You Feel Defeated, And I’ve Done Nothing Wrong

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Nashville real estate broker, Jeff Checko attributed higher inventory to a few main factors. With the holidays coming up, Checko told News 2 that it’s typical for the housing market to slow down. ‘If people have to choose between renting and owning based on what the spread is. Right now, they’re choosing to rent and wait,’ Checko said. ‘Barring some external factor that really stymies things, I think the next 10 years of growth in Nashville are going to make the last 10 years — as vigorous as they were — they’re going to dwarf it a little bit,’ Checko told News 2. ‘That’s a bold prediction, but I really do think with so much coming and so much demand, and Nashville being no secret, the next time it really gets going, it’s going to be wildfire.'”

“The Rockford-area housing market is again seeing historic changes, with new housing data showing a significant increase in homes available for sale. Real estate broker Angela Ketelsen said she put a home in Machesney Park up for sale three weeks ago and is still waiting for an offer, something that would have been unheard of just several months ago. ‘You’d list a house in the market last year and if you didn’t have a showing that day you started to panic,’ she said. Inventory in the Rockford market rose 23.5% in September 2024 over the prior year, the largest year-over-year increase in 16 years. ‘Now we list houses and we’ve only had a handful of showings so far. So it’s definitely different. And it happened super quick,’ Ketelsen said.”

“Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder described the crisis as the county’s ‘own Hurricane Katrina.’ Now, many in the housing market are analyzing the recovery efforts after natural disasters like Katrina to predict what the region’s long path back to normalcy looks like. ‘Because a lot of housing was damaged and destroyed — and costs for construction go up because there’s a lot of rebuilding that’s happening — prices go up,’ said Mike Figura, owner of Asheville-based Mosaic Community Lifestyle Realty. For those who are worried or want to move, Figura cautioned that selling too fast could attract predatory buyers. The best way to deal with someone who may be moving fast on a deal is to find your own representation, he said. ‘Talk to a real estate professional and get multiple opinions before making decisions. Don’t panic and don’t feel like you’re pressured into making a hasty decision,’ Figura said.”

“Homeowners are listing their storm-damaged properties before renovating, dodging a painful rebuild, but losing hundreds of thousands in value. Ken Sulewski has lived in Redington Beach for 27 years and saw more than four feet of storm surge into his home during Helene. Now, he’s selling it gutted. He said he listed his home for ‘$375,000 less’ than its pre-storm value. He hopes, despite the work it needs now, they will find a buyer that will love the location, and elevate it. His neighbor is also selling her flooded home ‘as is’ – no repairs. A Redington Beach realtor has seen dozens of homes listed this way and is trying to help her clients get what it’s still worth. ‘People are nervous about what their properties are worth, but believe it or not, their lot value is worth a lot of money, so take that into consideration before selling it at a moment’s notice… the property is worth a lot and the structure is worth money as well,’ said Connie Redman, a realtor with Coastal Property Group, who is selling Ken Sulewski’s home.”

“A state lawmaker has some bad news for condo owners – ‘there’s no state bailout coming.’ Hollywood State Senator Jason Pizzo shocked Wednesday’s crowd at Broward Housing Council’s workshop, which was called to address concerns condo owners have about high assessment fees. He told his constituents he understands their predicament, but lawmakers voted unanimously to pass the onerous safety legislation following the catastrophic collapse of the Champlain Towers condominium building in Surfside in 2021. A lot of owners, especially seniors, said they can’t afford to pay the assessments, and the reserve requirements are also making it hard to find someone who wants to buy their units. As a result, inventory of condos and townhomes on the market across Florida has increased 91.9% in the second quarter of 2024 compared with the year prior, according to the Florida Realtors Association. “

“KRDO13 Investigates has learned that the home that caught on fire in Teller County, which spread to create the Highland Lakes wildfire, was under foreclosure and would soon be up for auction. The Teller County Public Trustees Office confirmed to KRDO13 Investigates that the home at 13 Beaver Lake Circle was set for auction on November 13. TCSO also stated the house fire was human-caused, and still remains under investigation.”

“Kevin Oto, a Sacramento-based broker and owner of Green Haven Capital, says the 0.5% decrease has a lot of his clients asking how it will change mortgage rates. He says the rate only explains part of the story. ‘Buyers are very cautious when it comes to affordability, the price that they’re paying. I feel like sellers can’t really get top dollar unless they’re adding value, unless they’re providing a competitively priced home or if they have a unique property that people want,’ Oto said.”

“Kanye West isn’t letting a $36 million loss on his most recent home sale stop him from throwing himself back into the real estate market. The beleaguered rapper has just snapped up a luxurious Beverly Hills, CA, mansion for a whopping $35 million—almost the same amount he lost in the very controversial sale of his gutted Malibu beach home just a few weeks earlier. The rapper purchased the iconic home in 2021 for a whopping $57.25 million. The listing was updated to indicate that a sale was pending—and now, the identity of the buyer has been revealed, as well as the painfully large loss West took on the property. A real estate investment company based in California, paid around $21 million for the home.”

