A report from the Wall Street Journal on California. "The Los Angeles wildfires destroyed thousands of structures across residential havens of the city. Kristen Addy and her husband, both 55 years old, intend to keep making the roughly $4,000-a-month payment for their mortgage, insurance and property tax. They lost the Altadena home they bought five years ago for $740,000. 'We’re paying for what was our dream home—what we were making into our dream home—and we’re going to continue paying into that dream,' said Addy, an actress. The maximum amount she will get from insurance to rebuild the home is around $630,000. She is trying not to view it as a total loss. 'If I go down that road, I’m going to be in my bed with the lights off and not be able to move forward,' she said."

Bloomberg on California. "Danielle Neal is a fourth-generation resident of Altadena who saw the house she grew up in and the home she rented burn down in the wildfires. Neal, 30, said her aunt and uncle, who lived in the family home, have already been deluged by parties looking to purchase the still smoldering ruins at a steep discount. 'There’s not a lot of compassion,' Neal said of the speculators. 'It feels like a version of looting.' Teresa Fuller, an Altadena resident of more than two decades who leads a 20-agent team at residential brokerage Compass, said she’s heard from investors interested in buying damaged properties. 'Some people who are massively underinsured are going to need' to sell, she said. 'If my job is to help someone out of a bad spot, I’m going to help them out of a bad spot.'"

WRAL in North Carolina. "A Franklin County family is about to lose their dream home. 'It's devastation, like me and my husband and daughter, we felt like we've lost, you know, everything that we put into that property,' Tracie Pearsall said. The home that Pearsall hired BMB Contractors, LLC to build, is now in foreclosure and headed to auction on Thursday. A judge ordered the foreclosure auction sale can move forward despite pending criminal and civil cases against BMB Contractors owner Ben Britt involving the house. 'Unfortunately, we cannot come to an agreement for us to get our home for the contracted price. And so now the home is being auctioned off,' Pearsall explained. She and her husband signed the land deed over to BMB Contractors to use as collateral for the construction loan to build the house. Pearsall said Britt convinced her that was the only way to secure the loan amount needed."

"Pearsall says she’s already paid $180,000 between buying and preparing the land, having engineering plans for the house drawn up and other costs. She hopes she’ll eventually be able to get that money back through the pending civil and criminal cases against Britt, but she’s not counting on it. 'We've lost all of it. And so now we have to go back to the drawing board and basically start over,' she said."

From WRLN. "A Democratic state senator from Tamarac plans to introduce legislation in Tallahassee aimed at easing the financial burden on condo owners, especially seniors. ' Many of our seniors are retired to Florida, and they just don't have the money,' said State Sen. Rosalind Osgood, D-Tamarac. 'They're accustomed to passing inspections and doing the right thing. Now that they have to come up with all of this extra money, people are leaving, and when they leave, it's very hard to sell the unit because of all the fees.  I have residents, older people, in tears. They’re afraid that they're not going to have somewhere to stay when they've worked their entire life.'"

WPTV in Florida. "Palm Beach County Commissioners met on Tuesday agreeing it's time to crack down on the early 200 condo buildings that are out of compliance. 'Yes, safety is very important but our livelihood is too,' said Gloria Gracia, who has a condo in Lake Clarke Gardens. She said her complex is in compliance but that her monthly fees have gone up from $290 a month in 2015 to $1,000+ a month. The community is for seniors age 55 and older, many of who are on a fixed income. 'It just was so fast and there's people going on foreclosures already and homes are not selling and if they are selling, they're selling very cheap,' said Gracia."

Fox 32 in Illinois. "A Schererville man has been sentenced to three years and three months in prison for being the mastermind behind a $1.5 million mortgage fraud scheme in Chicago. Lee Holliday, 66, admitted to recruiting buyers in 2011 and 2012 for properties on Chicago’s West and South Sides. He provided funds for down payments, which were only 3.5% of the purchase price, since the loans were insured by the Federal Housing Authority. Holliday worked with buyers to purchase properties at inflated prices and then split the profits with both the buyers and sellers. Although he promised rental income from the properties, most buyers fell behind on mortgage payments, leading to seven foreclosures. The fraudulent activity caused multiple financial institutions to lose $1.53 million through false loan applications. In addition to the mortgage fraud scheme, Holliday admitted to fraudulently obtaining $391,869 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds during the COVID-19 pandemic."

NPR on Ohio. "An international real estate investment company with dozens of properties in Cincinnati 'abandoned' its holdings late last year, court filings allege, potentially leaving hundreds of Cincinnati tenants and local investors in limbo. The city of Cincinnati filed in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Jan. 3 seeking receivership for more than 630 units of housing strewn across more than 70 multi- and single-family properties owned by real estate investment group Vision & Beyond. Other suits allege the company used a complex investment scheme involving those mortgages to defraud investors and misrepresented ownership of its properties. In late December, the property manager for one apartment complex in Westwood said he no longer worked there because Vision & Beyond was 'broke,' the city's filing states."

