A report from WISH TV. "November was a great time for feasting, football, and the central Indiana real estate market. 'November looks very normal, and I know that’s not exciting, but it’s actually kind of fun right now because it’s been a long couple of years. When I say that, I mean that things are returning to a plateau. That’s true of both sales prices and interest rates,' said Dan Brown, a realtor with F.C. Tucker. Brown says prices have 'hit a ceiling' and may rise in the spring, but right now, there are some good values out there for potential homebuyers. Brown’s advice for Hoosiers who want to sell their house right now? Don’t be overconfident. 'Don’t be overconfident in the market. Prepare it, price it properly, and make sure you’re ready. There’s three things that affect the sale of a home: location, price, and condition. Two of those you can change. One of those you can’t. Focus on pricing it properly and making sure it’s in the best condition you can.'"

WFLA in Florida. "Months after hurricanes Helene and Milton took a terrible toll on the Tampa Bay area, some homeowners are still struggling to make their homes livable again. Gay Truce, 83, worked hard her whole life only to end up trapped between a rock and a hard place. She’s looking for some much-needed assistance hoping to repair her home ahead of the holidays. She has a damaged roof and fence as well as water damage inside. Truce tells us a roofing company installed her roof eight years ago and that it came with a 20-year warranty, but said when she contacted the company, they told her they would need to bill her for any repairs. 'I went through my house insurance, and they won’t pay for it either,' said Truce. Without help from her roofer or her insurer, Truce turned to FEMA and struck out there, too. That’s why she’s turning now to 8 On Your Side. It really upset me I thought, ‘how am I going to do this? I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ she said."

The Globe and Mail. "Sixty-eight-year-old Valerie Anderson still recalls the rush of humid Florida air that greeted her in 1992, a stark contrast to the biting winter of her hometown in Calgary. Thirty years and three grandkids later, the Andersons proudly wear the 'snowbird' badge, escaping Canada’s harsh winters to a rental property off the Florida coast. But they’re unsure how much longer they can afford to live out their dream. Like many snowbirds, they’ve been feeling a chill on their wallet as the Canadian dollar dropped about 4 per cent against the greenback in recent months. Compared with last year, she said it costs her and her husband about $25 more per person a meal. A recent glance at the menu of their favourite restaurant showed a single dish of sea bass priced at the equivalent of $80 Canadian. 'We both just said, ‘I don’t think so!’"

"Norman Seawright, who also decamps to Florida in the winter, owns a condo there and said he’s paying 'easily 20 to 25 per cent more' for everything. 'The dollar just sucks right now – clients are asking a lot of questions,' said Carson Hamill, a cross-border associate portfolio manager at Raymond James Canada. 'People come to us that are renting permanently in the U.S., they’re going, ‘Oh, is it worth keeping this place?’"

The San Francisco Chronicle. "Everyone is leaving California. It’s been written again and again, so frequently since the COVID-19 pandemic, that it MUST be true. The California dream may be dead, but the current moment could be the inflection point California has needed for years. Dowell Myers, a demographer and professor at the University of Southern California, thinks it’s time for state lawmakers to step back and think about the future. Ultimately, for Myers, the media and nationwide fascination is about jealousy. 'They don’t like that California has this romantic image,' he said. 'They’d really like to see it go up in flames.' Especially as baby boomers retire and states compete for workers, Myers said it’s in other states’ best interest to 'build a story about how California is going down' and encourage people to 'buy a home in a place where you can afford it.' 'We know no other state is quite like California but they can’t get the ocean, they can’t get the mountains. They can’t get the cool temperatures we have,' Myers said."

CalMatters in California. "Standing in his front yard in Wilmington, Jose Ulloa can’t get a sentence out without coughing. Heavy-duty trucks, headed to and from the Port of Los Angeles, pass in front of his home all day, their engines roaring and their exhaust spewing into the air. The parade of big rigs in his neighborhood started four years ago, after a series of traffic pattern changes altered their route. Imelda, his wife, sweeps the yard and cleans the home nonstop, but black dust still collects on every surface of their home within hours. 'If you blow your nose, black dust will come out,' she said. 'It’s a terrible life living here.'"

