A report from Reuters. "The Federal Reserve has issued a slew of private warnings to lenders with assets of $100 billion to $250 billion as part of increased efforts to tighten supervision, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter. Among the banks given the warnings were Citizens Financial, Fifth Third Bancorp and M&T Bank Corp, the report added. The notices touched on a wide range of issues including lenders' capital and liquidity as well as technology and compliance, according to the report. Banks are dealing with the aftermath of the biggest crisis to hit the sector since 2008, which saw three mid-sized lenders collapse earlier this year."

From Fortune. "Independent mortgage banks and other mortgage lending subsidiaries reported a net loss of $534 per mortgage origination in the second quarter of 2023, according to data produced by the Mortgage Bankers Association. That's the fifth straight quarter that banks lost money on mortgages. Among the contributing factors to mortgage lending industry challenges are surging mortgage rates, a lack of housing supply and low consumer confidence. These have 'crushed the mortgage industry over the past two years,' John Paasonen, CEO at digital mortgage platform Maxwell, tells Fortune. 'Mortgage lenders have begun significantly adjusting their cost base through layoffs and vendor negotiations in the last 12 months, but there still hasn’t been enough volume in the market to offset those costs.'"

The Chicago Tribune in Illinois. "Chicago-based mortgage company Guaranteed Rate has been quietly laying off employees across the country for more than a year, according to former and current Guaranteed Rate employees. More layoffs are potentially on the horizon, and company morale is 'in the toilet,' as one current employee put it. The layoffs come at a time when the hot pandemic-era housing market has turned on its head, with the average for a 30-year fixed loan skyrocketing to more than 7% on more than one occasion. Inside Mortgage Finance finds business is down nearly 60% for Guaranteed Rate in the first three months of this year compared with 2022, with other mortgage companies seeing similar harsh declines."

"Khadijah Parks, 27, worked for Guaranteed Rate as a remote employee based out of New Jersey before she was laid off from a technology team in October 2022. She was brought on during the hiring boom to be on a new team that helped support other mortgage companies Guaranteed Rate was acquiring and creating. Now, she said, her team and other tech teams have been decimated. Parks worked for the company for about 11 months and was laid off right before her severance package would have increased significantly if she had made the one-year mark, she said. 'It was terrible,' Parks said, who had come back from vacation the day of her layoff. 'They had the nerve to even say I could feel free to finish up the work I was doing.'"

The Naples Daily News in Florida. "More than 30 years ago, Boris and Lucy Deriy left Russia to live the American dream. They arrived in the United States in 1992 with five suitcases and two children in tow, eager to start over in a new country. In December 2021, they signed a contract to build their dream home on their dream lot in Golden Gate Estates. In May, their excitement turned to frustration, disappointment and skepticism, when construction abruptly stopped, and never restarted. Metro Home Builders has since ceased operations and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, leaving the Deriys and dozens of other customers in limbo."

"The bankruptcy filing reveals nearly 60 houses have not been completed. The houses are in various stages of construction. 'What's important is that regardless of our stories, backgrounds, ethnicity, age or level of education we all find ourselves in the same situation. And we all are helpless,' Lucy said. In the Deriy's case, Metro Home took more than 75% of the money for their new house and left it not even half built. They estimate their losses at more than $100,000. They signed a contract for nearly $551,000, including $92,000 in upgrades. 'It was a dream home. It doesn't look like a dream anymore,' Lucy said. 'What we need is to get our money back,' Boris said."

A press release. "Investor home purchases fell 45% from a year earlier in the second quarter, outpacing the 31% drop in overall home sales, according to Redfin. That’s the biggest decline since 2008 with the exception of the quarter before, when they dropped 48%. 'Offers from hedge funds have dried up; I haven’t received an offer from one in a long time, except unrealistically low offers,' said Las Vegas Redfin Premier agent Shay Stein. 'From mid-2020 until early 2022 when interest rates started going up, hedge funds bought up a ton of properties and immediately turned them into rentals, pricing out local buyers. Now a big portion of our homes are owned by investors, but they’re not adding to their portfolios.'"

"Investor purchases declined 65% year over year in Las Vegas, Jacksonville, FL and Phoenix, the biggest drops of the metros in this analysis. Investors are pulling back quickly from the Sun Belt and Florida largely because those places had an even bigger boom in homebuying demand than the rest of the country in 2021 and early 2022, and now they’re cooling fast."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Higher interest rates and strained affordability in the Toronto-area housing market are creating thorny issues for married couples going through separation or divorce. The turbulence that often comes with relationship breakdown is magnified in 2023 if the couple owns property and needs to divide the value of the matrimonial home in a volatile real estate market. 'This is creating increased conflict,' says Lisa Chegini, managing partner at the family law firm Caspersz Chegini LLP in Vaughan, Ont., 'It includes this whole unfortunate circumstance of each party’s money being held hostage in the home.'"

