It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The local housing market is not 'crashing at all,' said King County Assessor John Wilson. 'But the fact is, it’s finally kind of peaked.' In Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood, values declined 8% on average this year, compared with an increase of nearly 14% last year. In Sammamish, values are down 22% on average, after shooting up 50% last year. Residential property values in Snohomish County declined 7% on average this year, said Assessor Linda Hjelle. Pierce County is still finalizing its values, but is also likely to record a decline."



"It appears that the days of corporations and investors buying up scores of houses in Charlotte may be coming to an end. According to Redfin, the Charlotte metropolitan area has seen a 66% drop in investor purchases of homes. That’s the second biggest drop of all metros in the country, in a tie with Atlanta. One more factor could be that investors are losing money in real estate. According to Redfin, a little over 17% of homes sold by investors in March were sold at a loss. That’s the fifth-highest rate in the nation, behind Phoenix, Las Vegas, Jacksonville, and Sacramento."



"Look around the Phoenix metro area, and you’ll see homeowners are still selling. But the market has definitely slowed down. Last year the median Phoenix metro home sold for $480,000. Today, it’s only $435,000."



"According to a report from Realtor.com, a new price peak is unlikely in 2023. In the country’s 50 largest cities, 15 saw price declines, the figures showed. Texas metros registered the biggest dips in prices, led by Austin, which saw a 7.3% annual decline. Houston, down 5.9%, and San Antonio, with a 5.8% drop, followed. Meanwhile, close to 13% of listings across the country saw price reductions, compared to 10.2% in May 2022. Austin led the list of cities where homes saw the biggest declines. There, roughly 12% of houses had their prices cut, followed by San Antonio, 9.1%, and Oklahoma City, 8.7%."



"One area of the country that was booming saw the air coming out of prices every year, according to government data. 'Year over year prices in many western states have started to decline for the first time in over ten years,'  Anju Vajja, the principal associate director at the FHFA's research and statistics division, said. Seven states — all located in the Western US— logged price declines. Utah led the list, with prices off by 4.35%. Nevada followed with a drop of 3.6%. San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, California, was the largest metro area with the greatest price decline, at 10.1%."



"As the city contends with historic levels of distress in its office market, Downtown Los Angeles is headed for even bigger problems in the form of maturing debt on some 59.3M SF of office property in the next two years. The piling on of flagging office demand, major layoffs in tech sectors, and financing difficulties caused by rising interest rates 'have made it, in my opinion, the worst market — at least in LA — that I've ever seen,' JLL International Director Tony Morales said. At least one major office owner in Downtown LA has shown its willingness to walk away. 'If the biggest guys in the real estate business are walking away from property, where’s the leverage of the lender?' said Bert Haboucha, president of debt restructuring specialist Atlas Capital Advisors."



"A Singapore-based real estate investment trust that owns more than 5M SF of U.S. offices is looking to sell off one of its most valuable assets as it looks to reduce its debt obligation. Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust is in talks to sell Phipps Tower, a 20-story, glass-clad office building above the high-end Phipps Plaza mall. Mirae’s U.S. REIT, Mirae Asset Maps Frontier US Private Real Estate Trust No. 5, recently posted losses of more than 70% due to value struggles in its portfolio, including a 75% value loss on a Washington, D.C., office building. 'We see this as a potential bitter pill to swallow in order to bring forth more stability for the portfolio,' DBS Group Research analyst Derek Tan said in the report."



"A developer is blaming the rising interest rates - among other things - for putting the brakes on a 400-unit condo project in the centre of Richmond. Pre-sale buyers of Minoru Square were told this week the developer has 'paused' the project and will return their 20 per cent deposit. Thomas Davidoff, a real estate professor at the University of British Columbia, said a developer might cancel the project if they decide it is no longer profitable enough. 'We’ve seen other pre-sales run into trouble, and I don’t think this will be the last,' he said."



"Soaring rates and falling property values are squeezing commercial real estate firms in Sweden, but the risk of a banking crisis is low, the head of the central bank said on Thursday. Concerns have centred on real estate group SBB, which is looking for a buyer after its debt was cut to 'junk' status and has been forced to restructure. But SBB is not alone and Moody's said this week it had taken negative rating action on about 50% of the real estate firms it covers in Sweden. The end of the long period of cheap money has exposed faults lines in the financial system, hitting niche lenders in the United States and forcing authorities to arrange a shot-gun wedding for Credit Suisse. 'I think .. the low rate environment exposed the system to risks and maybe the debate was a bit naive about what kind of risk we were building up during that period,' Riksbank Governor Erik Thedeen told reporters."



"The housing market is probably close to bottoming out with some regions taking a much bigger hit than others. The Wellington region was the worst performing market, falling 21 percent from the peak. 'Perhaps the inconsistencies of the Upper Hutt market perfectly encapsulate a market trying to find its feet, with a quarter of peak value now wiped out,' said CoreLogic NZ head of research Nick Goodall."



"After years of a booming market, hundreds if not thousands of Queensland real estate agents are leaving the industry as once-skyrocketing property prices continue their slow descent. Former Buderim real estate agent Myles Blackwell left the industry in late March. He sold homes on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane for six years and said he knew the market would only boom for a short time. 'When the times get tough and the houses aren't selling, and people are holding back, and the affordability becomes unreachable for more people because the interest rates are a lot higher, then it is a real slog. Generally speaking you have more properties that can fall over or don't complete and it takes longer to get the buyers across the line.'"



"Singapore's current property boom stems from mass-market properties, driven by HDB upgraders. Whether you're checking the background of a property, or looking for a potentially undervalued unit, it helps to know the losers as well as the winners. It's unusual indeed for projects to see substantial losses in a bull market like 2023 — but there are a number of condos that have incurred bigger losses. The Marina Collection, for instance, has seen only two profitable transactions in its history (and 15 unprofitable ones)."



"Seascape is a regular on 'top losses' lists, and has a history of massive loss-incurring transactions; from a $6.6 million loss in 2017, to a $3.7 million loss in 2019. In fact, there are no profit-making transactions recorded from Seascape to date, just a straight run of 18 losses. Turquoise is in the same boat, with only one winning transaction to date (and 25 losses). We trust you see the pattern by now: Sentosa Cove condos are indulgences and money sinks, albeit beautifully designed and luxurious ones."



"Lastly, it's a matter of timing, as many of these initial transactions were bought during the last property market high in 2007 and 2008. Take the latest loss at Marina Collection, for example, where a 3,272 square feet unit was sold for just $1,421 psf in April 2023. This was nearly half the $2,842 psf it transacted for in March 2008. In the years to come, losses are likely to worsen or remain the same, with the ABSD now doubled for foreigners. But don't take this as a condemnation of Sentosa Cove condos: it's simply that these are properties to be enjoyed, rather than invested in."