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The Question At The Forefront Of Everyone’s Mind

A report from the Jackson Hole News and Guide in Wyoming. “‘We do feel the feeding frenzy is over, said David Viehman, an associate broker at Engel&Volkers. ‘And though we have some new inventory, we think a lot of the new inventory is overpriced. We’re just seeing things slow down. … We’re not seeing panic buying anymore.'”

“Viehman said he and his colleagues saw houses sold two times in a year at twice the price the second time around. During the height of the pandemic property rush, said Katie Brady at Compass real estate, ‘you could put any price on something and people were willing to pay it. ‘Now we’re starting to see some price reductions. … There’s some pushback,’ Brady said.”

The Denver Post in Colorado. “Metro Denver’s housing market slowed in July, with closings down from June and the inventory of available homes remaining tight but rising at a record rate, according to the monthly report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. A typical year in metro Denver sees a 3.1% gain in active listings between June and July. But this year’s monthly increase of 29.9% is the largest ever recorded for July, according to the report. Buyers closed on 5,820 homes and condos in metro Denver last month, down 12.3% from June’s count and 21.3% from July 2020. The inventory of residential properties available for sale at the end of July was 4,056, a nearly 30% increase from June.”

“‘As the trends shift away from a hot summer market, the question at the forefront of everyone’s mind is ‘Are prices going to come crashing down?’ Andrew Abrams, chairman of the association’s market trends committee, said in comments accompanying the report.”

The Tribune Live. “As the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education finalizes the details of a historic consolidation, officials on the campuses of eight of its 14 universities are struggling to deal with another consequence of declining enrollments: entire wings and floors of dorms sitting empty. That prompted system Chancellor Dan Greenstein to propose allocating $12.5 million this year to help pay the debt on the buildings. The schools, Greenstein told the board, ‘have debt on residence halls that is not easily repaid with the number of residents in those halls.'”

“The newer dorms — suite-style residence halls featuring private bathrooms and kitchenettes — replaced traditional residence halls where students typically lived two to a room and shared communal bathrooms. They were part of a building boom financed with bond debt. University leaders said the schools needed to upgrade facilities and that the stunning new ‘green’ buildings would be a boon to enrollment.”

“By last fall, enrollment statewide had declined by 25,800 students — down 22% from that high point a decade earlier. Systemwide, about one in five beds were empty. Privately, some say officials simply ignored population trends and overbuilt. Several faculty members at IUP recalled rosy chatter a decade ago that predicted enrollment would grow by another 10,000 students. There are few models for alternative uses that might help pay for such facilities.”

The Oxford Eagle. “Nelson Brothers Taylor Bend 2, LLC. filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy through the Mississippi Northern Bankruptcy Court Wednesday, the same day the property was scheduled for public auction due to foreclosure. The sale quickly closed with no bidders on the property. Since, the property owners filed for bankruptcy prior to the sale, the auction was annulled and the sale did not go through.”

“The bankruptcy filing does little to ease concerns among complex residents, whose water and internet services were disconnected by utility providers in July due to lack of payment by the complex owners. Although water service has been restored, residents have told city officials they are dealing with a litany of ongoing management issues, including broken air conditioning units, moldy washing machines, low-quality water and uncut grass.”

The Commercial Observer on New York. “Rights to a 100 percent ownership stake in a Brooklyn apartment development is headed for a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) foreclosure sale, according to an auction notice shared with Commercial Observer today. The foreclosure action was initiated against the borrower, Hello Living, by the company’s lender, 1580 Nostrand Avenue LLC — a shell corporation of Madison Realty Capital — following the Brooklyn-based developer’s default on a $3 million mezzanine loan last year. Hello Living is a multifamily landlord led by Eli Karp, who has developed a number of properties throughout Brooklyn. When completed, the project in Brooklyn’s Prospect Gardens neighborhood will feature 210 residential units. Ninety-five of the apartments are 99 percent complete, according to offering documents.”

“The Corbin Group specializes in bankruptcies, restructurings, foreclosures, stalled construction projects and loan sales. The team has been busy during the COVID-19 pandemic selling 19 buildings in Chapter 11 last year, and is in the rocess of executing bankruptcy transactions for 17 other properties besides 150 Nostrand Avenue. Corbin’s group closed $92 million in bankruptcy deals during the third quarter of 2020, which included a stalled Upper East Side condo conversion project for $51 million.”

From USA Today. “In June, when real estate agent Nitin Gupta took two clients to see a new housing development in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, a sales representative for the builder told him all the units were gone. The builder had planned to sell 100 homes to investors, out of roughly 1,500 he was planning to build. Investors had come to the site the day before, the rep told Gupta, and another agent had pitched the homes to a group of buyers in China over Zoom.”

