A report from Your Observer in Florida. "As the busy season on Longboat Key winds down, so does the demand for properties. The real estate market on the barrier island has slowed down alongside the area's. 'We’re seeing price reductions pretty much across the board because the demand has slowed down,' real estate consultant for RE/MAX Andrew Vac said. 'Some properties that are priced properly are selling more quickly. … The market is adjusting and listing prices are coming down.'"

"In spring 2022, properties often stayed on the market for as little as two or three days. Now, two or three months on the market is about average for a property on the barrier island. In Manatee County, condo supply increased by 337.5% to a 3.5-month supply. Single-family home supply increased 237.5% to a 2.5-month supply. At the end of April, there were 5,253 active listings for both property types in the North Port-Sarasota-Brandenton area. The number represents a 166.8% increase in active listings compared to April 2022."

KUTV Salt Lake City. "Higher mortgage rates are further squeezing the housing market along the Wasatch Front, according to new data from the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. The data showed home sales in Salt Lake County dropped nearly 33 percent in April compared to the same time last year. Home prices were universally down year over year in April across Davis, Salt Lake, Tooele, Utah, and Weber counties, the data showed."

The Tribune. "A spike in mortgage rates and low housing inventory tamped down California home sales in April — with some of the worst results hitting the Central Coast, according to the California Association of Realtors. 'At the regional level, median home prices continued to drop from a year ago in all major regions, but only one region posted a double-digit decline compared to three regions in the prior month,' the report said. Compared to the previous year, no region of the state performed worse than the four-county Central Coast. Mariposa County’s 80.8% year-over-year sales drop was the worst in the state, followed by declines in sales in Calaveras County and Santa Cruz County of 59% and 58.4%, respectively. San Luis Obispo County had the 10th worst year-over-year sales decline in the state. Home prices also fell in April across broad swaths of the state."

"Santa Barbara County’s median home price declined by 10% from April 2022 to $1.08 million. Meanwhile, Santa Cruz County experienced similar market trends to its neighbors. The median home price declined 4.3% from last April to $1.35 million. The median home price in San Luis Obispo fell 17.7% over that time to $1.05 million. In Templeton, six homes were sold in April, which was 20% more than the previous year, but the median home price experienced the same dramatic drop seen in several other cities. Templeton’s April 2023 median home price of $1.51 million was 37% lower than the previous year, the CAR report found, as the number of available listings grew 15.4% to 15."

Las Vegas Business Press in Nevada. "Las Vegas homebuilders are sounding more optimistic about the new-home market after a second consecutive solid month of sales after rising interest rates caused sales to slump during the second half of 2022. While base asking prices have been slowly rising over the past couple of months for some builders, said Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith that during the last 12 months the overall base asking price has fallen 6 percent. The average square footage of actively selling plans has dropped less than 1 percent while the average price per square foot fell 6 percent, Smith said."

"Scott Bleazard, vice president of land acquisition for KB Home, said demand remains 'enormous' in Las Vegas. 'They are lined up at every single one of our communities but with interest rates where they are at, many don’t qualify,' Bleazard said."

The Real Deal. "We know the story: In the pandemic, a wave of new residents flooded into Texas. That presented a massive opportunity for developers, with homebuilders such as Lennar developing entirely new cities on the outskirts of Austin, Houston and Dallas. But will a bust come after the boom? 'When interest rates started to rise and mortgage rates rose alongside them, buyers started to cancel home buys,' TRD reporter Joe Lovinger says on the latest episode of TRD’s podcast, Deconstruct. 'Almost immediately you saw a lot of homebuilders start to dump their development sites.'"

"Lovinger talks about some of the challenges Texas homebuilders and other commercial real estate owners are facing in light of interest rate hikes. 'They’re all very afraid to have non-performing homes on their balance sheets,' Lovinger said of homebuilders. 'They want to be able to have homes sold before they can even build them, if possible.'"

Bisnow Houston in Texas. "A group of 123 investors have filed a lawsuit against Jay Gajavelli and his Applesway Investment Group, claiming their $12.4M investment was shifted to a different, unsuccessful deal than the one they believed they were buying into, and that Applesway then lied about it. The fraud claim is the latest in a series of troubles stacking up for Irving-based Applesway Investment Group. The company lost ownership of a four-complex Houston portfolio through a $229M foreclosure in April. Gajavelli is also facing a $1.6M lawsuit related to unpaid work on his properties, which have been described by tenants as run-down and vermin-infested."

"Another defendant is S3 Your Financial Future, an LLC owned and operated by Atti, according to the lawsuit. S3 Your Financial Future began raising money for the deal in March 2022, promising 'lofty future returns.' Some investors used retirement savings to buy in, the lawsuit states. In September 2022, plaintiffs were told that the Siena on Westheimer deal closed. 'It was a lie that defendants maintained for months,' the lawsuit states. 'In February 2023, plaintiffs were shocked to discover that the Siena on Westheimer deal never happened and that, in fact, their money had been moved months earlier, without their notice or their consent.' Applesway is also facing foreclosure on a $65.2M loan for the Cabo San Lucas apartments in southeast Houston, The Real Deal reported."

The Real Deal New York. "Three Nolita mixed-use properties owned by Edmond Li’s Veracity Equities are slated for a foreclosure auction as the firm struggles to repay a $41 million loan. The loan on the portfolio — 31 Prince Street, 46 Spring Street and 48 Spring Street — is now more than 121 days delinquent, according to Morningstar. Their appraised value has dropped from $66 million when the loan was issued in March 2018 to $49.5 million. A January analysis by Fitch said a property tax increase and a rent shortfall from retail tenants drove the portfolio’s debt-service to coverage ratio down to 0.22 for the first half of 2022, meaning building revenue was covering barely a fifth of the loan payments."

