Maybe Desperation, Maybe Bad Management And Maybe Disbelief

A report from Fox Business. “Mary Tyler Moore’s eight-figure home in Greenwich, Connecticut is still looking for a buyer. The asking price for the late actress’s 13,800-square-foot mansion currently stands at $16.9 million, its listing with Joseph Barbieri of Sotheby’s International Realty showed Friday. The sprawling Georgian Colonial has sported that eight-figure asking price since the summer, when $2 million was shaved off its price tag, according to Zillow. The real estate site indicated it also underwent a price reduction in April. Moore’s husband, Dr. Robert Levine, put the property up for sale in September of last year, originally seeking $21.9 million, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. Barbieri told FOX Business he doesn’t see another price reduction in the property’s future. ‘We anticipate selling it soon as we have serious interest at this current price,’ he also said. ‘Interest rates cuts will be very welcome in the marketplace.'”

Advance Media in New Jersey. “A lakefront mansion in an exclusive gated community in Kinnelon is a bargain after undergoing two price cuts that shaved more than 30% off the asking price. The seven-bedroom, six-bathroom home was originally listed in May for $1,499,000. In July, the price was lowered to $1,250,000, and then it was cut again in November to its current price of $999,000. ‘The price per square foot is incredible,’ said Anthony Fantazzi of Nest Seekers in Rumson, the listing agent. The price cuts were made because homes in Kinnelon are spending more days on the market than they were, Fantazzi said, and the home is ‘cosmetically, a little dated.’ The home has attracted interest, especially after the price cuts, Fantazzi said. ‘Most people who have given criticism are looking for something more traditional. This is custom. It’s not cookie cutter at all. It’s very unique as far as the layout.'”

From Realtor.com. “Nantucket, long the playground of the rich and famous, saw $1.3 billion in real estate deals in 2024 alone, with a median sales price of $3.3 million. But one street likely won’t be sharing in the wealth. Sheep Pond Road, on the southwest part of the Massachusetts vacation island near Madaket, has seen millions shaved off its pricey homes due to beach erosion. ‘Sheep Pond is going in the drink,’ says local real estate agent Shelly Lockwood, of Advisors Living. A 4-acre parcel of land with two properties—14 and 16—was snapped up by a local real estate investor in April 2022 for $3.9 million. But last week, one of them was declared uninhabitable and condemned by the town. Both are now set to be auctioned off in March on behalf of the lender. ‘Is Sheep Pond a smart investment?’ asks Lockwood. ‘No, it is not.'”

“The auction might move ahead, but Lockwood thinks bidders would be foolish. ‘The houses are not worth anything. It’s going to cost money to move them,’ she says. ‘They can’t fall in the ocean. If they fall in the ocean, it’s an enormous environmental hazard. There’s Styrofoam and fiberglass and metal. It’s horrible. And you get a huge fine from the [Environmental Protection Agency].’ As for why a presumably savvy investor paid millions for properties already at high risk in 2022, Lockwood says, ‘It’s a little surprising, with him being as knowledgeable as he is about Nantucket. But people have their own whims.'”

The Miami Herald in Florida. “Nine of 12 townhouses built in Coconut Grove by a developer accused of running a real estate scam have been sold to bidders who capitalized on the homes’ tarnished past to buy them for hundreds of thousands of dollars below their listed prices. The houses were auctioned off Friday during a three-and-a-half-hour Zoom hearing overseen by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Thomas Rebull. Proceeds go into a pot for reimbursing 32 creditors who are owed $34 million by Doug Cox, the self-styled ‘King of Coconut Grove,’ accused of conning home buyers and investors in a Ponzi-like scheme in which he signed double and triple sales contracts on single houses and collected escalating deposits from a succession of unsuspecting buyers as Miami real estate boomed from 2020 to 2023.”

“He repeatedly postponed promised closing dates on the finished houses, keeping buyers in limbo. No one ever moved into the houses lining Coconut Avenue, which have been sitting empty for four years in one of the hottest markets in the country. One buyer victim, Alan Lombardi, described the houses as ‘cursed,’ and wondered why anybody would want to buy them given their history of heartache and construction problems. Phillip Sylvester, ex-business partner of Cox who is suing Cox and Pearl for $9 million, said sales prices were depressed by the ‘stigma’ on the properties. Sylvester hoped more money would have been generated for the creditors’ pot. ‘I reached out to eight buyer victims trying to get them to bid on their houses but for one reason or another they could not —either they couldn’t afford to or they have moved on from this ordeal,’ Sylvester said.”

Fast Company. “The failure to build more housing and drive down costs has been a pernicious issue across the country—and in cities in particular. Driven by a shortage of at least 4 million homes, rising rental costs, homebuying challenges, and homelessness have become endemic. U.S. homelessness reached a peak in 2024: 653,000 people, or approximately the entire population of Boston. Rent has risen nearly 20% since 2019, and the cost of a new home has risen nearly 50% since 2020. ‘There’s growing or boiling over of frustrations with the failures of policymakers and elected officials on housing in California and liberal cities,’ says Shane Phillips, a UCLA professor and housing policy expert.”

“In short, city voters have supported increased taxation and investment to tackle the nation’s housing affordability and homelessness challenges. Yet they’re still far from happy about the job local governments have done. ‘People mostly have a place to live, they just can’t afford the place that they have,’ says Mari Castaldi, director of state housing policy for the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. As Phillips notes, it’s perhaps not coincidental that ‘bastions of democratic governance,’ such as New York City, have seen both a turn toward Donald Trump and a backlash toward supportive housing and homeless policies.”

