A report from WESH. "Homeowners in Central Florida are still struggling to get insurance payouts and rebuild their lives months after Hurricane Milton made landfall in October 2024. Sandra and Arnie Brazis walked WESH 2 through their Ormond Beach home of nearly 40 years after a massive tree crashed through the roof in October. The roof has been fixed, but the home remains empty and gutted by the damage. Repairs have been continuously delayed by the Brazis' insurance. 'They have not come through with what we need to fix. All I'm asking is money to fix our home,' Sandra said. Contractors estimated fixing the Brazis' home would cost between $185,000 and $205,000. Citizens offered them about $80,000. 'What don't you see in this picture? And then they give us only $19,000 to replace all of our living room. Like our living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, appliances. What's that going to give us, you know? And we're insured for much more than that,' Sandra said."

"They hired Chris Gaudreau, a public adjuster, to help them fight the offer from Citizens. He said this happens all the time. Gaudreau said, 'It's the nature of the business. They [insurance providers], you know, they want to underpay, and hopefully, the homeowners will walk away.' As for the Brazis, they remain hopeful. 'I'm not going to give up. No, I will fight to the end,' Sandra said."

The Wall Street Journal. "LaPlace, La., is the sort of town that is becoming a no-go zone for major insurance companies.It is only about 10 feet above sea level and has an alarming history of serious storms and flooding. So Nadia Hart was happy that Lighthouse Excalibur Insurance, a small Louisiana insurer with an 'A' rating for financial stability, was willing to write a policy on her three-bedroom house in town. And many are getting a critical stamp of approval from Demotech, a tiny Ohio rating company with a unique take on grading financial stability. But Demotech’s rosy outlook doesn’t always pan out. Insurers it rated were 30 times as likely to become insolvent as those graded by its main rivals, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of failures since 2017."

"That’s just what happened to Hart’s insurer after Hurricane Ida barreled into southern Louisiana in August 2021. Lighthouse imploded after 16,000 of its 30,000 customers in the state put in claims. Hart is still waiting, 3½ years later, for money to pay for repairs to her home. 'I lost everything,' said the disabled single mother. Hart said that although she had never heard of Demotech, she assumed the A grade it gave Lighthouse meant the insurer could be relied on. 'That’s why I’m kind of shocked they collapsed so fast,' she said. 'You could easily get a $200 billion loss if a Category 5 storm hits Miami,' said John Neal, the former chief executive of the Lloyd’s of London insurance marketplace. 'A small insurer, you get that kind of loss—bang, they’re gone.'"

From NJ.com. "Foreclosures in several New Jersey counties are up significantly from a year ago, according to a report from Property Shark. Of the 12 New Jersey counties included in the New York Metro data area, foreclosures were up in all but two. Somerset saw the biggest increase. Foreclosures were up 54% there, from 24 to 37; followed by Morris County, which had a 50% increase, from 36 to 54; and Hudson County, which had a 49% increase, from 35 to 52 foreclosures. There were 804 foreclosures for all 12 counties in the second quarter of 2025. That’s a 23% year-over-year increase and a 34% quarter over quarter jump. Michael Read, of Bridgeway Mortgage & Real Estate Services in Morristown, said that these numbers aren’t that high. 'The 54 foreclosures in Morris County, in the grand scheme of things, is not a lot when you think about how many loans there were during that time,' he said. 'This is leftover stuff from people playing the system during the pandemic. They took forbearance, stopped paying their mortgage and at some point you run out of runway. I would assume these numbers are going to go up dramatically at some point as the system catches up.'"

"James Hughes of Keller Williams NJ Metro Group in Montclair said one of his clients took forbearance during the pandemic, which adjusted their mortgage rate from 2.5% to 7%. That and increases in property taxes 'put them in a position where they could no longer afford the home,' he said. Those homeowners are now fending off foreclosure, he said, by selling their home. 'They’re going to end up walking away with money because during the time they’ve owned the property, the value went up significantly,' Hughes said."

