A report from Reuters. "Shares of U.S. regional banks fell premarket on Thursday, hurt by a 37% slump in PacWest Bancorp after its announcement about exploring strategic options including a potential sale or capital raising, after a liquidity boost announced in March failed to inspire confidence in its ailing share price. 'Investors are worried that it (PacWest) will be the next domino to fall as worries swirl about deposit flight and the lack of asset diversification among smaller lenders,' said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown."

From Market Watch. "'I’m really turning more bearish,' Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine, told CNBC on Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve raised rates by another 25 basis points to the highest level since 2007. 'It just seems to me that deposits are going to keep drifting out. I don’t think this is the last chapter in this regional banking problem.' Gundlach said current banking stress 'harkens back' to the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s, when high inflation and a spike in interest rates caused customers to flee with their deposits, and left many smaller lenders reeling from losses on their mortgage holdings. 'This is kind of the same phenomena, and I don’t really see what’s going to make it stop, unless the Fed is going to cut interest rates, which there’s no inclination of cutting interest rates at the next meeting,' Gundlach said."

KLAS in Nevada. "New homes are being built by the thousands valley-wide, and realtors believe new build incentives are making it harder to sell older homes to buyers. For example, a 1766 square foot property sits in a 55+ Lake Las Vegas community that Henderson Realtor Trish Nash has been trying to sell for four months. 'We’ve had showings, we’ve had positive showings. People love the home,' Nash said inside the $630,000 property Wednesday afternoon. The owners have reduced the asking price by $70,000 from the initial listing."

"But, despite the $160,000 in upgrades the owners said they’ve put in, buyers are not biting. 'It’s ready to move in, and yet, we have the builder who is offering deep, deep incentives,' Nash said while signaling to a community developing nearby. 'Many buyers are gravitating towards new construction, and that is the dilemma that we have right now.'"

The Denver Post in Colorado. "Rather than rising, the number of closings fell to 3,701 in April, a 7.9% decline from March and a 30% drop from the frenzied pace of April 2022. Some properties continue to languish. Nick DePasquale, a Realtor cited in the report, described one Highlands Ranch listing that spent 362 days on the market. Originally listed at $7.5 million, a buyer didn’t show up until the price fell to $5.1 million. The median price of a single-family home that sold in April was $640,000, which is up 3.2% from March, but down 5.9% from a year earlier. A year ago, the median closing price was $684,550 and buyers paid 6.87% above the list price on average. For condos and townhomes, the median closing price was $410,000, up 0.7% from March and down 6.8% from a year earlier."

"'Higher tax bills coupled with increased interest rates are going to have a significant impact on buyers’ ability to purchase throughout the state, specifically the metro area,' said Libby Levinson-Katz, in comments included with the latest monthly update from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors."

Fox 7 in Texas. "Residents from Hays County to Burnett County are not happy with their 2023 property tax assessments. It wasn’t just former clients experiencing sticker shock. Comparing 2023 to 2022, Realtor Bill Cafferata's assessment for his Dripping Springs home increased by about $150,000. 'It kind of almost knocked me right off my chair,' he said. Austin resident Matt Ball owns multiple pieces of land in Burnet County, many of which are still undeveloped. 'My goal was to buy all this stuff and develop it with my construction company, and now I can't afford it. I have to get rid of it,' said Ball. 'One of my neighbors in particular, he's very upset. He was wanting to retire soon, and he's…just so stressed, he's like, ‘I'm never going to get done.'"

"Cafferata said from what he’s seen, assessed values and home market values listed on real estate websites are not comparable. 'We've seen housing prices go back down to where they were because 2020 and 2021 saw massive jumps in the price of homes. Once we get into 2022 and now 2023, it's leveled off, cooled off a bit,' said Cafferata. 'But we're not seeing that, the county just kept that roller coaster going up in that direction for their assessments.'"

From Fortune. "Among the 100 largest markets tracked by Black Knight, 53 housing markets ended March at a price that remains below their 2022 peak price.The markets where home prices are down the most since the peak includes places like Austin (-13.3%) San Jose (-11.4%); San Francisco (-11.2%); Seattle (-10.9%); Phoenix (-10%); Las Vegas (-9.4%); Boise (-9.4%); Stockton, Calif. (-9.4%); Sacramento (-8.7%); and Salt Lake City (-8%). Nationally, home prices are still down 1.7% from the 2022 peak."

The Los Angeles Times. "Apartment hunting in Southern California is notoriously difficult. But now, a little bit of sanity is returning. Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, said another factor may be at play. 'The mystery [was] people are leaving California — how come vacancies weren't rising?' he said. 'Maybe it's starting to show up.'"

