A report from WNCT. "The Greenville ENC Alliance, a local economic development agency, recently released its first research report. This one is focused on housing trends in Greenville, Pitt County, and Eastern North Carolina. It breaks that information down to be easy to understand. According to the report, the homes in Greenville dropped 17.24% in sale price between November 2022 and November 2023."

The Bellingham Herald in Washington. "Home sale prices in Whatcom County increased in January, although Bellingham prices decreased. Whatcom County's median home sale price has fluctuated throughout 2023. The median home sale price reached an extreme high of $702,500 on Nov. 20, the highest price recorded in 2023, according to Redfin. In January, Whatcom's median home sale price fluctuated, starting at $652,500 on Jan. 15, then dropping to $599,900 on Jan. 22."

WSAU in Wisconsin. "Years ago, I spent a night in one of the luxury penthouse suites at the Jefferson Street Inn. If you wanted too, you could rent it by the month or buy it was a condominium. And, yet, as nice as it was, I wouldn’t want to live there. Consider what a pain in the neck grocery shopping would be. Your car is parked in the ramp across the street. Unloading involves an elevator, then the skywalk, then an elevator to your home. That would get tiresome really fast. I suspect I’m happier in my much-more-modest stand-alone house where I park in my own garage. And my housing costs are much more reasonable."

"Wausau is making a bet that there are lots of people who want to live in luxury rental properties near downtown. I don’t see it. Yet that’s the lynchpin for the Foundry on Third project, which we are promised will break ground in May, or the Riverlife project, which the developer pulled the plug on last week. If you’re uncertain you call fill all the units, these projects don’t make sense. And the landlords are nervous about finding all the renters they’ll need to make the projects pay."

Business Observer Florida. "How hot is Naples? There are now 187 homes or properties listed for over $10 million in Naples, according to MLS data. Out of those 187, 48 are over $20 million and 17 over $30 million. By comparison, the Tampa market has a total of 10 homes currently listed for at least $10 million. Budge Huskey, CEO of Naples-based Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, points out in the beginning of 2024 there were almost 50% more properties for sale than a year earlier in Naples. That suggests, he says in an email, 'the release of a pent-up supply delayed due to (Hurricane) Ian and other considerations. Most certainly, the luxury sector is among the most pronounced.'"

"The uber-high Naples real estate market made global news this week with one out-of-this-world listing: a waterfront residential compound for $295 million. That announcement, of a property dubbed Gordon Pointe, made real estate junkies go gaga. 'It is a headline grabbing asking price that is meant to generate attention but not rooted in reality,' Jenny Lenz, managing director of Dolly Lenz Real Estate, which has offices in Naples and New York City. 'Considering that it is more of a land play, the real number when factoring in construction costs, etc. is exponentially higher than the list price which really limits the buyer pool to a handful of people around the world.' Lenz adds the listing is reminiscent of a New York City penthouse listed for $250 million that had to drop the asking price."

The Los Angeles Times. "Southern California’s real estate market is as cold as the snow currently adorning the peaks of its mountains. Interest rates are up. Inventory is down. And deals are few and far between. In slow markets, the agents at the top — those with experience, connections and plenty of clients — typically maintain a modest but steady stream of business. It’s the agents at the bottom — those just getting into the industry who’ve only managed to close a handful of sales — who starve. As those agents have grown more desperate for leads, they’re trying alternative ways of finding them. Some are outsourcing the work overseas, and others are turning to AI or automation in a last-ditch attempt to find a seller."

"More than 43,000 single-family homes traded hands in L.A. County in 2021, and more than 42,000 were sold in 2022, according to the Multiple Listing Service. But then the market started to freeze in 2023 as mortgage rates shot up. Only 11,539 single-family homes sold that year, and sales are at a similar pace so far this year. In California alone, NAR lost 9,723 members from December 2023 to January 2024 — a 4.75% decline . But even after the drop, California still holds the second-most active Realtors in the nation at 194,964, and they’re all fighting for an extremely small pool of sellers."

