A report from CBS Colorado. "Two brothers, Grant and Greg Brunner, who died Nov. 28 in a murder-suicide case in Parker, were facing at least eight lawsuits accusing them of running a phony 'fix-and-flip' real estate scheme that cost friends who lent them money an estimated $5 million over the last two years. 'They took the easy way out,' said one investor who lost $200,000 but asked not to be identified. He said he fell victim to an 'elaborate scheme.' 'He robbed Peter to pay Paul,' said Michael Drennen, a long-time friend of Grant Brunner. He said when Brunner approached him a second time, he again invested $225,000 which he never got back. Drennen, who is planning to retire later this week, said the money was supposed to support his retirement. 'I'm angry. I am getting ready for retirement and that's a little chunk of my retirement nest egg going out the window.'"

The Charlotte Observer. "North Carolina rules make it easy for HOAs to foreclose on homeowners. State law allows them to force the sale of homes for any amount of unpaid dues, no matter how small. Our investigation shows how often it's happening - and how it can it's devastating homeowners. Todd Harris, a 59-year-old maintenance mechanic, doesn’t like to drive near his old neighborhood. It reminds him of all he has lost. Almost 20 years ago, Harris borrowed from his 401(k) to make a down payment on a new two-story house that had everything he wanted just 15 minutes northeast of downtown Raleigh. He’d planned to retire there. But Harris fell behind on paying his dues to the Pine Hall Plantation HOA several years ago."

"Unlike many who lose their homes to HOA foreclosures, Harris did get a sizable check from the sale — a little over $100,000. But he lost much more than he gained. He lost more than $200,000 of the equity he’d built, he said. He lost the home where he’d hoped to retire. He moved into a rented, 10-by-10-foot bedroom in Morrisville, where he sleeps on an air mattress. His old house, meanwhile, was sold to new owners this April for $540,000. 'To take everything I worked for the last 20 years …' said Harris, now 59, leaving his sentence unfinished. 'It’s been rough.'"

Newsweek on California. "Vacation rental investor and the owner of several Airbnbs in the U.S, Rohin Dhar's analysis of the market has been based on the fact that prices have dropped significantly in many American cities. On X, he brought up the example of a condo in San Francisco that lost significant value in recent years. 'San Francisco six unit apartment building in Hayes Valley neighborhood,' he wrote. 'Purchased in 2016 for $6MM. Sold this week for $3.75MM.'"

The News Tribune in Washington. "Real estate development company Harbor Custom Development, based in Tacoma, on Monday announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The NASDAQ-listed company, known for multifamily housing development in the region and upscale housing development in other parts of the country, said in a news release it had 'voluntarily filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Western District of Washington at Tacoma … to pursue an orderly wind down or restructuring of its business.' The company said it would continue 'to market and sell finished lots and homes and to operate multi-family projects as they work towards stabilization.' The company abandoned plans for a luxury apartment development in Tacoma over the summer."

KUTV in Utah. "It’s coming down. Ogden City officials confirm an unfinished apartment complex which has been called an eyesore by many nearby residents is set for demolition. They said the developers have told the city they intend to tear the building down, but they haven’t determined when or how it’s going to happen yet. Several bars and restaurants surround the complex on 25th Street in Ogden. James Bradford is the Executive Chef at Table Twenty Five, and he thinks it’s a shame it didn’t get finished. 'To see it 80 percent of the way complete, then come to a stop and get torn back down to zero… I mean, it’s rough,' he said."

Bisnow Atlanta in Georgia. "The new year is likely to bring grease to the wheels of investment sales as lenders get tougher on delinquent borrowers in the commercial real estate sector and beef up staffing to handle a deluge of foreclosures, a panel of industry experts warned during Bisnow’s Atlanta forecast event last week. The distress and foreclosures are also spreading beyond the embattled office market and into multifamily, panelists said. 'We need to understand that we've been dealing with cracks in the industry since Covid,' said Woodvale Managing Partner Rahim Charania, whose firm raised a $100M fund to buy distressed real estate. 'Lenders have just been very good this time around compared to 2008 at being able to say, ‘OK, listen, let's find a creative way of working things out. Let's keep this thing going. Let's not sound off the alarm and then race to the bottom on pricing. You can only kick the can down the road for so long. At a certain point, you’ve got to pay the check.'"

"Alex Bertles, a vice president at CRE investment platform Slate Asset Management, said lenders have held back on foreclosing on bad loans and working with borrowers for the simple reason that they have lacked the manpower to handle the workouts. 'You think about multifamily as 18 months ago, 24 months ago having the tightest cap rates. Those cap rates are 50%, 60% higher than they were, and so it's only natural that the dam is going to start to crack,' Bertles said. 'Atlanta, for example, rents moved backwards last year on the multifamily front. And that doesn't tend to work out. If you've got, you know, 2020, 2021 deals that are highly leveraged with floating-rate debt, that just doubled.'"

