A report from Newsweek. "A rising number of homes for sale in Florida are seeing sellers slashing prices in an attempt to offload their properties quickly, according to Zillow. Newsweek reported last week that, as of early on Monday, March 4, there were 47,335 homes listed on Zillow with a price reduction out of a total of 202,463 properties listed by agents on the real estate marketplace. The jump in the percentage of homes on sale with a price reduction is nearly as large as the increase in homes for sale in the past week in total. There were 204,222 properties listed for sale by agents and 8,857 listed by owners and others. 'Some people may be cashing out,' said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, adding that skyrocketing insurance premiums might also have played a role in pushing people to sell. 'Property insurance readjustments—like any other added cost of ownership—will induce some additional sellers,' he said. 'Some retired homeowners on fixed income could be forced to sell.'"

The Stamford Advocate. "A short distance down the Greenwich shoreline from Connecticut's record property sale last year, two adjacent waterfront estates are going head to head as the state's most expensive listings heading into in the spring market of 2024. The owners of 545 Indian Field Road put the property back on the market on Friday for $49.5 million, after listing it last summer for just under $58 million. On Monday, the owner of a French manor house next door at 549 Indian Field Road trimmed $4 million from the asking price, dropping it to $43.5 million. As of Friday, the top sale to date this year is 6 Windrose Way in Greenwich, which fetched $14.8 million more than five years after being listed at $20.5 million. Greenwich has seen a number of price cuts of its higher end estates, including at 549 Indian Field Road, a French manor mansion that is now listed for $43.5 million. The seller cut the price by $4 million on Monday, as the listing approaches six months on the market."

From Fox 26. "In the fourth quarter, 31.8% of single-family homes for sale were new construction, according to a Redfin report. 'Newly built homes are selling quickly right now because builders are offering such good discounts,' said Heather Mahmood-Corley, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Phoenix. 'I recently had a buyer who wasn’t interested in a new construction home, but the builder offered such a good rate—5.25%—that they couldn’t afford not to take it. Another one of my buyers got a $10,000 credit for closing costs from a builder.'"

A press release. "Neighborhood Ventures, one of the country's largest real estate crowdfunding companies, announced today the launch of its Arizona Multifamily Opportunistic Fund. This special fund will allow accredited investors (and non-accredited investors in Arizona) to invest in Arizona multifamily commercial properties that Neighborhood Ventures estimates are selling at a distressed rate of 30% below intrinsic value. With this new special fund, Neighborhood Ventures hopes to purchase properties from owners who can't refinance their debt, as well as from banks looking to unload properties they need to foreclose on. 'After several years of rising interest rates, property owners suddenly find it challenging to keep their property finances afloat,' said John Kobierowski, Neighborhood Ventures co-founder and Head of Real Estate."

The Review Journal in Nevada. "Rent relief is here for some Las Vegas residents. During the pandemic, a wave of cheap money and government rebates flooded the market when the Federal Reserve bottomed out interest rates to stimulate the economy coming out of COVID lockdowns. This kicked off a multifamily building frenzy, said Jeffrey Swinger, executive vice president for multifamily investment sales at Colliers International in Las Vegas, which is now slowing. Tom Naseef, a commercial real estate agent with Naseef Commercial Services Group, agrees that a flood of apartment units hitting the market this year will put 'downward pressure on rents.'"

The Bellingham Herald in Washington. "Rental homes and apartment listing prices in Bellingham decreased last month, although certain Bellingham neighborhoods have extremely different prices, according to rental housing data companies. Renthub also compared median rent prices by year. Compared with January 2023, January 2024’s median rent prices: Decreased by 9% in the 98226 ZIP code. Decreased by 20% the 98225 ZIP code."

From Bisnow. "Commercial appraisers find their work at the center of one of the largest real estate stories of the moment: the fate of the office market. Their decisions of value will have enormous sway on when properties sell, how and when transaction volume restarts and even who controls key assets. Cushman & Wakefield Senior Director of Valuation and Advisory Trevor G. Chapman said he has seen some office values drop 70% from their last purchase price. 'If you specialize in office, you're probably very busy right now,' Chapman said. 'When loans get close to going into default and banks think that value might be under the actual mortgage amount, they require either quarterly or even monthly valuations just to keep track because they can't lend any money if they're underwater on their other loans.'"

