A report from the Sacramento Bee in California. "A bubble in need of bursting. An overheated environment that had to be cooled. A correction for a real estate market out of balance. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has been upfront about the Fed’s motivation for months’ worth of interest rate hikes. 'The Fed broke volume but didn’t really break prices,' Sacramento market analyst and appraiser Ryan Lundquist said. 'They were very clear about wanting to slow down the economy and wanting the housing market to correct. But they have broken volume. We basically have some of our worst volume ever this year. We’ve never had a market like this before.'"

The Nevada Current. "The frenzy may be gone from the real estate market, thanks to mortgage interest rates that have more than doubled in the last two years, but experts say Southern Nevada is still a seller’s market. Prices are holding steady, with existing homes selling at a median price of $450,000 for much of the year. That may be about to change. 'Homes are selling on average in 32 days,' says Realtor Diane Varney. 'But I’ve seen 100 homes a week coming on the market recently. If that trend continues, it will soften prices. The fourth quarter and first quarter are historically lower months for sales.'"

The Ahwatukee Foothills News in Arizona. "By all accounts, homebuyers might be more optimistic these days as inventory slowly rises and prices edge slightly lower. But there’s a fly in the ointment that continues to cast a pall over the Phoenix Metro region, according to a leading analyst of the Valley’s housing scene: Mortgage interest rates. The Cromford Report this month reported, 'The market is softer than during the second and third quarters and upward pressure on prices is dissipating. Power is slipping away from sellers and moving towards buyers.'"

The Dallas Morning News. "Austin has seen a much larger drop in home prices than Dallas-Fort Worth over the past year, putting the two metro areas much closer together in price than they have been over the last two years. The median price of a home in Austin declined 7.9% over the past year to $456,000 in the third quarter, according to a new report from Texas Realtors. Dallas-Fort Worth prices only dropped 1.2% to $400,000. Meanwhile, the median sale price in Houston was down just 1.1% to $336,125, and San Antonio’s was down 1.6% to $319,000. 'We are continuing to see the housing market progress toward more balance between buyers and sellers,' Marcus Phipps, 2023 chairman of Texas Realtors, said in a statement. 'An increase in the supply of homes and the average number of days homes stay on the market means that buyers in many areas may have more choices and a little more time to make decisions.'"

Business Insider. "A cocktail of high mortgage rates and high home prices has driven potential buyers to back out of deals at the highest rate in a year. Monthly pending home sales that fell out of a contract in September notched 16.7%, the highest since October 2022 when mortgage rates surpassed 7%. 'Buyers are extra cautious right now. They want to make sure they're getting a good deal given how much mortgage payments have gone up, and when they don't feel like they're getting a good deal, they're backing out,' said Heather Kruayai, a Redfin Premier Agent in Jacksonville, Florida. 'Transactions are also falling apart due to skyrocketing insurance premiums and disagreements between buyers and sellers over necessary repairs. Overall, buyers hold a lot of the cards right now, and sellers are having to give out more concessions to close the deal.'"

"Of the 50 most populous metro areas analyzed by Redfin, cities in Florida were hit hardest by rising deal cancellations in September. Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami all saw deal cancellations above 20% of pending home sales. At the top of the charts was Atlanta, Georgia with 24.4% home deals that fell through."

From Realtor.com. "The Ridgefield, CT, home of music producer Jim Steinman is on the market—and the listing includes everything inside the place. Steinman lived in an upscale spread that just got a pretty steep price cut. The property was listed initially in 2022 for $5,555,569, and now it's exactly $1 million less. Steinman, who died in 2021, lived at the address for nearly 30 years. In the 1990s, he bought the property and its accompanying 1920s cottage, then spent more than $6 million on an expansion."

The Commercial Observer. "CRED iQ took a deeper dive into a selected group of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans that incurred the largest realized losses in the third quarter of 2023. Our research team identified 18 notable workouts classified as dispositions, liquidations or discounted payoffs during the third quarter. All 18 workouts had realized loss severities that varied from 30 percent to 100 percent (as determined by the outstanding balances at the time of disposition). Our featured loans were concentrated in the office, lodging and retail categories. Across those 18 featured loans, there were five distressed resolutions in the office category, three in lodging, and nine in retail. Additionally, one mixed-use loan, which combined retail and office properties, was part of the featured distressed workouts."

"There were three distressed loans with loss severities of 100 percent, involving two office properties and one hotel. The Campus at Greenhill, an office property in Wallingford, Conn., incurred a $22 million loss for the COMM 2014-UBS5 trust. Landmark Towers in St. Paul, Minn., incurred a $16 million loss for the MLMT 2008-C1 trust."

Business Insider. "Across the world, many major economies are pumping the brakes, and that's warping a basic dynamic in the bond market, according to T. Rowe Price's chief European economist. While popular theory argues long-term interest rates are just the average of future short-term interest rates, with the supply of bonds not a factor in setting yields, Tomasz Wieladek said 'that is not the state of the world we are in today.' That's because the bond market is missing its biggest buyers: central banks. In the last year, major central banks are now in quantitative tightening mode and no longer sucking up bonds, just as governments are issuing massive amounts of debt. In fact, all G7 governments are selling a glut of bonds at the same time, Wieladek added. And without central banks, who are less sensitive to returns, the bond market is dictated more by investors who are more sensitive. Massive federal deficits going forward mean the US must continue flooding the bond market with fresh debt."

