A report from the Marin Independent Journal. "The median price of a house in Marin edged up to $1.76 million in September, a year-over-year increase of nearly 7%, according to the county assessor's office. The September figure also represented a steep increase from August, when the median price was $1.5 million. Marin's median price passed the $2 million mark in April and May of 2022, but has not reached it since then, according to county data. Agent Tracy McLaughlin said properties that command that kind of money need to be newer construction with flat, walkable lots. Houses with perceived downsides such as uneven lots, road noise and structural problems are being discounted down to 2019 or early 2020 prices, said McLaughlin, whose office is in Larkspur. 'COVID bumped everything way up and we're not back yet,' she said. 'It's lost that appreciation, that bubble appreciation. I think that's applicable across the board.' New active listings in Marin County rose 36% over the one-year period, according to the California Association of Realtors. Only Mariposa, Sutter and Ventura counties were higher. In the overall nine-county Bay Area, the median house price declined 2.6% from September 2023 to last month, the association reported."

WFLA in Florida. "Shore Acres was one of the areas hardest hit by back-to-back hurricanes. Homeowners live with the aftermath as debris still lines the neighborhoods, house after house. 'It’s gone from bad to worse, and I know I’m not the only one that feels this way because my neighbors are all saying the same thing,' Shore Acres homeowner Connie Penrod said. 'My world is on the curb. It’s a ghost town out there now because the homes are unlivable.'"

The Conversation. "Nearly a million Florida condo owners face an important deadline at the end of the year. That’s when a law passed in 2022 requires most Florida condo associations to submit inspection reports for their buildings and to collect money from owners to pay for any needed repairs. The Champlain Towers South condominium that collapsed in the Miami suburb of Surfside in June 2021, killing 98 people, is just one example. A reserve study of the condo just months prior to the collapse and found its association was significantly underfunded. The association held approximately US$706,000 in reserves as of January 2021. Association Reserves recommended the association stockpile nearly $10.3 million to account for necessary repairs. That means the Surfside condo’s homeowners association had just 6.9% of the money it needed on hand."

"Frustration is understandable, as current residents are asked to simultaneously fund 30 years of past deterioration and also set aside savings for the next 30 years. However, policymakers are simply setting guidelines that condo owners should have established for themselves. Properties that face significant financial shocks from SB-4D are, by definition, undermaintained or underfunded."

KOMO in Washington. "In the time he’s been a landlord in Seattle, Osho Berman said he has had tenants trash their apartments, attack their neighbors and even threatened to kill him, yet he has no effective way to get them out of his building. A combination of Seattle’s tenant protection laws and the court backlog for eviction cases has left him powerless to act, Berman said, and it feels like he has lost control of his own properties. Even worse, it can put the rest of the tenants in his building at risk. 'It's just a nightmare in Seattle. It's just an absolute lawless mess and we're just done with it,' Berman said. 'We're literally stuck with them in our buildings. We cannot get rid of them and in many cases they are dangerous to other tenants.'"

"Berman recently sold an apartment complex in north Seattle where many of the problems occurred. A renter there stabbed another tenant’s guest with a screwdriver, then started a brawl in the parking lot. Berman couldn’t get him removed from the building. The tenant got a taxpayer-funded attorney to fight the eviction proceedings and as the legal process dragged out, Berman reluctantly agreed to a deal. 'They effectively blackmailed us,' Berman said. Another man stopped using the toilet in his apartment and started defecating all over the unit. He would also beat the walls to the point where items would fall off the shelves in his neighbors’ units. 'When we tried to serve him a notice he lunged at me on camera swinging at me violently,' Berman said. 'I was able to break free and ran for my life just to get away from him.'"

"Ultimately, he had to do a 'cash for keys' exchange, essentially paying the person off to end the lease. Two weeks later, Berman said the tenant’s friends broke into the unit and claimed the apartment as their own. He said he called police but the squatters were not arrested. Berman said a series of tenant protections adopted by the city council also insulates bad actors from being removed from a building while putting the rest of the tenants in good standing at risk. 'It's a mess in Seattle and it's just become so dangerous,' Berman said."

Fox 13 Memphis in Tennessee. "Federal agents searched the Cleveland home of the founder and CEO of the Millennia Companies, which owns troubled affordable housing properties across Memphis. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is accusing Frank Sinito's company of mismanaging federal dollars. 'Nearly $4.9 million is missing or was improperly taken from 19 HUD-insured or HUD-subsidized properties,' the letter reads. 'Violations of these requirements jeopardize the financial health of the properties, jeopardize the housing stability of the tenant families, and increase the risk of a default to HUD. Your misconduct is so serious and compelling as to affect your present responsibility.' 'He’s going to go to jail!' exclaimed Donnie Brown, a Serenity Towers resident of almost eight years. 'We deserve better. Get up off your butt and do the right thing! Take care of your business!'"

The Pioneer Press in Minnesota. "When the eight-story Gallery Professional Building at 17 W. Exchange St. went to auction in early October, it captured more money at sale than the advertised minimum starting bid of $125,000 but a small fraction of the $4 million estimated market value listed in Ramsey County property records. The Twin Cities Salvation Army has not made the exact sale price public yet until the purchase is finalized, but St. Paul developers with knowledge of the transaction say downtown building sales — or lack thereof, in some cases — have raised questions about whether downtown buildings have been overvalued in market estimates. These buildings tend to carry with them high maintenance and repurposing costs given their age, and in some cases bear the hefty financial burden of accumulated unpaid property taxes."

