A report from ABC News. "Crowds of current and recently fired federal workers gathered at a job fair in Maryland on Saturday to search for new career opportunities as the Trump administration continues its purge of federal workers. Daniel Leckie was a historic preservation specialist for the General Services Administration who got fired in February. He attended the job fair with his wife and 6-month-old baby. Leckie said he was fired for being a probationary employee and was just one day away from fully satisfying his probationary period. Leckie and his wife just bought a new home in Maryland, making their first mortgage payment just a few weeks ago. He was also working toward completing the public service loan forgiveness program. 'I had about maybe two or three months left before I would have satisfied the terms of my student loans. It's an $80,000 proposition for our family. That's what we based a lot of our financial future on, including deciding to start a family and taking out a mortgage and becoming homeowners here in the D.C. area,' Leckie added."

The New York Post. "A slow-motion crisis is unfolding in Florida’s condo market. Florida’s aging condominiums are losing value. And nearly 1,400 buildings are now blacklisted from receiving mortgage financing, making those apartments an even-tougher sell. 'There are real people in these units that may be displaced,' Orest Tomaselli, CEO of Strategic Inspections, which advises condo boards nationally on how to shore up their reserves, 'that may lose their nest egg and may lose tremendous amounts of value in their units.' At Miami’s Cricket Club, a 50-year-old waterfront tower burdened with $134,000 special assessments per condo, 23 of the building’s 217 condos are currently for sale, according to brokerage Compass. In a Miami market where the median condo price was $445,000 in the fourth quarter of last year, condos at the Cricket Club are seeking buyers with prices as low as $220,000 for a 1,950-square-foot two-bedroom on the 19th floor. (The owner initially sought $330,000)."

"'A lot of people moved here to be able to retire and live their life here, and they’re on fixed incomes,' said Kathleen DiBona, a 50-year resident of Hollywood who serves as president of the Hollywood Beach Civic Association. Many owners whom DiBona knows in Hollywood, a city dotted with older towers, are seeking to off-load units with little success. 'What happens if nobody can get a loan to buy a unit in your building?' says Joseph Hernandez, a Miami-based partner in the real estate group of law firm Bilzin Sumberg. 'It essentially makes the units in your building unsaleable and it makes the value of those units go down. We may see a lot of condo projects go into distress.' There are roughly 1.1 million condo units in Florida that are 30 years old or more, and subject to the new law, according to the Florida Policy Project. Of those, 58% are concentrated along the Southwest and Southeast coastal counties, in places like Tampa, Clearwater and the greater Miami metro area, including Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County."

The Miami Herald in Florida. "With unit owners now seeking relief, Miami lawmakers in key positions in state government are pushing back, saying they won’t soften a law created to prevent another catastrophic building failure. But a Herald/Times investigation shows that experts who advocated for the key component of the law viewed it not necessarily as a means to prevent another collapse, but as an opportunity to force associations to invest in their buildings, knowing it would be financially impractical for a number of unit owners. 'The building collapse was probably not at all due to financial conditions or lack of reserves,' said Margaret Rolando, a Miami attorney who helped create the task force. 'We think, we don’t know, that it was probably due to some construction defect.'"

"Carolyn Hill, the association board president of Sunrise Lakes Phase 4 Inc 1 in Broward County, said about 15 units were currently going through foreclosure because of the maintenance reserve requirements. 'For the people that are on social security, this is going to be a major impact to them. They can’t do anything to add to their income,' Hill, 72, said. 'This is going to be a major reduction to their funds.' Valerio Morabito, a Miami developer who told the Herald/Times last month that he is in negotiations with three different associations looking to 'terminate' their governing structure and sell. He said mandatory reserves combined with expensive repairs triggered by mandatory inspections are 'creating a lot of stress on homeowners associations that are now considering bulk sales.'"

Yahoo Finance. "Homes are lingering on the market longer in many parts of the country, giving buyers more negotiating power and helping keep a lid on prices for the first time in years. Price cuts are also on the rise, a sign that sellers are growing more motivated. In Colorado Springs, Colo., real estate agent Kevin James Bond said he’s been counseling prospective sellers who bought in recent years at top prices that they might not make money on their homes. 'They’re not flying off the shelves,' he said. 'This isn’t 2020 or 2021 where if you didn’t get in in the next four minutes, you didn’t get the house.'"

"These days, many of the biggest buyer's markets are in coastal Florida, where condo owners, in particular, have been struggling with rising insurance costs and hit with higher fees and assessments. Cape Coral, Miami and Fort Lauderdale each had more than 10 months of available supply in January, according to Redfin. Real estate agent Scott Neal in Richardson, Tex., has seen similar trends in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The most desirable properties in his region are commanding multiple offers, while ones deemed overpriced or in need of major upgrades are remaining on the market. 'Buyers are not willing to pay top market value for something that they think is not top market quality,' Neal said."

5280 in Colorado. "I remember the way my real estate agent presented the house on South Lafayette Street. 'It’s a great little place on a pocket park, she said, but there are already at least 20 offers, more than half of them cash. Do you still want to see it?' I did, because that’s what the Denver real estate market in the pandemic summer of 2020 required one to do. You had to act a little crazy to be able to negotiate the insanity. I didn’t have $700,000 in cash—not even close. But I had to keep up with the market if I wanted to escape the 730-square-foot apartment that was making me feel so darn lonely. I couldn’t let 40 existing offers or the prevalence of as-is purchases or the historically low inventory or the fact that I had to double-mask and wear latex gloves to go inside a home discourage me. But I probably should have. 'It was a bad time to be a buyer,' says Britt Armstrong, a broker associate with the Tom Gross Team at Kentwood Real Estate and my real estate agent back then. 'The pace was frenetic.'"