The Globe and Mail. "Buyers of units in The One, a luxury condo project in Toronto that is years behind schedule, cannot walk away with their deposits even though project developer Sam Mizrahi was forced into a court-appointed receivership owing to cost overruns and debt defaults. While receiver Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc. took control of the purse strings last Thursday, Mr. Mizrahi is still the developer of the project. That means unit owners cannot get their money back. They are only entitled to deposit refunds if Mizrahi Developments does not complete the downtown Toronto skyscraper by January, 2028, according to a copy of a purchase and sales agreement viewed by The Globe and Mail."

"'A significant number of buyers (including my own clients and friends) were unaware of the situation even being so dire,' realtor Rahim Suleman wrote in an e-mail to The Globe. 'Those I’ve informed expressed their shock and disbelief as there was no communication from the developer regarding any delays yet in construction.' The One was expected to be completed in 2022 at a cost of approximately $1.4-billion, according to the court documents. But as of early October, concrete columns and walls had only been poured up to the 40th floor and the borrower now estimates that development costs will top $2-billion, according to the court documents."

From Bloomberg. "René Benko, a name synonymous with Austrian real estate, is currently embroiled in a crisis that threatens the very empire he built. The tycoon, known for his rapid rise to prominence, is now reportedly unreachable, leaving a cloud of uncertainty hanging over his businesses. As mounting financing costs and increasing pressure from banks jeopardize the stability of his empire, one name stands out: Globus. In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, he began acquiring distressed properties, capitalizing on the downturn. His company, Signa Holding, quickly expanded and evolved into a diverse portfolio spanning luxury shopping centers, hotels, and office buildings."

"René Benko's empire, once a symbol of his strategic acumen, now stands on the verge of a potential collapse. The Swiss department store chain Globus, although expected to remain unaffected, could face a shift in ownership. This uncertainty not only threatens the stability of Benko's empire but also puts his Swiss co-investors in a precarious position."

The Witness in South Africa. "'Sellers must get real with their asking prices to sell in this market.' These are the words of Samuel Seeff, chairperson of the Seeff Property Group. After a buoyant few years, the property market has slowed notably this year with some areas seeing a decline of about 30%-40% in sales activity compared to the highs of 2021/22. Seeff said buying power has been affected by the higher-than-expected interest rate. 'Two years ago, the market was flooded with buyers looking to take advantage of the low interest rate with offers flowing in, and prices climbing,' said Seeff. 'We are now decidedly in a buyer’s market characterised by fewer buyers and more stock coming onto the market in most areas. 'Since there is little competition among buyers, they are no longer willing to pay those high prices, and in most instances, offers are coming in below the asking prices.'"

News.com.au in Australia. "A major national construction company with 100 employees has collapsed. NPM Group, standing for National Projects and Maintenance, went into voluntary administration on Monday. The business specialised in construction, fit-outs, minor works and maintenance projects in the commercial sector. It has ceased operating immediately. NPM Group had 10 companies under its banner across NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT. Prior to its administration appointment, all 100 full-time employees were let go. The company’s director, Mr Daniel Afonso, said that the economic downturn made it impossible to keep operating. 'The ongoing market pressures have made NPM’s continued operation untenable, due to skilled labour shortages, inflationary pressures, interest rate rises and a commercial sector that continues to suffer from flow on effects of Covid-19 pandemic,' he said."

The Chiangrai Times. "Chinese investors who formerly snatched up luxury real estate in Thailand are scaling back their activity in response to the country’s slowing economy and housing market. Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan’s new condo price index has fallen for four consecutive quarters due to an excess of unsold units in older developments, especially in price ranges hit hard by negative factors. According to Real Estate Information Centre (REIC) interim director-general Vichai Viratkapan, older projects that have been on the market since before 2021 are a contributing factor to the continued drop in the price index for the two provinces. Unsold condo units were plentiful in complexes that had been on the market for more than three years in these states."

From Newsweek. "The dangerous bubble which for years has been brewing in China's housing market is bursting, changing the country's economy in a way that's still hard to predict, even for economists. According to data, China's property sector is the single largest asset class in the world, as Adem Tumerkan, editor at Speculators Anonymous, told Newsweek. 'It's estimated to be worth over $60 trillion—far more than China's bond and equity markets combined,' he said."

"'In the very early years it was commercially viable,' said economist George Magnus. 'But then a few years ago people started talking about ghost cities, and those were the very first observations that a lot of unnecessary building was going on or that construction was going faster than the capacity of the economy to absorb it.' Households were asked to invest in the building of their homes as well as new properties for other people, in what Magnus called 'sort of a Ponzi scheme.' In 2019 and 2020, he said, 90 percent of properties sold in China were sold on this presale model, allowing developers to borrow a lot of money from Chinese households."

"Reality came crashing down on the property's sector 'fantasy' when the Chinese government realized that some of the country's biggest developers, like Evergrande and Country Garden, were growing huge debts and fueling an asset bubble by promoting a risky type of investment based on the 'presale model.' In the fall of 2020, the Chinese government cracked down on this kind of investments, putting restrictions on the amount of debt developers could collect. Banks went even further, cutting off financing for developers. 'It was the thing that burst the bubble, because that's when people realized that the model of the property developers was broken,' Magnus said."