A report from the News Tribune in Washington. "Median closed sale price for existing homes in Pierce County in July was $541,000, down from June’s $545,000 and $575,000 in July 2022, according to the latest Northwest Multiple Listing Service report. A Kitsap County broker cited in Monday’s report confirmed the issues some buyers are running into if they also are trying to sell their existing home. 'Many potential sellers are holding back because they don’t see a way forward in buying another home given the limited supply,' said Frank Wilson, managing broker, John L. Scott, in Poulsbo. 'We’re still seeing multiple offers and in the case of buyers who need to sell first, their offers are being overlooked for transactions that are not contingent on the sale of a home.'"

Hawaii Business. "Home sales last month on Kauaʻi were so slow that only 15 single-family homes changed hands, down from 24 in July 2022 and the fewest sold in a month in at least five years. And condominium sales on the Garden Isle have been slow for many months. Year-to-date, the median price for a single-family home on Kauaʻi is $1.1 million, down 8.3% from last year, but up 43.7% from the same point three years ago, when the Covid pandemic and low interest rates were helping to heat up home sales. The median Kauaʻi condo price through the end of July was $697,000, down 3.9% from a year ago but up 26.7% from the same period in 2020."

Texas Public Radio. "Sara Briseño-Gerrish, the chair of the San Antonio Board of Realtors, said Californians have flocked to Texas for the affordable housing and good job market. Briseño-Gerrish said the trend of paying premiums above and beyond the asking price for a home is gone. 'I think the days of paying like thousands and thousands above list price like we were experiencing during the pandemic,' she explained, 'that seems to be kind of over here in the San Antonio market. It's still a great market, but we have definitely seen a change. Days on the market are increasing. I believe this is the third month in a row that prices have ticked down by like 1%.'"

Bisnow Houston in Texas. "A new foreclosure sale has bumped a $229M multifamily portfolio loss up to $294M. Applesway Investment Group defaulted on a $65.2M loan backed by Cabo San Lucas, an apartment complex at 9220 Nathaniel St. in Houston, according to foreclosure documents. County records show the property was picked up at public auction last week for $50M, the fifth formerly Applesway-owned complex to hit the block in about four months. A subsidiary of investment firm Ellington Management Group issued the $65.2M loan to Applesway Investment Group, run by Jay Gajavelli, in December 2021 when borrowing terms were much more favorable."

"Applesway and Gajavelli also face a lawsuit from 123 investors who claim their $12.4M investment was shifted to a different, unsuccessful deal than the one they believed they were buying into and that Applesway then lied about it. Atti and S3 Your Financial Future also claim to be 'victims of fraud by Applesway Investment Group,' stating in a July 17 filing they 'were unaware of fraud and diversion of funds.'"

The Real Deal. "South Florida’s multifamily party may be coming to an end. The market softened in the second quarter, and is expected to further slow by year-end, according to a recently released report. In the second quarter, occupancy dropped across all South Florida submarkets, with the region averaging 95 percent, down 2 percentage points from last year, according to the report from Berkadia. In turn, landlords gave in to concessions, offering a month’s free rent or a discount on fees such as pet deposits. On the investment sales side, South Florida felt the squeeze from high interest rates, with deal volume dropping 72 percent, year-over-year in the first half of this year."

"The construction spree continues to add supply, even as residential influx is more of a trickle. Developers, emboldened by the hot market of the past two years, are slated to bring over 19,000 units to South Florida by the end of this year, according to Berkadia. That would be more than the projected absorption of 12,000 units. In the first half of this year, investors paid a combined $1.1 billion for South Florida multifamily projects across 11 deals, paying an average of $341,000 per unit, Berkadia’s report shows. That’s a far cry from the $3.9 billion in investment sales in 33 deals during the first half of last year. At the time, the average price per unit was $419,300."

Arlington Now in Virginia. "Question: What impact will the new Toll Brothers community have on the Arlington housing market? Toll Brothers will open sales of 40 new single-family homes at The Grove at Dominion Hills very soon (projected by this fall) starting in the $1.9Ms (really $2M) and I suspect most of the homes will have a final price tag of $2.1M-$2.3M. All 40 homes will not be available at once, rather they’ll be released in phases based on the pace of sales, but the addition of these homes to the market will have a significant impact on the supply of new construction homes in Arlington and I expect will put downward pressure on the price of new builds under ~$2.6M."

"The first chart, courtesy of Altos Research, shows the percentage of homes with a price reduction in the 'upper' price range of the Arlington single-family home market, which The Grove community will fall within. Notice the upward trend of price reductions this year highlighted by ~30% of homes reducing price this spring compared to previous spring markets with just 20-25% of homes with a price reduction. I have seen this play out anecdotally as well with more new builds reducing the asking price or accepting larger discounts from ask than in years past. I would expect this trend to continue as the market adjusts to the Toll Brothers inventory rolling in later this year and in 2024-25. So this chart tells us that unless demand picks up sharply for large homes, the extra supply added by Toll Brothers will likely push this sub-market (~5,000+ SqFt) into a buyer’s market."

Market Watch. "A raft of credit rating actions against more than two dozen U.S. banks by Moody’s Investors Service late Monday didn’t shock one buyer of distressed commercial real estate. This is 'more evidence of what is already known,' said Matt Windisch, executive vice president at Kennedy-Wilson. Moody’s, citing 'profitability pressures' at banks and asset quality that 'looks set to decline,' also placed ratings on six major U.S. lenders on review for downgrade. 'These properties, themselves, don’t feel distressed,' Windisch said of a recent wave of landlords defaulting on or handing back keys to lenders on underwater multifamily properties. 'It’s the capital structure that’s out of whack.'"