"At the peak of the pandemic market, Tyler Andrews, 29, tried his hand at real estate in the Inland Empire, thinking he would use his outgoing personality to sell homes as L.A. residents flocked to the area during the pandemic. He got his license and helped a few friends with their house hunts, but ultimately didn’t earn any commission and stopped in 2023. He's one of many agents who rushed into real estate hoping for a taste of California's latest gold rush. In 2022, Realtors with 16 or more years of experience made a median gross income of $80,700, according to the NAR. But those with two years or less experience made just $9,600. According to a report from business networking platform Alignable, 31% of real estate firms struggled to pay rent for their office in January."

From Newsweek. "One woman in California is searching for answers after her homeowner insurance policy left her uninsured for a $600,000 house that burned down during a wildfire. Amber Bush, a 44-year-old living in Redding, remembers the day she saw her home burn down in 2018. The home was destroyed by the Carr wildfire, which saw more than 110,000 acres devastated in the state. At the time her home was destroyed, Bush was enrolled in a Farmers Insurance policy, but the nightmare soon continued after she got in contact with the company. She said Farmers Insurance had terminated her policy because they said her contractor never completed her home. Altogether, Bush has spent more than $600,000 building her now uninsured home, so the stakes are high. 'If anything happens to it, the mortgage company gets their money and I get nothing but a plot of land,' she said."

"While Bush filed a claim on her homeowners' insurance for liability coverage to pay for an attorney to protect the home from the contractors, the process is still in review. In the meantime, Bush said she is left without an attorney and will probably lose her home without any representation. Alyson Dutch, another California homeowner, has struggled for nearly three decades to buy insurance on her Malibu home because it's considered a 'high risk' area, she said. The only option for many is the California Fair Plan. The state-subsidized option, while providing some support for fire and earthquake damage, often leaves many frustrated when it comes time to rely on the coverage for repairs, though. 'It's crap insurance and barely covers anything,' Dutch told Newsweek. 'This is the reason why so many houses in Malibu that have burned in fires, or slid in rains that followed, had to leave the state and their properties remain in shambles.'"

Market Watch. "Shares of regional banks were hit especially hard on Tuesday after an inflation reading came in surprisingly strong, raising more concerns about potential fallout to commercial real estate from higher interest rates. 'The market got ahead of itself on the soft-landing scenario,” said Rich Hill, head of real-estate strategy and research at Cohen & Steers, a real-estate-focused investment firm with about $83 billion in assets under management. 'I think we are getting a dose of reality. I would be surprised if there wasn’t more failures,' Hill said, adding that as borrower delinquencies rise, lenders need new appraisals that reflect today’s lower property values, which suggests more write-downs on soured property debt at banks."

"Many lenders have responded by extending or modifying maturing loans on their books in the past year. But that also has an estimated 20% of the outstanding $4.7 trillion of commercial real-estate loans now set to come due this year, a 28% increase from last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. 'These extensions and modifications have pushed the amount of CRE mortgages maturing this year from $659 billion to $929 billion,' said Jamie Woodwell, head of commercial real-estate research at MBA. Interest rates remain elevated and property values already have fallen an estimated 21% in January from peak levels, according to Green Street’s Commercial Property Price Index. Office prices were pegged as 35% below peak levels and apartment values off by 28%."

Castanet News in Canada. "The provincial government has gone too far in its legislation banning short-term rentals within specific areas of municipalities across the province, says a local petition. A Kelowna realtor is hoping public pressure in the form of a petition will prompt the province into amending its legislation. JP Letnick says the petition is not looking to quash the entire legislation, just the part of it that bars short-term rentals in buildings zoned and designed for that purpose. 'These buildings like Caban, Aqua, Brooklyn were specifically purpose-build, zoned, legally used as if it was a hotel for short-term rentals. And they are not being allowed within this legislation with the government,' Letnick tells Castanet News. 'To be completely transparent I do have a unit at Aqua Phase 1 which is supposed to be allowed short-term rentals. That is the type of buildings we are trying to help people with.'"

"Letnick says the concern is people have bought units in these buildings in good faith to use them specifically for short-term rentals. Now that they are being switched to long-term rentals only, Letnick says many are being forced to sell at a reduced price and losing equity they had built up. 'A lot of these buyers, a majority of which are not greedy investors but are Canadian families that have decided they want to venture into this type of business, are looking at the numbers and finding they will be paying $1,000 a month extra just to cover the mortgage which doesn't make financial sense.'"