"Those challenges have raised the possibility that rather than be converted to new uses such as housing, some buildings will simply have to come down. 'There’s no question we’re going to be facing some harsh realities when it comes to the value of these buildings,' said St. Paul City Council member Rebecca Noecker. 'The sooner we come to terms with that, and recognize that, we can adjust and adapt to that new reality. Although it’s tough, and something every downtown is experiencing right now — not just us — when those values come down, it also gives us a chance to open up the market to more players, and not just to those owners who benefited from artificially inflated values.'"

"The prospect of diminished real estate value isn’t unique to downtown St. Paul, as downtowns everywhere have faced tough questions in the era of remote work and online retail. Two downtown Minneapolis office towers — the Forum buildings — sold in September for $6.5 million, or 91% lower than the property’s last sale, which was $73.7 million in 2019."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Name, age: Sydney, 42. Annual income: $180,000. Debt: $1,257 in student debt, $515,000 mortgage. Savings: $6,000 in savings account, $69,000 in tax-free savings account (TFSA), $236,500 in registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), $280,000 in pension plan. What she does: Business development manager at a financial institution. Where she lives: A mid-size Ontario city. Top financial concern: 'Paying for my mortgage. It keeps me up at night, and I’m always trying to find ways to reduce it and pay it off. … I wonder if it was a good investment.'"

"She helps her parents with bills and has paid $200,000 toward their mortgage over the years, under an agreement that Sydney will eventually get the house. With so much of her money tied up in their home, she was only able to make a 10-per-cent down payment on her condo, so in addition to her large mortgage, she has mortgage insurance payments as well. 'It was a pretty bad purchase given I’m on a variable mortgage,' she said of the two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit she bought for $602,000 in February, 2022. 'I don’t think I could get what I paid for it now.'"

The Telegraph in the UK. "When you’re a first-time buyer, you selfishly hope for one thing to happen to the housing market: prices to drop dramatically. The gulf between house prices and wages, particularly in London and the south east, makes getting on the property ladder feel impossible. A drastic decline in house prices seems like the ideal solution – as long as you ignore the fact that it would primarily hurt those poor folk a few steps ahead of you, who have only just managed to buy and would probably wind up in negative equity."

"I gave up on London, but with some savings of our own and hefty help from family, we managed to buy on the Isle of Wight. And once you’re on the ladder, your hopes for the housing market become a little more complex. Any house price increase will boost your own value, but the price tag for the semi-detached down the road with an extra bedroom and a larger garden also goes up. If you’re upsizing like me, I’ve always assumed that stagnating house prices or even a slight dip would work in your favour. At the moment, though, I’m not hoping for this at all. In fact, an increase in prices would be good for my future house move and ultimately, my bank balance. This is because if prices go up, it will be because debt has become cheaper."

"When I remortgaged in April, our rate went from 1.4pc to more than 5pc and the monthly payments more than doubled. We had plenty of warning, but it was still painful. Interest rates have come down slightly, so I’m now on a rate of 3.9pc. What if prices were to come down, and interest rates went skyward? If the rate increased to 5pc and house prices fell 2.5pc, I would need a mortgage of £276,750, and my monthly payments would be about £1,620. This scenario would cost me £50 extra a month, or £1,225 over the two years. So, dear house price gods, I apologise for the confusion but I’m changing tack. After years of praying for a house price crash, I’ve done the maths and it’s time for a U-turn: prices up, please."

ABC News in Australia. "Nelson and Kirstyn Pray are spending $500 each week on a rental in Parmelia, in Perth's south, as their would-be dream home sits half-finished in the adjacent suburb. The couple signed on with builder Nicheliving in December 2020 and four years later, only have the bare bones of their house in Orelia to show for it. Mr Pray, 36, and Ms Pray, 31, say the wait has come at a huge personal cost, causing them to delay starting a family, hoping they would be settled in their own home first. As the white-picket fence dream slipped further from their grasp, the couple welcomed a baby girl, Athelia, earlier this year. 'We didn't want to continue to put our lives on hold for these guys,' Ms Pray said."

"Living in a rental that's hard to child-proof, in the midst of Perth's rental squeeze, has been less than ideal, but now the family is facing another challenge. Their landlord has decided to sell. The rental was open for inspection over the weekend and the couple is hoping it's purchased by an investor who's willing to extend their lease. Mr and Ms Pray's house has been at the lock-up stage since June 2022 — the walls are ready to be painted, the lights and toilets need to be installed and the flooring can be laid. They have applied for home indemnity insurance and reached out to builders, but initial walk-throughs have raised alarms."

"Four years ago, WA's building industry boomed as customers swooped on the government's pandemic-induced stimulus measures. As home buyers signed up for builds with quick turnarounds, the pressure to keep up with demand increased and builders started to sweat. When he signed up with Nicheliving at the end of 2020, Mr Pray was told they would be in their home 13 months after construction began, but their slab wasn't laid until May 2022. He said he met with Nicheliving management in November that year and was told his build wasn't a priority."

"'One of the [directors] makes comments about how it felt like Christmas for him when all of these houses were being signed up, then he blames the government for overselling,' Mr Pray said. 'You can't have it both ways. To me, it's kind of like a spoiled kid that eats too much candy and then blames the parents for being sick.' Like many Nicheliving customers, the memories of the past four years are too painful for the pair to want to live in their house when it's eventually finished. Their plan is to sell after a year and move on from the nightmare that has been Nicheliving."