Hopefully A Turn In Fortunes Is Around The Corner Where Investors And Owners Can Offload Underperforming Assets

A report from the Dallas Business Journal in Texas. “Today, we’re focusing solely on areas in DFW where homes sold for an average of $1 million or more in the third quarter. In the million-and-up category in DFW, the second hottest ZIP code in Q3 was 75205, which is the primary ZIP for both Highland Park and University Park. Homes there sold for an average of $2,603,379. The homes had an average list price of $3,023,479, meaning buyers got some bargains with an average of about $420,000 off the list price. The third-hottest luxury home neighborhood in DFW was 75230 in North Dallas. This is the primary ZIP for newer parts of Preston Hollow. The 92 homes that sold there in Q3 went for an average of $1,376,237, compared with an average asking price of $1,452,967, and they spent an average of 75 days on the market before going under contract.”

“It’s worth noting that homes in luxury neighborhoods throughout DFW are selling for less than their list price — in some cases dramatically less. That wasn’t the case during and immediately after the Covid pandemic when a shortage of homes on the market forced buyers to offer tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars above the asking price to grab the attention of sellers.”

WINK News in Florida. “Deborah Hagn lives in Fort Myers Shores. Her street is still lined with debris after facing back-to-back hurricanes. Now, adding insult to injury FEMA is requiring her to raise the foundation of her home and the price tag isn’t pretty. She doesn’t know yet, but Hagn has been living in this trailer since Milton because her home is not livable. So much so that the county gave her a notice of substantial damage. At 67-years-old her retirement dream is a bit more complicated now. ‘And I’ve almost got this house paid off. This was my retirement. I’m a teacher. We don’t make that much,’ said Hagn. On top of losing almost all of her belongings in Ian, Helene and Milton: ‘I’m still paying on the couch, the couch that is out there. I still owe rooms to go for me, and I am still making payments on that couch,’ said Hagn.”

From ABC 7. “The effects of the COVID pandemic are still lingering in an unlikely place – New York City Housing Court. Many people are calling it ‘housing court hell’ as they experience delays and backups that are pushing them to verge of bankruptcy. What they thought would take months to get a resolution in court has turned into years. ‘I think the justice system needs to be adjusted,’ said a tearful Sandra Claxton, sitting inside her Bronx home. She worked for decades as a nurse to buy her retirement home in the Bronx, a home she’s now afraid of losing. Claxton’s home has a second floor apartment that she has been leasing out to help cover costs. But Claxton said her tenant hasn’t paid rent in more than two years. Claxton took her to housing court and won but the tenant is still living in her home all these years later.”

“‘After I finished paying the mortgage, I hardly have anything left,’ Claxton said. Meanwhile, she’s responsible for paying all of the bills and utilities or the tenant could take her to court. ‘She’s the one in trouble, the one not paying and she’s getting a free pass,’ Claxton said.”

The Union Tribune in California. “There’s a couch, a keyboard and a washing machine. You can count two widescreen TVs, a dozen pieces of luggage and who knows how many bicycles. Don’t forget the three-story dollhouse. Or the pile of needles. The collection rests on layers of tarps and clothes that likely adds up to hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of debris, the remnants of an outdoor encampment on a one-acre plot in City Heights, a neighborhood in southern San Diego. The homeless people who lived there are mostly gone. But the couple that owns the land, Shelly and Jason Stewart, just realized there’s a good chance they’ll have to pay for the clean up — and that they need permission from the state to do so.”

“They weren’t even aware of the latest encampment until a few weeks ago. But neighbors living in condos next door have raised concerns since at least 2021. Some homeless people have washed clothes in the complex’s hot tub, according to Rick Lozier, vice president of the local homeowners association. Fences were cut, he said, and packages began disappearing from doorsteps. ‘It’s just a broken record of bureaucracy,’ Lozier said.”

The Desert Sun. “Los Angeles saw the least number of homes sold for more than half the year, and it wasn’t much better for some of California’s largest metros. The turnover rate is the number of homes sold divided by the total number of sellable properties in an area, said Redfin. Just 15 out of every 1,000 homes in the Los Angeles metro changed hands between January and August, the lowest turnover rate among the metros nationwide that Redfin looked at. It comes as the nation faces its lowest turnover rate in decades: Only 2.5% of homes changed hands during this period, said Redfin.”

“Joining Los Angeles in the top 10 for low turnover rates from January through August were San Francisco, Oakland, Anaheim, San Jose, Sacramento and San Diego. The latter two areas saw about 18 homes sold per 1,000 homes in this period, or about one more home sold than the San Francisco, Oakland, Anaheim and San Jose metro areas. The only non-California metros to make the top 10 were Boston, Providence, Rhode Island and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.”

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. “It’s a cold fall morning in Hayward, and I’m staring into a technicolor abyss of Herman Miller replicas neatly crammed inside a 50,000-square-foot warehouse. Next to them, vintage Barcelona loungers, live-edge coffee tables and mid-century desk lamps idly sit, waiting to be claimed by savvy interior designers and young startup managers on a budget. Though it might seem like some sort of rare corporate relic, at Better Source — which is in the multimillion-dollar business of liquidating failed Bay Area tech companies — there’s plenty to go around, and for much cheaper than you think.”

