbled nearly 30% to close at $5.69, with the New York Stock Exchange halting trading in the stock several times because of volatility. Since January, the shares have shed 95% of their value. 'Investors got a sharp reminder on Tuesday that the U.S. banking crisis and broader credit crunch are not over,' wrote Will Denyer of Gavekal Research in a research note."

The Washington Post. "Shares of First Republic Bank fell sharply Wednesday, continuing an astonishing decline. The bank’s funding costs are rising, as it must pay more to acquire and keep deposits, while its earnings from low-yielding securities and loans remain the same, according to Karen Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, a Washington consultancy. 'This is what happened to the [savings-and-loans institutions] in the 1980s: The cost of deposits rises and the bank has a large portfolio of lower-rate loans or securities. The cost of doing business becomes higher than the return they can realize,' she said."

The Sun Sentinel in Florida. "'They know the market has changed,' said Patty Da Silva, broker with Green Realty Properties in Cooper City. 'Sellers have come to the realization that they aren’t going to get the prices from last year and buyers realize that interest rates will probably not come down meaningfully soon.' There’s about 3 months of inventory in Palm Beach County, a 166% increase from the year before. In Broward County there is about 2.7 months, a 145% increase, while in Miami-Dade County there is 3.5 months of inventory, or a 105% increase. Prices are also significantly lower than what they were at the peak of the market — the median sale price in Palm Beach County was $620,000, while in Broward County, it was $600,000."

The Colorado Springs Business Journal. "While the inventory of homes on the market is up a dramatic 259 percent over March of 2022, it’s still historically very low. 'We saw a huge inflation in prices in 2021 and early 2022,' says Chris Lutyen, managing broker of Coldwell Banker Realty. 'We had so few listings then that people were overbidding and creating a huge price bump, inflating the prices more than they would have been otherwise. A sort of downtick in pricing now is like a recovery.'"

From Deseret News. "Utah ranks in the top 10 most 'difficult' states for first-time homebuyers, with an average of over $70,000 in cash needed up front for a down payment. In May of last year, the median price of a single-family home in Salt Lake County peaked at $650,000, but since then, price increases have slowed and even tipped downward. In February, the median single-family home in Salt Lake County fell to $560,000, down $90,000 from its May 2022 peak, according to the Salt Lake County Board of Realtors."

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune. "The median price of a Southern California home, or the price at the midpoint of all sales, fell 2.1% to $705,000 during the 12 months ending in March, CoreLogic housing figures show. Last month's median was down 7% from an all-time high of $760,000 in the spring of 2022. But on the other hand, it's up 5% from January, when median prices dipped to a recent low of $670,000. Southern California home sales, meanwhile, were down 37.5% to 15,307 transactions last month, CoreLogic figures show. That's the second-lowest tally for a March in records dating back 36 years."

The Wall Street Journal. "Before the pandemic, San Francisco’s California Street was home to some of the world’s most valuable commercial real estate. One building, a 22-story glass and stone tower at 350 California Street, was worth around $300 million in 2019, according to office broker estimates. That building now is for sale, with bids due soon. They are expected to come in at about $60 million, commercial real-estate brokers say. That’s an 80% decline in value in just four years."

"Regardless of the building’s specific issues, a sale as low as the bids some brokers expect would be bad news for office owners in other U.S. cities too, said Mark Fawer, a partner in the real estate practice group at law firm Greenspoon Marder. 'This could be seen as a bellwether for the value destruction in the urban office market nationally,' he said, 'especially those markets that are more technology and financial services-centric.'"

"About $80 billion worth of loans backed by U.S. office buildings come due this year, according to data firm Trepp Inc. Most will need to be refinanced, at a time of higher interest rates and lower occupancy, threatening lenders with losses. Wells Fargo & Co. recently said the volume of its office-building-backed loans that are classified as 'nonaccrual'—meaning the bank no longer expects full interest and principal payment—jumped to $725 million in the first quarter from $186 million in the 2022 fourth quarter."

The New York Post. "New York City has come a long way since the dark days of 2020. But if we’re really 'back,' as Mayor Eric Adams claims, why are there so many empty lots and unfinished building projects? It’s depressing that large development sites sit empty, with no work being done, on Fifth Avenue, East and West 57th Street and all over the map in FiDi. Other projects ground to a halt when new buildings were halfway done. With no firm completion dates in sight, they stand as rude reminders that big-ticket real estate is a risky business even for the wealthiest and savviest professionals."

"Whether hostage to feuds between partners, neglected by absentee foreign ownership, or in need of new funding thanks to improbable budgeting, here are some of NYC’s most 'cursed' building sites."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "The number of property owners willing to list their homes for sale is edging up in the Greater Toronto Area but a chill remains. Patrick Rocca, broker with Bosley Real Estate Ltd., says phone calls from potential sellers picked up during the week of March break in Ontario, he says, as some homeowners began looking for opinions of value. Some are still hoping for a return to the peak price of early 2022, he says. 'I think that’s a drastic mistake. We’ve come back quite nicely but we’re nowhere near last year.'"