From First Post. "There were times when many predicted that businesses would give up traditional office spaces in favour of WeWork facilities. But the American start-up is now struggling to stay in business. The New York-based firm is losing money, and people are cancelling their subscriptions in huge numbers. The embattled office-sharing firm is itself worried about survival. WeWork warned investors on Tuesday that it might not be in business for much longer. Following the announcement, shares of the company dropped 26 per cent on Tuesday. This came as little surprise to many, as its shares had been selling for pennies for months and investors recognised that WeWork’s financial responsibilities and losses had become untenable. But how can a firm that was prepared for a spectacular IPO four years ago suddenly be warning of upcoming bankruptcy? Here is a closer look at the rise and fall of WeWork."

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "It’s 2021. A young, pre-profit startup meets a 'blank check' investment company. They merge, and money seems to fall out of the sky. But two years later, the Bay Area’s tech workforce is feeling the effects of that wild investment craze, one layoff round at a time. Spanning the manufacturing and software industries, a herd of startups that went public through special purpose acquisition company mergers are laying off swaths of employees in 2023. The SPAC deals, as they’re known, suddenly delivered firms hundreds of millions of dollars in cash by providing them with an easy route to a public listing — money that companies burned through as profits proved elusive and stock prices tanked."

"The list goes on: Satellite operator Planet is laying off 85 San Francisco employees as its merger coffers dwindle and fintech giant SoFi laid off 2,000 workers about two years after its Chamath Palihapitiya-led listing. The venture capitalist and former Warriors part-owner also put Opendoor in the public markets through a SPAC — the buzzy real estate firm laid off 1,000 workers from November to April."

This Is Money. "Half of properties that sold last month had their asking prices slashed in order to so, new data has revealed. The estate agent Hamptons said that 50 per cent of homes in England and Wales sold following a price reduction in July, up from 47 per cent in June and from 34 per cent in July last year. It said that the proportion of sellers reducing the price of their home had reached the highest level in at least nine years, when it started collecting this data. Henry Pryor, a professional buying agent and property expert says there is still somewhat of disconnect between buyers and sellers at present."

"'Sellers think it's 2022. Buyers think it's 2017,' he said. 'It's dawning on buyers that they no longer have to pay sticker price, which leaves sellers and their agents struggling to work out if they should price expecting to be chipped or if they price realistically and hold their ground. Having done this for 40 years I have seen this before,' says Pryor, 'sellers always take longer than you expect to appreciate that the market has moved and that for most it doesn't actually matter. What impacts on their sale will impact on their purchase. Understandably perhaps no one wants to be the first to blink and drop their price, but eventually most will.'"

The Daily Mail on Australia. "More than $500 million worth of housing development projects are set for sale following the collapse of building company Toplace, leaving thousands of apartment owners in the lurch. The failed property empire of Sydney businessman Jean Nassif is being broken up by major lenders seeking sales to recover millions in debt. Thousands of apartment owners living in Toplace buildings are concerned that they will not recoup enough money to fix serious defects after big lenders move to offload Toplace assets to reduce their own losses. It is understood the company's collapse could affect more than 20,000 homeowners across 20 buildings."

"Nassif became a social media sensation in 2019 when he gave his wife, Nisserine 'Nissy' Nassif, a $480,000 yellow Lamborghini for Valentine's Day. He uploaded a video of him presenting the luxury vehicle to the mother of his children with the comment: 'Congratulations Mrs Nassif… you like?' Last week it was revealed that the high-profile couple had split, after Ms Nassif changed her Instagram name and was spotted out without her wedding ring. On her Instagram account she removed 'wifey' from her profile as well as her last name 'Nassef', which is spelled differently to Nassif."

Free Malaysia Today. "In Malaysia, a vacancy tax is more likely to hurt homebuyers and homeowners rather than ease a property glut. This is the view expressed by the National House Buyers Association (HBA) and an independent researcher in response to a proposal for the introduction of a levy for properties that remain vacant for an extended period. According to the National Property Information Centre (Napic), there were 27,746 residential units still unsold in 2022. Collectively, they are valued at RM18.41 billion. HBA secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said local developers do not intentionally hoard completed units to inflate prices. 'They are just not able to sell them,' he told FMT Business."

From Bloomberg. "A debt crisis that rivals China Evergrande Group’s default may be brewing in the world’s second-largest economy. 'Any default would impact China’s housing market more than Evergrande’s collapse as Country Garden has four times as many projects,' Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kristy Hung wrote in a report Wednesday."

The Telegraph. "When it comes to economic data, Chinese policymakers might now prefer the concept of lying flat. The nation’s trade figures are doing something much more flagrant – nosediving. Analysts warned that the numbers are likely to fall further as rising geopolitical tensions, tariffs, the fallout from China’s zero-Covid policy and Xi’s increasingly authoritarian regime push international companies and investors away from China – just as the nation’s domestic economy tanks. 'Xi Jingping doesn’t understand economics. That is the problem,' says Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute. China was once known as the workshop of the world. Yet 'Made in China' is now in decline."

"'Exports is their go-to strategy if they can’t rely on housing,' says Ken Rogoff, chair of international economics at Harvard University. 'It is just one more sign of many that China is in for a sustained slowdown.' Youth unemployment has soared and the property market is in a prolonged downturn. Both of these factors are weighing on consumption. The Xi administration is struggling to find ways to boost demand while China’s working age population is in sharp decline. All the traditional levers it would look to pull are no longer working. 'They are running into the same problems that Japan did and the Soviet Union did,' says Rogoff. 'You just can’t keep building houses that nobody lives in.'"