A report from Business Insider. "Some accidental landlords may not even bother trying to sell their original home. In April 2022, Ryan, who works in healthcare, bought a house in southeast Austin for $615,000. His timing couldn't have been worse. (Ryan asked that I use only his first name to protect both his privacy and his pride; 'I feel very foolish, and I don't like that,' he said.) This was right around the peak of Austin home prices, which have since dropped precipitously — by almost 16%, according to Freddie Mac. Ryan estimates the value of his house has fallen to about $450,000, based on other deals in the area. Homebuilders nearby have been offering generous incentives to buyers, which he says would only make it tougher to sell his property. He's also soured on Austin. And he says he's not ready to stomach a loss from a sale of his Austin home just yet. 'I'm going to rent it,' Ryan tells me. 'I'm going to see what happens over the next year and just kind of go from there.'"

"Christopher Story, a co-owner of Story Real Estate, a property-management firm in the Dallas area, says that about half of the inquiries he gets from homeowners these days come from accidental landlords. 'They've ended up in a situation where they can't sell,' Story tells me. Todd Ortscheid, who runs Revolution Rental Management in the Atlanta area, similarly says his region is 'just flooded with accidental landlords.' Of the roughly 15 properties his company signs up to manage each month, Ortscheid tells me, about 12 or 13 belong to people who didn't intend to become a rental owner."

From KFOR TV. "A heads up to homeowners with just a couple months left until severe weather season. Oklahoma ranks as the third most expensive state in the country for homeowners insurance. 'We are seeing people not being able to make their mortgage payments because of their insurance being tied into that and getting foreclosed on,' Jessica Thompson, a realtor with the Oklahoma City Metro Association of realtors, said. Limiting claims can help, according to Thompson. The more we file, the more expensive it gets. 'An insurance company is less likely to want to insure you if you have had three claims,' she said. 'If you can pay cash to or credit to repair you know, say, a roof leak or a broken window, do not file insurance.'"

From BizWest. "Brandon Wells, CEO of The Group Inc. Real Estate, said Realtors and home buyers need to pay attention to insurance, as the last two years have hit the industry hard with natural disasters, from wildfires in Colorado and California to hurricanes in Florida to hail storms along Hail Alley. After the Marshall Fire in 2021, there were 5,000 claims filed, and 74% of homeowners were underinsured; and 36% were severely under-insured which meant they had less than a 75% replacement value. From 2018 to 2023, Colorado as a state saw an almost 60% increase in average homeowners’ insurance premiums, the second-highest in the nation behind Texas, 'and it is expected to continue,' Wells said. 'They’re creating new standards and limiting coverage,' Wells said. 'We’re seeing non-renewals. … We have seen a lot of carriers exit the state and some people not be able to find insurance for their property, and that ​becomes very dangerous for the homeowner.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "First, some good news for insurance consumers in South Florida: The average annual cost to insure a single-family home increased at a lower percentage rate in Broward and Miami-Dade counties than in Florida’s other 65 counties, according to the state. Now the bad news: Average premiums in Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties are still the highest in the state. According to these figures, the statewide average premium for single-family homeowners in September 2024 was $3,668. After the Sun Sentinel reported that statewide average figure in January, Barbra Nightingale, a reader emailed to say that the number seemed 'way off.' She added, 'I'm sure there are many seniors like me who are facing similar issues.' Nightingale said that she's paying more than $9,000 a month to insure her 2,600-square-foot house in Hollywood Hills, up from $3,500 five years ago."

The Associated Press. "Before a wildfire ravaged their street in northwest Altadena, Louise Hamlin and Chris Wilson lived next door to each other in nearly identical houses. Amid the rubble and ash, little is left of their historic neighborhood. Hamlin’s home was privately covered by Mercury Insurance, but Wilson was forced onto the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan — the state’s bare-bones insurance program — when SafeCo declined to renew his policy last May. Wilson paid nearly 60% more in premiums related to the fire than Hamlin, for less than half the coverage. 'That’s why a lot of people call it 'The Unfair Plan.’ said Amy Bach, executive director of the consumer advocacy group United Policyholders."

"Wilson pays a $2,000 premium for the FAIR Plan that sets his maximum payout at $686,000, including $100,000 for living expenses while displaced. Meanwhile, Wilson has struggled to even talk to a FAIR Plan representative. Wilson said he feels haunted by his choices. Wilson said he couldn’t get comprehensive replacement cost coverage on the FAIR Plan because his roof was too old. Instead, he ended up with what is known as 'actual cash value' coverage, which greatly limits the payout based on the physical depreciation of what was lost. 'We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars and that’s very, very painful,' said Bach of United Policyholders. With a baby on the way, Wilson said he can’t fathom living in limbo on the FAIR Plan forever, and he’s thinking about leaving California if private insurance remains out of reach. 'I don’t want to have to be prepared to maybe lose everything again,' Wilson said. 'Stuck paying for an insurance that doesn’t cover anything. You don’t want to live in a risky area. You don’t have the safety net.'"