"Mr. Rocca says one source of new listings may be homeowners with fixed-term mortgages who are required to renew those agreements in the coming months. He has talked to owners seeing their monthly mortgage payments double or triple. But while some homeowners are able to reduce their other expenses or work out agreements with their lenders, others may be under more pressure to sell."

CBC News in Canada. "A major Ontario home developer is facing startling allegations from one of the big five banks that it orchestrated a 'highly sophisticated,' year-long fraud totalling over $37 million. TD Bank has filed a lawsuit against StateView Homes, based in Woodbridge, Ont., north of Toronto, and headed by brothers Carlo and Dino Taurasi, alleging the company carried out a 'cheque-kiting' scheme from April 2022 to last month."

"The lawsuit also names as defendants 25 associated corporations, five directors of those companies and StateView's former chief financial officer Daniel Ciccone. TD alleges the defendants wrote thousands of bad cheques for large sums of money from both corporate and personal accounts at other banks, according to its statement of claim, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto. TD alleges the defendants would cash the cheques into TD accounts and TD would conditionally release the money before the cheque cleared. The bank says the defendants would quickly withdraw the funds and then cancel the cheque to prevent the money from actually being transferred to the TD account."

"To avoid detection, the defendants were routinely doing these 'sham transactions' across 22 accounts to create the illusion of fresh funds coming in, TD alleges. These court actions raise questions about the future of about 1,400 homes StateView has planned across the Toronto area, many of which have already been sold but not yet built. Stateview and its subsidiaries are facing another financial challenge. The lenders Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation and Dorr Capital Corporation earlier this week filed a claim against Carlo, Dino and Stateview's Nao Towns II corporation — seeking immediate repayment of a $24 million loan for the 96-unit project under construction in Markham. It's also one of the many StateView properties TD is eyeing."

"Insolvency lawyer David Schatzker, who is not involved in the case, says if lenders succeed in getting a receiver to take control of StateView properties, there's not a lot concerned buyers could do. The receiver may allow the project to finish and the buyers would be able to complete their home purchases, he said. However if a receiver orders the projects sold to repay lenders, those buyers may never see the homes they bought, or their deposits."

"'Ultimately they may suffer a loss if the project is not completed,' Schatzker said. 'They might theoretically at some point sue the developer but the likelihood is that, after the receivership is completed, there's probably not going to be a lot of money left over.'"

From CNN. "One of China’s poorest and most indebted provinces has admitted defeat in trying to sort out its finances and is appealing to Beijing for help to avert default. Guizhou, located in a mountainous region of southwest China, has hired a top state-owned distressed debt fund, China Cinda Asset Management, to resolve its 'urgent' problems. Its total debt, including the 'hidden debt' issued by the government’s financing arms, had reached 25 trillion yuan ($3.6 trillion) by the end of 2021, according to the most recent available data."

"In mid April, Guizhou acknowledged publicly that it was unable to tackle its own debt issues and called on Beijing for help. It was the first Chinese province to do so. 'The debt problem has become a major and urgent problem for [our] local governments,' a research team from the provincial government said in an article posted on the government’s website. 'However, due to limited financial resources, it is extremely difficult [for them] to advance the debt relief work, and it is impossible to effectively solve it only by relying on their own capabilities.' The article was later removed, but not before it had been widely circulated on social media."

From Reuters. "Queues stretch hundreds of metres around temples in China on weekends, as despondent young worshippers pray to find jobs in an economy slowly clawing its way back from the coronavirus pandemic. 'I hope to find some peace in temples,' said 22-year-old Wang Xiaoning, pointing to 'the pressure of finding a job' and housing costs that are out of reach. Mr Wang is among a record 11.58 million university graduates who face a job market still reeling from stringent 'zero-Covid' lockdowns, as well as crackdowns on the technology and education sectors, key traditional hirers."

"'The threshold for employment keeps rising,' said Ms Chen, a 19-year-old who was praying for her career prospects at the iconic Lama Temple in the capital, Beijing, despite being years away from graduation. 'The pressure is overwhelming,' she added, who gave only her surname for privacy reasons."

"The one-fifth of young Chinese without jobs among a highly educated generation is a record. Improving their prospects is a major headache for the authorities, who want the economy to create 12 million new jobs in 2023, up from 11 million in 2022. 'There is a serious oversupply of university graduates and their priority is survival,' said Ms Zhang Qidi, a researcher at the Centre for International Finance Studies, who added that many have resorted to ride-sharing or delivery jobs."