The Influx Of Buyers Is Drying Up, And So Is The Big Money They Were Throwing Around

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Year over year, home sales during a recent four-week period fell faster in five Florida markets than any other across the nation, according to Redfin. Home sales are down 15.2% in Fort Lauderdale, 14% in Miami, 13.8% in West Palm Beach, 9.5% in Jacksonville and 7.2% in Tampa. This is for a four-week period ending Nov. 10. Laurie Stark has been a mortgage broker in Florida for more than two decades. ‘The market is going up, interest rates are going up, and then no one is able to buy,’ Stark said. ‘These properties are just going to be sitting there because we don’t have anyone who is able qualify purchase one of these homes.’ Stark said another problem is the influx of investors buying up Florida property and the price of property. ‘When I started in 1999, I was doing mortgages at 10% and 11%, but the sales prices for the houses back then were $120,000 or $130,000,’ she said. ‘You can’t do 8% on an $600,000 house.'”

“Data from the San Antonio Board of Realtors shows homes sold in October stayed on the market longer and sold for lower prices, compared to the same time frame in the past two years. ‘Particularly areas like Austin and San Antonio have experienced significant growth and housing inventory, and that actually means that oversupply means that buyers have more options,’ said David Vequist, Economy Professor at the University of the Incarnate Word. Vequist said there are more homes for sale than buyers and that’s one of the contributing factors to longer listing times and lower prices. ‘When you have inventory that’s sitting on the market. It tends to lean towards a buyer’s market, because now those houses you can come in, you can ask for concessions, you can ask for a lower sales price,’ said Spencer Skubik, Associate Broker at Becker Properties.”

“Inventory, the number of homes available, is going up. Year over year, the number of active listings went up by 12% in Ada County and 24% in Canyon County. ‘It’s still not up where it needs to be, however it’s been up and it’s been climbing,’ said Elizabeth Hume, President of Boise Regional REALTORs. ‘So, it offers more choices for people and maybe a little less pressure. People see that they can have that room to negotiate. I think that helps if you’re going to pay extra interest rates, because interest rates are still high, higher than what they saw in 2020. Then, at least they have some power of negotiation, so they’re able to get closing costs paid for, maybe, or they’re able to have the price come down a little bit, have some of those repairs made.'”

“Billionaire Russian oligarch Valery Kogan and his wif are in contract to sell their gilded pad at 15 Central Park West, according to StreetEasy. Sources told Gimme Shelter it was an all-cash deal. The apartment officially hit the market last year for $65 million. It was last asking $39 million. The property deal is just the latest for the Kogans, who are in the midst of a massive real estate sell-off. The Kogans have also finally sold their 7-acre Greenwich, Conn., estate on Simmons Lane for $10.4 million — down from its $14.5 million ask as is, or $24.5 million renovated, last year. They also recently sold a penthouse in Tel Aviv, Israel for $33 million, according to reports. Last year, the Kogans sold their condo at 515 Park Ave. — where the feds seized sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg’s two units — for $14.5 million, as Gimme Shelter previously reported. They had first listed it for $25 million in 2020. Meanwhile, the couple’s ornate palace at the Plaza Hotel is still lingering on the market for $25 million after receiving its latest price chop of $2 million on Nov. 11. It was asking $50 million before the pandemic.”

“Elon Musk’s former Los Angeles home—a piece of Hollywood history once owned by the late actor Gene Wilder—has just gotten $3.5 million cheaper as the property heads to foreclosure auction. Built in 1951 by prolific Los Angeles architect Robert Byrd, the white-shingle house is now asking $9.5 million, down from the $12.95 million it hit the market for in August. The price chop comes as the sellers, who took a loan from Musk in order to buy the house from the Tesla CEO, have since fallen behind on payments. The home is slated to hit the auction block next month if it fails to find a buyer before then, newly filed documents in property records show. Using an LLC, Musk lent the couple $6.7 million for the purchase, property records show, but Walker-Pearlman fell behind on repaying the loan. A notice of default was filed in July, and a notice of trustee’s sale was filed earlier this month stating that the home will be sold to the highest bidder at a public auction on Dec. 3, according to property records.”

“Famed Wall Street short seller Carson Block sees trouble brewing for owners of apartments owners during the pandemic years, especially in Sun Belt markets. Block, who runs Muddy Waters Research, said investors that purchased apartments at negative capitalization rates — meaning the property’s operating expenses exceeded its income — on bets that fundamentals would improve are now likely facing huge losses. Many of the loans used to finance the purchases used floating rate debt, which has since ballooned under the Federal Reserve’s record rate hikes, leaving $80B in apartment loans vulnerable to distress, Marketplace reported, citing MSCI data. ‘A lot more of these things were purchased with ultra-cheap money,’ Block told Bloomberg.”

