It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Yes, the market is less frantic but experienced real estate professionals see that as a good thing. And they’re advising buyers to grab the opportunity that higher rates offer – more stable housing prices and fewer buyers in the market. 'The market is going through a correction which, in my opinion, needed to happen,' said Valerie Levin, Senior Vice President, Managing Broker, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties. 'It was not unusual for our agents to write 10 to 20 offers for one buyer until a contract was successfully accepted. The buyer fatigue was gut-wrenching, and my agents were exhausted.'"

"The housing market in 2023 started to pick up after a down year in 2022; real estate experts believe 2024 will be the year for more buyers. 'Now the interest rates are coming down but the houses have set on the market longer, and the prices are beginning to drop. We are all doing price reductions and if you would jump in, if a client would jump in and buy the house now they will get the best house for the best price,' Paramount Real Estate Agent, Zita Johnston said. According to Texasrealestate.com, more than 70,000 homes were sold during the first quarter which was a decrease compared to the same time in 2022. Johnston says many of the homes that have been on the market for a while have dropped in asking price making it the best time to purchase your first home."

"A Soho penthouse at 285 Lafayette St. has sold for $14.95 million — down from its initial ask of $19.99 million in October 2022. That’s also well below its last sale price. The seller, Leslie Ziff, an ex-wife of billionaire heir Dan Ziff, bought the residence for a higher $20.86 million in 2017 via an anonymous shell company."

"The clock is ticking for mom-and-pop landlords in Los Angeles County seeking rent relief. Qualifying landlords in L.A. County have until Jan. 12 to apply for $68.6 million in rent relief to help offset impacts of the pandemic and tenants who haven’t paid their rent. 'This county investment to help mom-and-pop landlords get financial relief is, frankly, long overdue,' County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, principal backer of the relief fund, said in a statement. 'My heart goes out to property owners who have been left holding the bag as the pandemic spawned tenant relief measures at their expense.'"

"Some people who dreamed of building homes in the mountains have had more than their dreams dashed -- they said they've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. At least seven clients who made deposits on cabins with a mountain company claim they're out more than a half-million dollars combined. That’s just those who have filed complaints with the North Carolina Attorney General's office. Others have taken civil action. 'He's messing with people's lives beyond just the financial impact,' Henderson County resident Brad Jones said. 'The experience was actually really good right up until after the initial deposit was taken, which in my case was just shy of $100,000.' Jones said that was when the excuses started."

"'I don’t know if, if, if I felt more embarrassed or angry. I mean, embarrassed because now here I am over 30 years in the business world, worked very hard and made a good life for myself, and this whole thing was to try to help us toward an early retirement. For me to fall for something like this, it just felt like what did I miss,' Jones said."

"A California federal grand jury has indicted two men, including one from Denver, in a superseding indictment accusing them of fraud connected to over 10,000 reservations linked to nearly 100 rental properties across 10 states. Shaunik Raheja, 34, of Denver, and Shray Goel, 35, of Miami were indicted Thursday on federal fraud charges that allege a 'double-booking, bait-and-switch scam run through online property rental platforms,' primarily Airbnb, that brought in more than $8.5 million through 'misleading listings and fraudulently canceling reservations, which included discrimination against Black people,' according to the Justice Department’s announcement."

"Goel, Raheja and others who worked with them allegedly owned and leased properties throughout the U.S. for the rental business, including properties in Denver; Los Angeles; Malibu, California; Marina Del Rey, California; Chicago; Davenport, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; Bloomington, Indiana; South Bend, Indiana; Cleveland; Nashville, Tennessee; Austin, Texas; Dallas and Milwaukee."

"Zillow is suing multiple listing services across the United States, accusing them of forcing Zillow’s listing service out to maintain illegal monopolies. The lawsuit represents another blow to established residential real estate players, including the beleaguered National Association of Realtors. Together, the moves could equate to a death blow for the organization that trademarked the term Realtor, the NYT reported. Several high-profile real estate agents are talking about starting their own groups if NAR goes under. 'This is an extinction-level event,' Jason Haber, a real estate agent with Compass and one of the most outspoken critics of NAR, told the NYT. 'You cannot dispassionately look at the facts and say that everything is OK.'"

"Skyrocketing mortgage interest rates, a severe lack of affordable housing and wildfires trounced Kelowna's housing market in 2023. Just-released, year-end figures from the 2,600-member Association of Interior Realtors show that sales slid 17%, value of sales plummeted 22% and prices faltered 5% to 10%. At the end of 2023, the benchmark selling price of a typical single-family home in the Central Okanagan was $966,500, down from $1,002,400 at the end of 2022. The benchmark peaked in April 2022 at $1,131,800, just before runaway inflation drove mortgage interest rates up resulting in sales and prices tanking. Comparing 2023's year-end $966,500 to the record-high of $1,131,800 results in a difference of $165,300. That kind of loss is distressing to homeowners who've seen equity in their property erode big-time."

"The benchmark selling price of a typical townhouse in Kelowna at the end of 2023 was $731,600, which is actually up a bit from 2022's year-end of $726,000, but it's still $97,400 off the record-high set in May 2022 of $829,000. For a typical condo, the benchmark selling price at the end of 2023 was $480,800, down from $502,800 at the end of 2022 and a $76,900 slide from the record-high $557,700 in April 2022."

"3900 Yonge St., No. 702, Toronto. Asking price: $1,789,000 (September, 2023). Selling price: $1.6-million (October 2023). This large condo has about 2,000 square feet of living space but buyers balked at both the price and its location on a steep stretch of Yonge that might necessitate an uphill walk to the closest supermarket. One buyer looked past that minor disadvantage and stitched together a deal $189,000 under the asking price with a close on December 29. 'It became apparent the market was becoming more interest rate sensitive, and people were concerned about which way the market was going to go,' said agent Penny Brown."

"In 2023, the Israel Land Authority (ILA) marketed land for the construction of 93,456 housing units through tenders and exemptions from tenders. However, only 60,117 were actually contracted for construction. This means that more than a third of the housing units marketed by the government remained without demand. ILA Director Yanki Quint said that '2023 was a challenging year in land management as well: starting with the sharp rise in interest rates, through the slump in land prices, the anticipation of elections in local authorities, and finally, the war that broke out in the last quarter of the year.'"

"The Hong Kong government will not sell any residential or commercial land in the current quarter, development minister Bernadette Linn has said, citing weak market sentiment and high vacancy rates. 'In recent months, we have witnessed that the market is not too keen in tendering for residential sites,' she told a press conference on Thursday, citing failed tenders last year. 'This is a signal that the government has to take into account.' No commercial sites would be put up for tender either, Linn added, citing high commercial vacancy rates."

"Sino Land, the sole bidder for a plot on Lantau, took the 1.9-hectare parcel at an almost 20 per cent discount, after a record six sites were left unsold. Midland Realty’s Chief Analyst Buggle Lau told Ming Pao that the lack of land tenders would not have an immediate impact on supply, adding that there were still more than 20,000 unsold units."

"It has been a challenging year for mortgage holders, renters and landlords as six rate rises heightened pressure on budgets and pushed Australians to their financial limits. About 13 per cent of households now have expenses which exceed their cash flow, according to data from the Reserve Bank released earlier this year. Property data analyst Kent Lardner said while there has been no 'cliff,' the mortgage belt is starting to stand out as a 'highly-stressed marketplace'. 'We’ve seen a lot of outer suburbs, where there was an abundance of new mortgages taken out in one foul swoop, those markets are going to be in some strife because a lot of these people are starting to break,' he said."