A report from Sarasota Magazine in Florida. "The Sarasota metro area recently topped a national list that ranks places based on where home inventory saw the greatest increases over the previous year. With a 128 percent hike, our inventory more than doubled, topping other metros like Nashville, Tennessee, and Austin, Texas. Today, homes are sitting on the market for longer (five days last year vs. 23 days now) while bidding wars are mostly behind us. Many sellers are also out of touch with the current market. 'Some of this is due to sellers trying to catch the last wave of a hot market,' says Tina Ellis, a local agent with Preferred Shore."

"Marlin Yoder, a local agent with Harry E. Robbins Associates, also sees an influx of short-term rental homes entering the market. Those properties were purchased by investors hoping to cash in on the area’s popularity. 'A lot of people bought a home and didn’t put thought into what it takes to manage a vacation rental,' Yoder says. 'Now, they’re seeing if they can cash out.'"

Flagstaff Business News in Arizona. "Award-winning realtor Lori Anna Harrison with Zion Realty in Flagstaff says there is more sanity in the home-buying and home-selling market than in the past few years. Fewer homes are being purchased sight unseen and fewer buyers are needing to wave home inspections or make other concessions in order to win the contract. As a result, sellers are working harder and buyers are more discriminating. After years in a sellers’ market, Harrison says the Flagstaff real estate market appears to be more balanced. 'When we are talking about homes priced over the $600,000 mark and where the home is not in move-in condition, it’s more of a buyers’ market.'"

From Vail Daily. "With limited inventory, there is no sign of a marked decline in values. If anything, they are stable, though a few pockets of the market have experienced some softening — mostly due to affordability — or being overpriced relative to condition and location. Alida Zwaan, a broker associate with Berkshire HomeServices Colorado Properties in the Vail/Lionshead office, says current luxury market buyers are being more selective. 'Buyers are not willing to pay more than they believe is fair market value, not always what the seller wants to get for their home,' Zwaan said. 'It’s a reality check; if you want to sell, listen to the advice of an experienced broker versus one who just wants your business. The market stats don’t lie and the homes that are selling are priced right.'"

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "The sprawling Marina home that once housed 'Top Chef' Season 1 contestants has finally sold. 3159 Baker St. struggled on the market. Originally listed in January for $4.4 million and then undergoing two price cuts, it was eventually relisted at $3.5 million in April. It ultimately closed at $3.6 million last week, which technically means it sold for over the asking price, even though those looking through the records can spot the real estate trick. More worrisome for the luxury real estate market in San Francisco is that the sale is also under the price the home sold for in February 2018 when it changed hands for $3.7 million. At one of the hottest points in the city’s housing market in 2016, the home was listed for $6.5 million."

"'Higher-priced home sales,' typically defined as homes selling for $3 million or more, have been hit harder than certain segments of the San Francisco home market. Prices were down 57% in May 2023 when compared with the year prior, according to recent data from Compass."

From Bankrate. "As spring wears on, the housing market continues to be lackluster on many fronts. NAR data from mid-May shows existing-home sales declining in all four major regions in the country, both month-over-month and year-over-year. The West continues to experience the most significant market cooling, down more than 30 percent from last year, followed by the Northeast. Some of the areas where prices are dropping the most sharply are the ones that were very steep to begin with. In San Francisco, for example, Redfin data shows that the median sale price has plummeted 17.8 percent since April of last year."

"One silver lining is that prices in many popular markets are easing as compared to last year. In Seattle, for instance, prices have declined about 9 percent year-over-year, per Redfin. The decrease is 13 percent in Denver, 8 percent in Las Vegas and 5.4 percent in San Diego."

Mansion Global. "To gaze south from New York’s Central Park these days is to look upon a physical manifestation of tens of billions of dollars of global wealth. A series of supertall, ultrathin condominium towers bear down on the southern end of the park, casting long shadows. Gilded, gated communities in the sky, this group of 'supertalls,' collectively known as Billionaires’ Row, was built with a single constituency in mind: the richest people on earth. They are homes, but they are also investment vehicles for the superrich. Some of the owners have never set foot in their apartments, viewing them instead as one might a stock or an artwork from a great master—a vessel in which to store wealth."

"It didn’t last. When the high-end market began to soften in the late 2010s, One57 was the first to lose its luster amid competition from newer, competing buildings. There were high-profile foreclosures in the building, including one unit owned by shell companies linked to Kolawole Akanni Aluko, a Nigerian businessman accused by the U.S. of conspiring to pay bribes. In recent years, the building’s early buyers have sold for significant losses. One of the units tied to HNA sold for $31.9 million in 2021, far less than the $47.37 million it traded for in 2015, records show."

