A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Sheila Smith was set to get a mortgage for about $750,000 to buy an investment property in Sedona, Ariz., earlier this year. The lender, a regional bank, offered a starting interest rate of about 5%, well below the going rate. Then, the bank said it was no longer offering the deal. Smith balked at paying more and wound up buying a cheaper home she could afford in cash. Banks are tapping the brakes on big home loans known as jumbo mortgages. 'The shock wave has psychologically affected bank executives,' said Chris Abate, chief executive officer of Redwood Trust, a financial firm that buys and sells jumbo mortgages. Before the banks collapsed, most of Redwood Trust’s business involved buying jumbos from independent mortgage brokers and selling them to banks. Now it is the opposite: Dozens of banks are flooding the firm with requests to potentially unload their jumbo loans. Banks will find it harder to make bespoke loans since they have to be standardized to sell to third parties, Abate said."

"The pullback is forcing many affluent home buyers to reconsider their financing options, or even what properties they buy. Smith, the Sedona buyer, said the cheaper house she bought needs some work, so she is planning to fix it up before renting it out. To get the cash to buy it, she drew on a line of credit against her home in Boise, Idaho, where she is a real-estate agent."

The Aspen Daily News in Colorado. "What can we expect from the Aspen-Snowmass real estate market in the remainder of this year? During the first seven months of 2023, we’ve seen an increase in inventory leading to some softening in prices. On the local level, the word on the street from restaurant, hotel and retail employees is the local economy is significantly slower this summer then the past three summers. One local bartender commented that 'it feels like 2019.' As the available inventory of properties for sale is on the increase, sellers are likely to face increasing competition from other sellers. In this kind of environment, we’re likely to see asking prices decline and a softening of actual sale prices. Year-to-date, the median and average single-family home sale prices are off 17.6% and 22.4% respectively, while condo median and average sale prices are off 9.5% and 9.3%."

The Tribune. "A summer of depressed sales and low inventory continued its hold over San Luis Obispo County’s housing market in July, as well as the rest of California. Countywide, median home price declined somewhat, falling 4% from last July. Some of the biggest losses came in Atascadero, which experienced a 14.7% reduction in median price year-over-year, dropping to $704,000. In San Luis Obispo, the median home price fell by 12.5% year-over-year to $1.03 million; in Morro Bay, prices fell 11.9% to $945,000 and in Paso Robles, prices declined 10.2% year-over-year to $715,000, the report found. Cambria’s median price fell 7.9% year-over-year to $960,000, Los Osos’ median price hit $783,000 after falling 5.2% and Grover Beach’s median price fell 2.7% to $750,000 in July."

Bisnow Los Angeles in California. "Hotel sales in Los Angeles County declined nearly 53% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same time last year, according to a report this week from Atlas Hospitality Group. Only 17 hotels in LA County traded hands in the first half of this year, down from 36 sales last year. The county’s largest transaction was the $760M foreclosure sale of the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel, although the full price tag included the hotel, retail space and some of the condos in the Century City property. Interest rates are hammering transaction volumes, and buyers and sellers are far apart on offers, Atlas Hospitality Group President Alan Reay said. Even when both parties can agree on a price, often those properties aren’t getting appraised and financed."

"'We have, on the national scale, what’s happened with interest rates,' Reay said. 'You can then apply what the city of Los Angeles has done as of April 1, and that has completely obliterated the market in terms of selling.' Eight hotels were foreclosed on across the state in the first half of the year, including the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City. Reay pointed to the news of Park Hotels & Resorts handing back the keys to two San Francisco hotels it owned rather than continuing to make payments on a $725M securitized loan tied to the hotels. Those hotels were valued at $1.6B when the loan was issued, Reay said. 'You're looking at a situation here where [ownership] does not believe that those hotels are worth 50% of what they appraised for,' Reay said."

The Real Deal on Texas. "The past few years have been a rollercoaster for Sun Belt multifamily investors, and Shakti C’Ganti’s firm, Ashland Greene, has been one of the fastest-growing shops in the space in that time. After buying its first Dallas Fort-Worth deal in 2018, the company has bought a spate of older, value-add multifamily projects in the Metroplex. Have sellers begun to adjust to the new dynamic, or are they still seeking 2021 prices? 'The prices that sellers are getting are far below broker guidance, and the sellers are approaching a wall of maturities. We’re in that zone, starting in like October or November, all the way through next year. So I think sellers are going to hold out for as long as humanly possible. A year ago, you had Class A, Class B and Class C properties all trading for 3.5 to 4 caps — there was no distinguishing in pricing. Now you’ve got the Class C deals at almost 7 percent. The Class B’s are in the mid-fives, and then you go down from there to the Class A’s. We’re starting to see a differentiation in pricing, which is what a down market does.'"

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Ask a home buyer what they dread the most and the answer may very well be a bidding war. What they might not know is that right now the vast majority of home sales employing the offer day strategy – a day the seller sets aside to consider any bids on the property – result in no offers and no sales. The percentage of all homes listed for sale that sold on an offer day is somewhere around 7 per cent in the largest real estate board in the country, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. That figure may come as a surprise to buyers, but perhaps it will surprise sellers more because according to Ben Amir – CEO and founder of TopHouse – his data suggests 53 per cent of listings posted in July with offer dates generated no bids at all."

"'It’s been up and down over the last 26 years, but there’s definitely less of an appetite to fight … these interest rates are affecting buyers,' Audrey Azad, a salesperson with Re/Max Hallmark Estate Group Realty. Ms. Azad said that there are still some areas that see bidding wars, while previously hot zones have gone cold. 'It’s very location specific: When I list something that’s spectacular, or rare, it’s business as usual,' she said. 'Then there’s Woodbine-Danforth: there are five new-builds in there and no matter what anybody does, they still get no offers.'"

