A report from Yahoo Finance. "Rental landlords may have to brace for impact. 'We're going to deliver more supply than what we can realistically absorb,' Carl Whitaker, director of research at RealPage told Yahoo Finance. The pressure will come during the second half of this year and into the next as more rental supply hits the market, reaching the highest level since the 1980s, according to RealPage. Most of those new buildings are mainly Class A apartments, Whitaker said. 'We're delivering all this new housing, which means more options for renters,' Whitaker added.'The challenge, though, is that the new supply that delivers just inherently tends to be at the very top of the price spectrum.'"

The Star Telegram in Texas. "Spring and summer are typically the busiest months for the real estate market. But that’s not the case in 2023. Closed sales were down 1.4% from this time last year. On average, houses in Fort Worth spent 24 more days on the market in May than they did in 2022, according to the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors. In Fort Worth. the median home price in May was $340,000, a 1.1% increase from April but 7.4% down from a year ago. According to the National Association of Realtors, middle-income buyers can afford only 23% of listings in the current market; five years ago, this group could afford half."

The Sun Sentinel. "Broward County could use taxpayer money to pay as much as $20 million in the upcoming year to encourage developers to build affordable housing. It’s among the latest multimillion-dollar initiatives in South Florida aimed at addressing the housing crisis. In Palm Beach County, voters have approved spending $200 million toward adding affordable housing. The money in Broward is considered the 'gap financing' and pays the difference between what the developer has to spend on construction and what they would be able to borrow. Without the subsidy, county leaders say the developments might otherwise never be built. It’s the go-to model for affordable housing nationally, county officials said."

"'It’s something we hear all the time, the cost of housing — from the people living here and employers trying to bring people here,' said Palm Beach County Mayor Gregg Weiss. He said he hears from the frustrated business owners that they make job offers but the response is: 'People say, ‘I just can’t afford to live here.’"

Axios on Colorado. "Nicole Pinto bought her Baker home late last year. She travels for work and decided to list her property on Airbnb to try to cover the cost of her mortgage. It's a lot of work, and she hasn't made enough to cover her mortgage yet. So far, she's been able to cover about 2/3 of her monthly payment. 'Sometimes I wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze,' Pinto says. Because Denver is one of the hottest STR markets in the country, there's a lot of competition. It takes time to gain bookings, Pinto says. Airbnb has some built-in tools for homeowners, but Pinto was handling most of it herself to start, including the cleaning."

The Orange County Register in California. "The average U.S. homebuyer needs to spend almost 38% of his or her income on house payments based on June prices and mortgage rates, said Zillow Chief Economist Skylar Olsen. That’s up from 27.1% in December. In the L.A. region, the typical sale would eat up 84% of an average income, up from 61% at the end of December. Rising interest rates caused values to drop in all sectors of commercial real estate, CBRE Global Chief Economist Richard Barkham said. Industrial property values have fallen 16% in the last 1 ½ years, CBRE figure show. Retail is down 17%, apartments are down 22% and offices are down by 34%. Office vacancy rates are at a 30-year high, prompting Barkham to predict the office sector could take up to nine years to recover."

Palo Alto Online in California. "June is National Homeownership Month, when Realtors promote the benefits of homeownership. 'When more people own homes, everyone benefits,' said Jim Hamilton, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors. 'Homeowners get involved in community activities such as volunteering and participating in community events. This gives them a sense of belonging more than someone who is renting.'"

"According to MLSListings, the median price for a single-family home in Santa Clara County reached $1.7 million in May 2023. In San Jose, the median sales price was $1.5 million. In Palo Alto, the May median sales price was $3.1 million. Based on the report, homebuyers in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties need a minimum qualifying income of more than $400,000 to purchase a median-priced home, Hamilton said."

"In San Mateo County, 19% of homebuyers could afford to purchase a median-priced home in the first quarter of 2023, according to the California Association of Realtors. Homebuyers needed a minimum annual income of $458,400 to qualify for the purchase of the county's median-price home of $1.85 million. Their monthly payment, including taxes and insurance on a 30-year fixed-rate loan, would be a whopping $11,460."

The Daily Mail on California. "Today, San Francisco's once bustling Union Square and downtown area is a shadow of its former self: rows of empty stores, sparse crowds even on peak weekend shopping days and nearby hotels – including a huge Hilton - unable to cover their mortgage payments. Edward Liu, 49, a local resident and hospital worker told DailyMail.com: 'A lot of the stores are closing, a lot of hotels are shutting down. 'You don't get the numbers in downtown anymore because a lot of people are working from home. The homeless don't make people want to stay for sure – it's just not very appealing. They defecate, they urinate on the street. They do drugs on the street. The mayor isn't doing anything and it's been like this for a very long time.'"

"A security guard at another branch of Walgreens on Powell Street – home to San Francisco's famous cable cars – had different explanation for the hollowing out of the city center. 'Theft is constant. For my company, this is the busiest store in San Francisco. We used to have two guys here but now it's one so a lot of the time, I'll be dealing with one person and someone else will be taking things. I can't get them all.' As if to prove his point, a bearded homeless man caught stealing hours earlier attempted to enter the store. Told he couldn't enter and blocked, he screamed: 'Excuse you! I have every right to be here' before swiping a brownie and an apple from a nearby counter and sprinting off.' It was one of four attempted or successful thefts DailyMail.com witnessed at the pharmacy within a 15-minute period and as a result, everything from chocolate bars to a $4.99 bottle of cheap Moscato wine was either locked up or security tagged."

