A report from the Seattle Times. "The cooling housing market is stripping more equity from homeowners in Washington than in any other state in the country. On average over the last year, Washington homeowners lost about $74,300 in equity, a measure of the difference between how much a home is worth and how much the owner owes on the mortgage, according to CoreLogic. That 18% decline marked the largest drop in the country from the first quarter of last year to the first quarter of 2023. The median King County home price in May stood at $910,000, down 9% from a year ago, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service."

From DS News. "ATTOM’s Q1 2023 U.S. Home Flipping Report shows that 72,960 single-family homes and condominiums in the nation were flipped in the first quarter of the year—representing 9% of all sales nationwide. Metro areas reporting the weakest returns on typical home flips in Q1 of 2023 were found in: Austin, Texas (10.2% loss). Phoenix (2.4% loss)."

Urban Milwaukee in Wisconsin. "Three large, private equity-backed corporate landlords operate in Milwaukee’s house rental market. All three began buying lots of Milwaukee houses in 2018 or 2019, and they ended 2022 owning just shy of 1,500 homes in total. The largest, VineBrook Homes, bought over 450 houses in Milwaukee last year, according to city property records. But all three companies mostly ceased buying houses by late 2022, and in fact, two of the three have spent early 2023 selling houses. VineBrook, has actually lost money on these transactions. Direct comparisons were possible for 11 of VineBrook’s 2023 sales, all of which took place between March 16 and May 12. VineBrook paid $966,112 for these 11 properties, owned them for an average of 103 weeks and sold them for $909,500 – a loss of 6%. VineBrook originally paid 115% of the assessed value of the houses it went on to sell in 2023. When it sold them, it received just 83% of the current assessed value."

"VineBrook’s troubles extend far beyond Milwaukee. In January, the company forfeited $41 million in initial deposits after terminating purchase agreements to buy about 2,900 more houses (not in Wisconsin). This contributed to its $92.4 million net loss in the first quarter of 2023. VineBrook also reported a net loss of $2.7 million in the first quarter of 2022. The company also faces challenges from rising interest rates. As of March 31, the company’s total debt was $2.6 billion, of which $1.9 billion was in floating interest rate loans."

Tampa Bay Times in Florida. "The fate of a historic apartment complex in downtown St. Petersburg hangs in the balance while the owners decide what to do with the property nearly four years after it was set to be demolished. The property has been cited by St. Petersburg Codes Compliance at least 24 times since 2021, according to records from that department. That group announced plans to build a $75 million, 23-story mixed use tower set to open in 2024. But now they say they don’t have the funds to make it work. 'We’re heading into a recession. Interest rates are at record levels, 40 year highs. The metrics aren’t there for us to proceed right now,' Richard Heiden, an attorney retained by the property owners, told the St Petersburg Code Enforcement Board."

The Real Deal on Illinois. "Matt Garrison’s R2 Companies is looking to pull off another daunting rescue of a downtown Chicago office building. The Chicago-based development firm is under contract to pay approximately $70 million to buy the 41-story tower at 150 North Michigan Avenue, several people familiar with the negotiations said. The deal, if it closes, would mark a huge loss for the seller, CBRE Investment Management, which paid $121 million for the 661,000-square-foot property in 2017 and then sunk another $35 million into its renovation, according to public records and previous reports. Like several other downtown Chicago office landlords staring down upcoming loan maturities, the investment division of CBRE had little choice but to make a deal at a discount or face the prospect of foreclosure when its $87 million loan from MetLife matures in September."

Colorado Public Radio. "It’s pretty apparent that most office workers enjoy the perks of working from home and are loath to go back to a daily commute, leaving a lot of downtown Denver’s skyscrapers half-empty on any given weekday. The one thing that is all but certain is that many office buildings are worth significantly less money now than they were before the COVID pandemic. Republic Plaza — the largest office tower in Colorado and an icon of the Denver skyline since it was built in the 1980s — is worth less than half of what it was valued at in 2012, according to loan documents for the property. That loss equates to hundreds of millions of dollars."

"'The value's not gonna go back to what it used to be,' said Vivek Sah, director of DU’s Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management. said. 'We are seeing [that] across all the markets in the country. It's not ever gonna be the same .… If you add what’s happening in our downtown in terms of homelessness and crime and other concerns, the downtown market is going to shift.'"

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Facing a persistent housing crisis, Los Angeles is doubling down on converting unused commercial buildings into residential properties. The dramatic increase in interest rates over the last year made refinancing loans for office buildings very difficult, prompting defaults and distressed sales. 'Maturity defaults' — loans that have come due and cannot be refinanced — have surged. Nearly 90% of office loans maturing this year are likely to face difficulty in refinancing. In downtown L.A., skyscrapers are selling for half of what they did a decade ago. The clock is ticking to address L.A.’s potential “doom loop” for office real estate."

From Global News. "Finding a starter home with a bit more space to accommodate family growth can be great for building equity, says Nick Kyte, real estate agent with Coldwell Banker First Ottawa Realty, letting your home rise in value for longer so that your next jump up the property ladder can be to an even better property. Toronto Realtor Sophie Chen says planning to stay for too short a timeframe can also backfire. Take, for instance, the past year on the housing market, which has seen property values decline by varying degrees in many cities across Canada."

