Often If The Vendor Isn’t Playing Ball, Buyers Will Move On To The Next

A report from the Tampa Bay Times. “Condo and townhome listings are up 65% year over year and sales are down 20%, according to statewide data from Florida Realtors. The median sales price has dropped more than 3%. The outlook is bleaker in places like Tampa Bay and Miami, where there’s a higher concentration of older condos. ‘A lot of these buildings are already dead man walking,’ said Joe Hernandez, an attorney with the Miami law firm Bilzin Sumberg who specializes in condo terminations. ‘There’s going to be a lot of people that will pay much higher costs and sometimes to the point that they can’t afford to stay in Florida.'”

“The Kalmia Condominiums in Clearwater wasn’t Ronni Drimmer’s dream retirement destination. She bought a two-bedroom unit there for her mother in 2001 but ended up moving in when her mom died 18 months later. Even though inspectors found no structural issues at Drimmer’s building, monthly maintenance fees for its 70 owners could climb by more than a third next year. That’s on top of an estimated 21% increase for insurance and a $500,000 special assessment to replace the roof. Seniors stand to lose the most, said 78-year-old Connie Weitlauf, another resident of the Kalmia Condominiums. After months of waiting to see how things might shake out, Weitlauf has decided she can’t afford to stay in the one-bedroom unit she bought three years ago. ‘I’m very comfortable here,’ she said. ‘I thought this would be it for me. Now I’m just hoping I break even when I go to sell.'”

Bisnow South Florida. “Mysterious barrels of liquid labeled ‘ACID’ in the garage of The St. Regis Bal Harbour Residences and Hotel are just one of the safety concerns condo owners raised in a lawsuit filed this week against the Qatari company that owns the luxury resort in Miami Beach. The oceanfront buildings, which opened in 2012, have growing mold colonies, cracking concrete, a leaking garage and exposed electrical wiring, all conditions the residents say are the result of an absentee owner, according to the complaint. ‘I’ve never seen issues like this, as pervasive as this, in a building that’s 12 years old,’ Juan Morillo, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP who is representing the association in the lawsuit, told Bisnow in an interview. ‘It is extraordinary for a building of this relative youth to be in this state of disrepair. We’re not complaining about cosmetic things. Just to be blunt about it, it’s not like a bunch of rich people are complaining about the wallpaper and the painting or the lighting. We’re talking about serious structural issues.'”

The Union Tribune in California. “San Diego homes sales have slowed to a snail’s pace. In September, 1,987 homes sold in San Diego County, CoreLogic reported Friday, its lowest for a September in records going back to 1988. It also marked the 10th-slowest sales month of all time. Sales were down 22% from August, and down 6.4 percent from the same time last year when home purchases began to fall off considerably. Mauricio Perez-Vazquez, a Chula Vista real estate agent, said potential buyers did not have time to take advantage of lower rates. ‘It didn’t last long, that’s the thing,’ he said. ‘A lot of people maybe thought, ‘OK, (rates) are starting to drop.’ By the time they were ready, lower rates were gone.’ A recent study from Orange County-based Reports on Housing said many sellers were throwing in the towel after not getting high enough offers for properties. The real estate research firm said as of September, 6,990 homes have been taken off the market compared to 3,478 last year.”

The Real Deal on California. “A former executive of Grocery Outlet has lopped $2 million off the asking price of his Pacific Heights co-op flat, to $16 million. MacGregor Read has relisted the 5,000-square-foot co-op unit at 2000 Washington Street, No. 3, across the street from Lafayette Park, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Read bought the single-floor home in 2014 for $9.4 million, according to Redfin. He then sank more than $9 million into renovations, according to Joe Lucier, who holds the listing with Stacey Caen of Sotheby’s International Realty. The former co-CEO listed the three-bedroom, four-bathroom flat in early September for $18 million. He cut the price ‘to activate buyers in the market,’ Lucier told the Business Times.”

