A report from the Miami Herald. "It seems like the perfect storm right now for South Florida’s high-rise market. Condo deals in Miami-Dade and Broward counties fell double digits in June, according to the latest real estate report — just as condo owners become increasingly strapped by rising homeowners association fees aimed at meeting new legal requirements to maintain larger maintenance reserves. Buyers also are facing a more challenging landscape, as interest rates have held steady — despite expectations that they would fall early this year — and insurance costs have skyrocketed, according to real estate experts. Rising HOA and insurance costs have many buyers on the sidelines, said Ilene McMenamin, a real estate agent with the Oakland Park-based real estate brokerage and property management firm McElliot Properties. 'People are afraid to buy a condo,' McMenamin said. 'What’s the advantage of it? The equity isn’t there. The maintenance fees are high.'"

Wink News in Florida. "'Cape Coral is hot right now,' said Scott Riddle, real estate agent and co-founder of Southwest Florida REGroup at MVP Reality. 'Just look at the statistics. I mean, there’s close to 1,000 brand-new homes built in 2023 and newer on the market right now.' A growing city that also drew first-time home buyer and now real estate broker Dirk Fischer. But he said he quickly found himself underwhelmed. 'I moved from Germany to the United States in 2008,' Fischer said, partner at 5th Homes LLC. 'And Cape Coral has a very good reputation in Germany, in Europe overall. You have the palm trees; you have the canals. And then that was the big awakening, when you live there, when you actually do live there, and you realize that this is nothing but a huge area that has house, after house, after house, but there’s nothing to do. There’s no social life.'"

The Denver Post in Colorado. "Despite a 22% increase in active listings statewide year-over-year, closed sales dropped 14% over the same period. Summer’s busy sales season appears to have peaked early, said Denver-Douglas County realtor Cooper Thayer. 'Market activity showed a sharp decline in June, indicating we’ve reached this year’s seasonal peak,' Thayer said. 'With more homes on the market and less incentives for buyers to move quickly, we can expect prices to cool quickly entering the fall.'"

"Fort Collins has more than three months of inventory compared to less than two weeks at the beginning of 2022, said realtor Chris Hardy. 'Sellers have had to make quick adjustments to their sale expectations as many homes have lingered on the market for weeks and even months, which is far beyond the days or hours it took to sell an average home just a year and a half ago,' Hardy said. Bidding wars seem to be a thing of the past, said Boulder/Broomfield-area realtor Kelly Moye. 'The tables are starting to turn for buyers and sellers in Boulder and Broomfield counties,' Moye said. 'Price reductions are the norm as sellers try to navigate what it will take to sell. Once priced properly, homes are selling pretty close to their list price.'"

From Realtor.com. "Not even the rich and famous are exempt from the chill of the ongoing housing market cooldown. These conditions have also forced some big-name homeowners to significantly lower the prices of their elegant spreads. Celebrities—they're just like us! (kind of). '"In a notable shift, the housing market is showing signs of cooling, making high-profile celebrities like Kanye West and Jim Carrey reduce the asking prices of their luxurious properties,' says Raleigh Realty owner and agent Ryan Fitzgerald. California sellers have struggled the most with estate price cuts, Fitzgerald adds. 'Even 12 celebrity properties in the state have seen major reductions, totaling an incredible $133,275,000 loss from their initial listing prices,' he says."

"The Steve Wynn mansion in Beverly Hills, CA, is still on the market after a more-than-50% price cut. In 2021, Hilton and Hyland Real Estate founder Rick Hilton and his former "Beverly Hills Housewife" spouse Kathy Hilton (the parents of Paris Hilton) finished building this shiny new spec mansion in Bel-Air. They spared no expense and put it on the market for $55 million. It languished there for four years before it sold in an all-cash deal for $25 million in 2024—a 55% discount, according to the Robb Report. It's been five years since Sugar Ray Leonard and his wife listed their Pacific Palisades home for $52 million. Since then, it's been on and off the market at increasingly reduced prices, settling near the $40,000,000 mark. A buyer has yet to emerge, though."

