A report from Gulfshore Business on Florida. "Market Trends took place March 12 in downtown Fort Myers with a crowd of more than 1,000 real estate aficionados. In 2023, home sales slowed by about 18% across the three-county region of Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties, said resale home expert Denny Grimes. 'The scary thing is you have to go back to 2008 to find a year that slow,' Grimes said. 'That’s 15 years. You have to go back to 1995, 28 years ago, to have a year slower than the one last year. I think there’s no doubt our market is correcting itself.'"

The Las Cruces Sun-News in New Mexico. "Over the past few years, open houses in and around Las Cruces were scarce to say the least. Homes listed during the week often sold before the weekend rolled around, and agents were scrambling to match their buyers with each new listing that hit the market. Then came rising mortgage interest rates. At the same time, our local listing inventory began to grow, and the number of showings began to dwindle. Take for example the weekend of March 2 and 3, when more than 50 homes were held open. So, why would a Realtor give up their Saturday and Sunday and spend three-to-four hours each day pursuing something that he or she knows will fail 93 percent of the time? One explanation is that it doesn’t matter whether or not the buyer who walks in the house buys it. After all, the Realtor could easily show and sell them one of the other 500-plus homes that are also for sale."

News.com.au on California. "The true extent of Kylie Jenner’s riches — or, perhaps, the lack thereof are the source of much speculation, as the entrepreneur struggles to sell her mansion. Jenner, 26, and her ex Travis Scott, 32, have been trying to sell their seven-bedroom, 10-bathroom Beverly Hills estate since 2022. The home, which they purchased in 2018 for $13.45m, first listed for $21.9m. But without any takers, they cut the price four months later to $20m. The residence was briefly taken off the market until it resurfaced a few weeks ago — to the new reduced price of $17.9m. Real estate tycoon Barbara Corcoran old TMZ that slashing the price from $21.9m to less than $18m isn’t enough, and they need to be real when it comes to their asking price."

"'I am sure they will get nowhere near that amount. LA has not been the best market for luxury mansions with the new taxes there,' Corcoran told the outlet. 'You got to get realistic.'"

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Privileged Rockridge hardly seems the sort of neighborhood that would generate grist for the crime blotter. But that changed last year, when one of Oakland’s more upscale enclaves suffered a string of retail break-ins and armed robberies. The harshest critics describe Oakland as a 'ghost town' of failing businesses and rampant crime. Many activists trace the crime wave to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Along with job losses, the enduring shift to remote work has emptied out downtown streets. The prolonged closure of schools created another problem, pushing teenagers out of classrooms and into the community, often without positive alternatives."

"Adding to a sense of unease is a policy that means suspects often get away, even when they are spotted at the crime scene. Since 2014, Oakland has barred officers from pursuing suspects who are not armed with a gun or involved in a forcible or violent crime. Late last month, video cameras caught robbers making off with $100,000 worth of jade collectibles from a store on upscale Piedmont Avenue. Responding officers spotted four suspects jumping into a car, but did not follow."

The Washington Post. "The region’s accelerating population growth has done little to relieve some areas of the District hit hardest by pandemic closures and the absence of remote workers. espite Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s $400 million plan to resuscitate downtown, office attendance remains below 50 percent, storefronts sit vacant and anxiety over the future of the District’s core has continued to climb. Cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles suffered substantial overall population losses in the past year, even as they continued to see a steady influx of immigrants, data show. More deaths than births and significant out-migration from those areas tipped the scales far enough that even tens of thousands of new immigrants could not account for population losses, said Brookings Institution senior demographer William Frey."

New York Daily News. "Even as New York City is undergoing its worst housing crunch in decades, there are still some surprising pockets of Manhattan where rents have actually declined over the past year according to StreetEasy, which found that asking rents are falling across most of the borough even as they saw a spike in Brooklyn and an even bigger one in Queens. Of the 12 neighborhoods in Manhattan that saw year-over-year declines, the steepest drop was in Battery Park City, which plummeted 12.7% to $4,895, followed by Greenwich Village, which fell 7.6% to $3,995; Gramercy Park, which slipped by 5.9% to $4,585; the ​​Lower East Side, which slid 4.6% to $4,100; and the Upper West Side, which dropped 4.1% to $4,295. StreetEasy economist Kenny Lee predicted Manhattan asking rents will continue to decrease 'as landlords adjust prices to attract tenants.'"

Bisnow New York. "GFP Real Estate is under contract to buy a large, nearly empty office tower in Manhattan’s Financial District at a significant discount. The firm has agreed to buy 222 Broadway, a 31-story office tower, for $150M, The Real Deal reports. The price is a huge markdown from when the property last changed hands. Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm, DWS, acquired the property in 2014 for $502M, according to property records. The building’s offices are just 31% occupied. The reported price shows just how far the values of certain properties have fallen. Selling 222 Broadway at a 70% discount compared to its last sale represents another institution washing its hands of an office asset rather than trying to rehabilitate it. Earlier this year, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board offloaded a stake in 360 Park Avenue S. to its joint venture partner for $1"

Blog TO in Canada. "One Toronto framer is warning that the city's construction sector is in major trouble, as exorbitant housing prices have made it unrealistic for any prospective buyers to purchase a property. In a TikTok, user @procarpentrytrips updated a clip he had filmed several months ago, which warned that many construction workers were without work thanks to the city's pricey real estate market. In an update to the video, the man explained that the situation had progressively gotten worse since he filmed the first part. 'So guys, that was me about six months ago, you now fearing for the worst, and unfortunately, at this time, the worst has come to fruition,' he said. 'Guys have been sitting home for weeks on end. I personally know three guys are going broke and one is about to get this house foreclosed on.'"

