It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "When Lindsay Mader put her house up for sale earlier this year, she braced herself. For the past two years, an influx of remote workers to Austin meant for-sale homes were in high demand. The result was a frenzy. Then, everything changed. 'The weeks just kept passing by and we were like, ‘What is going on?’ Mader said. The weeks turned into months. So Mader and her realtor did something virtually unheard of in Austin real estate until recently: they lowered the price. Then they lowered it again. 'It seemed with each time that we lowered it, we just weren't getting that much attention, and that was really scary,' Mader said. In late September Mader and her husband finally got an offer. It was $100,000 below the original asking price. Worried they wouldn’t get another shot, Mader and her husband decided to sell."

"For nearly two years, it felt like Austin’s housing market had no ceiling. 'It's almost like everybody drank 10 shots of espresso because we were going so fast,' said Socar Chatmon-Thomas, a realtor and broker in the Austin area. 'Everybody forgets the average appreciation for housing per year is between 5 to 8%. That's it. Buying a condo for $250,000 and being able to sell it the next year for $375,000. That's not normal. [Our] market is just resetting from the wild, wild, crazy days of 2020 and 2021.'"

"Sonja Przulj loves her two-bedroom, two-bath condominium in Miami. She paid $285,000 for the corner unit in September 2021 after renting in the building for years. Przulj, 39, purchased at the height of the pandemic, when she was working nonstop as a nurse. 'It seemed like it was meant to be,' she says. 'But the thrill was very short-lived.' That’s because less than a year later, Przulj, who lives in the condo with her husband and their five-year-old son, was hit with a $145,000 special assessment by the condo association to pay for repairs in the aging building. 'It’s an earth-shattering number,' she says. And one she can’t afford to pay. 'There is no way myself, or probably half the building, can come up with that money,' Przulj says. 'I risked it all by buying this unit, and I have nowhere to go with my family.'"

"For the first time since homeowners were forced out of their faulty constructed condominiums, the District Council held a hearing to discuss what they call the 'debacle' surrounding the River East at Grandview Condos. In August 2021, dozens of families were forced to evacuate their homes in the development on Talbert Street Southeast due to structural defects including cracks in the walls and plumbing leaks. The 46-unit complex in the heart of Anacostia was completed in 2017 by the developer Stanton View, LLC. who received $6 million in District subsidies to build through the District’s Housing Production Trust Fund. 'I thought this was safe. A year, two years later you start seeing cracks,' first-time homeowner Terri Wright told WUSA9. She says her 'American dream' came crashing down when she noticed the flaws in her unit."

"Regina Haire says that in nine months she will be back in limbo telling WUSA9, 'I own a home, and I am homeless.' The condominium developer has since filed for bankruptcy, but the River East at Grandview homeowners have been left with uninhabitable units and a mortgage. 'I need this mortgage removed from my credit so I can at least qualify for something. Right now I have a preapproval, but it's subject to this loan being paid off,' Haire said."

"San Jose-based lender Avidbank has sold a newly built Mission Bay condominium complex that it foreclosed in August, The Real Deal has learned. The bank offloaded the asset, located at 603 Tennessee Street, in a $14 million deal, property records show. The transaction comes just months after Sol Properties, the previous owner of the 24-unit complex, surrendered the asset. According to an August deed that conveyed ownership to Avidbank, the unpaid debt on the condominium complex had grown to $15.4 million. Sol Properties secured the original $12.4 million loan on the asset in June 2018. The property is a six-story, 24,000-square-foot building that has sat empty despite construction finishing more than two years ago, according to a previous report from the San Francisco Chronicle."

"'It’s a very unfortunate state of affairs, and they’re far from the only developer that’s having problems due to San Francisco policies mixed with federal policies impacting the market,' Alexander Kolovyansky, the listing agent for the property, previously told the San Francisco Standard. The deal adds to the churn of distressed assets in San Francisco. In August, Ballast Investments won an auction for $800 million in residential loans backed by 2,149 San Francisco apartment units. The properties were previously owned by Veritas Investments, one of the city’s largest landlords. Earlier this month, CrossHarbor Capital Partners acquired 55 New Montgomery Street, a 100,200-square-foot SoMa office building, through a foreclosure auction."