"So sellers have to be choosy about seeking out bidders, while for buyers there are upsides to an increase in failed offer days. 'The best time to buy is in a down market,' said Ms. Azad, particularly for move-up buyers. 'If you can afford it, you’re going to find yourself with a much bigger house: In 2022, you got a pea-size house for $2-million. Now you can get a proper house in a good neighbourhood.'"

Daily Mail in the UK. "Sellers appear to be finally accepting their home might be worse less than it was this time last year, before interest rate rocketed. After a period when asking prices have defied gravity, it suggests that sellers may finally be getting a dose of reality and beginning to accept that their home's value may need to fall in order to sell in today's market. Henry Pryor, a professional buying agent and property expert says he expects prices to fall further from where they are now. 'Eventually gravity will have it's way,' says Pryor, 'average asking prices have risen by 19 per cent since 2020 but the impact of higher interest rates is starting to chip away at sale prices and so sellers and their estate agents must follow suit. Three quarters of properties are selling below the original asking price today. Proof that you can ask what you want but that buyers aren't as optimistic as sellers any more.'"

From Extra. "House prices in the capital are starting to fall sharply, with average costs in affluent Dublin 4 down almost €150,000 in a year, new official figures show. In Dublin city, house prices are down 3.8%, the steepest price fall in the country, while in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown prices fell 2.5%, the second steepest price drop. The falling prices are because of rising interest rates, banks' tougher lending rules and worries over job losses, according to David Hall, of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation. 'With interest rate rises, access to credit is harder, also a bit of uncertainty in some job areas as well, we've seen some job losses, so I think a combination of all three are going to lead to prices dropping,' he said."

"In Ireland's most expensive district, Dublin 4, the average price last June was €1,006,000 but that has dropped to €857,000 - a fall of almost €150,000 in just 12 months. While in Dublin 6, the capital's second most expensive district, average prices were down from €1,025,000 to €698,000, a massive drop of €327,000."

From Reuters. "The downturn in Germany's residential construction sector intensified in July, according to a survey published on Monday. While the percentage of construction companies complaining about cancelled orders eased somewhat in July to 18.9%, that was still well above the long-term average of 3.1%. Many companies are getting by on order backlogs, Ifo said, but its survey showed 10.5% of companies in the sector reporting financial difficulties - double the figure a year prior. Data released last week showed a 27% fall in building permits for apartments in Germany in the first half of 2023. 'A storm is brewing. Following many years of expansion, now higher interest rates and the drastic rise in construction costs are choking off new business,' said Klaus Wohlrabe, Ifo's head of surveys."

7 News in Australia. "A Perth couple’s retirement dreams are in ruins after their home builder went bust. Making matters worse for Tina Hoyland and Steven Radley, they have missed out on crucial insurance money by a matter of weeks. Their Mount Hawthorn home has been under construction for more than three years, with work slowing to a crawl before their builder City Residence collapsed in July. 'We’ve been suffering for over 40 months to get this house to where it is,' Hoyland said. 'It’s still not finished, and now we’re in a state where we can’t really afford to finish it.' Hoyland said the couple was losing hope. 'We just wanted a nice house to retire to. At this stage, we’re thinking it’s probably gone,' she said."

From Vietnam.net. "Nguyễn Văn Ngọc, a 50-year-old investor from the northern province of Bắc Giang, has been struggling to sell a shophouse in Hà Nội's Hà Đông District for over a year. Due to low rental income and high monthly loan payments, he is under immense financial pressure. Despite offering a 20 per cent discount on the purchase price of VNĐ23 billion at the end of 2021, he has not been able to attract any potential buyers. In recent years, investing in shophouses has been a popular trend in cities like Hà Nội and HCM City. Many investors saw it as a lucrative opportunity to make a profit by buying a shophouse and reselling it at a higher price."

"However, the reality has been harsh for many, as they struggle to find tenants and face financial losses. Another investor in Hà Nội, who asked to be unnamed, in early 2022 purchased a shophouse located in the eastern part of Hà Nội for VNĐ17 billion, hoping to resell it at a higher price. However, the property has remained vacant for a year despite its location in a densely populated residential area. The investor is now willing to sell at a loss of 30 per cent, but still hasn’t found a buyer. The situation is similar in areas like Tố Hữu Street in Hà Đông District and Nguyễn Văn Huyên Street in Cầu Giấy District, where numerous shophouse owners are struggling to find tenants."

From Deutsche Welle. "Over the previous two decades, as the Chinese population grew more wealthy, an unprecedented construction boom caused a quadrupling in real estate prices. Hundreds of millions of people bet that property speculation would be safer for their savings than the country's volatile stock markets. But after years of high growth, the government's new debt curbs caused property sales and prices to plummet, hitting one developer, China Evergrande, particularly hard. 'When the China Evergrande crisis unfolded, people feared that others would follow, but certainly not Country Garden. It was much less leveraged than Evergrande,' Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at the French investment bank NATIXIS, told DW. 'Without a continual increase in prices, the whole real estate model is unsustainable and even a company like Country Garden can't make it.'"

"Beijing is keen to avoid a glut of unfinished homes, particularly in smaller cities, where Country Garden has been most active in construction and has an estimated one million outstanding homes. While the firm promised the masses the chance to achieve 'five-star living,' many are about to watch as their dreams go up in smoke."