A report from the Naples Daily News in Florida. "As anticipated, Metro Home Builders of Naples has filed for bankruptcy. Owner Alberto Hernandez plans to sell off the company's assets to pay off its debts. Effectively, he's already gone out of business, with the builder's offices closed, model home sold and construction halted. The company listed operating losses for the past three years, but did not specify the amounts. Customers have been left in limbo, with unfinished homes and unfulfilled warranty work. Some have taken to social media to complain and ask for help. The filing shows nearly 60 homes, at various stages of construction, have not been completed. In a complaint filed with the Attorney General's Office, Boris Deriy said Metro Builders took more than 75% of the money for his and his wife's new house, then disappeared, leaving it not even half built."

"'At the end of May, we noticed that the work had stopped. Since then, the construction site has been abandoned and is currently deteriorating. Rains washed away the sand from under the concrete base, which threatens to ruin the base and the whole house,' he said. He estimated he and his wife's losses at more than $100,000. They signed a construction contract in December 2021 for nearly $551,000, including $92,000 in upgrades."

Axios on Tennessee. "Condos remain a hot spot in Nashville's cooling housing market, with prices increasing and sales remaining resilient while other sectors see dips. In May, the typical metro-area condo sold for $372,150, up 5.5% compared to last year. On the other hand, the cost of a typical single-family home fell nearly 9% since last year, down to $422,516. Overall sales in the Nashville area last month were down 13% year-over-year, driven by declines in single-family homes, according to Greater Nashville Realtors. Sales were down 28% compared to July 2019."

Mansion Global on Texas. "A newly built mansion on the outskirts of Dallas with its own bowling alley is headed under the hammer at the end of August. The home in Rockwall, a roughly 30-minute drive northeast from downtown Dallas, will be auctioned online on Aug. 28 with Interluxe Auctions in cooperation with Cynthia Lopez of Ebby Halliday. The starting bid will be $1.5 million, a fraction off the almost $5 million the owners were once asking."

The Times of San Diego. "As with so many issues, solving California’s housing affordability crisis has become polarized. The 'build, build, build' folks are on one side, and the housing justice movement is on the other. The build crowd believes constructing any kind of housing will solve the problem, while justice advocates believe the focus has to be on affordable housing. This is all to say that California does not have a housing problem but an affordable housing problem. In fact, at the upper end of pricing, we are building into a glut. As you drive by new high-end buildings, you’ll notice how few lights are on inside, and yet everywhere we look, people are living on the streets."

The New York Post on California. "Tourists curious about San Francisco’s 'urban decay' of abandoned shops, open-air drug use and homeless encampments can now get a guided tour of the whole thing. A street-savvy guide fed up with the lack of action by the local government says they will take people on the so called ‘Doom Loop Walking Tour’ to see the worst of the city for themselves. A tongue-in-cheek ad for the tour claims: 'You’ve read the headlines. You’ve seen the Tweets, now get close and personal to the Doom and Squalor of downtown San Francisco. How can a city with a $14.6 billion annual budget be a model of urban decay? How can it spend $776.8 million per year on police and have no rule of law to show for it? Discover the policy choices that made America’s wealthiest city the nation’s innovative leader of housing crisis, addiction crisis, mental-health crisis and unrepentant crime crisis.'"

"Community activists scoffed at the idea. 'Why would someone pay $30 to see something they could get for free?' questioned longtime Tenderloin resident JJ Smith, who helps the area’s drug users and homeless."

The Real Deal on New York. "UBS Realty Properties sold two residential towers in Clinton Hill for $40 million in separate transactions that represent a substantial markdown from the $55 million it paid for them in 2020. Located at 100 Steuben and 531 Myrtle, the neighboring towers, dubbed 'Myrtle & Steuben,' combine for 72 residential units, one commercial unit, 13 floors and 66,000 square feet. The complex is a block from Pratt Institute."

The Globe and Mail. "Romspen Investment Corp., one of Canada’s largest private mortgage lenders, is cutting its monthly payout for the fourth time in little more than a year, citing weak loan repayments and a real estate market that hasn’t faced this much trauma since the 1990s. On Tuesday, Romspen informed investors in its flagship Mortgage Investment Fund that their monthly distribution was cut to two cents a unit, down two-thirds from July, 2022. As a private mortgage lender, Romspen raises cash from individual investors, then lends the money out to real estate companies, often in the form of short-term construction loans. The company has $2.7-billion in assets under management and has delivered an average annual yield of 7.3 per cent in its Mortgage Investment Fund over the past 10 years."