Investing.com on Canada. "The Greater Toronto Area's new construction condominium market is reaching a critical point due to rising interest rates, as revealed by a recent collaborative study from Urbanation and CIBC Capital Markets. The report highlights that over half of investors who purchased pre-construction condos for rental purposes experienced financial losses last year. The circumstances have continued to deteriorate this year with an estimated average loss of $400 per month during Q1. Furthermore, 14% of investors are losing over $1000 each month while a third face losses amounting to at least $400. 'The glory days of easy returns and cash flow are likely over,' said Shaun Hildebrand, Urbanation President."

The Globe and Mail. "Mortgage refinances have fallen off a cliff. They’re down by 32 per cent, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Throngs of homeowners desperately need to restructure their debt. But there are three key reasons why they can’t. Until recently, median prices in most parts of Canada were down at least 20 per cent from the 2022 peak, to ballpark data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. That’s a problem for many, as you need at least 20 per cent equity to refinance at mainstream lenders. Higher borrowing costs eliminate refinance demand from those looking to lower their interest costs and prevent borrowers from reducing their total payments."

"Fifteen months ago, a qualified borrower with a $100,000 income and no other debt could afford a $479,000 mortgage, give or take. Today, that same borrower can afford only about $410,000. That’s because rising rates have made the government’s stress test more challenging. Higher borrowing costs have contributed to a record number of Canadians having high ratios of monthly debt to income. One in six households with mortgages now see more than 50 per cent of their gross income going to servicing monthly obligations. Take taxes out of the remainder, and it doesn’t leave them with much."

From The Local. "It's no secret that Germany's property market as been slowing down in recent months. Across almost all major cities, prices for houses and flats slumped in the previous quarter as prospective buyers turned to the rental market instead. But in Frankfurt am Main, the Hessian capital that has long had some of the most expensive real estate in Germany, the turnaround is far more noticeable."

"According to a new report by the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (VDP), prices for residential properties in Frankfurt have dropped by an astounding 6.7 percent compared to the same period last year. This is a far more dramatic dip than the previous quarter, where Frankfurt saw a year-on-year decline of 2.7 percent. In Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart and Munich, there's been a year-on-year decrease of between 2.3 and 3.8 percent for residential homes, VDP revealed. 'Now prospective buyers have to recalculate because of the increased mortgage rates - they wait and negotiate more,' said Daniel Ritter, managing partner at Von Poll. This leads to fewer deals closing at the original asking price."

"The real estate specialist CBRE recently reported that the investment market in Frankfurt had slumped by 92 percent in the first quarter to a volume of €201 million. This was the weakest result among Germany's top five investment locations, it said. Back in 2021, Frankfurt took the top spot in the UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index, coming in ahead of Toronto, Hong Kong, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam and Zurich as the city with the biggest housing bubble in the world."

The Malaysian Insight. "The number of stalled and abandoned private housing projects is expected to increase due to the effects of the Movement Control Order (MCO) which saw development projects halted to curb the spread of Covid-19. Deputy Local Government Development Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said the task force for stalled and abandoned private housing projects has identified 545 stalled projects and 112 abandoned projects as of March 31. 'The task force evaluates the number of projects on a monthly basis because the status of a project changes dramatically, from a healthy state in one month to stalled in the next month. We were given the picture in the last meeting that there could be further increase, but I have not announced the statistics yet,' he told reporters when visiting two stalled private development projects in Kuala Lumpur yesterday."

The Manila Standard in the Philippines. "Property consultancy firm Colliers said the completion of condominium projects is expected to slow down this year amid elevated interest and mortgage rates and rising prices of construction materials. It said lease rates for studio and one-bedroom residential units declined by more than 40 percent in the Bay Area amid dampened demand from local professionals and exodus of Chinese employees from the offshore gaming sector."

Vietnam Investment Review. "Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Vuong Dinh Hue last week urged the government to make new timely measures to assist people and enterprises struggling against prolonged woes. Feeling anxious about the economy’s performance, the NA’s Economic Committee (NAEC) also underscored that the economy is now facing huge difficulties. It recommended that the government take more drastic actions to fuel the economy. 'Many localities which are the country’s key industrial propellants have suffered from below-zero growth. The key driving forces for economic growth such as exports, foreign direct investment (FDI), especially industrial production are on the wane,' the NAEC stated."

"'Cutback of employees and delays in payment of salary, insurance, and taxes have become an oft-seen situation in many construction firms,' the Ministry of Construction added. 'A number of contractors, especially small-scaled ones, are on the brink of dissolution and bankruptcy.'"

From News.com.au. "Construction company A1A Homes and its company A1A Commercial Builders have gone into administration. The Melbourne-based company built residential and commercial builds across Australia and New Zealand but was recently embroiled in a debacle where a customer was demanded to pay an extra $125,000 to complete a build. The company immediately began to build a series of one-star reviews online, with other customers revealed similar experiences."

"In March it was reported by news.com.au that customer Abishek Mahajan had signed up to build a $675,500 home with Melbourne construction firm A1A Homes in August 2021. The 27-year-old claimed his build was delayed for a year before the slab was poured – but once it was completed he was 'angry and shocked' by what happened next. He claimed the building firm demanded an extra $125,000 to complete the build but it was impossible for the NDIS worker to come up with the huge sum."

"The situation left him reeling. 'Literally the earth was gone from my feet and my heart was about to come out. How would you find that much amount of money and how could ask for that much money?' he said. 'People take out a loan to get that money, it’s not like $5000 or $10,000, but $125,000 is a down payment for a house...Mentally I was so damn sick from the inside, I was having breathing issues when I spoke to them. I was having a mini heart attack as you have lost everything in that split second.'"