A report from the Naples Daily News Florida. "A year-end report by the Naples Area Board of Realtors that tracks resales in Collier County, excluding Marco Island, tells a big part of the story. 'Rapid market advancement stopped in early 2022. On average, it takes 12 to 24 months for the market to readjust. What we are seeing now are more sellers accepting that this phase is over,' said Cindy Carroll, with Carroll & Carroll Appraisers & Consultants LLC. She noted there was a nearly 30% increase in the number of price decreases reported in 2023. Here's a look at some of the statistics for 2023, in comparison to 2022: The total number of sales fell 13.6% to 8,816. The inventory of homes rose by 45.9% to 3,949 at year end. The average number of days on market increased by 100% to 54."

Vail Daily in Colorado. "The local real estate market saw a seasonal dip in home sales in January, as is typical at the beginning of the year. Last month, 58 homes sold, a 22% decrease from the 74 homes that sold in December 2023. The median sale price was $1.36 million, down from $2.31 million. The median list price was $1.46 million in January."

The Tahoe Daily Tribune on Nevada. "The period between February and May 2024 might just be the optimal time to make your move in the Incline Village and Crystal Bay real estate market. Recent data points towards a potential turning point, signaling that the anticipated post-pandemic price adjustments have finally materialized. While our market didn’t experience as sharp declines as others, many prospective buyers have been cautiously observing, waiting for signs of a market bottom. The influx of investors seeking cash-flowing Airbnbs led to an equity bump and increased sales activity in 2020-2022. Now, with the decline in short-term rental occupancy rates, some property owners may find themselves in a precarious financial position, potentially needing to sell to avoid financial strain (not to mention all the insurance woes happening with the local HOAs)."

The Real Deal on California. "Harvest Partners and AXA Investment Managers have surrendered a 15-story office building near Downtown Oakland, with their troubled $95 million loan set to be sold to the highest bidder. An unidentified lender has seized control of the 279,700-square-foot building at 180 Grand Avenue near Adams Point, and is marketing the 'nonperforming' loan, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. This week, the $95 million loan backing the property hit the market and is set to be sold, with the unidentified lender seeking to recoup the unpaid debt. The loan sale will allow a new owner to take over the property via a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure — where the property owners surrender the building to skirt the foreclosure process. It also means that the building’s value has likely dropped below the value of its debt, according to the Chronicle."

"The property is the latest caught in the maturing debt vortex that has dragged down the commercial real estate sector, leaving many owners and investors upside down. Oakland’s central core business district, including Downtown, Uptown and Lake Merritt, now has record office vacancies, reported at 35.7 percent in June. Office landlords in Oakland have started to slash rents, after holding steady through the pandemic shift to remote work."

From Bisnow. "Arbor Realty Trust’s leadership appeared to calm market jitters Friday with an earnings report it characterized as 'another outstanding quarter' despite a rise in nonperforming loans and continued attacks from short sellers. The multifamily lender with a $12.6B portfolio ended Q4 with a net income of $91.7M, or 48 cents per share, compared to net income of $88.2M, or 49 cents per share, in Q4 2022, according to the earnings report. The company seems to be preparing for potential trouble, boosting its provisions for loan losses to almost $196M. Arbor also recorded four new nonperforming loans for the quarter, bringing its number of nonperforming loans to 16 valued at a total of $262.7M at the end of the year, up from 12 loans valued at $150.5M at the end of Q3."

"'Everybody in the market, whether it’s Arbor or others, are worried about that late ’21, early ’22 vintage, given where rates, cap rates and attachment points were,' said Stephen Laws, a managing director for Raymond James and an Arbor stock analyst. 'We're experiencing elevated delinquencies,' said Arbor CEO Ivan Kaufman. 'One of the many reasons this is occurring is certain borrowers are taking the position that they will default first and negotiate second, which is not a strategy that works well with us.' The Arbor executive said the trust isn't afraid of having defaults on its books, and the threat isn't the fruitful negotiation tactic it might be with other lenders. 'Borrowers need to bring capital to the table to rightsize their deals and raising capital is a lengthy process in today's climate,' Kaufman said, adding that Arbor expected to see an initial jump in defaults as borrowers struggle to recapitalize properties."

