A report from The Hill. "Nationwide home prices saw their steepest annual decline in more than a decade last month —falling by nearly $18,000, according to a report released Monday. Redfin found the largest drops in prices were in expensive California markets and in pandemic-era boomtowns, such as Boise, Idaho, and Austin, Texas. Median sale prices in both cities fell by $80,000. Homes in Oakland, Calif., experienced the largest percentage dip in home prices, falling by 16.1 percent — down $174,500 from a year ago. Close to one-third of homes that sold in April were purchased above the final list price. Year-over-year sales fell by 23.2 percent, data from The National Association of Realtors showed. Total housing inventory increased by 7.2 percent month-on-month to 1.04 million units."

Hawaii Real Estate Dreams. "The closed sales in Kona for April performed as expected. Inventory is shrinking! That means even less to consider if you are a buyer and as a seller it gives you some strength to negotiate if you have something a buyer likes. However, we are seeing sales close at less than asking probably 80% of the time, even if it is a small difference. Hawaii homeowners insurance rates are going through the roof in 2023. Aging roofs, costs to rebuild, the time it takes to rebuild have all added to these increases. Some as high as 37%! The shopping center anchored by Safeway has sold to a local commercial real estate company for $66 million, less than it was built for by some estimations."

The Manteca Bulletin in California. "Homes in excess of $1.1 million continue to sell in the Manteca-Lathrop market despite a slowdown in overall sales — especially for existing homes. The sale of existing homes in Manteca during April numbered 38. That’s down 40 percent from the number of previously owned homes sold in April 2022. While the price of existing homes closing escrow were down as well, it was only a 6 percent drop going from the April 2022 median of $622,500 to $584,000 for last month."

"The two of the three most expensive area tract homes — existing and new construction — that have accepted offers this month are in River Islands at Lathrop. A six bedroom, 6.5 bathroom home with 4,300 square feet on a 6,490 square foot lot in the 17000 block of Taft Drive in River Islands has a pending accepted offer of $1,299,999. That is $189,900 under the original listing price. There is a four bedroom, 3.5 bathroom home with 3,2854 square feet on a 7,521 square-foot lot in Oakwood Shores that is pending at $1,250,000. The existing home almost received the full asking price as the accepted offer is $40,000 under the list price."

Boca News Now in Florida. "If you’re looking to sell your home in Palm Beach County, good luck. The real estate market is tanking, according to the Elliman Report prepared by Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers and Advisors. 'Newly signed contracts fell month over month for the first time in five months, as new listings fell for the second time in three months,' said the authors of the report."

"The numbers tell the story, and the story is a horror story. When it comes to newly signed contracts comparing April of 2023 with April of 2022: homes valued at under $300,000 saw a 24-percent drop in the number of homes going under contract. For homes valued from $300k to $399k, the drop is 15-percent. For homes valued between $400k and $499k, there’s a 26-percent drop in newly signed contracts. For homes valued between $500k and $999k, the drop is 26-percent. For homes in the $1M to $2.99M range, the number of newly signed contracts comparing April of 2023 to April of 2022 is down eight percent. For homes valued between $3M and $4.99M, the drop is 48-percent."

The Press of Atlantic City. "Oops, we did it again. The Atlantic City metropolitan area, which is essentially Atlantic County from the resort to Hammonton, leads the nation in foreclosures. Several factors have led the Atlantic City area to this undesirable lead, according to Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. They include a recent decrease in home values and home equity, as well as above-average unemployment and below-average household income. 'For starters, the latest median household income in the Atlantic City metro area of about $66,400 is only about three-quarters of the $89,300 New Jersey figure, in a state with high home prices,' Barber said."

"The area’s unemployment rate has ranged from 5.2% to 5.9% in the first few months of 2023, about two to three points higher than the national and state rates, he said. 'More notably, 4.7 percent of Atlantic County mortgage payers (one in 21) were seriously underwater on their loans in the first quarter of this year, owing at least 25 percent more than the estimated value of their homes, compared to 3 percent (one in 33) nationwide,' Barber said."

