It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Jonathan Miller, CEO of real-estate consulting firm Miller Samuel said, 'Naples saw a price boom [during Covid] that…benefited from the restructuring of Florida as a place to live full time.' Median prices at the top 5% of the Naples market sat at $4.9 million at the end of May 2023 after hitting a market peak of $5.75 million at the end of February 2023. Sales volume at the top 5% has dropped recently as well, down 40% at the end of this May compared with the end of May 2022, according to Redfin. Timothy P. Savage, founding partner of Gulf Coast International Properties, called the slowdown, 'a return to normalcy, to equilibrium, a return to rational buying behavior.' He described Naples buyers today as acting with a lower 'sense of urgency' compared with even a year ago. 'Before I would have five to 10 offers on a single showing, now it takes five to 10 showings to get an offer,' he said."

"Ownership premium has hit the highest level since the 2006 housing bubble, making it prohibitively expensive for many buyers, researchers said. San Francisco had a median estimated monthly mortgage payment of $10,892, compared with a median estimated monthly rent of $4,552. But they pointed to an upside for potential homebuyers: 'They’re now seeing home prices come down faster than nearly anywhere else in the U.S.' The analysis found that median sale prices in San Jose and Oakland fell some 10% year over year in March. That’s three times more than the nationwide decline."

"The San Luis Obispo County housing market appears to be leveling out after an opening to 2023 that saw median home prices dip as low as $775,000, even as active listings grew. San Luis Obispo County’s median home price dipped 6.1% from May 2022 to $875,000. Median home prices in the county also fell $50,000 short of April’s median price of $925,000, the CAR report found. Neighboring Monterey County experienced a slight decline in median home price between April and May, CAR data showed, dropping from $953,000 to $902,000. Further south, median home price in Los Osos saw a notable decline from $1.05 million in April to $810,000 in May. Meanwhile in the South County, median home prices fell across much of the area. Month-over-month, median home prices in Grover Beach were cut nearly in half, plunging from $1.46 million in April to $752,000 in May."

"Georgetown homes sat on the market longer and sold for less in May, compared to May 2022, a report by the Austin Board of Realtors shows. According to ABoR, the median price of Georgetown homes in May dropped to $405,000, compared to $495,000 in May 2022—marking an 18.2% decrease. Home sales declined slightly to 142 sales in May, compared to 155 home sales in May 2022. Meanwhile, as inventory has increased, the amount of time homes spent on the market swelled."

"The real estate market in the Greater Toronto Area has turned a corner, gauges John Pasalis, president of Realosophy Realty. New listings have been outpacing sales in recent weeks and inventory is gradually increasing. Sellers who set a deadline for reviewing offers may spur intense competition or they may end up without bids. 'The nicest homes are still getting 10 offers,' he says. 'What we’re seeing on the flip side is offer nights that are failing. Buyers are pulling back a little bit.'"

"Borrowers struggling to pay their mortgages should sell now before house prices fall, lenders have said. Earlier this month, the banking trade body UK Finance revealed mortgage repossessions had hit their highest level since the pandemic. But Mark Bogard, chief executive of the Family Building Society, said voluntarily selling homes instead could be the best option for some indebted borrowers. He said: 'By hanging on it will only get worse. Sometimes, you just have to stop.' Mr Bogard recalled one mortgage customer of Family BS who had, for the past two years, made use of various forbearance options to stave off a voluntary sale. During those two years, the borrower had built up over £100,000 in credit card debt. He said: 'The regulator has since, with hindsight, said the borrower should have sold up two years ago and cleared the debt.'"

"Markets are on the alert to which sectors will buckle under the sharpest jump in interest rates in decades, with big rate moves this month in Britain and Norway a reminder that the tightening is not over. Sweden, where rates rose again on Thursday, is one to watch with most homeowners' mortgages moving in lockstep with rates. London Business School economics professor Richard Portes said, euro zone housing markets appear to be 'freezing up' as transactions and prices fall. 'You can expect worse in 2024 when the full effects of rate hikes come forth,' he said. In Sweden, high debts, rising rates and a wilting economy has produced a toxic cocktail for commercial property. 'There is no place to hide from these tighter financial conditions. Banks feel the pressure of every central bank,' said Lombard Odier Investment Managers' head of macro Florian Ielpo. Ielpo expects consumers will stop paying loan payments in the third and fourth quarters. 'This will be the Achilles heel of the banking sector,' he added."

