A report from Community Impact in Texas. "'I’ve been doing this for 23 years, and this year was the largest decrease in residential value we’ve ever seen,' said Williamson County Chief Appraiser Alvin Lankford. Since mid-2022, median market prices, or the dollar amount a home can sell for, for single-family homes in Williamson and Travis counties decreased by approximately 13%."

The Orange County Register in California. "Homebuying in Los Angeles and Orange counties fell 24% in a year as pricey house payments scared away potential buyers. So just how slow is it? Second-slowest May for sales in records dating to 1988. 47th-smallest sales total for any month in over 35 years, and only 11% of all months have been slower. 39% below the average May sales pace since 1988. In the past 12 months, 112,483 sales were 34% below average. Lowest 12-month sales count since March 2009. Only 2.4% of all 12-month periods have been slower."

"Next, consider how prices moved. In Los Angeles County, the $800,000 median was flat in a month and 6% lower in a year. It’s also 7% off the $860,000 record high set in April 2022. Orange County’s $1 million median was up 1.2% in a month but 4.8% off the $1.05 million peak of May 2022. L.A.’s $858,500 new-home median was down 13.3% in a month but 6% higher in a year. O.C.’s $1 million median was down 12% in a month and 24% lower in a year."

The Real Deal on Illinois. "High interest rates have midsize multifamily owners holding onto their properties, crushing deals for the asset class to an eight-year low in Chicagoland and forcing brokers to turn to sellers carrying assumable debt. It’s a slowdown that has Chicago’s leading brokerages in the midmarket space hustling to close ever-scarcer deals. 'We all work harder and cry more,' Kiser Group’s Lee Kiser told The Real Deal. 'We’re working twice as much for two-thirds of the income.'"

The Commercial Observer. "For much of the past six months, commercial real estate’s beleaguered office sector has been dogged by negative news, with some of the industry’s most prestigious names either struggling to refinance formerly performing properties, defaulting on commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars, or attempting to hand back the keys to underwater office buildings to lenders. Some of this might be a game of chicken between lender and borrower: renegotiate my terms or take my asset. And, indeed, that seems to be the way it’s playing out. 'Larger institutions have already run the calculus on whether or not to hold, and many are handing back the keys. It clears the way for smaller firms to follow suit,' said Nitin Chexal, CEO of Palladius Capital Management, a real estate investment firm, referring to commercial office space."

"'A lot of these borrowers are so aggressive in terms of ripping the face off the lender, but they don’t like it when the lender rips their face off when they default,' said Robert Verrone, principal of Iron Hound Management, an industry specialist in workout advisory."

"Between January and March 2023, there have been roughly $3.7 billion in new maturity defaults with CMBS unable to be paid off on time, while the aggregate amount of CMBS debt in maturity default has increased 28 percent over the past 12 months, according to CRED iQ, a national data analytics firm. 'Oh, my gosh, there’s a problem here,' said Shlomo Chopp, managing partner at Terra Strategies, a real estate advisory firm that specializes in distress. 'I would liken what’s happening now to if we had a downturn just as Henry Ford came out with the car and we had a lot of horse and buggy loans due. It’s not what it used to be. A lot of office just isn’t viable in its current form.'"

Insauga in Canada. "The number of houses for sale in Brampton saw a significant jump last month despite many communities in the GTA still struggling to keep up with demand. Back in May, Zoocasa found the housing stock in Brampton was low with only two months’ worth of supply. But an influx of 1,517 new listings entered the market in June, making for a 41 per cent increase in supply compared to just 830 active listings last month."

From SWNS in the UK. "Residents have slammed developers who have left their newbuild housing estate looking like a 'glorified building site' after the roads were left unfinished for three years. Dozens of families forked out between £400,000-£600,000 when they moved into their dream homes on the outskirts of Worcester back in 2020. But since then, the streets have been left untarmacked - leaving the posh estate a 'complete eyesore' and looking 'like a bomb has hit it.'"