“At 2006 Washington Street next door, a 10th-floor penthouse was listed in March for $35 million, before dropping the price to $29 million. In 2022, a two-floor flat there sold for $19 million, after listing for $30 million. Another co-op, which had listed for $45 million, dropped its asking price to $35 million.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer in Pennsylvania. “Bond investors have moved to take over financially troubled Beech International Village, a four-story building with room for 200 students, plus ground-floor stores, in the 1500 block of Cecil B. Moore Ave. near Temple University. In a civil lawsuit filed last month, the bondholders, led by UMB, a Missouri-based bank, allege that nonprofit Beech Interplex Inc., which built Beech International in 2010 with $17 million it raised from income-tax-exempt municipal-bond sales, owes the city almost $1.1 million in unpaid property taxes and has failed to give investors required financial reports and warnings. With its stores and many rooms vacant, rents in the building are no longer bringing in enough money to cover the building’s costs, according to the civil lawsuit UMB filed against Beech in federal court in Philadelphia last month. UMB accuses Beech of fraud, breach of contract, and accounting violations. The bank seeks to foreclose the property, turn it over to a receiver, and offer it for sale so investors can get their money back before the city seizes it for nonpayment of taxes.”

“‘Temple referred students to Beech International in its early years but has stopped doing so, said Robert L. Archie, a lawyer for Beech. ‘Just in my opinion, Temple defaulted on their obligation. They didn’t provide the students,’ Archie said, noting that several Temple appointees have held seats on the Beech International board. Archie called the bondholders’ move to take control ‘precipitous. They are overreaching, in my opinion.’ He added, ‘We can’t go out and manufacture students.'”

From Bisnow Houston. “‘A fun fact on office that’s not very fun is that about 50% of the CMBS loans that expire between now and ’28 have a coverage ratio of less than 1.2 and they have an interest rate of under 5%,’ Transwestern Southwest President Kevin Roberts said. ‘Any refinance scenario, it just shows you the wall of maturities that’s going to be a real issue for Houston. It’s not just Houston, it’s Texas and national as well.'”

The Colorado Springs Gazette. “For all the attention it gets, you’d think ending ‘homelessness’ was the primary purpose of Denver government. Only a small fraction of the homeless are street people (the ‘unsheltered’ in politically correct lingo) but they’re a major part of the problem. As a compassionate society we do what we can for them. Unfortunately, most reject treatment and rehabilitation. They say they just want their freedom. But we can’t ignore the damage they cause for the 700,000 other residents of Denver and the 3 million who live in the metro area, especially downtown. To put it bluntly, bums, vagrants, beggars, squatters and drug addicts camping out in public and private property, parks, and sidewalks infringe on the welfare of the people who make this city thrive, and they make Denver a less desirable place for tourists and folks who live in the metro suburbs to visit, dine out, recreate and work.”

“In other words, it’s bad for business. A recent study by Colorado’s Common Sense Institute finds that the combination of crime, homelessness, and high office vacancy rates in downtown Denver has caused it to lag behind other downtowns nationwide in economic recovery after the pandemic. To borrow a title from Charles Dickens, the comparison of Aurora’s handling of street people and Denver’s provides an instructive ‘Tale of Two Cities.’ The approach of Denver’s government —with its radical leftist dominated City Council and rookie liberal Democrat Mayor Mike Johnston —is steeped in its philosophy of ‘social justice.’ They call it ‘housing first’ without conditions or mandatory substance abuse rehab programs.”

“Aurora’s Republican Mayor Mike Coffman and his conservative City Council majority have taken a more practical approach to homelessness. They call it ‘work first,’ designed to elevate people to self-reliance with conditions for treatment, rehab and job training to qualify for free housing. Denver is spending hundreds of millions on ‘affordable housing’ and actually becoming a landlord, taking ownership of apartment houses. This can lead to even more homeless people flocking to Colorado to cash in on the goodies. Similar programs in Chicago and NYC led to the dreaded ‘projects,’ low-income ghettos with dilapidated buildings, crime and drugs. To finance its benevolence, Denver is on a tax-increasing binge. There’s an economic truism: what you tax you get less of and what you subsidize and encourage you get more of.”

Castanet in Canada. “In the past week, according to numbers from the Association of Interior Realtors, a large portion of the British Columbia Interior real estate market had a total of 8,444 existing listings. During that same period, 317 sales were recorded and 425 new listings were added. Up to $250,000—569 listings and 28 sales, a ratio of 20.32 listings per sale. The lowest price range has a substantial oversupply, likely leading to longer listing times. That is big buyers’ advantage. $250,000-$500,000—1,784 listings and 85 sales. That price segment also showed an oversupply, with a ratio of 20.99 listings per sale. Although demand exists, buyers have the advantage in negotiations and sellers may need to be flexible on pricing.”

