A report from ABC Action News. "Just over a month after Hurricane Debby hit Florida, new data shows nearly 60% of all Hurricane Debby claims are closed — and more than half of those were listed as 'closed without payment.' 'I was denied,' said Sarasota homeowner Allison Cavallaro. 'They wouldn't cover it, of course, because it's flood.' Cavallaro didn't think she needed flood insurance because her home is outside a FEMA flood zone, in flood zone X. Without flood insurance, Lisa Miller, former Florida deputy insurance commissioner said the options are not ideal. 'One, of course, is take out a personal loan or if they've got equity in their home, you know borrow with that. Secondly, see what FEMA has to offer, it might not be much, but it could help. And third, is a lot of people are just selling their homes and walking away.'"

Golfweek on Florida. "Owners at Hunters Run may soon have to give up the equity or refund they were promised when they initially bought at the golf course community. At stake is $49 million worth of equity that older owners were supposed to get back when they eventually sold. Some of the refunds are as much as $32,000. The Hunters Run board argues that it needs the $49 million to pay for capital improvements. The alternative, it say, is a special assessment that would be close to $30,000 per household. The result has been a glut of sellers trying to sell to meet the deadline, especially with condominiums. Ten two-bedroom condominiums are currently listed for sale for less than $5,000. One is for sale for $1,000 with a credit of $10,000 to a buyer who can close by Oct. 1. Prices of condo units have been repeatedly slashed to attract buyers."

"David Greenblatt, a Realtor who also lives at Hunters Run, represents clients who have listed their condos at $1,000. 'There is some pain being felt right now,' Greenblatt said, 'but once we get past this, the community will be much better than it is right now. This is a good way to ensure that the needed improvements are undertaken.'"

New York Focus. "If you’ve scrolled through social media lately, there’s a good chance you’ve seen an ad for rooftop solar. Claver Campbell, a 76-year-old homeowner in Queens, called the listed number and connected with a solar company she’d never heard of, called SUNco. Two days later, a salesperson named Mitchell Sims sat at her dining table. By the end of the day, there was a contract in her email inbox for a 25-year project loan. But she noticed a problem: That contract put her on the hook for $160,000 over the course of the loan, with monthly payments nearly three times higher than Sims said she’d have to pay. Campbell maintains she never signed the contract, but it bore her e-signature. She wrote back to cancel the agreement."

"Less than a week later, she was emailed a nearly identical contract, with only the date changed. It again had her signature on it, though she said she didn’t sign that one, either. Not long after, she had a new roof and solar panels. And she was still on the hook for just as much money. Now, Campbell is suing SUNco and its lending partner, Solar Mosaic, with the help of the Legal Aid Society. 'I go through so much depression over this, I don’t know how I survive,' she said, tearing up. 'I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. … I just hope nobody else goes through this.'"

From WGBH. "About a dozen Massachusetts homeowners who did business with Blue Hub Capital say the non-profit failed to adequately disclose its terms for shared-appreciation mortgages, which they say reduce their ability to refinance and stuck them with high monthly payments. Representatives for the homeowners claim they thought they were being rescued from foreclosure when Blue Hub bought their houses from their original mortgage holder, then sold them back with a more affordable mortgage. In the process, however, the homeowners say they unknowingly signed up for a separate, second mortgage known as a shared- appreciation mortgage – a home loan where a lender offers a homeowner a lower interest rate and lower monthly payments in exchange for a share of the homes’ future, appreciated value."

"Jeffrey P. Wiesner, an attorney representing the homeowners, argued that Blue Hub’s disclosure practices for shared appreciation mortgages misrepresent the financial picture for borrowers by telling them there’s no balloon payment — a one-time, larger than usual payment typically due at the end of a loan — and there’s no negative amortization — interest that accrues in a way that increases the loan balance. That, he said, violates the federal Truth In Lending Act and the Massachusetts Consumer Credit Cost Disclosure Act. 'The fact that there was a shared appreciation mortgage as part of the overall package meant that those statements are false,' he told GBH News after court Tuesday."

