It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The value of real estate in the heavily damaged coastal areas have fallen dramatically, with total assessed value 40% in Fort Myers Beach and nearly 32 % lower on Sanibel. Home listings and sales in Collier, excluding Marco Island, saw an overall median closed price decrease of 1% to $600,000 compared to $607,500 in May 2022. There were 1,045 price decreases and a 31% decrease in new listings reported during the month. 'More and more sellers in Naples are starting to adopt a mindset that they need to be open to negotiate on price,' Jillian Young, president of Premiere Plus Realty, said with the NABOR report."

"For cash buyers who’ve been waiting to jump into red-hot Texas property markets like Austin, Dallas and San Antonio, this might be the moment to pounce. 'At the luxury end, most sales are cash. Those buyers can be pickier,' said Roxann Taylor, an agent at Engel & Völkers Southlake Dallas. 'They’re doing inspections. They’re asking for repairs. And if they have a second thought, they will terminate.' 'There is a culling of buyers because of interest rates,' said Ryan Rodenbeck, owner of Spyglass Realty in Austin. 'There’s a bit more inventory, especially in luxury areas' including Barton Hills, Lake Austin and Old Enfield, he said. 'If a luxury home’s not selling, it’s usually because people are pricing it for the market a year ago rather than now,' said Damon Williamson, managing partner of The Agency in Dallas. 'Some sellers still think we’re in a seller-based market, which isn’t true.'"

"Las Vegas Realtors President Lee Barrett admits last year and 2021’s numbers in particular — the end of a wild swing in real estate brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic — have skewed data, however, he is optimistic this is now the start of a 'market stabilization' period. For example, the median price of a single-family home sold during June in Southern Nevada was $440,900, which is a 0.3 percent drop from May, but down 8.1% from June of last year. Another peak seems to have been reached, he added, as it appears the price surge has come and gone. 'After increasing gradually for a couple of months, it looks like local home prices have hit a plateau, at least for now.'"

"Boston is heavily dependent on its office buildings, with property taxes from the sector generating more than one-fifth of the city’s total revenues this year. As those buildings decline in value and show signs of distress, they could endanger Boston's fiscal health. Office buildings in Boston and across the country are expected to lose a significant amount of their value in the coming years, an issue that has already created budget crises in other struggling coastal cities. Cities like New York, San Francisco and Milwaukee are also facing huge budget deficits due to falling commercial property valuations."

"Thomas Jensen, executive director of Boston Appraisal & Consulting LLC, said he doesn’t think the city is fully prepared for the loss in property tax revenue that will occur in the office sector. 'When things crash, it's almost like the same cycle where people first are in denial. They're like wishful thinking,' he said. And then when they realize it's going to get worse before it gets better, they realize that it hit the fan. Then they still have partial wishful thinking. Then they finally come to the realization that ‘OK, we're in over our heads, and what do we do? What are our options? Is there any way to get out of this?'"

"Greater Toronto real estate wasn’t looking as confident as it had been recently. Prices remain 11.4 (-$150,700) lower than the peak. We might be looking at a recovery, but we’re just as likely looking at the 'bull trap' phase of an asset cycle. Only time will tell. At the same time, some affluent suburbs returned to falling prices—one dropping as much as $50k in June. A typical home in Oakville fell a whopping 3.4% (-$50,000) in June, a big shift in sentiment. Oakville wasn’t the only suburb to suddenly begin printing lower home prices. Rounding out the five largest drops over $20k was Halton Hills (-3.0%; -$36,700), Halton Region (-2.9%;-$36,000), Milton (-2.6%;-$29,400), and Burlington (-2.5%;-$26,600). These aren’t cottage country markets either, but close suburbs."

"Canary Wharf was once seen as the future of London - now it’s the location that’s seen the greatest loss in the housing market with fears that its rental sector will drop too. Prices in the E14 postcode, dominated by Canary Wharf, have dropped 17 per cent in the past year according to a survey by London agency Benham and Reeves. Now HSBC is to vacate its 45-storey global headquarters after 20 years, taking its 8,000 staff - many of which now share their working hours at their homes as well as in the office - to smaller premises in the City of London."

