A report from Reuters. "First Republic Bank faces dwindling and tough options to turn around its business with the creation of a 'bad bank' or asset sales possibilities, a source familiar with the matter said, after the lender disclosed it lost more than half its deposits during last month's banking crisis. 'If someone were to acquire them ... there's going to be some big writedowns that would have to be taken against some of the assets given the rate cycle,' Christopher Wolfe, head of North American banks at Fitch Ratings, told Reuters, referring to the bank's mortgage loan book and securities portfolio. 'The options are very challenging and probably very costly, especially for shareholders,' Wolfe said. 'Who's going to bear the cost?'"

7 News on Washington DC. "Those intense bidding wars we saw through last spring are a thing of the past. 'If you're slightly off on your offering price and where you position your property, buyers are going to look at it and think about it and ask 'is this a good value?' said Harrison Beacher, a realtor with Keller Williams Capital Property. 'In the last 30 days Melanie, I've had listings go almost 15% over list price and another one that had to reduce the price twice almost 10% below listing price in the same market.' If the price is not right, that property could sit for weeks."

Go Banking Rates. "While many buyers and sellers are anxiously waiting to see what happens next, Ruth Shin, CEO of PropertyNest, based in Brooklyn, New York, said a complete housing market crash this year is unlikely. 'It is not currently a great market for sellers and is turning more and more into a buyers’ market, with the peak yet to come,' she said. More significant price drops might happen, but she said that probably won’t happen until mid-to-late summer. 'The conditions, while at times extreme in the past few years, are nothing like they were leading up to the housing crash in 2008,' she said. 'There is a bubble to burst but not at the same dramatic level.'"

The Wall Street Journal. "Apartment rents in Manhattan are soaring to new highs this year, even as rents plateau or fall in most of the rest of the country. Blackstone Inc. risks losing a portfolio of Manhattan apartments anyway. The real-estate and private-equity firm is in danger of defaulting on a $270 million loan backed by 11 apartment buildings in New York’s most expensive borough. Cash flow from the properties isn’t enough to cover the cost of all the debt, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service."

"There is $37 billion worth of securitized multifamily loans set to expire in the next two years where rental income either isn’t enough to cover debt payments, or covers it with less cushion than is considered standard, according to real-estate data firm Trepp LLC. For comparison, that is more than twice the amount of at-risk loans in the office sector. 'I think there’s going to be a lot of buyer’s remorse,' said Manus Clancy, senior managing director at Trepp."

From Bisnow. "Investment in office properties across the country fell 68% in the first quarter to $10.7B, the lowest level since 2010 and an indicator of the degree of deep freeze property markets plunged into after their most challenging year in more than a decade. Sales of all property types declined, according to Colliers, citing new MSCI data. 'It’s a frightening tsunami of problems coming at us, because there’s not a lot of demand for office — especially for Class-B and C buildings,' Compass Vice Chair Adelaide Polsinelli told Bisnow. 'This is absolutely the new normal where properties, especially office, are selling at losses. Valuations have dropped significantly.'"

KVUE in Texas. "Appraisal districts are required to value homes on Jan. 1 of every year, and homeowners in Williamson County may start seeing a decline in the value of their homes. Homes in the county are indicating a value decrease of around 11% from Jan. 1, 2022, to Jan. 1, 2023. 'We started seeing sales towards the end of last year that were lower than what they were at the beginning of the year. So we noticed that decrease, and it applied those values to the properties for this year,' said Alvin Lankford, chief appraiser."

The Tri-City Herald in Washington. "Welcome to 2023, when the residential real estate market is much cooler after mortgage interest rates doubled as the federal reserve raised the funds rate to combat inflation. Dave Retter, owner of Retter & Company — Sotheby's International Realty in Kennewick, said open houses picked up dramatically by February in stark contrast to the early pandemic days. Homes then were 'flying off the shelf with 10 or 20 offers. You list on a Friday and it probably sold before a Sunday open house,' he said. He called it a positive development for buyers."

"Shannon Jones, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices agreed it now takes more days and more work to sell a home. Putting out open house flags, beverages and welcoming visitors, including casual looky-loos, is good business. 'They're necessary now,' she said. In March, the average local home sold for $452,400, $4,600 less than a year ago, according to the most recent figures compiled by the Tri-City Association of Realtors. The median was $410,000, down 5% from a year ago."

