A report from Bloomberg. "Many American cities have suffered after the disruption of a crucial hometown industry. The nation’s capital never has, until now. Workers caught up in the federal purge meanwhile are calculating how far their savings can stretch. Jenny Carlson Donnelly, an entomologist who had been working on malaria issues at the US Agency for International Development, started to look for a new job after the Trump administration all but shut the agency. Donnelly isn’t sure whether she and her husband and two children will be able to stay in the home they bought in the Washington suburb of Laurel, Maryland, in 2023. 'Not knowing whether I’m going to find a job in a timely manner and if we can pay the mortgage and the bills is stressful,' Donnelly said. 'We have to take things week by week, and we’re not the only ones. If all of these agencies are empty, that’s definitely going to impact the city. It’s not going to be the same after all of this. I don’t understand the end goal. I think come June, we’re going to see a big exodus.'"

"Claude Labbe, a realtor with Douglas Elliman in McLean, Virginia, said that a client who works for the federal government got a new job with his agency in Colorado. But he decided to rent out his house in Washington because of the softening sales market and is now leasing a place in Colorado because he’s not sure what will happen to his job. 'People are making decisions and then they continually have to reassess,' Labbe said."

The Hartford Courant. "The spring homebuying season — traditionally the busiest of the year — hasn’t made much of an appearance in Connecticut for five years. 'They’re not as trigger happy, right?' Michael Barbaro, a real estate broker and president of SmartMLS, said. 'They recognize that they are paying a higher interest rate, so they are taking their time a little bit more, but they are still out there out there, and they are still in the market.' For two decades, there wasn’t any substantial gain in home values — when adjusted for inflation — until the onset of the pandemic buying frenzy, 'There was no appreciation at all in Connecticut house prices,' said Jeffrey P. Cohen, a professor of real estate and finance at the University of Connecticut School of Business in Storrs. 'So, we’re making up for what we didn’t see over the last 20 or 30 years. This is not a bubble. We’re catching up to where we should be.'"

"A potential seller may look around and see rising prices and want to pump up the list price, according to Kurt Potter, a real estate broker at RE/MAX Right Choice Real Estate in Glastonbury. 'Well, seven days on the market right now is like, what 30 used to be,' Potter said. 'So if you’re overpriced from the get go and you slow that process down, you’re really shooting yourself in the foot.'"

Florida Today. "Cocoa Beach has expanded its enforcement of short-term vacation rentals to include condos and other multifamily residential properties as the city continues to grapple with the growing industry. The measure was approved unanimously by the Cocoa Beach City Commission April 17, restructuring the fees for short-term rental operators in the city. Lisa Bosch, a property owner in Cocoa Beach, said she's concerned about the new fee structure. 'At this point I don't even see it as legally supportable,' Bosch said. 'What's going to happen to a small apartment building with those fees is it's going to put us under.'"

News 12 Brooklyn. "A city program could put thousands of New Yorkers at risk of losing their homes - and many don’t even know it’s happening. The city's 2025 tax lien sale is back after its pause since 2021. More than 11,000 Brooklyn homes are on the list. Resident Katherine Arevalo, says she was blindsided after inheriting a home when her relative passed away. 'This is just a situation where some debt happened, yes,' Arevalo said. 'But it’s a shame that houses are taken away this way.'"

The Los Angeles Times. "When Diane Hvolka's home burned down in January, the real estate attorney didn't lose just her Pacific Palisades residence but a link to her teenage daughter, who died two years ago. The tragic loss of her only child — whose room she had left untouched — has left her determined to rebuild on her Glenhaven Drive property. But so far, Hvolka said, she's been stymied by the California FAIR Plan, from which she bought coverage last year after her insurer of more than a decade suddenly dropped her. 'I want to be on the land where my daughter grew up,' said Hvolka, 47, who said she was promised a $550,000 check from the insurer in early February that has yet to arrive. 'This is so frustrating. I've been chasing them ever since.'"

"Maral Donoyan and Wilmer Harris have the unwanted distinction of living in the 91001 ZIP Code in Altadena. Their garage partially burned, window seals melted and their home was infiltrated by smoke and ash, they said. 'It smelled like the inside of a barbecue pit after a long day of barbecuing,' said Harris, 61, after returning to the 3,900-square-foot house. What happened next stunned them. They said the insurer refused to conduct environmental testing or remediate the smoke damage, suggesting they call the cleaning company Molly Maid. The couple, now in their third Airbnb, has since taken out a Small Business Administration loan for more than $200,000 so they can pay for their own cleanup. They also have retained the same law firm that sued the state plan this month over its smoke-damage remediation policies. 'The night of the fire we left thinking we had insurance coverage,' said Donoyan, 59. 'There was nothing that jumped out at us as to what a crazy ride we were about to take.'"

