Many Of These Listings Were Repriced And Relisted As Sellers Become Increasingly Motivated To Attract Buyers

A report from CNBC. “Just because the Federal Reserve is nearing its inflation goal doesn’t mean the problem is solved. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, in his annual policy speech at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming summit this August, joked about ‘the good ship Transitory’ and all the passengers it had in the early days of the inflation run-up. Obviously, inflation wasn’t transitory, and the all-items CPI reading is up 18.8% since then. Food inflation has surged 22%. Eggs are up 87%, auto insurance has soared almost 47% and gasoline, though on a downward trajectory these days, is still up 16% from then. And, of course, there’s housing: The median home price has jumped 16% since Q1 of 2021 and 30% from the beginning of the pandemic-fueled buying frenzy.”

The Times of San Diego in California. “A draft city report shows that the median value of a home in City Heights, Kensington-Talmadge, Normal Heights and Eastern Area was $723,000 in 2022, the most recent data cited. In 2000, it was nearly $150,000, making for a 384% increase over the two decades. Meanwhile, the area’s median income during that time grew from $32,000 to $77,000 — a 142% increase. The numbers tell a familiar story: It’s becoming more expensive to live in San Diego. For Mid-City, in particular, that’s especially true. Its home values have nearly quadrupled — yet the neighborhoods’ incomes remain lower than the citywide median.”

Fox Business. “Wildfires have burned more than one million acres in California so far this year. ‘Our premiums more than doubled, but our coverage was cut in half. So, this was the perfect storm of bad,’ said Steve Archer, president of the HOA for his community in La Cañada Flintridge, California. Farmers Insurance has covered the community for two decades. But in July, the company called it quits. That left the community scrambling for coverage. ‘We’ve seen some people’s insurance go from $2,000 to $6,000 a year for their homeowner’s policy, some to eight. And these aren’t big houses. These are kind of normal,’ said Rick Dinger, president of Crescenta Valley Insurance.”

Yahoo Finance.”New listings rose by 25% or more last month compared to a year earlier in the Seattle, Silicon Valley, Denver, and Washington, D.C., areas, according to Realtor.com. Troy Khuu, a San Jose-based agent, said the most desirable homes in his market — ones that are updated, located in strong school districts, and close to tech companies — are still selling above their asking price, sometimes in a matter of days. But buyers aren’t rushing to buy homes that don’t meet all of their specifications, he said. ‘It’s no longer the buying frenzy we saw a few years ago,’ Khuu said. ‘It depends on the listing. It depends on the price.'”

National Public Radio. “You might expect that mortgage rates would be falling right now after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a half-point last month. Instead, mortgage rates jumped higher. ‘I think the new normal is maybe 6% mortgage rate,’ says Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. ‘If we are lucky, maybe we get to 5.5% mortgage rate. Or if we are unlucky, maybe the mortgage rate trends back up towards 7%.’ But Yun is confident one of thing: The days of 3% and 4% mortgage rates are over — at least in his lifetime, he says. Meanwhile, the days a house stays on the market have been increasing — suggesting the market is getting a bit less competitive. ‘I think there is more opportunity for buyers to get in there,’ says Sara Briseño Gerrish, a real estate agent at RE/MAX Unlimited in San Antonio.”

Market Watch. “Dear Big Move, My husband lost his job and we can no longer make the mortgage. I have zero savings. We already missed our first payment. What happens now? What do we tell the lender? Will we lose our home? Stressed Out. Dear Stressed, You are going through a turbulent time. You are not out of options, but you need to take action now. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the same boat who are collecting unemployment benefits, meaning that they do not have a job. You’re not off the hook just because you’re not able to pay the bills: ‘A lot of times people think that they just get to skip payments, but it does not work that way and, ultimately, there is a bill to pay,’ Jennifer Beeston, a Coral Springs, Fla.-based senior vice president of mortgage lending at Guaranteed Rate.”

“So what can you do now? Call your mortgage servicer. They will be able to find forbearance options for you. Forbearance is a process where the lender can temporarily pause mortgage payments, or you can make smaller payments. It doesn’t erase or decrease the amount you owe, and you’ll have to repay missed or reduced payments. But it buys you time. Your loan servicer will also be able to advise you on whether you should do a loan modification. If you need more information about the foreclosure process, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has a timeline here, although the process varies by state.”

‘You miss your first payment, your lender contacts you. You miss your second payment, and you talk to your lender. You miss your third payment, and your loan is now delinquent. But you can still work out a plan with your lender at that point. When you miss your fourth payment, you should figure something out. If you have not paid the full amount or worked out an arrangement, your lender’s attorneys will get involved. That attorney will schedule a sale, which is the actual day of foreclosure. It’s not the move-out date, HUD says, ‘but the end is near’ at this point. Your last resort is selling the property and moving to a cheaper rental, or even with family temporarily. Selling the house allows you to pay off that mortgage in full, unless you owe more on your balance than before — meaning that the loan is underwater.”

