A report from Newsweek. "New Jersey and Illinois are facing a stressed housing market, according to a new report. ATTOM revealed that nearly half of the counties most at risk are in those two states. New Jersey exhibited the highest rates of foreclosures among the top 50 counties facing the downside. The biggest clusters were found to be in New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia. Foreclosures have jumped, ATTOM pointed out, blaming the end in July 2021 of a government-instituted pause on banks repossessing homes where owners had failed to pay their mortgages on time that was in effect during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'While the increase has slowed, nearly twice as many foreclosure cases were open in the second quarter of this year compared to same period in 2021,' ATTOM said."

Bisnow Houston in Texas. "Attendees at the Harris County Delinquent Tax Sale and foreclosure auction describe it as a bizarre and arcane function akin to a circus. On the first Tuesday of each month, the Bayou City Event Center fills with people armed with $5 cash for parking — and far more in their wallets — to buy distressed properties. For small and first-time investors, the monthly event is an opportunity to step into the ring. And for a handful of others, it’s the place to snap up multimillion-dollar commercial properties at rock-bottom prices. It’s also a place where serious CRE business gets done, including lenders officially taking ownership of properties after borrowers can no longer make payments on multimillion-dollar loans."

"At the September foreclosure auction, lender MF1 sold a 282-unit multifamily complex after its borrower defaulted on a $51M loan backed by the property. Harris County real property records show that a newly formed limited liability company, Aspire at 610, bought the complex for $49.8M. MF1 provided the $51M loan in March 2022 to Rockstar Capital, an apartment syndicator owned by Robert Martinez, who calls himself 'the apartment rockstar,' The Real Deal reported. Martinez told the outlet this was his sole lender issue throughout his portfolio of 4,800 units and only occurred when his loan situation became unworkable after it reached its maximum interest rate of 5.65% last September."

"In contrast to the festive atmosphere around it, the sale was a stripped-down affair. The trustee, an attorney, read the full foreclosure document out loud and opened the bid at $50M, a prearranged sum offered by a newly formed LLC. 'Probably a dozen people who were milling around and found it interesting to see a $50M property get auctioned off. People standing around in shorts and T-shirts that were playing with houses,' said Michael Knight, executive vice president of Better World Properties, a multifamily property owner and operator. 'The attorney looked up and said, ‘Are there any other bids?’ People looked at one another jokingly and said, ‘Hey, you got $50M I can borrow?’ Certainly no response, but there was a little bit of a chuckle.'"

From Realtor.com. "Atlanta Hawks head coach Quin Snyder had hoped to net much more than he ended up getting in the sale of his Salt Lake City mansion. The former Utah Jazz head coach had listed his home in July 2022 for $12.75 million, eventually reducing the price to below $10 million. In the end, the house was on the market for $7.75 million when a deal was clinched. Yep, the buyer scored this swanky spread for around 40% off its original asking price."

The Real Deal on New York. "Regrets? Peloton founder John Foley appears to have $4 million worth. The company’s former chief executive officer and executive chairman offloaded his estate at 442 Further Lane in East Hampton for $51 million, Behind the Hedges reported. The deal to an anonymous buyer closed in the spring, but only recently emerged in public records. Foley and his wife, Jill, didn’t enjoy Further Lane for very long. The couple signed a deal to buy the home in September 2021, then closed on the property three months later for $55 million. After three more months, however, the couple quietly started shopping their recent purchase. It’s unclear what brought on the change of heart, though Peloton’s post-pandemic blues probably played a role."

Bloomberg on New York. "Buildings along Billionaires’ Row — a stretch of high-rise towers built after the financial crisis near the southern end of Central Park — have been trying for years to attract buyers. Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel Inc., said this year’s performance is less of a crash and more of a return to pre-pandemic levels. 'There was a perception that the market was a lot wider and deeper than it actually was for this density of high-end pricing,' Miller said. 'The evidence of that is sales are coming with big discounts.' Miller said homes with 'aspirational pricing' often sell with even deeper cuts. Many have found buyers when sellers were willing to accept reductions of around 60% to 70%, he said. 'There’s still lots of units to sell' on Billionaires’ Row, Miller said."

CTV News in Canada. "Sudbury Real Estate Board president Adam Haight said new construction would help balance supply and demand locally. 'We’re not really a boom-and-bust kinda’ town just because of our economic diversity,' Haight said. 'Sometimes we’re getting competing offers where we’d see three or four (offers) as opposed to 10 to 15,' Haight added. 'So we’re not seeing those properties go $100,000 over list price, as much as we did a couple of years ago.'"