"In Oakland, Mashhoor Alammari, who runs a small fleet of drayage trucks that haul cargo to and from the port, wants to do his part to help clean the air of dangerous diesel exhaust. His company, The Crew Transportation, Inc., bought two new zero-emission big rigs at a cost of more than $900,000. But the trucks, powered by hydrogen fuel cells, are expensive to operate and there are few if any fueling stations along their routes. The new trucks have been sitting in the parking lot most of the time since he bought them. 'I don’t want to put myself into a financial hole,' he said."

CBS Bay Area in California. "The City of San Francisco is set to close its only safe parking site for homeless people living out of their vehicles in early 2025. The Bayview Vehicle Triage Center opened in January of 2022 and since then has run into numerous, costly, problems. Now dozens of people who live there will have to find somewhere else to call home, and many don't know where they'll go. 'I have no clue,' said Charles Rawls, who has lived in the parking lot for about a year. 'I've been thinking about it. I don't want to do the street thing where you go from street to street, to street every night. It's crazy. You get no sleep.'"

"Rawls was planning on being there temporarily, just until he was able to get his vehicle fixed, but it still hasn't happened. He says he's not the only one who has been denied repairs. 'They haven't fixed anyone's vehicle who is in there,' said Rawls. 'It's supposed to be triage. We're supposed to bring our vehicles in here to get repaired and then we're out on our own. But it just sits there and gets worse. Then the rats get in them.' He says the experience has been tough. 'When I first got here we didn't have nothing,' said Rawls. 'It was crazy. They put all this money in it and now they say you're out of here in February. It's crazy.'"

"'Horrible,' said Aaron Wilson, describing his experience living in the lot since March 'Day after day. Something torturous. Like a prison camp. Treated very unfairly. And we're the bad people because we alerted the authorities.' A budget analyst report in 2023 estimates the cost per vehicle at the site to be about $140,000 per year. Despite that, city officials just managed to connect reliable power in October, nearly three years after opening. New light poles were installed afterward, and in just a couple of weeks, stopped working. Wilson says many of the people who live in the facility feel the city is closing the site partially because they have complained about the lack of basic necessities, like ADA-compliant bathrooms and other facilities. 'They like to retaliate if you tell on them,' said Wilson. 'If you're a snitch, you're the lowest common denominator and you'll pay for it.'"

From Bisnow. "Elie Schwartz rose from obscurity in Brooklyn to stake a claim on the skylines of Manhattan and Philadelphia — and then it all came crumbling down. The CEO and co-founder of Nightingale Properties was charged with wire fraud on Dec. 4, a crime carrying a maximum 20-year prison sentence if convicted. Schwartz pleaded not guilty at an Atlanta federal courthouse, but waived his right to a grand jury indictment, an indication that a plea deal could be imminent. He stands accused of defrauding hundreds of crowdfunding investors in two failed commercial real estate deals out of more than $50M."

"He was a hotshot real estate investor touting a $10B track record and holdings up and down the East Coast. Now, he's an alleged fraudster who sat before a magistrate judge represented by a public defender and was told to 'adequately seek employment' while he awaits trial. David Gutierrez, who invested $90K into Nightingale's Atlanta Financial Center deal, said he's only gotten 10% of his money back. He said he was relieved that the Justice Department finally brought charges against Schwartz but a little disappointed when he learned the specifics. 'That's it?' Gutierrez said in a phone call Friday afternoon. 'It’s good that they’re getting involved and applying a little pressure. I'm not sure what it’s going to do to collect the outstanding funds. I mean, if he’s in jail, he can’t do anything to generate income.'"

