A report from the News Press. "When Hurricane Ian chewed through Southwest Florida more than a year ago its powerful winds and floodwaters wreaked havoc on thousands of properties. But in Island Park Village, a 55-and-over condo community in unincorporated south Lee County, it was the efforts to rebuild that ripped the neighborhood apart. More than a year later its homeowners are mired in financial trouble, lawsuits and infighting – and the vast majority of the homes are still uninhabitable. 'Our Florida dream turned into a Florida nightmare,' said Island Park Village Section 3 homeowner Mike Riley."

"Residents say they feel taken advantage of, both by their contractors and the homeowners’ association that signed contracts that have left them in such a tangle: unable to live in their homes, too broke to fix them. 'Welcome to HOAs; they’re the worst thing in Florida, sometimes,' said Florida House Rep. Adam Botana, R-Bonita Springs, whose district includes the Island Park area. It pains new board president Ron Martin how many of his neighbors have dug into their retirement savings to restore their homes. On top of that, thanks to a new, much more expensive insurance policy, their homeowner’s association fees recently doubled to nearly $1,000 a month. Many are struggling to afford the increased dues. 'Of the 85 homes in here, probably 40 of them would be up for sale if the liens were taken off,' Martin said."

The North Salem Post in New York. "The number of homes sold in northern Westchester County in the fourth quarter of last year dropped by 22% compared to the year prior, amid low demand and stubbornly high mortgage rates. Bedford, Byram Hills, Chappaqua and Katonah-Lewisboro all saw declines of eleven percent or higher at the end of 2023. In December 2023, the median sale price for a single family home in North Salem was $541,000. The 12-month median selling price for a single family home in North Salem last year was $701,000, not far off from the 10-year median sale price peak, in 2021, at $740,000."

The Hollywood Reporter in California. "The saga surrounding Kanye 'Ye' West’s oceanfront Malibu home has taken another turn. Ron Zambrano, a partner at West Coast Employment Lawyers, filed a mechanics lien on the property Monday on behalf of his client, contractor Tony Saxon, who claims he’s owed more than $1 million for his work amid other allegations. 'We just want to make sure he has enough money to pay the more than $1 million he still owes our client before he goes completely broke,' Zambrano said in a statement. 'So in this case, if someone wants to buy Kanye’s Malibu home, they’ll have to deal with us first.' News broke in December that Ye had listed the four-bedroom beachfront house on Malibu Road for $53 million, a price tag that represents a loss since he bought the home in late 2021 for $57.3 million in an off-market deal."

Summit Daily in Colorado. "While these homes can be highly desirable, such properties usually take longer to sell. The $12-million-dollar Snowy Ridge home sat on the market for 760 days and eventually sold for more than $2 million below its original listing price, which was $14,450,050. Currently, the most expensive home by listing is $19,000,000 million and has been on the market for more than 1,200 days, according to Dana Cottrell, a realtor for the Summit Resort Group. 'Usually, the higher the price range, the fewer the buyers you have,' Cottrell said, 'so homes can sit on the market longer.' For the first time in more than a decade, the average price for a single-family home dropped, though prices still remain historically high. 'Despite it being something that is intimidating for a local buyer, it’s also a great sign that the market is kind of leveling out a bit too,' said Dishon Lutz, president for the Summit Association of Realtors."

From Market Watch. "'The best markets right now are in the Midwest,' according to Larry Connor, founder of The Connor Group, an Ohio-based private real-estate firm which owns about $4.5 billion worth of luxury apartment properties in 18 U.S. markets. Certain hot spots such as Austin, Texas, have been vulnerable to overbuilding, which has weighed on rents, whereas supply-demand dynamics in the Midwest have stayed more in balance, Connor said. To that end, the Connor Group in December purchased its fourth apartment property in the Denver area at almost a 40% discount, paying roughly $100 million for a building that was built only three years ago, Connor told MarketWatch."

"'It’s going to be painful for every property to go from a low interest rate to a high rate,' said Paul Fiorilla, director of research at Yardi Matrix. 'But I think the distress is going to be focused in the small subset of multifamily that is value-add properties refinanced between 2020 and early 2022 with short-term debt and the intention of flipping them in a couple of years.' 'If you look at values from the peak to current levels, they are generally 20% to 25% lower than what you could have sold a property for in 2021 or the first half of 2022,' Connor said."