City News in Canada. "In a recent interview, Jason Ralph, President of Royal LePage Team Realty in Ottawa, spoke candidly about the current market conditions in the Capital Region and its recovery from the peak frenzy of pandemic buying and selling. How has the market changed since the peak has passed? Jason explains, 'We do have somewhat fewer new listings now, and also the panic of competitive bidding has calmed down. Though, on the rare occasion in certain pockets of the market we still may get multiple offers, it’s more like three or four, not thirty or forty as it was during the peak of the pandemic.'"

"Why are many potential homeowners choosing re-sale over new construction? Jason posits, 'New construction can be somewhat speculative, you’re purchasing a home that you aren’t moving into for potentially up to two years from now. There’s hesitation of a bubble due to the media even though prices have been holding strong. Builders have historically financed their construction and with financing rates the way they are, they would literally be building houses for free right now.'"

From The I. "UK homeowners on tracker mortgages can expect to be paying an average of £324 more per month on their mortgage compared to one year ago if the Bank of England raises its interest rate as expected next week. Psychologist Lisa Smith is one of thousands of people across the UK trapped on a variable rate mortgage. She and her husband, an architect, purchased a two-bedroom flat in Greenwich, London in 2013. When the couple, who now have two children, tried to move two years ago they discovered it was unsellable due to fire safety issues that had been discovered following the Grenfell Tower fire."

"They decided to rent out the property, as they were relocating to Finland, and took out a two year fixed rate mortgage as they 'thought it would be sorted' within that time, Ms Smith told i. However, their fixed rate deal came to an end this month and the fire safety issues have not been fixed. Their bank won’t let them sign up to a new fixed rate deal and no other mortgage provider will lend to them, meaning they have been moved onto their bank’s SVR, which is currently at 7.79 per cent. As a result, their monthly payments have increased from £1170 per month to £1804 per month and the rent they receive no longer covers the cost. And their monthly payments are set to increase further if the Bank of England increases its rate next week."

"'It just makes us feel sick…it’s happening so frequently and obviously because there’s still a lot of uncertainty in the economy it just feels like we’ve got no control. We’re just at the mercy of whatever they decide and we’ve got no choice in the matter at all,' she said. 'We’re renting currently in Finland because we can’t buy anywhere. With the rising cost of service charges and insurance and everything else that goes along with the fire safety, and a potentially massive bill to do the remediation that’s required, we are massively out of pocket financially. The interest rate is just the final nail in the coffin.'"

YLE in Finland. "Interest rate hikes are now at their peak, according to Timo Ritakallio, CEO of the OP Financial Group. The message from the European Central Bank (ECB) was that they will keep rates up until inflation has been brought down. Zero interest rates distorted the idea of the price of money, according to the OP chief. 'Debt is always something that has a price,' he added, saying that he did not believe that zero interest rates could make a comeback."

From Reuters. "For months, Sweden's government has sought to play down a property crisis that has throttled confidence in the Nordic state, repeating a simple message: While some companies are in trouble, the country is not. Now Heimstaden Bostad, a $30 billion property investor with swathes of homes from Stockholm to Berlin, is grappling with a multibillion dollar funding crunch, which has rebounded on one of its owners - the country's biggest pension fund. That undoubtedly raises the stakes for Sweden, the European nation hardest hit by a global property rout triggered by the steep rise in interest rates last year that abruptly ended a decade of virtually free money."

"Sweden is one of Europe's wealthiest states and the biggest Nordic economy, but it has an Achilles Heel - a property market where banks have lent more than 4 trillion Swedish crowns ($360 billion) to homeowners. Weighed down by these home loans, Swedes are twice as heavily indebted as Germans or Italians. The property crisis accelerated this month when pension fund Alecta, which owns a 38% stake in Heimstaden Bostad, said Sweden's biggest residential landlord needed cash and it may contribute. Swedbank estimates the current shortfall for Heimstaden Bostad could be roughly 30 billion crowns ($2.7 billion)."

