A report from KSAT in Texas. "Home prices in the Austin metro area have dropped $85,000 since last year, according to Redfin. Austin was among the pandemic boomtowns. Redfin analysts say those pandemic prices were unsustainable and 'are now coming back down to earth.' The median home price in the Austin Metro has come down 15.3% from where it was at its peak in April of 2022 — $555,000. It’s a trend seen across the country — just not to that extreme. Nationally, the median sale price fell 4.1% year over year. The state also issued more residential building permits last year — 263,000 — than any other state. 'In the Fort Worth area, all of the new construction means buyers aren’t hindered by a lack of new listings. They’re building all over and in various price ranges,' said local Redfin real estate agent Gena Campbell."

12 News in Arizona. "With lush green grass, lakes and palm tree-lined streets, it's easy to see what draws residents to Province, a new 55-plus housing community in Maricopa. Julie Schwarberg and her husband signed a contract and drove to a design center in Scottsdale to customize her brand-new home. She couldn't have predicted the headaches that also came with the community. The problems began before they stepped foot in their home. 'Our new construction fixer-upper,' she said. From doors that don't latch, to unfinished paint, and gaps in door frames, the number of problems has become overwhelming. Outside, she points out bubbled and chipped paint, a concrete barrier that was never sealed, and a doorbell that hangs off the wall. 'They keep saying, 'We'll get to it,' Schwarberg said."

"Schwarberg has reported all of the problems to Meritage, the community's builder, for months. She said Meritage employees have no-showed at several appointments, chalked some issues up to the house 'settling,' and told her they are experiencing supply chain issues. Schwarberg is frustrated as she watches Meritage continue to build in Maricopa. 'Stop building and finish what you started,' Schwarberg said. 'They know that they have put houses together that are unacceptable and I want them to fix it.'"

LA Daily News in California. "John Burns’ real estate research shop has become one of the housing industry’s top analytical firms by taking a more holistic view of what drives homebuying. For two-plus decades, his eponymous Orange County-based company has become a critical cog in homebuilding thinking because its research looks far beyond real estate basics to encompass broader economic and demographic changes – not to mention the fleeting desire of house hunters. Q. So what do you think will happen next?"

"A: Mortgage-payment-to-income ratios need to come back in line through a combination of falling home prices, falling mortgage rates, and rising incomes. And all three of those things are happening right now. They’re just happening pretty slowly. We think that could happen by the end of next year. The bond market is signaling that mortgage rates should be in the low 5%. Wage growth continues to be north of 4%. So we’re thinking that’s going to continue. And then we think home prices are going to keep falling. The homebuilders have already dropped prices, the equivalent of 12%. The resale market hasn’t done that. So the homebuilders are actually selling pretty well because there is much better value. They’re buying down the buyer’s mortgage rate close to 5% and found a sweet spot there."

Arlington Now in Virginia. "An apartment redevelopment proposed for a strip mall on Columbia Pike is stalled for the foreseeable future after the anchor tenant — a grocery store — fell through. But some of the existing tenants have already moved out. And now, the Fillmore Gardens shopping center on the 2600 block of the Pike, which includes a still-operating CVS, is attracting graffiti artists and other signs of blight, according to neighbors. Penrose Civic Association President Alex Sakes says the development was 'slated to become a new crown jewel' but is now 'an unbelievable embarrassment.'"

"'The never ending graffiti and garbage is truly appalling and gets worse by the day,' he said. 'My residents and I don’t just work here or drive past this site — we live here. We take great pride in our neighborhood and are happy to step up to help beautify this site once again. I’m not here to point fingers or place blame, but the condition of this site cannot and will not continue to perpetuate.'"

From NECN. "Massachusetts had the lowest rental vacancy rate in the U.S. in 2022 and the second-highest median rents, Boston features the second-highest traffic delay times in the nation, and the state recently posted its highest outmigration numbers in 30 years, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. 'We're seeing the future of our workforce, people aged 26 to 35, high-wage residents, and those in key sectors, dominate the outflow of residents and talent,' MTF President Doug Howgate said. MTF Massachusetts saw nearly 111,000 people leave the state between April 2020 and July 2022."

From Miami Today. "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. The good story that we’ve been telling one another – and the world – is that during the pandemic Florida, and especially Miami-Dade County, enjoyed a huge population gain from around the nation. The facts, however, tell a far different story – at least, the facts in a US Census report released last week. Miami-Dade, however, didn’t contribute to those huge gains: the county actually lost – that’s right, lost – 27,925 persons in the 27-month period, or more than 1,000 a month."

"Of the 67 counties in Florida, 12 of them actually lost population during the 27-month period the census looked at. Miami-Dade, the state’s biggest county by population, was the biggest loser. But of the other losers, the largest in population at 81,708 was Monroe County – the Florida Keys – which is a long string of small towns. The largest of the other counties was barely 27,000 total population. So the smallest communities were also losers."

Bisnow New York. "The researchers who last year predicted $500B in value would be wiped from office buildings nationwide because of remote work gave a chilling update for real estate investors this week: They underestimated the damage. Academics from New York University and Columbia University published a report last summer predicting that New York City office values would rop 28% by 2029, representing value destruction of $49B. In an update released this month, the authors now project an average value drop of 43.9% from 2019 to 2029."

"In just a three-year period between 2019 and 2022, office buildings nationally have lost roughly $506.3B in value, according to the researchers. Office buildings lost $69.6B in New York, $32.7B in San Francisco and $5.1B for Charlotte, they wrote. Office occupancy in New York remains below 50%, according to Kastle Systems data, and landlords are feeling the pain as a result. 'The key takeaway from our analysis is that remote work is shaping up to massively disrupt the value of commercial office real estate in the short and medium term,' the authors wrote in the report. 'This conclusion is consistent with our finding that firms appear to demand substantially less office space when they adopt hybrid and remote work practices, and that such practices appear to be persistent.'"

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "In April, the average home sale price was $1.106-million in the Greater Toronto Area, up 2.4 per cent from the previous month and up 2.5 per cent from three months ago. That said, year-over-year prices were still down 12.2 per cent from the inflated peaks of early 2022. Meanwhile, cottage country and rural areas are staying flat or still dropping. For example, prices are down 3.1 per cent over last month in Bancroft and down 2.2 per cent in the Kawarthas."

"'I have also seen power of sales increase on MLS. Often to me it looks like it’s a flipper, somebody who bought that beat-up house before realizing this is not the market for flippers,' said Davelle Morrison, broker with Bosley Real Estate Ltd."

Radio New Zealand. "The weaker housing market has meant the proportion of properties resold at a loss has hit a seven-year high. CoreLogic's latest Pain & Gain Report shows 6.1 percent of property resales in the first quarter of 2023 made a loss, up from 4 percent in the final three months of 2022. Auckland had the highest proportion of loss-making resales among the main centres, with 13.2 percent being below the previous purchase price. Auckland saw the most pain. Hamilton had the second-highest proportion of resale losses at 8.1 percent, followed by Wellington at 6.3 percent."

"CoreLogic said apartment resales made up a bigger proportion of resale losses compared to other property types, with more than 28 percent of resales in the first quarter made at a loss. Chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said it was relatively uncommon for houses to make a loss at a resale, but that was changing. 'From only half a percent of house resales being made for a gross loss in Q1 2022, that figure has now risen to 5.1 percent. That's the highest since mid-2016.'"