Summit Daily. "Property rights violations. Foreclosures. Sky-high fees. Coloradans say they’ve reached a boiling point with their homeowners associations. A newly formed group of property owners plans to take their message to the Capitol with a rally on Saturday, Sept. 14 to share personal stories and urge lawmakers to pass reforms for homeowners associations. 'The infrastructure that the government has put around how HOAs are dealt with allows for bad characters to infiltrate HOAs,' said event organizer Holly Crystal. 'There’s no consumer protections, there’s no government oversight. Homeowners from the High Country to the Front Range have raised concern over the surging fees they pay their associations primarily due to an increase in insurance premiums. In some cases, HOA members have seen their monthly dues more than double within the last two years."

"Crystal said she was driven to advocacy after a years-long legal battle with her HOA that cost her around $400,000 in attorney fees, according to financial documents she provided to the Summit Daily News. 'All of it has been a nightmare that in my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined,' she said. 'I’m not an individual who would fund a $400,000 lawsuit. I fell into this. If I didn’t fund the lawsuit, I could have lost my private property, and that outrages me. Laws are being passed. But if you’re just passing laws and have no oversight … it’s like throwing me a wooden sword when I am going out on the battlefield.'"

Fox 5 on Nevada. "A group of neighbors in one part of the Las Vegas Valley want homeless camps cleared, and created a small petition to call for NDOT to take action. NDOT says crews are returning Thursday to the stretch of the U.S. 95 that runs along Rosewood Drive, where camps intermittently set up on the sides of the highway. Crews recently paid a visit August 28. 'They set up a little Taj Mahal,' said decades-long resident June Maes, who is concerned about the camps. Homeless individuals cut through fences to set up tents. There is debris or shopping carts left on sides of the road, and other people end up camping on public streets near homes. 'It’s a horrible situation when you have homeowners that want to have a nice community and take care of the property, and then you have this happening, and we feel helpless,' Maes said."

Fox News on Washington. "The Seattle City Council's Public Safety Committee has moved on a proposal to reinstate a law that makes prostitution loitering a misdemeanor as the city attempts to crack down on sex trafficking, violence and drug dealing despite strong opposition from the public. Prostitution, violence and drug deals are common along Seattle’s Aurora Avenue, which has become the focal point in the metro’s ongoing debate over public safety. Seattle City Councilmember Cathy Moore is proposing legislation to establish policies that govern arrests involving prostitution and loitering and to create 'Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution' (SOAP) zones that, if violated, could result in charges."

"Supporters, the station reported, have argued that Aurora has become an 'open-air drug market' and a dangerous area where violence is a common occurrence. 'It's like a war zone in your city,' one resident from 102nd Street testified during the City Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting on Tuesday. 'When I go home, I'm in it, and it is just the most dehumanizing thing I’ve ever experienced.'"

Orange County Register. "The pace of Californians filing for bankruptcy is at a four-year high. New personal bankruptcies in California are being filed at a rate of 40 per 1,000 people – that’s the fastest pace since 2020’s second quarter, just as the pandemic walloped the economy. This pace is up 25% in a quarter and 38% higher in a year. Now, the uptick in this yardstick of extreme monetary distress parallels another consumer warning sign: more new foreclosures. In the second quarter, there were 12 Californians entering foreclosure per 1,000 people, up 20% in a quarter and 50% higher in a year. It’s the highest share since 2020’s first quarter. Californians have long juggled huge debts, largely due to giant mortgages. At $86,310 per capita in the second quarter, California consumer borrowings are 40% higher than the nation’s $61,853."

The Real Deal on California. "Embattled Indian liquor magnate Vijay Mallya has sold his panoramic Sausalito home for $14.4 million, just inching past a $14 million trade in Ross to become the most expensive sale in Marin County so far this year. When the 11,000-square-foot home at 6 Bulkley Avenue first came to market in 2021, it was listed at $22.5 million. That price dropped to $20 million the following summer. It was most recently listed at $16.85 million, according to a marketing site from Mill Valley-based Coldwell Banker agent Farnoosh Hariri. Hariri confirmed that she was still the listing agent on the home, which has been in and out of foreclosure since 2019, when it sold. Hariri declined to comment on the sale."

"Mallya has sold off many of his homes and other assets over the last few years as his bet on starting Kingfisher Airlines in 2005 failed to pay off. In 2016, he had to flee India to avoid arrest on money laundering and fraud charges, with more than $1 billion owed to more than a dozen banks. Records from the Aug. 20 close show Mallya’s daughter Leana as the seller of the property, though a substitution of trustee filing from earlier that month still put Wilmington Trust as the beneficiary."