"Climbing interest rates and stubborn inflation have exacerbated many conflicts, she says, and people lack visibility about the future. 'There’s that feeling of loss of control because there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.' In addition to the pain of marriage breakdown, couples are grappling with greater financial hardship if the property has lost value since they purchased it. 'They say, ‘I thought my biggest investment would have some kind of return – even if my relationship didn’t work out.'"

The Express in the UK. "Around 1 million property sales are said to be completed in 2023 which is the lowest since 2012. On top of this house sales are 21 percent lower than in 2022, new data Zoopla has found. On BBC’s Wake Up to Money, Jackie Quinn, estate agent in Ashtead explained the change in the market is regional as many people in London, or central areas are selling up their expensive properties to find somewhere bigger in the suburbs. She said: 'The market has changed. We are dropping some of our properties now by even 10 percent. We are seeing some sales fall through because mortgage products or repayments on a monthly basis are going up four or five times than what was expected when rates are lower.'"

ABC News in Australia. "Tears stream down Rebekah's face as she looks out at rolling green hills from what is meant to be the master bedroom of her dream home. She's spent her life savings on this project. The problem is, the house doesn't have walls or a roof. Instead, the two-storey frame is falling down, and, after being exposed to the elements for months, it now resembles a rubbish dump. The single mother's only option is to knock it down and say goodbye to hundreds of thousands of dollars after her builder suddenly abandoned the project she says was riddled with defects."

"'When I realised I had to demolish what I thought was going to be my forever home, I had a full breakdown, I lost my job … I couldn't look after myself,' Rebekah said. 'Nearly every cent of mine and my pensioner mother's savings have gone into that house, which we were building for us and my kids.' Four months and $250,000 later, she said the builder disappeared and never returned. Her story is far from unique and one that is being replicated across the country as politicians wrestle with how to solve the housing crisis and shore up a precarious building sector."

"One of the people who tried to alert the building regulator about Mr Cherry was Andrea Brown. Her family was building the home they planned to retire in a few kilometres down the road from Rebekah in Jan Juc before the company Mr Cherry worked for — Halkin Developments — went into liquidation in May 2022. While Ms Brown's $970,000 build started quickly, she said there were numerous problems, excuses and poor workmanship, including a slab that was poured short and hebel installation that had to be ripped out and done again, according to an independent building report seen by the ABC. 'Our whole world just came crashing down with that phone call [from the liquidators] and that's when the nightmare really began,' she said."

"Ms Brown said she had no choice but to demolish the home that was 60 per cent built, and start again. Her family has lost close to $1 million and has been left with an empty block. 'Here we are, three years down the track and we have nothing, absolutely nothing,' she said. 'The biggest cost is the mental health cost and the time wasted fighting these battles when all we wanted was a house. You go [to the property] and it just reminds you of all the pain, anguish and the financial loss that the last few years of our life had been, and it shouldn't have been that way.'"

South China Morning Post. "Hong Kong's lived-in home prices declined for a third straight month in July to a six-month low. The decline in second-hand prices was 'larger than expected,' according to Derek Chan, the head of research at Ricacorp Properties. Given the heavy discounts that developers have been extending to buyers of new homes, 'eager second-hand homeowners' will 'need to further reduce prices to complete any transaction,' he said."

From Reuters. "China's largest private property developer warned on Wednesday of default risks if its financial performance continues to deteriorate, and said it ;felt deeply remorseful; for its record loss in the first half. Country Garden posted a net loss between January and June of 48.9 billion yuan ($6.72 billion), versus a 6.7 billion yuan net loss in the second half of 2022 and a 612 million yuan net profit in the first half of 2022. 'If the financial performance of the group continues to deteriorate in the future, the group might not be able to fulfil the financial covenants of these borrowings, which may result in default in these borrowings and cross-default in certain other borrowings,' the developer said in a filing. 'The company feels deeply remorseful for the unsatisfactory performance,' it said."

"Many Chinese developers have so far posted losses or drops in profit for the first half as nationwide sales soften. State-backed China Resources Land told an earnings conference on Wednesday it expected the country's home sales in the full year would be flat from last year or register a small decline, as demand was dropping long term. It added that the number of visitors to its sales showrooms continued to drop in August. "