A report from Bloomberg on California. "On a cul-de-sac in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades, what was once a four-bedroom wood-and-stucco house is now a pile of rubble. The property went on the market 10 days after flames ripped through the community last month, with an asking price of $999,000. More than five dozen offers later, it’s now in escrow for 'a good chunk more' than $1 million, according to the agent who listed the property. The transaction also shows the difficult choices homeowners are making in the aftermath of the disaster. The seller, Terri Bromberg, is getting much less than the home’s pre-fire value rather than waiting to rebuild on the property she’s owned for 20 years. 'I can just tell you, generally, that people selling are going to take a huge financial hit,' Richard Schulman, the listing agent, said in an interview."

"The house on Avenida de la Herradura, built in 1976, last sold in 2005 for $1.54 million. It was valued as high as $2.7 million, according to Zillow estimates. Bromberg, a widow nearing her 70th birthday, said she hasn’t 'crunched the numbers' to figure out how much she is losing, but most of the insurance claim will go to repay the property’s $656,000 mortgage. 'Almost everyone in the Palisades is underinsured,' said Anthony Marguleas, a real estate agent who lost his home in the fire. 'People making decisions quickly are the ones who need money and that’s their only option,' said Tracey Kardash, a real estate agent working with clients who lost homes in the Eaton Fire. 'Or they are just trying to resettle and move on.'"

From Fox 4 Now. "Many people dream of owning a home in Florida. However, it’s not always cost-effective for snowbirds, so many turn to those homes into short-term rentals to offset the costs. The trend started back in 2020. But a local realtor explained why this strategy is no longer paying off. 'Five years ago, you could buy an Airbnb, and you would do very well, financially. Currently, I don't think that they are doing as well as they were,' said local realtor Trevor Caldwell. New data by the City of Cape Coral shows there were more than 9,000 short-term rental listings in the city in 2024, which is nearly double the 5,000 that existed in 2020."

"'There are over 200 houses that are currently able to be rented as of today, just in the MLS. That's not, including Airbnb, VRBO, Home Away any of those other vacation rental sites, so there's, there's not a shortage of inventory to rent, and we're at the height of rental season,' said Caldwell. He says this surplus in Airbnbs is overpowering the demand, even in peak rental season. He says the owners of one house he is selling are experiencing this issue. 'This property is absolutely beautiful. I mean, this view, this location. I mean, you're minutes from downtown Cape Coral, and you know, there, there might be five of them on this canal, whereas before there was only one,' said Caldwell."

The Sun News in South Carolina. "Luxury apartments have exploded in the Myrtle Beach area over the past five years. However, many of those are showing a high vacancy rate, which raises the question of whether Myrtle Beach has become over-saturated with these types of units. 'I don’t necessarily think there’s ever really oversupply. I think more supply is good, right, if anything, because at the end of the day, it’s going to drive competition within these buildings,' said Spencer Correnti, the CEO of Alkaline Advisors. If people aren’t renting apartments, it forces companies to lower prices to meet demand, Correnti said. But prices can only go so low, as owners still need to pay the mortgage and overhead costs."

"Currently, there are a handful of apartments in the Myrtle Beach area with a high vacancy rate. Apartment complexes typically want a vacancy rate of 7% or lower, said Carol Hall, the lead housing voucher choice specialist with the Housing Authority of Myrtle Beach. Census data shows Myrtle Beach has a 22% rental vacancy rate and North Myrtle Beach has a 71% rate. The national average is 5.5%. These numbers may be attributed to the Myrtle Beach area’s high number of short-term rentals, said North Myrtle Beach spokeswoman Lauren Jessie in an email to The Sun News. More luxury apartments are also being built."