"If you had purchased a year ago with ideas to sell today, you might not have built up any equity at all and could even sell for a loss if you stick to your original plan, Chen says. 'You might want to stay longer to make sure you can not only break even, but make a substantial amount of equity in your home before you move out.' Downturns in the market can also backfire on buyers of new builds like condo high-rises that are common around the Greater Toronto Area, warns Chen. Some builders have faced lengthy construction delays and difficulty securing financing to proceed with condo projects as market conditions have tightened in recent months, she says. Buyers who put money down on a new build may not qualify for the same mortgage amount as they did a year ago when interest rates were lower, Chen says. And after the market correction, your lender might not appraise the property at the same value as it had previously, which could leave you short on funds to close, she adds."

The Guardian in the UK. "Liam, 36, a senior IT manager and married father-of-one from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of millions of homeowners whose mortgage payments will rise even higher after the Bank of England on Thursday put up the base interest rate to 5% – a 15-year high. Together with his husband, Liam bought his four-bedroom house in 2019 for £269k, and the couple’s three-year mortgage deal, refixed at 1.64% in 2020 just before the first lockdown, expired in March. The couple’s monthly repayments have increased by 50% since they took out the mortgage, from £800 to £1,200. At the same time their energy tariff went up in price and so did their nursery fees."

"'It’s a perfect storm,' says Liam. 'I looked at fixed deals yesterday and they had gone up again. I don’t want to fix at 6 or 7%, and feel slightly despondent.' Should the Bank’s rate climb to 6%, as the financial markets are anticipating, the couple may have to turn to family for help. 'That’s a real worry – we would have to find a lot of extra money,' Liam says. 'The value of our house has gone down. I’m blaming Liz Truss entirely for this.'"

From ABC News. "Cutting back on luxury items, holidays and trips to the gym have been necessary for Nick Trezise's family as interest rate rises continue to heap pressure on household budgets. The family of five live in the outer Perth suburb of Forrestfield, which was ranked the third worst suburb for mortgage arrears in Australia in a recent S&P Global Ratings report — and an expert says it is indicative of broader trends in the housing market. Katoomba in the Blue Mountains region of NSW ranked first and Bonnyrigg, also in NSW, ranked second."

"Mr Trezise said while it would take both he and his wife losing their jobs to fall behind with their repayments, they have still had to make changes to provide for their three primary-school-aged children. 'The increase is a lot for a family of five, we have just remortgaged with another lender. It's affecting everyone and it's affecting us as well. We're definitely having cutbacks. We've stopped going to the gym, me and my wife, obviously cutting back on holidays, less luxury items as well.'"

"Mining worker Katherine said her mortgage repayments had gone up by roughly $2,000 per month. 'We have to stick to a strict budget and we essentially don't go out anymore,' she said. 'It's continually getting harder and harder. There's no relief in sight.' Katherine said she and her husband had to start taking on odd jobs to make ends meet, like ironing, mowing lawns and washing cars."

The South China Morning Post. "The first-round sales of a new residential development in Ap Lei Chau, priced more aggressively than other recent launches, were abruptly called off just hours before it was set to kick off on Saturday, as Hong Kong developers rush to release homes at lower prices ahead of anticipated interest rate hikes. The Aruna project, developed by Chuang's China Investments, had planned to offer 25 units ranging from 205 sq ft to 317 sq ft, priced between HK$5.31 million and HK$8.58 million (US$1.09 million) after discounts, or HK$25,945 to HK$27,498 per square foot, according to the original sales information. Both Centaline Property Agency and Midland Realty, the sales agents for the apartment building, said the developer did not disclose the reason behind the sales cancellation."

"The rare move by Chuang's China comes as Hong Kong developers race to offload flats at price levels not seen in five years amid weak demand and a burgeoning inventory of new homes. Homeowners are also putting up their flats for sale at a discount. In the first five months of the year, 10.2 per cent of second-hand transactions in large-scale property developments were sold at a loss, up about 2 percentage points from the second half of 2022, according to Centaline. The average loss stood at 8 per cent."

CNN on China. "One photo shows the young woman sprawled facedown on the ground in a graduation gown, her tasseled cap discarded to the side. Others show her slumped over a chair, collapsed against a wall, and hanging listlessly over a staircase banister. But the woman in these images hasn’t been harmed – at least, not physically. These are graduation photos, and their theme is 'being more dead than alive,' according to the accompanying caption."

"In recent weeks, Chinese social media has become awash with tongue-in-cheek images like these, posted by fresh graduates who have chosen to eschew the typical polished portraits in favor of shots they say offer a truer reflection of the tough reality they face. A record 11.6 million college students are expected to enter the job market this summer, but their prospects look bleak. Urban youth unemployment is at record levels, reaching 20.8% in May, and an influx of new job seekers will only increase the competition."

"'This master’s degree…is finally…finished,' one student wrote on the Chinese app Xiaohongshu, next to a photo of herself on the ground, barely clinging to her graduation cap and thesis packet. In another picture, she pretends to throw her thesis into a recycling bin. Li Nian, a PhD student who graduated this past week, is among those to have posted 'more dead than alive' style photos. But despite submitting 'countless resumes,' none of the recruiters or employers replied, she said. She recalled going to a job fair at her school, and seeing recruiters throw 'a thick pile of resumes into the trash when they wrapped up. Because they are not short of people.'"

"One recent post on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo summed up the darkening mood. 'Why is everyone reluctant to have children? The reason is very simple,' they wrote. 'You spend more than 20 years of energy, sweat, and a million yuan to raise a college student who can’t even find a job after graduation – or if they do, it’s with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan ($418). Every day you start work early, finish late, and take out loans to buy your child a house and car.' At the end of the day, the poster concluded, not having children – who would in turn have to suffer the same way – might be the 'kind thing to do.'"