“There’s stiff competition among prospective home buyers in the St. John’s region because the number of listings are unusually low and demand is surging. One real estate agent said deep-pocketed buyers from outside the province are primarily to blame for inventory levels that are the lowest he’s ever seen. ‘The market is very robust, inventory is low and you’re going to need to compete for the most part,’ said Jerry Boyles, an agent with Royal LePage Property Consultants. Boyles says it’s primarily a consequence of something that started during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when cash-flush buyers from other provinces started flocking to Newfoundland and Labrador like moths to a porch light.”

“The current bubble, however, will eventually burst, said Boyles. The influx of buyers from Ontario and B.C. is drying up, and so is the big money they were throwing around. ‘I was getting calls during the peak of COVID every single day. Now I’m getting a handful a month maybe.’ As for prices, they’re about 40 per cent higher than they were five years ago.”

“Matthew Regan, broker with Re/Max Escarpment Realty, says sales perked up in October in many areas, including in cities west of Toronto, where he does much of his business.. In November, Mr. Regan worked with one buyer who purchased a house in a prime neighbourhood in Mississauga as an investment. Mr. Regan wondered about the buyer’s motivation because the cash flow from leasing the home won’t cover the carrying cost. But the buyer figures the current late fall market conditions will prove to be good timing if there’s a stronger rebound in 2025. The purchaser was able to negotiate a sale price of $1.74-million after the property in Lorne Park was listed with an asking price of $1.85-million. ‘That’s a good deal for my buyer.'”

“In the past four weeks or so, Mr. Regan has had an influx of inquiries from homeowners who are thinking about selling and wonder if they should launch their property right away amidst the renewed optimism. But unless the homeowner has an urgent need to sell, he is advising they wait until Feb. 1 or so. Listing now is risky – especially if the asking price is a little too rich. ‘If you’re overpriced, you’re not going to know for two to three weeks. That puts you into December and you’re at the mercy of buyers heading into the holidays.'”

“Crumbling houses and public transport infrastructure concerns truly make Donegal the forgotten county of Ireland, according to doorstep voices. Locals are using their doorsteps as soapboxes to tell election hopefuls that the next Government must finally end the suffering of thousands of people whose lives have been decimated by the mica / defective blocks scandal. Charles, from Arranmore island said: ‘Families are being torn apart by the strain of this. The pressure is separating couples, removing parents from their children. This is not just a property or financial crisis. The devastation that this is causing in communities is heartbreaking to see. But they cannot afford to move out. Some can’t afford to heat their home because all their money is being lost on trying to fix their home. They are under severe financial strain.'”

“The home in Milford of pensioner Kathleen Bryant, 68, also needs to be demolished and rebuilt due to defective blocks that were used to build her house. But Kathleen told the Irish Mirror: ‘I am retired, so where am I going to get a loan to rebuild my house? “I worked all my life as a health worker, as a carer, and paid my taxes. You just want someone to care for you now. I bought the house with my life savings in 2011. I wanted to leave this house to my family. Everybody likes to leave a little mark with their life, something to say, ‘I was here’. That is a home for most people. But I cannot do that.'”

“In a market where many investor-grade units are sliding in value, buyers are being warned not to be seduced by the idea of picking up a bargain – which could cost much more in the long term. If the type of unit, the quality and the location aren’t in demand, then even though the price could be as much as 18.4 per cent lower than its pre-COVID peak, its value might still never recover. ‘With units, you need to look at the quality of the building, the age of the property and its location,’ said CoreLogic head of Australian research Eliza Owen, who authored a report showing 65 unit markets in Sydney and Melbourne now have values below their earlier record highs.”

“The CoreLogic report found, of all the suburbs where the unit value was down, the worst-hit was Sydney’s Epping, which is 18.9 per cent below its May 2017 peak, while Sydney Olympic Park was down 14.8 per cent. In Melbourne, the unit-heavy CBD lost 8.4 per cent, Docklands was down 5.1 per cent, and Southbank down 4.2 per cent. There were even bigger drops in Abbotsford (16 per cent) and East Melbourne (17.2 per cent).”

“Neighbours living next to a new luxury block of apartments on the Gold Coast are not getting the views they wanted, with some complaining they can see residents ‘showering and fornicating’ in their homes. Some residents of Raptis Group’s Pearl Tower, on Main Beach Parade, are unintentionally having their privacy breached thanks to clear bathroom windows, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports. Images seen by the publication show residents, the first of whom moved into the 30-storey-tower in October, clearly showering in the bathroom, unaware they can be seen others.”

“‘Spinnaker Apartment residents are looking out of their kitchens into new Pearl resident’s bathrooms watching them urinate, shower and fornicate,’ they told the Gold Coast Bulletin. ‘It was a shock to see people so close and intimate from the kitchen window when people first moved in.’ However, the resident said they were most concerned for their new neighbours. ‘Do they know we can see them showering? How embarrassing for them.'”