"The Toronto area’s rocky fall real estate market is seeing sellers become more determined as the end of the year approaches. Buyers are unpredictable: Some properties sell in one day while others languish. Pritesh Parekh, a real estate agent with Century 21 Legacy Ltd., believes November may bring more price cuts from sellers who do not want to have their property remain on the market through the end of the year. 'October was a month when I saw many, many price reductions.' Those who had already bought another property were often motivated to accept less than their original asking price. 'It comes down to, what is your appetite to continue to hold the property?'"

"In many cases with the recently-completed towers, builders sold the units preconstruction for $1,300 per square foot or higher. Some of the developers have remaining inventory to sell, says Luke Dalinda, a real estate agent with Royal LePage Real Estate Services. 'Condo developers with leftover inventory are falling on their own sword.' Mr. Dalinda points out that the trend toward larger houses with home offices and backyard pools that fuelled the market in the early years of the pandemic impelled buyers to enter intense bidding wars. 'Especially in 2021, they paid a real premium,' he says. Many long-time homeowners are reading economic forecasts, he says, and they figure they will fetch a higher price now than in a year or two."

"Higher interest rates, combined with stricter regulations, have some Canadians beginning to second-guess the wisdom of investing in a short-term rental property. Deana Steele says she has never seen as many condo and vacation homes for sale as there are in Kelowna, B.C., right now. The founder of Keys to Kelowna Properties Inc., a luxury vacation rental management agency, said the lake-front city’s real estate market is currently 'saturated' by properties zoned for short-term rental use. Some of the sellers are people who bought not that long ago and are already trying to get out."

"'We had all these first-timers flood the market — they were late adopters,' said Steele. 'They thought they were going to make a mint because they saw what was happening in the gold rush. And now they’re realizing, ‘Oh, big mistake.’ As more and more people tried to get in on the action, the balance shifted. By the summer of this year, Steele said, the number of Airbnb and similar listings in the city was outstripping demand. As the glut of short-term rentals grew, nightly average occupancy rates fell, and so did the amount of revenue investors could generate. 'Our occupancy just bombed, just because of the number of new listings,' Steele said. 'So now those who aren’t seasoned investors, or aren’t interested in subsidizing their property, are looking to sell.'"

"The number of people falling behind on their mortgage payments rose sharply over the summer months, figures from the banking sector show. Rising interest rates have put pressure on homeowners, with 87,930 in arrears said UK Finance, up 18% compared with July to September last year. Among landlords, the number in arrears doubled in a year. One 79-year-old homeowner, who did not want to be named, told the BBC he had cut back on other costs as much as he could, but was only able to pay part of his mortgage bill each month. 'The anxiety is affecting my health,' he said, claiming that he had received slow responses when highlighting the issue to his lender."

"Donna Draper, a relationship manager at the Nationwide Building Society, has been among the call handlers hearing the concerns of struggling customers. Sometimes people just need to know that you understand the pressures they have been facing, she said. 'The most difficult calls are probably those where people feel their money worries are so bad they don't want to live any more. I often wish people would just - before you get to that stage and feel that way - pick up the phone and ask for help.'"

"Customers of a collapsed building firm have been left fuming after airing out their concerns to the master franchisor months ago but being turned away. Last Friday, news.com.au reported that Western Australia-based RPH Australia Pty Ltd with the trading name GJ Gardner Perth West had gone into liquidation. The exact amount of its liabilities remains unknown but 18 homeowners have been impacted from the company’s demise. Justin, who has made $160,000 in progress payments to the Perth West business to date, said he could tell his building company was on the brink of collapse after a year of his construction site sitting untouched. He raised his concerns with the head office but was told there was nothing to worry about. 'They assured us it was in the best financial position it could be, and five months later, (it) crashed,' he lamented."

"What he also found infuriating was an admission from the GJ head office that they were aware of their Perth West franchisee’s struggles for 18 months, even though they denied this to him when he tried to find out more information. 'It’s honestly been an absolute nightmare,' Justin said. He added that he 'relied' on the GJ Gardner name to have his dream home built but this ended up counting for nothing."

"Kate, in her 30s, has also criticised the head office’s handling of the debacle as her $394,000 dream home hangs in the balance. 'We were promised the build would be done by Christmas,' the mum-of-two said. They were living with a family friend while they waited for their home’s completion but 'outstayed' their welcome amid the long delays. They now live in a 'shoebox' and their rent has increased by $100 a week with no end in sight. 'If they (the GJ head office) have been aware of this for 18 months, it’s quite disappointing,' she said. 'We signed up, (were) sold the dream. (It) ended up being lies and broken promises.'"