It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The Treasure Coast housing market was controlled by sellers at the start of 2024, but that control waned as last year came to an end. 'When inventory increases, it means buyers gain more leverage in the market,' said Jonathan Lickstein, president of Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors. 'If you’re a seller, it takes longer to sell your home now because of the increased competition. If you’re a buyer, this is a beautiful market for you.'"

"How jammed up is the Southwest Florida housing market? Despite all the hot sales from the pandemic and the structures lost in subsequent hurricanes, Collier County's unsold home inventory is now nearly 200% higher than 2019. Lee County is close to 150% than just a year ago. Well behind Collier's 185% is St. Petersburg at 44% above and Fort Lauderdale at 16%. With more homes on the market to end 2024, the median sold price for the Naples Area Board of Realtors known as NABOR sunk 4% year over year to $600,000, largely driven by condos slipping 14% to $447,750. 'In Naples and Marco Island, the median household income is $91,000,' said Southwest Florida-based Red Fortress Property Management's Michael McVety. 'The income needed to afford homes in the area is $188,000. This creates a 105% affordability gap. Only 30% of local residents can afford homes, leaving the market heavily dependent on external buyers.' Like NABOR at the end of 2024, there are similar trends but more affordable for Lee County-based Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association, which saw condos slide 11.6% to $275,000 and a single family drop of 1.3% to $380,000."

"Home sales across the United States fell to the lowest level in nearly 30 years in 2024. Wall Street Journal reporter Nicole Friedman joined the Texas Standard with an analysis on the status of the housing market. So for a while, we’ve been talking about this being a seller’s market, but with things at kind of a standstill, are sellers still benefiting from these higher home prices, or are they kind of stuck in the sales game? Friedman: 'So it’s kind of a frozen market. People say it’s not really a buyer’s or a seller’s market because there’s this standoff going on where sellers are still remembering what their neighbor sold for a couple of years ago and saying, 'I don’t want less than that.' And so sellers are pretty reluctant to cut their prices unless they really have to sell.'"

"Colorado Springs' residential and commercial markets are expected to largely remain flat in 2025. Increasing costs have also made townhomes and condominiums unaffordable for the average buyer. 'Interest rates combined with homeowners association dues and interests — it's insanity, what we're seeing,' said Tiffany Lachnidt, a longtime real estate agent with Keller Williams Premier. Some insurance companies are declining certain types of coverage for townhomes and condominiums, such as for wind and hail, compelling residents living in the units to pay annual loss assessment dues that can total as much as $9,000 a year. 'Most people living in a townhome or a condo, if they have a hail storm once a year, can't afford $8,000 or $9,000 for an assessment annually. We're seeing a substantial increase in our HOA dues on top of what we're already paying in interest rates and other prices that have gone up,' Lachnidt said. 'Homes are still … selling. We've seen a lot of consumer positivity and a little bit of correction on pricing, and that gets people excited.'"

"One Utah lawmaker wants to establish an ombudsman office to issue advisory opinions for homeowner association disagreements. In the case of Lon Galloway, his online portal to pay membership dues was cut off. 'I feel like during that time I was just going nowhere. They just dug in their heels and just wouldn’t respond. They wouldn’t do anything, waiting for that exact moment where they can finally basically fine me for whatever they wanted at that point. And that’s exactly what they did,' Galloway said. 'So they as soon as that 60-day mark hit, they put a lien on my property. So I had a lien for about $1,800 but then less than a month later, I had about $6,000 negative in my account. And then I think a few weeks later then that, I received a letter from a collections law firm saying that they’re on collections to demand it double again.'"

"St. George resident Rolland Brown found himself with leak after leak on the roof of his 30-year-old unit. He called the HOA board and eventually they sent a roofer out to fix the problem. Then, seven days later, the fixed roof sprung another leak. 'I should be the poster child for what is going on here. In my case, you have these very large communities, some of them are $2-, $3-, $4-million real estate ventures, and you have individuals at the helm, meaning they’re at the board level that have no clue what they’re doing,' Brown said. 'That is scary, and not only that, they know that they have a war chest that they can use against you. And it is just absolutely unbelievable how these HOAs are a self-willed run riot, and they do whatever they want to do, and they know that individuals don’t have the wherewithal or the financial capacity to stick up for themselves, and it’s a nightmare.'"

"Behind the scenes, red flags were emerging, as State Farm faced up to years of internal warnings about its levels of risk. Its own actuaries repeatedly said the California subsidiary’s premiums weren’t high enough and its outside consultants warned of the seriously escalating risk of a devastating fire. Just months before the January conflagration, the insurer slammed on the brakes. It said it would drop around 30,000 homeowners—including 9,500 in neighborhoods that burned last month. That left thousands of homeowners in fire zones without traditional policies, including Sandra Kaler, whose insurance on her Pacific Palisades house wasn’t renewed by State Farm just weeks before the fire. She was forced to switch to the California Fair Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, which offers bare-bones fire coverage at typically high rates."

"By the morning of Jan. 8, her home had burned to the ground. 'It was gone in an instant. There is only a chimney left,' she said of the home where she raised her children. Afterward, the 74-year-old filed a claim with State Farm, hoping they might pay toward her losses on her house, which was recently appraised at $3.5 million. The claims specialist told her he would pray for her family and denied the claim."

