A report from Bloomberg. "Starwood Capital Group, led by Barry Sternlicht, is exploring a sale of more than 2,000 single-family rental homes. SREIT owned 3,210 single-family rental homes valued at $1.26 billion as of March 31, according to a filing. It recognized a nearly $80 million impairment charge on various single-family rental properties during the first quarter on revised cash-flow assumptions 'due to an increased probability of a near-term disposition,' the trust reported. Starwood also owns rental houses outside of SREIT. Starwood’s Sternlicht has said the Fed’s campaign to hike rates is 'bordering on idiotic.'"

The New York Post. "Eight years after first listing his Fifth Avenue duplex, celebrity hair stylist Frédéric Fekkai has finally sold it for $4.5 million — far less than its original asking price of $12 million. He bought the home for $7.4 million in 2006."

WVUE in Louisiana. "Rising property insurance costs are causing some homeowners in the New Orleans area to make concessions when selling their homes this spring. 'They will lessen the price of the house or they will have the roof replaced before closing,' said Liz Tardo, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors (NOMAR). 'We’re seeing a lot of that.'"

From Market Place. "ATTOM Data Solutions, a cruncher of national real estate facts and figures, reports that foreclosure activity has been rising this year and spiked sharply in May. It was up 7% from April and 14% over a year ago. Vivek Sah at the University of Denver thinks the recent spike in foreclosure activity may be due to house flippers. They may now be stuck with improved properties they can’t sell at improved prices, he said — so some of them may just be walking away."

The Scottsdale Progress in Arizona. "Valley home buyers and sellers may be facing a long and not-so-hot summer, according to a leading analyst of the Maricopa and Pinal counties’ market. 'With supply and demand both dropping, volume is likely to be weak between June and September,' the Cromford Report said. 'It is currently a contest between sellers and buyers for who loses motivation fastest.' It also warned again against believing any predictions of a massive wave of foreclosures, calling people who believe that 'deluded by fabricated data that exists only in their own mind.'"

"'All the real world data says that delinquency rates remain below normal, that pre-foreclosure activity is unusually low and that the rate of actual foreclosures taking place is extremely weak, even though most of the forbearance that was introduced during the pandemic has ceased,' it said. Last week there were only 993 foreclosures pending in Maricopa County."

From Nerd Wallet. "Metro areas in California have historically been the least affordable in the nation. This most recent quarter had some familiar faces among the costliest: Los Angeles, where homes were listed at 11.1 times the typical first-time buyer income, San Diego (9.6) and San Jose (8.7). These were joined by Miami (8.6) and New York City (7.3). This is the first time in this analysis that the NYC metro area was among the five least affordable locations."

From House Digest. "According to Realtor.com, homes sold in May 2023 were priced lower than they had been in May 2022. While nationally, prices are falling, there are a few areas that are seeing more of a decline than others. Boise, Idaho, and Austin, Texas, which saw some of the fastest rising prices during the pandemic, are currently ranked first and second, respectively, where home prices are falling in 2023, per Realtor.com. Boise, Idaho, has a median list price of $609,875, which is a 7.8% decline in price per square foot from 2022 to 2023. Austin, Texas, is right behind with a median list price of $583,751 and a 7.7% decline in price per square foot over the last year."

"Rounding out the top three is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with a median list price of $366,075 with a 7.3% decrease in price per square foot. The rest of the top ten, in descending order, are Phoenix, Arizona (median list price of $529,450, 5.6% decrease). Sarasota, Florida (median list price of $549,900, 4.7% decrease). Salt Lake City, Utah (median list price of $635,000, 4% decrease). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (median list price $238,250, 3.9% decrease). Winston-Salem, North Carolina (median list price $345,899, 3.6% decrease). Sacramento, California (median list price $662,875, 3.4% decrease). Chicago, Illinois (median list price $376,00, 1.1% decrease)."

