A report from WPBF. "The clock is ticking for Florida condominium owners who now have to come up with reserve funds to pay for potential repairs. John Cadden, managing principal for the Condominium Advisory Group, explained the options available to condo owners. 'People are going to have to pay up,' Cadden said. 'Get a loan from a bank if your community is in pretty good standing to fund part of the reserves and help you through it.'"

KRNV Reno. "A vacancy tax could be in South Lake Tahoe's future, depending on how residents vote on an initiative this coming election. But some property owners fear an additional tax will make it so they can no longer rent out and even own the properties at all. 'My father-in-law and mother-in-law built the cabin 50 years ago, and then we -- my wife and I -- bought it from them about five years ago, and we're both teachers. We know that we had to Airbnb the house,' local homeowner Steve Eastman said."

The San Antonio Current. "Texas isn't immune to the pressure that higher interest rates have put on the housing market, according to a new study from Agent Advice. Using figures from Zillow, the new report found that 61.3% of homes sold in Texas during recent months moved for less than their market value. Texas ranked as the state with the seventh-highest number of home sales below market value. Florida took the top spot, with nearly 70% of homes selling for less than they're worth, according to the study. The study may not surprise folks who procrastinate at work by scrolling through Zillow. Lately, the site seems to be littered with homes boasting price cuts and reductions."

"Indeed, the median price of single-family homes in the Alamo City dropped 2% between April 2023 and April of this year, hitting $310,000, according to the most recent market report from the San Antonio Board of Realtors. One home on San Antonio's North Side is even under contract for $100,000 less than its original listing price, according to Zillow. Those bleak conditions seem to contradict the optimistic view of local realtor Megan Pelley, who earlier this month told the Express-News that she foresees a 'really good' year ahead for real estate."

The Vallejo Sun in California. "The Vallejo City Council took the first step Tuesday to amend the city’s budget to accommodate a $6.15 million bailout of a partially built North Vallejo supportive housing project after city staff requested emergency funding from the city’s new sales tax revenue. The 47-unit supportive housing project on Broadway street — intended for Vallejo residents who are chronically homeless or for persons with severe mental disabilities — is 70% complete, but construction on the project has been stalled since September of 2023 due to financial problems. Contractors have since filed mechanics’ liens against the property and additional costs due to the work stoppage ballooned the project’s price tag from $22 million to $26.6 million."

"The city is now up against looming grant funding deadlines that require the supportive housing facility to open and begin offering services by December. If it doesn’t meet that deadline, the city may have to pay back a significant portion of the $20 million in grant funds that have already been spent on the project. 'We are now in a reality situation where we either solve the problem or it gets much more expensive,' Mayor Robert McConnell said after referring to the project as a 'financial catastrophe.'"

Business Insider. "The country's steepest rent declines are happening in metro areas across the Sun Belt as pandemic-era demand spikes subside, Redfin reported Friday. Leading the regional trend is Austin, Texas, where rent fell 6.6% on an annual basis last month. Runner-ups included Nashville, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Miami, and San Diego. 'The Sun Belt has built a ton of new apartments in recent years, partly to meet the surge in demand brought on by the flood of people who moved in during the pandemic housing boom,' Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said in the report. 'But the boom is over, and now property owners are struggling to fill vacancies, which is causing rents to fall.'"

Market Watch. "Some economists believe consumers have hit their spending limit. Savings are down, pandemic-era government stimulus is gone and lots of lower and middle-income families are maxing out on credit. Now they have to get by just on their weekly paychecks. 'Many of our members are one blown transmission away from financial crisis,' said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union."

Fox News. "A man working in the car industry, claiming to make three-times the minimum wage, went on a rant about the economy, saying how young people can't afford the same lifestyle their parents and grandparents had. 'The American dream is dead, it is over, gone and forgotten,' TikToker Nicholas Sumners said. 'Can somebody explain to me in crayon-eating terms why I make over three-times the federal minimum wage and I cannot afford to live? It is embarrassing to say that it is a struggle to survive right now, but I know so many people are struggling,' he said, juxtaposing this with how his grandparents bought a house for $3,000. 'Yes, I understand inflation and all of the bulls--- they have been pulling with the [Federal Reserve], why are we allowing it? Why? Then I clock out of my shift, I am tired, I have to go home, and I check the news, another 60-f---ing billion to a country nobody can point out on a map!'"

"'When my parents were my age, they both made less than half of what I make, and they lived alone, I cannot afford to live anywhere alone! A one-bedroom apartment? $1,800. Two-bedroom apartment? $2,200. Who the f--- can afford that?,' he said. 'What are we doing?" he asked. "Where has the plot gone? We have lost it folks, we have f---ing lost it.'"

The Record. "If you’re a New Jersey suburbanite, you’re probably familiar with the seemingly ubiquitous collection of office parks dotting the landscape. They’re everywhere — but since the COVID-19 pandemic and shift to work-from-home, many of them sit nearly empty. Some have become ghost towns. 'Our suburban office inventory is overbuilt and under-demolished,' said economist James Hughes, dean emeritus of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University."