Washington Post. "For decades, Daelynn Moyer easily secured job offers in the tech industry, working her way up from a computer maintenance technician to a manager leading teams of engineers making software. Now, Moyer, 55, isn’t so sure her future remains in tech. Since being laid off from Indeed last year, Moyer has applied to more than 140 jobs but received no offers. She and her wife are considering selling their house near Portland, Oregon, and buying land to farm instead — worried whatever job she finds won’t cover her mortgage. 'It would be a meager existence, but it would be fulfilling,' Moyer said. 'I would no longer feel like a no longer useful commodity.' Eliot Lee, 52, a project manager at a Utah software company, said after losing his job several times, he has adjusted the way he looks for new work. Recruiters told him they would often receive more than 1,000 applications for a single position. To rise above the influx, he would stay up late to be the first person to apply."

The Indianapolis Star. "When Daryl Randall saw convicted real estate fraudster Bert Whalen partying at a Carmel bar in 2023, he couldn't believe his eyes. Randall is among scores of investors across the country who say Whalen defrauded them with the sale of dilapidated Indianapolis homes that he promised to fix up and rent on their behalf. In all, an IndyStar investigation found, the two men sold more than 700 homes from 2017 to 2019, leaving a trail of lawsuits and disgruntled investors behind them. The allegations led to an FBI investigation and a federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted Whalen in November of 2019. Federal prosecutors said the crime was part of a 'Ponzi scheme' that resulted in millions of dollars in losses for investors nationwide, including in New Jersey. 'He’s out partying his (expletive) off all the time,' Randall said. 'I've received multiple calls from people who have seen him wining and dining at restaurants. Myself and others want to know: How is this even possible?'"

"Randall, who operates a construction design business, said he purchased multiple properties from Whalen and paid him for rehab work that was never done. When Randall went to sell the properties, he said he received a massive tax bill for property taxes that Whalen was supposed to have paid. 'This guy has created financial destruction for so many people that trusted in him,' Randall said. 'We can’t understand why he is walking free as if nothing happened. Does the law not pertain to this person? What's the explanation?'"

"'What good is being found guilty if they just keep letting you roam freely harming people?' said Cole Peterson, a Wyoming investor who purchased two homes through then-business partner Clayton Morris and Whalen. 'That's just the opposite of justice.' Peterson's experience was like that of many investors. In 2017, he borrowed money from family members and dipped into his retirement savings to purchase two homes for $94,000, which included the cost of rehabbing the properties. He later discovered the homes were nothing like the nicely renovated turnkey properties Morris featured in his YouTube videos. One house didn't even have a front door. The condition of the homes was particularly shocking because Peterson had been provided with a signed leasing agreement and had received rental payments, despite the fact that the home clearly had been uninhabited. 'That’s why I think it was a Ponzi scheme,' he said."

From Bisnow. "More than 100 properties owned by fractional real estate investing platform Landa are in the hands of an independent manager, who claims the startup's owner has still been trying to collect rents in defiance of a judge's order. A long-simmering dispute between Landa and two of its lenders has escalated into a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court over $35M in loans tied to single-family rental houses. The manager appointed to oversee the properties said in court filings that many are vacant and in a state of disrepair and neglect."

"A judge issued an injunction in December, ordering Landa to turn over rents, bank accounts and operations of 119 houses to a manager appointed by the lenders, Viola Credit and L Finance. Late last month, the manager said Landa's executives had disregarded the injunction and drained $724K from the properties while directing tenants to pay their rents to a new bank account. The lawsuit is just the latest problem for Landa, which was founded in 2019 with the hopes of making real estate investment accessible by creating a user-friendly app and selling fractional shares of rental properties for as little as $5. But six years after its founding, Landa’s tenants have told Bisnow they live in squalor, and some investors fear a total loss of their money. Landa owns more than 200 single-family rentals in the Atlanta area and dozens more throughout the Southeast, as well as a handful of Brooklyn apartment buildings. Israel-based CEO Yishai Cohen is an entrepreneur in his late 20s with no real estate experience who managed to secure $33M of venture capital funding to launch the platform."