From Arizona Family. "Some Phoenix homeowners are taking a stand against one of their neighbors, who wants to build a casita. It would hover over the backyard of Joe and Rosanne Schneider, who are doing all they can to stop the project before it starts. 'This will be a two-story building,' said Rosanne Schneider. 'It will be a tower that you can see from the street and all around the neighborhood.' The Schneiders learned about their neighbor’s plans to build the casita a couple of months ago. But the Schneiders insist that what their neighbor is planning is not intended for anyone to live in and the size and height of the structure do not fit in with their small community, off 12th Street and Glendale Avenue in Phoenix. The Schneiders are also worried about the ADU impacting their property value. 'You can’t put a 60 by 21-foot wall 3 feet from somebody’s property and expect their house to maintain its value,' said Rosanne Schneider. 'You can’t have windows peering into your backyard without losing value if you want to sell your house.'"

KRON 4 in California. "Open houses happen every weekend, and realtor Tracey Esling says one day they’re packed, and then the next weekend no one shows up. It’s an unpredictable industry, but she’s starting to notice slow improvements. 'I think we’re seeing a push down, we’re definitely feeling pressure, downward pressure on the price point,' Esling said. The president of the Bay East Association of Realtors says houses are stacking up. The city of Pleasanton, for example, has 145 homes for sale, and homes average 41 days on the market. A big reason for that, according to Esling, is that most buyers have to put at least 20 percent down. 'There was a time when we had the 80-10-10, the 80-15-5 — that allows for 10 percent down and borrowing the other 10 percent,' Esling said. 'We aren’t seeing those as much yet.' The good news, according to Esling, is that with more homes on the market, buyers have room to leverage and negotiate prices."

From Bisnow on California. "Large-scale deportations of immigrant workers lacking permanent legal status have pervaded Los Angeles for almost two months, casting a chilling effect on typically bustling neighborhoods as people take refuge at home. For business owners in neighborhoods that have been hit especially hard, this sheltering in place means drastically decreased foot traffic and missing workers, resulting in decreased revenue that will impact bottom lines — and the ability to pay rent. One generational owner in the Fashion District has already lost a tenant since June 6. The June 6 raid and subsequent immigration actions in the neighborhood have created conditions that are working against his tenants, he said, adding that smaller-scale immigration detainments have taken place often in the neighborhood since early June. 'It created a crunch in cash flow,' he said. 'Folks could not pay their rent as expeditiously as they normally do.' He has two more tenants he says are 'shaky' and considering closing up shop due to the double whammy of fear of more raids and the slowdown in business."

Boston Real Estate Times in Massachusetts. "A rare real estate opportunity is coming to market as The Linden, a newly constructed 70-unit luxury apartment complex in West Roxbury, is set to be sold at a public foreclosure auction on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, at 12:00 PM. 'This is an extraordinary opportunity to acquire a newly built, high-quality multifamily asset in a thriving Boston submarket,' said Marianne Sullivan, President of Sullivan & Sullivan Auctioneers. 'Rarely does a property of this scale, quality, and readiness come to market through foreclosure.'"

The Globe and Mail. "Major players in B.C.’s housing industry are calling on federal and provincial governments to loosen restrictions on foreign investment in Canadian homes to avoid a crash they say will deepen the country’s housing crisis. Hani Lammam, executive vice-president at the long-time Vancouver building company Cressey Development Group, said residential construction in major cities in Canada can’t function without the ability to get capital from somewhere besides Canadian citizens, companies or pension funds. People who are looking to buy are generally unwilling to tie up large sums of money for a long time before a project is completed. 'To rely on the end user is asking too much, to have to make a buy decision four or five years before,' he said."

