A report from USA Today. "Homes sold below their list price at the peak of the housing season, Redfin reports. 'It means that the housing market is starting to move to the buyer’s favor,' said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. 'People are setting prices based on what they saw their neighbors’ homes sell for three or four months ago, and maybe that was when there were more buyers on the market.' 'Overall, what we’re seeing is that buyers have the power, and I’m actually seeing that everywhere,' said Ryan Sypek, a broker associate at Compass real estate in Los Angeles, California. 'What I’m hearing everywhere is, there’s just a lack of urgency from buyers right now. And urgency, and that feeding frenzy, is what drives prices up.'"

From KETV Omaha. "The housing market seems to be taking a breather, according to some local real estate experts. 'Still multiple offers, but things above that are slowing down a little bit,' said Cindy Andrew, a broker in Nebraska and Iowa. 'You have some sellers that they're getting nervous because it's taking longer. They thought, 'Oh, I'll just put my house on the market at whatever price, and I'll get multiple offers.' No, you won't. Not now.' For potential buyers, Andrew advises that now is an opportune time to shop for a home. 'With houses being on the market a little bit longer, you don't have to pull the trigger so quickly,' Andrew said. 'You have a little bit more time now.'"

Axios on Arizona. "Metro Phoenix homeowners who want to upsize or move to a new neighborhood are coming to terms with an unfortunate reality: They're not going anywhere. Megan Slattery told us she purchased a condo in Sunnyslope in March 2020 and paid $1,500 per month for her mortgage and HOA. Last year, Slattery and her husband decided to buy a bigger home in a slightly more affordable neighborhood. Their monthly payment more than doubled. 'It was a very hard decision to take on that large of a mortgage payment. Our motto is 'marry the house, divorce the interest rate,' she told us."

From WFLA. "Florida is spending big money on a program that promises to bring down property insurance premiums. Some saw the benefits, but others say they were stuck on a waiting list. The state allocated an additional $200 million for this year’s program, but there’s still concern there won’t be enough to meet the demand. Joe Fabrizio says he’s still left in limbo. 'The purpose of doing this was to help us secure our homes and make them a little safer,' said Joe Fabrizio. 'There was no direction on whether that was just going to stay in a queue or if I had to reapply or what was going to happen. I didn’t receive anything. There was no money left, according to what they told me, so I was not funded.'"

"His home in St. Petersburg was inspected through the program last year, but he was put on the waiting list when the funding was depleted. 'It’s confusing and frustrating because you don’t know where you stand,' said Fabrizio. 'It’s the second go around and I’m still sort of in the same point I was after the first go around.' There’s not going to be enough money for every Floridian,' said Lisa Miller, an insurance consultant with Lisa Miller and Associates. '$200 million will go quickly. That’s about 20,000 at $10,000 – a maximum of $10,000. Apply early and try to get in the program.'"

The Real Deal on Texas. "A $795,000 price cut did the trick. Austin’s most expensive home sale of the week came at 403 Graciosa Cove in Westlake. The modern-style mansion last asked $4.2 million, down from $4.99 million when it was listed in April. That the home price needed to fall 15 percent in three months reflects the difficult week for high-end Austin home sales, according to the latest Eklund Gomes Austin Luxury Report, which tracks signed contracts that last asked above $2 million. Next on the list came 613 Rocky River Road, a five-bedroom home also in Westlake. That home has also been consistently cutting its asking price since April. It first listed for $4.5 million, but the price fell three times until landing at $3.8 million."

WFSB in Connecticut. "New information on a story the I-Team first exposed months ago. The Farmington Valley developer accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars for homes he never built now faces new criminal charges. William Ferrigno is facing two new charges. The state charged him with violating home construction laws, and Avon Police hit him with another count of larceny. According to his most recent arrest warrant in Avon, police say Ferrigno signed a contract with a man in December 2019, to build a home in Burlington. The man gave Ferrigno $150,000, but no work was ever done. Avon Police said, 'William has shown a history of entering into contracts he knows to be fraudulent and accepting money from victims in the past with no intention, ability or effort made to complete the contracts.'"

WNCN in North Carolina. "A Durham man will serve seven years in prison for fraudulently obtaining nearly $3 million in mortgage and COVID-19 funds. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentencing of 48-year-old Reynold Eugene Mullen on Tuesday. Mullen pled guilty to his role in the three-year fraud scheme in April 2023. According to the DOJ, Mullen and his girlfriend, Tiffany Dawn Russell, used 'washed' credit reports and fabricated bank statements between 2019 and 2021 to obtain four mortgages totaling $1.37 million for the purchase of properties in Rocky Mount, Nags Head, and Miami, FL. Mullen and Russell also submitted fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications between March 2020 and July 2021 on behalf of entities they owned or partly owned. Federal officials said Mullen and Russell obtained over $1.6 million from these frauds, which was used to purchase six properties and pay for Mullen’s plastic surgery."

Mountain View Voice in California. "A Santa Clara County report of assessed property values puts Mountain View at the top with the highest property value growth in the region. But while property values have increased, the report also described fewer residential transactions in the region and a troubled commercial real estate market. The assessor’s office also described a volatile commercial real estate market, where new construction of commercial properties has come to a standstill. 'While some projects already under construction moved forward, plans for commercial new construction have stalled, changed or been considered for conversion to housing,' the report said. The report also noted that the office vacancy rate in Silicon Valley has risen to over 20%, an increasing number of office buildings are selling for less than the assessed value, and foreclosures are becoming more frequent."

