A report from WKRN Nashville in Tennessee. "There were more newly listed homes in December 2023 compared to the previous year. That number was up by 9.1%. There also wasn’t a large drop in inventory decline, according to the data. It sat at a modest 5.5%, which is atypical. Jeff Checko, a relocation director with Remax Advantage, said many sellers and builders are now getting the memo. 'I think your overly proud sellers and builders now have data, real data that they have to respond to, meaning look at my colleagues and my neighbors that have decided to say, ‘I’m going to be realistic and competitive in this higher-interest rate climate.’ Well clearly that’s now the playbook, so lets go ahead and do what’s necessary to move the asset.'"

Bloomberg on California. "The new villain on the seventh season of the hit reality real estate show Selling Sunset wasn’t a sassy new luxury broker not there to make friends. It was a real estate tax. 'Makes me nauseous even thinking about it,' real estate agent Mary Bonnet said of the so-called mansion tax in the season’s first episode, as she surveyed the living room of a $26 million eight-bedroom home in Brentwood. The tax, known as Measure ULA, was pitched in 2022 as a fix to Los Angeles’ dire housing crisis. Researchers projected it could earn the city upwards of $900 million annually, money that could start bringing people off the streets. But since Measure ULA went into effect in April, it has only raised about $142 million — far off track of reaching that estimate."

"It’s been more than nine months, and Los Angeles Finance Department data shows that even at the peak in October, the number of transactions over $5 million was almost half of what it was in October 2022. Aaron Kirman, a luxury real estate brokerage owner in the LA area, says that’s because for high-net-worth clients buying and selling individual homes, the tax has been prohibitive. 'I've had many sellers say that they simply cannot afford to or do not want to sell their home as long as this measure ULA is in place,' said Kirman, founder and CEO of AKG at Christie's International Real Estate. 'And I’ve had many buyers say that they’re no longer interested in buying in LA.'"

From New Jersey.com. "A real estate investor was sentenced Wednesday in a mortgage scheme that defrauded lenders and the government of more than $1 million. Cabral Simpson, 47, of Orange, was sentenced to time already served – 20 months – and has been ordered to pay $1.29 million in restitution after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced. Simpson and his conspirators were accused of submitting fraudulent mortgage applications, supporting documents and closing documents on behalf of buyers, officials said. As part of the scheme, they also created fake bank statements and employee verification records for the buyers and transferred money into the purchasers’ bank accounts for down payments, according to prosecutors."

The Real Deal on Texas. "A warning is kicking off Houston’s multifamily market this year. Houston leads the nation’s largest metros for the highest percentage of criticized loans coming into 2024, according to Trepp. Criticized loans are early warnings of credit stress and potential default. About 38 percent of multifamily loans in Houston are criticized, a record high for the Bayou City, outpacing its previous record of 36 percent in the second quarter of 2017. Houston’s share is head and shoulders above second-place Phoenix, where 18 percent of loans are criticized. 'Lenders are concerned about the pace of new construction in Houston and the impact of absorption slowing down relative to that construction. They’re all positive numbers, but construction is outpacing absorption, and occupancy rates are down,' said Matt Anderson, Trepp’s managing director."

"'It’s not just the loans going into default that signals trouble or even borrowers falling behind on payments, because that’s not what’s going on,' in Houston, Anderson said. 'It’s more that there’s a fear about the potential for softness to hit the market.' Commercial real estate service Berkadia found Houston hit a 10-year high in multifamily deliveries in 2023, with about 52,600 units either hitting the market or under construction by midyear. Because of that, there are discounts. About 82,000 Class A units offered rental concessions in the third quarter due to oversupply."

Bisnow Chicago in Illinois. "High interest rates and declining property values teamed up in an unsavory alliance in 2023, making it difficult for borrowers to get new loans and for loan holders to refinance old ones. That imperfect pairing is now looming over the Chicago commercial real estate market as a wave of high-value distressed CMBS loans is set to mature in the coming months — or, in some cases, they are already delinquent. 'It’s been a game of extensions, by and large,' Trepp Research Director Stephen Buschbom said."

"Nearly 1 in 4 Chicago properties tied to mortgage-backed securities are distressed, the highest rate in the country by a considerable margin, according to an analysis by Kroll Bond Rating Agency released late last year. The situation is even direr for office properties, roughly a third of which are in some form of distress, a rate that trails only Denver. In a metro that already has a fair amount of distress, borrowers may not see much hope for their situation, Buschbom said. 'They think, ‘Gosh, if I look around, many of these other buildings are in distress. That tells me values have come down pretty substantially. If this many other borrowers have been willing to either walk away or hand back the keys or are struggling, why would my situation be much different?’ he said."

CTV News Vancouver in Canada. "Sharan and Stephen Gordon purchased a 300-square-foot micro loft in the Janion building in downtown Victoria four years ago as a retirement investment – to rent out short term and to stay in for significant periods of time when visiting grandkids in Victoria. Sharan says the province's new short-term rental laws – coming into force in May – have thrown the couple for a financial and emotional loop. 'I feel the rug was pulled from under my feet. I was given short notice,' she said Wednesday."

"Ira Willey is a Realtor who owns a short term rental unit in a nearby building. He says approximately 90 per cent of the units in the Janion building are rented out short term. It’s one of 23 buildings in Victoria where zoning exemptions currently allow short term rentals – zoning that purchasers paid more for. 'The premium that people paid for this Airbnb zoning – that short term zoning – it’s disappeared, and that was I’d say about 15 to 20 per cent of the property value,' said Willey. '(There are) probably close to 10 listings (in the Janion building) and nothing has sold since June,' said Willey, noting that throughout the city, out of 60 listings for units used for short-term rentals, only about five have sold."