“$500,000-$1,000,000—3,598 listings and 151 sales. While this segment is the most active, the listings-to-sales ratio of 23.82 indicates an oversupply, with buyers having a wide range of options, sellers not so much. $1 million-$2 million—1,895 listings and 50 sales. The higher-end market shows a significant oversupply, with a listings-to-sales ratio of 37.9. That reflects slower movement due to a smaller buyer pool, often resulting in extended time on the market. Over $2 million—598 listings and three sales. The luxury segment has the slowest market speed, with an exceptionally high ratio of 199.33 listings per sale. That suggests the luxury market is extremely oversupplied. I also noticed a higher incidence of cancelled and expired listings just over the last while.”

“To give a little context, I pulled some information from 2022, 2023 and 2024. For the month of September 2022, in single family residential, there were 1,162 active listings in the Central Okanagan, in September 2023 1,230 and this September 1,727. That works out to about a 60% increase over two years. There were about 50% more sales in September 2022 than in September 2024, meaning far less for sale two years ago and about 50% more sales. Our ratio of sales to listings is far and away higher than just two years ago. Simply put, way more homes are for sale and far fewer are being sold. The turnover rate has substantially come down. The big take away is, if you own a property (in a segment) where there are several other similar properties (commodity housing), it’s important to be aggressive in your pricing if you want to be the one in 26 that sells.”

Business in Vancouver in Canada. “Developers in Vancouver are facing a confluence of economic and regulatory factors that are financially stressing projects and making insolvencies more common. Even if developments don’t fail, they may require a restructuring to make financial sense. ‘We’ve never seen this many receiverships in one cycle, and I think there are still a few more to come,’ said Tony Quattrin, vice-chair with CBRE Limited, which does some work for receivers selling distressed properties. ‘Circumstances sort of contrived to create this unique environment and why we are seeing these receiverships. You almost couldn’t have predicted how many things had to conspire at the same time to bring this event about.'”

“Quattrin noted that his team has worked on about 11 real estate receiverships already this year, compared to just three or four in the aftermath of the 2007-08 global financial crisis. ‘We saw a couple receiverships come up, people walking away from their properties. We formed a receivership team, we got really focused on what the receivers needed … we became a service for that business. If you blinked, it was over. We did three [receiverships] and everything was back on track. This [cycle] is much more severe, much more,’ Quattrin said. ‘Many more events conspired to make this one more devastating, and I think there’s more to come.'”

Domain News in Australia. “Sydney home owners are deciding to sell their properties at greater rates this spring compared to normal, offering buyers more choice and putting downward pressure on prices. There were 13.7 per cent more homes for sale in Sydney in October than the five-year average, based on CoreLogic data. Listings in some areas are much higher. Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury recorded a 37.1 per cent increase, and there were jumps of at least 19 per cent across the northern beaches, Sutherland, Blacktown and the Central Coast. CoreLogic head of Australian research Eliza Owen said the uplift in total listings compared to last year and the five-year average reflects a softening of the market, particularly at the high end. ‘Presumably properties are just not selling as quickly as the rate at which they’re coming to market.'”

“The northern beaches recorded an 18.6 per cent increase in total listings year-on-year and a 21.1 per cent rise in total listings compared to the five-year average. There were also jumps in total listings volume compared to last year in Sutherland (28.5 per cent), Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury (19.5 per cent) and Blacktown (15.8) per cent. Each of these regions is at least 25 per cent higher than the five-year average. Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan said buyers in the northern beaches might be fighting harder for affordability, while construction could be driving up listing volumes. ‘There could be a rise in Parramatta and Ryde with duplexes and apartments, and there may be some distressed selling in Blacktown,’ he said.”

“OH Property Group buyers’ agent Henny Stier said sellers have had to adjust their price expectations. ‘Buyers are picky and price-sensitive. Often if the vendor isn’t playing ball, buyers will move on to the next. Sellers who don’t need to sell are not budging on price and those properties get passed in.’ PK Property’s managing director and buyers’ agent Peter Kelaher described the northern beaches as a patchy market. ‘The stock that’s moving strongly is the $2.2 million to $3.5 million range. When you get past $4 million, the market softens, and when you get past $6 million, it’s very soft,’ he said.”