A report from ABC Action News. "A report from the Florida Realtors shows that the slowing condo market is bringing down prices. Barbara Schmal is a Tampa Bay area broker associate who says condos are increasingly becoming harder to sell. 'I have never seen it this bad,' Schmal said. 'We do open houses, we can't get people to come to open houses, none of the agents that have buyers are even wanting to show the property, and it's making our sellers very, very nervous.' She provided numbers that show right now there are 2,660 condos on the market in Pinellas County, of those 869 are in 55+ communities. 'I currently have 5 listings in the 55 and older communities, the longest one I have on the market, which I listed back in August; it's been on the market for 151 days, and we've had 3 showings,' Schmal said."

"Venice condo owner Karen Shipman emailed ABC Action News, worried she may soon be priced out of her condo she and her husband bought to retire here as their last home. 'Sometimes I'm not sure this will be our last home because our condo fees have gone up, and mainly insurance is a big factor,' Shipman said. According to the Insurance Information Institute, Master Condo Association Policies are increasing by 100-500% right now. 'It all gets passed down to the homeowners,' Shipman said."

Action News Jax. "Action News Jax is getting a look at new internal documents Georgia’s Attorney General uncovered relating to the Florida real estate company behind the controversial 40-year listing agreements. It’s a new development in a series of investigations on MV Realty that Action News Jax’s Emily Turner has been reporting on for almost 2 years. Now, Emily shows us how those documents confirm that it’s more lucrative for MV Realty when it doesn’t sell a house. Homeowner Willie Berry expected his home to sell quickly, but for 4 months, there were no offers. MV Realty never hosted an open house even though the newly renovated home sits in one of Georgia’s hottest zip codes. 'I don’t feel like they put in the full effort, you know, to make it sell,' Berry explained. Berry took his home off the market last week after it didn’t sell and is refinancing his mortgage instead. 'I even dropped it down to what I sold, what I bought it for,' he said. Like other homeowners who signed with MV Realty, Berry received an upfront check: $700 in his case. He said this has cost him a lot more than that."

The Stamford Advocate. "Simsbury developer William Ferrigno, owner of Avon-based Sunlight Construction, has been charged with larceny again in connection with his business practices. Ferrigno, 72, turned himself in to Avon police on Feb. 9 on a charge of first-degree larceny. He allegedly kept more than $160,000 that had been given to him as a deposit to build a house for a customer, Avon police said. According to Avon Police Lt. John Schmalberger, Ferrigno never made any attempt to obtain building permits, start construction, or return the customer's money. Ferrigno is now facing two felony larceny charges in Avon and three misdemeanor charges filed by the state Department of Consumer Protection for allegedly failing to return deposits requested by customers."

"Residents of Cambridge Crossing have been complaining for more than a year about conditions in the half-finished neighborhood near the International Skating Center of Connecticut, from incomplete drainage systems and roadways to a lack of street signs or street lights. Ferrigno is also facing 24 civil suits from prospective home buyers, the towns of Avon and Simsbury, as well as PeoplesBank and Liberty Bank."

From Market Place. "Plenty of people tried to buy their way through the pandemic, if they had jobs and means to do so. Fueled by staying at home and stimulus checks, the average person spent thousands more per year than they did in 2019. There were booms in exercise equipment, air fryers and outdoor heaters. But now that life is basically back to normal, some of those purchases are collecting dust. 'I try not to regret things as a matter of principle,' said Michael Selik, who lives in Seattle. 'But we used to be so carefree.' Selik is not talking about his Peloton, though he got one of those, too. He’s talking about the home he and his wife Cristina Kendall bought during the pandemic. Like many people, they were lured by low interest rates."

"'And we thought ‘oh, well, what if we buy what’s in our budget and we renovate,' said Selik. You can probably sense where this is going. The house needed a lot of work: a corroded sewer line, flaking lead paint and a closet in the basement that Selik calls 'a forest of fungus.' They had a contractor take a look. The quote was $900,000 — close to the original listing price of the house. 'And I told him you could build a new house for that much,' said Selik. “And he said, ‘Well yeah, but you like your house.'"

Honolulu Star Advertiser in Hawaii. "A part-time Maui couple's decision to convert their vacation rentals into longer-term housing for Maui fire survivors followed weeks of frustration, cancellations by repeat loyal visitors over whether they are welcome on the Valley Isle and the threat by Gov. Josh Green to shut down Maui's short-term rental market. John and Valori Egan—who live on Maui four months of the year during the winter—agreed to lease their three one-bedroom, one-bath ocean-view condos at the Kuleana Resort on Lower Honoapiilani Highway for 18 months to no more than two people for each unit, starting Friday."

"To convince more property owners to convert their short-term vacation rentals into long-term housing for Hawaii residents, the Egans and others argue that more financial incentives need to be offered to make it financially worthwhile. 'Government has to do more,' Valori said. In the meantime, she said, Maui owners of short-term rentals are 'totally frustrated. They threaten us with a moratorium, and now there's nobody in them. There's no communication. It's probably the most frustrating thing John or I have been involved with. Very, very, very frustrating. And it's not over yet.'"

