A report from the New York Times. "After losing his job at the U.S. Forest Service, Cameron McKenzie was worried about finding a new job. But first, he had a more immediate concern: How was he going to pay the mortgage? He’s done the math — finding another job in the environmental sector could take months — and keeping up with the nearly $2,700 monthly payment on his three-bedroom home in Blairstown, New Jersey, will be a challenge, if not impossible. 'Even on unemployment,' said McKenzie, 27, who worked as a community engagement specialist, 'I’m not going to be able to make my mortgage payment. I’m going to have to sell my house.'"

From Fox 4 Now. "Next week, Florida lawmakers will return to Tallahassee for the 2025 legislative session. As part of concerns to ease property insurance rates, lawmakers will once again look to replenish the My Safe Florida Home Program, which quickly ran out of money last year. ABC Action News anchor Nadeen Yanes has covered the program's challenges and successes since it rolled out. Christine and Leonard Miller emailed Nadeen after they signed onto their portal, which showed money had run out for the program and that their grant application was closed. It came after the couple had to dip into their retirement to put up $15,000 dollars to put in hurricane-impact windows. 'Which is why we put it off for a little bit. We're retired. I'm not ready to go back to work,' Christine said."

"They moved forward with the program, thinking they'd be approved for the grant, only to see it quickly ran out of money. 'We have a claim in. We have a claim started. We've gone through the steps, but then they've run out of funding,' she said. 'It's been confusing to say the least. It's just it's not a quick, easy program to work through. We're just stuck in limbo.'"

WSB Atlanta in Georgia. "Darlean Williams says she owns a shell of a house, after being forced to move out of her brand new home because of ongoing defects. 'Since I’ve moved in, it’s been issues from day one, I have not been able to get comfortable in my dream home,' Williams said. Months after purchasing her home, she says her kitchen ceiling caved in. Her next door neighbor, Earl McCarthy, says he and other neighbors are also having issues, involving cracks, HVAC, sewage and other problems. 'You realize you’re not alone in the struggle that you have with this builder,' he told Channel 2. Both homeowners say they were told by the developer LGI homes, they did not need a realtor or third-party inspector. 'They assured us you don’t need a realtor, we’ll help you every step of the way, it’s a one stop shop,' Williams said."

The Review Journal in Nevada. "Home prices and listings continue to rise in Las Vegas Valley as the national housing market continues to overheat, according to a new report. Fernanda Kriese, a Redfin Realtor based in Las Vegas, said sellers continue to put their homes up for sale even though prices have hit record highs and sales are down. 'I’ve met with a lot of potential sellers over the last few weeks. Listings typically pick up in March or April, but this year it’s happening earlier,' she said. 'Some of the sellers are listing because they bought just a few years ago and their home value isn’t increasing as quickly as they’d like, so they’re cutting their losses and moving to a less expensive home.'"

From CBC News. "Dale Botting has spent the past 45 winters travelling to sunny Arizona to escape Saskatchewan winters and enjoy the warm weather, golf and friends he's made at his desert vacation home. But this winter will be his last. Botting has listed his home in Chandler, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, that has been in his family since his dad purchased it 45 years ago. 'It's this Trump regime and this cultism,' Botting told The 306 host Peter Mills from his Arizona home office. Arizona real estate agents say Canadians are bailing out of the American market in record numbers, partly driven by the weak Canadian dollar and the chance to cash in on their home's appreciated value."

"Laurie Lavine, a realtor in Phoenix, Ariz., has an appreciation for the current Canadian sell off. He was born and raised in Winnipeg, holds dual citizenship and has lived in Phoenix for the past 16 years selling real estate. 'The bullying is kind of the last straw that broke the camel's back, and seven out of my 10 listings are for that reason alone.' Lavine said other realtors are experiencing the same surge of Canadians selling off their Arizona properties because they are fed up with Trump. 'In all my 27 years as a realtor, I've never really experienced this before,' said Lavine, who sold real estate in Alberta before moving to Arizona."

From CBS News. "Sheri Hastings' property sits on a slow-moving disaster; a complex of landslides in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes, California. For nearly 70 years, this area has shifted roughly a few inches a year, but recently that pace has surged to as fast as four inches a week. 'It's a catastrophe, and yet some people are still able to live in their homes up here. They're kind of riding a big raft down the hill,' said Mike Phipps, a geologist who has been studying the shifting landscape for nearly four decades. In October, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and California Governor's Office of Emergency Services announced a $42 million voluntary buyout program for residents most impacted by the slide."