From CBC News. "A Vancouver Island couple is worried about losing their home after being hit with an unexpected tax bill. Madison and Charlotte Becerra have received letters from the B.C. government indicating that under the rules of the speculation and vacancy tax, they must pay $13,000 by July 1 on their home in Ladysmith, B.C. The couple bought their detached home two years ago and live in it year-round, but because they are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents, they cannot apply for an exemption from the tax. This is the first year the vacancy tax has applied to Ladysmith, which is approximately 70 kilometres north of Victoria."

"The couple has roughly five months to pay before the province puts a lien on their house and charges a 10 per cent late fee on the bill, as well as interest. 'Having to pay that tax would wipe us out — we just don't have the money to be able to afford it,' said Madison Becerra. Madison says they pay property tax on their home, as well as B.C. and Canadian income tax. 'We pay our taxes, we do everything we can, you know, we're trying to be the best B.C. residents that we can be,' she said. 'This idea that we're not paying our fair share seems incredibly unfair.'"

Cornwall Live in the UK. ""The cheapest postcodes to buy a house in Cornwall during 2023 have been revealed. According to official Land Registry data, the likes of Camborne, Redruth and Bodmin remain up there with the most affordable places to buy alongside seven other locations. Meanwhile, the Lizard peninsula area has seen the largest drop in average house prices for 2023 with a decrease of more than 20 per cent on prices the previous year. In TR12 - covering the Lizard, where prices have dropped significantly - the average home cost £419,496, which is an annual decrease of 22.1 per cent. The Marazion area saw the largest decrease of 27.7 per cent but only saw seven houses sell compared to the Lizard's 68, skewing the average."

News.com.au in Australia. "Customers have been left high and dry after their building company went bust and tradies rushed out to strip their sites bare. Earlier this month, news.com.au revealed that DC Living Pty Ltd, trading under the names Living Homes VIC and Living Homes QLD, went into administration. The builder, headquartered in Brisbane, had undertaken more than $10 million worth of construction work since July and had at least 29 active sites on its books, according to the Queensland Building and Construction Commission. One customer, Jamie*, who preferred not to share his last name, said there is 'no end in sight' despite he and his partner first signing a building contract two years ago in the hopes they would by now be living in their dream home."

"In another blow to the homeowner, less than 24 hours after DC Living went bust, the fencing and the skip bin was ripped out of his building site, as frustrated tradies tried to reduce their losses. 'Basically we found out on the Friday that they (DC Living) had gone under,' Jamie told news.com.au. 'We were like ‘Oh my god.’ Then over the weekend, the tradies came and took their stuff back from his site, leaving some rubbish behind in the process. What Jamie finds particularly galling is that less than two weeks before DC Living went under, he had made a substantial progress payment to the builder which was nearly six figures."

"'We made a payment to DC Living less than two weeks ago for close to $100,000, for the completion of a build stage which they advised was complete,' he explained. But he found that 'the stage is not actually complete once we were able to visit the site and see for ourselves.' He now has to rely on the long and onerous process of receiving last resort insurance to pay for the rest of his build. Signs such as 'pay up ya flog' have adorned the site of at least one DC Living build that news.com.au knows of."

"Ashton Close, a tradie who has been left $26,775 out of pocket over the debacle, said 'it’s a disgrace.' The brick renderer estimates that he’s worked at 133 sites in total during the four-year period that his business did work for DC Living. 'They’ve dragged the chain on paying us, they’ve said they need an extra couple of weeks,' Mr Close told news.com.au. 'Before Christmas we were just getting the run-around. They’ve stung us about $26,000. It hurts, it definitely hurts.'"