“‘He said, ‘The people were saying, I want one, I want two, I want three. Boom, boom, boom,’ Gupta recalls. ‘The agent sold about 50 to 60 homes and the builder had sold 130 homes the first day.'”

“Chinese clients have been the top buyers of U.S. residential homes by sales-dollar-volume for a decade, and continue to rank No. 1 even as sales from April 2020 through March 2021 plunged 70% from the same period a year earlier. The downward trend was reflected across international buyers of all nationalities (China is followed by Canada, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom) who purchased 3%, or $54.4 billion, worth of U.S. existing homes from April 2020 through March 2021, a 27% decrease from the previous 12-month period.”

“Gupta, in Texas, says he’s been fielding five calls a day about homes. His state is a popular destination for buyers from India. One of the biggest attractions of the area has been affordability. But the prices have shot up. Less than two years ago, Gupta says, new construction homes could be purchased for $250,000. Now the price of entry is closer to $400,000. ‘Texas is the new California,’ he says.”

The New York Post on California. “Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan took a $75,000 loss on their $6 million Beverly Hills home last month, accepting a $5.925 million offer on July 7. Tatum, 41, and Dewan, 40, paid $6 million in 2015.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “Toronto’s housing market extended its slowdown in July with the fourth straight month of declining sales and flattening prices, as the province reopened more widely and the desperation to find bigger properties eased. ‘The motivation to sell or buy has gone down quite a bit. The urgency is not there,’ said Katie Steinfeld, realtor with On The Block Realty Inc., who works in the Toronto region. ‘If it is going to be a bidding war, they are shying away and not wanting to compete. Buyers are coming in with lower offers.'”

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This Post Has 73 Comments

  1. ‘houses sold two times in a year at twice the price the second time around’

    The winnahs!

    ‘The people were saying, I want one, I want two, I want three. Boom, boom, boom’

    More winnahs!!

  2. ‘this year’s monthly increase of 29.9% is the largest ever recorded for July’

    Again, rushing for the exits at a perceived price top is a sign of speculation. There is not, nor has there ever been a shortage of shacks.

  3. ‘water and internet services were disconnected by utility providers in July due to lack of payment by the complex owners’

    It’s important to make a profit for many reasons.

    ‘They were part of a building boom financed with bond debt…Systemwide, about one in five beds were empty. Privately, some say officials simply ignored population trends and overbuilt. Several faculty members at IUP recalled rosy chatter a decade ago that predicted enrollment would grow by another 10,000 students. There are few models for alternative uses that might help pay for such facilities’

    The REIC would like to just forget the student housing bubble, but it hangs around their necks like a dead crow. There’s few clearer examples of a mania. All of it luxury, financed by phony money looking for a place to die, and back slapping, greedy cities and overpaid university hacks.

    1. “…Privately, some say officials simply ignored population trends and overbuilt….”

      With the possible exception of “WeWork”, Luxury Student Housing is the biggest scam ever devised.

      How do those cap rates look now, investors?

    2. *** “The bankruptcy filing does little to ease concerns among complex residents, whose water and internet services were disconnected by utility providers in July due to lack of payment by the complex owners. Although water service has been restored, residents have told city officials they are dealing with a litany of ongoing management issues, including broken air conditioning units, moldy washing machines, low-quality water”

      well, you wanted it: you got it. “Housing is a RIGHT” sez the green-haired menopausal matronly skyscreamers.

      however, you can’t demand what KIND of housing. yet.
      it’s a simple proven fact that low-class scumbags will always lower property values by ruining neighborhoods with their slovenly lifestyles. just look around to see where people move to and from.

      law & order. stability. the reasonable chance to make a better life for yourself & your heirs. the right to profit from the fruit of your labors.

      pretty simple.

      1. Although water service has been restored, residents have told city officials they are dealing with a litany of ongoing management issues, including broken air conditioning units, moldy washing machines, low-quality water

        I guess they really thought these things provide and fix themselves by magic. Moldy washing machines? How about the non paying tenants take up a collection and hire someone to fix it? Just kidding, we know that will never happen.

    3. “They were part of a building boom financed with bond debt…”

      – The price of money (I.e. interest rates) has been distorted by the central planners/ command and control wizards at the Fed in order to drive Communist social engineering policies. This is true for both CRE and RRE. Led to gross malinvestment and misallocation of capital. Read massive overbuilding in CRE + housing bubble 2.0 in RRE. The U.S. Fed = former USSR Gosplan. Same outcomes. Idiots in both cases.

    4. This is the kicker:

      There are few models for alternative uses that might help pay for such facilities.

      Off-campus apartments can at least be converted into couples or even family workforce housing. The suite-style dorms, inside campus limits, can’t be used for ANYthing, except possibly on-campus housing for the custodial/landscaping staff. The old style dorms with communal bathrooms are good for little else except homeless shelters. And the parents don’t want either of those folks anywhere near their precious daughters.

