A report from Fox 4 in Florida. "A luxury condominium for cars will soon come to Collier County. The Lutgert Companies have revealed their plans to construct the facility which will be named the Naples Auto Vault, on Airport Road. The facility is designed to provide a secure storage space for luxury cars, boats, RVs, and various investments. One employee from a local luxury car dealership, Naples metorsports inc., told Fox 4 this concept caters directly to their clientele: 'Guys love talking about their cars and their toys and kind of showing off what they got. So that's what's nice about those car condominiums — it builds a car community…and it also gives back a little because all of these little kids have posters on their walls, and all of a sudden, you're looking at the car in real life,' he said."

"However, opinions about the necessity of a condo designed specifically for cars vary. Some residents express that, while the concept may be suitable for the ultra-wealthy, it might be perceived as excessive for the average person."

Gulfshore Business in Florida. "Q: What is going on with Onyx on Santa Barbara Boulevard? This construction started years ago. Now it is an eyesore with more new construction going on around it. How is the builder able to walk away? Do you know the status? Thanks. — Mary Ellen Bonelli, Naples. A: The builder hasn’t walked away from the stalled Onyx townhome project in East Naples, but the future of the condominium development remains uncertain. 'The developer ran into financial problems and, while he was working on that, his permits expired,' said Collier County Commissioner Rick LoCastro. Because the seemingly abandoned development is in LoCastro’s commission district, he regularly receives questions about it, but halfway building something and leaving it isn’t illegal, he said. 'The guy applied for permits. We can’t force him to start building or put it up for sale,' LoCastro said."

"The buildings at the Onyx are not only an eyesore but they’re a significant safety hazard for vagrants, homeless people and unseemly characters, LoCastro said. 'Either sell it, build it or tear it down. That would be my position,' he said. 'I don’t want those things sitting there looking like a ghost town for years until it changes hands four times.'"

WVUE New Orleans in Louisiana. "High property insurance costs are doing more than straining some people’s budgets. The ongoing insurance crisis in Louisiana is forcing some people into foreclosure. Andreanecia Morris is the executive director of Housing NOLA. 'We’re seeing people who are having their principal and interest which is the largest part of your loan be eclipsed by the taxes and insurance portion, be double what that principle and interest payments to the banks is. That’s a dramatic increase in your monthly payment and it’s leading to foreclosures,' said Morris."

"Guy Williams, CEO of Gulf Coast Bank & Trust added that some real estate deals are not closing because of the insurance cost. 'When the buyer finds out what their premium is, particularly some of the new flood numbers they’re saying well I just can’t afford it and either the deal has to be renegotiated to a lower price or some cases the transactions just doesn’t occur at all,' he said. Meanwhile, Williams says people who want to become homeowners should not give up. 'What we encourage people to do is what we call, 'marry the home and date the mortgage. If you find a home you love, go ahead and buy it and then when rates drop which we think they will in a year or so refinance to a lower mortgage,' he said."

CBS 13 in California. "A Downtown Sacramento affordable housing project is planned to transform a historic building on K Street, at an eye-popping price. The project will cost $50 million for fewer than 100 rooms. For comparison, the remodel costs are set to run more than triple the highest-priced home sold in Sacramento last month. Mayor Darrell Steinberg voted to approve the plan to help battle Sacramento's homeless problem. The building will include mental health services. The city's portion of the $50 million price tag is $3 Million. The cost to rebuild the Sequoia Hotel will run $2,800 per square foot. Last month, the highest-priced Sacramento home cost $842 a square foot, and the average Sacramento home went for $337 a square foot."

"Councilmember Katie Valenzuela is defending the Sequoia remodel, mostly paid with state funds. 'There's different colors of money, and this money is highly regulated by HUD and the state to be used for this purpose and that regulation requires more cost,' Valenzuela said. Sacramento developer John Vignocchi says the big price tag is a big problem. It's a flawed methodology, Vignocchi said. 'Have you ever looked for financing that would cover something like that,' CBS13's Steve Large said. 'No,' Vignocci replied, 'because nobody in the private market would ever finance something like this. The only agency that would ever finance something like this is a government agency because they're other people spending other people's money.' When it's complete, a single, one-room unit will cost more than $500,000 to build."

From Realtor.com. "The prestigious Knoll House in Pasadena, CA, broke a record when it was listed in 2021 for $48 million. On and off the market over the past couple of years, the estate is now available for $36.5 million. Despite the price cut, it's still the most expensive home in Pasadena. The sumptuous estate has retained its stately elegance over the years. It was reportedly once owned by televangelist, Gene Scott, who died in 2005. Current owner, philanthropist, and financier John Vidalakis spent more than seven years meticulously restoring the place."

Bisnow New York. "Jordan Slone, the CEO of real estate investment firm Harbor Group International, predicted that distress would hit the commercial real estate market in late 2022 or early 2023. He now says he was a little early on his prediction — but on the other hand, he no longer needs to predict when distress will land in earnest. 'It's here. It's now,' Slone said last week at Bisnow's New York State of the Market event. 'Our team, from everything to our acquisitions group to our property management and asset management teams, they are flooded with deals right now that are distressed. As it relates to office buildings, not just New York but in the other major cities, there's just a lot of inventory that either needs to be repurposed or maybe even abolished.'"

"Offices across the country are facing distress, he said, and there are even challenges in the multifamily market, where the fundamentals are normally solid. The majority of HGI's portfolio is in multifamily, and the company owns about 60,000 units nationwide, Slone said. Owners have seen debt payments balloon while their rents have flattened, and Slone said even if they are solvent and trying to hold on to their properties where the cash flow has turned negative, it is having an impact on borrowers. 'You wouldn't believe how many borrowers, owners are more mentally, in some cases, more mentally exhausted than they are financially exhausted,' he said. 'In some cases, it's both, but writing a check every month with negative cash flow, mentally, is not fun.'"