The Times Colonist in Canada. "Like Airbnb owners across B.C., Debra Sheets is in a holding pattern. The Victoria resident talked to a realtor about selling her 250-square-foot unit in The Janion building that she bought in 2017 for $420,000. However, she was told she would be lucky to get $350,000, a loss she can’t afford as she nears retirement. With four months until the B.C. NDP’s ban on most short-term rentals that aren’t in the owners’ principal residence takes effect, some Airbnb owners are trying to make as much money as they can before their investment dries up or becomes a liability, while others are panic-selling."

"Victoria realtor Ira Willey has been showing his clients micro-lofts in The Janion, several of which have hit the market since October when the short-term rental crackdown was announced. The problem is, none of them are selling. 'This is just too small to live in,' said Willey, standing simultaneously in the kitchen, living room, dining room and bedroom of the 300-square-foot unit that’s listed for $375,000. Willey said people who purchased a condo in an Airbnb-friendly building paid a premium of between 15 and 20 per cent for the investment opportunity. 'Now that premium seems to have disappeared.'"

"Orion Rodgers, who owns one short-term rental in Victoria and manages 30 others, said he saw a lot of Airbnb owners listing their units for sale 'to kind of get ahead of the market. But the market had already stalled before that.' 'So we were seeing throughout the holiday season people unlisted their properties because there weren’t any sales,' said Rodgers. 'There’s just no buyers.'"

From Building UK. "Modular housebuilder Modulous will formally enter administration today after a 'devastating' race to secure more funding took it to what chief executive Chris Bone described as the 'end of the cash runway.' Bone, who said the company was £4m in debt, blamed 'the vagaries of the venture capital markets.' He told Building the firm had £30m of pledged funding, but when one funder pulled out and the remainder prevaricated the business 'couldn’t bridge the gap.' Modulous is the latest modular business to fail, following Ilke Homes, House by Urban Splash and last year’s closure of Legal&General’s modular arm. Bone reveals that the Bristol project has been another pain point for the business due to delays with finding a site. 'The project is now half built. I’m not sure what’s going to happen to it but the modules are all manufactured and waiting to be at site. We would love to see that completed because we’ve made a huge commitment to the people in Bristol,' he said."

ABC News in Australia. "In an outback town suffering a crippling housing crisis, dozens of abandoned properties lie unused. At least 117 properties across the mining town of Mount Isa in north-west Queensland have been abandoned and owe at least three years in overdue rates, according to data from the local council. Home to about 20,000 residents, Mount Isa is one of the richest mining regions in the world. The town faces an uncertain future with the planned closure of Glencore's copper operations in 2025. The closure has put a halt to new housing developments like the Gliderport project — a proposed 99-home suburb. The presence of neglected houses was affecting the town's property market, said real estate agent John Tully. 'Having an abandoned house in your area means a buyer will use that as leverage to get the price down on a neighbouring property,' he said. 'It's like a disease…it's a big issue for our clients who are putting houses up for sale.'"

From Bloomberg. "In 1979, Deng Xiaoping drew a circle on the map around China’s southern coast and created Shenzhen, an experiment in capitalism, according to a popular ode to the former leader. Nearly four decades later, Xi Jinping unveiled his own ambition for an era-defining city, this time perched on the outskirts of Beijing. Xiongan was billed as a gleaming, high-tech metropolis that would serve as a release valve for the crowded Chinese capital — 'a model city in the history of human development.' The ruling Communist Party has since spent some 610 billion yuan ($85 billion) on the city, more than double the cost of the Three Gorges Dam. On former cornfields now stand a train station, office buildings, residential compounds, five-star hotels, schools and hospitals."

"Just one thing is lacking: residents. When Bloomberg visited on a weekday this month, a highway into the city was almost empty. In the city center, few shops and restaurants were open on streets lined with brand-new government headquarters, office buildings, residential compounds and hotels. Xi trumpeted the city’s progress in his annual new year speech, saying it was 'growing fast' and helping to revitalize northeast China. Last year, he warned against resisting the project, calling it 'totally correct.' 'People must move if needed to,' he said during a May visit to the city with top leaders including Premier Li Qiang and chief of staff Cai Qi."

"But people are 'voting with their feet,' said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. 'This resistance is based on real-world interest. If you cannot make their interests align with your interest then of course you can’t make it happen,' Wu said. 'Xi’s power still has limits after all.'"