"It was also unhealthy. 'There was a tsunami of emotional buying,' Armstrong says. 'Bolstered by easy money and the freedom of remote work, people who’d had golden handcuffs removed them and were given golden wings. With three percent interest rates, people could move anywhere—and lots of them moved to Colorado.' Now it all feels like a fever dream, and the current market is more like a nightmare—for buyers, sellers, and those who made snap decisions five years ago. 'There’s PTSD from Denver’s pandemic market,' Armstrong says. 'I keep trying to tell people it’s not the same as four years ago, but we’re still dealing with the emotions from that time.' Today’s market—at least as of mid-January—would be more of a buyer’s market, with lots of slow-moving inventory, save for high interest rates that mean many will have to settle for smaller, less appealing houses with more expensive mortgages. Sellers aren’t happy either. 'The days of 10 cash offers on the first day are gone,' Armstrong says. 'Many houses are sitting for 60 or 90 days.'"

"And, Armstrong says, she’s seeing regret among those who left their hometowns and family during the pandemic for a Colorado adventure. 'A house is just four walls and a roof,' she says. 'Relationships and lifestyle make a difference. Many didn’t find their dream here and are now going back home.'"

The Washington Examiner. "Depending on the Californian talking, price controls are the angel or the devil in the debate about the Golden State’s insurance nightmare. Insurers are required to run proposals for rate increases by the California Department of Insurance, a process which often takes months and ends with rejection. Another factor that has affected prices centers on catastrophic modeling, which was not permitted under Prop. 103. A few weeks before the Los Angeles fires, California became the last state in the nation to allow insurers to utilize the software that predicts the probability of loss and quantifies the potential financial impact of future extreme events, such as fires."

"One resident who has a home in the Los Angeles area, Dr. Houman Hemmati, was recently looking at homes that were 'incredibly underpriced for what they are' and suspected it was because they lay in fire hazard zones. 'I called to see if I can get insurance. You can't get a mortgage without insurance….insurance brokers told me that they had a tough time finding anyone who would insure…in one case, it was 20,000 a month, and in another case, it was 40,000 a month, which is more than the mortgage,' he continued. 'It shows you that there are people who had to reduce the price of their home or been unable to sell because potential buyers couldn't get a mortgage.'"

"'It looks like they're being mean to Californians, but the reality is, they can't afford to sell coverage there, not at the rates that are being allowed to be charged,' Dr. Brenda Powell Wells, the risk management and insurance program director for East Carolina University, told the Washington Examiner."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Veteran mortgage broker Tuli Parubets likes to send her clients e-mails showing how their home is rising in value. This year, she’s taking a break. 'I have not been sending them out because I don’t want to scare people,' she said. It’s been widely reported that roughly 1.2 million people will renew mortgages this year at rates that will be much higher for the most part. Less understood is the fact that these renewers bought around the time the real estate market was peaking. Prices have come down since then on a national average basis, and rebounds have been inconsistent."

"Being underwater – owing more on a mortgage than the property is worth – is a discouraging position for buyers, especially given the hype over homes as investments. Victor Tran of TMG The Mortgage Group noted that fixed-rate mortgages set up during the pandemic were at ultralow levels, which meant a higher proportion of payments went toward knocking down the principal. Mr. Tran offered an example of how someone who bought a house for $500,000 and made the minimum 5 per cent down payment could easily find themselves underwater. If your home is worth less than you owe, Mr. Tran advises you to keep that information to yourself. 'Try to negotiate with your current lender and keep your fingers crossed.'"

From ABC News. "As a single mother raising a teenage boy in southern China, a 1,500 yuan ($330) monthly wage cut has hit Ms Wei hard. 'I could save 1,000 yuan every month in the past, but now I have to use my savings to pay [part of] my mortgage,' said Ms Wei, who didn't want to use her full name for privacy reasons. Ms Wei said she only has enough savings to supplement her mortgage payments for the next two to three months. As an accountant in China, Ms Wei works in the finance sector where the government has been cutting and capping workers' pay."

"China's financial sector is led by state-owned banks and institutions, which are ultimately controlled by the government. Ms Wei's monthly salary has been reduced from 6,000 yuan to 4,500 yuan and her year-end bonus slashed by more than half. 'They [the government] started to cut everyone's salary last July. It's a heavy blow to my life,' Ms Wei said. While her wage started shrinking six months ago, late in January Chinese authorities announced a new round of finance sector pay cuts to 'reduce costs and increase efficiency.' China's property prices have dropped about 30 per cent since they peaked in 2021."

"For Ms Wei, the challenges of raising a school-aged son meant she desperately wanted to spend more time with her family. 'I've made the decision to ask for leave to care for my son. If they don't approve, I'll quit.' But with so many people leaving the finance sector, the prospect of finding a new job concerns Ms Wei. 'What I'm worried about is that if I quit, I could end up with a worse job,' she said. 'The economy is so bad and the competition [for work] is brutal.'"