A report from Mansion Global. "The tide is starting to turn, and the end of the year is turning into the most buyer-friendly market we’ve seen in a long time. Five years to be exact—before the COVID-19 pandemic turned the real estate market into a wild roller-coaster ride that came to an abrupt halt when mortgage rates doubled. 'Those days are over,' says real estate professional and attorney Bruce Ailion, of Re/Max Town & Country in Atlanta. 'More homes on the market mean more choices, which is crucial for finding the right property with the features and amenities you want,' says Mike Wall, CEO of eXp Realty/EZ Sell Homebuyers in Dayton, OH. Wall recently worked with a buyer who had been watching a home for weeks. 'The price was initially set too high, and as a result, the property didn’t receive much interest,' he says. 'After two price cuts totaling nearly 10%, my client swooped in and made an offer below the asking price, which the seller accepted without hesitation.'"

The Miami Herald. "Florida condo owners won’t get any relief from potentially crushing association fees for future building repairs before the end of the year, Republican legislative leaders said this week. Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, a Democrat from Sunny Isles Beach who lives in a condominium himself, said that translating condo living to his Senate colleagues who are mostly homeowners is tough. 'I’m one of 40. I’m the only one that lives in a condo,' said Pizzo. 'There’s no financial bailout coming for this.' 'Some may look to fight, but others might not be able to afford [to stay]. They might have to panic sell,' said Peter Zalewski, a condo analyst and founder of the downtown Miami-based consultancy firm Condo Vultures."

Fox 13 in Florida. "Dozens of St. Pete Beach residents marched toward city hall on Tuesday, the night before a planned committee meeting, demanding permits be signed faster, so people could begin rebuilding. 'We’re not going to take it anymore; sign the permits! We’ve lost everything!' screamed one resident on the steps of the city hall. 'I’m faced with the fact that I can’t rebuild my home. I’m paying for a rental and mortgage, almost equal to my mortgage payment. I’m not going to be able to live,' said Jill Mederos, a St. Pete Beach resident. 'I’m going to have to take a second job. Nothing is moving; we’re so frozen.'"

From WVUE. "As Louisiana homeowners face escalating property insurance premiums, many are reaching a financial breaking point, with hopes for relief dimming as insurance companies continue to limit coverage in high-risk areas. Homeowners like Billie Landry, a Jefferson Parish resident, are watching their budgets buckle under the weight of rising premiums. The Landrys have lived in their two-story home for 40 years, but paying for upkeep is impossible given their insurance costs. 'Although we have our home paid for, with the insurance and the way things are going, we can’t afford maintenance work on it which it needs desperately,' said Landry."

8 News Now in Nevada. "It was a packed house at the Shadow Hills Church as Rock Springs Vista residents were up in arms over the potential HOA fee increase coming to their doorstep next year. 'When I moved in 18 months ago, it was around $200,' Scot Levine shared with 8 News Now. 'Then it increased to $250 and come this January it will be $416, we can’t afford that,' he added. 'It doesn’t make sense for what we get. We have a pool and one of them doesn’t even work. We don’t even have a gate or onsite security. There’s no justification for it.' Mary Bryndle lives on a fixed income and said she feels as if she is being pushed out. 'We have a large number of social security residents and that’s their only income. It’s basically half of their mortgage,' she added."

The Union Tribune in California. "A symbol of downtown San Diego’s faltering central business district, the 24-story office tower at 600 B St. has gone back to its lender after a monthslong foreclosure process. WeWork had long been the building’s largest tenant, occupying around 100,000 square feet of space, but all of the coworking company’s space was listed as vacant by commercial real estate firm CBRE as of mid-2024, said Joshua Ohl, CoStar’s senior director of market analytics. 'It looks like here there was no bidder at the foreclosure sale and because of that, the trustee’s deed upon sale shows that it went back to the lender,' said Gordon Gerson, whose commercial real estate law firm, Gerson Law, represents financial institutions. 'Lenders are not in the business of owning and managing property. There are parties probably lining up at that lender’s door right now offering bottom-fishing prices for the property.'"

Market Place. "Permits for new housing construction were down nearly 8% year over year, according to data from the Census Bureau. Dan Dunmoyer at the California Building Industry Association said he’s concerned about how the new administration’s immigration policies may push labor costs even higher. 'People saying, ‘Well, I have my green card. I’m able to be here. I just don’t want to deal with the hassle. Maybe part of my family doesn’t have it, so I’m just going to go back to where I come from,' Dunmoyer said."

Business Insider. "Elon Musk's government-efficiency commission could end up costing some federal workers their jobs. More than 2 million Americans collect their paychecks from the federal government, so Business Insider looked into which agencies employ the most people and what they pay on average. Most departments had six-figure average salaries, with the Department of Education and the Department of Energy having the highest averages. Musk said during October remarks that while the commission's goal was to cut spending by reducing head count, he'd consider giving impacted workers 'very long severances' that could amount to two years' pay. 'The point is not to be cruel or to have people not be able to pay their mortgage or anything,' Musk said during his October remarks, adding, 'We just have too many people in the government sector, and they could be more productive elsewhere.'"