"Nancy Paine runs a short-term rental management business called Spacehost. She had 60 clients, most of whom owned just one rental property. Since the new legislation was passed this fall, she has lost 40 per cent of her clientele and is closing her business as of May. Only two of her clients will qualify to operate short-term rentals when the legislation takes effect. She says short-term rentals have been vilified in the news and by the provincial government. 'Consider these as small businesses, where people paid their licence fee, they paid their taxes, they did their research to buy these properties as a small business,' said Paine Wednesday."

CTV News Toronto in Canada. "A Brampton house that just sold at a $640,000 loss – after it was listed a handful of times – speaks to the state of the market in the outskirts of Toronto, real estate experts say. The detached two-storey house, located at 27 Jacksonville Drive, sold for $1.7 million on Jan. 5. The house sold for $2.3 million two years earlier in January 2022. At the time, prices were 'completely out of control' and in many cases 'highly artificial,' Toronto real estate agent Desmond Brown said, describing the super low rates available in the first years of the pandemic."

"'We always knew that when prices were going crazy during COVID and post COVID that the outlying area of Toronto would suffer the most when things settled down or when there was a turnaround,' Brown said. While the Jacksonville property sold at a major loss, Brown said the drop wasn’t as steep as the overall market in Brampton. The average price of a detached home in Brampton dropped 30 per cent between January 2022 and December 2023, Brown said. By comparison, the Jacksonville house decreased in value by 25 per cent in the same time period. 'In Brampton, they actually did better than what was expected, even though it was a huge loss,' Brown said."

"Murtaza Haider, Director of Research at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Urban Analytics Institute, pointed to another house that tells a similar story. A detached home, located at 1099 Caldwell Avenue in Mississauga, sold for a $800,000 loss last month after selling for $400,000 over asking at $2.6 million in the spring of 2021. A year later, in March 2022, it was listed for the first of a dozen times at $3.4 million. Over time, the price was reduced until it sold for $1.8 million in December. 'I compared the average price in 2022 to the average in 2023 and I see that Brampton is no different from Mississauga,' Haider said, referring to the decline in prices that began to tumble down as early as May/ June 2022."

"The average price of a home across all property types in the Greater Toronto Area peaked at $1,334,062 in February 2022, prior to the Bank of Canada’s first interest rate hike. Average prices eventually dropped to a low of $1,037,542 before rebounding in the spring amid temporary declines in fixed-mortgage rates. According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, the average home price at the end of the year was $1,084,692."

The Daily Record in Scotland. "An Ayrshire gran claims Stewart Milne's shoddy workmanship left more than 200 major faults - including a terrifying gas leak - at her 'dream' £360,000 family home. Linda Campbell and her husband Steven moved into the now bust construction firm's development in Symington, North Ayrshire in December 2019. The family have faced a catalogue of disasters ever since with Linda describing their home as the 'house from hell'. The 68-year-old said she has spent years of her life attempting to rectify major problems at the 'house that Jack built', including dealing with a major gas leak, a cracked roof, burst pipes, flood damage in her kitchen and bathroom and said they have a snagging list with over 200 faults, that are now likely to never to be fixed. The complaints came in the wake of The Stewart Milne Group collapsing into administration on Monday."

"Volunteer counsellor Linda said she had hoped to be enjoying her retirement in her beautiful new five-bedroom home, but has instead said she feels like she's been living in hell. Linda said she is not surprised the company have gone into liquidation, given the way they dealt with their issues. She added: 'The company couldn't run a raffle. They were terrible to deal with. In my opinion they wasted a lot of money. They would send multiple staff out to deal with small issues and seemed to always be cutting corners that would end up needing repaired. Customers deserved better.'"

Edinburgh Live in Scotland. "A Midlothian homeowner has told of an 18-month 'living hell' living in a Stewart Milne property. Paul Smith, 49, moved into the new-build property in Shawfair, Danderhall, with his family in May 2022 from their previous home in Musselburgh. He told how of the 'ongoing battle' to get work done ever since. Paul told of driving 50 miles to the firm's HQ to speak to someone face-to-face to get work done. He added: 'As an owner of a Stewart Milne home, I am not surprised they have gone into administration. They have been an absolutely awful company to deal with and it has been a horrendous experience from the get-go. I am just so unhappy with the service that they have provided through this time, something needs to be done and unfortunately I think my neighbours and I will have to carry out work ourselves which is unacceptable.'"

Nottinghamshire Live in England. "A deal could be reached to continue building hundreds of homes in a Nottinghamshire village after the previous housebuilder fell into administration. Property developer Sherwood Oak Homes was constructing 313 homes off Clipstone Road East in the village of Clipstone, near Mansfield, when it went bust in October last year. Work started on the first phase of the £100 million housing development, named The Oaks, in late 2021, with 30 homes completed before the firm's collapse two years later."

"Councillor Sidney Walker, who represents the Newlands Forest Town ward for Mansfield Independents on Mansfield District Council, hoped construction work could resume as soon as possible if the property was sold. 'The whole thing has been a bit of a mess up really, the quicker it is sorted out the better. I am surprised they have not been squatted in yet, but it is only a matter of time,' Mr Walker said."