The National Post. "Could a 'doom loop' be coming to a Canadian city near you? Many signs point to yes. While it may sound like a gravity-defying amusement park ride, a doom loop is a much more terrifying reality where rather than eluding gravity, a city plunges into a bottomless sinkhole of decline. Canadian cities from Vancouver to Toronto, and even Saint John, should take note as similar problems begin to plague their urban centres and exacerbate one another, forming the beginnings of their own doom loops. Like San Francisco, Canadian cities’ decline began with the hollowing out of their middle classes. As downtowns continue to divide sharply into extreme haves and have nots, the pace and intensity of this decline accelerates."

"High real estate prices and a dearth of 'missing middle' housing has also chased middle-class families, young professionals and essential workers out of Canadian cities at ever-quickening rates. The surge in home prices over the last few years drove urban wealth gaps to unprecedented highs. The ones who remain find themselves squeezed to the limit. Just one disturbing statistic: 33 per cent of Daily Bread Food Bank users work full-time jobs."

"While the destruction of the middle class in Canadian cities has become near impossible to ignore over the last several years, in reality, it’s been happening for well over a decade. The only question now is whether we can prevent a prolonged doom loop from taking hold. A disappearing middle class directly ties into almost every other crisis downtowns face. Obvious consequences include homelessness, drug abuse and crime. Brain drain and labour shortages in key sectors follow. These then spur broader economic decline, empty downtown cores and transit cuts. Repeat the cycle."

The Independent. "There has been further gloom for homeowners and renters this week as the Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates for a thirteenth consecutive time on Thursday. With many homeowners confronting 'the ice-cold reality of 2023 rates,' how banks react will be crucial. Buying agent and property expert Henry Pryor told The Independent that he believes lenders 'want to be seen to be helping' their customers to avoid being seen as 'villains' following the financial crisis."

"Lenders will fall over themselves to come up with ways not to repossess. 'They will extend 25 year mortgages to 30 or 35 years. They will move borrowers over to interest only payments for say 5 years – anything to avoid once again becoming the villains of the piece as they were in 2009 after the global financial crash,' he said. 'Banks have only just been welcomed back into polite society having been bailed out of their mess. This time they want to be seen to be helping where necessary even if they will still make a profit on their assistance.'"

ABC News in Australia. "Interest rates have risen at the steepest rate ever, as the Reserve Bank hikes the cost of mortgages and lending to try to stomp down inflation. The cost of servicing a home loan is up 106 per cent in a year — more than double — and the impact is worst for those who are younger and have paid off less of their loan. Florist Marilyn Cini wants various options to be tried, because there's one simple factor inflicting pain in her community of Aberfeldie in Melbourne's north. 'Interest rates. Interest rates. A lot of people have bought homes, they've got children, a lot of people have lost their jobs through COVID. It's tough.'"

"Rocketing prices for supplies and power mean the sole trader can't afford to hire staff. Her mortgage payments have doubled, so she's in the same position as her customers — making difficult choices. 'At the end of the week, you work out what you've made,' she says. 'Can you afford to buy a little bit extra, a little bit of luxuries, go out for dinner? Or do you pop it on the mortgage? Or do you put it aside for a rainy day? So everybody's in the same boat.'"

From Reuters. "From cutting salaries and bonuses and asking staff not to wear expensive clothes and watches at work, to reining in travel and entertainment expenses, Chinese financial firms have jumped on an austerity drive as Beijing pushes to bridge the wealth gap. The steps come as authorities vow to clamp down on corruption in the country's $57 trillion financial sector and as growth in the world's second-largest economy weakens, with youth unemployment hitting a record high."

"Staff at a large Chinese state-owned mutual fund and a mid-sized bank have instructed staff not to show off high-end lifestyles, said employees at the firms, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. The mutual fund has also asked staff to refrain from posting pictures of expensive meals, clothes or bags on social media, said an employee, to avoid attracting regulatory glare or public criticism. The mid-sized bank's employees have been asked to not wear luxury brands or carry luxury bags at workplace, said a person at the lender, adding staff have also been told they can't stay at five-star hotels when travelling for work."

"'At a time when economic growth momentum has been sluggish and the overall budget of the government is not growing as fast as before, how to distribute resources and benefits within the regime is a key political priority of the Party and most important driver behind the current austerity push,' said Xin Sun, who teaches Chinese and East Asian business at King's College London. 'Inequality in China has reached a high level for a long time,' Sun said, adding what the Party now does by cutting the benefits of 'financial elites' is aimed to quell inequality within the regime for political stability."

From 48 Hills. "I don’t usually laugh when I read the front page of the Sunday New York Times. I get mad. I get depressed. All kinds of emotions on my Sunday morning. But it’s typically not high comedy. Then today there was this headline: Why It Seems Everything We Knew About the Global Economy Is No Longer True. Here’s the nut: 'The economic conventions that policymakers had relied on since the Berlin Wall fell more than 30 years ago — the unfailing superiority of open markets, liberalized trade and maximum efficiency — look to be running off the rails.'"

"No, in fact, free-market economic globalization created vast economic inequality. It also, the Times notes, 'Pushed down wages at home and undercut workers’ bargaining power, spurring anti-immigrant sentiments and strengthening hard-right populist leaders like Donald Trump in the United States, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Marine Le Pen in France. It was believed that a new world where goods, money and information crisscrossed the globe would essentially sweep away the old order of Cold War conflicts and undemocratic regimes.'"

"Excuse me? 'It was believed?' By whom? Well, among others, by The New York Times. And The Washington Post. And the Los Angeles Times. And every other major newspaper in the country. All of them cheered relentlessly for market-drive approaches, for what we now call the Neoliberal Agenda. Nobody at any of these news outlets, other than a very occasional opinion columnist, every questioned whether the massive changes brought on by late-stage global capitalism would be anything but positive."