Kelowna Now in Canada. "Normally, after the holidays, real estate sales pick up as people return to routine and buyers and sellers again become motivated. That not only happened in Kelowna in January, but it happened with a surge. The benchmark selling price of a single-family home in January 2025 was $1,030,600, up 5.4% from the same month last year. In the post-pandemic boom, the benchmark selling price of a typical single-family home peaked at $1,131,800 in April 2022."

"'With an uptick in activity, it's important to remember that homes priced in line with current market conditions (tentative recovery) tend to sell more quickly, while those clinging to past market values tend to linger on the market and risk going stale,' said Kaytee Sharun, president of the 2,600-member Association of Interior Realtors. For example, if a potential seller lists their average single-family home at $1.2 million, it will likely sit unsold until the price comes down to closer to $1 million. That same potential seller might have snagged that $1.2 million in boomtime 2022, but not today when potential buyers shop around more, negotiate more and expect more."

From Quinte News in Canada. "The Central Lakes Association of REALTORS (CLAR) president says housing sales were up in almost all of their regions in January, indicating a strong start to 2025. Vicki Sweeney says there has also been a big increase in the number of listings year-over-year. Hastings County recorded an average home price of $511,637 in January 2025, with 102 properties sold. This marks a slight increase from 100 sales in January 2024. However, active listings more than doubled year-over-year, rising from 249 to 514. Prince Edward County also saw an increase in sales, rising from 15 in January 2024 to 21 in January 2025, while the average price declined from $704,597 to $679,824 over the same period."

"In Northumberland County, the average price declined to $639,707 from $709,097 in January 2024, with sales decreasing slightly from 82 to 79. Active listings saw a notable increase of 27% year over year. Peterborough recorded 89 sales in January 2025, with an average price of $605,229, reflecting a 5.3% decrease from $639,268 in January 2024. Despite the drop in price, active listings rose significantly, increasing 76% from 195 in January 2024 to 345 in January 2025."

The Chosunilbo. "South Korea’s five largest construction firms have set their 2025 revenue targets below their actual earnings in 2024—an unusual move, as companies typically aim for at least modest year-over-year growth. The combined revenue targets for these top builders are approximately 8 trillion won ($6 billion) lower than their total revenue last year, effectively wiping out the annual earnings of a mid-sized construction firm. A sluggish housing market is a key factor behind the industry’s struggles. In provincial areas, unsold apartment inventories continue to grow, discouraging new housing supply, while in the Seoul metropolitan area, redevelopment and reconstruction projects have stalled, limiting new contracts for major builders."

"According to Statistics Korea, fourth-quarter construction output in 2024 plunged 10.1% year-over-year to 30.44 trillion won ($22.7 billion), marking the steepest drop since the 2008 global financial crisis, when output fell 15.3%. 'With interest rates remaining high and rising labor and material costs pushing up construction expenses, projects are being delayed or even canceled,' an industry official said. 'Beyond housing, securing large-scale infrastructure projects is also becoming increasingly difficult, making this a full-scale crisis for the industry.'"

From Bloomberg. "Once one of the country’s biggest growth drivers, China’s property market has been in a downward spiral for five years with no signs of abating. Real estate values continue to plummet, households in financial distress are being forced to sell properties, and apartment developers that have racked up enormous debt on speculative projects are on the brink of collapse. There was some optimism that the government’s measures to end the crisis had been working to reinvigorate the market, but on Jan. 27, government-linked developer Vanke forecast a record $6.2 billion annual loss, reigniting concerns about the sector and showing just how deep the problem runs."

"The property craze was powered by debt as builders rushed to satisfy expected future demand. The boom encouraged speculative buying, with new homes pre-sold by developers who turned increasingly to foreign investors for funds. Opaque liabilities made it hard to assess credit risks. The speculation led to astronomical prices, with homes in boom cities such as Shenzhen becoming less affordable relative to local incomes than those in London or New York. After years of insatiable demand from buyers, the market ground to a halt. On top of the millions of square feet of unfinished apartments that indebted developers left to gather dust, the imbalance in supply and demand meant 400 million square meters of newly completed flats remained unsold as of May 2024."