From Bloomberg. "Economic losses from the fires that tore through Los Angeles County in January range from $95 billion to $164 billion, according to a new report by University of California at Los Angeles economists Zhiyun Li and William Yu. Insured losses may cover only a fraction of the costs for fire victims, the UCLA economists said. Many property owners seeking to rebuild were underinsured, while those without mortgages may have had no policies or were dropped by private insurers. Other homeowners were covered by California’s FAIR plan, a bare-bones fire insurance that limits repayments to $3 million, far less than the costs of replacing structures and possessions in high-end neighborhoods such as Malibu and the Pacific Palisades. The median home price in the stricken areas before the fires was $2 million, according to the report. 'The house is a large portion of wealth of a family,' Li said. 'That means they have to pay out of pocket to rebuild. It means a disaster for their wealth.'”

From Bisnow. "As Elon Musk, President Donald Trump and Democrats fight a pitched battle over who controls federal funding, America’s housing providers could find themselves catching shrapnel. The administration has already targeted specific initiatives, and the operators of federally funded programs and recipients of federal aid like housing vouchers are anxiously waiting to see if their funding survives. Musk said Sunday that the DOGE team would use the system to halt payments to some federal contractors, including Lutheran Family Services, a faith-based organization that has been aiding refugees, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the country’s main provider of aid abroad."

"'The only way to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money is to follow the payment flows and pause suspicious transactions for review. Obviously,' Musk posted Monday on X, the social media platform he owns. 'Naturally, this causes those who have been aiding, abetting and receiving fraudulent payments [to get] very upset. Too bad.'"

The Daily Hive in Canada. "Property in the Coal Harbour area of Vancouver can be pretty pricey, but one home that sold for nearly $4 million seven years ago has just been listed for sale for way less. L302 at 1550 Coal Harbour Quay is a corner unit with spectacular views. Since it was last sold in 2018, it has had quite the listing history, with eight listings, including the most recent one — eight listings and no buyer so far over seven years. In March 2018, the apartment was sold for $3,889,000, slightly under the asking price of $4,088,000. Just over a year later, it was listed again in October 2019 for $4,580,000. After that, it was listed several more times, with the home’s value dropping more each listing. It is now listed for $3,399,000. According to a realtor we spoke to, it’s not like there aren’t people still profiting in the Vancouver housing market. However, in cases like this, they believe it’s still the lingering effects of the offshore bubble from 2016."

The Globe and Mail. "Looming U.S. tariffs are threatening to throw the Canadian homebuilding industry into turmoil. In the preconstruction condo market, individual investors have accounted for at least 70 per cent of the purchases, according to condo research firm Urbanation Inc. But they have abandoned the market because new condos are no longer profitable. Preconstruction condo sales in the Toronto and Hamilton region hit their lowest level in nearly three decades last year. That’s because mom-and-pop investors can’t charge enough rent to cover their mortgage payments and other condo expenses, and the units have not been appreciating in value as they once did. 'A trade war with the U.S. could put another nail in the coffin for the new condo market,' said Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation."

Radio New Zealand. "House prices are likely to remain broadly flat for the next five years, Infometrics chief economist Brad Olsen says, and New Zealanders may need to come terms with not being able to 'bet the house on' strong capital gains. He said there was not necessarily more risk, but it was the case that the returns were unlikely to be as strong as they were in the past 'when there did seem to be virtually guaranteed returns.' 'You can't bet the house on it any more when you could before and people did. Money was so focused on housing. There's still a lot of it focused on housing but the idea 'oh well I'll speculate on the housing market and make serious bank [money] quite quickly' … I don't know many speculators at the moment are going 'I'm about to make some big money'. Anyone who's doing that has probably lost money by now.'"

From Domain News. "Prices for more expensive homes are falling faster than prices for cheaper homes. Sydney’s upper-end market – homes worth $1.78 million and above – fell 2.2 per cent in value in the past three months. CoreLogic head of Australian research Eliza Owen said the upper end of the market had been underperforming since late 2023. She said buyers with budgets north of $1 million might be finding relatively good value. 'This is not to say that places are becoming affordable at that segment but for those in the multimillion-dollar price range there are some substantially discounted properties,' she said. Melbourne’s upper end is down 10 per cent from its peak, but the lower end is down only 4 per cent from its peak, for example."

South China Morning Post. "The property industry, one of the most interest-rate-sensitive sectors, is particularly at risk. The S&P Asia Pacific Reit index, which tracks the performance of listed real estate investment trusts (Reits) in the most established markets in the region, is down 12 per cent since early October, when traders began to pare back bets on cuts in US rates. Divergences within Asia's real estate markets are most apparent in the residential sector. In Hong Kong, whose currency peg to the US dollar ties the city's borrowing costs to those of the US, sharp increases in US interest rates in 2022-23 were a key factor behind the 27 per cent plunge in second-hand house prices since the August 2021 peak, according to data from the Centaline City Leading Index."

"In a December report, Morgan Stanley said 'higher [US interest] rates for longer, continued deflation in [mainland] China, and weaker consumer sentiment are keeping us from turning positive' on Hong Kong's housing market. Now in its fourth year of a downturn, the market faces a double whammy of oversupply - unsold inventory held by developers has reached its highest level since 2003 - and a 'negative carry' whereby mortgage rates are higher than rental yields."