"In Vancouver, major companies have been laying off staff, projects have been paused and some have declared bankruptcy. Developers with the financial ability to do it are slashing prices, and at least one condo project was cancelled even after presales started. In Toronto, sales have been crashing and the inventory of condos has been rising. A July 15 report from Urbanation, a Toronto company that tracks the condo market, said there were about 24,000 unsold units by the end of June, while sales are at a dribble. The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area saw only 502 condo sales in the second quarter of 2025. 'We have not seen layoffs for builders like this in more than a decade,' said Chris Gardner, CEO of the 5,000-member Independent Contractors and Businesses Association. 'I think people in government don’t understand how serious this is and how rapidly things are unwinding.'"

From Mansion Global. "A shift is underway in London’s ultra-luxury housing market, according to a report released Monday by Beauchamp Estates. Rising crime and cost of living are driving Americans to the U.K., the report said, while most Middle Eastern buyers are from the United Arab Emirates, alongside clients from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. 'With London prices now below their 2014 values and a significant supply of trophy homes available for sale discerning domestic, Gulf and U.S. buyers have seen a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to acquire a large family home in the U.K. capital,' Jeremy Gee, managing director of Beauchamp Estates, said in a statement. Overall, sales of ultra-luxury homes in London dropped 13% to £694 million in the first half of 2025 compared to the same time period the previous year, the data showed. This drop was far less than the 23% drop in sales between 2024 and 2023, indicating a current leveling out of the market, according to the report."

From Ynet News. "The head of Israel’s National Economic Council has recommended curbing banks’ ability to influence apartment pricing in a move aimed at reducing housing costs and easing the country’s growing surplus of unsold homes. Avi Simhon, who chairs the committee examining bank involvement in real estate, said in an interview with Ynet that banks should be barred from restricting developers’ ability to lower prices once a financing agreement has been signed. 'It creates a chilling effect,' Simhon said. 'Developers want to offer discounts to move inventory, but the banks are standing in the way.' Simhon estimated that removing such restrictions could lead to a 10% drop in home prices within several months. Home prices in Israel have risen roughly 35% in the past four years, despite high interest rates, declining sales, and the effects of war. The number of unsold new homes has surged past 80,000—double the typical figure, Simhon said. 'If developers are free to drop prices, others will follow. That’s how we create momentum,' he said. 'This could return prices to 2021 levels.'"

From Business Today. "India’s real estate market is no longer about affordability—it’s about survival, says CA Nitin Kaushik, who argues that middle-class Indians are being priced out of basic housing in what he describes as an economy propped up by hype, hoarding, and black money. In a hard-hitting LinkedIn post, Kaushik compares a ₹2.5 crore 3BHK in Mumbai’s suburbs to a ₹3 crore 3BHK in Dallas, Texas, noting the absurdity of such price parity in two vastly different economies. The real gap, he writes, isn’t the sticker price—it’s the income. India’s average per capita income stands at ₹1.96 lakh a year. In the U.S., it’s ₹55 lakh."

"'The Indian real estate market isn’t driven by affordability,' Kaushik says. 'It’s driven by hype, hoarding, and black money.' The result is a distorted housing market where buying a home has become a financial trap for young Indians. 'A middle-class couple in India has to save for 25–30 years to afford a decent house in any metro city,' he notes. In the U.S., with proper planning, that timeline is closer to five to seven years. Kaushik argues that India’s so-called 'housing boom' is not progress, but 'economic slavery in disguise.' Millennials are left with two bleak options: live with parents indefinitely or take out a 25-year home loan that swallows half their monthly income. Despite 1.1 crore unsold housing units in India, property prices continue to rise. Kaushik attributes this to deliberate market distortion: 'Builders, banks, brokers — everyone’s eating. Except the common man.'"

"The rigged system, he writes, is upheld by institutional players who benefit from inflated valuations and avoid triggering a market correction. Meanwhile, young Indians earning ₹40,000 a month are expected to buy ₹2 crore homes—often with little help and even less financial security. Calling it 'daylight robbery with a RERA stamp,' Kaushik urges a rethink of what we celebrate as aspirational living. 'Affordability died a decade ago,' he writes. 'Let’s stop pretending otherwise.'"