Macleans in Canada. "Two jobs, no money: How mortgage rates have pushed one Toronto father to the brink: Evelin and I both have decent jobs: I’m a social case worker with the province and Evelin is an administrator at a private school. Still, getting into the housing market was no easy feat. We had a combined income of $117,000 and about $37,000 in savings, but initially we could only get approved for a mortgage on a $500,000 home—nowhere near enough to secure a decent place in the city. Luckily, Evelin’s father chipped in for our down payment and, in January of 2022, we managed to qualify for a mortgage on a $668,000 two-bedroom condo townhouse in downtown Toronto—our first home. We were so happy to be owners; it felt like a remarkable milestone."

"Evelin was still on maternity leave when we moved in that winter, so our cash flow was tight but comfortable. We had a 1.3 per cent variable mortgage rate, which amounted to two payments of $1,275 each month, plus $370 in monthly maintenance fees. We started discussing the possibility of having a second child, but our optimism was short-lived. The first sign of trouble came in late February, when we noticed that our biweekly payment had gone up by $25. The increase didn’t ring any alarm bells at first—it was just a few dollars more, right? But in March, more letters arrived: our interest rate had gone up once again. My sister, Milynda, bought a house in Toronto in 2013, and she reassured me that it wasn’t unusual for a variable mortgage to go up every now and then. 'Don’t worry,' she said. So we didn’t."

"Over and over again, we heard from bankers, mortgage brokers and politicians on the news, people we trusted to know more about this stuff than us. They all echoed the same sentiment: The rate hikes won’t continue. Eventually, they’ll hold and maybe even come down. We decided to stick with our variable rate. July rolled around and our payment increased yet again. A couple days later, I went to buy gas for our car, thinking Evelin and I had $600 in our joint account. To my surprise, there was only $100 in there. That’s when panic set in. Evelin had since returned to full-time work, but we were stretched so thin that every dollar counted. We drastically cut down on our food costs, favouring non-perishables like pasta over fresh produce. It didn’t help that Elisamarie was about to start daycare, another huge cost. Unless we changed something dramatically, I was convinced we’d lose our home within two months."

"I decided to take on a second job to keep up with our family’s rising expenses, though it wasn’t really a choice. I had some prior hospitality experience from working as a busser and host at the Keg, so later in the summer, I got a job as a bartender and server at Nodo, an Italian restaurant. For the last year and a half, I’ve worked my day job (in social work) from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., then headed to Nodo to start my night shift. Most weeknights, I’m usually not home until well past 1 a.m., so I only have a half-hour to myself before I head to bed. I work 75 hours a week and we’re still scrambling to keep up with our payments."

"I know Evelin and I bear the brunt of the blame for our situation. We’d never been homeowners before our big purchase and we didn’t do enough homework—we were stupid, in all honesty. The financial experts we consulted were relying on past trends when they gave us advice, but these are unprecedented economic circumstances. Evelin and I considered selling our place in October, but our realtor advised us against it. Breaking even was the best he’d be able to do. If interest rates do go down, we could chip away at the principal or sell the house and make a profit. At the moment, we’re too far in to leave, even if we wanted to."

"I was born and raised in Toronto, down the street from where I’m living today, and buying a modest home in which to raise my own family has pushed me to the brink, emotionally and financially. Before this, I never would have considered moving to another country. Now, Evelin and I are seriously weighing our options. Recently, we took a family vacation to Mexico, our last before the baby comes. I was hesitant to go, but Nodo didn’t schedule me for an entire week, so we found a Black Friday deal and pounced. I still feel guilty about the expense—and took three extra shifts after we got back to make up for it—but we desperately needed the time off, and I can’t just slave away forever. There’s more to life than surviving."

From Essa News. "Official data from 2022 indicate that the number of people covered by the Chinese state-subsidized health insurance system decreased by a staggering 19 million. Experts caution that this downward trend is projected to persist in 2023. A drop was noted in the first nine months of this year in seven provinces, relative to the corresponding timeframe from the previous year. A rural construction worker from the central Hubei province, mentioned by 'FT,' disclosed that he ceased his annual premium payments of 380 yuan (around $59) this year after several months of unemployment. 'I need to maximize the use of my limited savings. Health insurance isn't my priority,' remarked Li."

"It seems that this issue could potentially negatively influence the recovery of the world's second-largest economy, which has struggled to uplift consumer sentiment due to a prolonged slump in the real estate sector and weaker exports. In October, experts pointed out that China's housing sector was undergoing a 'significant slowdown.' From peak levels in 2020-2021, sales have plunged by around 30% and started construction by 60%. Property prices in numerous cities have declined by 10-20% relative to their 2019-2021 peaks. Analysts highlighted that approximately 5.6 billion square feet of property is under construction or has been completed but remains unsold."