The Los Angeles Times. “The rivalry between California and Florida reached a high mark in November 2023 when Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, faced off against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, on Fox News over which state held a better model for the country. Thirteen months later, DeSantis has left the national stage after an aborted presidential run. But his state is winning the political war. Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to fight the state this time on a variety of fronts, including its homeless policies, its resistance to a border wall, its electric car mandate and over his plans to begin mass deportations that would disproportionately affect California, a border state with the nation’s largest Latino population.”

“Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and other Democrats concede the party just lost an election and that Trump, even as he lost California by 20 percentage points, gained about 10 percentage points over his 2016 and 2020 margins in the state. Much of that growth came among the state’s Latino population, which makes up a large proportion of Democrats’ traditional working-class base. ‘It’s all centered around affordability. California is the least affordable state when you factor in housing costs,’ said Mike Madrid, an anti-Trump Republican pollster who conducted surveys of Latino voters after the election and has focused on their evolving views for decades. ‘The idea of California values is specific to cultural issues. It is essentially ignoring economic issues.'”

“Rep. Vince Fong, a Bakersfield Republican who won an election to succeed former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this year, said he will file legislation to halt funding on California’s high-speed rail project and work with Trump to build a border wall in the state, blaming a porous border for allowing fentanyl-smuggling from China. In an interview, he praised Florida effusively as a better model for business, regulation, environmental policy and housing costs and welcomed the state’s influence at the national level. ‘It’s ironic to me that Gov. Newsom and the Democrats in the state Legislature are now concerned about affordability,’ he said. ‘You hear them talking about it, but it’s their policies.'”

Insauga in Canada. “Potential home buyers might find some lower prices across Ontario this winter. There are several examples of homes selling at a loss in Brampton and Oakville. While there may be a market recovery in 2025, many sellers are lowering prices. 177 Durham St., Kincardine: This two-bedroom home is near Kincardine’s Dunsmoor Park, the historic Kincardine Beach Pavilion and the famous Rock Gardens. The custom-built home has served as a beachside family retreat for several decades but could be a year-round home, investment or retirement property. This home was listed in November 2022 for $824,900 and has dropped in price a few times. It was listed last month for $679,900.”

Isle of Man Today in the UK. “A leading homebuilder is facing a legal bid for it to be wound up in a dispute over an unfinished housing estate. Creditors have lodged a high court petition for the winding up of Haven Homes Limited. The claim will be heard on January 15. Property development company Haven Homes, based Malew Street in Castletown, has been struggling with difficult trading conditions for some time, amid rising costs and a slowdown in demand. It says it will ‘robustly’ oppose the petition. Question were asked in Tynwald in October about Haven Homes’ 96-home development in Castletown, The Meadows, where construction work stopped for some time this year and at least nine homes remain unfinished. In a statement, the petitioners said their comments would be limited to matters in the public domain ‘due to a number of legal actions commenced against Haven and its directors. The petitioners claim that Haven is unable to pay its debts and that in the circumstances it would be just and equitable for it to be wound up.’”

Domain News in Australia. “House prices in some of Melbourne’s most exclusive suburbs have fallen, driven by high interest rates, buyer hesitancy and sellers’ reluctance to meet market expectations. Armadale is leading the decline among the $2 million-plus club, as the median house price dropped 15.8 per cent to $2.29 million in the past 12 months, according to Domain data for the September quarter. It was followed by Toorak, Melbourne’s luxury suburb, where prices fell 14.3 per cent to a median of $4.5 million. A 12.5 per cent fall was recorded in Caulfield North.”

“Buyer’s agent Nicole Jacobs, managing director at Cohen Handler in Victoria, said buyers who secured homes below $5 million in prestigious suburbs at low interest rates are now facing steep mortgage repayment increases and need to sell in a weakened market. ‘You never lose if you don’t have to sell, but you sometimes can lose if you’re at the mercy of a market which is not favourable to what you’re selling in.'”

“Emma Bloom, a director at buyer’s agents Morrell and Koren, is seeing a pattern of sellers who will abandon their first real estate agent after they don’t achieve their desired selling price. ‘There is definitely jumping from agent to agent, and that’s maybe desperation, maybe sort of bad management and maybe disbelief,’ she said. ‘Second and third agents is where they get real. The vendor gets a reality check, and basically they’re the ones that have the luck in selling all those properties, because they eventually have to listen to what the market said their property is worth.'”

From Bloomberg. “One of China’s leading developers is now on authorities’ radar for default risk. A major Hong Kong builder is asking lenders to extend loans. Another industry peer is selling an iconic but largely empty mall in Beijing. As China’s property debt crisis enters its fifth year, there’s little indication that distressed developers are finding it easier to repay debt as a slump in home sales continues. Their dollar bonds are still trading at deeply distressed levels, their debt issuance has nearly dried up, and the sector is a notable laggard in stock markets.”

“Alarm bells went off again in recent weeks, when the banking regulator told top insurers to report their financial exposure to China Vanke Co. to assess how much support the country’s fourth-largest developer by sales needs to avoid default. Over in Hong Kong, New World Development Co. sought to delay some loan maturities while Parkview Group put up a landmark commercial complex for sale in Beijing.”

“‘Hong Kong developers are facing a double-whammy in the current down cycle,’ said Daniel Fan, credit analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. ‘China’s property market, where many of them are involved, shows no sign of a strong recovery while Hong Kong’s market correction is still ongoing.'”