The Financial Post in Canada. "To passersby, the construction site at Yonge and Bloor in downtown Toronto where The One, an 85-storey mixed-use development is slowly taking shape. The project, launched by developer Sam Mizrahi and partner Jenny Coco nine years ago, was forced into receivership in October after a key lender grew impatient with delays, rising debt and ballooning costs. Last month, Mizrahi’s firm was removed as construction manager. While The One’s struggles are drawing attention due to its $2-billion price tag, it is not alone. An increasing number of residential construction projects have been forced into receivership over the past 12 months, a trend that industry watchers say is likely to get worse."

"'Receivership is a nightmare scenario,'said Marlon Bray, a cost consultant at global real estate advisory firm Altus Group. 'It’s almost impossible to come back from receivership these days, or extremely difficult.' In January, the Bank of Montreal and other creditors successfully obtained a court-appointed receiver for a 55-storey condominium tower in downtown Vancouver. In November, a number of Vandyk Properties developments, encompassing 1,700 units across Toronto, were placed into receivership due to debts surpassing $200 million. A month earlier, a four-tower development called Elevate Condominiums in Kitchener, Ont., was also placed into receivership with $64 million owed. According to the lender’s counsel slip, one tower was already 80 per cent complete. Last summer, a seniors home in St. Albert, Alta., went into receivership with construction incomplete."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Recently, the pricing in the tiny township of Greater Madawaska – the area that includes Calabogie Lake with just about 2,500 residents – followed the boom-bust of pandemic-area cottage country across Ontario. 'We saw huge increases in 2022, in terms of sales and sale price, in 2023, we saw the average number round off to where it was in 2021 … and it’s been a little bit slower to start this year for sure,' said Jessica Fay, a broker with Royal LePage Team Realty and a lifelong Calabogie resident. According to data from the local Renfrew County Real Estate Board the median price in the area spiked to $700,000 in 2022, before falling back to below $500,000 in 2024."

"'It’s been hard to find buyers over $500,000 for the last six months to a year,' said Vincent Johnston, a salesperson with Century21 Eady Realty, who said even lakefront property has become a difficult sell. 'There’s been no waterfront sales on Calabogie Lake; well, there’s one that sold for $1.2-million, but they started at $2-million a year ago. It took a big drop to get that done. I’ve got one on the waterfront; it’s $785,000 … I can’t get people to see it!'"

The Evening Standard in the UK. "London rental prices have dropped by up to 10 per cent in some areas compared to last year, reports Chestertons. The estate agents said they had seen a 125 per cent increase in the number of landlords lowering their asking rents in February 2024. Landlords are under pressure to fill their properties as there are almost 40 per cent more rental properties on the market compared to 2022, but fewer tenants looking for a place to rent. 'Landlords that have become accustomed to continually rising rents since Covid and aren’t willing to adjust to the current market conditions are increasingly finding themselves with empty properties, a situation which was very rare last year,' explained Adam Jennings, head of lettings at Chestertons."

From Reuters. "Germany is midway through a four-year real estate crisis that will lead to more losses and distressed sales of unwanted properties, the head of Commerzbank's real estate business told Reuters. The euro zone's largest economy is in the grip of its worst property slump since at least the 2007-9 global financial crisis, after a sharp rise in borrowing costs and a higher proportion of riskier lending tipped the sector into one of Europe's biggest downturns. 'We believe we are at half-time right now, after two years of crisis, with two years of crisis in front of us,' Henning Koch, the chief executive of Commerz Real said. Koch expects more investors to pull cash from the sector and more property owners to become forced sellers. 'We are still seeing a hard, long way to go,' he said."

"The wave of distress working through the German real estate industry has provided the firm with buying opportunities, Koch said, adding he was tracking the planned sales of multiple projects owned by the collapsed Austria-based property group Signa. 'We clearly look at those situations. You want to buy out of insolvency because you have a safe legal haven and framework,' he said, but added that pricing needed to reflect market realities."

From News.com.au. "A building company that recently collapsed owes creditors in excess of $13 million while a handful of customers claim they are set to lose the sum total of the money they paid as a deposit. At the end of last month, the Victorian Supreme Court ordered residential builder Apex Homes Australia Pty Ltd to go into liquidation. Several customers paid substantial lump sums to Melbourne-based Apex Homes Australia as a deposit but they claim they have since learned they did not receive domestic building insurance. As a result, they are not covered under a last resort insurance scheme and could lose the whole amount."

"'It’s left us in a bit of a hole. We’re facing housing uncertainty. It’s just all up in the air,' Jonathan Dhondee, who paid $41,000 as a deposit, told news.com.au. News.com.au previously reported that Apex’s telephone line was disconnected in the days leading up to its collapse and a port-a-loo had been removed from a build site. One customer described Apex’s communication with them as 'abysmal.' 'It’s a horrendous experience,' another previously said."

South China Morning Post. "The local government in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang province, has taken another drastic move to ease home-purchase restrictions in the city, after an effort last year failed to rejuvenate the housing market. The city, home to China's tech leaders, removed curbs on second home ownership with immediate effect, joining other top-tier mainland cities in breaking down barriers and ending a three-year slump nationwide. 'This policy targets the second-hand home market accurately,' said Gao Yuansheng, executive vice-president at the Zhejiang branch of China Index Academy. 'This segment of the market still faces huge supply pressures.' About 70,000 units will enter the market this year, adding to the existing inventory of 140,000, the academy forecasts."

"While the move in October lifted demand, it has failed to sustain it. The city recorded 5,849 deals of new homes and 6,875 of second-hand units in the first two months this year. They were 64 per cent and 21 per cent lower than the same period last year, according to data compiled by Zhuge Real Estate Data Research Centre."