"But Hastings isn't interested. 'It's not a good deal. You get what the value of your home was two years ago. You get 75% of that. And then on top of that, you have to pay to demolish everything and have it hauled away,' Hastings said. Hastings said that insurance doesn't cover any of the damage to her property, either. Her life savings are now slipping away. 'Everybody thinks we're all millionaires up here. We're actually not. Our homes were our money, right? We can't just go out and buy another home,' Hastings said."

Bisnow Washington DC. "Andrew Cohn says he doesn't usually get sentimental about financial assets, but the building he sold last month in D.C. was an exception. The Huntington Apartments on Connecticut Avenue was developed in the 1960s by his grandfather. But Cohn, now the CEO of Lustine Realty and its parent company, Liberty Group Holdings, says he had no choice but to sell the building, which was the firm's last property in its home city after it sold a Southeast building early last year. And given how difficult the sale process was, he says he has no plans to invest in the District again. 'I didn’t want to sell those buildings,' he said. 'I felt I was being forced to.'"

"He ultimately sold The Hampton East Apartments on Feb. 1, 2024, for $9.8M. The Huntington sale process took four years in part because the first deal fell through, a collapse that cost Cohn more than $10M. A previous buyer had signed a contract to buy the building for $28M.Cohn and his broker, CBRE senior associate Zach Stone, both blamed D.C.'s tenant-friendly laws for prolonging the first process to the point that the market turned and the deal collapsed. 'We put the deal under contract in a much different environment in early 2022, and just based on the delays that were incurred because of TOPA, the interest rate environment and the capital markets changed significantly, so there was a major adjustment on price,' Stone said. 'I am grateful to have finally exited the multifamily universe in Washington DC and I can promise the city council and Mayor that after their most recent efforts to weaponize housing I will not invest in this city ever again,' Cohn wrote in a LinkedIn post."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "As sales of new preconstruction condominiums have fallen to multidecade lows, more developers are turning away from the sugar high of investor-purchasers and rediscovering 'end-users': otherwise known as people who intend to live in the condo they buy. 'Where we made mistakes was we adjusted our product to suit that short-term buyer – the investor, the assignor – and they were more concerned about price and return than about the actual product,' said Christopher Wein, chief operating officer of Equiton Developments. Price point is also a critical determinant of sales success: at the peak of the investor frenzy there were projects selling close to $2,000 per square foot. Today, what is selling tends to stay below $1,200 per square foot."

"'It’s funny. I guess it’s a trend now that the investor-purchaser has left the building, developers are sitting here saying, ‘Oh my god, I have to sell a product to someone who’s actually going to live in it directly?’ It’s a whole other process. But we’ve never done anything else,' said Daniel Ger, CEO of OFH. Equiton has not only seen the shift, it has responded to it by rebranding and redesigning its condo project at 875 The Queensway (originally marketed as KüL), which had a disappointing launch in the summer of 2024. 'I took a hard look at it in the fall,' said Mr. Wein. 'I think this is a building that was designed for a market that no longer exists, that’s come and gone. [I thought], let’s take the building apart and start over again.' Even the laundry room should be more than a closet, because storage is often at a premium in condos. 'Every condo should have a place to store stuff like seasonal items and cleaning supplies; in most condos there’s not even room to store fabric softener,' he said. Critically, the price per square foot will still come out between $1,100 and $1,200."

Devon Live in the UK. "A new development of homes is to be built in a flood-prone East Devon village, despite residents warning against it. The plans for Feniton has led to significant objections, with 55 people formally lodging their opposition. Residents said work is continuing in the village to help reduce flooding and that the sewage system is already inadequate without adding more properties. Resident Chris Wilkins said:. 'People are enduring sewage overflowing into their garden and backing up into the toilet,' he said. 'The knock-on effect for Burlands residents is that they are asked not to flush their toilet and are subjected to pungent smells in their homes. We’re a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, but we’re living in third world conditions, which cannot be right.'"

From Bloomberg. "A year after China Evergrande Group was ordered into liquidation by a Hong Kong court, creditors have yet to pocket a penny from the process. But behind the scenes, the battle for scraps from one of the world’s biggest corporate implosions is intensifying. The maneuvering over Evergrande underscores the challenges of clawing back assets involving hundreds of entities at a property developer that once faced $300 billion in liabilities. Adding to the complexity, most of Evergrande’s assets in mainland China remain difficult to reach even for the court-appointed liquidators, due to Hong Kong’s separate legal system. A previous analysis by Deloitte estimated the recovery rate for offshore unsecured creditors stood at just 3.53%. 'It’s a massive liquidation,' said James Wood, a Hong Kong barrister who specializes in restructuring and insolvency cases. 'This is going to be a long, complex, time-consuming process.'"