It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "More builders are offering new incentives to keep buyers on the hook in a tough housing market. How about free mortgage payments? That’s what one builder is doing. 'Right now, we’re offering if you buy a house, no payments for six months. We’re paying the mortgage,' said Joe Garlington, chief operating officer of Sandy-based Goldcrest Homes. 'You can buy a house, move in before Christmas, and not worry about the payment until summer of next year.' Ross Ford with the Utah Home Builders Association said builders are 'looking for anything they can do to keep the market healthy but still get their customer in.' With high rates and fewer buyers, he said builders are just trying to keep moving. 'The builders are trying to be as thoughtful as they can and say, OK, keep the market alive, keep this going,' said Ford. 'It hurts everybody if it stops.'"

"Two more civil lawsuits against Sunlight Construction and its owner, William Ferrigno, have been filed in the last week, bringing the total filed this year to 22. The lawsuits against Ferrigno mostly involve potential home buyers, who claim that deposits on land and homes were used to pay bills instead of purchase land and build houses. Ferrigno is also facing civil suits from companies who allege that he has not paid them for goods and services, as well as suits from two banks and the Town of Simsbury in foreclosure actions. Simsbury has also updated residents of the half-finished neighborhood of Cambridge Crossing — a Ferrigno project — about things that are being done to help them realize their hopes that deficiencies will be addressed. Ferrigno is also facing a felony larceny charge filed by the Avon Police Department and several misdemeanor charges filed by the Connecticut Attorney General William Tong's office related to his business practices."

"New York City’s Airbnb clampdown has owners of one- and two-family homes claiming they are fighting to stave off foreclosure as income from their short-term rentals dries up, The Post has learned. More than a third of the group’s 500 members — who span all five boroughs and are mainly retired, unemployed or self-employed — say they can’t afford their expenses without the rental income, according to the RHOAR report. Brooklyn homeowner Margenett Moore-Roberts had been renting out the ground floor of her two-family home in Bedford-Stuyvesant for between $150 and $400 per night, but fears she won’t be able to make ends meet after Dec. 1 – when Airbnb’s grace period ends for reservations that were on the books before the law went into effect. 'The income that we were able to consistently rely on allowed us to afford our month-to-month expenses,' Moore-Roberts told The Post."

"Greg Bolin, the mayor of Paradise, California, said in the five years since his town was ravaged by a massive wildfire many of his residents are still paying the price in their homeowner's insurance. In addition, seven of the 12 top home insurers in the state have paused or placed harsh restrictions on policyholders and in some cases raised premiums by nearly 10 times. 'They say it's like another mortgage payment,' Bolin said. Homeowner Heidi Lange, said she had to file an appeal after she was denied coverage only to find out the insurance company sent a renewal offer increasing from $1,191 a year to $9,754 a year. 'It took my breath away, to be quite frank, I couldn't afford that if I wanted to,' she told ABC News Live."

"Holly Barr, a Willow Glen real estate agent, told San José Spotlight these locations have excellent schools and custom homes on larger lots, but the reasons for the high cost of luxury living is the same as buying a designer handbag. 'Why are Louis Vuitton or Chanel bags so expensive?' Barr said. 'It’s because we decided they were. We all agreed that’s an expensive bag or area and it has always been that way.' The tried and true areas are still seeing multiple offers, whereas less desirable areas may be seeing price reductions as sellers’ expectations subside over the 'nuclear market' experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic."

"'During the pandemic … you could whisper, ‘I’ve got a listing’ and you’ve got six offers ready. That was nuclear, there were no negotiations,' said Will Chea, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. 'Going from the insane numbers that we had, people think that the market is really starting to suffer. It isn’t, sellers are for the most part still getting the numbers that they want.'"

"Investor Cody Holmes has filed for bankruptcy on a Beverly Hills mansion in an effort to block one of his lenders from foreclosing on the property. The bankruptcy filing staved off a foreclosure sale scheduled the next day. The property was sold in July 2022 for $13.4 million, listing sites show. In a court filing, Holmes’ lawyer estimated the value of the property at more than $25 million. The bankruptcy adds to the growing list of distressed luxury properties in wealthy enclaves of Los Angeles. In July, investor Kaysan Ghasseminejad filed for bankruptcy on a Beverly Hills mansion that sits adjacent to the Los Angeles Country Club. In September, Linda Kerkorian Kemper, the daughter of late billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, allegedly defaulted on $867,932 in debt in relation to a mansion in the affluent enclave of Malibu Colony."

"A high-profile transit-oriented apartment development in Tacoma is headed for foreclosure auction Friday, part of a sharply declining market for local apartment development. Tacoma Trax, 415 E. 25th St., saw several liens filed against the project cleared in October, according to county records, but several other contractor liens remain. Trax and another property, Madison Plaza in Kent, were originally scheduled for a July auction. The two sites are tied to the same financing arrangement, and their sale was repeatedly postponed as developers GIS International Group and DMG Capital Group attempted to dig out from accumulated debt."

"Kidder Mathews executive vice president Dylan Simon said in the report, 'Once a darling investment market, transaction volume in Pierce County is a ghost of its former self. As such, we expect sales volume declines of nearly 75% compared to historic averages.' The report added that 'due to significant oversupply of new apartments in downtown Tacoma, pricing is softening — especially for newer vintage buildings where fewer investors are in the market and stepping to the plate.'"