The Mercury News. "The Bay Area and California as a whole endured yet another population decline in 2022, and the dip may mean San Jose can no longer crow about being the 10th largest city in the country. California lost 138,400 residents and now has a population of 38.94 million. The population decline engulfed seven of California’s 10 largest cities, including the four biggest — Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco. That means the decline isn’t merely isolated to certain pockets of the state, but extends to its major population centers in the Bay Area and Southern California that are plagued by high housing costs."

"San Francisco had the largest population loss among the Bay Area's cities, losing more than 5,300 residents for a decline of 0.6%, while Oakland lost 2,250 residents, a drop of 0.5%. Los Angeles lost 36,600 residents, a 1% decline, while San Diego suffered a drop of 4,400 people, down 0.3%. All nine of the Bay Area's counties also saw their populations decline in 2022. The largest numerical decline was in Alameda County, which shed nearly 8,100 residents. On the housing front, the report does note a bright spot: statewide housing growth increased to 0.85%, the highest level since 2008, with California adding more than 123,000 net housing units. In the Bay Area, the uptick in housing stock is particularly noticeable in Alameda County, which saw 8,567 more housing units created."

From CBS News. "If you've been considering tapping into your home equity, now may be the time to do it. Home values nationwide have been steadily on the rise for over a decade. As a result, many homeowners find themselves sitting on a significant amount of equity. This may not be the case for much longer. When home prices drop, you have less equity to pull from. If you've been thinking of pulling the trigger on a home equity loan or HELOC, you'll get more from your equity by doing so before home values decrease."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Real estate lawyer Jonathan Griffiths believes inventory will continue to swell as more homeowners are squeezed by higher interest rates and distressed sales increase. 'They’ve done remarkably well,' he says of homeowners who have held on so far in the face of rising inflation and rates. 'They’re finally cracking.' Many banks have been working with homeowners to extend amortization periods rather than hike payments, he says. 'In general, the banks are trying to keep a lid on it so nothing cataclysmic happens.'"

"Heavy debt is taking a toll on some consumers, however, Mr. Griffiths adds. Some owners with variable rate mortgages are seeing monthly payments jump by 65 per cent, he says. Stress is even higher for people with second and third mortgages, he says, citing one file which landed on his desk last week. A property with second and third mortgages will now be sold under 'power of sale.' Mr. Griffiths says some who feel that a sale is inevitable would rather list in the near future because they don’t want to be chasing the market down if prices decrease farther."

"Consumers who borrowed from private lenders are finding that those lenders are not renewing loans in some cases, he says. Some have borrowed against their houses to buy trucks and keep up appearances with pricey purchases. 'People have used their homes as ATM machines,' Mr. Griffiths says."

"Anita Springate-Renaud, broker with Engel & Völkers, recently worked with clients who purchased a house for $1.2-million. The sellers had purchased the property in the early 2000s for approximately $300,000. During that time, they added to their debt as property prices rose, Ms. Springate-Renaud says. 'They were borrowing against the new value. They had almost no equity by the end.'"

CBC News in Canada. "An embattled Greater Toronto Area home developer facing multi-million dollar allegations of financial wrongdoing has agreed to the appointment of a third-party receiver to manage the potential sale of several uncompleted townhome developments, throwing the future of hundreds of pre-sold homes into doubt. More than a dozen lawyers representing the developer — Woodbridge, Ont.-based StateView Homes — attended a virtual hearing of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario Tuesday, along with three of its lenders, the proposed receiver and other stakeholders."

"The purpose was for the lenders to ask the court to appoint KSV Restructuring Inc. as receiver for six residential townhouse developments and other properties after they launched civil lawsuits demanding repayment of almost $200 million in loans. Last week, CBC Toronto reported that lenders Kingsett Mortgage Corporation, Dorr Capital Corporation and Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation launched court actions after learning that TD Bank had accused StateView, 25 associated corporations, five directors and executives of perpetrating an alleged year-long "cheque-kiting" scheme that cost the bank $37 million."

"StateView Homes blamed the alleged fraud, which TD alleged involved the cashing of thousands of bad cheques from both corporate and personal accounts at other banks, on its former chief financial officer. Insolvency lawyer David Schatzker, who is not involved in the case, previously told CBC Toronto that if the lenders succeeded in having a receiver appointed, there's not a lot buyers who have already paid deposits can do."

"The receiver may allow the project to finish and the buyers would be able to complete their home purchases, he said. However, if the receiver orders the projects sold to repay the lenders, those buyers may never see the homes they bought because the new developers would be under no obligation to honour the contracts StateView signed with its original buyers."