      1. “The old style dorms with communal bathrooms are good for little else except homeless shelters. And the parents don’t want either of those folks anywhere near their precious daughters.”

        Oxide, that exact thought crossed my mind as I read the section re. about the excess college dorms: mainly, that it would be perfectly logical & solve a lot of problems for the “unhoused”, but we know there is no way in hell the college ecosystem would allow them into their safe space diploma factory.

        “Logic for Liberals 101”.

        Sam Kinison screams
        Thornton Mellon laughs

  4. ‘took a $75,000 loss on their $6 million Beverly Hills home last month…paid $6 million in 2015’

    2015? Well that’s some red hotcakes right there!

    1. The REIC-sponsored financial journalists manage to always forget to include inflation when reporting real estate investing losses. But I can help:

      CPI-U
      June 2015 237.657
      June 2021 270.981

      Sale price in real 2015 dollars:

      $6,000,000*(237.657/270.981) =
      $5,262,147.

      So in real dollar terms , it was a loss of about $738,000, before considering HODLing and sales transaction costs.

  6. ‘The motivation to sell or buy has gone down quite a bit. The urgency is not there…If it is going to be a bidding war, they are shying away and not wanting to compete. Buyers are coming in with lower offers’

    Yer out of speculators Katie. Happens every time.

  7. Fairview, TN Housing Prices Crater 17% As Rural Lot And Land Prices Tumble

    https://www.movoto.com/fairview-tn/market-trends/

    As one national land broker explained, “There is a globe full of land were fully 95% of it goes undeveloped. Land is essentially worthless dirt. If you paid more than $500 an acre, you got ripped off.”

  10. I find this to be amusing …

    Ethereum software upgrade activated; ether, bitcoin down | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/technology/ethereum-major-upgrade-activated-ether-stays-lower-2021-08-05/

    (snip snip)

    “Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain, went through a major software upgrade on Thursday, which is expected to stabilize transaction fees on the network and potentially reduce supply of the ether token.

    “The adjustment called Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 changes the way transactions are processed on Ethereum by providing clear pricing on transaction fees in ether paid to miners to validate transactions and ‘burning’ a small amount of those tokens. The burned tokens will be permanently taken out of circulation.

    “EIP 1559 is part of a batch of software upgrades called London. Thursday’s Ethereum event is called a London hard fork, which means miners or developers have to download London to remain connected to the network.

    “Market participants have said EIP 1559’s activation should raise the price of ether as the move will cut its supply. But so far the second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization was weaker on the day.”

      1. Today is Thursday, August 5th and Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States.

        The 2020 election was stolen.

    1. An interesting thing

      AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka dead at 72. Believed to have died of a heart attack.

      1. Announced by Schumer on the Senate Floor.

        Oh, now they care about the white working class… 🙄

  15. “The newer dorms — suite-style residence halls featuring private bathrooms and kitchenettes — replaced traditional residence halls where students typically lived two to a room and shared communal bathrooms. They were part of a building boom financed with bond debt. University leaders said the schools needed to upgrade facilities and that the stunning new ‘green’ buildings would be a boon to enrollment.”

    Just a waste of money and further isolating new students? Isn’t the two to a room and communal facilities all part of the college experience? I’m sure tuition will go up to cover that.

    1. I’m wondering about those bonds that financed the construction. Who bought them, what were the the terms, are they traded, will they be repaid in full? Inquiring minds, etc.

    2. free year round housing for seniors who want to go back to college and work helping and mentoring students.

    3. I’m sure tuition will go up to cover that.

      You haven’t seen what room and board costs at school these days. While many State U’s are restricted on how much they can raise tuition every year, room and board often has no restrictions. And some schools are now requiring that undergrads live on campus the 4 full years.

      1. “…room and board often has no restrictions. And some schools are now requiring that are now requiring that undergrads live on campus the 4 full years….”

        ‘luxury student housing’ a complete and total scam.

        What’s next? Restrictions/surcharges for eating off campus? Parking fees for visitors? Many courses post a textbook list written by the professors teaching the class that cost hundreds of dollars each.

        The money pit college campuses have become is totally disgusting.

    1. @RWMaloneMD: “If this holds true and is verified, this is looking more and more like ADE”

        1. I’m far more concerned about another lockdown as well as the forcible vaccination of my child without my consent.

          1. Canada is opening staffed vax centers in schools. This will help out where parents can’t find a pharmacy on their own.

          2. “help out”

            Should someone so much as touch my son, that will be the last of them.

          3. I am 100% convinced that someone is forcing the FDA to formally approve the Pfizer vaccine by labor day so that every school and company can legally require vaccination (or at least try to) of their employees by, say, Halloween. That’s the 18 month mark.