"A family-owned bricklaying business have opened up about the devastation caused after losing $100,000 from the collapse of three construction companies they worked for. Melbourne-based business Red Bluff Homes is the latest construction company to go into liquidation, leaving 21 projects uncompleted. Vicki Tanzen claimed her family-run bricklaying business has been left $35,000 out of pocket by Red Bluff Homes. It's the third time in the last 12 months the family has been stung from the collapse of a building company and estimate they've lost $100,000 all up. 'The company still had us out there working these f*cking jobs,' Ms Tanzen told news.com.au."

"Other affected clients took to social media seeking advice. 'My builder (Red Bluff Homes) has just gone into liquidation this week. Yesterday my kitchen and bathrooms cabinetry was stolen out of my house, presumably by the tradies who had not been paid for their work,' one man wrote. 'I am just wondering if anyone had experienced the same thing and has any advice on what to do next. I am also worried about the remaining parts of the house.'"

"Masterton District Council appears unlikely to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in a construction company collapse. The company – which made architecturally designed modular buildings called ‘pods’ for residential occupation and operated out of Hamilton and Christchurch premises – went into liquidation late last year, with estimated liabilities of about $5.3 million. The liquidators were appointed in December last year. They said the company was 'clearly insolvent,' with an estimated deficit at that stage approaching $5.3 million. The liquidators allege more than two million dollars taken as deposits from customers did not appear to have been spent for the purposes for which they were paid."

"Prices of lived-in homes in Hong Kong fell in May for the first time this year, as looming interest rate increases cast a long shadow over a growing property oversupply that is being exacerbated by newly built flats coming onto the market. Last year, property prices fell 15 per cent because of the impact of the pandemic and a weak economy. Hong Kong's private home market could be flooded with new supply up to 2025, according to the latest forecast from Our Hong Kong Foundation cited by Bloomberg Intelligence. An annual average of about 20,200 private residential units will be completed during 2023-25, with peak completion of about 20,900 units coming in 2025, the think tank said."

"More sellers of lived-in homes made a loss in the first five months of the year, according to Centaline Property Agency, which tracks transactions in 117 major estates. More than 65 per cent of deals for houses bought between 2018 and 2022 suffered from losses, 10.9 percentage points higher compared with the second half of last year, the data showed."

"Wanting to buy a home in this city of dreams is a common aspiration among many in the entertainment industry. Flora Saini, who was seen in ‘Stree’, is no exception. The actress invested around a crore in a property in Oshiwara and waited seven years for possession, which was scheduled for 2021. However, two years have passed since, and now all that she wants is her money back. She tells us, 'My mom and I booked a property in a project in 2014. We paid around a crore in instalments and were promised possession in 2021. The property is nowhere near completion. The builder has to compensate investors if there is a delay in possession, which didn’t happen. Earlier, we would get updates regarding the work, but then those messages stopped eventually. The main builders went bankrupt and were subsequently arrested for fraud. The project was then taken over by another builder, who, too, doesn’t seem interested in completing the structure or refusing our money.'"

"Flora has registered a complaint with Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority and is hoping for her hard-earned money to be returned soon. She says, 'The new builders asked us to stick to the plan and pay some more money. However, I am not interested in the property anymore, as we still haven’t been given a timeline for its completion. All I want is to be refunded along with interest. I tried to sort the issue amicably, but they kept dilly-dallying. I have registered a complaint with RERA. So many years have passed, and now we have no faith in them and want our money back. We were left with no choice but to take the legal route. Apart from feeling anxious about the money that’s stuck, I am also angry, as I could have invested it elsewhere where I would have got better returns.'"