A report from the Motley Fool. "When my friend Jane (not her real name) and her husband set out to buy a home five years ago, they weren't dealing with the same challenging housing market conditions buyers are grappling with now. Initially, Jane made a point to call her decision a smart one. But she's since changed her tune in a very big way. Jane's logic in stretching her budget to buy her home was simple. The way she saw it, it's important to be happy with your home because you live there every day. But the problem is this: Jane doesn't really get to enjoy her life in general because money is so tight and she's constantly worried about it. She spends so much on mortgage payments, property taxes, and maintenance that she and her husband have little money left over to travel, socialize, and do the things they enjoy."

"Also, because their housing payments are so expensive, they can't outsource all of their maintenance. But since it's a larger home, it means they're constantly spending their free time doing work on it to keep it in decent condition. So not only are they missing out on the things they want, they're missing out on precious downtime. All told, Jane clearly regrets her decision despite defending it at first. And she's stuck in her home because she doesn't want to give up her affordable mortgage rate. But once rates come down, she's planning to sell. So clearly, she's learned her lesson."

KTVU in California. "San Mateo County had the highest median in the Bay Area, at $1,950,000, with prices remaining about the same from a year ago. But home prices dropped in most other Bay Area counties including Marin, which saw a nearly 12% decline last month from a year ago, placing the median in August at $1,475,000. San Francisco experienced a month-over-month increase of nearly 8%, but saw a decline of more than 3.5% from the previous year, for a median of $1,576,000 last month."

"Home sales continued to decline across the state, with the Bay Area seeing a more than 18% drop from a year ago. The Central Valley was the only region to see a bigger decline in sales, down 19%. All nine of the Bay Area’s counties saw sales fall, with Marin marking the both the greatest year-to-year and month-to-month decline in the region, a 36% and 24% drop respectively. San Francisco also saw a significant decrease, with sales falling more than 22% in August compared to a year ago. 'A reacceleration of interest rates since April, combined with tight housing inventory pushed down California home sales to a seven-month low in August,' said C.A.R. Chief Economist Jordan Levine."

The Real Deal. "The profound downturn in New York home sales has left few in the industry unscathed, but the pain is most acute in certain parts of the city’s market. Developers who have been holding out for a better economic environment before launching sales for their product may be forced by their loan terms to list this fall. And projects where units that have lingered on the market may be forced to offer price cuts. '[Developers] have pre-payment milestones with their lenders,' said Corcoran’s Ryan Kaplan. 'They can’t kick the can down the road any longer.'"

"Kaplan pointed to the last available penthouse at One Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights, unit 37A, which recently sold to his client for $8 million. The original asking price was $10.2 million. 'If something’s on the market for too long, it’s like the last picked piece of fruit at the supermarket: Even if there’s nothing wrong with it, you’re going to ask, ‘Why did everyone pick through the produce section and leave that behind?’ said Kaplan."

Bisnow New York. "The loan on a mostly empty New York office building that Blackstone handed back to its lender last year is set to be marketed and sold off. Blackstone stopped making payments in March 2022 on the $308M CMBS loan backing 1740 Broadway, a 26-story office tower a block from Carnegie Hall, one of the first instances this cycle of an owner giving up on a major building. Blackstone bought the 621K SF tower from Vornado Realty Trust in 2014 for $605M. A recent appraisal put the building value at $175M, or 28.9% of what Blackstone paid in 2014."

The Tennessean. "The rental market pendulum in the greater Nashville region is swinging back in favor of the renter. Over the past 12 months, rents are down about 0.8% in the Nashville region, leaving luxury-brand landlords more willing to offer new tenants discounts and other concessions — as much as four months free rent. 'It’s a better move to have somebody living in that space who can totally afford to pay the rent in month three, four or five,' said Joel Sanders of Apartment Insiders."

"A temporary glut of housing delivered in late 2022 and into 2023 is partly the reason for the dip in rental-rate growth, said Bruce McClenny of MRI Software's ApartmentData.com. He also said renters are moving out of cities in favor of the suburbs. In Middle Tennessee, residents are increasingly choosing to live in Gallatin, Spring Hill, La Vergne and other booming counties surrounding Nashville. 'What we're seeing now is negative rent growth,' McClenny said. Nevertheless, the rental market in downtown Nashville is still growing, with 6,000 new units under construction and many more planned."

"The bottom line for landlords, Sanders explained, is getting a tenant signed to a lease as quickly as possible. Vacancy comes at a huge cost. 'You know what your loss is,' Sanders said. 'You can stitch up the wound a little bit. You know how much you had to give away to secure that lease.' According to ApartmentData.com estimates, nearly one out of four units in the city (24%) offer rent concessions, with an average cost decrease of 6.6%. Specials are concentrated in Class A or luxury housing. Estimates show 43% of Class A housing offers some kind of concession, with an average discount of just over two months free. 'Residents in Nashville are not interested in being nickeled and dimed,' Sanders said. 'With all this luxury product, people still want a good deal.'"

The Vancouver Sun. "Most Canadians, according to polls, are willing to see house prices to drop so people squeezed out of ownership, particularly young adults, can obtain some shelter security. But, despite politicians’ endless rhetoric about fighting for 'affordable' housing, they don’t really want home values to drop. There are several reasons why this is the case. Ron Butler, a mortgage broker, says, 'No politician alive wants to be associated with the concept that a voter would buy a home and the politician would want it to be worth less than what the voter paid for it. That would be political suicide.' Canadians love real estate because 'they love the wealth, mainly tax free, it has created for the last 20 years,' said Butler, even while he firmly believes price reductions are necessary to restore 'housing fairness.'"

