A report from Yahoo Finance. "'We fell pretty far in terms of prices,' said Scott Turner, the owner of Riverside Homes, a spec builder in Austin, Texas. He estimates that home prices in the urban parts of the city where he focuses dropped 30% from their peak to their trough. 'That’s left builders with inventory that’s very difficult to sell. What that does, obviously, is have a chilling effect on new starts.' In Killeen, Texas, about an hour north of Austin, real estate agent Stephen Harris has seen new construction homes in the suburbs sell for $50,000 less than what comparable units fetched in 2022. 'People find themselves nervous about getting into one of these newer homes,' Harris said. 'But I think the incentives and buydowns, all of that is enough to sway a lot of people because it makes it attainable.'"

"Builders with large amounts of inventory they hope to clear are in a tough spot, said Dillan Krieg, a senior research analyst at John Burns Research and Consulting. Incentives like rate buydowns will likely remain a key strategy to get customers in the door. 'Builders really do not have a lot of pricing power right now,' he said."

Associated Press. "The number of homes on the market is up sharply from a year ago. Listings jumped between 44% and 68% in many large metro areas, including San Diego, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Washington D.C. As homes take longer to sell, prices have started dropping in many markets. The median listing price was down last month from a year earlier in most of the nation's biggest 50 metro areas, including a more than 6% drop in Austin, Miami and Kansas City. Ryan Vasko and his wife, Whitney, recently navigated both sides of the housing market equation in their move from Oregon to Colorado. The couple searched for a home in the Denver metro area, which is among the markets that’s had the biggest increase in homes for sale this year. Active listings soared 67.3% in March from a year earlier. As listings jumped, the median listing price fell 5.6% to $585,000. Last month, the Vaskos closed the deal on a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house in Littleton, Colorado, about 10 miles south of Denver, that had been on the market at least three weeks. The price: $680,000, or $5,000 above the list price. Still, the seller agreed to cover the cost of lowering the couple’s 6.9% mortgage rate for the first two years of the loan to 4.9% and 5.9%, respectively. 'It gives us a little wiggle room, if we need it,' said Vasko, noting that he’s hoping to eventually refinance to a lower fixed rate."

"Another plus for buyers: Lower prices. The median listing price fell in March from a year earlier in 32 of the 50 largest metro areas, including Kansas City, San Francisco, Miami and San Diego. 'Pretty much every buyer is asking for concessions, unless they know that they are in a multiple offer situation,' said Afton Hartmann, a Redfin agent in Denver. Gilad Hoffman, executive director at a synagogue, knew his home search was over when he spotted a four-bedroom, 2.5-bath house for sale in Escondido, 30 miles northeast of San Diego. He felt the home, listed by the estate of its late owner for $1.079 million, was 'severely underpriced.'"

"Hoffman, 41, paid $13,000 above the asking price for the home in February as he fended off bids from three other prospective buyers -- including one offering to pay all cash. Elevated mortgage rates didn’t dissuade Hoffman. He accepted a 7% rate in exchange for a credit from his lender to put toward closing costs. 'My philosophy going into the whole thing was: get into something now that you can afford with these high interest rates,' Hoffman said. 'Hopefully in two years, they’ll come down and then you can refinance. And that’s still my intention.'"

From Realtor.com. "Home sellers continued to cut prices last month at a historic pace, as they sought to lure spring homebuyers. The share of active listings with price reductions hit 17.5% in March, up from 15% a year ago and a higher share than any March since at least 2016, according to the Realtor.com® economic research team. In some markets where inventory is piling up rapidly, price reductions are even more common. Phoenix leads major metros with 33% of listings price reduced, followed by Tampa, FL (29%); Jacksonville, FL (27%); San Antonio (25%); and Orlando (25%). San Jose, CA, and Las Vegas saw the largest inventory gains, both rising 68%, followed by Denver at 67%. Still, most metros continue to have fewer homes available than they did pre-pandemic. But a handful of markets have now exceeded that 2017 to 2019 average inventory count. They include Denver, where active listings are now 75% above the pre-pandemic average, followed by San Antonio (50%) and Dallas (45%)."

From KOMO News. "The debate continues over whether Washington needs legislation to control the rising cost of rent. House Bill 1217 passed the House and is now headed for an executive session in the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee on Monday. On Friday, committee members heard testimony for and against setting a rent increase cap at 7% annually. 'Mom and Pop housing providers are quitting. They feel targeted in this bill,' Anna, a landlord and real estate agent from Yakima, testified. 'We love our tenants, but we cannot afford to rent if we cannot turn a profit,' Rick Glen, who represents 660 landlords in Yakima, told the Senate Ways and Means Committee Friday afternoon. 'We have to be able to pay the bills. We can’t be priced out of existence.'"

The Tampa Free Press. "Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) is sounding the alarm about the state of the U.S. housing market, blaming the Biden administration for creating a looming subprime mortgage crisis through reckless Federal Housing Administration (FHA) policies. In a letter sent Friday to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, Scott praised the Trump administration’s early steps to reverse those policies and called for urgent reforms to protect low-income homeowners and taxpayers. In the letter, Scott cited alarming data showing that nearly two-thirds of FHA-backed borrowers in 2024 had debt-to-income ratios exceeding 43%, with some reaching as high as 57%. He compared these figures to conditions leading up to the 2008 housing crisis, warning that many borrowers were being set up for financial failure."

