A report from the Courier Journal in Kentucky. "In the greater Louisville area, December 2023 marked the 24th consecutive month of year-over-year declines in existing home sales. 'Brutal,' Mike Frank, a senior mortgage broker at Homestretch Mortgage in Louisville, said of 2023. 'That was my worst year in the business last year. That's because everybody was scared because the market turned so fast and rates were at 8%.' 'From a home seller standpoint, they'll need to understand … their property will not sell within three hours,' said Kurt Schuler, CEO of Schuler Bauer Real Estate Services. 'All they've heard for the past three to four years and all they've seen on social media and then the news are homes selling for above asking price, multiple offers, waiving any and every contingency. Whereas now that's not the case.'"

The Philadelphia Inquirer in Pennsylvania. "V2 Properties markets itself as Philadelphia’s largest single-family home builder — and one of its most principled. But, in 2018, V2′s reputation took a hit. Philadelphia’s Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) accused V2 and its general contractor, Rock Haven Builders, of failing to get required right-of-way permits, or posting falsified ones, at 94 job sites. V2 denied wrongdoing, but agreed to pay $100,000 in a settlement. Clarence McFadden had lived in the rowhouse about 20 years; it was his grandparents’ before that. His friend Tracey Judon had moved in seven years earlier. Together, they’d watched their block transformed by development. McFadden was besieged by real-estate agents urging him to sell. 'Why should I?' he’d tell them. 'Why start all over again at 50?'"

"That evening, McFadden couldn’t get out the front door. It was jammed shut. Suddenly, the house shifted and McFadden was knocked back, like a '300-pound pinball.' The room in front of him collapsed. McFadden was trapped on the landing, screaming into the cloud of dust where his friend had just been. Judon was in free fall. The fire department rescued McFadden. But his home was lost. He didn’t have insurance. 'Everything from 50 years,' he said, 'from my parents and grandparents, everything was gone.'"

The Pioneer Press in Minnesota. "As president of the Greater St. Paul Building Owners and Managers Association, Tina Grossman keeps a close eye on the fate of large office buildings in downtown St. Paul, including conversions to residential apartment buildings. Some longstanding projects appear stalled, and none were completed downtown last year. 'Things are not good now,' Grossman said, 'and they’re looking to get worse.' The rental housing market has quieted in other ways, too, with depressed sale prices on apartment buildings and less activity on new construction."

"Buyers of St. Paul apartment buildings last year paid around $78,000 per unit, down 45% from the year before, according to HousingLink, a nonprofit housing information clearinghouse based in the Twin Cities. While some blame St. Paul’s voter-approved rent-control ordinance, Minneapolis — which has no such policy — saw its own apartment sale prices drop by 27%. Developer John Wall, who owns several apartment buildings in St. Paul, said he’s monitoring the residential housing market. 'I don’t have any plans to build or even buy in St. Paul, in light of rent control,' he said. 'It’s kind of hard to make the numbers work for new construction, and interest rates have made it harder to buy, or basically to sell, because they have to offer a reduced price.'"

From Bisnow. "Office buildings across the country are starting to trade at significant markdowns, in many cases selling for less than the value of their loan. Those types of transactions, executed in concert with the buildings' lenders, are known as short sales. 'We're definitely seeing owners want to give up the properties, especially ones that were recently purchased, where their equity has likely been wiped out,' said Holly MacDonald-Korth, CEO of Miami-based investment firm KDM Financial. 'If they had 10% or 15% equity in a building and the building is marked down 25% or 30%, they feel like they're wiped out. They would probably be made full if they were a long-term owner, but a lot of them are looking to give back the keys.'"

"Moody’s Analytics tracked a little over $8.5B in CMBS office loans that matured in 2023 and found that only $3B were fully paid off, said Matt Reidy, the firm’s director of commercial real estate economics. 'That leaves another $5.5B that we’re going to have to figure something out on,' he said, adding that another $15B in office CMBS debt matures in 2024. Two properties in the Washington D.C. area traded at steep discounts in early January. Melrose Solomon paid $18.2M for 1101 14th St. NW, less than a third of the $61.7M seller TA Realty had paid in 2017."

"In Bethesda, Maryland, the 16-story, 335K SF property formerly known as the Clark Building sold to South Florida-based In-Rel Properties for just under $30M. The sellers, Stonebridge and Rockwood Capital, paid $133M for the building at 7500 Old Georgetown Road in 2019. A similar trend is playing out in Chicago. This month, the 12-story building at 300 W. Adams St. sold for $4M, or slightly less than $16 per SF, an 89% decline from its $38M purchase price in 2012. 'Sometimes the values have deteriorated for office so fast that the borrower doesn't want to put good money after bad, and the lender wants a paydown,' said Kevin Shannon, the Los Angeles-based co-head of U.S. capital markets at Newmark."

