A report from the American Statesman in Texas. "The chief appraiser for the Williamson Central Appraisal District told county commissioners this month that the median market value of a home in the county fell about 12% in 2022. Chief Appraiser Alvin Lankford said the decrease was due to rising interest rates, which led to more homes on the market and houses staying on the market longer before they sold. The median market value of a home in Williamson County, or the amount that the county thinks a home would sell for, fell from $473,328 in 2021 to $414,869 in 2022, Lankford said."

The Idaho Press. "A relief in rising housing prices is bringing property tax relief to Boiseans in the upcoming fiscal year, even with Mayor Lauren McLean proposing a hike in tax collections to keep pace with growth. This year, property tax bills are expected to decline by $137, dropping to $1,455 for the average Boise home valued at $486,280. This is down from a bill of $1,593 last year when an average-priced Boise home was $564,245."

KKTV in Colorado. "A lot of you may have questions about the property valuations that you received in the mail, so I sat down with the El Paso County Assessor Mark Flutcher to find out more information about the valuations and how the appeal process works. The housing market has been up and down since the start of the pandemic. It seems like it’s cooled off a little this year, so I asked whether the county would do a reappraisal sooner than the two-year benchmark to account for the difference. In response, Flutcher told me they 'have to stick to that time period, given by state statute.' The county tells me this same type of thing happened during the last recession — before the housing market crashed."

Willamette Week in Oregon. "Way back in 2016, I coined the slogan 'Make Portland Shitty Again' on the theory that if we could convince the rest of America that Portland was a terrible place, maybe they’d stop moving here and driving up the rents. Now it’s finally starting to work and everybody acts like it’s the goddamned apocalypse. Where, I ask you, is the gratitude? But let’s not give up on Portland quite yet. It’s true that from 2020 to 2022 the Rose City was eighth out of 69 on the list of fastest-shrinking U.S. cities with populations over 300,000. But listen to the seven cities that shrank even faster: San Francisco, New York City, San Jose, Boston, New Orleans, Long Beach, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit."

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Is Union Square in downtown San Francisco really dying? Nordstrom is shutting down its two stores in the area. Saks Off 5th is leaving. T-Mobile already closed its two-level flagship store. The exodus of these business has concerned some business leaders and economists alike. 'This is an example of the pressure urban retail has been feeling as a result of how people buy things,' said Wade Rose, president of Advance SF, a business advocacy group. 'San Francisco is deeply engaged and dealing with that issue. There are roughly 300,000 less people in downtown San Francisco than there was in 2019.'"

The Daily Mail. "'When it comes to listing a home now, you want to win the beauty contest,' said licensed realtor Adie Kriegstein, who founded NYC Experience at Compass. For South Carolina realtor Drake Johnson, the key issue now is pricing competitively. 'At the moment, you don't want your home sitting on the market,' he told Dailymail.com. 'Making sure you know exactly how much houses are going for in your area and pricing it competitively will make it shine. I have a realtor friend in San Antonio who is pricing properties around $10,000-$15,000 below what they think they're worth as a way to get buyers. It's worth it if it stops a property sitting on the market for weeks or even months.'"

"Data from Redfin found that two of the worst-affected areas included Oakland and San Francisco - which recorded decreases of $220,000 and $174,000 respectively. Other major metros to be badly affected were Austin, Boise, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Los Angeles - all of which saw their median home price shed at least $60,000 since April 2022."

The Commercial Observer. "EY Plaza, the 41-story office tower in Downtown L.A., went to a special receiver after its owner, Brookfield, missed payments on its $275 million in commercial mortgage-backed securities financing. And, after threatening it would do so months ago, RXR is walking away from 61 Broadway, where it defaulted on a $240 million loan on May 1. 'There is also the old saying that ‘When there is blood in the street, buy property,’ wrote Bob Knakal in his column for CO this week. 'Although different sectors of the market are performing differently today, for a number of sectors there is blood in the street.' Knakal notes that prices have fallen to levels that haven’t been seen in 15 to 20 years in certain asset classes … and yet there is still an intense reluctance to buy as investors wait for absolute bottom."

Toronto Life in Canada. "When his inbox pinged early one summer day in 2020, Dundas Kwok clicked. The message was from a real estate consultant named Courtney Wallis Simpson, and she had two exclusive, yet-to-be-advertised listings she thought he might be interested in. Convinced, he sent Simpson two deposits by certified cheque totalling $250,000. He contacted Simpson in June of 2021 to cancel the deal. Simpson wrote back, telling him not to worry about the paperwork and confirming that the deal was indeed off. When he followed up with her again a few days later, she said she was in the midst of moving offices and would send him a cheque when she had more time, promising to get in touch soon."