"'The Biden-Harris administration left a ticking time bomb in our housing market,' Scott wrote. 'They allowed heavily debt-burdened borrowers to take on more debt, and provided a government guarantee for those mortgages. The result is a spike in serious delinquencies we haven’t seen since 2008.' Scott particularly criticized the FHA’s 'Payment Supplement' policy, introduced in February 2024, which allows the agency to cover missed mortgage payments and reduce borrowers’ monthly payments for up to three years. While intended to prevent foreclosures, the missed payments and reduced payments are tacked onto the principal, increasing the overall debt load and, in many cases, exceeding the value of the home."

"'This only delayed and worsened the consequences for homeowners,' Scott stated. 'It trapped borrowers in a growing debt spiral — and left U.S. taxpayers on the hook.' Scott argued that the policy not only pushed vulnerable families deeper into debt but also constrained the already-tight housing supply by preventing homes from reentering the market through foreclosure. Calling for immediate reform, Scott urged Secretary Turner to return to 'fiscally prudent underwriting standards' and to begin dismantling the Payment Supplement program to avoid a 'calamitous flood of foreclosures.' 'The American dream of homeownership should not come with a government-sponsored trapdoor,' Scott said. 'President Trump and Secretary Turner are right to act fast to clean up this mess. We must ensure that federal housing policy supports families — not burdens them with debt they cannot afford.'"

The Canadian Press. "For more than a century, Oshawa, Ont., has been the city of autoworkers. The auto industry has gone through ups and downs since its inception. But nothing has prepared them for the cloud of uncertainty brought on by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs that include 25 per cent duties on imported vehicles, with temporary reprieve for some parts compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement. Trump has said his goal is to move manufacturing jobs back to the United States. That means hundreds of thousands of jobs are on the line in Ontario alone, including those in the automobile production and supply chain in Oshawa. The president of Unifor Local 222, whose members include autoworkers at the GM assembly plant in Oshawa, said the union's latest fight is different from typical challenges in the sector. 'This is an unusual situation to be in because we're really in a fight with one man and his small group and his administration,' Jeff Gray said in an interview at his office, with 'Elbows Up' shirts folded on the table in front of him."

"Carl Stitt was among the workers who returned to the plant once it reopened. Now, he is worried about another round of layoffs. Without a job, he said he won't be able to bring food to the table or pay his mortgage. 'What he is doing, like these tariffs, this is going to hurt the Americans even worse than Canadians, and he needs to back off,' Stitt said of Trump."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "947 Purcell Ct., Kelowna, B.C. Asking price: $1,559,000 (Jan. 27). Previous asking prices: $1,748,800 (June 12); $1,698,000 (July 5); $1,599,000 (Oct. 24). Selling price: $1,345,000 (March 18). Days on the market: 279. It took a long time to sell because the out-of-country sellers wanted to price it close to assessed value, which didn’t line up with the market last summer, said listing agent Richard Deacon. His clients purchased the house in 2017 but had never lived in the home. They intended to retire there and had been renting it out. Their plans changed, and they decided to sell."

"'We suffered a little bit because we handcuffed ourselves a little with a slow start. That’s fine. It was a strategy,' said Mr. Deacon. 'We had a couple of showings, and feedback was that it was very high [in price]. So, we pivoted towards a better price. I think this listing broke the record for showings that I’ve ever had, about 80 showings over the life of the listing, from June last year.' 'A lot of it is original, with pink bathtubs, gold faucets. I had advised my clients it was a slippery slope because they weren’t here. If they could do these renovations themselves, it’s one story. But it was not practical, and I couldn’t see the market would bear them spending $200,000 on updating this house, because that’s what it needed,' said Mr. Deacon. 'It’s also a very good lesson for people, in a market that’s shifted, to not be swayed by friends and think they can get more for a house. If a realtor recommends a certain price, you should probably listen.'"

Agence France-Presse. "The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell by 13.2 percent -- its biggest drop since 1997 during the Asian financial crisis -- as a wider selloff played out across in Asian markets also spurred by China's retaliatory levies. At a securities brokerage in Hong Kong's finance district, where more than a dozen elderly investors stared at numbers flashing red on computer screens, the mood was grim. A woman in her nineties surnamed Tam said she 'hated' Trump. 'He cost me HK$200,000 ($25,700),' she said. '(Trump) won't let it go, he's making a mess,' said another retiree surnamed Lee. 'Everyone around me is losing money.'"

"Lawyer Ray Chan, 30, was among those left unscathed on Monday, as he sold all his Hong Kong and US shareholdings two weeks ago, netting gains in the seven figures. 'We're clearly entering a bear market but I'm prepared,' Chan told AFP. 'When (Trump) said there would be tariffs on April 2, I could guess where things were headed.'"