From Bloomberg. "South Korea’s five largest financial companies are facing about 1 trillion won ($749 million) of losses from their 20 trillion won of overseas real estate investments, according to an opposition party lawmaker, reflecting growing concern over the sector’s exposure to falling valuations worldwide. The potential for the US commercial real estate downturn causing trouble in Korea got hammered home earlier this year, when Tokyo-based Aozora Bank Ltd. stunned the market by setting aside large provisions for bad loans even after assuring investors that it was adequately prepared."

South China Morning Post. "Hong Kong's luxury home segment which has been hit by a wave of deep discounts in the backdrop of soaring interest rates and macroeconomic turbulence, has shown early signs of stability as bottom fishing has emerged in one of the world's priciest real estate market. The city's luxury property prices fell by around 8 per cent in 2023, and 15 per cent from the peak in July 2018, according to CBRE. A three-storey detached house located at 15 Moorsom, Jardine's Lookout with an area of about 3,154 sq ft and two parking spaces, has been put up for sale at a 17 per cent discount, according to Savills Hong Kong, who have been appointed property agents for that sale."

"The asking price has been lowered to HK$190 million from HK$230 million by the owners, a local business family, according to Thomas See, senior associate director, investment CEO office of Savills. 'The reduction in prices are due to reasons like high interest rate and macroeconomic uncertainties,' See said on Monday, adding that discounted prices are an emerging trend as 'buyers will not purchase properties at market price nowadays and they will show more interest to those which are below.'"

From Barron's. "As China ushers in the Year of the Wood Dragon, one of the most propitious zodiac signs, a new reality is setting in: No amount of good fortune will return its economy to prepandemic shape. The country is struggling to emerge from its worst economic period in 40 years. Consumer confidence has plummeted, Beijing is focused not just on growth but also on security and stability, and global companies and investors are bracing for slower gains. And the Chinese property market, which accounts for a fifth of economic activity and is the biggest store of household wealth, is entering its fourth year of a painful contraction that has left households in some cities with as much as 30% declines in their property prices. On top of that, millions of Chinese consumers are paying mortgages on prepaid homes yet to be completed, according to Autonomous Research senior analyst Charlene Chu."

"'A malaise has set in,' says Rick Waters, a former U.S. State Department veteran who now heads the China practice at risk consultancy Eurasia Group. 'There is a fundamental reset of expectations of the future—and about whether people’s children will be better off.' Chinese consumer confidence sits at multidecade lows. Foreign direct investment into China turned negative last year for the first time in decades, and China’s stock market has lost $6 trillion in market value as investors sour on China’s outlook and worry about signs that President Xi Jinping is tightening his grip on the economy."

"Part of China’s troubles stem from the very sources that fueled its rapid growth over the past decades. After the 2008-09 global financial crisis, China’s economy roared back as authorities unleashed massive spending for an infrastructure and property building boom. Local governments were the conduit for much of the spending, writing checks and financing the debt with robust income from land sales. Even those with overseas degrees that formerly paved a way to a lucrative job are struggling to find suitable work. Caroline Gou, a 26-year-old in Sichuan province, couldn’t find a job in her field after returning with a master’s degree from Manchester University, and used family connections to find an office job as a stopgap. The challenges have scuttled her plans of purchasing property to secure her financial future. 'It is impossible to afford a home almost anywhere in China without a company that gives really good benefits or lots of help from parents,' she adds."

"The country’s overcapacity and overproduction pose risks not just to China but also to rivals in these sectors abroad. Take solar panels. Beijing mandated that state-owned enterprises get half of their energy capacity from renewables by 2025, contributing to strong solar panel growth. But prices for solar inputs and panels have tumbled. Eurasia Group estimates that 60% to 70% of solar firms could face bankruptcy or acquisitions in the next couple of years, potentially saddling Beijing with another debt-laden sector."