"It seems Billy Joel has been trying to unload his 13,349-square-foot, oceanfront Palm Beach, FL-area mansion for the longest time, and even a $10 million price cut hasn't moved it so far. NASCAR legend Tony Stewart is still trying to cross the finish line on the sale of his 415-acre spread in Columbus, IN. He built the striking estate known as Hidden Hollow Ranch in 2011. So far, even a 25% discount hasn't attracted a buyer. Jim Carrey bought his Brentwood, CA, oasis almost 30 years ago and is finding it's not so easy to leave. The five-bedroom, nine-bath estate first hit the market in February 2023 for $28.9 million. The price dropped in April 2023 to $26.5 million, then lowered again in October 2023 to $23,950,000. Now it's now down to $21.9 million."

Click 2 Houston in Texas. "The Arlington Place Apartments on Edgebrook Drive, the center of multiple KPRC 2 reports, has filed for foreclosure. According to the Harris County Clerk’s Office, the foreclosure was filed on Tuesday, July 16th. The sale of the complex is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 6. For months, residents dealt with piles of trash after Waste Management removed its dumpsters. The company didn’t disclose why, but Houston’s Department of Neighborhood said the owners, the Chetrit Group, abandoned the property. Before the dumpsters were removed, the trash overflowed. Tenants told KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun that in February, they had no choice but to leave the trash out since they were still paying for it. 'If we’re constantly giving you money every month, you can’t tell me that we’re giving you this amount of money every month and someone can’t come and get this trash,' Monica Winfree asked. The Chetrit Group’s other Houston-area property in Baytown, Forest View Apartments, also filed for foreclosure."

Global News in Canada. "The greater Kelowna, B.C., area has a growing number of vacant apartment units on offer, potentially tipping the market in favour of buyers. 'I've never seen this many vacant places for sale and I think it's primarily provincial government policies,' said Andrew Smith of Royal LePage in Kelowna . He attributed the glut of unoccupied apartments for sale to two government policy changes that have recently taken effect. The first was Airbnb regulations that came into being last March. Smith said both together mean that anyone who was once renting out a unit for the sake of making some money is finding ample cause to sell. 'Buyers usually win these wars,' he said. 'At some point, you're a business person, you're still paying insurance and property taxes and strata fees, it's a non-performing asset if nobody is living in it and it's not going up in value.'"

CBC News in Canada. "Relatively very few people are buying newly built and presale condos in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area — but even with supply now at a record high, prices haven't budged much. Sales figures were especially notable for presale condos. Of the 3,265 units put on the market, only 17 per cent were purchased — the lowest second-quarter uptake in 25 years. The dramatic slowdown in the new and presale condo market means supply in the region has reached an all-time high of 25,893 units. 'When measured against sales over the past 12 months, unsold inventory equalled 34 months of supply — roughly three times higher than a balanced level of 10-12 months,' the update said."

This Is Money in the UK. "When selling a home, everyone wants to get the best price possible. But shooting for the moon can have unwanted consequences - especially if the price has to be reduced later on, according to research by Rightmove. Properties that have been discounted are twice as likely to see sales fall through, take much longer to sell and are more likely to not be sold at all, according to its analysis of sales over the last five years. And despite today's lukewarm property market, the property website claims many sellers continue to ask for far more than their home is really worth. ''We're hearing that some sellers have struggled to adjust from the pandemic frenzy market mindset, into the calmer market mindset of the last 18 months or so, and are being over-optimistic on the price they think they can achieve,' says Tim Bannister, a property expert at Rightmove. 'Pricing competitively and not having to reduce is key, but, where needed, do it as early as possible, do it once and make it meaningful,' says Bannister."