"A number of properties in the affluent Toronto enclaves of Rosedale, Forest Hill and the Bridle Path have found buyers in recent weeks. The city’s 'luxury tax,' set to come into effect in 2024, may have something to do with the flurry of sales. In Rosedale, for example, a three-storey Georgian-style house at 48 Rosedale Rd. with an asking price of $12.75-million sold in November after 10 days on the market, for $11.5-million. The closing date for the circa-1922 home is Dec. 20. A Forest Hill home in the French regency style was also listed with an asking price of $12.75-million. The property at 390 Russell Hill Rd. sold in October after five days on the market for $11.5-million, with a closing date of Dec. 14."

"Starting in January, says Andre Kutyan, broker with Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd., sellers will have to brace for buyers who want to factor the tax into their purchase price. 'I think the buyers in general are in the driver’s seat. If I’m buying at $5-million plus, I’m going to use that as a negotiating tool.' Even without a tax change looming, Mr. Kutyan says some homeowners with properties sitting on the market are often reluctant to cut their asking price. But holding out can be the wrong strategy, in his opinion, because a lowered price will attract new buyers who do not search above a certain level on the MLS. Some homeowners fear they will appear desperate with a reduction, he says. 'The sellers would rather negotiate as opposed to cutting the price. They think they’re sending the wrong message to their potential buyer.'"

"A townhouse in Toronto that's been listed four times in the past few weeks shows just how much home prices in the city tend to fluctuate on a month-to-month basis. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse, located at 46 East Liberty St., was first listed on the market on Oct. 2, 2023, for $1,074,000. Just two weeks later, nearly $100,000 was knocked off the home's price, when it was relisted at $999,000. According to Zoocasa, prospective homebuyers in Canada have taken a step back from the real estate market as interest rates remain sky-high — which may explain why the townhouse knocked another $100,000 off its price on Nov. 3. Now, in an effort to presumably facilitate a bidding war situation, the townhouse has been relisted yet again for $499,999 — less than half the price it was originally listed for in early October."

"As evident by this listing and other properties in Toronto, many homes are selling for less than their listing price, while others are sitting on the market for long periods times in cases where sellers are not willing to budge. A Zoocasa report in October found that while the average listing price in Toronto was $1,378,752, the average sale price was $1,119,452, representing a difference of 18.8 per cent."

"Property prices fell faster in the NN29 postcode area than anywhere else in our region last month. Homes in the area sold for an average of £310,335 each in the 12 months to September. Prices in a part of Cornwall have fallen more than any postcode area in England and Wales. The E1W postcode area, which covers Wapping in London, saw the largest percentage drop of any area with at least 50 sales in September. Home there sold for an average of £803,316 in the 12 months to the end of September. That's 13.11 per cent less than in the year ending August. The TR5 postcode area, which covers St Agnes in Cornwall, has seen prices drop by more than a fifth in the last month. The average home there cost £646,043 in the 12 months to the end of August 2023. That dropped by 22.00 per cent to £503,894 in the year ending September 2023."

"SW1H, also known as Buckingham Gate, had the next largest percentage drop at 20.91 per cent with homes there now costing an average of £2,415,697. The average home in PL22 cost £404,091 in September, a drop of 15.09 per cent from a month earlier, while in DN38 prices fell by 13.63 per cent to an average of £195,648."

"The Real Estate Institute's (REINZ) October report shows the house price index, which measures the changing value of properties, rose 1.1 percent in October, but down 2.5 percent from a year ago. The median national house price fell a seasonally adjusted 2.8 percent from a year ago and was down just under 1 percent from September, to $795,000. '[Real estate agents] are noticing more investors and first home buyers looking to secure properties sharing the market with vendors who are showing a willingness to be realistic with their price expectations,' said REINZ chief executive Jen Baird. 'We can see signs of that in the median prices this month.'"

"Home seekers in Hong Kong can anticipate even more favourable deals in the coming year, according to UBS, as house prices continue to slide. The unfavourable economic environment and high borrowing costs are likely to prompt developers - many already facing a shortage of cash - to offer flats at discounted rates, UBS said on Thursday. The high inventory of completed homes is also likely to push developers to cut prices and sacrifice some profit margin to maintain liquidity. There are 18,300 unsold new homes in the market, the most since 2007, according to property consultancy JLL. Loss-making deals are becoming more common in the market. For example, a 495 square-foot unit at Park YOHO Milano in Yuen Long recently sold for HK$5.3 million (US$679,000), which is HK$2.36 million lower than the HK$7.66 million the owner paid in August 2018, according to Centaline Property Agency."

"China's direct interventions to ease a cash crunch for crisis-hit property developers are a step in the right direction, but analysts say these actions must be complemented by stronger fiscal and monetary policies to shore up demand in the sector. Regardless of the final outcome, senior executives at two mid-sized defaulted developers said the Country Garden deal would have little impact on them, as a government bailout would likely target only the systematically important firms."

"'A deal could restore some investor confidence in the capital market. But a recovery in confidence in the property market will require people buying home, not rescuing a company,' said Steven Xu, president of Hong Kong-based Harmonia Capital. 'You need to fix the macro environment first; if you don't earn enough how do you buy a property?'"