Soo Today in Canada. "The City of Sault Ste. Marie may have managed to recoup $616,000 in outstanding property taxes owed by a group of insolvent out-of-town real estate investors with the help of the courts, but local contractors who were stiffed thousands of dollars by the same group haven’t been as fortunate. As first reported by SooToday, the directors behind 11 insolvent corporations — Aruba Butt, Ryan Molony and Dylan Suitor — filed for protection from creditors in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in late-January, claiming they owe approximately $147 million in unpaid loans and have less than $100,000 in the bank amid rising interest rates and falling home prices."

"Approximately $775,000 of those debts were accrued in Sault Ste. Marie, where a number of local contractors that performed repairs on many of the 152 properties owned by the now-insolvent landlords are owed an estimated $80,000 between them. But that number could be much larger: Rapid City Repair is listed in court documents as a creditor that’s owed more than $14,000 — but in reality, that debt is more like $33,355.87. Owner and operator Cory Furkey says his business has yet to recoup any of that amount owed for a number of heating and hot water tank repairs that were completed at more than a dozen properties in town."

"'Basically, all of these contractors kind of feel defeated,' said Furkey, adding that any optimism they had is now beginning to fade. 'Right now we don’t know what to do, other than not work for them anymore.' Furkey says SID Renos and SID Management rushed Rapid City Repair into doing repairs, citing an immediate need to get tenants housed. 'Against my better judgment, we started these jobs without getting down payments — so we have a lot of jobs that are half paid, and then a lot that they didn’t pay anything at all,' said Furkey. 'I guess they duped me into trusting them. It went good for awhile, and then it didn’t. When you call them back for payment or an overdue account, you get to realize how many people they have working for them that can pass the buck.'"

From Reuters. "Two of Sweden's largest property companies on Tuesday announced multibillion-crown writedowns in their 2023 results, dealing fresh blows to their beaten-down shares even though both voiced hopes the worst is over for Europe's property rout. Heimstaden's preferential shares dropped more than 30% after Fitch cut its credit rating deeper into so-called 'junk' territory and the company said it would defer hybrid bond interest payments. SBB shares fell more than 4%. For years, property in Europe and particularly Germany and Sweden boomed as interest rates fell, turbocharging demand. A sharp rise in rates has now pricked this bubble."

Star Weekly in Australia. "The possible liquidation of construction company Apex Homes could leave a Point Cook demolition business more than $20,000 out of pocket. Melbourne Wide Demolition was last year hired by Apex to clear a property in Geelong ahead of construction of a new home beginning on the site. After completing the demolition work, the company submitted an invoice to Apex Homes for $21,450 to be paid by mid January. After the payment deadline was missed and repeated attempts to contact the company failed, Melbourne Wide Demolition director Moira Linton said news of a winding up order being taken out against Apex made her realise the money may never arrive."

"'Just gutted actually,' said Ms Linton of her reaction to the news which she came across while doing a Google search. The North Melbourne based builder has customers across Wyndham, Geelong and other parts of Melbourne, with many now at risk of losing their deposits and homes if it is forced into liquidation. One Apex customer Star Weekly spoke with on condition of anonymity, said they had already paid the company more than $100,000 for a home that may never be built. 'I don’t even know what to say, I’m so stressed out,' they said, adding that Apex had emailed them last week saying they would try to fix the problem, but offering no further assurances."

Radio New Zealand. "An Auckland property developer is offering cashback deals of up to $20,000 in a bid to move unsold apartments in a multimillion-dollar development. There are about 40 unsold apartments in Ockham's 210-unit Maanaki apartment block in Onehunga. One-bedroom apartments in the development start at around $670,000, with those buyers eligible for $10,000 cash back. The cheapest three-bedroom apartment is about $895,000, with buyers eligible for $20,000 cash back. Ockham Residential co-founder Mark Todd told Checkpoint the property market had been an 'arm wrestle' since the end of 2021, with sales down right across the sector. Too many property developers pretend that it's all peaches and cream. Three quarters of New Zealanders or more cannot really afford housing with the current interest rates,' he said."

"Todd said he was offering cashback deals instead of simply lowering the ticket price so he could 'protect the value' of the apartments for Manaaki's 170 existing owners. When asked if he would be offering retrospective cashback deals to those owners, he said he would not. 'You can't go back through in time. Everyone's got to play their chips on the board,' he said. 'We're the ones that borrowed $80-odd million and had $30-odd million of equity in that development to get it built. Everyone took a certain risk profile.' The sales of those 170 apartments were settled two months ago without any problems, Todd said. 'What I would say is the purchasers from three years ago bought at lower prices, the price went up and now it's come down again and it's worth roughly what it was.'"