The Union Tribune in California. "The lack of inventory was evident in sales numbers, which are still at historic lows. There were 2,541 home sales in March, down from 3,933 at the same time last year. That was the second-lowest sales for any March in records going back to 1988. The lowest was 2,108 in March 2008 during the Great Recession. San Diego County's median home price rose 5.3 percent in March — reversing nine months of declines — to $790,000, according to CoreLogic. Resale single-family: Median of $880,000 with 1,538 sales, up from $850,000 last month. Down from its peak of $950,000 in April 2022. Resale condo: Median of $650,000, with 813 sales, up from $625,000 last month. Down from its peak of $663,000 in May 2022. Newly built: Median of $801,000 with 151 sales, down from $777,000 last month. This figure combines single-family homes, townhouses and condos. It is down from the peak of $890,500 in August 2022."

"Here’s a look at the median prices across Southern Californian markets for March: Los Angeles County: Monthly rise of 4.4 percent to $799,000; down 4 percent for the year. Orange County: Monthly rise of 3.6 percent to $990,000; down 2.5 percent for the year. Riverside County: Monthly decrease of 0.8 percent to $535,750; down 4.9 percent for the year."

The Bakersfield Californian. "Following a volatile start to the year, Bakersfield's single-family home market returned last month to what a prominent observer termed normal conditions as new data showed the city's median sale price for an existing house sliding 2.4 percent to hit $370,000, or 1.2 percent less than a year earlier. Local appraiser Gary Crabtree said the median price for a newly built home in March fell more steeply — it was down 6.2 percent month over month at $446,500 — to settle 5.9 percent below its level a year before. As for new construction's median price change, Crabtree called the decline 'attributable to the resumption of normal pricing.'"

The Daily Hive in Canada. "Living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) doesn’t come cheap. It will now cost you close to $2 million to own the average single-family home in the region, according to the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD). BILD reports a steep decline in new home sales in March, when only 1,277 homes were purchased region-wide. That marks a staggering 70% year-over-year decline, falling 65% below the 10-year average for March sales based on data from Altus Group."

"Condominium apartments accounted for most of the inventory sold in March at just shy of 900 units, down 73% year-over-year and 63% below the 10-year average for the month. Only 384 single-family home sales were recorded last month, a 57% decline from last year and 67% below the 10-year average. Benchmark condo prices also saw a slight increase to almost $1.18 million in March, though that figure marks a year-over-year decline of 10.8%."

From Newshub. "New Zealand house prices fell by triple figures in the year to March amid ongoing aggressive interest rate hikes from the Reserve Bank (RBNZ), according to Trade Me. Prices fell 10.9 percent ($105,450) in year-on-year terms - the biggest loss on record after February's 9.2 percent annual decrease, Trade Me's property price index said. As of March, the average asking price was $866,000. Trade Me said the latest 'plunge' suggested the market was continuing to correct itself after COVID-19 caused house prices to surge to record highs."

"'When we take a look across the motu, the drops were particularly apparent in the regions which have had the biggest rises over the past few years,' said Trade Me Property sales director Gavin Lloyd. 'The Wellington and Auckland property markets have been running red hot post the first COVID lockdown in 2020, so it's unsurprising that these regions have seen the sharpest drops.' Trade Me's figures showed Wellington and Auckland's house prices dropped by 13 percent in March this year from 2022, while Bay of Plenty was down 11 percent in annual terms."

Vietnam Investment Review. "Since the beginning of 2022, when Vietnam's real estate market slid gradually into recession, a number of businesses, from large private firms like Novaland to government-backed companies like Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUD), are experiencing cash flow and debt repayment difficulties. HUD's total assets were $427.5 million as of December 31, according to the company's financial report released on April 10; however, inventory accounted for $237 million, coming from a variety of projects."

"The situation has become more dire at the end of the first quarter of this year. Dr. Le Xuan Nghia, a member of the National Monetary and Financial Policy Advisory Council, stated last Wednesday that the real estate market will have a direct impact on the quality of bank assets. Currently, investors borrow money from banks to purchase homes, but with mortgage rates at such low levels, Nghia questions their ability to repay bank loans."

"'The real estate market plummeted, and the asset quality of the banking system deteriorated, causing problems. The enormous withdrawal of funds from the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank represents a significant threat to the economy, especially if the lack of financial capacity to manage it spreads to numerous other domains,' Nghia said. 'The current problem is not only finding a way to recover the market but also preventing major risks to the banking system and financial market.'"

"Nghia added, 'The enterprises that are currently ailing are those that do not possess a bank account. There are thousands of real estate companies in Vietnam, but only a handful have institutions capable of restructuring poor debts, issuing new loans, and reversing debt.'"