The Financial Post. "Sellers are streaming back into the housing market, inflating inventories in Canada’s biggest cities and handing more bargaining power to potential buyers. The Bank of Canada ‘s slight cut to interest rates last month enticed some buyers off the sidelines, but not enough to absorb the new inventory that’s been building for months, said Royal Bank of Canada economist Rachel Battaglia in a report out yesterday. 'Growth in new listings continued to outpace sales in Canada’s more expensive markets, and inventories are continuing to grow — even in the busy Calgary market,' she said. 'The influx of supply has shifted more of the bargaining power to buyers, who in some markets are still extracting price concessions from sellers.'"

"No where is the rush to sell more apparent than in the country’s biggest city. Almost 18,000 new units went up for sale in Toronto in June, an 9.3 per cent rise from the month before and the third monthly increase in a row. Active listings are now up 68 per cent from a year ago, with condo listings up 84 per cent. Listings for single-detached homes are up 56 per cent. 'A slight uptick in sales activity (4.2 per cent) from May helped absorb some of the new inventory on the market, but not enough to keep active listings from reaching a 14-year high of 23,600 in June,' said Battaglia. Toronto home sales are still down 13 per cent from a year ago, and prices are down 4.6 per cent. Apartments have suffered the steepest declines, with prices down 4.7 per cent, particularly in Toronto’s core and Durham region, said RBC."

Blog TO in Canada. "With home sales activity slowing down in most major Ontario housing markets throughout the spring, prospective buyers benefitted from more wiggle room when negotiating lower prices. As a result, more and more homes have sold well below their listing prices over the past few months — including this two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in Burlington's Tansley neighbourhood. The unit was first sold in February for $865,000, at a time when cheaper borrowing rates contributed to heightened demand throughout the province's real estate market and, in turn, drove home prices up."

The Jerusalem Post in Israel. "In recent weeks, it seems that the terms 'apartments' and 'buns' have become synonymous. Contractors offer tempting financing terms to anyone willing to listen, along the lines of 'pay a little today and forget.' Financing plans like 20-80, where you pay only 20% now and the rest upon occupancy in three or four years, suddenly seem like very profitable deals. Lo and behold, it works. They haven't seen such a flood in sales offices in twenty years: people are grabbing apartments like there's no tomorrow, especially during wartime. It's not just in the center of the country—Ofakim, Ashkelon, and even Kiryat Shmona are also seeing a surge in demand. Something abnormal is happening in the real estate industry."

"Given these amazing figures, I decided to dive into the Bank of Israel's publication, with the help of senior mortgage consultant Moti Shoika (Mortgage Front), and discovered an interesting detail: NIS 1.8 billion of the amount distributed in May 2024 are contractor loans or balloon loans. The so-called 'Welcome to Las Vegas.' A balloon loan works on the same principle – and as its name implies, it is - a bubble that may burst. When that balloon bursts, the family will have to take care of the money to cover the loan or take out a new mortgage or refinance it. As we said in the title - a blue-and-white combination of a madhouse and Las Vegas. Bet today and pay tomorrow. The question is whether there will be a way to pay. Hey guys, we're going to a casino. If there is an increase in prices and demand, buyers will become millionaires like a roulette jackpot. But if not, they will lose their underwear."

Radio New Zealand. "A rise of mortgagee sales is only the beginning of a 'painful period,' as one property expert warns that 'it's going to get much, much worse.' While not at the levels seen during the Global Financial Crisis, mortgagee sales have been climbing. Property expert David Whitburn told Checkpoint business owners were among those feeling the pressure the most. 'We've seen over 50 companies across Aotearoa every week, going to the wall, facing either receivership or liquidation and often they're securing their own home that they've put up as collateral for their business debt,' he said. 'Homeowners and property investors are not immune to this too.'"

"Hindsight was a wonderful thing, Whitburn said, suggesting that the financial settings perhaps were not set quite right during Covid-19. 'People are struggling to keep their heads above water. I think we're at the beginning of a painful period, it's already started, but unfortunately it's going to get much, much worse over the next six months or so.'"

Domain News in Australia. "Property owners struggling under the weight of 13 interest rate rises are more likely to list their homes for urgent sale than a year ago in the two largest states. The number of homes for sale classified as distressed listings was 16.3 per cent higher in NSW in June than a year earlier, while the number in Victoria rose 15.6 per cent, figures from SQM Research found. Distressed listings are homes for sale marked with phrases such as 'urgent sale' or “must sell' or 'price reduced.' 'They may well be listing because of increased uncertainty – uncertainty around what interest rates are likely to do, uncertainty around what the economy will do,' said SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher. '[Owners think] ‘If we don’t list now, prices may fall in six months’ time, this might be the best price we can achieve.’"

From News.com.au. "While Australia continues to grapple with a critical shortage of homes, one of the world’s biggest economies is coming to terms with the exact opposite. China is home to at least 50 so-called ‘ghost cities’, which combined have as many as 65 million empty homes and apartments within them. To the naked eye, they look like any other major urban area. Two million people were projected to call Ordos home when complete. All of the scaffolding has long since come down and the city is open, but those millions of people never arrived. Estimates are that up to 30,000 people are scattered across the landscape, giving Ordos an eerie feeling."

"International urban explore Darmon Richter told the British newspaper Express that the city has a 'post-apocalyptic' feel that doesn’t compare to anywhere else he’s been. 'Even in Chernobyl you tend to run into other tour groups, or see the furniture rearranged by the countless photographers who’ve visited before you,' Mr Richter said. 'Kangbashi district was utterly untouched though, and walking through the silent streets was an unnerving experience.'