It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Right now, throughout central and western Massachusetts, we have seen a lot of that cash kind of dry up. So, we’re back into a market that is very normal for our geographic area,' said Sara Lyman, owner of Athol’s Hometown Realtors. Lyman said this region has a lot of VA, USDA, and FHA buyers who are currently looking for homes. 'We want them to be able to get a home inspection,” she said. 'We want them to be able to negotiate around the defects that might be in the house. We want them to be able to get a home and not have to overpay 30-, 40-, 50-thousand dollars, like we’ve seen over the course of the last four years.'"

"The average sale price for a single-family home in Athol this year was $305,000, compared to $185,000-$200,000 in 2020-2021. Looking ahead to the new year, Lyman said, ' think we’re going to see stabilization in the marketplace. We’re probably going to see prices stay where they are, or maybe drop one and half to 2%. We’re not going to see any big gains, like we have in the past. For the first time in four years, for the last two months – and I think probably for another two months moving forward – we’ve seen buyers be able to negotiate under asking price; they’ve been able to negotiate concessions.'"

"The latest housing report for the Orlando area reflected that the Central Florida housing market has its largest housing inventory in nearly five years. The Orlando Regional Realtor Association’s November report detailed that 8,202 homes were available for sale, a year-to-year increase of 14%, and a 5% increase since October. ORRA President Lisa Hill said this is a good sign for the market going into 2024. 'A balanced market is a six-month supply of homes. In November, for the first time since January 2019, we have more than four months of supply,' Hill said."

"The Victoria County real estate market fluctuated throughout 2023 with prices falling and rising. Home builders are helping to alleviate issues within real estate markets in large cities like Houston, Dallas and San Antonio where there are large subdivisions being built, which enables home builders to offer buydowns, said Veronica McCants, broker and co-owner of Remax Land and Homes. 'As real estate agents, we have never seen this kind of market before with people stuck in homes they want to move out of but they just can't afford it,' said McCants. With a lack of home buyers in the market, many sellers are willing to negotiate lower home prices and even offer concessions where they offer to pay some of the buyer's closing costs. Some sellers are even offering to buy down interest rates for buyers, said McCants. 'Interest rates have gone up, so people's buying dollars are smaller, and there are people buying and selling homes because they have to but the real estate market has just dried up,' said McCants."

"When 2022 ended, Denver metro realtors predicted interest rates would drive this year’s housing market. And while they expected the rate increases would stabilize the market, few anticipated those rates would suppress sales activity as much as they did in 2023. In the past few years, houses sold quickly, no matter their condition, but that was no longer true in 2023. Lauren Cotlar with 8z said buyers were nervous about houses that sat on the market. 'After years of houses flying off the shelves, too much time on market became a stigma,' she said. Sellers who wanted to maximize their potential profit wanted to price high, but Cotlar said she counseled caution. 'You could price on the lower end and hope for multiple offers, or price it higher and know the house might sit.'"

"A custom-built Sacramento-area mansion with several over-the-top amenities — including an infinity edge pool with expansive Folsom Lake views, a 600-foot pathway winding through a landscaped garden and koi and turtle ponds — has sold in time for the new year for $3.93 million. Granite Bay artist Teresa Fike created the panels, which depict rural and domestic scenes, listing agent Deanna Erdman of Guide Real Estate told the Sacramento Bee when the home originally listed for $5.25 million in October 2022. The deal closed Dec. 22, 2023 after dropping in price to $4.25 million in October."

"It’s probably one of Toronto’s most desired million-dollar neighbourhoods to live in. Other than the mud, discarded needles and constant screams from people ‘jonesing’ for drugs, it’s close to perfect. And the best part of Clarence Square Park’s tent city on Spadina Ave. – just north of Front St. – is that it’s affordable. There is nowhere cheaper. No one pays rent or a mortgage at this downtown housing development project, which is surrounded by buildings where people pay thousands of dollars a month. Some describe it as looking similar to the shanty towns in that part of 1930s depression-era Toronto while others say it looks like San Francisco or the east side of Vancouver. 'No one feels safe walking through there now,' said one resident of an adjacent building. 'It’s ruined the area.'"

"House prices in Huddersfield grew at the fastest rate in the UK in the last year - despite a nationwide downturn - according to a report. While the Halifax didn't publicly reveal all the areas that had seen price falls, the five with the biggest decreases had seen falls of between 13% and 15%. They included Stoke-on-Trent, Perth and Stockport where prices fell 15%, 14.1% and 13.3% respectively."

"The housing market in Hong Kong continued to decline, with prices in November falling for the seventh month in a row to their lowest level in almost seven years, according to government data. In the first 11 months of the year, property prices fell by 5.59 per cent. Things have not improved this month, according to Derek Chan, head of research at Ricacorp Properties. 'Home prices in December continue to fall, making a full year decline of 7 per cent,' he said. Property prices are down about 20.6 per cent from the market's peak in September 2021."

"One of China’s largest investment firms, Citic Trust, had a clear pitch to investors when it was aiming to raise $1.7 billion to fund property development in 2020: There is no safer Chinese investment than real estate. The trust, the investment arm of the state-owned financial conglomerate Citic, called housing 'China’s economic ballast' and 'an indispensable value investment.' The money it raised would be put toward four projects from Sunac China Holdings, a major developer. Three years later, investors who put their money in the Citic fund have recouped only a small fraction of their investment. Three of the fund’s construction projects are on hold or significantly delayed because of financing problems or poor sales. Sunac has defaulted and is trying to restructure its debt."

"The unraveling of the Citic fund provides a window into the broader problems facing China’s ailing property sector. What started as a housing slump has escalated into a full-blown crisis. The budgets of local governments, which depended on revenue from real estate, have been destabilized. The shock to the country’s financial system has drained China’s capital markets. 'Three years ago, nobody would have dreamed of this amount of defaulting,' said Andrew Collier, managing director at Orient Capital, an economic research firm in Hong Kong. 'It is pretty staggering.'"

"Celina Zhang said she invested about $420,000, a significant chunk of her savings, into this fund in 2020, because Citic Trust was a reliable, big brand. A Citic investment manager all but assured her that she would get her principal back and annual returns exceeding 7.5 percent, Ms. Zhang said. 'At that time, I was fairly confident in real estate,'said Ms. Zhang, 38, who lives in the southern Chinese city Shenzhen. 'Housing prices were all rising.' When the Citic investment matured in October, Ms. Zhang said, she received about $80,000 in payouts although it wasn’t clear to her if that was interest on her investment or part of her principal of $420,000."

"The Citic official acknowledged that the 'entire market is not good now,' but she asked for patience. 'The money has not arrived, so everyone will definitely be worried and angry — this is normal,' she said. 'But don’t get too angry.'"