A report from the American Statesman in Texas. "A Houston firm has made its first purchase in Austin. The acquisition is the retail space in a foreclosed mixed-use condominium project on South First Street. Located at 1600 South First St., Willa was developed by Austin-based StoryBuilt, which built numerous dense residential and mixed-use projects in prime locations around town. However, StoryBuilt ran into financial trouble and entered into a voluntary receivership on July 31, 2023, as its problems mounted. The company's financial collapse prompted the layoffs of dozens of employees, the departure of top executives, and lawsuits filed by condominium owners and investors. Last year, StoryBuilt put 28 commercial and residential properties on the market, in Austin, Seattle, Dallas and Denver. A report filed in court last year by the court-appointed receiver, Los-Angeles-based Stapleton Group, said StoryBuilt did not follow 'typical accounting practices.'"

"Earlier this year, the Austin Business Journal reported that more recent findings from Stapleton, published March 21, 'allege that StoryBuilt funded real estate acquisitions prior to raising money from investors, used funds allocated for one project to pay 'fictitious profits' to investors of others, frequently blended project funding with other sources and gave preferential treatment to certain investors, among other observations.'"

Community Impact in Texas. "The median sales price of homes in each of Georgetown's three ZIP codes declined year over year in October, according to data from the Austin Board of Realtors and Unlock MLS. ZIP code 78626 saw the largest decline at 15.25%, with average price dropping from $410,000 in October 2023 to under $350,000 this October. Meanwhile, ZIP code 78633 saw just a 3.19% decline. The median homes sales price in this ZIP code was $15,000 less this October compared to last. Despite seeing a 12.2% decline, median sales prices remained the highest—at $482,875—in ZIP code 78628."

NBC Miami in Florida. "Owners in one Hollywood condo community are asking state lawmakers for help after learning of a nearly $60 million special assessment just a year or two after going through extensive structural repairs. At least 55 residents are behind this notice of intent to sue the board over the $58 million it is trying to borrow to pay for the projects. 'You know, all of a sudden, you pay $120,000 more for your apartment,' condo owner Daniel Lezcano said."

From WPTV. "The clock is ticking for condominiums across Florida as the deadline to perform building assessments on older properties is approaching. 'A lot of people are on fixed incomes, they only have Social Security, and they cannot afford this additional assessment,' Jean Geiger, a resident of the Governor's Pointe Condominiums in North Palm Beach, said. The fees result in $30,000 per unit, according to Geiger. 'I know it's a lot of money, but we want to feel confident, and you want to have peace of mind living any place,' Geiger said, 'but I feel a lot of residents will need financial help.' She said residents were given the option to pay upfront or finance the fee."

"'Everybody has to stay and people have to understand, and it's going to cost,' Steve Rogers, who lives at the Chalfonte Tower Condominium in Boca Raton, said. Rogers was the president of his condominium association at the time of the Surfside condo collapse. 'Why would you say these assessments are needed?' asked WPTV reporter Joel Lopez. 'I think it's neglect,' Rogers said. 'I think that many of these buildings have been neglected (for) many years. There's many elderly people and people that bought many, many years ago when prices weren't where they are today and taxes aren't where they are today,' Rogers said. 'Now they're coming to this point where it's costing so much to do and you're going to see people getting pushed out.'"

From Masslive. "A Kingston man who ran several sober homes in Massachusetts pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston on Thursday for four fraud schemes that involved sober homes in the Greater Boston area, Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levy’s office announced. Daniel Cleggett, 38, formerly of Braintree and Quincy, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of conspiracy to make a false statement to a mortgage lending business (mortgage fraud conspiracy), 25 counts of wire fraud, six counts of unlawful monetary transactions (money laundering) and three counts of making a false statement to a mortgage lending business."

The Hartford Courant. "A Connecticut man who managed a real estate agency has been sentenced to federal prison in connection with a flipping scheme he was involved in with others in Massachusetts. James Macchio, 46, of Glastonbury faced sentencing Thursday in federal court in Boston where he was handed down a 42-month prison term which will be followed by two years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Federal officials said Macchio and the others involved hid their involvement as the 'de facto buyers' of short sale properties from their clients and used their insider knowledge as the owner’s broker to minimize the sale prices, which later helped maximize their gain from the 'flipping' process."

"During the flipping process, officials said Macchio and others further defrauded their clients by submitting fraudulent renovation bids from contractors to their own clients, including from a fake construction company they controlled through a co-conspirator. Once the bid was accepted, they hired different contractors at a much lower cost and pocketed the difference, according to authorities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Macchio and co-conspirators defrauded the Small Business Administration by obtaining pandemic relief loans 'to fund their ongoing real estate fraud scheme,' federal officials said."