  18. No free cheese for you if you refuse the clot shot (from 9News):

    VERIFY: Yes, if you are fired for not getting a required vaccine, you can be denied unemployment benefits

    Now bare that arm, citizen!

      1. I just work for myself. I have no need for an employer, and nobody tells me what to do. I even choose not to work for certain clients (rarely).

  19. “Shares of Robinhood Markets Inc fell on Thursday and were on track to snap a four-day winning streak, after the newly public online brokerage said early investors may sell nearly 98 million shares.”

    Suck ’em in, shake ’em out.

    “Robinhood’s shares were last down 22.5% at $54.52 a day after they jumped more than 50%. The company went public on July 29 at $38, with its shares initially falling below the public offering price before galloping higher.

    “In a regulatory filing here submitted Thursday the company registered for the sale of up to 97.9 million of shares by early shareholders and noted that the company will not receive any of the proceeds. The filing angered some retail investors, who groused in online forums such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets.”

    😁

    Of course this massive selling was totally unexpected. Oh, wait …

    “The potential future share sales, which depend on meeting certain stock performance targets, were outlined in the company’s IPO prospectus here in early July.”

    “Prospectus”, an interesting word. Whatever could it mean?

    Robinhood slides 22%; early investors file to sell 98 million shares | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/robinhood-stocks/update-3-robinhood-slides-22-early-investors-file-to-sell-98-mln-shares-idUSL4N2PC2J3

    1. ZeroHedge via Twitter: The Robinhood “holders” could have sold in the IPO. Instead they waited 5 days until a manipulated ramp. How is the SEC not all over this

    1. Back in the day, that sort of thing was enough to knock a Presidential candidate out of the race. Now it’s a Thursday.

  22. Forget generics. And, just in case those “vaccines” don’t live up to our hype, we’ve got $3B in this . . . .

    https:// http://www.niaid.nih.gov/ research/ antivirals: The Antiviral Program for Pandemics (APP) aims to develop safe and effective antivirals to combat SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as to build sustainable platforms for targeted drug discovery and development of a robust pipeline of antivirals against viruses with pandemic potential.

  25. MarketWatch First Take
    Bought but can’t hold
    Published: May 23, 2008 at 4:18 p.m. ET
    By MarketWatch
    Commentary: Put your house on the market now? Are you nuts?

    CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Either American home sellers are an incredibly optimistic lot, or they think they are stock traders who need to dump their assets in a declining market. How else to explain the surge in homes going up for sale in April, in the teeth of the worst downturn in housing since the Great Depression?

    Because home buyers are spooked by the current environment, in which home prices have been falling in many markets across the country, there has been a glut of unsold homes on the market for more than a year. Sellers have been cutting their prices to attract the limited buyers out there — the median price of a home sold in the U.S. in April was off 8% from a year earlier — but that has done little to cut into the inventory. See full story.

    Against that backdrop, sellers still concluded April was the time to move. The inventory of unsold homes on the market jumped 10.5% in April to 4.55 million units. At the current sales pace, that represents an 11.2-month supply of houses — nearly double what the real estate industry considers to be a health level.
    …

  26. I have some pretty close friends and relatives who are Woke, open borders, Leftist Never Trumper mask wearing Biden voters. My question is why when they need something repaired, picked up or moved do they always call on a Deplorable unvaccinated Trump voter like me?

      2. “A better question would be, why are you doing these things for them?”

        I guess because I am not a Woke, open borders, Leftist Never Trumper mask wearing Biden voter like Jennifer Aniston and I try to be a ‘Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone” Prodigal Son kinda guy who doesn’t turn his back on family or friends over political views.

        Jennifer Aniston says ‘anti-vaxxers’ are no longer in her ‘weekly routine’

        Aug. 4, 2021, 2:36 PM EDT
        By Elisha Fieldstadt

        Jennifer Aniston said some people who refuse to get the Covid-19 vaccine are no longer in her “weekly routine,” adding that their reluctance to get the shot is based on “fear or propaganda.”

        “There’s still a large group of people who are anti-vaxxers or just don’t listen to the facts. It’s a real shame,” she said. “I’ve just lost a few people in my weekly routine who have refused or did not disclose [whether or not they had been vaccinated], and it was unfortunate.”

        https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jennifer-aniston-says-anti-vaxxers-are-no-longer-her-weekly-n1275949

        1. “Jennifer Aniston said…”

          The bag of tricks have been exhausted when those who lord over us start citing celebrities and movie stars.

        2. reluctance to get the shot is based on “fear or propaganda.

          Ironically, this is why some were anxious to get “the shot”.

        3. Jennifer Aniston said some people who refuse to get the Covid-19 vaccine are no longer in her “weekly routine,”

          1) What is her weekly routine? Am I supposed to know what that even means?
          2) Why should I care that they were “excluded”?
          3) Why should I take medical advice from an airheaded actress?

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