"In November 2024, another entity called Wilmington Trust filed in Hamilton County seeking to foreclose on some of the company’s other Cincinnati holdings. Wilmington Trust alleged the company had failed to pay mortgages on those properties starting in June 2024. 'Plaintiff has received a title search that indicates that, as a part of a believed fraudulent scheme, none of the properties were titled in the name of the defendant at the time of the origination of the loan held by plaintiff, which means, effectively, that plaintiff’s mortgage is likely worthless,' attorneys for Wilmington wrote in a December 23 filing."

Westword in Colorado. "The City of Aurora is trying to turn the page on a national embarrassment by closing down an infamous apartment complex and charging nine people for a recent kidnapping that took place there. Aurora law enforcement and city officials have been trying to put out a public relations fire started by CBZ Management since August. Carlos Daniel Ordosgoitti, a Venezuelan immigrant living at the Edge, told Westword that he hasn't missed a rent payment, and that he and his pregnant wife are worried they'll end up homeless. He believes the city needs to provide him housing. 'Where am I going to spend the night if they kick me out? It's a very complicated situation,' Ordosgoitti said. 'The city wants to close the apartments as quickly as possible without thinking about where families will end up. It's fair that they want to shut down the apartments, but it's fair that they relocate us, as well.'"

Cranbrook Daily Townsman. "Renters in Canada may welcome news of declining average rents, but those eyeing Victoria may face a different reality. The average asking rent for residential properties across Canada dropped by 3.2 per cent in 2024, falling to $2,109 in December, according to Rentals.ca. This marks a 17-month low and the first annual decline since 2020, when rents decreased by 5.4 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'There's been a multi-decade high in apartment completions,' said Giacomo Ladas, associate director of communications at Rentals.ca. 'We've seen a lot of supply come into the market, which is probably the number one reason why the rents are going down. People are frankly moving out [of Vancouver]. Property managers and developers are adding a lot more moving incentives to their rental units to try to get people into their buildings.'"

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "A fresh start to the year has galvanized many sellers in the Toronto-area real estate market. Andre Kutyan, broker with Harvey Kalles Real Estate, says the first few weeks of January are slow in typical years, but he is already hearing from sellers who are interviewing agents and asking for evaluations. 'Some think the market is not necessarily going to get better in the short-term,' he says. But some sellers are kicking off the year with a fresh approach: in Lytton Park, a home that was previously listed for $6.65-million now has an asking price of $6.4-million. 'These are some people who are showing some motivation,' he says."

"Mr. Kutyan says agents need to carefully choose the amount of a counter-offer in any market, but the need for skillful negotiating is heightened these days because buyers can be quick to walk. In some cases sellers have already been mulling a price cut so they may attempt to drum up competing offers that way. Mr. Kutyan has told agents on the other side of the table, 'before my seller accepts this, they might consider lowering their asking price by 5 per cent to the open market.' And while the homeowner ultimately sets their own bottom line, the agent may need to press. 'I’m not here to give away a house,' Mr. Kutyan says, but sellers need to be motivated as well, he adds. 'I’m fortunate that I don’t get too many people who are just testing the water or looking for a sucker.'"

The Phnom Pen Post. "Industry forecasting for the Cambodian real estate sector suggests that the coming year will see similar conditions to those experienced in 2024, with prices likely to remain steady. However, there is a silver lining, with demand for some types of real estate, particularly industrial sites, expected to improve. Sam Soknoeun, president of the Global Real Estate Association and chairman of the SAM SN Group, commented that both 2024 and 2025 saw significant demand for real estate solely for industrial purposes, such as land for building factories, industrial parks, special economic zones or warehouses. 'The real estate situation in 2025 could be better than 2024, particularly in terms of land for the industrial sector. However, for residential real estate, it may remain the same as in 2024, largely due to an oversupply,' he added."

The Wentworth Courier in Australia. "It was a cracker year for top-end sales in 2024, but there’s a long list of mansions that didn’t find a buyer and some have had price drops of $10m and even $20m. The luxury homes still on the shelf range from Sydney waterfronts to Byron Bay and Southern Highlands getaways. With many of them now being discounted, top buyers agent Simon Cohen says in 2025 'we’re going to see better and more exciting opportunities for buyers.' He has a warning over-ambitious sellers. 'We’re going to need to see vendors realign their expectations with the market if they want to sell.'"

"Some sellers have already bitten the bullet and dropped their asking price. Check out these crazy price changes: A businessman who’s made his fortune from recycled shopping bags has listed his Rose Bay mansion at a $20m discount from last June. Frank Qiang Geng, who was an economics professor in Asia before creating his sustainable materials business, and Juanjuan Zhao had $75m hopes when the modern waterfront trophy home with gun barrel views at 12 Dumaresq Rd was quietly listed back in June. It now has a $55m guide via Michael Pallier of Sotheby’s and Brad Pillinger of Pillinger. They’re motivated sellers, having bought the Point Piper mansion Rockleigh for close to $85m."