The Real Deal. "In Chicago, a January deal involving an aging office building in the West Loop neighborhood has been the clearest sign of a bottom. The building was appraised at $38 million when it sold in 2012, coming out to over $160 per square foot. When it traded earlier this year, it went for just $4 million, less than $17 per square foot. The building is just 50 percent occupied. Weeks after the West Loop deal, Chicago-based R2 paid $60 million for 150 North Michigan Avenue, which traded for $121 million in 2017. Like in Chicago, the recent L.A. deals have all been at a 50 to 60 percent discount from what they last sold for. The price per square foot numbers have typically gone as low as $130 per square foot, though that price floor can vary greatly from one sub-market to the next."

"Downtown L.A. has become a graveyard for Class A offices. In December, Shorenstein sold a Downtown L.A. tower to Carolwood for $147.8 million, or about $134 a square foot. Some industry insiders have cautioned buyers that towers in the neighborhood will never return to healthy occupancy levels, said TRD’s West Coast bureau chief Isabella Farr. Despite substantial price reductions, uncertainty prevails in San Francisco, as the market awaits more sales data to gauge its true bottom. In the meantime, investors have been hesitant to commit to the city."

The Los Angeles Times. "California cities and counties might be on the hook for more than $300 million they spent placing thousands of homeless residents in hotels in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, local officials made the unprecedented move under the impression that the federal government would reimburse much of their cost for offering shelter, without time limits, to unhoused people at elevated risk of severe symptoms. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency says that they were mistaken and that the agency had only agreed to pay for hotel stays of up to 20 days. Now, concerned members of the California delegation want answers. A Monday letter by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), signed by 34 other Democratic members and one Republican — Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), asks FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to reconsider and reimburse cities that are already strapped for cash."

"'We’re talking about the single largest loss of life event that we’ve had to go through in over a generation,' Garcia said. 'This idea that we’re not going to, in this massive emergency, fully reimburse cities and counties for housing folks … is crazy. FEMA has a responsibility to fix this problem.'"

RENX in Canada. "The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) condominium market has softened considerably since April 2022, especially during the past six months. Bullpen Research & Consulting Inc. president and owner Ben Myers thinks the situation could worsen before it improves. 'I think it's going to be a pretty depressed year in terms of how many transactions ultimately occur,' Myers told RENX. 'I think the new condo market is going to be soft, if not even slower than last year. I'm seeing a lot more listings happening than sales happening,' Myers observed. 'There's certainly a decent amount of listings coming on the market that are either not getting offers or not getting reasonable offers, so those sales are not happening.'"

CTV News in Canada. "No injuries were reported after a fire ripped through three homes in Richmond Hill overnight, York Regional Police say. The fire broke out at a house under construction on Duncan Road, near Bayview and 16th avenues, shortly before midnight. According to a platoon chief on scene, the fire quickly spread to adjacent homes, which were occupied at the time."

Voxy in New Zealand. "The national average home value is now 0.6% higher than the same time last year and 13% below the market’s peak in late 2021. 'This flattening trend is largely being driven by diminishing demand. In some areas, it appears that the increase in the number of new listings that came onto the market in late January and in February appears to have met market demand, cooling competition in places like Auckland in particular, and therefore flattening home value growth,' QV operations manager James Wilson said. QV Hawke’s Bay manager Damian Hall commented: 'It’s still very much a buyers’ market. According to local real estate agents, property investors have been active but mostly just looking at this stage. First-home buyers appear to be the most active locally, up to about the $650,000 mark,' Mr Hall added."

"'These modest value level increases have come on the back of improved market sentiment,' said QV Nelson/Marlborough manager Craig Russell. 'However, we are continuing to operate in a low sales volume environment and the average number of days to sell remains high. There appears to be an oversupply of higher-valued properties for sale in the district, with a number of properties listed asking in excess of $2,000,000.'"