CBC News in Canada. "Starlight Investments is also part of a growing trend across Canada: the 'financialized landlord,' whose business model allows outside investors to share in the profit of rental housing. According to Martine August, a housing expert at the University of Waterloo, financialized landlords purchased 90 per cent of all rental stock that came up for sale in Toronto in 2020. 'Financial firms are raising rents higher than other types of landlords. On average, after a financial firm acquires a building, they increase the eviction-filing rate by three,' August said. 'They triple it.' Starlight's own literature for shareholders describes a model where they seek out 'older stock' and in some cases have seen rents rise 'up to $411 per unit.'"

"According to research done by Steve Pomeroy, a professor and special advisor to the Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative at McMaster University in Hamilton, between 2011 and 2021, Canada lost more than 550,000 affordable rental units. Where did they go? 'They are still there, for the most part, but they are no longer affordable. The rents have just gone up beyond that affordability threshold,' Pomeroy said."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Just as some of the headwinds facing the Toronto-area real estate market were losing strength, the outlook became slightly more tempestuous. In the $1-million to $2-million tranche, attractive houses on prime streets still pull multiple offers, Rochelle DeClute, broker at Union Realty says, but buyer psychology has changed. During the market’s high-octane run, first-time buyers just wanted in, Ms. DeClute says. In today’s landscape, buyers don’t want to talk themselves into a house – especially in frenzied competition. 'They say, ‘that’s fine – let it go to another party. There’s lots to choose from.’ If a property has some shortfalls, buyers are unlikely to jump on it."

"The one part of the market where her firm is seeing trouble is in the condo segment. Even in as traditional neighbourhood as the Beaches, many of the sellers today are unloading a recently completed unit that they paid rich prices for several years ago in the preconstruction phase. 'People who purchased as investors are really disappointed with what they paid,' she says. Her firm has been advising sellers to slash prices for some listings."

The Age in Australia. "Older homeowners would get a one-off stamp duty reprieve on their final home purchase under a property industry pitch to free up tens of thousands of under-utilised family homes across Melbourne. Richard Temlett, director of research and strategy at property consulting firm Charter Keck Cramer, said in the current climate it often did not make financial sense for people to downsize, with a combination of stamp duty and the high cost of new townhouses and apartments offsetting any potential gains. 'It is locking up the market,' Temlett said. 'It is preventing people from rightsizing into the right type of space to suit their needs. As it stands right now we’ve got a huge ageing baby-boomer segment of the market that is asset-rich and cash flow-poor. They can’t move.'"

From Reuters. "Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, a former leader of China's shadow banking sector that declared insolvency last year, used aggressive and potentially illegal sales practices to sustain its operations as it lurched toward collapse, according to records reviewed by Reuters and eight people with direct knowledge of the matter. China's years-long property boom had propelled Beijing-headquartered Zhongzhi to the top of the country's $18 trillion asset-management industry and made it a key player in a shadow banking sector the size of the French economy. Asset managers such as Zhongzhi sell wealth-management products to investors. The proceeds are then channeled by licensed trust firms like its Zhongrong unit to developers and other companies that cannot tap bank funding directly because of poor creditworthiness or other reasons."

"Previously unreported details show that about a year before its financial troubles burst into the open, Zhongzhi units were paying returns to existing investors in wealth-management products by using funds from new investors, and promising individual investors lucrative returns that belied the group's exposure to a deepening property crisis. The liquidity crisis at Zhongzhi became public when trust unit Zhongrong missed payments on dozens of products in the third quarter of 2023, fueling investor protests and worries that China's property meltdown was spilling over into its $66 trillion financial industry."

"Eventually, Zhongzhi told investors in November 2023 that it was insolvent with up to $64 billion in liabilities. The group filed for bankruptcy liquidation in January, while Beijing police probed its business practices. In March, Beijing police said on WeChat that wealth-management firms under Zhongzhi should cooperate with police and return any illegal income. In August, Beijing prosecutors said they had charged 49 suspects related to Zhongzhi on suspicion of illegally absorbing public deposits, without providing details."