Business Insider. "The office apocalypse is real and it's happening in small increments that will eventually lead to a wave of demolished or converted properties, according to JLL senior managing director Bob Knakal. The New York City property exec and veteran real estate broker pointed to potential trouble heading for the US office space. 'I think what we're going to see is a combination of conversions to residential and demolitions to make way for new construction, that's going to help get rid of a lot of this overhang of vacant office space that we have,' he said in an interview. 'If you take the price of the building plus the price of demolishing, some of those values are less than land value,' he said. New York City alone has around 100 million square feet of empty office space, Knakal estimated."

CBC News in Canada. "A bulldozer tears through a modern house in Meaford, Ont., a picturesque community on Georgian Bay. Occupied for just two years, the home's once soaring ceilings, large windows and backyard patio are now just a heap of crushed glass and wood. Another home is also slated to be torn down. The demolitions are the latest chapter in the saga of TerraceWood, a housing development launched in Meaford in 2015 to much fanfare. The 'boutique' subdivision of houses was built by Third Line Homes and endorsed by celebrity contractor and popular TV host Mike Holmes."

"Holmes is famously known for rescuing homeowners from botched construction jobs. He promoted TerraceWood, including on a billboard, as 'Holmes Approved Homes.' But things didn't go so right according to Tarion, Ontario's new-home consumer protection organization. As CBC News previously reported, Tarion filed an $8 million lawsuit in 2021 against parties involved in the project, alleging 14 TerraceWood houses were built with defects. Now, CBC has learned that Tarion has condemned three of those homes. Two have already been torn down and the third is waiting for a demolition date."

"Neighbours Andrea Hart and Myles Johnson said they also had to vacate their house — for an entire year — while it underwent repairs including structural fixes. That was in 2022. They're back in the house now. But six years after the couple first got the keys to their new home, it's still under repair. '[Holmes] puts his thumbs up and then disappears,' said Myles. 'Then we're left holding the carnage.' 'It's worn us down. It's exhausting,' said Andrea. Once the repairs are done, she wants to sell the house she and Myles had once hoped would be their dream retirement home. 'I just want to get the hell out of here,' she said."

From The BBC. "House prices in Wales have seen their biggest decline since 2009 following the financial crash, according to new figures. The Principality Building Society said the average house price at the end of 2023 was £234,000 - down by 6% from a record high the year before. Merthyr Tydfil saw the biggest drop with prices down by more than 20%. This is the fourth consecutive quarter that prices have fallen in Wales. Six local authorities - Monmouthshire, Carmarthenshire, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen, Denbighshire and Merthyr Tydfil - all experienced double digit price falls when compared to the same period the previous year, with Merthyr Tydfil reporting the largest fall of 21.2%. Shaun Middleton, head of distribution at Principality Building Society, said: 'The housing market in Wales has been through a difficult period.'"

The Star Weekly in Australia. "Another building company with customers in Wyndham has gone into voluntary administration, pausing most construction for about six weeks. Langdon Building announced on January 29, that it would enter voluntary administration to restructure its business and financial position, but assured customers it had not collapsed. In a letter to customers, managing director Shane Langdon pointed to COVID impacts, inflation and labour shortages which he said had created the 'perfect storm.' 'In more than 30 years in the building industry, I have never experienced the extreme economic challenges builders have faced in the last two years,' he said. 'Let me assure you: Langdon Building is not in liquidation. We have not collapsed.' Langdon Building operates throughout metro and regional north-west, including Mambourin, Sunbury, Donnybrook and Lara."

From ABC News. "A Hong Kong court has ordered one of China's biggest property developers, Evergrande Group, to liquidate after it was unable to reach a restructuring deal with creditors over hundreds of billions of dollars it owes. A crackdown three years ago by China on real estate speculation caused a property crisis and left Evergrande owing $US300 billion ($455 billion). Months later, the firm defaulted on its offshore debt obligations, and a proposal to restructure its debt was rejected last month by creditors."

"'Evergrande's liquidation is a sign that China is willing to go to extreme ends to quell the property bubble,' said Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research in Hong Kong. 'This is good for the economy in the long term, but very difficult in the short term.'"

From The Week. "China's economy faces a turbulent start to 2024 as declining stock markets and a prolonged slump in the property sector threaten to stymie Xi Jinping's grand plans on the world stage. In the first three weeks of January, mainland China's CSI 300 Index dropped by 6%, the Shanghai Composite Index by 7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by over 12%, 'reaching its lowest level in two decades,' said Foreign Policy's China Brief newsletter writer James Palmer."

"President Xi harbours ambitions to 'make China great again' and position the nation as the foremost global power by 2049, said Katie Stallard, senior editor for China at The New Statesman. But the market slump has 'dampened Beijing's recent efforts to paint a rosy picture of economic recovery,' said Palmer, and has come as a 'psychological shock' to both the Chinese government and public. Despite the blows to his economic credibility, Xi 'appears convinced that he alone can solve the country’s problems,' said The New Statesman's Stallard. China's property market, a 'critical barometer' for the economy, said Foreign Policy's Palmer, is 'doing just as badly,' with new home prices, investment and sales all falling in 2023."