The Mirror in the UK. "Homeowners who bought new build properties that were left unfinished due to the developer going bust remain trapped in homes riddled with problems. Developer Stewart Milne Homes, responsible for several housing projects across the north-west, collapsed in January, leaving hundreds of customers in shock. Homeowners are now questioning if the faults in their homes, including cracked walls and leaky windows, will ever be fixed. They also fear the ongoing issues will significantly decrease the value of their new homes, leaving them in a negative equity trap - as they anxiously wait to find out who will be completing all the outstanding work."

"Nasser Murtza, a buyer from Preston, said 'the stress is unbelievable' after discovering £135,000 worth of issues in his property. The 57 year-old civil servant and his wife Masooma Murtza, 56, an AA employee, bought their home at the Broughton Park development for £400,950 in October 2022. Mr Murtza told MailOnline: 'The windows have no insulation on the side and the hinges have not been fitted properly. All the windows and doors have to be replaced. The roof work is significant, it needs work as wind, rain and insects can get through it.' He said: 'I would never be able to sell this home to somebody knowing what I know now, it's not in my nature, so the only option I have is to chase the NHBC to see if they can get it resolved. Of course I am annoyed because there is no one to support us anymore but there's nothing we can do.'"

Domain News in Australia. "Two years after Phoebe Neylon paid $9 million for the Byron Bay home of The Block presenter Shelley Craft, it is back up for sale. The challenge for selling agent, former owner and Craft’s husband Christian Sergiacomi, of Pacifico Property, will be beating the stonking price that he sold it for at the peak of the boom. This time around, and in the wake of a 2.6 per cent median house price drop in Byron Bay last year, the Paul Uhlmann Architects-designed house comes with a guide of $7.5 million to $8 million."

"It seems the South Coast holiday home market has come back from the peak, as REA Group chairman and former Rugby Australia chair Hamish McLennan well knows. McLennan and his wife listed their Berry retreat Cedarvale last year for $7.45 million, but revised the price downwards recently to $5.9 million as the Shoalhaven median house price slid some 1.8 per cent for the year. The discounting worked wonders and Ray White’s Neil Campbell has sold it for $5.6 million. Savills’ Martin Schiller and DiJones’ Bradley Cocks were asking $10 million to $11 million for the Mittagong property a year ago, and it sold this week after the guide was reduced to $8.5 million."

"Still in Potts Point, a whole-floor apartment in the Alex Popov-designed Grantham building has resold for almost $2 million less than it last traded for 18 months ago. Narelle and Lionel Brown purchased the second-level spread in 2022 $10 million. It returned to the market last October with TRG’s Gavin Rubinstein, who elicited an $8.25 million offer only to then sell it to another buyer for about $8.3 million. Ouch."

South China Morning Post. "Chinese developer China South City Holdings plunged 37 per cent to an all-time low after it warned last week that it would default on multiple bonds maturing this year, having earlier failed to win reprieve from creditors to postpone repayment. Today's slump extended the stock's loss over the past 12 months to about 76 per cent, and erased as much as HK$48.3 billion (US$6.17 billion) of market value from the stock's all-time high of HK$4.35 in March 2014. The cumulative effect of China's crippled property market has put an increasing strain on the company's working capital, it said. Sales had been below expectations and cash flow was only sufficient to fund daily operations, it added."

"China South City said its operations and financial situation have not yet sufficiently improved and that it would not be able to make the mandatory redemption on February 9 with respect to notes maturing in October 2024. It would also not be able to make the interest payments on other bonds on February 12 with respect to its April 2024 bond. China South City said the defaults could lead to failure of other payment obligations. This would 'have a significant material adverse effect on our business, operations and financial condition, including possibly insolvency or other forms of restructuring,' the company said in the filing."

"Meanwhile, Hong Kong property developer Wang On Group said it had cut its holding in China South City bonds at a loss. The firm sold US$8.4 million face amount of China South City notes on the open market for US$3.8 million from February 2 to 8, according to an exchange filing on February 8. As a result, Wang On Group expects to incur a HK$32.9 million (US$4.2 million) loss for the financial year ending March 31."