The Financial Post. "Nowhere in Canada is the chill of the cooling housing market as deep as in Ontario. Home sales in this province fell for the fifth straight month in October to reach the lowest levels since the Great Financial Crisis, excluding the pandemic shutdown, RBC economist Robert Hogue said. That has put nearly half of local centres including Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, Niagara, Barrie and Kingston in a buyer’s market, bringing prices down. Nationally home sales have dropped nearly 12 per cent over the past four months, including the 5.6 per cent decline in October."

"'This, along with a growing number of homes put up for sale since spring, has entirely unwound the tightness in demand-supply conditions that prevailed earlier this year. And buyers are taking advantage of their stronger bargaining position,' said Hogue. As more Canadians renew their mortgages at higher rates over coming months, 'the financial squeeze could prompt a growing number of existing owners to sell their property. This would pose a risk to the market if a wave of sellers ensued,' said Hogue. The weakness in the housing market is expected to continue well into next year. If higher borrowing costs do force more sellers to market, prices will continue to decline, especially in Ontario and British Columbia, said Hogue."

From El Pais. "Ilija Batljan is the founder of a company with a difficult-to-pronounce name: Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget I Norden AB, which translates from Swedish to English as Social Building Company, a real estate fund better known for its acronym SBB. In less than a decade, brick by brick, he had built up a business portfolio valued at $13 billion. Most of the company’s investments are in social housing and municipal properties across the Nordic region, which it obtained thanks to a wave of cheap loans. By the end of 2021, SBB had some 60 million square meters in real estate property, equivalent to 20 Empire State Buildings. Today, however, SBB has become the symbol of an industry that is faltering in the face of sharply rising mortgage prices (driven by rising rates, which have also dragged down the currency value), compounded by runaway inflation (which peaked last December at 12.3%, the highest in more than 30 years) and high household indebtedness."

"After reaching an all-time high in the second quarter of 2022, home prices began to fall. 'Since then, they’ve fallen by around 12%, which means that, in real terms, they’ve fallen by more than 20%,' says Andrew Kenningham, chief economist at Capital Economics, a London-based research firm."

From Globes. "The financial statements of Bank Hapoalim reveal that the bank sees the decline in housing prices in Israel accelerating in the coming months. This is partly because of the Iron Swords war in the Gaza Strip, but mainly because of the rise in interest rates that has caused buyers to leave the market, and hence a decline in transactions numbers and in new mortgage loans. Over the past decade, contractors, developers and others in the real estate market have constantly repeated the mantra that housing prices in Israel can only rise, a view that gained traction among the public and caused young couples to rush to buy a home as soon as they could. The figures now show, however, that this view is incorrect."

"'In the real estate market, the price falls that began to emerge before the war can be expected to accelerate,' the bank states. 'An appreciable slowdown in activity is manifest in a low number of transactions, a rise in the stock of unsold homes, and a slight fall in prices in the first nine months of the year.'"

"According to the latest Central Bureau of Statistics figures, released last week, the number of unsold new homes rose to a peak in September not seen in years, of 61.400, which compares with 44,000 in April 2022, representing a 40% rise in eighteen months. The number of unsold homes is equivalent o a year’s worth of building starts, that is, to a situation in which contractors in Israel build homes and not a single one is sold for a whole year. In fact, the current situation is not far from that."

The Australian Associated Press. "A bankrupt real estate agent's new home is a prison cell for the next three years after being sentenced for a 'misguided and arrogant' attempt at investment. Daniel Leslie Harris, 47, was jailed for at least three years on Friday over the scheme he ran from 2010 until his arrest in 2018, a period in which he occasionally allayed his victims' concerns while ignoring many signs their investments were doomed. Harris told investors, some he went to school with, others he met through his wife, that their money could be rolled out of their superannuation funds into self-managed accounts that would be invested in property through a unit trust. But the latter did not exist. 'There were many times he should have realised the scheme was hopeless,' NSW District Court Judge Leonie Flannery said when sentencing Harris in Sydney on Friday. 'His failure to do so was reckless.'"

"Some of the defrauded investors included people attracted by the prospect of owning their own property. When one investing couple asked, before losing more than $133,000, if Harris had any financial qualifications, he confirmed he did not and said he did not need any. However, Harris was not just in it for himself and hoped the scheme would return profits for the investors, which included him and his former wife. '(Harris) determined to continue in a misguided and arrogant attempt to make it work,' the judge said. A partial explanation for this was offered by a psychologist describing narcissistic tendencies, characterised by arrogance and lack of self-insight, with Judge Flannery finding Harris had only offered a 'very qualified acceptance of responsibility' for his offending."

The Strait Times in Singapore. "The absence of major new private residential launches for a second straight month sent new home sales sinking to a near one-year low of 203 units in October. Nicholas Mak, chief research officer of property search portal Mogul.sg, said: 'This year started with great hopes that primary market sales could exceed that of 2022 due to the large number of residential projects slated to be launched. However, the private housing market in 2023 could end not with a bang but a whimper, as property cooling measures and heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainties take their toll.'"

"2023 looks set to see the lowest yearly new home sales since the 4,264 units sold in 2008, as sentiment deteriorates with higher interest rates, and amid softer economic prospects and more cooling measures, said Tricia Song, CBRE head of research for Singapore and South-East Asia. 'This is evidenced by the slower take-up rate despite abundant new launches that came through from July to August 2023,' she said. 'We believe pent-up demand has been mostly absorbed. Home buyers have become more price-sensitive and the slower take-up at new launches could reflect resistance to current high prices.'"