A report from Deseret News. "Utah’s housing prices are still down compared to last year. Year over year price declines span across all Wasatch Front counties — Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Tooele and Weber — but the biggest drops were seen in the multi-family sector of Davis County, where the median price dipped over 11.5% from June of last year, and the single-family home sector of Tooele County, were the median price dropped 11.8% year over year."

The Santa Barbara Independent in California. "'Sales Down 34 Percent' makes for an attention-grabbing headline, but it only tells half of our local real estate market story this year. Our market is cooling down slightly, and not all homes are selling right away or attracting multiple offers. Some good news for buyers: Yes, prices are down slightly. The median price for South Coast homes is $2,130,000, which is down approximately 5.3 percent from one year ago. The double-digit, year-over-year price increase trajectory since 2020 was not sustainable. Following the surge in prices in the past few years, directly related to pandemic migration to our beautiful environs, buyers have now become value-sensitive, and sellers have had to temper their previous over-exuberance in pricing. Sellers who price their homes too high initially are faced with reducing their prices to recapture attention, which is often tough to do."

The Real Deal on Texas. "Angry investors and a condo community are taking legal action against StoryBuilt, shedding light on the Austin developer’s financial struggles amid a recent leadership shakeup. Three lawsuits have been filed against StoryBuilt this year, seeking more than $1.5 million in monetary relief, plus non-monetary relief, the Austin Business Journal reported. The lawsuits suggest that StoryBuilt, founded as PSW Real Estate, has been in hotter water than people realized. Less than two weeks ago, co-founder Anthony Siela disclosed the firm’s plans to furlough much of its staff after failing to capitalize on its large-scale growth goals."

"The first lawsuit this year, filed on Jan. 18 in Travis County, came from Eastline Condominium Community Inc., which manages the condo complex at 2002 East 7th Street in Austin. Eastline alleged that 28 units were found to have water damage as a result of StoryBuilt’s negligence. That lawsuit is seeking more than $1 million in damages, interest, attorney fees and court costs. Capstar alleged that StoryBuilt lured it to invest by offering preferred return and profit distributions that would be paid quarterly. After Capstar invested about $500,000 in 100 Class A units in May 2018, StoryBuilt held up its end of the bargain until the fourth quarter of 2019 and has since failed to pay what Capstar is owed, the lawsuit alleged."

The Palm Beach Post in Florida. "The proposed sale of the unfinished Banyan Cay Resort & Club in West Palm Beach is a bust. Westside Property Investment Company of Denver did not buy the resort for $102.1 million as part of Banyan Cay's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. The deadline to complete the sale was July 31. Westside notified the debtors it was not moving forward with closing on the purchase of the resort, once slated to be a Destination by Hyatt hotel. The property remains unfinished. And it's unclear what this latest setback could mean for the troubled West Palm Beach hotel and club, especially for nearby residents. The Lands of the President community overlooks Banyan Cay. In addition, residents in an adjacent new single-family community, the Residences at Banyan Cay, by SobelCo, were supposed to be able to use the hotel's club as part of the purchase of their homes."

The Star Press in Indiana. "Every time I’ve sat down with economists over the past few months, we have lamented the dismal state of the housing policy discussion. Against stiff competition, it is easily the most poorly informed policy debate in America. Maybe a few facts will help. All of this is transient disequilibrium. It is not a crisis, and it will pass without any government intervention. Home prices are already in retreat and new home construction is planned for next year across much of the country. Across the nation, there are empty office buildings in every major city, offering the opportunity for residential conversion. And, population loss in major cities has prompted broad review of restrictions on new housing."

"For the past 50 years, we’ve been building homes at about the same rate the population has risen. However, we’ve been eliminating older homes at a tiny pace. That means today there are some 16 million unoccupied homes in the U.S., or more than 11 percent of the full housing stock. Indiana’s share of unoccupied homes are close to 300,000. That is sufficient to fully house all the growth of population in our state so far this century."

"These Census counts of homes do not include those that appear damaged or unlivable. And, as with any Census estimate, the number may be off a few percent, high or low. But, any housing discussion that ignores the actual Census housing data is a waste of time. Any policy debate that ignores this data is negligent. Too often, we look only at Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data provided by realtors. This is superb data for everything, except for understanding housing supply. For that it is nearly worthless."

"The problem is that this glut of homes is located in the places that people don’t wish to live. These don’t make it into the MLS listings, because neither the owner nor realtor are willing to pay the cost of listing. That has nothing to do with the quality of the home, or its level of disrepair. Realtors and owners don’t waste time trying to sell homes in many neighborhoods. Most of the 300,000 vacant homes in Indiana that don’t make it into the MLS would sell for several hundred thousand dollars if they could only be moved to Chicago, Boston or Albuquerque."

"For these homes, we don’t have a housing problem, we have a neighborhood problem. That is the single most important thing to understand in all this debate. The reason new homes aren’t being built in much of the Midwest is because a new home cannot sell for the cost of construction. This isn’t an abstract problem. There are more than a million homes in Indiana alone that’d be worth more disassembled and stacked on a rail car than they are currently assembled in the towns in which they’re located."