“‘We really don’t play in the lower-end world,’ says CEO Darryl Denny of the company’s Hayward outlet, comparing it to a luxury car dealership. The idea came to him when he witnessed the first dot-com meltdown in the Y2K era, back when Silicon Valley felt like a capitalist utopia: Denny suspects that Better Source is still flourishing today because many local companies’ five-year pre-pandemic leases are expiring, and the demands for modern offices are changing. Pinterest, Google and Facebook are just some of its many clients, which have downsized and laid off thousands of people over the past several years. When I show up to one of the retailer’s massive warehouses along a lonely industrial corridor in the East Bay, employees tell me that they’re the biggest used office furniture dealer west of the Mississippi — and it’s hard not to believe them. As I continue to drift through the aisles, I can’t help but feel like some of these items have a forlorn quality to them — a physical representation of the failed dreams of Bay Area startup CEOs and corporate tycoons.”

The Arizona Republic. “One of the Valley’s millionaire restaurant entrepreneurs is accused of defrauding investors out of millions for personal gain, including using funds for a home, out-of-state real estate and an $8 million private airplane. Aaron Wagner, a part-time Scottsdale resident planning to open restaurants in Gilbert and Scottsdale, was arrested by FBI agents on Oct. 24 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Since at least 2021, Wagner, Michael Mains and unnamed co-conspirators allegedly ran Ponzi-like schemes, tricking investors into sending millions to entities they controlled, according to the U.S. Attorney’s indictment.”

“Prosecutors say Wagner and Mains used investor funds to make down payments on a $4 million Scottsdale home, the private airplane and an $8 million real estate property in Missoula, Montana. When past investors and employees complained about Wagner online, some had their social media accounts suspended. Court documents allege that Wagner coerced social media companies into deleting accounts of his critics and, in one instance, used a fake death certificate of a former investor to have their profile removed.”

The Globe and Mail. “Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the federal government is ready to work with the United States as it implements president-elect Donald Trump’s promises to crack down on immigration, but he wants anyone hoping to come to Canada to do so legally. ‘We will always be acting in the national interest and those measures that we move to undertake, regardless of what decision is taken by the new administration, to make sure that our borders are secure, that people that are coming to Canada do so in a regular pathway, and the reality that not everyone is welcome here,’ he said.”

“Stephen Miller, who takes a hard-line stand on immigration, is expected to be Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of policy. On Monday, Mr. Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan said the administration would prioritize deporting migrants living in the U.S. illegally who pose security and public safety threats. The poll asked about plans by Ottawa to accept 395,000 immigrants as permanent residents in 2025, of whom about 68,000 (or about 17 per cent) would be refugees or protected persons. Nik Nanos, chairman of Nanos Research, said the poll shows Canadians are not against immigration, but they are concerned about whether Canada can accommodate more people. ‘When there is a shortage of housing and a shortage of doctors and a shortage of nurses, average Canadians are thinking: Do we have the capacity to take more?’ he said.”

The Daily Telegraph in Australia. “One of the leading auctioneers who called bids on The Block Grand Finale has revealed behind the scenes moments that were pivotal in the final outcome, saying the auctions did not ‘match reality.’ Industry veteran Tom Panos has been a regular on the show in recent years, becoming the most successful auctioneer in the program’s history, but noted that pre-auction meetings dictated the bidding. ‘The auctions on The Block are nothing like what you’d see on a Saturday morning in Sydney or Melbourne,’ he said. ‘Normally the bidders are buying a home to live in or an investment property. Most of the bidders on The Block are there for the media attention and commercial opportunities. I had pre-auction meetings with all the bidders to establish their reasons for being there. Most were there for their brand … we discussed how their bidding could help their (brand).'”

“Mr Panos also had a meeting with Adrian Portelli, the buyer of all five properties featured on the show. The two have a business relationship. ‘I already knew the two girls’ (Maddy and Charlotte) property was going to win because Adrian wanted them to win. He had an emotional connection to the two girls.’ Viewers panned Portelli’s purchase of every property, claiming the show was ‘rigged’. ‘The Block is not a real show anymore,’” one user, Fernando Torres, wrote on X. ‘It’s rigged by sponsors and not even a true auction now. Adrian Portelli just spends the most money on his favourite couple. What a pointless series. It was clearly scripted. What a load of crap.'”

Real Estate Asia. “It’s at the lower end of the original projections at the start of the year. According to the Ministry of Law, there were 3,227 bankruptcy applications made in the first eight months of 2024, 23.3% higher than the 2,617 applications made between January and August 2023, as the number of bankruptcy applications remained elevated. Hopefully, the reduction of interest rates and with Singapore’s economy growing by 4.1% in Q3 2024 based on advanced estimates, a turn in fortunes is around the corner where investors and owners can offload underperforming assets and reinvest the freed up capital in new opportunities in the year ahead.”

“Despite the fall in Q3 2024, mortgagee listings might increase in the next few quarters before diminishing numbers became a trend, with the count of distressed properties getting worse before getting better. This can favour buyers and investors on the lookout for opportunities at more affordable levels especially in a time when interest rates are coming down.”