It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The National Association of Realtors’ index of pending home sales fell 5.2% to a reading of 78.9 in March, according to data released on Thursday. On a yearly basis, pending transactions plunged by 23.2%. NAR predicts that newly constructed home sales will increase from last year by 4.5% in 2023 to 670,000 and increase by another 11.9% in 2024 to 750,000. 'Sales of new homes are already matching 2019 pre-COVID activity and are expected to increase in 2023,' said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, 'largely due to plentiful inventory in this segment of the market.'"

"After years of leading the nation in home price growth, the Phoenix metro is now dipping into the red. If you drive, you’ll notice 'for sale' signs popping up across the Valley, but we know prices just aren’t as high as they used to be. It has now joined seven other metros across the country in the same boat including Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. 'The main reason why home prices are going down is because homes are staying on the market for longer, so that’s why sellers are lowering their prices to get people to buy,' said Luis Cordova with Rounds Consulting Group."

"Reno posted a record high median home sale price of $635,000 in June 2022 for an existing home, almost doubling the median price of $320,000 from January 2017, according to Sierra Nevada Realtors. The Reno median price has since fallen to $555,000 in March this year due to a rebalancing of the market from rising interest rates but remains unaffordable for many households in the city. Sparks reached a record high of $570,000 in May 2022. The median home sale price for Sparks in March this year was $502,500, according to Sierra Nevada Realtors. Las Vegas, meanwhile, reported a median home price of $425,000 in March, according to Las Vegas Realtors. Las Vegas’ median home sale price reached as high as $482,000 in May 2022."

"After nearly three years of nonstop price increases, Maine's housing market has been showing signs of stabilizing for several months. In five of Maine's 16 counties, median sales prices declined between 2.5% and 10% during the first quarter of the year."

"The year-over-year median price for a home on Long Island — excluding the Hamptons and North Fork — had not dropped in 10 years. Until last quarter. 'This part is anecdotal, but in talking to the real estate community in the East End, the problem is a lot of the listings that are coming on are simply priced for early ’21, or early ’22. They’re not in sync with the current market,' said Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller."

"The tallest high-rise in Texas has now been scaled back to 45 stories. Instead of soaring 80 stories — 1,035 feet tall — and having 450 apartment units, Wilson Capital, the Austin-based real estate firm developing the project, now envisions a building with 350 apartment homes in a 45-story tower. 'Changing market conditions, notably rising construction costs and interest rates, have driven our firm to be very selective about which projects to move forward with and how to go about programming them,' said Taylor Wilson, president of Wilson Capital. 'Projects and designs that made sense in 2021-2022 do not necessarily work in the current environment.'"

"Residence hall occupancy on the CWU Ellensburg campus towards the end of the academic year is still below administration expectations. There were 2,054 students living in the residence halls in fall 2021 versus 2,143 in fall 2022, still 1,000 fewer residents than pre-COVID levels, which were around 3,000. CWU is still not at the expected occupancy that it had hoped to be, according to Joel Klucking, CWU chief financial officer. 'We have lots of available vacancies in our residence halls,' Klucking said. 'It’s much healthier if we can get to that 90 to 95% occupied state.'"

"Panoramic Development has skidded into loan default for a proposed highrise to contain more than 1,000 homes in West Oakland. The San Francisco-based developer defaulted on a $6.25 million debt for CitySpaces at 500 Kirkham Street, the East Bay Times reported. The development was to include 1,032 apartments and 35,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, offices and a grocery store. Now the property faces loan delinquency, default and possible foreclosure."

"For many real estate buyers who lined up to sip a cocktail and purchase a condo unit at a high-profile launch party, the euphoria is a distant memory. The dilemma confronting many of those buyers now is that their units – in projects nearing completion – are not worth what they agreed to pay at the time. Sahil Jaggi, broker with Re/Max Realtron Realty, recalls the heady days of project launches in Toronto in recent years. He believes many buyers are not sufficiently aware of the risks of buying a unit preconstruction."

"'A lot of people who purchased at premium prices were overly optimistic when the market was doing well,' he says. 'People are scared because the valuations have dropped. I see a lot of panicking happening.' Mr. Jaggi recalls the sales centre frenzies which reached a crescendo in 2021. More than 30,000 units were sold in preconstruction that year. 'They just stand in the line and buy. They don’t even know what floor plan they’re buying. If the market continues to go up forever, preconstruction is a great buy. But it’s so speculative. I’ve seen people lose their entire life savings.'"

"Lenders who provide financing to the developer for construction do typically require that they ensure buyers will have the ability to close. It’s no secret among industry insiders that the practices can be lax. Mr. Jaggi is more scathing than that. 'It’s a joke. It’s a complete joke. People are getting these letters from their friends. Half of those preapproval letters are not authentic,' he says."

"Anna Wong, real estate agent at Strata.ca in Toronto, says the downturn in the broader real estate market has exposed the risks of betting too heavily on future prices. 'This market actually teaches people a lesson on preconstruction,' she says. 'People, sadly, are being burned by it.' In one case, the original buyer of a one-bedroom, 648-square-foot unit at 88 Queen Condos paid $810,000 a couple of years ago. The buyer tried to sell the contract in the assignment market for $909,000, then recently dropped the price to $860,000 after 86 days on the market. But Ms. Wong points out that a buyer can purchase a unit of a similar size in the resale market for about $700,000. 'They push preconstruction out like crazy,' Ms. Wong says. 'There’s so much hype. It’s a great investment – only if the market is with you.'"

"The former chair of the Housing Agency, Conor Skehan, has warned that the State needs to be cautious of the risk of an 'oversupply' of housing. A runaway train in housing wrecked the Irish economy in 2008. e already have to watch out for the dangers for oversupply,' he said. Mr Skehan said that when oversupply happens, 'you can't apply the brakes' easily. 'And then the house next door to you sells for €50,000 less than you're expecting, suddenly your house is undervalued even though you've no intention of selling it and suddenly you're in negative equity,' he said."

"The International Monetary Fund warned Friday of 'disorderly' house price corrections in Europe. 'A housing market correction is already underway in some European countries, for instance, in the Czech Republic, Denmark, as well as in Sweden where house prices declined more than 6% in 2022,' the Fund said."

"Australia’s largest brick manufacturer has become the latest casualty in the nation’s construction industry crisis, with the company forced to close down a major plant in the country’s west. Concrete block and brick producer Brickworks revealed on Thursday its Western Australian subsidiary Austral has been running at a loss in recent years off the back of a reduction in building activity. As a result, the company has made the 'difficult decision' to shut down its last manufacturing centre in the state, located in Cardup about 46km southeast of Perth. 'After careful deliberation, we have decided to mothball our Cardup factory to focus on the sale of excess stock,' a statement read."

"Prior to Porter Davis and Lloyd group going bust, a number of other construction companies packed up the tools in March. This included Queensland-based business National Construction Management Pty Ltd and NSW firm Allworks Building Pty Ltd. Ajit Constructions was also ordered into liquidation that month by the Supreme Court of NSW following an application by one of its trade creditors Boral Resources NSW. Meanwhile, a number of big-name groups including Probuild, Home Innovation Builders, Privium, Condev Construction and Pivotal Homes became insolvent in the past year."

"All collapses have put a number of jobs at risk while leaving families in limbo as they desperately scramble to find another builder to finish their forever home."