A weekend topic starting with KTLA. "The average price of a home in Southern California may be near a record high, but the number of buyers is far below where it normally is, the Orange County Register reports. As detailed by opinion columnist Jonathan Lansner, the average price of a home in Southern California this April was $820,000, 'just $1,125 below the record $821,125 set in February.' 'Sales are 25% below the 21-year sales average for April,' he said. 'And this was the 36th consecutive month that the homebuying pace was below the historical norm for all months.' Compare that to the dire real-estate market of the Great Recession of the late 2000s, in which 'local sales … were below average for only 17 straight months,' he said."

"So are we headed for another housing market crash? Unlike the 2000s, during which there was a larger supply of homes than demand for them, there is currently 'just simply not enough supply,' said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. 'So the economics of supply and demand, if there’s a shortage, prices simply cannot crash,' Yun said."

From News 8 Now. "There is never a good time to buy a home — except in hindsight. As first-time home buyers try to make the leap, the prices and interest rates seem daunting. Prices their parents paid 40 years ago seem like bargains now, and they despair of ever being able to afford their dream house. The median sale price for existing homes in the U.S. is around $438,466, showing a 1.4% increase year-over-year, according to Redfin. Shockingly, in 2000 the median home price was $119,000! Then again, the median household income was $42,148 in 2000, compared to $75,000 today. Based on averages and medians, housing has been a good investment over the long run."

Yahoo Finance. "The US is in the middle of the typical peak homebuying season, but all signs suggest that the market remains sluggish. Mortgage rates aren’t helping. Many would-be buyers find they’re able to rent a much larger home than they could afford to buy. For decades, home price appreciation has been outstripping earnings growth. In the last 25 years, home values have more than tripled. The steepest climb came between 2020 and 2022, when pandemic moves and ultra-low mortgage rates spurred a buying frenzy across the country. Meanwhile, median incomes from 2000 to 2023 did not quite double. A family making the median US income of around $80,000 could comfortably afford to spend around $2,400 a month on housing, using conventional affordability guidelines. If they put 15% down on their home purchase — roughly the average-sized down payment — they could afford to buy a home costing up to $543,000 with a 3% mortgage rate. But if their mortgage rate is 7%, their buying power goes down to $356,000. That’s less than where the median home is listed today. At current mortgage rates, the median earner can’t afford to buy the median home."

"In comments on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged the market’s challenges. 'We have a longer-run shortage of housing, and we also have high rates right now,' Powell said. 'I think the best thing we can do for the housing market is to restore price stability in a sustainable way and create a strong labor market.'"

Community Impact in Texas. "Shae Cottar, chair of the Houston Association of Realtors, said supply chain issues and record-low interest rates during the COVID-19 pandemic affected inventory levels, which were as low as 0.47 months of inventory locally in February 2022. Homebuilders have since helped replenish that stock across the Greater Houston area, he said. 'I think that while a lot of times it's easy to look at the last five years and feel like that is the way it is, that's normal; if you look on a historical timeline, I think what we're actually seeing right now is a normalizing of the market,' Cottar said at the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce luncheon. 'We're getting it back to something that's more sustainable because those 3.5% interest rates … and those price points of $50,000 and $100,000 over asking—those things are not sustainable.'"

Space Coast Rocket in Florida. "The Brevard County real estate market, once red-hot, is settling into a more balanced—and at times slower—pace in 2025. According to the Space Coast Association of REALTORS® (SCAR) and Space Coast MLS, key metrics through April 2025 point to a clear shift: sales are down, prices are leveling, and inventory is building. Meanwhile, the median sales price for single-family homes sits at $375,000, a 2.3% decline year-over-year. Though this isn’t a crash by any means, it reflects a cooling off after several years of rapid appreciation. Homes are also taking longer to sell: the average number of days on market in April was 66, giving buyers more breathing room and forcing sellers to adjust expectations. Sellers: You’ll need to price competitively and prep the home properly. Gone are the days of listings selling in 24 hours above asking."