Fox News on California. "City council members in San Diego are considering a proposal to ban homeless encampments from public property amid years-long frustration over the city's mounting homelessness crisis. The plan has received support from San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. 'This park, like all of our parks, are not a homeless shelter. It’s not a place to live, it’s not a giant toilet, it is not a trash dump,' Gloria said at a press conference in Balboa Park on Friday."

The Boston Globe on Rhode Island. "If the state’s two largest projects fail — the long-vacant Superman building in downtown Providence, and the Tidewater soccer stadium in Pawtucket — then Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said he could foresee more major development projects falling apart. 'If the Superman building deal falls apart because of interest rates and supply chain problems, and if the soccer stadium in Pawtucket also falls apart, then I think that’s going to be tough for both cities,' Whitehouse said Monday morning during the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce’s annual congressional breakfast. 'And I think it signals where other projects might go when the financing and supply chain issues that had made it a viable project, [are] no longer viable.'"

The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. "Charlotte has rarely, if ever, seen as much office space sitting empty in uptown as it has now. If you took all the empty office floor space spread out across uptown and put it in one building, it would fill the entire Bank of America headquarters — the state’s tallest skyscraper — three times over. Put another way, roughly one in every five office floors in uptown sits empty, setting a record late last year not seen in at least the last 25 years, according to JLL. What’s more, the 185 empty floors — out of about 940 tracked — is also more than what the city likely has ever seen before, partly because it’s been been growing for so many years, said Barry Fabyan, senior managing partner with JLL."

"There are ripple effects for the rest of the city, too, Fabyan and other commercial real estate experts told The Charlotte Observer. Retail can begin to suffer, with fewer people frequenting lunch spots or bars after work. 'If you want to have a city in decline,' Fabyan said, 'just have a central business district in decline.' The snowball effect, as Fabyan described it, can slowly erode the health of a city."

"Loan troubles are not unique to Charlotte. There are nine buildings on the CMBS watchlist in the Raleigh and Durham area, CoStar data show. In bigger cities like Los Angeles, nearly all office tower owners owe more to the bank than the buildings are currently worth, according to a recent story by Slate. 'Office buildings are the weak link in commercial real estate right now,' said Mark Vitner, chief economist at Charlotte-based Piedmont Crescent Capital, 'and the weakest link in the office sector is the oldest building in the central business districts.'"

"The uncertainty is leaving some office tenants to sit on the sidelines, Vitner told the Observer. They feel they could get a better deal as more space becomes available. The same goes for prospective buyers who feel like prices are going to get better by waiting. 'People have doubts as to what the return to office is going to look like,' Vitner said."

The National Post. "One of these relief measures is the extension of amortization terms. In recent months, all of Canada’s big banks have reported a vast expansion in the number of mortgages on their books with amortization periods of 35 years or longer. For borrowers, that means their monthly payments go down, but they have to keep paying them for an extra 10 to 15 years. Either way, the effect is that Canadians are able to handle larger amounts of credit, which is further increasing the amount of money available to bid up prices. What’s more, it’s rewarding the ranks of overleveraged real estate buyers who helped bid up the market in the first place."

From Reuters. "Canada's financial regulator is urging lenders to tackle risks from mortgage extensions at the 'earliest opportunity' as many borrowers try to navigate higher mortgage costs after the Bank of Canada's surprise rate hike last week. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions' (OSFI) urgency underscores the concern about the risk accumulating in Canadian lenders' books as the central bank has resumed interest rate hike after a four-month pause."

"'OSFI expects a more prudent and active account management approach, including resolving negative amortization at the earliest opportunity as well as recognizing the higher risk of these loans in loss provisioning,' the regulator said in a statement to Reuters. 'Our ongoing conversations with financial institutions have highlighted the importance of being proactive in managing all types of mortgage accounts, and to act before levels of borrower stress become unmanageable.'"

