A report from the Naples Daily News in Florida. "In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Naples saw trophy mansions list at never-before-seen prices. In March, a sprawling waterfront estate hit the market for more than $174 million in the posh neighborhood of Port Royal. It's still for sale. So, too are other rare luxury properties. Denny Grimes, a long-time Realtor and local real estate market expert, with Keller Williams Realty, said there's no question the housing market has cooled since 2022, but it should come as no surprise, with the craziness it saw after the pandemic hit in 2020. 'We were slowing to normal,' Grimes said. 'We were coming off a COVID market that was the best market since Noah. It couldn't sustain itself.'"

From Fortune. "New York City’s housing market went dark in 2023 as sales slumped. The city’s residential real estate had a weak year in some respects, Frederick Warburg Peters, president emeritus of Coldwell Banker Warburg, wrote in the report. Big-ticket items including large co-ops, townhomes, and condos took more time to sell. 'All sellers believe their property is worth more than they believe other comparable property is worth. That’s just human nature,' Peters says. 'Pricing aspirationally doesn’t serve sellers in this market. I wouldn’t look for big price increases as mortgage rates come down because the prices that were created in the teens or 2021 were more the result of people paying 2.5% for mortgages. Money was basically free,' he says. 'In 2024, buyers will still be paying double that for a mortgage. To think that it’s going to go back to where it was is unrealistic.'"

The News and Observer in North Carolina. "After two-plus years of skyrocketing prices that peaked in June 2022, the Triangle’s housing market is continuing to cool down. In Raleigh, the median home price today stands at $384,000 according to Redfin data. That’s a 6.3% drop from this time last year. The same holds true for Cary, where the median home price is $530,000, also down by 6.5%. The good news for buyers: Homes are staying on the market longer. Plus, there’s more inventory to choose from. Case in point: This week’s Price Point features homes currently listed for around $350,000 in Raleigh, Durham and Cary. All have sat on the market for over 75 days and are being marketed with price cuts of up to $15,000."

KTVB in Idaho. "Intermountain MLS is still compiling all the stats, but if we look at the numbers through November, we get the idea. The market stayed slow. The number of homes sold is down double digits in Ada, Canyon, and Twin Falls Counties. The median price is also down in each of those counties, almost 10 percent in Canyon County. Very few experts predicted all this, but Debbi Myers, President of Boise Regional REALTORS, said we shouldn't be shocked, 'If you take out the COVID years, this last year was kind of right on track with where it would have been.' While home prices are down, in the long term, they're way up. The median sales price in 2019 in Ada County was almost $200,000 less than it is right now."

KVUE in Texas. "Redfin says our area is seeing a cooldown it hasn't seen in almost a decade. Not long ago, homes in Austin were flying off the market. Some never even made it there before they were sold. But a new report from Redfin shows Austin's market has changed. Analysts say the Austin area is seeing an 8-year-high for housing inventory with the average home sitting on the market for at least two months. In 2023, about 36% of local listings saw price decreases, which is one of the highest rates in the country."

"Real estate agent Nathan Gogo says that's showing stabilization in a market that was once so crazy. 'They were buying anything. And so they were buying them probably higher than they should have to, which is also why I think a lot of homes are sitting inventory,' said Gogo. 'So the pricing that they want is not, again, justified in this market necessarily by the time they sell it. And so they're pricing too high.'"

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "Real estate experts say there could be opportunities out there right now that haven’t been seen in years. In San Francisco Downtown San Francisco is absolutely a buyer’s market, said Naomi Lempert Lopez, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Realty. Supply is outstripping demand and that’s forcing prices down. 'It can’t be understated how unstable the insurance piece is,' Amanda Jones, a Compass real estate agent, said. She’s been in real estate in San Francisco for 20 years, she said, and has never before seen new buyers forced to call more than 20 insurance companies just to find a policy. 'It makes certain properties unsellable unless it’s a cash buyer, which is sad,' Jones said."

The Washington Post. "As homicides and carjackings mounted in 2023 and social media depicted the nation’s capital as a hellscape, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and the D.C. Council turned away from progressive strategies meant to ease the footprint of law enforcement in the community and embraced measures that promoted more aggressive policing, prosecutions and detentions. With 40 killings per 100,000 residents in 2023, the District’s homicide rate was higher than in all but four of the nation’s 60 largest cities, surpassing Detroit and Oakland, Calif., among others. Only New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore and Memphis were worse. Today, Bowser said: 'We’re talking about people with guns who have shown they are willing to use them. … I’m on the same page as Washingtonians. People just want to go about their lives and be safe and they do not want to be confronted by people with guns.'"

Bisnow Washington DC. "One of Bethesda’s most prominent office towers has sold for a fraction of its prior price after Clark Construction vacated most of its space. Stonebridge and Rockwood Capital sold the 16-story office property at 7500 Old Georgetown Road for $29.9M, roughly 22% of what they paid for it in 2019."