Bisnow New York. "The lender who backed the Williamsburg Hotel’s previous owners say it is still owed nearly $30M after the bankruptcy sale of the Brooklyn property, and it wants the court to force the borrowers to pay up. Benefit Street Partners loaned $68M to Tony Moskovits’ and Michael Lichtenstein’s company, Heritage Equity Partners, in 2017 with the hotel as collateral. The loan agreement came with a continuing guaranty of recourse obligations, also known as a 'bad boy guaranty,' which meant that the bankruptcy triggered a default in the loan, making it a full recourse loan guaranteed by Moskovits and Lichtenstein, BSP argued in a motion for summary judgment."

"'New York real estate and legal circles have since come to recognize Moskovits and Lichtenstein as grifters,' the motion reads. 'The Court need not plumb the depths of Moskovits’s and Lichtenstein’s financial depravities here. This is as straightforward a motion for summary judgment in lieu of complaint as can be.'"

From Reuters. "Canadian banks are expected to report a rise in bad debt provisions and highlight risks from commercial property loans when they report earnings this week, with the country's No.2 bank TD in focus after its acquisition of First Horizon failed. 'We believe that cracks in the foundation will become evident,' Barclays analyst John Aiken said about bank earnings for the second quarter ending April 30. Empty offices in big cities have raised concerns among investors about banks' commercial property loan exposure, since about 10% of the lending portfolio of the Big-6 banks is tied to commercial real estate. Occupancy rates hover in the 50% range as more companies opt for a hybrid work model. The Bank of Canada has also said it is increasingly worried about the ability of households to pay off their debts and is seeing signs of financial stress among some homebuyers."

From Guelph Today. "The weather might be heating up, but housing prices have been cooling off year-over-year in Guelph. The Canadian Real Estate Association said the average sale price of housing in the Guelph district dropped 16.3 per cent year-over-year to $910,257."

From Bloomberg. "London homes used to fly off the shelves even before they were built. Now the city has lost its crown as the hub for off-plan deals, as investors hunt for richer returns outside the capital. The proportion of new homes sold in advance in London dropped to 44% last year, tumbling from a peak of 71% in 2016, according to a report from broker Hamptons International. That’s largely due to an exodus of investors from the capital’s presale market, as their attention turns to higher-yielding regions like the northwest of England, where the share of off-plan sales is now higher than London."

"The UK housing market is facing disruption as a double whammy of high-interest rates and a cost-of-living crisis threatens to weigh on property prices. David Miles, a senior economist at the Office for Budget Responsibility, last week said the end of the cheap-money era means the age of bumper UK house price growth may be over. 'The fall in off-plan sales means housebuilders will find other ways of de-risking developments,' said David Fell, a senior analyst at Hamptons. 'This will probably mean bulk sales to build-to-rent operators."

The South China Morning Post. "Another property consultancy has joined a growing chorus that believes lived-in home prices are destined to slide in Hong Kong as sales sputter after a recovery in the first quarter proved short-lived. Knight Frank on Monday predicted a 5 per cent drop amid high interest rates, a glut of new homes potentially hitting the market and a shrinking labour force. The forecast followed predictions of a decline from both JLL and Citi. 'Coupled with the incomplete projects that have already applied for presale consent and have not been approved, the number adds up,' said Martin Wong, Knight Frank’s Greater China head of research and consultancy. 'Buyers will find new homes more attractive than lived-in homes. Developers are selling under pressure. Recently we have started to see price cuts by 3 to 5 per cent for new-home projects in the market. Turnover in the second-hand property market has been muted. Some homeowners have sharply reduced prices to sell.'"

"For example, Ma On Shan district saw only 51 lived-in housing deals in the first 22 days this month, down about 25 per cent month on month, according to Centaline. One owner at Mountain Shore lost HK$100,000 (US$12,779) selling a flat measuring 653 sq ft."