Get Rich Quick Equals Lose Money Fast

A report from Sarasota Magazine in Florida. “The Sarasota and Manatee real estate markets are recalibrating as 2024 draws to a close, with cooling sales, dropping prices and more inventory. It’s a complete shift from the pandemic-fueled frenzy of recent past. The median price for a single-family home in Sarasota County was $490,000, unchanged from October 2024. However, in Manatee County, the median sale price dropped to $430,000, compared to $479,990 in October 2024. Condominiums and townhomes, once hot commodities, are seeing a big shift, too. In Sarasota County, the median sale price for townhomes and condos fell 31.8 percent year-over-year, to $373,700. Manatee County saw a more modest decline of 11.8 percent, with a median price of $309,900. Inventory for these property types also surged in both counties, pushing the months’ supply of inventory beyond six months—a hallmark of a buyer’s market. ‘The market is shifting, and for some, this could be an excellent time to buy. Sellers are more open to creative offers, like lease purchases, which weren’t even on the table a few years ago,’ said Anita Lambert, a local real estate agent with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty.”

The Oregonian. “An updated 1907 Foursquare house in Northeast Portland sold for its revised asking price of $985,000 on Dec. 6. The original listing price for the property on Northeast Clackamas Street was $1,050,000 in May and the price dropped $65,000 two months later. The neighborhood has a variety of housing types from single-family homes to condos, townhouses and apartments, but listing agent Joe Spanish said it ‘tends to attract a smaller buyer pool’ and is often overlooked by the broader market. ‘I believe that’s unwarrante’d,” Spanish told The Oregonian/OregonLive. ‘The area offers fantastic nearby amenities, and Irvington is just three blocks north. If this home were located there, it would easily be valued at $1.2 million.’ Redfin found the median sale price in Sullivan’s Gulch was $294,750 in November 2024, a year-over-year decrease of 17.6% over the 12-month period.”

The Baltimore Banner in Maryland. “An already rocky year for Chasen Cos. is closing with more legal trouble. First National Bank of Pennsylvania moved last week to foreclose on one of the firm’s properties on the border of Fells Point and Harbor East — a development that Brandon Chasen, the company’s founder and CEO, projected this summer would be finished by the end of the year. The bank also has taken steps to file a judgment of more than $28 million in Montgomery County Circuit Court, claiming the company defaulted on its loan for the building at 1400 Aliceanna St. Meanwhile, four contractors claim Chasen Cos. owes them more than $1.3 million for their work on the Aliceanna Street project, court records show.”

“Chasen Cos. planned to convert the former warehouse into a luxury apartment building with 12,200 square feet of commercial space. It’s on the same block as another major Chasen Cos. development, the former Meyer Seed Co. building — which also faces legal problems. Work at both sites has ground to a halt. The company’s financial and legal struggles spill beyond those neighborhoods. Earlier this fall, Sandy Spring Bank moved to foreclose on the downtown skyscraper known as One Calvert Plaza. In court documents, the bank alleged that the company failed to make payments on a nearly $34 million loan. A string of contractors started filing lawsuits alleging that the company owed them money. Chasen stopped talking to reporters. Several employees left, and a new website appeared, promoting Chasen as a ‘noted entrepreneur, real estate developer, investor and speaker.’ Chasen Cos. owns about 2,000 residential units, mostly in the city, and it purchased about 10% of the available multifamily properties in Fells Point alone, according to a Banner data analysis of property records in June. The company also owns apartment buildings in Florida and Virginia.”

From Bisnow. “Big Tech’s heartland was once firmly entrenched as one of the world’s most critical data center markets. Now, it’s barely an afterthought for the developers and tech giants driving the artificial intelligence data center building boom. Now, an unprecedented wave of data center development to support AI is all but skipping Northern California. ‘Silicon Valley was arguably the second most important market in the industry, but it doesn’t even register in the top 10 anymore from a pure development perspective,’ Foundation Data Centers’ CEO Arman Khalili told DICE West. The biggest challenge, by far, is power.”

“Not only did power shortages hit Northern California earlier and with greater severity than other markets, but there is also widespread skepticism that utilities, developers and state officials have a pathway out of the crisis. California’s regulatory landscape is also perpetuating the market’s power woes by slowing down the buildout of energy infrastructure, experts say. ‘Getting building permits takes years here when the market is signaling that the most important thing is speed,’ Crane Data Centers CEO Matt Pfile said. ‘California is just not a place that’s business-friendly if you’re building anything, and we think that’s going to continue to be a constraint.'”

The Desert Sun in California. “Desert Hot Springs’ homeless access hub is now a 90-day ‘crisis stabilization facility’ instead of an overnight shelter. Martha’s Village & Kitchen began operating the hub when it first opened October 2023 and continued to do so for a year. But city staff observed that the number of homeless people in Desert Hot Springs did not decrease over that period and not many people the hub helped went on to obtain housing. This led the city to enter a limited term agreement with Social Work Action Group, another nonprofit organization that assists homeless people, in October 2024 to transition the hub into a 90-day crisis stabilization facility.”

