A report from CBS 5. "Arizona is still dealing with a major teacher shortage months into the school year, with over 25% unfilled vacancies. Bullhead City has historically below-average housing costs, but Carolyn Stewart, Bullhead City School District superintendent, said the pandemic changed that. 'Californians and Nevadans still wanted to come here,' she said. 'So they would do things like walk up to a house and knock on the door and say ‘can I buy your house.’ So prices went California high.'"

The Business Report in Louisiana. "The Capital Region’s housing market is continuing to shift and tighten, according to the latest data released by the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors. New listings in the Capital Region—defined as Ascension, East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes—decreased 16.6% last month, while days on market until sale increased 74% to 54 days. Months supply increased nearly 50% to 3.6 months, as the market continues to shift to favor buyers. Ascension Parish saw the starkest changes. In the past month, new listings shrank nearly 34%, pending sales declined 42%, and closed sales dropped some 47%. The parish, considered one of the fastest growing in the state, also saw the highest increase to the time on market until sale: 88.5%, from 26 days to 49 days."

Lodi News in California. "As the real estate market continues to cool in many areas of the country — including Lodi, some properties are still selling within days or hours of being listed. Surprisingly, those are the homes priced above $500k. igher interest rates have knocked some buyers out of the market, and typical first-time homes are sitting longer. There’s also been speculation that institutional investors have been scooping up all the higher-end homes for cash, but there’s no evidence of that happening here, says local Realtor Ryan Sherman. Investors are also not buying the $500,000 homes. 'Not too many investors (are) picking up those properties for cash, just because the rent vs. price point does not cash flow,' says Sherman."

From Axios. "An influx of new apartment construction is helping to create a more hospitable market for Nashville renters. Meanwhile, luxury apartment complexes are rolling out new bargains. According to an analysis from Matthews Real Estate Investment Services, the vacancy rate for rental properties passed 10% in the second quarter of this year, higher than it's been in 20 years. The firm predicted the vacancy rate could continue to grow through the rest of the year. The Tennessean recently reported that it's become increasingly common to see large apartment buildings offer multiple months rent-free."

"'This is absolutely the most concessionary environment I've ever seen,' said Joel Sanders, CEO of Apartment Insiders. 'Whenever we would previously see some concessions being offered, three months free would pop up every now and then. So now I'm saying it's a regular thing we see, and that's somewhat unusual. I expect that to continue into 2024.'"

The Record in New Jersey. "A real estate investor who proposed building a $50 million, 127-unit housing project near Hinchliffe Stadium has put the property up for sale, and prominent Paterson developer Charles Florio said he may buy it. The lofts development has been one of the projects Mayor Andre Sayegh highlighted in the last 22 months as part of his effort to revitalize the Great Falls area. Paterson’s Planning Board approved the development in January 2022, but there has been little progress since then. Property owner Billy Procida said he began advertising the sale of the land several months ago. 'I’m beyond frustrated,' Procida told Paterson Press in an interview on Monday. 'This was going to be my swan song and then I was going to retire.'"

Bisnow Houston in Texas. "Pacific Life Insurance was apparently unable to find a buyer for the Houston office building it foreclosed on last week, even though it was willing to accept more than a 50% discount, public records show. Pacific Life Insurance took back Four Westlake Park, a 588K SF, 20-story building in the Energy Corridor, for its starting bid of $30M after no one topped it at the Harris County foreclosure auction on Oct. 3, according to online records."

"That is less than half of the $70M Pacific Life Insurance loaned to Treeview Real Estate Advisors to purchase the building in February 2020, and it is barely a third of the $86M at which the Harris Central Appraisal District valued the building in January. 'The lender usually buys back only when the price at foreclosure didn’t hit their minimum,' Shams Merchant, an attorney for Jackson Walker LLP based in Fort Worth, speaking generally and not about this specific transaction. 'So now, the lender can now turn around and sell the property in order to recoup some of their losses on the loan.'"

"The same process seems to have happened for several other recent commercial foreclosures in Houston, though the discount the lenders are willing to accept varies. At the September foreclosure auction, lender MF1 sold a 282-unit multifamily complex, Aspire at 610, after its borrower defaulted on a $51M loan. Another multifamily complex, the 1,000-plus-unit Cabo San Lucas, sold at the August foreclosure auction to another newly created LLC for $50M. Ellington Management Group originally issued the $65.2M loan on the property. Houston office loan distress remains significant. CMBS loans on 26 properties with a collective loan balance of almost $973M are in distress, or about 23% of all office CMBS loans in Houston, according to a third-quarter Avison Young office report."