Narcity Canada. "Want to buy a home in Toronto without having to pay the most for your mortgage? Believe it or not that's still a possibility, and we know just where to help you look. We recently uncovered a number of reduced-price gems on the real estate platform, OJO Home. We're talking about Toronto homes for sale with prices that have taken a real nosedive lately. The best part? None of them were recently on fire or foreclosed. In fact, they are all in very good condition! Pique your interest? Of course it did, no one hates an easy deal!"

"33 Dolly Varden Boulevard. Original Price: $1,299,000. Reduced Price: $1,099,888. Total savings: $199,000. Address: 61 Rotary, Toronto, ON. Original Price: $1,599,900. Reduced Price: $1,399,000. Total Savings: $201,000. Description: Welcome to a house that's not just renovated - it's downright souped-up."

The Globe and Mail. "Scrutinizing the pronouncements of the Bank of Canada has become a popular summer pastime in the Toronto-area real estate market. These days potential sellers are also trying to read the tea leaves to decide whether they should sell, and when. Andre Kutyan, broker at Harvey Kalles Real Estate, predicts sales in August will be sluggish as people vacation – and brace for the Bank of Canada announcement scheduled for Sept. 6. After the rate hike on July 12, showings and sales slowed down. 'I think it definitely did pump the brakes on the summer.' Properties that appeal to a smaller pool of buyers are not receiving the attention they likely would have drawn in the spring. 'Some of my listings are crickets chirping,' he said."

"Munira Ravji, real estate agent with Royal LePage Signature Realty, says she typically sees 'a bit of hustle and bustle' before interest rate announcements as buyers with pre-approved mortgage agreements look to sign a deal. Recently, she has seen investors listing their rental properties for sale as they are increasingly squeezed by higher interest rates. Tenants who moved in with discounted rental rates during the pandemic are paying less than the owner would fetch if the property were listed today. 'The rental rates are not covering their carrying costs,' Ms. Ravji says."

"Sellers are become increasingly flexible about the price they’re willing to accept if the offer is firm, she adds. Sellers feel the urgency to find a buyer before the next central bank meeting in September, she says, because another rate hike may be on the table. In the condo segment, many buyers are trying to snag a deal. If a unit seems overpriced, most buyers will pass by without making an offer. Meanwhile, all eyes are on the Bank of Canada, she says. Many investors are not waiting to see what happens on Sept. 6. 'They’re saying, ‘let’s get it on the market right away before the announcement’. Everyone’s very tuned into that.'"

From Intellinews. "Rising borrowing costs and changes in the home subsidy and energy schemes have transformed Hungary’s housing market, which is seeing a sharp contraction after years of boom since the mid-2010s. Prices have begun to retreat in certain segments after years of double-digit growth. Monthly data from real estate broker Duna House showed that home sales in Hungary fell 32% year-on-year to 6,107 in July and by 15% from the previous month. In the January-July period, transactions fell by 40% to just over 50,000. The falling transaction volume is due to sellers’ reluctance to budge on prices, which have begun to consolidate after an unprecedented rally."

"Home prices in Hungary rose at one of the fastest pace in the EU, up 3-4 fold since the market hit bottom in 2013. Older homes, mainly outside of Budapest, with poor insulation are coming on the market in large numbers and prices have come down in some cases by as much as 10%, albeit from high levels."

From ABC News. "A record number of Australians are working multiple jobs, as employees try to keep up with a surge in the cost of living. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that 947,300 Australians worked multiple jobs in March, in data released yesterday. Shaheryar Khan, from Melbourne's outer-northern suburbs, is one of them. The project engineer is the sole income earner for his family of five, and has taken on a second job as a rideshare driver to help him meet his rising mortgage repayments and living costs. 'I have to do this other part-time work, like Uber, to make up for the extra money that I need,' he told ABC News."

"'I started somewhere around $1,600 repayments, and now it has gone up to somewhere close to $3,000, he said. 'That's almost unmanageable with one job, with the current job, I can't sustain that with one salary after also the living expense has gone up as well.' Mr Khan said he works full-time for his primary job, and then generally does about 20-25 hours as a rideshare driver, making a total of about 60-65 hours of work every week."

"'It is a very bad effect on my health,' he said. 'I keep working for all the week and then working in the night and sometimes on the weekend — I don't get that much rest. And obviously the family life as well, because I'm away during the daytime and then night time, when I come back, it's just an hour, have dinner, go to bed. Then I don't get much time with the kids over the weekend.'"

From Reuters. "Shares of Evergrande Property Services Group shed 50% of their value on Thursday when trading resumed after 16 months, following the release of its financial results and the end of an investigation into misused funds involving its parent. The property services firm was dragged into financial troubles after its parent, China Evergrande Group, the world's most indebted property developer, became embroiled in a debt crisis in mid-2021 that later spread across the sector."

"Shares of Evergrande Services had been suspended since March 21, 2022. Its sister company, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, resumed trading last week after a 16-month halt, sinking as much as 69% on the first day of trade. The parent's shares, however, remain suspended. The resumption of trading in all three companies is crucial for Evergrande Group, because its offshore debt restructuring plan includes swapping part of the debt into equity-linked instruments backed by the parent and the two subsidiaries."