"Desjardins analyst Royce Mendes noted that the big six Canadian banks had more than 20% of their mortgage portfolio with repayments greater than 30 years in the first quarter as a result of variable-rate loans that have become non-amortizing, up from roughly 2% of the mortgage portfolios the prior year. At the same time, variable-rate holders are facing at least 30% increases in payments to remain on their original schedule. As a result, some might opt to extend repayments, Mendes notes."

City AM in the UK. "London homeowners looking to renegotiate their mortgage this year face a whopping £7,300 rise in annual costs as experts warn of the 'grim reality' of rising interest rates. 'While the Bank’s tightening cycle might be nearing its end, the impact on households is only just beginning,' Benjamin Trevis, economist at CEBR warned. 'With mortgages often occupying the most significant portion of household expenses, our estimates underscore the grim reality of rising rates, which will exert further strain on already stretched incomes, and hence the wider consumer economy, well into 2024.'"

"'The mortgage affordability crisis has cast a dark shadow over those seeking to remortgage their homes, leaving a trail of challenges in its wake,' Myron Jobson, senior personal finance analyst at interactive investor, told City A.M. 'The golden era of low mortgage rates has come to an end following a rapid rise in interest rates to combat red hot and sticky inflation. Mortgage costs are predicted to rise further still after recent higher than expected inflation figures raised forecasts of how much UK interest rates will go up.'"

The Chosenilbo in Korea. "Apartment prices in Seoul, which plummeted more than 20 percent last year due to surging interest rates, have been rising for four consecutive months so far this year as more homes were bought and sold thanks to eased loan restrictions and 'soft' housing loans for certain groups. But that also meant that household loans taken out from commercial banks increased by W4.2 trillion last month to reach a 19-month high."

"But a repeat of the frenzied apartment bubble during the Moon Jae-in administration, when young Koreans took advantage of ultra-low interest rates to borrow heavily to buy apartments, must be avoided at all costs. The latest trend appears to be as yet a temporary rise rather than a shift to full-fledged growth and requires caution. Apartment prices in Seoul surged 99 percent during the five-year term of the Moon administration but dropped only 22 percent last year. That means the price-to-income ratio, which shows how many years of income must be saved to buy a home, stands at 12 times in Seoul, which is even higher than New York (seven times) and London (eight times)."

From ABC News. "Economic research reveals the pain being felt by Australian mortgage borrowers, while casting doubt on the narrative of a universal rental crisis. The modelling by Ben Phillips at ANU's Centre for Social Research and Methods shows that Australians with mortgages are now paying more than a quarter of disposable income on housing costs. Mr Phillips said the typical mortgage borrower had seen a 47 per cent increase in their housing costs relative to their income compared to before the pandemic, when the Reserve Bank (RBA) cash rate was between 1.5 to 0.75 per cent."

"Data from ratings agency S&P shows the arrears rate on 'prime' loans, where applicants have met more stringent income-verification processes, jumped from 0.76 per cent in the December quarter to 0.95 per cent in the March quarter. The situation is far worse for so-called 'nonconforming,' otherwise known as low-doc or subprime, loans. Arrears for these loans leapt from 3.2 per cent at the end of last year to 3.7 per cent by the end of the first quarter. 'Arrears increases were much higher in the more advanced arrears categories,' S&P observed. 'As nonconforming loan arrears started rising earlier in this monetary tightening cycle, they have transitioned faster to later arrears categories.'"

Stuff New Zealand. "The downward trajectory of house prices remained almost unchanged in May, according to Quotable Value (QV) data. In the three months to the end of May, house prices fell 3.42%, compared to 3.46% during the three months to the end of April, the property data and valuing company reported. The most recent quarterly fall was less than the 3.9% fall the market experienced from January to March. QV estimated the average house price now sat at $888,930, which was 13.7% lower than the same time last year and 20.2% higher than its pre-Covid-19 level. 'Most areas of the country that have experienced positive value growth or held relatively steady over the last quarter have had average values of well below $1 m. In other words, ‘first-home buyer territory’, said QV) operations manager James Wilson."