ABC 10 in California. "A Live Oak city councilman was arrested amid an investigation into a 2024 arson and insurance fraud. According to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, three men were arrested Thursday on $1 million warrants. They were identified as: Aaron Pamma, 30; Simren Pamma, 28; and Gurtej Singh, 28. Aaron Pamma is a city councilmember and vice mayor for Live Oak, an unincorporated city in Sutter County about 50 miles north of Sacramento. The investigation began in February 2024 when an arson fire damaged a farmhouse on Ord Ferry Road in Butte County. Cal Fire investigators found Singh bought the house and orchards in April 2023 using a USDA mortgage program. A month later, Singh allegedly transferred 50% ownership of the property to Aaron and Simren Pamma."

"Prosecutors say Singh bought an insurance policy on the house three months before the fire and allegedly made several false/misleading statements in the policy application, as well as after the fire. 'They have all been friends for years, investing in properties, that is what we all do up here,' said Michael Barrette, an attorney representing Aaron Pamma. Investigators say the three men sold the property shortly after the fire and collected payment from insurance, yielding a gross profit of around $200,000. Barrette pushed back on the allegations that the men profited from the deal. 'To the extent that they claim that they made $200,000 on this, they don’t have all the information,' Barrette added. 'Rehabilitating the orchard, rehabilitating the property, in fact if anything, the evidence is going to show they lost money on this sale.'"

The Vancouver Sun in Canada. "Another round of layoffs among Vancouver developers is a sign of the seriousness of the troubles facing residential construction and more layoffs are likely, industry leaders say. Wesgroup Properties LP said this week that it had to lay off 12 per cent of its workforce across all departments in the face of what CEO Beau Jarvis called 'a cost of delivery crisis.' This round of layoffs comes six weeks after the marketing firm Rennie Group reduced its head office by 31 employees — a quarter of its staff. These are just the most visible examples of cuts that have been building for months, according to Wendy McNeil, CEO of the Homebuilders Association of Vancouver. 'What we’ve been seeing here is the condo market, the multi-family segment of the industry is in dire straits,' McNeil said."

"Wesgroup, whose portfolio includes the huge River District neighbourhood in south Vancouver, said in a statement that it remains fiscally sound, but acknowledged the company has had to delay several projects because the economics 'no longer support' them. Jarvis said projects across the country are being cancelled or put off. 'We are delivering housing at a cost that people cannot afford to purchase.'"

CTV News in Canada. "Builders and those working in the trades are expressing concern about a significant slowdown in London and area new housing market. Figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) show that new home starts are down by 72 per cent. Among those concerned is tradesperson Nate Lamb. The father of three young children has noticed that work is becoming scarcer. It definitely slowed down for us; hope it picks up.' The CMHC figures back up his observations. The agency reports 420 new housing starts between January and May. That compares with 1,328 during the same period in 2024. The gap represents a 72 per cent drop."

"'It’s a tough time, for sure, there’s no doubt about it,' acknowledged Jared Zaifman, the CEO of the London Home Builders Association. He concedes many of his members are having a tough time attracting buyers. With sales off and new builds delayed, some workers are struggling to stay employed. And while Lamb is confident he’ll stay employed, he is worried about friends already impacted. 'I know a lot of people might make twice as much as me but can’t afford a down payment on a house right now.'"

The Globe and Mail. "For those of us who grew up in the decades after the Gulf War, certain shocks to the global economy seemed more an artifact of economics textbooks than reality. Our formative macroeconomic experiences were not supply side shocks such as the 1973 OPEC embargo or Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, which drove up the price of oil and thus the costs of production. We were far more acquainted with drops in demand from repeated stock market bubbles and financial crises. In the almost 30 years between the end of Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global business cycle was more or less defined by demand. As both the U.S.-led global order and market liberalization were ascendant, it was not supply chain disruptions and oil prices that posed the greatest threat to people’s livelihoods, but the interrelated challenges of asset bubbles, currency crises and sovereign defaults, all of which are primarily demand-side risks."

"It is rather astonishing how stark this pattern was in that period. From domestic crises such as the housing crash of 2008 and the dot-com bubble in 2000, to events from abroad such as the Asian financial crisis in 1997 or the Argentine sovereign default in 2000, most macroeconomic shocks for nearly three decades were financial in nature. What these events had in common was that, in each case, an asset value collapsed."