“The Rushmore, an apartment building on Capitol Hill that opened just before the pandemic, is headed to a foreclosure auction. Lender Bridge Investment Group filed a foreclosure notice and affidavit on the $26.5M loan for the property at 1220 Pennsylvania Ave. A slew of newer multifamily properties have fallen into financial distress this year. Properties that got off the ground right before or during the pandemic were burned by coronavirus-induced delays in construction, rising costs of materials and labor, followed by a year of rising interest rates. Developers that had floating-rate construction loans when interest rates were at a historic low then had to contend with much steeper rates.”

“Those properties became increasingly unable to refinance or pay back their loans, and as a result, lenders have forced sales, sold loans at steep discounts or foreclosed on them. Two new buildings in the quickly developing NoMa neighborhood were foreclosed on and sold this summer.”

“Higher interest rates that created lacklustre demand and slowed home sales in London also appear to be forcing prices on new homes to drop, the latest market snapshot from Statistics Canada shows. Since August 2022, when the market peaked locally, prices have dropped by about 3.1 per cent, reversing years of steady increases. London isn’t alone in this regard. The Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo region topped the list with new homes selling almost three per cent cheaper than a year ago. ‘Reviewing the comments that we received from our respondents over the past year, it’s what you would expect: They’re talking about it being a tight market, and now there is more negotiation with the buyers at this point than there would have been in the past,’ said Roland Hébert, an analyst with Statistics Canada. ‘So, the factors that would affect the resale market would be similar to those impacting the new housing market as well.'”

“Calgary’s rental market has gone through a major shift in recent years. But some say the height of the market may have come and gone, and that the trend of rapid growth now seems to be tapering off. ‘We have to be realistic — I think we have peaked here right now,’ said Mike Bucci, vice-president with the Western-Canada based Bucci Developments. ‘Renters have choice now.’ Rentals.ca data shows rents in Calgary have declined over the past two months, a shift that’s all the more striking given the dip happened in August and September, said Giacomo Ladas, the website’s associate director of communications.”

“‘Typically, August is the busiest rental month because that’s where you get the surge, especially students who are looking for permanent rentals,’ said Ladas. ‘That didn’t really happen in Calgary.’ Another indicator: Some property managers have started offering move-in bonuses and other incentives, Ladas said, which had gone by the wayside during the peak of the competitive market.”

“Values across New Zealand now stand at $805,984, which is around 18% below the post-Covid cyclical peak but still about 16% higher than the pre-Covid level from March 2020. Generally speaking, values across Tamaki Makaurau Auckland are still around 21-24% lower than the post-COVID peak (apart from a drop of closer to 26% in Waitakere), while the falls since the more recent ‘mini peak’ at the start of this year have typically been between -7% and -9%. CoreLogic NZ chief property economist, Kelvin Davidson added: ‘Auckland’s property market continues to be weighed down by abundant supply, both in terms of existing properties listed for sale as well as the continued pipeline of new-builds being completed. In addition, the stock of available listings on the market remains at multi-year highs, and this will take some time to dissipate, especially with a solid number of new-builds still being completed.'”

“The Australia Institute Chief Economist Greg Jericho warns the slight drop in Sydney’s house prices is not a ‘bubble burster’ and is still not enough for some prospective homeowners to purchase property. ‘Home loan lending is still rising quite solidly which when you extrapolate … that generally leads to higher house prices,’ Mr Jericho told Sky News Australia. I don’t think we are in the middle of a bubble burster here yet. I think what we are seeing is some moderation after pretty solid rises over the past couple of years.'”

“Some apartment buyers, caught up in a long-running saga with an embattled Perth builder, are questioning whether the government guardrails are keeping pace. Their situation has highlighted one of the starkest differences between signing a house and land contract and buying an apartment off the plan – home indemnity insurance. It comes as the government prepares for a crackdown on apartment builders that it hopes will improve consumer and insurer confidence. But with those reforms still a while off, these apartment buyers think you should read their story before making a purchase. People like Audrey Taylor, who bought an apartment off the plan in a four-storey complex, were not eligible. She put down a $18,850 deposit for an apartment in the Sky Homes Nicheliving complex in the Perth suburb of Inglewood in 2021.”

“‘I just don’t know how much I believe them because they’ve told me in the past that there were updates that didn’t end up happening,’ Ms Taylor said. ‘It’s just stressful and it’s always at the back of my mind.’ Another woman, who asked not to be named, said she put down a $34,000 deposit for one of the apartments in May 2022. She said she was at the point where she just wanted to exit the contract but had been advised by a lawyer that this was not an option. ‘It is quite stressful and it is taking a toll on me and my work,’ she said. ‘You feel defeated. And I’ve done nothing wrong.'”

“Another buyer, Claire, put down a $35,000 deposit for a Sky Homes Nicheliving apartment in 2020 and was hopeful it would be completed before her contract was up in mid-2026. In the meantime, she is paying around $35,000 each year in rent. ‘It’s the lost opportunity,’ she said.”