"With interest rates still climbing, analysts such as Marcus Gustavsson of Danske Bank, believe the worst is not yet over. He reckons that Swedish residential property prices have fallen by roughly 10% and that the property market may only be half way through the rout. 'Until recently Swedes were bidding up the price of homes with funny money,' said Andreas Cervenka, author of 'Greedy Sweden,' a book examining inequality driven partly by the housing boom. 'With rising interest rates, that funny money has turned into real money and it is painful.'"

The Daily Mail. "A homeowner has issued a warning to Australians considering a house-and-land package after the company that was building his dream home went under - with his $50,000 deposit now hanging in the balance. Simone Homes Pty Ltd, based in Leppington in Sydney's south-west, went into voluntary liquidation on August 24, owing at least $1.65million to tradies, suppliers and clients, according to a creditor's report. Dozens of customers have been left in the lurch including Chris Le, who was unaware Simone Homes had even gone into liquidation until the news was reported in the media earlier this month. Almost two years later, the lot is still a vacant block of dirt."

"'I'm at their mercy. It means I say goodbye to my deposit if I exit this land house package deal,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'But if I stay, what if this builder collapses too, and I lose more than $50k? There's nowhere else to go. We don't get a choice of making sure we have a good builder. We were forced to go with a builder that was appointed by whoever packaged this land and house tender. The last two years have been very painful for me, my partner and our parents.'"

From Bloomberg. "A massive retreat of funds from Chinese stocks and bonds is diminishing the market’s clout in global portfolios and accelerating its decoupling from the rest of the world. Foreign holdings of the nation’s equities and debt have fallen by about 1.37 trillion yuan ($188 billion), or 17%, from a December-2021 peak through the end of June this year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on the latest data from the central bank. That’s before onshore shares witnessed a record $12 billion outflow in August alone."

"The exodus coincides with China’s economic slump due to years of Covid restrictions, a property market crisis, and persistent tensions with the West — concerns that have helped make the 'avoid China' theme one of the biggest convictions among investors in Bank of America’s latest survey. Foreign fund participation in the Hong Kong stock market has dropped by more than a third since the end of 2020."

"'Foreigners are just throwing in the towel,' said Zhikai Chen, head of Asia and global EM equities at BNP Paribas Asset Management. There’s anxiety about the property market and a slowdown in consumer spending, he said. 'Disappointment on those fronts has led to a lot of foreign investors rethinking their exposure.'"

South China Morning Post. "Police in China have for the first time detained a number of employees at the financial subsidiary of Evergrande - the world's most indebted property developer - two weeks after the group again failed to make payments on its investment products. In a statement on Saturday night, police in the southern city of Shenzhen, where the cash-strapped developer is headquartered, said they had detained employees at Evergrande Wealth Management, including a person surnamed Du. Du Liang is the unit's general manager but it is not known if he is among those detained."

"According to the notice, the suspects were subject to 'criminal compulsory measures,' a term that usually refers to detention or restrictions on movements. Without specifying the number of employees held or the charges against them, the notice stated that the case was 'under further investigation.' It also called on the public to report suspected fraud in four ways - online, by phone, by text or by mail. The wealth management unit was in the spotlight in 2021 after it was revealed that half a dozen employees redeemed wealth management products ahead of their scheduled dates. Du reportedly cited 'familial urgency' in his decision to redeem, sparking fury among thousands of clients whose redemption had been paused. The group later said the six managers were reprimanded and ordered to return the proceeds."

"Nationwide demonstrations erupted after Evergrande missed payments on 40 billion yuan (US$5.6 billion) of wealth management products in September 2021. At the time, about 200,000 people had bought the products, according to investors. By the end of June, the group had estimated debts of US$328 billion. On August 31, the wealth unit announced that it was unable to make payments to its investors due to a liquidity crunch, and that subsequent redemption arrangements would be announced separately. After years of serious insolvency, another Evergrande operation - its life insurance arm - was taken over on Friday by the newly created state-owned vehicle Haigang Life Insurance."

"Rating agency Moody's last week revised its outlook for China's property sector from 'stable' to 'negative,' arguing that the government support measures to boost property purchases would have a short-term and uneven impact. Another debt-ridden developer, Country Garden, narrowly avoided default this month, after reporting a record loss and debts of more than US$150 billion. It has since received enough support to extend repayment deadlines for a series of onshore bonds. Similarly, state-backed developer Sino-Ocean on Friday suspended payments on all its offshore debt, including almost US$4 billion of dollar-denominated bonds, to embark on 'holistic debt management' - the latest company to show signs of trouble in China's deepening property market crisis."