From Bloomberg. "The chill of autumn leaves is mirrored in Canada’s housing market, as the nation grapples with a significant correction from its pandemic peak. Homes, once hot commodities, now sit quietly, their for-sale signs rustling in the wind. The market’s pulse has slowed, with existing home sales dropping by over 38% from their zenith in February 2022, and new listings following suit with an almost 20% decrease. Prices have not been immune to this chill, with the average home price falling by nearly 20%, and the benchmark home price, a more nuanced measure adjusting for market composition, has seen a roughly 14% decrease. Affordability issues, much like permafrost, may hinder a quick rebound. Prospective buyers, particularly in expensive markets such as British Columbia and Ontario, face the daunting task of finding affordable homes. Quebec is also predicted to face a chill in the coming months due to high-interest rates."

From News.com.au. "One of Perth’s biggest builders appears to be on the ropes financially as the Australian Taxation Office issues it with a wind up order. Simsai Construction Group, an Osborne Park based builder which oversees First Home Buyers Direct, Multi Develop 360, and Express Homes, is understood to have up to 100 properties in the pipeline. Winding up orders, also known as compulsory liquidation, are usually issued by courts on behalf of administrators, forcing a company to cease trading so its assets can be sold in order to pay creditors. Simsai itself remains defiant in the face of the ATO’s wind-up order. 'We are aware of the order and we hope to have it sorted in the next two to three weeks,' a spokesperson told The West Australian newspaper. 'We are not going to comment further.'"

"First Home Buyers Direct touts itself on its website as 'one of the best first home builders in Perth,' offering house and land packages from 'as little as $295 per week,' with no progress payments. The news comes just one day after it was revealed fellow Perth-based builder Intellibuild had gone under, just one of many building companies which have collapsed both in WA and across the country in 2023."

The Wall Street Journal. "China’s property market meltdown created a multibillion-dollar opportunity for distressed-debt investors. It hasn’t paid off. The country’s real-estate sector is reeling from a yearslong slowdown that has put strains on the economy, sparked widespread protests and triggered defaults on around $81 billion of Chinese developers’ international bonds between 2021 and 2022, according to figures from S&P Global Ratings. The wave of defaults in the sector proved irresistible to many distressed-debt funds. These funds buy the bonds or loans of struggling companies, often at a price well below face value, and negotiate with the companies to work out a debt restructuring plan. They flooded into the market two years ago, including buying many of the outstanding bonds of developers China Evergrande Group, KWG Group and China Aoyuan Group, according to a Hong Kong-based trader."

"But the distressed-debt playbook isn’t working in China. Dozens of Chinese property companies have defaulted on their bonds over the last two years, but only a handful have paid investors back any money. Last month, Evergrande abandoned a $35 billion debt restructuring plan that it had finally agreed with some of its investors after protracted negotiations. China Aoyuan still hasn’t completed a deal more than 18 months after it defaulted."

"Most dollar bonds sold by Chinese property companies are trading below 10 cents on the dollar, and several are trading at less than 5 cents, according to research firm CreditSights. 'The market is showing all the signs that it’s lost patience,' said Jean-Charles Sambor, head of emerging markets fixed income at BNP Asset Management. 'When you see these bonds now trading below 10 cents on the dollar, it tells you that investors expect a very low recovery, or total liquidation in some cases.'"

"Investment firms including Vontobel Asset Management in Zurich, SC Lowy in Hong Kong and New York-based Apollo Global Management bought Evergrande’s bonds in late 2021. At the time, one of its most actively traded bonds was worth around 20 cents on the dollar. The same bond is now trading at around 2.5 cents on the dollar. Vontobel has closed its position in Evergrande, said a spokesperson. SC Lowy sold most of the Chinese property bonds it held last year, according to Michel Lowy, its co-founder and chief executive. Apollo didn’t respond to a request for comment."

"Robert Koenigsberger, founder and chief investment officer of Gramercy Funds Management, said that distressed-debt investing can still work in China’s property sector. He said that after the wave of defaults in 2021, many investors rushed into the sector too soon—and paid too much. 'They made the first classic mistake in distressed investing: They bought it because it was cheaper than it used to be, not cheap relative to what it was worth. You have to get involved in the sweet spot from both a timing and entry price perspective,' said Koenigsberger, whose fund manages almost $6 billion of assets."