The Globe and Mail. "Over the past quarter-century, Canada’s housing market has brushed off every crisis that has come its way. It may finally have met its match in the erratic policies of U.S. President Donald Trump. Sales have plummeted in recent months, pulling prices down with them, while the stock of unsold homes – many of them shoebox-sized city condo units that were popular with investors but did little to meet the needs of families – is piling up. Last month, home sales slumped 9.3 per cent to the lowest level since February, 2009, a month that marked the pit of the Great Recession. In Toronto, only 5,011 units changed hands, the lowest number for any March since 1995, according to Toronto Regional Real Estate Board records. Prices also slid in March for the third straight month, with the Canadian Real Estate Association’s broad-based MLS Home Price Index down 8.5 per cent on an annualized basis so far this year."

"Many Canadians who were actively house-hunting in January have since fled the market. 'I have multiple clients who have put their plans to buy on hold,' said Mike Hattim, a mortgage broker in London, Ont., with Dominion Lending Centres. While the inventory of unsold homes is building – for instance, the number of active listings in Ontario is at a 10-year high – builders themselves are putting down their tools. Homebuilding activity 'is extremely slow right now, we’ve had a depressed market for almost two years,' said Larry Masseo, a planner and president of the Waterloo Region Home Builders’ Association."

"'The starting point for housing is tougher this time, because valuations got so stretched the last few years,' said Robert Kavcic, a senior economist at Bank of Montreal. Even though house prices since their peak in 2022 have already corrected 10 per cent to 20 per cent, depending on the market, 'affordability is still stretched,' he said."

CBC News in Canada. "Financial adviser Paul Trainor said he's been hearing a lot of anxiety from Islanders these days about the impact of Trump's global trade war on their investments, including their RRSPs. 'Everybody's concerned about it,' Trainor told CBC's Mainstreet P.E.I. He said part of his role lately has been reassuring clients that short-term market drops are normal, and not a reason to act out of fear. 'Don't sell, because if you sell, somebody's going to buy it and make a good profit six months from now. So the big thing to get out to the public is 'Do not panic… It's going to be volatile, but it's going to settle,' he said. For people nearing retirement, Trainor said most financial advisers would recommend avoiding volatile markets altogether and investing instead in safer options like Guaranteed Investment Certificates, or GICs."

"Despite the shaky markets, Trainor, who is also a mortgage broker, said now might actually be a good time to enter the housing market, given that interest rates have been trending downward since last summer. In addition to lower interest rates, Trainor pointed to government supports such as P.E.I.'s Down Payment Assistance Program, a pilot program to assist qualified residents of Prince Edward Island with modest incomes to buy a first home. 'We don't know how long those are gonna last,' he said. 'The reality is that it's a good time to buy, but I think the interest rates are still going to go down over the next six months. It's probably a good idea to really take your time to find that home that you might be able to talk down $10,000, $20,000 to get it into your budget and work with — if you don't have the down payment — work with the powers that be to get the assistance that you need and to get into a home.'"

Radio New Zealand. "House sellers cut their asking prices by a combined $63 million in the first quarter of this year, according to Realestate.co.nz. That figure compares the original asking price of a property when it was first listed with the price when it was sold or withdrawn. Spokesperson Vanessa Wiliams said vendors were trying to price their properties to meet the market, which reduced the need for price cuts once properties were listed. 'Nationally, the average asking price has been trending downward over the past year, and stock levels are at decade-highs. We're starting to see sellers come to market with more realistic expectations from the outset, which reduces the need for major price cuts later on.'"

"The biggest drops by dollar value were in Auckland, down almost $10m, Waikato down $7m and Wellington down almost $6m. 'All up, that's millions of dollars no longer circulating in the market. Buyers aren't paying it, and sellers aren't receiving it.' The smallest drops were in Wairarapa, where vendors reduced an average of $24,346 from their asking prices. This was followed by Otago (down $26,220) and Hawke's Bay (down $26,490). Williams said the drops could be a helpful benchmark for buyers and sellers. 'For sellers, it offers a realistic view of how much they may need to negotiate. For buyers, it can give a sense of how much wriggle room might be available when making an offer.'"

"High levels of listings meant buyers had the balance of power. Although house values had increased a bit, that was likely to be muted. It could take some time for that backlog of property to be sold off, CoreLogic property economist Kelvin Davidson said. 'I think it'll take a while to erode some of those listings. We might not see much of a shift until spring or summer, maybe even into this time next year. Mortgaged investors remain on the comeback trail. Lower interest rates are certainly helping investors by reducing the cashflow top-ups out of other income sources that are generally required on a rental property purchase,' Davidson said."