Bisnow Washington DC. “The majority of the D.C. Council has thrown its support behind a bill introduced this week that would increase the city’s authority to seize vacant and blighted properties while incentivizing owners to reinvest in their properties or sell to someone who will. ‘I think it’s good to see that the council is recognizing that landlords in D.C. are struggling,’ Feldman Ruel Managing Principal Ian Ruel, who brokers investment sales in the District, told Bisnow. ‘A lot of them are struggling, and a lot of those landlords are not the big institutional owners — they’re mom and pops,’ he added. ‘So I think any relief right now is a positive, at least in the short term.'”

The Denver Post in Colorado. “Denver native Keith Oelschlager has been going to Larimer Square since he was a teenager in the 1980s. It was the place where people in the neighborhood would hang out and shop. For him, that isn’t the case anymore. ‘I think it’s missing anything that makes me want to spend any time there,’ Oelschlager said. ‘You have tourists walking down the street, and they’re taking pictures of the flags and lines and things that are kind of hanging up in the street, and then they just kind of leave. And most of the time, there’s just not that much going on.'”

“The historic shopping district, like many retail-heavy areas, was hit hard by the pandemic shutdown and subsequent spending malaise. Bringing workers back into downtown’s offices would also provide a boost to business. ‘Without people in offices, you don’t do any lunch business and you don’t do any happy hour business because there are no bodies to come in for lunch and happy hour,’ said John Imbergamo, who has been a Denver restaurant consultant for over 30 years. ‘That just, you know, tore a hole through the fabric of the economics of restaurants in downtown, and continues to do that, to some extent.'”

From Guelph Today. “Ontario home prices were stable in September by comparison with August, continuing a trend of broad stability set in February, figures released by the Canadian Real Estate Association show. On a year-over-year basis, the average single-family home in the province sold for $954,000 in September, down 4.5 per cent from the average of $999,500 they sold for in September of 2023. On a province-wide basis, prices for condos in a year-over-year comparison fell 7.8 per cent, and townhouses fell 5.7 per cent. ‘The beginning of September saw a burst of new supply for buyers to choose from before things generally quiet down for the winter,’ CREA chair James Mabey said.”

“Locally in the Guelph area in September, single-family house prices were down 7.4 per cent, condos were down 1.0 per cent, and townhouses were down 4.2 per cent compared to September of 2023, using seasonally adjusted numbers unadjusted for inflation. Use the interactive below to explore your region.”

The Stratford Beacon Herald in Canada. “A record number of homes came on the market in Chatham-Kent last month as residential sales ‘maintained (a) strong showing,’ the area realtors’ association says. September’s 275 new residential listings were a record for the month, jumping 37.5 per cent from September 2023, the association said. New listings were nearly 30 per cent above the five-year average and 44.4 per cent above the 10-year average for the month of September. ‘The other major story was with new listings, which set the highest level on record by far of any September in history and marking the first time new listings had surpassed 250 in this month,’ association president Carrie Patrick said. ‘However, with overall inventories rising but not reporting as impressive of a spike, it is likely that many of these listings were repriced and relisted as sellers become increasingly motivated to attract buyers.'”

Real Estate News Exchange in Canada. “In what has been described as an ‘innovative’ financial deal, two mortgage companies have partnered to buy a Kitchener, Ont. condo tower project out of receivership and restart the stalled building process. The Elevate project fell into financial difficulties about 18 months ago but was recently purchased by mortgage lender Dorr Capital, alternative investment firm Gentai Capital, and builder ELM Developments, which will facilitate the project’s resumption. The original project failed due to cost overruns combined with poor market conditions, Brian Dorr, president of Dorr Capital, told RENX. ‘I think our borrower didn’t have the fortune of good timing in terms of the way the market was going, as many projects in our market are experiencing, and I think he ran into some cost overrun issues and scope issues at the same moment that the market was contracting and lending became incredibly tight, and he didn’t have the ability to hold on.'”

The Northern Echo in the UK. “Residents on new-build estates in Stockton are being ‘left in limbo’ with essential infrastructure incomplete – despite coughing up fees for upkeep and council tax on top. It came after those living on several estates raised the alarm after paying council tax plus fees to private management companies for basic upkeep – despite them remaining unfinished. One resident of an anonymous Stockton estate told Stockton North MP Chris McDonald: ‘The roads haven’t been completed in four years; the developer has relinquished responsibility and accountability for the work. Residents feel they were mis-sold their contracts.'”

“New build estate management fees, also known as ‘fleecehold’, have crept in across the last two decades and is now an ‘industry norm,’ according to Paula Higgins, who is the founder of the HomeOwners Alliance. The fees usually cover the maintenance of any communal areas – from pavements and car parks to play areas – and are often charged when buying a new-build property. Residents also pay council tax on top of this.”

Radio New Zealand. “It could take at least five years for recent first-home buyers to regain the equity in their homes, if they had it wiped out by falling prices, CoreLogic says. House prices are still about 16 percent below their 2021 market peak. CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall said there were about 3500 households that had bought at the peak and now had homes that were worth 20 percent or more less than they paid. In most cases, first-home buyers have about 20 percent deposit – or less – so that meant that thousands had their deposits wiped out. ‘Interestingly this would be relatively similar to the recovery from the GFC where I believe it took about seven years for the market to return back to the peak of 2007. With a larger fall this time around, particularly in places like Auckland and Wellington, it wouldn’t surprise me to take longer this time around.'”