"Luxembourg’s central region, which includes the capital city and already has the country’s most expensive property, saw prices fall by 7.3% between the second quarter of this year and the same period in 2022, according to AtHome. Every region of the country saw a drop in sale prices, with the biggest fall in the west of the country, where the average cost of a home decreased by 11.5% over the 12 month period, with the smallest fall in the east, which saw average prices drop almost 5%."

"The biggest dropoff lately has been in consents for new stand-alone homes. New Zealand had 18,734 stand-alone houses consented in the May year, down 24 per cent compared with the year ended May 2022. 'We expect the downtrend in consent issuance will deepen over the coming months. As we’ve highlighted before, financial conditions in the construction sector have become a lot tougher. House prices have tumbled over the past year, dropping by 17 per cent across the country,' said Satish Ranchhod, a Westpac senior economist. 'At the same time, operating costs for construction firms have skyrocketed, rising by around 9 per cent over the past year. On top of that, interest rates have risen to their highest levels in more than a decade.'"

"A tradie who is $40,000 in the hole after the collapse of a major building company has been left fuming as customers have received government handouts while he has been left with nothing. In March, Australia’s 13th largest home builder Porter Davis Homes went into liquidation, placing 1700 projects and another 779 empty blocks of land in jeopardy across Victoria and Queensland. Catherine Haddo’s husband is one of those unsecured creditors, after doing contracting painting jobs for Porter Davis for 18 years. That means not only is he $40,000 out of pocket after the company’s demise, but all his work has also dried up in the month since. 'He put all his eggs in one basket and got screwed,' Ms Haddo, 48, told news.com.au."

"CK Asset Holdings - the flagship property developer of billionaire Li Ka-shing and his family and one of Hong Kong's largest builders - will soon launch its The Coast Line residential project in Yau Tong, becoming the latest company to offer a new development in the city's weakening housing market. The Coast Line's launch comes amid a decline in Hong Kong's lived-in home prices. Prices of such properties fell in May for the first time this year, as looming interest rate increases cast a long shadow over a market facing a glut of newly built flats. Lived-in homes saw sales plummet 13 per cent to 2,411 in June, which was the weakest month of 2023. Non-residential properties saw a 5 per cent decline in sales to 735 in June from a month ago. CK Asset is expected to give a discount of around 5 per cent, analysts said."

"The small eastern city of Zibo in Shandong province is experiencing an outdoor barbecue craze. According to economists, this is an example of people choosing a cheap, tasty, option at a time of great pressure on household incomes. University graduates are being hit especially hard by China's economic doldrums, with youth unemployment hovering at or above 20%. Some students are feeling nervous about their futures. 'Yes, I'm worried,' says one woman who'll soon graduate. 'There's a lot of competition. It's hard to find a job. All my classmates feel the same pressure.'"

"For those who have jobs, a big reason for their reluctance to spend big is economic security. They're concerned about the potential to join the ranks of the unemployed, and their household's largest single investment is, in many cases, no longer worth what they thought it would be. To see this first-hand, we drive a few hours east of Zibo to the outskirts of a much larger city, Qingdao. Here, a property explosion hasn't matched real demand from buyers or renters, and the result has been huge housing estates built with very few residents in them."

"A woman is selling cold noodles from a portable stand outside her housing complex where she has few neighbours. A few years ago, her husband bought a flat here after moving to Qingdao to give their child a better start because they heard the schools would be good. I ask her if she's worried about the value of her home collapsing. 'Of course I'm worried,' she says. 'But what can I do?'"

"Nearby a couple who are street cleaners have stopped for lunch. They point to the huge estate behind them and say that nobody lives there. Across the road there is a small forest of concrete towers without paint, without windows and with window frames now looking the worse for wear, having been exposed to the elements. 'Construction just stopped there one day last year,' the man says. According to his wife, the entire suburb is pretty dead. 'There's nothing here. There's no petrol station. You have to go a long way for fuel. It's really not convenient to live here,' she says. According to a local real estate agent, sales volumes have halved in the area in recent years. 'Prices are down because the market is saturated,' she says. 'Too many homes were built and it's hard to sell them.'"