“Councilmember Jan Pye said the city is doing something different with SWAG operating the hub. ‘When SWAG got in there, it’s tough love. It was something totally different. But the homeless people — I said ‘What do you think?,’ she said. ‘They’re doing the right thing,’ is what they told me. They told me, ‘Riffraff is not in charge anymore.’”

The Waterloo Record in Canada. “A City of Kitchener requirement for affordable units in some new projects — hailed as a bold step when it was approved in March — is being delayed by a year. The decision to postpone the introduction of inclusionary zoning rules until 2026 came during a council meeting Monday night, where councillors heard from 10 delegates arguing for and against the move. The development industry sought a delay until market conditions improved, warning the additional cost of providing affordable units could stifle new projects, and a consultant’s report prepared for the city agreed.”

“Mayor Berry Vrbanovic noted the city achieved 139 per cent of its housing target in 2023 in terms of housing starts, but will struggle to hit 80 per cent of this year’s target. ‘The reality is we have to trust the data that says the market is ice-cold,’ Davey said. ‘The developers, if they’re not going to make money, they won’t build.'”

Coventry Live in the UK. “Hundreds of rooms have gone empty at one student accommodation development in Coventry, as owners attempt fling open the doors for the general public to take on short-term lets – and Coventry Live readers in our comments section say that the rush to throw up more students digs has gone much too far. Paradise Student Village, a 1,040-bed accommodation, opened six years ago. The building has been more than a fifth empty since 2020, rising to over a third empty in the last academic year. The managers have sent an application to the council to rent out the spare rooms on a short-term basis, but the letter that came with it had a dire warning. It said the building’s high vacancy rates are down to changes in demand affecting student accommodation throughout the city. It said the problem is an inefficient use of land, and warned it can also cause financial difficulties which could force the building to be sold or closed.”

“Readers have had enough of hearing about troubled student digs. Commenter Covkid says: ‘Why are the council approving new student accommodation when the university can’t fill the rooms already built?’ Mouse111 says: ‘Surprise surprise, everyone has been saying for years that there is far too much student accommodation in this city and guess what… the bubble has finally burst. But for CCC to continue to build more is so so wrong on all levels.’ On our Facebook page, Colin Tullock writes: ‘I’m not surprised. There seems to have been an enormous amount of student accommodation built in recent years, and Covid proved that many lectures can be attended from home!'”

The Daily Mail. “A property investment expert has urged Aussies to think carefully before buying real estate and says the move shouldn’t be seen as a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Open Corp Founder and CEO Cam McLellan said its important for people to identify their financial goals before they invest in property. ‘If you’re looking to get rich quick, property is not the thing for you,’ Mr McLellan, who bought his first investment property when he was in his 20s, told Daily Mail Australia. ‘[Investors] should be conscious that [the concept of] get rich quick equals lose money fast.'”

“Mr McLellan said a good property investment provides long-term financial results. He said people can’t afford to think that the move is as easy as buying a bunch of properties that will set them up financially for life. ‘Investing is about building a safe slow portfolio to give you a long-term growth result so don’t think you’re going to get into it and set and forget,’ he said.”

South China Morning Post. “Thailand’s property market is booming and so is fraud. Mainland Chinese buyers, who accounted for nearly half of the purchases by foreigners last year, are among the victims. Zoe Yu, a 45-year-old photographer from Ningbo in southeast China, encountered trouble when investing in Thailand’s second-biggest city of Chiang Mai. She signed a contract in January 2023 to buy a 10 million baht (US$293,000) villa following an introduction by a Chinese celebrity. However, Yu soon found out that foreigners are prohibited from owning land or individual houses in Thailand. Even though her contract lacked legal protection, she fought and won a refund in July this year, but not before losing more than a third of her investment in expenses and renovations.”

“The market has unfortunately become a hotspot for fraud, as it attracts new investors with poor knowledge of the regulations, according to House Condo Lawyer, a Thai law firm specialising in property investment. Falsified title deeds and illegal land sales can lead to huge losses. One investor lost as much as 400 million baht, according to the firm. It also highlighted the issue of illegal nominee structures, where foreign buyers are led to believe they can own land by registering it under a Thai nominee. This practice is illegal and can result in the foreign investor losing their investment if the nominee claims ownership or if authorities investigate.”

“Yu is not alone. In June 2023, British investor David Edward Chappelle made headlines after learning that a developer, from whom he bought a flat on Koh Samui for 15 million baht, failed to register the property in his name. He was among several foreign buyers caught in this scheme. In September this year, two Australians filed a fraud complaint in the southern tourist town of Phuket after paying over 5 million baht for a flat that was never delivered. Although they won a civil court case, they have yet to receive compensation.”

“Meanwhile, Yu wants Chinese nationals to tread cautiously and hopes that her story serves as a cautionary tale for foreigners interested in buying property in Thailand. ‘My husband tried and failed to talk me out of the property purchase,’ she said. ‘I was blinded by my vanity, as I was only thinking of living in the same community as a Chinese celebrity.'”