A report from the Washington Post. "It has been nearly three years since dozens of first-time home buyers were forced to flee their crumbling Anacostia condominium because the District deemed the newly-constructed building unsafe. Ever since, homeowners said, they have existed in a state of limbo — unable to return to life as they knew it and unable to truly move on. Tina Olayimika, 34: When my husband and I got married in 2017, I had in the back of my mind that I wanted to have kids — and I wanted to be able to stay home with my kids. The best way for us to do that was to buy a home that could afford us stability and financial flexibility. I was so proud of myself when we closed. It was such a big moment. But then there was this big crack in the walls and leakage from above us and then the roof started to cave in and the ceiling started to sink. Once the engineering report came out warning about the dangers of the building, it all started to come together. I thought, 'Wow, we bought a lemon.'"

KOIN in Oregon. "After a week of heavy rain, the temperature in Portland reached 58 degrees on November 6, 2023, with about three-quarters of an inch of rain throughout the day. That morning, Gary Vuchinich and his wife, both in their 70s, were at their home in Lake Oswego. He soon discovered water spewing from the pavement and shooting up out of the city’s storm drain. The damage exceeded $100,000. He and his wife filed a claim with the city. Lake Oswego denied their request for help. The city’s insurance provider said: 'The City had not been working on this pipe and had no expectation that the pipe might rupture. There is no evidence to suggest that City was negligent in maintaining the pipe or responding to the rupture. The evidence leads us to believe that our insured is not liable for your damages.'"

"He went to City Hall and asked them to reconsider. But Vuchinich said leaders told him they didn’t have a legal obligation to help him. 'When I asked Joe Buck, the mayor of Lake Oswego, and Megan Fallon, the loss manager for the City of Lake Oswego, what kind of assurances could give us that this wouldn’t happen again? They said, ‘We can’t give you any assurance that this won’t happen again,' Vuchinich said."

Public Source on Pennsylvania. "When tuition reared its ugly head earlier in her life, Alexandra Mosser opted to take out private loans in addition to federal loans — a decision she now calls a 'mistake.' The 39-year-old Monroeville resident now works in behavioral health — and has more than $200,000 in student debt. Private loans only take up about a quarter of that, but their lofty interest rates mean much higher repayments. Her monthly payments, about $760 for private loans and $134 for federal loans, exceed her monthly mortgage expenses. Without student debt, 'I would have significantly less credit card debt, honestly. … We have a dog, also, that has some health issues. … And that thousand dollars a month would make it so that I could even save money,' Mosser said. 'I don’t have a savings right now.'"

"For some still struggling to pay back student loan debt, the federal government’s income-driven repayment option doesn’t offer any relief. Julie Melissa owes more than $30,000, and because her income has recently risen, the plan would increase her monthly payment by about $400 she said. Melissa, a 48-year-old Harmony resident with two children, a foster child and a semi-retired husband, often picks up dozens of hours a week of overtime work for her job in behavioral health. After handling groceries, health insurance and the mortgage, she puts about $500 a month into her loans — a little more than required. 'I don’t want to die with student loan debt,' Melissa said."

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. "A lender made good on its threat to foreclose on a 378-unit Dallas luxury apartment tower. The 14-story Gabriella apartment tower on Live Oak Street, just east of downtown Dallas, was developed by North Carolina-based Greystar Real Estate Partners and opened in 2020. Areeif Lender W LLC foreclosed on the high-profile property, declaring the owner had defaulted on debts. The New York lender provided $127 million in mortgages on the building in early 2022. The lender bid $80 million for the property in the public foreclosure auction this week, said Curtis Roddy of Roddy’s Foreclosure Listing Service, a company that tracks foreclosures. 'We have seen bigger commercial sales the last few months. but this is the biggest mixed-use residential foreclosure we have seen in at least 12 months in the Dallas area,' Roddy said."

"Greystar Real Estate is one of the country’s largest apartment builders and operators. It manages or owns more than 120 rental communities in Dallas-Fort Worth. The Gabriella foreclosure is the largest recent Dallas-area forced property sale by lenders. Higher interest rates and tougher financing requirements have made it harder for building owners and developers to obtain mortgages."

The Real Deal on California. "UDR has seized a 173-unit apartment building in Downtown Oakland from development partner Mill Creek Residential, which walked away from a losing investment. The Colorado-based real estate investment trust took control of the Residences at Lake Merritt at 1940 Webster Street after the Florida-based developer tossed it the keys, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing a regulatory filing and an earnings call. UDR has seized a 173-unit apartment building in Downtown Oakland from development partner Mill Creek Residential, which walked away from a losing investment. While Mill Creek said on its website it had 'sold' the two-year-old building last month, public documents filed this month by its former investor suggested the developer never made a dime."