The Washington Post. "A big change to housing policy that many experts anticipate from the new Trump administration could roil the mortgage market and throw an already unsettled real estate industry into more turmoil. The new administration is widely expected to resume a push to remove Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two national mortgage behemoths that buy up huge quantities of loans, from government control. Others within the mortgage industry fear an abrupt change to the market — including an elimination or paring back of the government backstop — would push mortgages up. That’s because investors who buy Fannie and Freddie’s mortgage-backed securities could demand higher interest rates, especially if there is no explicit government backstop for the mortgage bonds. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics who also advised the Kamala Harris campaign, said such a move would leave the 30-year fixed rate mortgage 'diminished.' 'Whatever scenario you pick — it’s just worse than the status quo,' Zandi said."

The London Free Press in Canada. "Buyers in the London area’s sluggish real estate market appear to be using their leverage to include 'escape clauses' in purchase offers, local realtors report. Escape clauses are provisions in home sales that allow either the buyer or the seller to back out of the agreement under certain conditions. That’s a sharp reversal from the pandemic years when buyers, desperate to buy a home, were willing to forgo even basic house inspections, said Phil Bailey, a real estate agent with HouseSigma Brokerage. 'During the pandemic, you couldn’t entertain a financing condition or even home inspection condition,' said Bailey. It was an assessment echoed by Drew Johnson, broker of record for Coldwell Banker Power Realty. 'During the pandemic period, the market was such a strong sellers’ market that a seller wouldn’t even consider a conditional sale,' he said. 'It just didn’t happen.'"

From Castanet. "Look up and you might notice something missing from the skyline of Kelowna. A lot fewer tower cranes are working in the city than we’ve seen in the past few years. According to a Statistics Canada report, Kelowna saw the sharpest drop in building permit value of any census metropolitan area in the country year-over-year in September. While the national average went up by $1.3 billion, or 11.5 per cent, in Kelowna it dropped 83 per cent.The interim executive director of the Canadian Home Builders Association-Central Okanagan, Cassidy deVeer doubts the Central Okanagan will see the buying frenzy that took place during and in the first few years after the pandemic."

"'COVID, obviously, had a massive impact and that's probably a housing market we will never see again. Hopefully, we don't. I think for most people it was a crazy time to work, it was a crazy time to buy,' deVeer says. 'Homeowners buying houses sight unseen isn't really in anybody's best interest. But, if we can get to 2016-2017 numbers, I think that's going to show the strength of our area.'"

I News in the UK. "There was often a deep puddle on the road outside Kerry Forster’s house. But she had no reason to believe her new build house, in Blyth, Northumberland, would actually flood. Flooding was never flagged to her as a risk when she bought it in 2020. Fast-forward to April this year, and she was at work – it was her first day at a new job – and her wife messaged to say that she was really worried, the water level was much higher than normal. Within a couple of hours the inside of their house was flooded, 6 to 8in of water destroying the ground floor in the process. Six months later, on 8 October, restoration was finally complete, the residents had been told by Northumbrian Water that it was a freak 'once in 100 years' event, and Kerry’s family were preparing to move back when the rain started again. 'They finished [our work] on Monday and it flooded on Tuesday. Some neighbours had moved back on the Saturday and lost everything.'"

"Although Kerry was insured for both floods, she says getting insurance now is impossible because of high premiums and the two open claims. 'No insurer will cover that property for flood,' she says. As a result, the house – which had been valued at £152k at the start of 2024 – is now 'worth nothing,' says Kerry. 'The same people who valued it before now said we might get £60k. That doesn’t cover the £90k mortgage or Help To Buy loan. I don’t know how we’re going to get rid of it.'"

From ABC News. "A 25-year-old entrepreneur accepted $1.3 million for tiny homes but failed to supply them in a reasonable time, the Victorian consumer watchdog alleges. Spencer Porter is facing 42 criminal charges relating to his businesses My Tiny Home Kit Australia and Property Magician, following an investigation by Consumer Affairs Victoria. My Tiny Home Kit was founded in 2022 and promised customers affordable tiny homes as a solution to the housing crisis. The company went into liquidation in May."

"Melbourne woman Lyndy U'Ren purchased a tiny home for $28,000 from Spencer Porter in 2022 and said she only received a partial frame. She hopes the criminal proceedings will help her and other alleged victims. 'I feel there is a hope that justice may happen,' she said. 'There has been a devastating impact on people … they feel alone and unsupported.' In May a 7.30 investigation featured customers who described being "ripped off' by Mr Porter, including a Sydney father who paid more than $32,000 for a tiny home for his teenage daughter. 'It's almost beyond imagining, losing that much money for nothing,' he said."