A weekend topic starting with WNCT in North Carolina. "A Greene County man is moving into his home with the help of a loan program from the USDA Rural Development. Ryan Roberts applied for the Section 502 Direct Loan Program. 'Essentially we can do 100% financing,' said Reginald Speight, the USDA Rural Development state director. 'We can be the bank. If an individual doesn’t have a financial institution, we as the USDA rural development can be the mortgage holder. We also have a guaranteed program that individuals who have marginal credit or have some issues with their credit that we can be the dual guarantee.'"

Space Coast Daily in Florida. "More active listings are sparking buyers’ interest and providing more homeownership opportunities, says Jennifer McCoy with McCoy Freeman Real Estate serving all of Florida’s Space Coast. 'Our month’s supply of inventory is up over 133%. Even though this important number is up from last year, it still remains in the seller’s market category.' The median price for existing Brevard single-family homes in April, meanwhile, was $360,000, which is exactly what it was last April. This brings an end to a very remarkable more than 11-year stretch – that’s 135 months, to be exact – where the monthly median single-family home sale price in Brevard was up on a year-over-year basis."

WESH Orlando. "Florida had the most foreclosures of any state in May, and Palm Bay is near the top of the list for metro areas with populations larger than 200,000. 'I’m in the trenches. I’m dealing with the people who are affected in our city, the city of Palm Bay. Foreclosures are rising. And we need a comprehensive plan working with our officials,' said Bishop Merton L. Clark of Truth Revealed International Ministries. Some see this as a normalization after financial assistance programs were implemented during the pandemic, like mortgage forbearance that delayed payments. Some people who signed forbearance agreements did not fully understand them, so they are taken off guard when the payments kick back in."

NBC Bay Area. "A new study shows home foreclosures in California are up more than 20% from this time last year. The California numbers follow a nationwide trend and are the second highest amount of any state in the country. Part of the reason many are are defaulting on the mortgage loan are the adjustable rate mortgages that have shot up suddenly after the recent rise in interest rates."

From The Chronicle. "Western Washington home prices were down year-over-year from April 2022 to April 2023, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. From April 2022 to April 2023, the average home price statewide decreased by $56,700, falling from $659,950 to $603,250 and representing a 8.59% decline. Among Lewis County's neighbors, only Pacific County saw an increase in home prices year-over-year while Thurston, Grays Harbor and Cowlitz counties all saw declines in average home prices. 'The market's never going back to the prices people enjoyed prior to 2016,' said Eren Millam, a Lewis County real estate agent."

"According to Millam, after the peak of the housing bubble in 2007, home prices declined by 27%. If current home prices were to decline 27%, the average home price in Lewis County would still remain above $300,000, compared to $137,000 when Millam began working as a real estate agent in 2013. Millam said if home prices were to decline back to their levels before 2016, it would mean there were serious issues with the broader economy. 'If that were to happen, the economy would be broken. ... You'd be worried about feeding your family,' Millam said. 'You won't have to worry about money anymore, it'll be an agrarian society.'"

The American Statesman in Texas. "Panic swirled this week as news broke regarding a real estate 'market crash' in Austin. 'Austin Housing Market Crash Rings Real Estate Alarm Bells,' proclaimed a headline in Newsweek. Data from Zillow' show prices dropped faster in Austin than anywhere else in the country this past year. Year-to-date home sales price data from the Austin Board of Realtors show a 12.6% decline in median price for homes in the five-county Austin region compared to the first four months of last year. The city of Austin saw its median sold price drop 10.8% during the same period."

"But even though prices are declining, was the headline about a crash overstated? Mark Sprague, a housing market analyst with Independence Title, has a different take on the numbers. He makes a distinction between home values and sold prices. 'The charts are showing what is selling,' Sprague said. 'Sold values are dropping because the buyers are not able to buy/qualify what they could a year ago ... due to the buyer having lost 40% buying power since the start of last summer with rates rising. The buyers will have lost 72% buying power by the end of the year if rates end up at the anticipated 7.5% to 8.5%. But does that mean your home's value has dropped 72%? No.'"

"Bottom line, Sprague said: 'What people can afford has dropped, but that has not dropped the value of any property. Locally, regionally and nationally, you're still in a seller's market.'"

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Matthew Regan, a broker who does much of his business in the Mississauga and Oakville areas west of Toronto, sees the challenge in many upscale areas. 'The baby boomer population that own in desirable neighbourhoods want to unload these big houses,' he says. But if they hold onto them for another five or 10 years, their dilemma may worsen. Mr. Regan points to the example of a three-bedroom bungalow he sold off-market in the Lorne Park neighbourhood for $2.55-million. A two-storey in the same area would sell for the same amount or less, which is hard for many owners of larger homes to grasp, he says."

"Mr. Regan says some owners who are reluctant to sell a current property until prices recover to the level of the February, 2022 peak are actually losing ground. 'Sellers may get their price but it’s going to take a long time.' During the pandemic mania for more space, the mindset of many buyers was that they needed to buy the first big house that came up in a neighbourhood they remotely liked. 'Now they can be more picky,' he says."

"Even properties that sell with multiple offers are not going for astronomical prices compared with the run-up during the pandemic, he says. 'That’s a good thing. The pricing in 2021 and into 2022 made no sense. The fundamentals weren’t there,' he says."

From News.com.au. "An Aussie filmmaker has highlighted the scale of the housing crisis with a revealing video showing just how much things have changed in four decades. Arguing that the housing market is 'broken,' Jack Toohey takes a trip down memory lane to hit back at the 'boomers' who insist earlier generations had it harder. 'Let’s go back in time to buy a house,' he says in the viral video, which has been viewed more than four million times. The video notes that in 1983, the average home cost $64,039, higher education was free, and the average annual income was $19,188."

"After paying average annual tax of $4377 and rent of $2494, he would be left with $12,315 in disposable income. 'If I saved 50 per cent of the remainder, it would take me two years to save up for the 20 per cent deposit,' of $12,807, Toohey says. Fast forward to 2023, when the average home costs $920,100, the average HECS debt is $23,685, and the average income is $90,896. After paying average annual tax of $28,600, rent of $20,008 and HECS of $5453, he would be left with disposable income of $36,835."

"'If I saved 50 per cent of the remainder, it would take me 10-and-a-half years to save up for the 20 per cent deposit,' of $184,020, he says. 'It’s clear that it’s not just lazy, layabout young people sipping lattes that’s causing the problem. In 40 years the average house price has increased by 14 times, whereas full-time salaries have only increased by 4.7 times. Houses used to cost three times your salary, and now they cost 10 times.'"