A report from the Real Deal on Texas. "While Austin’s average sale price remains well above historical levels — the median price is 44 percent higher than it was five years ago — recent months have seen a marked slowdown in sales volume and price. In October, the median home price in the Austin-Round Rock area fell 7.5 percent to $435,000, according to the Austin Board of Realtors. Homes spent 68 days on the market on average, up 21 days from October 2022. 'Buyers have more negotiating power than at virtually any point since March 2020,' said Clare Losey, a housing economist for the Austin Board of Realtors."

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "Median downtown condo prices are the lowest they’ve been since 2014, according to Compass data. Crescent, a luxury building in Nob Hill that also started selling its units in early 2021, has only sold 14. San Francisco’s Four Seasons Private Residences at 706 Mission St. may be the epitome of the struggling condo market. The ultraluxury building (units start at $2.3 million) has sold just 14 of the 146 available units since June 2019. One Steuart Lane, a 20-story building that also boasts sweeping bay views from its location just off the Embarcadero, is more than 50% vacant, with 43 of 120 total units sold since it began sales in February 2020, according to Compass data. A pop-up on its website currently advertises 'fall price reductions' of '$300,000 to over $1 million on select homes.'"

"'Pretty much everyone is offering something, whether they’re advertising it or not,' said Paul Zeger, CEO of Polaris Pacific, which represents many high-end condo buildings in San Francisco, including One Steuart Lane, Crescent and the Four Seasons Residences. Unadvertised incentives might include the developer covering the costs of HOA dues for a buyer for two years or reimbursing them for closing costs."

The Sun Journal in North Carolina. "When it comes to selling a house, the facts of the data must match what you are selling. The local real estate market is still good, as Craven County has 193 properties under contract. However, pricing is becoming more crucial as sellers should be pricing their homes for the market of the moment and not the market of six months ago. We saw October 2023 have the lowest list price-to-sale ratio of any time in the past few years at 97.4%. This means sellers are starting to have to negotiate, which is just a sign of the market normalizing."

"As the inventory of homes increases for buyers to choose from, since we now have 375 homes on the market in Craven County, sellers need to ensure the house feels right to attract buyers when they walk in the door. Gone are the days when sellers could expect to put any house on the market and sell it in a few hours for more than they are asking. Buyers expect homes to be clean and well-kept, smell good, and have some updates."

11 Alive in Georgia. "An HOA treasurer facing charges after authorities found 'financial irregularities' dealing with Camelot Condominiums has turned themselves in, according to police. City of South Fulton Chief Keith Meadows said the treasurer, Lyndon Baldwin Sr., surrendered Monday. Baldwin and the HOA president, Bettye Ligon, face theft by conversion and theft by taking charges. 11Alive learned last week that Ligon had already turned herself in. Meadows said an initial building fire in 2020 caused insurance companies to give the HOA board a $250,000 check. A second fire destroyed the building, and HOA received a $1.5 million check to compensate residents. Financial irregularities were found when police looked into the account where the funds were stored."

"In an update Monday, officers said they believe there is at least a dozen homeowners who haven't received anything from the HOA. 'I'm angry. I'm mad as h-e-l-l, you know? Honestly, I'm trying to smile through all the confusion,' Perfect Love said. She owns about 40 units at the condo complex with her husband, including one destroyed in the 2020 fire. Love had a message for the HOA treasurer as her life remains in limbo. 'How can you guys sit there and know that you guys victimized us? Us, as in all the homeowners, from what we are and what we invested our life savings in?' she asked."

Bisnow New York. "While most of the recent headlines around commercial real estate have focused on distress in the office market, another crisis has been slowly brewing for the owners of the million rent-stabilized apartments across New York City. The strain of a restricted rent roll that isn’t keeping pace with increased costs is beginning to show. Delinquency rates for loans backed by rent-stabilized buildings are on the rise, some rent-stabilized portfolios have traded for huge discounts, and others have faced foreclosures. As more loans mature in the coming months and landlord costs keep rising, multifamily market insiders say the worst is yet to come."

"'It's going to be a bloodbath,' said Ofer Cohen, founder and president of Brooklyn brokerage TerraCRG. 'I'm telling you right now: It's going to be bad.' Roughly 10% to 15% of loans on New York’s 1.04 million rent-stabilized multifamily units are expected to come due in the near future, Cohen said, adding that the wave of distress headed for NYC’s multifamily market could be far greater than the distress predicted to hit the office market. 'It’s going to be much worse,' he said. 'There are significantly more rent-stabilized buildings in New York City than office buildings.'"

"The current environment has already led some larger owners to sell. In April Taconic Partners and Clarion Partners took a 40% hit on the price they paid for a 14-building portfolio in the Bronx in 2018, recouping just $60M from the sale, The Real Deal reported at the time. 'The people who are selling now, I think, are the ones who are just trying to escape,' said Jay Martin, president of landlord lobbying group Community Housing Improvement Program. 'Their [net operating income] is just too close to the bone. They're not making enough monthly on the rent rolls. I would say over the last year or so the banks have started getting much less patient with owners on payments for mortgages.'"