Bisnow Boston in Massachusetts. "The Boston office market closed out 2023 with another steeply discounted sale. Rhino Capital Advisors LLC acquired an unoccupied 56K SF office building at 110 Canal St. on Dec. 29 for $14.6M, according to public records. The sellers, Alcion Ventures and Quaker Lane Capital, had acquired the seven-story building in 2021 for $24M, the Boston Business Journal reported. The joint venture had previously described its 2021 acquisition as being bought 'at a discount due to pandemic distress,' according to Quaker Lane's website. Last year, a handful of office building sales occurred at steep discounts. In October, a downtown office building at 33-41 West St. sold for 74% less than what the previous owner paid in 2016."

The Daily Hive in Canada. "The latter half of 2023 saw many homes in and outside of the GTA selling significantly below their asking prices, with all types of properties sitting idle on the market for long periods as prospective buyers battled out high interest rates. In some regions, the sluggish real estate market also marked the end of contentious bidding wars, with sellers often being forced to accept the only offer on the table. Take this detached home in rural Innisfil, for example, which was listed on the market for $949,000 but sold drastically below its asking price of $550,000. The two-bedroom, one-bathroom bungalow, located at 2696 9th Line W, has seen its price dwindle dramatically over the past few years. In May 2022, the same home was listed for $1.29 million — roughly $340,000 more than its asking price in 2023."

The Evening Standard in the UK. "The scale of the cash crunch facing London’s tech sector has been laid bare after City-based unicorn Monese warned that its future was under threat unless it could raise additional funds. The fintech company, which offers current account and money transfer services and counts PayPal, HSBC and British Airways owner IAG among its major shareholders, said there was 'material uncertainty on the success of raising future fundraising' which undermined the 'going concern' status of the business. Priya Oberoi, founding general partner at Goddess Gaia Ventures, told the Standard: 'The idea of hyper growth at all costs is something that we won’t return to. The silly money won’t exist going forward — founders and portfolio companies must demonstrate that their unit costs are down so that they can actually create a profitable company.'"

From Bloomberg. "Jitters about South Korea’s credit market extended into Tuesday, with bank and developer shares sliding and JPMorgan Chase & Co. warning of insolvency risks for financial firms and developers due to real estate exposure. Investors are on edge after builder Taeyoung Engineering & Construction last week announced plans to reschedule its debt, reigniting concerns about a 2022 credit crunch triggered by the default of a property developer on debt for project financing. Having lost roughly a third of their value in December, Taeyoung E&C’s shares jumped as much as 20% in Seoul on Tuesday. The price of its July 2024 bond recorded its biggest single-day rise since at least June 2023, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Even so, the note was indicated at 64% of par, a level typically considered distressed."

South China Morning Post. "Hong Kong's home prices will drop another 10 per cent in 2024 as a looming supply glut and high interest rates continue to suppress investment sentiment even though the local stock market may rebound by midyear, according to Citigroup. Meanwhile, the supply of new flats will be high, with Citigroup expecting an average of 20,000 units to be completed in the coming two years, compared with sales of 10,000 units in 2022 and 9,000 units in the first nine months of 2023, said Ka Liu, head of investment strategy and portfolio advisory at Citibank Hong Kong. The number of mortgages for completed units dropped by 27.4 per cent month on month to 3,496 in December, marking the sixth consecutive month of decline and a new monthly low since records began in 2001, according to data released by local mortgage broker mReferral on Tuesday."

The Guardian. "There were contrasting reactions when the US rating agency Moody’s downgraded China’s A1 credit rating outlook from stable to negative last month. Chinese state media, looking at the politics, saw red. Global Times called it 'biased and unprofessional.' A few days later, the Ministry of State Security issued a statement stipulating that the only purpose of 'negative talk' was to doubt or deny China’s socialist system, and to contain its development. The Chinese Communist party’s prickly attitude to criticism is not uncommon. It chooses instead to propagate a narrative of continuous success in which its own role is pivotal. It recognises that China confronts big challenges nowadays, but attributes them to low confidence, thinks they are fleeting, and says they’ll be resolved in 2024."

"The reality, though, is that systemic problems have over the years become features in China’s $19 trillion economy. The real estate market has tipped over after an almost unbroken 20-year boom, which the government itself encouraged. At about a quarter of GDP, housing now faces years of shrinkage as it adjusts to chronic oversupply and lower household formation. Property developers, local governments and state enterprises have high levels of debt and many face debt service difficulties."

"Those expecting meaningful macroeconomic stimulus and reforms will continue to be disappointed. There will be some tax cuts and fee reductions for businesses and more support for the beleaguered housing market but only to stabilise the economy. Monetary and credit policies will remain 'prudent.' There is no suggestion that the government will adopt serious measures to boost consumer demand and household incomes. It is reported to have decided instead to 'strengthen economic propaganda and public opinion guidance, and promote a positive narrative of China’s economy.' In other words, cheerleading."