"Potential buyers deem price reductions, coupled with the months of marketing, as a clear sign there must be something wrong. Who wants to buy something that clearly nobody else does? Jonathan Handford, managing director of Fine & Country estate agents in Leamington Spa thinks a 5 to 10 per cent price cut is usually necessary. 'Buyers can easily spot an overpriced listing and will likely skip over it entirely,' says Handford. 'By the time the price is reduced, the listing appears stale, causing buyers to wonder what's wrong with the property or they assume that the seller is greedy or unrealistic.'"

The Daily Telegraph in Australia. "Hardworking apartment owners are being slapped with soaring strata fees boosted by general inflation, rising insurance levies and building defects. Although there is no official data source for strata levies, anecdotal evidence suggests fees increased 15 to 20 per cent on average over the past year, but up to 40 per cent in some cases. When Josh Stubing and Emily Abbey bought their one-bedroom unit in Kellyville Ridge seven years ago, the then 20 and 19 year olds thought they were taking the right financial step onto the property ladder. Their quarterly strata fees began at a manageable $600, but have ballooned to $3500 thanks to defect rectification work and the need to replace now illegal cladding."

"'We’ve been trying to keep up with it, but it’s running us into the ground with the expense of the mortgage too. I’ve been pushing back on the strata company asking ‘how do you expect everyone to pay this much money?’ It’s so unmanageable,' he said, adding that the couple had to move out of the property to keep up with the bills. 'Now, because we couldn’t pay the special $20,000 levy upfront, a garnishing order has been put on the rent. We don’t get any rental income either, and there are also lawyer’s fees.' Mr Stubing said the pair, who are hoping to get married next year, are trying to sell but the high fees are putting off buyers. 'We’re also renting elsewhere. Our monthly expenses are now so high we may as well have a $1 million house.'"

"Built approximately 12 years ago, the Kellyville Ridge apartment complex has a long list of defects and was built using external cladding that has since been banned in NSW due to fire safety risks. 'We bought when we were so young and thought strata fees were just about maintaining the cleanliness of the unit complex. The building has no amenities, so we never imagined it could get this expensive. The real estate agent advised us of the quarterly fees, but apart from that we didn’t look into it. Unfortunately, we made a bad decision,' he said."

From Sky News. "In Changchun, northeast China, sits an apartment complex owned by Evergrande Group. There are dozens of buildings and tens of thousands of flats. But it was eerily quiet when we visited. One couple told us they can't move into their flat because it isn't finished and the developer has told them they have run out of money to work on it. They were nervous to speak to us and feared criticising the government. 'I'm upset and disappointed, because we trusted this developer, Evergrande,' Sunny, not her real name, told us. 'What's happening now is really heartbreaking. I'm having a hard time turning our lives around because I'm paying so much money into it. It is bleak.'"

"People were not only sold homes, they were also sold a lifestyle. The grand entrance includes a statue of half a dozen iron horses, there's a row of shuttered shops with Western names, foreign restaurants that never opened, an overgrown playground and a theme park. Buyers were told the development would include a school and a hospital, but they were never built. The couple have young children and can't live in the flat. It is too far from the city and there are no facilities. I asked Tony, not his real name, if he felt the government had sold him a false dream about China. 'Exactly, it was not realistic at all,' he replied. 'I'm very worried about the pressure of life, about the apartment. This is unliveable. I feel I was lied to.' The couple are in a deep financial hole. They must rent somewhere else and have lost all their savings."

"Outside the neighbouring city of Shenyang, we came across another unfinished housing estate. There were rows of grand crumbling villas, weeds grew through cracks and the concrete was beginning to crumble. It's another blighted symbol of China's construction boom that has turned to dust. Greedy developers built too many homes too quickly. Analysts estimate there are between 60 and 80 million empty apartments across the country. 'Sunny' imagined her home would lead to a secure and settled future, instead it's a daily struggle. 'The original plan was that after this we would have other family purchases, bigger properties, cars and things like that, or even a second, or third house, but none of it is possible now,' she said."