A report from the Sun Sentinel. "The one-two punch of the post-Surfside law designed to require condominium associations to set aside sufficient reserves for structural repairs combined with Florida’s unending increases in insurance costs is threatening to produce a wave of foreclosures. 'People are going to be losing their homes. Foreclosures are increasing,' warned Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen. 'As it looks right now, there are going to be so many people unable to live in their homes. … This is going to really be a crisis in our state.' Bogen represents northern Broward, including Wynmoor Village, the large condominium community in Coconut Creek. And in his non-elected job, as a lawyer, he does a lot of work on condo issues."

"'The condos have been hit hard,' said state Rep. Robin Bartleman, who represents southwest Broward. 'You can’t walk into Century Village right now without hearing' concerns. At another condominium, in Miramar, Bartleman said residents have to pay assessments for roof work, more money for higher condominium association insurance, and assessments to increase reserves. The ultimate result, she predicted: 'We’re going to have foreclosures all across this county.'"

"County Commissioner Steve Geller recalled his time representing Hallandale Beach in the state Legislature in the 1980s and 1990s. Some residents didn’t want to pay at the time for problems they hoped would have to be addressed after they were no longer alive. 'I would go to people and say, ‘You know, you need to stop waiving your reserve. …’ They would say, ‘Young man, young man, I’m 77 years old. I’m not going to worry about what’s going to happen in 10 years. Let my children worry about it because they’ll own the condo then. And the problem is that we had so many people that just kept waiving and waiving and waiving.'"

WKRN in Tennessee. "Interest rates haven’t been around 8% since 2000, but that’s the reality right now. The RE/MAX National Housing Report shows Nashville sales down 18.8% over last year. 'Because of the pace at which rates increased, it’s a shock to people,' said Jeff Checko, a relocation director with The Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Advantage. Checko said builders are doing what they can to keep the price the same, while helping sellers with rate buydowns and closing costs. But between those incentives and construction loans getting more expensive, Checko said that small builders could find themselves in some financial trouble soon. 'The builder financially has sort of been stabbed and they are bleeding out slowly,' said Checko. 'In the old times of ’08 and ’09, we had a saying that we saw a lot of bad things happen to good people; I think that’s about to happen again.'"

From Summit Daily. "Summit County’s average single-family home price is flattening, a trend that began earlier this year after a decade of continuous growth. It’s a trend that’s held since the beginning of the year, when, for the first time in more than a decade, the average single-family home price dropped — though prices still remain historically high.Yet housing affordable to first-time homebuyers remains limited as multifamily units, historically more moderately priced, become more expensive. In 2018, the average price for a unit was $473,862, a figure that doubled in 2023, according to Land Title data. 'It’s been on this sort of roller coaster,' said Dana Cottrell, a Summit County broker and member of the Colorado Association of Realtors. 'I see this year as sort of a reset.' Cottrell said during the pandemic when interest rates were low and home values skyrocketed, homeowners were selling at a much faster pace. But so far this year, the average time for a home on the market has increased. 'Now, I’m seeing sellers making concessions,' she said."

The Review Journal in Nevada. "Las Vegas real estate sales are on pace for the lowest year since the Great Recession in 2008, but what’s happening in the valley is in line with national trends. Las Vegas Realtors President Lee Barrett said it’s also important to remember the industry has both its ups and downs, and after record-breaking years coming out of the pandemic, sales figures are invariably coming back down to earth. He noted this year’s figures are easier to understand given the Fed is actively trying to cool inflation through economic levers."

"'The reality is that real estate historically goes through cyclical changes every 10 to 20 years, and we’re not necessarily in a manufactured state, but one that has been generated by interest rates, it’s not natural because of attrition or anything else' he said. 'Consumers are in an awkward position, they don’t know what to do. They think (interest rates) may go down, which is based on inflation, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon.'"

From Reuters. "U.S. vacation home sales have fallen by nearly three-quarters from their frenzied pace three years ago as an inventory shortage spawns a wrenching correction in the second-homes market. In markets like Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, or Lake Havasu City, Arizona, sales have all but dried up, data from mortgage services firm Optimal Blue showed. The reduction comes after a fervor of real estate investment in vacation locales during the pandemic. And as secondary home activity dwindles, some smaller housing-related businesses in leisure hot spots say they are feeling the pinch as well. Hilton Head Island and Lake Havasu City experienced the greatest fall in volume at 83% and 87%, respectively, compared with respective gains of 45% and 79% from early 2019 to the start of this year."

"'Services for existing rentals has grown, but services for larger ticket remodeling work on new vacation rentals has stopped,' said Tim Allen, owner of Kopa Home Services, based in Flagstaff, Arizona. 'I can't recall any large project or make-ready that we've done on a new vacation rental owner this year.' Those who bought secondary properties during the pandemic as vacation rentals are now seeing declining occupancy rates and a loss of revenue as many markets became oversaturated."

"Allen has had to decrease unit prices in his separate vacation rental business, Local Vacation Team, to keep occupancy figures above market. Since March of 2022, national short-term rental occupancy is down 8%. For Flagstaff, that figure is 14%, according to data from AirDNA, a short-term rental data provider. 'Our market is all about supply,' Allen said. 'With the acceleration of the creation of vacation rentals during the pandemic, now if visitors are at 1,000, there are 3,000 rentals available,' he said. 'My largest price decrease was a 20% fall from the time they listed it to the time it finally went.'"

