It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "In the last five years, Minnesota’s median home sale prices have risen by $93,000 — or $18,000 annually — a huge boon for existing property owners poised to take advantage of equity in their houses. Monthly mortgage payments for a median-priced home have jumped from about $1,600 to $2,700 after insurance and interest. The good news for first-time buyers? The days of multiple offers for sight-unseen properties, waived home inspections and other frenzied buying activity appear to be largely over, though a seller might still receive some same-day offers 'if the home is priced competitively,' said Frank D’Angelo, president of the Minneapolis Area Realtors. Generally speaking, 'buyers can breathe more freely while buying their home,' D’Angelo said. 'In some ways, 2023 and 2024 reflected a return of a more normal market.'"

"Power developer Al Adelson is courting the aging Portofino waterfront condominium in West Palm Beach with a $150 million offer that some owners call a life-changing windfall and others an unwanted eviction. 'For some people it’s a second or third home. For other people, it’s their only home,' said Portofino owner Cynthia Witter, who is undecided about a sale. 'This is a very peaceful place, and it’s turned into a lot of pressure for people and a lot of fighting over money.' The deal will only go through if both buildings agree to sell."

"Chris Aumente, who owns a 450-square-foot studio apartment at the Portofino on North Flagler, is eager to sell to Adelson. He said he’s paying $600 a month in assessments and fees. 'I think this is the most fortuitous opportunity of these peoples’ lives. There is a contingent that thinks they can get more, and that is laughable,' said Aumente, who is also a real estate agent. 'How are people who want to stay going to be received when you’re all sitting around the pool facing a $25,000 assessment?'"

"A suburban Chicago businessman was sentenced to three years in federal prison for a wide-ranging fraud scheme involving mortgage loans, vehicle loans and stolen identities, federal prosecutors announced. Yale Schiff, 50, of Riverwoods, fraudulently obtained millions of dollars in loans by submitting false information to financial institutions about his employment, income, and other financial details. He also filed false documents with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds to fraudulently remove liens from properties, allowing him to reuse the same properties as collateral for multiple loans. Schiff then pocketed the proceeds and caused significant losses to lenders."

"In the wake of the deadly fires that ravaged Southern California in January, Airbnb received heaps of praise for its voucher program that offered free stays for displaced victims. Local and national media outlets lauded the effort, directing thousands of refugees to apply. But for many who needed the housing, reviews weren't as glowing. 'If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,' said Todd Smoyer, who received a voucher after his house burned down in Altadena but wasn't able to use it. 'It just feels like a PR stunt. We spent over $8,000 on short-term rentals over three weeks, and we were just trying to recoup a little. We know they're making so much money, so how hard would it be to apply the credit to a stay that's already booked? It left such a nasty taste in my mouth.'"

"A downtown Oakland office tower has been bought for an ultra-low price that represents a nosedive from the property's prior values. The Syndicate building at 1440 Broadway in downtown Oakland was bought for $5.5, according to documents filed on Jan. 27 with the Alameda County Recorder's Office. The price paid by BrightSpire was a huge decline from the $43.5 million that the prior owner, Tidewater Capital, paid in 2018 to purchase the building."

"Samuel Lloyd, the developer who converted the iconic The Peach building in Midtown Atlanta into apartments, is being sued by his partners in the project for allegedly faking leases and fraudulently inflating income statements to secure a mortgage. Lloyd refinanced the previous $17.5M loan on the property, which was set to mature in November, without alerting the equity partners, according to the lawsuit. PCH claims the property wasn't generating enough income to justify the loan amount. According to the suit, the new loan valued the property at $35.8M, which would require The Peach to have been generating more than $2.2M in net operating income, $1M more than Lloyd told investors the apartment complex was producing."

"'The March 2024 refinance, executed without PCH’s knowledge or consent, is evidence of Defendants’ self-dealing and deliberate concealment of material financial transactions,' the lawsuit says. '[Lloyd] admitted to fabricating leases to inflate the Property’s NOI, exposing the Company and its Members to legal risks, including potential claims of loan fraud.'"

"On the one-year anniversary of one of the largest private mortgage insolvencies in Canadian history a group of lenders has turned the millions of dollars they were owed into the foundation of a 'mom and pop' private equity company that they believe offers the best chance of recovering their losses. BIG North Capital (BNC) was formed by a collection of 177 different individuals and corporations that had been in some cases unwitting lenders to close to half the homes purchased by former child actor Robby Clark, who borrowed as much as 100 per cent of the price on more than 600 properties around Ontario between 2019 and 2023."

"The tsunami of debt that washed over Mr. Clark was unprecedented, not least because there was no large financial institution behind it but rather hundreds of so-called 'mom and pop' lenders who had been sold on private mortgages and promissory notes by former Mortgage Alliance mortgage broker Claire Drage through her Lion’s Share Group Inc. or Windrose Group businesses. Dan Uszynski, a retired industrial engineer from Windsor, Ont., was one of those lenders who had worked with Ms. Drage and is now the president of BNC."

"Like many of Ms. Drage’s lenders, he at first believed her reassuring words. It wasn’t long before the scales fell from his eyes, he says. 'Once you realize you’re in a situation where the equity’s not there …' said Mr. Uszynski, who trailed off with a rueful shrug. 'When we looked at the facts, the portfolio, it wasn’t worth $155-million in equity. We were guessing, maybe $75-million. There were no buyers for the portfolio.' When it was all complete in late December, 2024, BNC held 185 properties worth roughly $44-million (current market prices according to Mr. Uszynski)."

"A quarter-point drop in the interest rate to three per cent, announced Wednesday by the Bank of Canada to help counter the threat of tariffs plotted by the U.S. government, should help some Prince George homebuyers waiting to take on a mortgage. 'In Prince George we’re kind of in a wait-and-see mode,' said Mike Hurrell, owner of Maxsave Real Estate Services. There’s been an overemphasis on government subsidies for new construction of multi-family housing and rental units and not enough support for builders of single-family homes, Hurrell said. 'The federal government really geared all the housing programs, such as eliminating GST, for purpose-built rental properties and as a result you’re getting a lot of investment in these multi-family units and we have a lot of them coming on board now which is going to create an oversupply,' he said."

"Victoria’s whopping state debt has been blamed for keeping its housing market 'stuck in neutral.' New research from Hotspotting revealed four suburbs across Melbourne where investors are being warned off, after house sales slumped across last year — including Abbotsford, Cranbourne East, Croydon and Oakleigh South. And the unit market in Murrumbenna, a suburb in the city’s south east, had also experienced four quarters of falling sales. The firm’s founder Terry Ryder said most of Melbourne was now 'stuck in neutral' as there had been no impetus to drive prices higher for the past couple of years. 'Investors are more likely to be selling than buying in Victoria,' Mr Ryder said. He added that Victoria was the most indebted state of all the country, and as a result, property taxes had increased. 'It’s just a heavily taxed state … and the property industry is always the one that state governments slug when they’re trying to raise a bit of revenue.'"