"Central Park Tower had already battled market headwinds for roughly 18 months when the pandemic hit, effectively stalling progress entirely. By 2020, Extell had significantly revised its expectations for profit at the building, informing its bondholders in Israel that it would likely make 60% less than initially anticipated. Those projections have since fallen even further. Some of the building’s most prized units have sold for significant discounts. Last year, a Singaporean buyer paid just $43 million for a roughly 7,000-square-foot unit, a discount of 32.5% off the original asking price. 'Our profitability has definitely been hit here in a big way,' said developer Gary Barnett of Extell Development."

The Toronto Star in Canada. "For at least a decade, a glittering glass box in the sky has been one of the hottest tickets in town. The Toronto condo investment has become a staple of the city and produced windfall profits, at least for those who bought at the right time. But a string of recent reports on property investments has raised some eyebrows. Most notably, one from market research firm Urbanation and CIBC Capital Markets found that for the first time, more than half of investors who bought pre-construction condo units in the GTA were losing money."

"Is this a moment of truth for the investment condo? 'The whole condo investment future isn’t as solid a bet as it used to be,' said Cherise Burda, executive director of city building at Toronto Metropolitan University. Some projects are being paused due to factors such as high interest rates and cost of construction, and that’s leading to a drop in demand. 'What I hear out there is, it’s harder to get investors,' Burda said."

The Helsinki Times. "The price development of new residential units has been weaker than official statistics suggest due to gaps in the statistical monitoring of prices, Juhana Brotherus, the chief economist at the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, stated to Helsingin Sanomat. Brotherus believes the prices of new dwellings in housing companies dropped much more sharply in the first quarter of the year than the two per cent suggested by official statistics. The prices of old dwellings in housing companies decreased by 5.5 per cent year-on-year between January and March, according to data released by Statistics Finland. The data also show that the sales of newly built dwellings decreased by more than 70 per cent from the corresponding period in 2022."

"Brotherus viewed that construction companies have an 'obvious interest' to report high house prices but not low prices because they realise that agencies and households use the information to evaluate the market prices of vacant dwellings. 'It’s an open secret that price statistics for new dwellings aren’t of particularly high quality,' he said. Construction companies also seek to fuel sales with various financial incentives that are not necessary reflected in the official price statistics. 'Price cuts are often not implemented as price cuts per se, but as cuts in maintenance fees or promises to pay for remodelling. Technically they’re price cuts,' he argued."

From ABC News. "The value of homes in regional New South Wales has plummeted by almost 10 per cent in the past year, the sharpest decrease since before the pandemic. CoreLogic data showed in the 12 months to May, there had been declines in most regions, with house values across regional NSW dropping by 9.8 per cent. Housing markets also cooled in capital cities, with Sydney's falling 8.2 per cent during the same period. The bulk of the declines were between May 2022 and January 2023 when Australia's home value index fell 8.4 per cent, the steepest decline in the country's history."

"Corelogic's head of research, Tim Lawless, said regional areas that proved popular during the pandemic, including the Richmond-Tweed and the Southern Highlands, had experienced the steepest declines in property values. 'Markets like Byron Bay, we've seen housing values in that market fall by nearly 22 per cent over the past 12 months,' Mr Lawless said. 'The Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven have also recorded a larger drop than most other regions, down 16 per cent over the past 12 months.'"

From News.com.au. "The Reserve Bank spent nearly $25,000 of taxpayers’ money on an exclusive dinner for Perth’s business elite hours after raising the cash rate last month for the 11th time, according to a report. Freedom-of-information documents obtained by The West Australian reveal the total bill for the dinner at Fraser’s Kings Park, held hours after the RBA’s May 2 board meeting where it lifted the cash rate to 3.85 per cent, came in at $24,650.50."

"At its June meeting this week the central bank raised rates again to an 11-year high of 4.1 per cent, with RBA governor Philip Lowe sparking outrage the following day by saying struggling Aussies should work more and spend less. According to The West Australian, the dinner last month was attended by 140 VIP guests. Dr Lowe was reportedly asked on the night about the optics of having an exclusive dinner even as many Australians were having to cut back, responding, 'We’re here in Perth having this fabulous dinner because it’s really important we get out and mix with people, hear from community leaders, hear from business leaders, hear from people in the NGO sector.' The dinner menu included grilled barramundi, risotto and lemon tart."

"The total bill, which also included a $4331 drinks tab, worked out to just over $176 per person. In addition to the $3000 initial outlay, the $90 per person set menu was increased by three upgrades — including extra canapes and side dishes — totalling $22 per head. Financial comparison website Finder estimates that the rate hike will set Aussies with an average loan back by an additional $1200 every month. 'If people can cut back spending, or in some cases find additional hours of work, that would put them back into a positive cash flow position,' Dr Lowe told the Morgan Stanley summit on Wednesday."