From Insauga. "The real estate market remains in a slump as many homes are selling for under the list price in the GTA and across Ontario. About 75 per cent of homes were sold for below the list price in November in the GTA, up from 70 per cent in October, according to Wahi. There have been several examples of homes selling for under asking or at a loss recently. A Brampton home sold for a $520,000 loss in November. Another Brampton home sold for a $487,000 loss in September, and a home sold for $700,000 under the asking price in Mississauga in October. Early expectations for a rebound in the Greater Toronto Area’s housing market in spring 2024 didn’t materialize, Wahi notes in the report. While the Bank of Canada rate cuts brought some affordability relief for homebuyers and existing owners, it was not enough to spark a major turnaround, the report notes. For much of the year, the majority of the GTA’s approximately 400 neighbourhoods have seen prices bid down."

From Sky News. "Airbnb was once the darling of the holiday market, but hosts are now complaining about a sudden drop in bookings - while some former rental homes are being put up for sale as cities bring in restrictions. As the company grew, so have the accompanying problems: from viral Airbnb horror stories to protests from local communities who argue they have been priced out by landlords buying up properties to turn into holiday lets. Nowhere in the UK springs to mind more quickly than Cornwall in the battle over short-term rentals, with Airbnb often cited as the reason for over-tourism and the housing shortage for beleaguered locals."

"Popular holiday destinations including London, Edinburgh, Paris, Czechia and Rome have all introduced varying restrictions on all short-term lets. In Barcelona, the city's mayor has promised to phase out short-term letting licences entirely by 2028 in a bid to return 10,000 apartments to the residential market. Has all the bad press around Airbnb affected bookings? We asked London hosts for their experiences. Claire: 'I've been a host since 2011 (Superhost and normally renting single rooms in my shared home). I've always been fully booked nearly 100% of the time and my earnings went up every year with the exception of 2020 and 2021. There was a massive jump in what people were willing to pay in 2022 and 2023 and now I've gone back down to a 2014 level so, for me, a bubble has definitely burst. I'm about 90% booked if I drop my prices enough but I've had to absolutely slash my prices. I find that sometimes with wear and tear, bills and cleaner fees, (which have gone up significantly) I'm barely breaking even.'"

"Now, searching #Airbnbust online, there is no shortage of hosts complaining about a sudden drop in bookings, or former rental homes being put up for sale as cities bring in restrictions. One owner claims he is losing $600,000 (£463,000) a year on his 70 properties."

From China Daily. "China's real estate market is undergoing a prolonged adjustment period. The government is focused on mitigating risks to prevent them from escalating into systemic economic threats. First of all, new homebuyers must remain vigilant, adopt a strong risk awareness, and avoid purchasing with speculative intentions. Despite the lower down payments and minimal loan costs, real estate risks persist. The primary risk in China's real estate market is the 'price bubble,' which increases cost of purchasing. For example, if a house worth 1 million yuan, which is about five or six times of local urban residents' annual income, is currently priced at 2 million yuan. Despite its fall from the peak price of 2.5 million yuan, the potential purchasers still face risks of financial loss due to further price reduction."

"What's more, government policy guidance should help buyers understand the real estate adjustment process and the government's phased regulatory objectives. China's real estate bubble has been building for nearly 20 years, accumulating significant risks. Stabilizing the market is no easy task. From a market clearance perspective, the second phase of real estate adjustment will feature price reductions and promotional sales, alongside large-scale reductions, optimization of existing stock, and quality improvements in new developments. Therefore, a long-term decline in housing prices is inevitable. Stabilization does not mean returning to a bubble-driven market with another round of price surges, which would only exacerbate risks."

"Lifting purchase and price restrictions does not equate to neglecting market risk management. Financial and housing regulators must enhance oversight of subprime loans, clearly delineating prohibited subprime loan boundaries and strictly prohibiting their issuance. Additionally, real estate developers should include risk warnings — such as 'the housing market has risks; buy with caution' — in their sales offices and advertisements."