The Globe and Mail. "For many Canadians, the Victoria Day long weekend is the first one of the year when they drive to the cottage. It’s time to flip on the utilities, drag out the kayaks and clean off the dock. But the state of Canadian cottage ownership is changing. For people already financially stretched on their primary properties, buying or maintaining a cottage is further out of reach than ever before. That pressure has led many to see their cottages in a new light: a potential source of revenue, a liability or even a full-time home."

"In 2021, average cottage prices jumped 27 per cent nationally, and gained another 10 per cent in 2022, according to Royal LePage. But that spree didn’t last long. By 2023, as Canadians were feeling the double blow of high inflation and soaring interest rates, cottage property markets started to show cracks. In regions such as Peterborough and the Kawarthas in Ontario, year-over-year listing prices dropped by 31 per cent in the first quarter of 2023, from an average of $1.2-million to just over $850,000. Cottage listing prices across the country started to slide, and average listing times dragged longer."

"Prefabricated cottage builders Michael and Paula Ronneseth sells affordable build-it-yourself cottage kits that go for $30,000 to $90,000, and ships them across Canada and the United States. Mr. Ronneseth says orders have slowed to a trickle as interest rates have crept up, and as jurisdictions nearby have favoured issuing permits for full-time residences rather than recreational properties in light of the housing shortage. 'People are no longer buying recreational properties at all – that has completely dried up,' he said. 'Our business has definitely taken a hit.'"

Yorkshire Live in the UK. "A couple fear their dream of retiring in their £150,000 second home will be shattered due to 'punishing' new tax rules that could see their tax bill double. Fiona Wilson, 66, and her husband David, 68, bought their seaside property in Whitby, 14 years ago as a rental opportunity. The property was an addition to their main home in Potto, North Yorkshire, which they bought for £205,000 in 1999. However, after retiring, they decided to make the Whitby property their second home, looking forward to frequent coastal trips. Now, they face a 'punitive' tax increase that could cost them thousands or force them to sell the three-bedroom property."

"They were shocked to learn that the annual tax of £1,800 is set to nearly double to £4,000 by April 2025. This increase is due to North Yorkshire Council's introduction of a 'second home premium' charge of 100%, as part of the Levelling Up Act (2023). Faced with this steep rise, Fiona is contemplating selling the property. She said: 'It's going to cost an awful lot of money to keep the two homes.'"

Sahara Reporters. "Ayo Turton, a US-based attorney has accused a retired Nigerian police officer of swindling investors, including himself through a multi-billion-naira fraud, and demanded accountability and justice. Turton accused Mr Aderemi Adeoye, a former Commissioner of Police in Anambra State of diverting funds under Alpha Trust Investment Club (ATIC), described as a supposed cooperative society. Turton said, 'He collected money running into hundreds of millions of Naira with this promise. Like a typical Ponzi operator, he paid them for the first month to attract more victims, but he has since stopped paying. Neither the interests promised nor the capital that he took has been paid back as of the time of authoring this article.'"

"'It is going to be three years now that some of our members have put their hard-earned money, some retirement money, and some loans into the slot machine called Remi Adeoye personal venture with no returns. One of our members who took home equity loan and gave it to Adeoye on the promise of 10% monthly ROI may become homeless soon in the cold winters of Europe.'"

The Independent in Singapore. "Condo rental prices dipped in April 2024, marking a nine month decline since July 2023, according to 99.co and SRX. This downward trend comes after a brief respite in March. Mr Luqman Hakim, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at 99.co, noted that this is due to the surplus supply in the market, with approximately 50 condos having obtained their Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) since 2023 and another 20 expected to TOP in 2024. He noted, 'The effect of this surplus supply might continue to suppress Condo rental prices in the near future.'"

From CNBC. "Chinese authorities on Friday pledged new support for state-owned enterprises to enable them to buy unsold apartments, in an effort that could help developers get more funding to finish construction on pre-sold properties. Developers 'that must go bankrupt should go bankrupt, while those that need to be restructured should be restructured,' Dong Jianguo, deputy head of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, told reporters in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. He said homebuyers’ interests and rights should be prioritized, and those that violate the law should be punished."

"Among the challenges the recent measures face, said Zhu Ning, a professor of finance at Tsinghua University and author of the book 'China’s Guaranteed Bubble,' pointed out that local governments still have limited fiscal resources, which constrains the amount they can buy. 'There can be quite some rent seeking and moral hazard in determining what to buy and what to pass,' he added. Rent seeking refers to when someone seeks to make more money without creating more value. 'Unless potential home buyers sense some serious change of housing prices going up, the current housing price is still too expensive for household income or rent yield,' he said. 'However, I am not sure whether the government is willing to go as far as to engineer another big run-up in housing prices.'"