"'I think everybody is pretty familiar with what happened in Northern California since pre-COVID, with rents still being down and then in Downtown Oakland, perhaps one of the worst submarkets in that respect, with rents still down 30 percent plus,' UDR President Joe Fisher told investors. 'And so we did take the keys back on that asset, as the developer didn’t want to continue to support the cash flow shortfalls.' Mill Creek’s exit caused a loss to UDR of $24.3 million, Fisher said."

From Reuters. "New York Community Bancorp's exposure to commercial real estate has intensified investor scrutiny around regional banks, with some expecting more pain for those with office and multifamily property loans. OceanFirst and Valley National as well as NYCB, have CRE holdings as a proportion of total risk-based capital above 300% according to data from Trepp. That level of 300% may indicate a lender is exposed to significant risk of CRE concentration, according to public guidelines from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Valley's CRE holdings as a proportion of its total risk-based capital was at 479% in the fourth quarter, while OceanFirst was at 447%, Trepp's data showed. As of the third quarter, NYCB had a ratio of 468%. In total, nearly 1,900 banks with assets less than $100 billion had CRE loans outstanding greater than 300% of equity, according to Fitch."

"Selling loans may not be an optimal solution with properties now valued 50%-75% below their valuations at the time loans were struck, said Rebel Cole, a finance professor at Florida Atlantic University. 'Loans that were done over the last five to seven years, a lot of those are challenged now,' said Ran Eliasaf, founder and managing partner of real estate investment firm Northwind Group, who is investing in the New York multifamily market."

CP 24 in Canada. "New homeowners may be 'feeling the sting' of falling house prices in a number of Ontario cities, including Burlington, which fared the worst compared to other Canadian cities over the past 12 months, according to a recently released report. The Point2Homes report, which reviewed condo and single-family home prices in Canada’s largest cities in 2022 and 2023, found that owners of single-family homes in Burlington who bought at the end of 2022 lost an estimated $163 every day for a year for a total of nearly $60,000. The average price for a single-family home in the city dropped to $1,200,817 in 2023, down from $1,260,400 in 2022."

"While Burlington was the 'worst-case scenario,' the report said, several other Ontario cities also 'went backwards' in terms of the value of single-family homes. 'The year-over-year changes in home prices in the 67 largest cities in the country show that owners of single-family homes in 18 cities and condo owners in 26 cities have seen their homes lose value in the last year,' the report read. 'It used to be that real estate was the safest investment, but 2023 broke this unwritten rule.' Condo owners saw an even worse scenario in 2023, according to the report."

From Teesside Live. "Latest data shows the changes in house prices in TS postcodes - and one area has fallen by more than 25%. The property hot and cold spots of 2023 reveal that house prices in TS27 have fallen a staggering 25.9% - one of the biggest reductions in the country. The average home in the postcode, which covers the Blackhall Rocks area just outside Hartlepool, cost £121,224 in 2023, down from £163,554 in 2022 - a drop of 25.9%. The national picture shows that house prices fell by an average of over £6,500 in England and Wales over the course of 2023 - a drop of 1.8%. Some areas saw far larger drops than others, however, with the poshest of the posh parts of London being particularly affected."

"The average house in W1H sold for £1.43m in the 12 months to December 2023. That's down from £2.28m in the year to December 2022, a drop of 37.3%. In E1W, Wapping, the average price fell by 37.2%, going from £1.05m to £657,923. There was a dramatic drop in the number of homes sold there as well, going from 375 sales in 2022 to 97 in 2023. The SW1W postcode area, which covers Belgravia, had the next largest percentage drop in the country at 31.5%. The average home there sold for £2.44 million in 2023, down from £3.57 million in 2022."

ABC News in Australia. "Building their dream waterfront home was supposed to begin a new stage of life for Kevin Haley and Sonia Gardner. But instead of giving the blended family of six more room to move, the two-storey home full of defects has taken a huge emotional toll. 'I don't particularly like coming here, it's just a foul taste for me to come here knowing how we wanted this to be and how it's turned out,' Mr Haley said. A building surveyor report listed 47 issues with the build, and the couple was given quotes of $2.4 million to rebuild it a few years ago. The couple said a settlement with the builder only covered their expensive legal bill, meaning their only option is to demolish the house. 'I've started to pull little bits off … but I've got to get a 20 tonne excavator here and push it over,' Mr Haley said."

"At his lowest point, Mr Haley considered taking his own life. Two years on, he said he would probably build a smaller house on the property, if he could afford to, but has also considered other options. 'I've actually thought about leaving the state because we don't feel the government is here for the people of Tasmania, so that's crossed our mind,' Mr Haley said. 'They said seven months ago they'd implement [the laws] immediately. The premier said he would call me … that was in parliament, on record … I am still waiting for that phone call.'"