"San Jose officials plan to make one neighborhood a 'no return zone' for homeless people after hearing safety concerns from residents — but the mayor couldn’t confirm a date. While the residents are sympathetic to people living on the street who need help, they said the proliferation of unmonitored camps has them scared to step out of their homes because of fires, threats and medical emergencies they face. 'It’s become dangerous for our members living in that area, they have to keep their blinds shut because homeless are peeking in. They’re stealing their water, they’re threatening and a lot of them don’t even know what they’re doing,' Patty Fishburn, a member of San Jose Action, told San José Spotlight. 'We keep getting promises that the area’s going to be abated, and then it never happens.'"

"Federal prosecutors are seeking to take the East Greenwich home of Joseph Molina Flynn, a former Central Falls judge whose offices were raided by FBI agents last month. Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha’s office accused Molina Flynn of lying on a $585,000 mortgage application used to buy the Woodbridge Drive home, which was purchased for $650,000 in 2019. Molina Flynn also falsely claimed he had no employees at his Providence immigration law office, 'despite the fact that contemporaneous bank records show that he made payments to multiple individuals,' according to Special Agent Brendan Cullen. 'The material false statement to the effect that [Molina Flynn’s] law firm had no employees influenced the underwriter and the mortgage lender,' Cullen wrote in a signed affidavit. He admitted to agents that he lied about having no employees because he 'did not have tax returns to submit in support of the mortgage application,' according to court documents."

"12 Elmcrest Rd., Toronto. Asking price: $1,995,000 (November, 2024). Previous asking price: $2.1-million (October, 2024). Selling price: $1,850,000 (November, 2024). Previous selling prices: $1,995,000 (October, 2024); $1,546,000 (January, 2024). A couple purchased this three-bedroom bungalow on a whim for $1.995-million in 2024 but had almost instant buyer’s remorse, not wanting to move from their beloved home down the street. Less than a week after they took possession in October, they put it back on the market. Priced briefly at $2.1-million, it was then reduced to $1,995,000 the next week. They found a buyer to take it off their hands for $1.85-million."

"'On second thought, [my clients] decided they didn’t want to move out of their house' said agent Dino Capocci. 'They knew they might take a hit, because it’s never a guarantee in this market if you buy something, you can sell it right away. A few years ago, you could probably relist this and it would sell for over the [asking] price. But now, the market is tighter. So we took a lower price.'"

"Germany's residential construction industry continues to face a lack of work and difficult conditions as a crisis in the sector stretches to nearly three years, according to a new survey from the ifo Institute published on Thursday. In the ifo Institute's monthly economic survey, 57% of housing construction companies complained about a lack of orders, more than ever before. Lower interest rates from the European Central Bank, which were expected to spur construction, have not yet led to any easing of the situation, according to Klaus Wohlrabe, head of surveys for the Munich-based ifo Institute. 'The crisis in residential construction has become the norm,' said Wohlrabe."

"Builders affected by the economic downturn have gone from turning away work, to fighting for jobs. After 12 months of struggling to survive Wellington builders were cautiously optimistic for the year ahead with a spike in inquiries in January. Master Builder's chief executive Ankit Sharma said there was no doubt that last year was tough for the industry, which saw building activity fall off a cliff, and record numbers of liquidations. For Wellington-based builder Digby Tattle, the past 12 months were easily the toughest since going out on his own - merely surviving was an achievement."

"He said the after years of consistent growth all of a sudden the tap turned off with the scarcity of work triggering a fierce race to the bottom. 'Every job I was pricing there were three or four other builders I was competing with. It got to a point on a few jobs where I couldn't actually go any lower. When you're seeing all these numbers and work's getting tight you can lose hair, for sure. There were a lot of times where I look back and go 'shit, we're lucky we got signed', God knows what we would be doing otherwise.'"

"Significant concerns for the construction industry have been raised after another Australian building company collapsed. Clarke Homes, which is based on the NSW Central Coast, was plunged into administration this week after a meeting with creditors. It owes $3.1 million to a range of stakeholders and there are staff yet to be paid, and homes yet to be finished. Veteran builder Scott Challen told Yahoo Finance that after a horror year for building collapses in 2024, he's not holding out hope that this year will be any better."

"'We will see another 1,000 companies collapse in the next 12 months with all the associated suppliers and input businesses that feed into those companies,' he said. 'We're heading into the abyss. This is going to be bad. It doesn't matter what we do now, nothing is going to turn that around. Everyone that I know is buckling up and hunkering down for this storm that's coming.' According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), more than 3,217 construction firms shut their doors for good last year."

"According to a Knight Frank report, the interest rate cuts in the last quarter of 2024 stimulated the Hong Kong property market. Total residential sales recorded 53,099 transactions and HK$454.3 billion, reflecting annual increases of 23% and 17%, respectively. However, new residential sales volume in December dropped drastically by 64% MoM, falling to less than 900 transactions, according to data from the Land Registry. As the new year begins, developers continue to actively attract buyers by offering various promotions for new projects. For example, the third price list for Montagne in the Southside features 65 flats, with the lowest price at HK$19,366 per sq ft and an average price of HK$21,845 per sq ft after discounts – approximately 22% lower than the initial price list released 18 months ago."