"A resident, who did not wish to be named, added: 'It's been a nightmare from day one, it's just been delay after delay and the roads are still not finished. The work was supposed to be done by last year and still we are left with this eyesore. It's not safe for children and is also damaging people's cars. You shouldn't fork out half a million pounds for a house and be left with streets from the Stone Age.'"

News.com.au in Australia. "Building companies are dropping like flies and two more have collapsed just days apart, leaving homeowners and tradesmen reeling. On June 26, NSW-based luxury builder Millbrook Homes collapsed into liquidation owing more than $4 million to roughly 80 creditors. Then just four days later, on June 30, Victorian residential construction firm Bentley Homes also appointed liquidators as its debts piled up to $1.8 million. Meanwhile, Bentley Homes, which had been in operation since 2006, succumbed to tough market conditions in the construction sector."

"Its collapse left 50 homeowners with partially incomplete projects while another 26 homes had not yet started construction. Around 34 homeowners who had paid an initial tender fee of between $2,000 and $9,000 have also been left out in the cold. One of the unlucky people caught up in the builder’s liquidation is Ronnie Brown, 40, who, along with his wife and two daughters aged 8 and 13, have been left with an incomplete house and mounting rents. 'The VMIA (the Victorian home insurer) called me today and their process takes so long,' Mr Brown told news.com.au. 'It takes 90 days for them to assess if I have a claim, then 14-21 days for them to get quotes and another 14-21 days for them to come up with an amount that I will get. My family and I are not in a financial position to pay rent and mortgage for six months while the VMIA go through their process.'"

Asian Banking and Finance. "South Korea’s financial services regulator has reportedly asked major commercial banks to prepare US$4b in financing to support a credit cooperative hit by customer withdrawals, reports Reuters, based on two banking sources. An official at the Financial Services Commission said it could not confirm the amount or other details but said that it had asked the banks for cooperation in preparing liquidity through repurchase-agreement facilities to aid MG Community Credit Cooperatives (MGCCC). Depositors were reportedly lining up last week to withdraw funds from a branch of MGCCC after local media reported a rise in non-performing loans tied to real estate projects. South Korea's top financial authorities pledged on Sunday to ensure liquidity at the credit cooperative, which has nearly 1,300 branches."

South China Morning Post. "Chinese developer Kaisa Group Holdings is facing a legal attack from a Singapore hedge fund, one of an array of its offshore creditors, while it pursues a restructuring plan to address more than US$15 billion of borrowings. Broad Peak Investment Advisers filed a court petition in Hong Kong on July 6 to wind up the company for non-payment of yuan-denominated debt issued by its Shenzhen subsidiary, Kaisa Group said in a stock exchange filing on Monday. The petition will be heard on September 13, it added. The Singapore-based firm is suing for repayment of a 170 million yuan (US$235 million) bond issued by its unit Kaisa Group (Shenzhen), the filing said. Kaisa Group tumbled 16 per cent to 17.5 HK cents in Hong Kong trading after the disclosure."

"Some 50 Chinese developers have defaulted on about US$100 billion worth of offshore bonds over the past two years, according to a JPMorgan report in December, with 39 of them seeking debt workout plans with creditors on US$117 billion of stressed debt. 'The key issue is that property sales remain weak,' said Kenny Wen, head of investment strategy at KGI Asia in Hong Kong. 'If mainland developers cannot sell assets [at a good price] or get a white knight to inject new capital, we are going to see more winding-up petitions in the near future.'"

"Kaisa Group incurred a cumulative net loss of 26 billion yuan in 2021 and 2022 amid a slump in contracted sales nationwide. It has sold a number of assets to raise funds, including 18 projects in Shenzhen worth 81.8 billion yuan in late 2021, and some floor space in The Center office tower in Hong Kong's Central district. In November 2021, Kaisa sold a project at Hong Kong's former Kai Tak airport site to a venture between New World Development and Far East Consortium for HK$1.9 billion (US$243 million) in cash and HK$6 billion in assumed debt, a steep discount to its HK$9.8 billion valuation."