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "Some of San Francisco’s largest apartment owners are in agreement: The city is still struggling from a pandemic hangover that is dampening pricing, and free rent concessions are widespread. 'San Francisco — just to pick on it since everyone seems to like to lately — there’s a number of different headwinds there as I think we’re all well aware of,' said Sean Breslin, AvalonBay’s chief operating officer, on an earnings call. 'So fundamentals have remained weak and they did get weaker as we moved through the quarter into October. So trying to know exactly what’s underneath that other than weaker demand overall, it’s hard to be precise, but I’d say we did not see the same level of weakness in Seattle,' he said, adding that 'Seattle is still not strong.'"

"Landlord UDR, which owns 3,738 Bay Area apartments along with its partners, said the region has seen the biggest increase in concessions in the country. UDR is averaging three weeks of free rent in the market, and other projects are offering up to six weeks, equivalent to an 11% discount on annual rent. In comparison, the company’s apartments in Austin, Texas, are averaging 1½ weeks of free rent. UDR CEO Tom Toomey said concessions have shot up nationwide in the past couple months as new buildings opened, which has in particular hurt “Class B” buildings that are a tier below the highest quality properties. 'This dynamic and its impact on our ‘B quality’ communities in particular was unexpected and unprecedented in my 30 years in the multifamily industry,' he said on an earnings call."

The Toronto Sun in Canada. "I heard a good one the other day: How do you know when the real estate market is really bad? The realtors are finally willing to admit it. Har har har. But also, yes, it’s absolutely true. Sentiment is pretty terrible across the board. Buyers are feeling it, sellers are feeling it, and even the eternally optimistic among us are now willing to concede that the seas are rough and what’s out there on the horizon doesn’t look particularly comforting. It may feel like the sky is falling, and for many of those working in real estate it probably feels that way these days, but the only way out is through. First came the feast, now comes the famine."

News.com.au in Australia. "A residential building company has collapsed into liquidation just a few months after landing in court over nearly $1 million in unpaid debts. News.com.au can reveal that the Victorian Supreme Court ordered Melbourne-based Como Homes Pty Ltd to wind up on Tuesday. A social media group of Como homeowners has 64 members. The firm has been involved in a messy legal fight since the beginning of this year and in July, news.com.au reported that 13 creditors were chasing it for debts totalling nearly $1 million. The director’s solicitor James Shannon told news.com.au his client had tried everything to meet his obligations to homeowners and suppliers. 'Unlike many, Mr Kidd sought to meet his obligations both to his customers and to his creditors, going so far as to sell his own home to do so. In the end it wasn’t enough, but he deserves the utmost credit for his efforts."

"Others, however, aren’t as impressed. Brendan* is relieved the company has gone under because he can finally access a last resort insurance scheme to recover the $35,000 deposit he paid. The 56-year-old signed a contract with Como Homes in July last year but so far only has a vacant lot to show for it. 'We still have an empty block,' he lamented to news.com.au. 'It felt like a lot of delaying tactics.' He added that he didn’t know why the company 'kept fighting it for so long.' 'It seems crazy,' he said, adding it 'would have been easier for everyone' if the business had closed down months ago. 'We actually feel a bit lucky that no work was done in the end as I’ve heard others have had frames up that will need to be pulled down and redone.'"

From Al Jazeera. "Around a tiled square on the outskirts of the Chinese city of Nanjing, a cluster of apartment buildings rise like concrete columns towards a grey sky. At first glance, the structures look like a testament to China’s awe-inspiring construction boom, which saw the country use more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the United States did throughout the entire 20th century. But upon closer examination, the development is more like a scene out of a post-apocalyptic story than a symbol of grandeur."

"There is no light in any of the buildings and most of them lack doors or windows. An eerie silence lies over the compound, which is strewn with disassembled equipment and construction materials, broken occasionally only by the sound of a tarp flapping lazily about on top of a stack of iron rods. There are no residents in sight. 'The workers stopped building in 2019,' Ji Zhang, a 61-year-old resident who asked to be referred to by a pseudonym, told Al Jazeera. 'They say it was because the developer ran out of money.'"

"Over a grainy video call, Ji gestures towards one of the unfinished high-rises, where she and her husband purchased a sixth-floor apartment in 2017. Ji felt like they were buying into a dream when they poured most of their life savings into a 60 percent down payment for the property. 'It was all just an old village back then, but when the sales agents showed us the plans for the area, I saw how it could give my husband and me the retirement we were looking for,' Ji said. The compound promised a range of modern amenities. Most importantly, the apartment offered the chance for Ji and her husband to live much closer to their daughter and two grandchildren in Nanjing. 'But we haven’t had a chance to enjoy any of that,' Ji said with tears in her eyes."

"But with their apartment still unfinished five years after their purchase, Ji’s retirement dream lies in tatters. 'And this is not just happening to us,' Ji said, wiping away her tears. 'It is unfortunately happening all over China.' Across China, from Guilin in southern China to Dalian in the north, countless home buyers have emptied their life savings into homes that never materialised. So-called 'rotten-tail buildings,' as they are known in Chinese, dot the outskirts of cities and central locations alike. In Nanjing, a hotel, an office building, an art museum and even a castle have remained unfinished for years. In a suburb of the northeastern city of Shenyang, a planned neighbourhood of about 260 European-styled villas, was abandoned by the developer only two years after construction began."

"During the late 2000s, entire “ghost” cities and neighbourhoods began to emerge across China as a credit-fuelled building boom bumped up against lacklustre demand. 'This has been a problem, particularly in medium-sized cities and smaller cities where supply and demand has been especially skewed,' Yang Jiang, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, told Al Jazeera. It all ran on the expectation that demand and property prices would continue to increase,' Jiang said."