From Ricochet Media on Canada. "The open house is all set up, but nobody's coming. There’s plenty of foot traffic outside, but those are mostly Airbnb guests, wheeling bags in and out of the building, and they’re not here to buy a home — just to occupy one for a few days while they still can. In October, the B.C. government announced a ban on short-term rentals that are not in the owner’s principal residence. The ban includes units like this one in downtown Victoria — condos that were previously grandfathered-in despite a ban introduced by the city in 2018. Now the clock is ticking down to May, when these condos’ ability to earn money as short-term rentals will evaporate. That’s leading to a rush of units hitting the market as owners try to get out of pricey investments that seem destined to plummet in value."

"So far, listing prices haven’t reflected this new reality. Hence the empty open house. 'I think a lot of these owners are still in denial,' says real estate broker Dustin Miller. Not all, though. Miller started hearing from some Airbnb owners within minutes of the government’s announcement that it would severely restrict short-term rentals. 'One of them decided to list right away — like, ‘Let’s get ahead of this, let’s sell,’ he recalls. The result of the glut of listings, the increased cost of borrowing, and the high prices is that nothing is moving. Looking at October data from downtown Victoria, where the vast majority of the region’s short-term rentals are located, the numbers are staggering. In a month when 172 condos were up for sale downtown, only 16 were sold."

"Miller suspects buyers are waiting for the bottom of the market, which he imagines to be more than $100,000 lower for most condos than the prices for which they’re currently listed. 'We haven’t had an October this slow in a long time,' he says. 'Everybody can feel the market suddenly decline, and they’re going to wait to see it fall more.'"

The Belfast Telegraph. "The latest Ulster University house price survey however says 'there are signals of weakening demand however with noticeable reductions in new listings and buyer enquires as consumer confidence wanes and potential buyers hit the pause button to see where interests go over the next few quarters.' It says mortgage approval rates were down 30% in September. there’s disparity across Northern Ireland as to where prices are rising. Lisburn and Castlereagh saw the largest rise of 6.2%, followed by Mid Ulster on 3.4%. However, there were substantial falls elsewhere. Prices dropped 12.1% in Fermanagh and Omagh, 12% in Causeway Coast and Glens and 11.8% in Derry and Strabane."

From Africa News. "The upward trend seen in the German construction sector in 2020 and 2021 came to a shuddering halt in 2022. Germany’s residential construction sector has taken a hit recently, with new orders being considerably slower and existing orders being cancelled much more frequently. Moreover, new orders were down for the twentieth consecutive month in October 2023. Dr. Klaus Wohlrabe, head of surveys at the IFO Center noted: 'It’s getting worse all the time, with more and more projects failing due to higher interest rates and elevated construction prices.' Rapidly rising land prices have further choked the housing sector, with land prices for development having risen as much as 160% in major German cities since 2010."

Domain News in Australia. "Home owners in Melbourne’s outer northern and western suburbs have been hit hardest by the weight of rising interest rates, as mortgage stress levels rise across the city. Pockets of the inner city dotted with first-time buyers who purchased apartments are also bearing the brunt. Across the city, an average of eight out of every 1000 Melburnians – or 0.81 per cent – are at least a month behind on their mortgages, data from credit bureau illion for July shows. In the Collins Street West precinct of Docklands, 25 out of 1000 people – or 2.5 per cent – were behind. The west made up 12 of the top 20 suburbs with borrowers in arrears, in first home-buyer areas such as Melton, Sunshine North, Plumpton and St Albans. Pockets of Carlton were also in stress, as were the outer northern suburbs of Dallas, Coolaroo and Meadow Heights."

"Home owners are already trying to ease the financial burden. In the western suburbs, people were already turning off their heaters to reduce their energy bills, Red Maple Finance director and mortgage broker Nariman Amalsadiwala said. 'People are worried about interest rate rises,' Amalsadiwala said. 'There is stress around and people are at the point of ‘how much more can we take?’ Some had been forced to list their homes for sale, while others were now looking to sell their investment properties. People who had borrowed more than 80 per cent of the value of their home were finding it hard to refinance, he said. 'They borrowed when rates were 2 per cent, and they’re now 6 per cent,' Amalsadiwala said. 'They don’t have much equity built because market values are depressed, so it’s a double whammy.'"

"Barry Plant Yarra’s Edge branch manager Geoff White said forced sales by the banks remained limited in Docklands, but noted distressed sales appeared to be on the rise, particularly among investors, who were seeing costs climb on multiple fronts. Few would confess to their agent that they were in financial stress, White said, but the number of properties being sold with outstanding council rates and owners corporation fees was rising. 'We have seen the levels of arrears creep up a bit,' he said. 'That sends us a message that perhaps these people are wanting to sell, not just for the reason of cashing in, but because they may need to sell to stay one step ahead of the bank.'"

South China Morning Post. "Home prices in major Chinese cities fell for the fourth straight month in October, recording the steepest drop in nearly nine years, as demand continues to slump despite measures to support the market. Fifty-six of the cities tracked saw prices of new homes fall last month, two more than in September, while prices of lived-in homes fell in 67 cities. 'The lacklustre home price data reflects a fluctuating home market, but it was also a result of big discounts given by developers and local governments,' said Yan Yuejin, director of Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institute."

"'There remain many twists and turns in the recovery of the housing market,' said Zhang Bo, chief analyst at 58 Anjuke Real Estate Research Institute in Shanghai. Tier 1 cities continue to underperform, as the supportive measures launched in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen are not strong enough, Zhang added."