"His anxiety turning to frustration, he called Simpson to demand that she return his deposits—only to discover that her number was no longer in service. On July 13, 2022, Peel police arrested Courtney Wallis Simpson and her husband, Kenneth Wayne Simpson, and formally charged them with fraud, forgery, theft and possession of the proceeds of a crime. Kwok learned that this wasn’t a one-time error in judgment, either: there were at least 16 other victims. Not only was his money gone, but Kwok would soon find out that Simpson hadn’t even been authorized to sell the properties he thought he was buying."

"As Simpson struggled to pay off her condo investors and keep her Ponzi scheme afloat, she embarked on a new scam: hawking enticing not-yet-listed commercial properties in and around Stouffville, then collecting deposits from multiple buyers. Simpson met a woman I’ll call Emily. (She requested anonymity) Emily knew people who had invested with Simpson and were pleased with the returns, and Simpson asked her if she was interested in doing the same."

"One morning not long afterward, her phone rang. It was Simpson, sobbing and apologizing. Emily demanded to know what was going on. 'She said, ‘None of it’s real,' Emily recalls. 'There are no condos. There’s nothing.' Simpson told Emily that the rest of her investment was gone and that she had to get off the phone to turn herself in to the police. Then she asked Emily if they could still be friends. That was the last time the women spoke."

From 7 News. "Another WA building firm has gone under, with The Slatter Group appointing liquidators to wind up its operation. The firm, established two decades ago, specialised in design construction, fit-outs and residential projects and described its team as among the 'pre-eminent builders' in the state. But on Tuesday it emerged the builder had collapsed and that 15 projects had ground to a halt as a result. Nine staff have also stopped work. Slatter Group directors voluntarily sought liquidation after succumbing to financial troubles, Ernst and Young told The West Australian."

"Close to 100 construction businesses in WA collapsed in 2021-22, according to corporate regulator ASIC. 'More than 27,000 homes were under construction at the end of 2022 but rates of completion remain slow and financial pressure continues to build on those consumers paying rent while servicing their mortgage debt,' the director of Curtin University’s Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute said."

The South China Morning Post. "But even after the country's borders reopened, allowing wealthy Chinese nationals to return to their old haunts for property purchases, a once-favoured destination is not a part of her plans. Recent data and trends, as well as anecdotal evidence, all point to mainland Chinese buyers going beyond Hong Kong in search of new property investments. Prices of lived-in homes in the city have declined by about 12 per cent since a peak in July 2021, according to an index compiled by the Rating and Valuation Department. Since bottoming out in December, prices gained about 5 per cent as of March, but several analysts have forecast that this rally may be over."

International Business Times. "Sharing prosperity is China's newest policy priority. But the country's young have yet to get a taste of it, as they have difficulty finding a job and cannot afford to buy a home, get married and raise a family. China's youth unemployment rate jumped from 13.6% in April 2021 to 23% in April 2023, a period overall unemployment rate trended lower. The problem is so severe that tens of thousands of master's degree holders earn a living as delivery workers."

"Meanwhile, China's demographics are worrisome. First-time marriages dropped to 11.6 million last year, close to 700,000 down on the previous year, according to the China Statistics Yearbook 2022 — half the peak of 23.9 million in 2013. Paradoxically, China's property bubble results from one government policy promoting the development of ghost cities — newly-built vacant apartments — owned by affluent landlords with the expectation to profit from rising home prices."

"That's a self-fulfilling speculative strategy. Keeping apartments off the market leads to housing shortages and higher home prices. It brings prosperity to landlords and misery to young people who cannot afford them."

From Reuters. "The last great hope for China's faltering post-pandemic rally is fading as the nation's legion of small-time investors turns bearish on equities to double down instead on safer assets amid a stuttering economic recovery. 'I am quite disappointed,' said Eric Yu, a programmer in his 30s in Shanghai who's been investing for around three years. 'I will not put any more money into stocks until all my losses are recovered,' he said. Rather, spooked by the spectre of tech layoffs and youth unemployment, he has been putting some half of his monthly income into wealth and deposit products. 'Safety is more important at this time ... I don't want to lose my principal.'"

"Interviews with a dozen more small investors showed the sentiment to be reasonably widespread. Turnover in the A-share market is at the lowest level since early March. Brokerage account creation, while volatile, likewise dropped off in April after promising momentum in February and March, China Securities Depository and Clearing data showed. Mutual fund launches, a proxy for investor interest, also fell away. 'Now my stock portfolio books a loss of about 90%,' said Meng, a Shanghai local in his 40s who gave only his surname. He previously used to eagerly subscribe to new listings, hoping for a first-day price surge. 'I can do nothing but wait 'till it turns black.'"