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "San Francisco’s long pandemic hangover continued to suppress new housing construction in 2024, with the city on track to produce fewer units than any year since the aftermath of the Great Recession. Strachan Forgan, a principal at the architecture firm SCB, which has been one of the city’s most prolific multifamily residential designers over the past two decades, said his firm has studied about 20 residential-to-office conversions, but none of them work economically at the moment. Despite multiple laws and a ballot measure making it cheaper and faster to convert office buildings to housing, only two projects are going forward. 'So far, those buildings are not making the returns needed to allow them to go ahead,' Forgan said."

"Currently, about 800 construction trades specialists are without work. 'If people didn’t realize that construction was a major part of the city’s economy, they realize it now,' said Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council. Gonzalez said all the multifamily developers are busy winning approvals needed to add units to already entitled but long-delayed housing projects, which should help make them feasible at some point. 'That is not people doing it for fun, they are doing it because it’s the only way projects have a chance of working right now,' he said. 'Multifamily is going to pencil when it pencils.'"

W42ST in New York. "The storied home of the infamous Show World Center sex stores has taken another turn as the 8th Avenue buildings sold for just $46 million — far below the $80 million spent on a redevelopment intended to transform the site into a modern office hub. KRW Realty Advisors and the owners spent $80 million developing office space and new retail opportunities at the two interlinked buildings (303 W42nd St and 300 W43rd St) starting in 2019. They rebranded the offices as 'The Hive,' in the hopes of attracting a busy colony of worker bees. but it seems their honey wasn’t enough of a draw, as they sold the buildings to Blake Partners, JAM Real Estate Partners and The Straus Group for just over $48 million, according to sales brokers Cushman & Wakefield. This isn’t the first time a Hell’s Kitchen office building has gone for a discounted price — in the spring, Related Companies sold a 10-story building at 321 W44th Street (between 8th and 9th Ave), home to the Birdland Jazz Club, at a 67% discount."

The Globe and Mail. "Subsidizing affordable housing with the sale of market housing is a nice idea, but in B.C.’s market downturn, it’s a model that’s showing major cracks. The city of Vancouver’s latest initiative is creating 17 mixed use neighbourhoods, or villages, throughout the city that will include below-market rental housing to be 'diverse and inclusive.' Ross McCredie, founder of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, and chief executive officer of Sutton Group, doesn’t see how that will play out in this economy."

"'You think about what they’re trying to do here in Vancouver, and [mayor] Ken Sim and everything, which is great, but at the same time, these initiatives, how are we going to pay for them – when presales are down 70 or 80 per cent?' he said. 'And governments and municipalities heavily depend on those closings to fund their administrations. When they talk about market housing paying for non-market housing, and you don’t have a market, this may end up being a lot of talk and not a lot of building.'"

"'Those fees won’t be there if they can’t build those units, and they won’t build the units, if they can’t do the presale,' says Mr. McCredie. 'A big chunk of those presales goes to investors, and investors are pretty much gone from the market now. So, a lot of the product the investors would normally buy are smaller studios and small one-bedrooms – that’s why there is a lot of those out there – but now you have a situation where investors are fleeing.'"

From Bloomberg. "Abu Dhabi’s ruling Al Nahyan family has bought a mansion in London’s Holland Park neighborhood. The latest deal defies a wider tax-driven slump in London’s luxury housing market and is one of Britain’s priciest home transactions of the year. While it’s unclear if the Al Nahyan family negotiated a discount, roughly half the homes sold in Kensington, Notting Hill and Holland Park in the year through October saw reductions in prices, according to researcher LonRes. Some sellers have resorted to discounts of around 30%."

Domain News in Australia. "This year was one of the strangest on record, with the 'will-they-won’t-they' ongoing uncertainty about interest rates, the mounting housing crisis and the continued after-effects of the pandemic on the market. As a result, many forecasts from the experts never came to pass and, equally, many unexpected events did. Interest rates were meant to come down this year weren’t they? And was the property market supposed to keep going up at the rate it did? 'The early optimism about rates coming down in 2024 influenced so many people’s decisions about buying property,' said Domain chief of research & economics Dr Nicola Powell. 'And that was the basis of so many things that went wrong this year.'"

"Agents report that you can now buy an apartment in Melbourne for about 30 per cent less than it would cost to build. High interest rates on the back of the devastating pandemic, which hit Melbourne harder than anywhere else, have had a major depressing effect. At the same time, growth in the supply of units has outpaced demand. Then, there were changes to land tax in Victoria, which hit house owners hard. Jacob Caine, president of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, said that was the final blow. 'I don’t think even cuts to the interest rate will bring the market back,' he said."