"With troubles mounting, Romspen froze redemptions from its fund in November, an act known as 'gating' in the investment industry, to conserve cash. But it wasn’t enough, and multiple distribution cuts have also been necessary. The fund now yields 2.5 per cent annually, roughly half of what investors can earn from ultrasafe guaranteed investment certificates. In a normal market, Romspen would sell the properties to recoup the cash it is owed, but commercial real estate transactions have slowed considerably. Even when buyers emerge, banks are much less likely to extend the financing to complete the purchase. 'We have already seen two anticipated unconditional sale transactions fall through this year, each with seven figure deposits forfeited,' Romspen explained."

"In an interview, Romspen managing partner Derek Jenkins could not put a timeline on plans to lift the redemption freeze. Mr. Jenkins also said that Romspen appreciates the situation is frustrating for investors, but it is a better scenario than liquidating the fund to be able to pay out redemption requests, because the properties would have to be sold at cut-rate prices in the current environment. As of June 30, redemption requests totalled $352-million. Romspen isn’t the only real estate fund with elevated redemptions. Toronto-based Hazelview Investments, a private money manager, recently told investors it experienced a surge in requests to cash out of its $1.2-billion Four Quadrant fund."

The Telegraph in the UK. "In February last year, Michael Gove committed to new laws to 'protect leaseholders from exorbitant costs' needed to fix the fire-risk cladding scandal. But a year and a half later, some flat owners feel far from protected. Those who live in flats cursed with dangerous cladding may have been spared the colossal repair bills, but they are now facing insurance premiums that could set them back thousands of pounds. Wayne Newall, 54, who is a flat owner in Barrier Point – a block of flats on the Thames in London, bought his property back in 2010 as an investment for retirement. Now, it’s turned into a liability he is keen to offload as soon as possible."

"Siobhan Pearce, 36, bought a flat in Barrier Point five years ago with her partner. Just three years into her time there, an external wall assessment was done on the building which pushed up the insurance premium by 100pc – from £590 to £1,164. This means since she moved in, Ms Pearce’s insurance premium has gone up by 550pc, from £590 to £6,592. She said: 'We’re also hearing of other buildings where the premiums haven’t come down even after they’ve had work done. Everyone is worried this cost will carry on and nobody will be able to sell. Those that have tried have gotten absolutely nowhere.'"

"Another resident Tony Thekkekkara, a 52-year-old NHS doctor, has decided to move out of his apartment and let it to renters to cover the impending insurance costs – meanwhile, he will live somewhere cheaper. He said: 'I’ve been forced to move out of my own home of 22 years through no fault of my own. Not a day goes by that I do not think of the consequences of this extortionate insurance cost. My stress levels have hit the roof. If nothing is done, this will turn into an unaffordable, year-on-year increasing cost for me.' Mr Thekkekkara was looking forward to an early retirement at 55, but he no longer thinks this will be feasible."

News.com.au in Australia. "An exclusive $16.5m Point Piper apartment is returning to market after the buyer — whose son has failed to settle on $80m worth of property in Sydney’s east — pulled out of the sale. The would-be purchaser of the 240sq m whole-floor now-complete level-five residence was Yeijin Wang, the father of the Australia-China trade specialist Christian Wang. It’s understood Yeijin Wang put down his deposit last March on the three-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment with double parking in the luxury Wolseley Rd block, but the rest of the money wasn’t forthcoming when the other buyers paid up in June. The usual deposit is 10per cent, meaning Wang could lose up to $1.65m. And should the apartment sell for less than $16.5m, he could also potentially be up for the shortfall."

The New Zealand Herald. "The election is not firing any recovery in our depressed house sales market despite hopes the October 14 event, prices dropping and people wanting to get in quick might ramp up activity. Jen Baird, REINZ chief executive, said she considered low prices and the election might have spurred people to buy or sell. But that isn’t happening. More competitive prices and a 'get in now' attitude 'could bring more buyers out ahead of this year’s election,' she speculated. But they stayed away in droves lately. Taking a step back, prices are now well below where they were in July last year. The national median price has dropped 4.9 per cent annually from $810,000 to $770,000. For New Zealand excluding Auckland, median prices decreased 5.4 per cent from $719,000 to $680,000 annually."

From Bloomberg. "A group of investors protested at the Beijing office of Zhongrong International Trust Co. after the Chinese shadow banking giant missed payments on dozens of products. Videos of the incident appear to show around two dozen protesters at Zhongrong, at least one representative of the company, and around 10 police and security officers. It’s the latest sign of turmoil at the trust company, whose liquidity crisis has fueled alarm within financial markets and among Chinese regulators."

"In one of the clips seen by Bloomberg News, a woman angrily asks about a product she owned that matured on July 28. 'Why doesn’t the company pay us back?' she says. 'It has already matured. Your financial statements said there is a profit.' Another woman shouts: 'Give us the money back, or we will die here.' A third says: 'Why you don’t give us a clear explanation?'"