Durham Region in Canada. "The Township of Brock has recorded an 18 per cent year-over-year drop in its monthly average selling price for a range of housing types, plummeting from last year's $950,624 to $867,550. Regional Market Housing Report of Durham Region Association of Realtors (DRAR) for August 2023 showed that the 18 per cent price drop was the highest among Durham municipalities, with Uxbridge being the lowest at eight per cent."

The Evening Standard in the UK. "After a string of interest rate hikes and with the cost-of-living-crisis still biting, homeowners across the capital have had to reduce their price expectations. But the impact this has had at the top end of the market is well illustrated by the whopping £4 million that has been lopped off the cost of a Georgian mansion in Hampstead Village this summer. Listed in June at £22 million, the Grade II-listed nine-bedroom home was reduced to £18 million at the start of September. That represents an 18 per cent cut in three months, well beyond the four per cent drop recently reported in house prices across the capital in the year to August. Indeed with that kind of saving you could buy an entire large family house in a desirable part of London with the money left."

The NL Times. "Despite ambitious plans to build more homes, housing construction in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is in freefall. The number of construction permits granted in the first half of this year fell significantly compared to previous years, and the number of newly-built homes delivered is also decreasing, according to a report by platform Nul20 based on figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). The CBS figures on construction permits may not always be reliable in absolute terms and may also be erratic per quarter, Nul20 pointed out. 'But the trend is undeniably very negative.'"

"According to Haarlem alderman Floor Roduner, the fact that things are looking worse, not better, six months after the Housing Deal has two leading causes. 'The construction market has really deteriorated, mainly due to interest rate increases and expensive raw materials. Projects that were financially complete are now in trouble. In addition, the Cabinet has collapsed. The Housing Deal stands or falls with honoring mutual agreements and discussing extra money. And, for example, the solving of the nitrogen problem has come to a standstill.'"

News.com.au in Australia. "Marooned customers of a collapsed NSW granny flat builder have spoken out as their bills for unfinished work soar into the hundreds of thousands. In August, news.com.au reported that NSW-based Rescon Builders Pty Ltd, trading as Rescon Granny Flats, went into voluntary administration at the end of June with over $3.9 million in claims against it. On Monday night, some of the 50 affected customers spoke out. Peter Reeve, a 67-year-old bus driver preparing for retirement, came forward to share his story. Mr Reeve claims he has invested his retirement savings in a granny flat project, hoping to secure his financial future without relying on government support."

"'My plan was never to be a burden on society. That was my plan,' he said. He now faces additional costs of $95,000 for another builder to complete the project. 'I’m too old to get a loan. I’ve got to find $90,000, which will mean I’ll have no super left and not a lot else,' Mr Reeve told ACA. Michael Roet, who inherited his mother’s home in southwestern Sydney and sought to build a granny flat to alleviate financial pressure, also grapples with the fallout. Quoted $138,000, Roet has paid $131,000, and last saw a builder in March. He said his attempts to contact Rescon Builders were met with silence, saying, 'They would never answer any phone calls or reply to emails.'"

The Malaysia Mail. "Almost four-fifths of victims of a major housing and property scam are Sarawakians, says Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) secretary-general Datuk Hishamuddin Hashim. According to him, his team has received 80 complaints from individuals who are registered with MHO, but it is also made known that some 500 people have invested into deals offered by a company which promised high returns in the forms of dividends and real-estate assets. 'Almost 400 (victims) are in Sarawak, with some in Kedah, and in Johor. The majority of the victims are people living in the rural areas. Based on the complaints, this company offers home construction packages, as well as design and renovation services. Such sweet deals lured many people into investing. These scams have caused the victims to suffer big losses, including their life savings,' he told reporters'"

"One of the victims met at the Sarawak police contingent headquarters said he had invested almost RM300,000 into the said company, meant for deal in which the company would build a house on his land. 'I was drawn to that scheme, as it seemed to offer a reasonable cost. I thought the company was legit, judging from how professional its reps had presented themselves,' said the complainant, who is from Miri. Another victim, a 57-year-old woman from Katibas, said she lost her entire life savings amounting to RM32,000 to the scam. 'I got to know about this scheme from a woman and decided to invest because the house price offered was quite affordable. I did not suspect anything as I trusted the woman’s image. But later, I realised that it was a scam. At first, I was in complete denial, refusing to accept that I had been scammed. I was in under trauma for three months. I used my life savings to invest. For rural people like me, that’s a huge amount of money. Of course, I feel sad — I got nothing from all of this,' she said."

South China Morning Post. "PGIM Real Estate has invested US$400 million in the housing rental markets in Hong Kong, mainland China and Australia, as the US asset manager sees huge growth in these segments and opportunities to snap up assets at deep discounts amid a challenging business environment. In mainland China, for example, the median house prices in major cities were about 30 times the average annual household income. The current uncertainty in the property market in the world's second-largest economy is also spurring the growth rate in the rental market to high single digits, said Benett Theseira, head of Asia-Pacific, at PGIM Real Estate. The turmoil is also spurring asset owners to offer properties at a 20 per cent to 30 per cent discount in some cases. 'Discounts are not uncommon,' Theseira said."