This Has Crippled Me, And I Know I Can Speak For Dozens Of Owners Who Are Just At A Complete And Utter Loss

A report from Island News in Hawaii. “Oahu’s housing market ended 2024 with a bang. ‘While the positive sales momentum in 2024 highlights a resilient market, affordability challenges remain a significant hurdle for many buyers,’ Trevor Benn, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, said in a statement. ‘As condo inventory builds and remains on the market longer, we’re seeing buyers take advantage of increased options and time to negotiate. Higher maintenance fees and insurance costs are also playing a role in shaping buyer decisions and the prices they’re able to offer.'”

From Barron‘s. “Home buyers in 2024 didn’t catch much of a break when it came to real estate prices—with some notable exceptions. ‘Mortgage rates are still posing a drag on the housing market’ both in Austin and at the national level, says Clare Knapp, the Austin Board of Realtors’ housing economist. As of the third quarter of 2024, Austin home prices were about 12% lower than their 2022 peak, though still significantly higher than they were in 2019. The five most expensive metropolitan areas were all in California. The median buyer in San Diego, San Jose, Anaheim, San Francisco, and Los Angeles would have spent as much as 77.6% of their income on monthly payments.”

The Christian Science Monitor. “Even with the water damage and the mold and the recognition that the wealthiest part of town is on a barrier island that should never be expected to stay put, many in Englewood still see their city as a gem; an Old Florida holdout in one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. But the finances of insurance and disaster recovery after Milton are making it hard for many to imagine how they will keep their homes. On the one hand are people – or private equity firms – with the cash to pay for hugely expensive home upgrades, such as rebuilding on stilts, or who can afford to self-insure and repair their properties. On the other are people like Gene Jeffers, sitting in a lawn chair on his driveway, his ruined house to his right, a vacation camper on loan from Habitat for Humanity South Sarasota County to his left.”

“‘I lost my roof with Ian, my furniture with Helene,’ Mr. Jeffers says, still giving the easy smile that has endeared him to his neighbors for decades. ‘Milton took the house.’ Mr. Jeffers’ in-laws bought his low-slung green home across the street from Lemon Bay in 1972. He moved in in 1997, after retiring from an Indiana factory job. He expects he’ll be gone within two years. By then, Mr. Jeffers imagines, cash buyers will have scooped up the ruined homes across the street, and his lot is going to be too valuable – and too vulnerable to storms – to keep. ‘I love this house, but it don’t love me no more,’ he says, and shrugs.”

New York Post. “A sprawling Hudson Valley estate once touted as a modern engineering marvel has seen its price slashed to a quarter of its original ask. Ledgerock, a 15,000-square-foot mansion perched on the banks of the Hudson River, is back on the market for $11.25 million after failing to sell for three years, according to the Wall Street Journal. The limestone-clad residence, located in Hyde Park, was initially listed in 2021 by developers Monica and Jacob Frydman for an eye-popping $45 million. The Frydmans, who reportedly spent years developing the property after purchasing the land for $1.5 million in 2005, no longer own the home. The current seller is an affiliate of Curiam Capital, a litigation-finance firm that foreclosed on the property after lending $13.2 million to an entity tied to Jacob in 2019. While Hyde Park is known for historic estates like the Vanderbilt Mansion, few buyers are willing to shell out tens of millions for modern properties in the area. ‘Unfortunately,’ said real estate agent Jason Karadus, who now represents the listing, ‘I think he [Jacob Frydman] overshot.'”

LAist in California. “Officials with Los Angeles’ regional homeless services agency say they’ve recovered about $13 million of $50.8 million paid to service providers beginning in 2018. That’s up from about $2.5 million that had been recovered at the time of a November audit that found the agency had failed to recover millions paid out to contractors in cash advances. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who is overseeing the process, pressed LAHSA for more details on how and when the funds would be recouped. ‘What’s our plan to get the rest of this money back?’ Carter said. ‘I don’t believe you have a payment plan with most of these entities.'”

“The judge went line by line through a list of 36 homeless service providers who’d received cash advances, praising several nonprofit operators who’d paid large sums back and chastising those that still had large outstanding balances — including People Assisting the Homeless, LA Family Housing Corporation, and The People Concern. ‘I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, unfortunately — this $50 million,’ Carter said. City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who recently conducted an audit of interim housing programs, agreed that the lack of accountability and data-sharing was a problem. ‘We’re cutting blank checks,’ Mejia said.”

Bisnow on Illinois. “Two Chicago office buildings traded hands in separate deals at the end of 2024 for huge discounts — a sign that while office transactions appear to be picking up, owners are taking significant haircuts to make deals happen. A joint venture between 601W Cos. and David Werner Real Estate Investments secured a $62.5M loan from Northwind Group to buy 303 E. Wacker late last month in the larger of the two deals. The acquisition represents a plunge of about 66% in value for the office property, which last sold for $182M to Beacon Capital Partners in 2018. In the West Loop, Brog Properties bought the mostly vacant 16-story office building at 550 W. Washington Blvd. late last month from a venture of New York-based Metropolitan Life Insurance for about $18.5M, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. The sale price was 83% less than the $111M that the MetLife venture paid for the building just west of the Ogilvie Transportation Center when it was almost fully leased in 2013.”

CBC News in Canada. “Owners of a north Edmonton condo building evacuated in 2023 due to the risk of collapse are hopeful the troubled property will soon be sold, following months of delays in getting the deal done. Cormode and Dickson Construction Ltd., an Edmonton-based commercial construction company, has made an offer to purchase Castledowns Pointe, as is, for $6.25 million. Owners decided in January 2024 to sell the building and the land it sits on, rather than rebuild. The court-sanctioned sale was originally expected to close in November but remains pending. Officials with Cormode have denied that the deal is at risk but the condo board’s legal team is making backup plans in case the sale falls through.”

“Lisa Brown, who owned a unit on the first floor where cracks had formed along the entry hallways, hopes the property can be sold quickly. She and other owners have been left in limbo and their debts are mounting, she said. ‘We were told that it was going to be over and done with and we could stop the bleeding,’ Brown said. ‘And really, the bleeding will continue until we get a final answer as to whether this is closing or not. It really just puts us on edge. And we’ve been on edge for coming up two years now.'”

“Condo board president Susan Strebchuk said owners have been saddled with mortgage payments on homes they can longer return to, and ongoing condo fees, leaving many on the brink of bankruptcy. ‘We’re frustrated and discouraged,’ Strebchuk said. ‘You think you’ve got an end in sight and then not. We are very concerned because if this falls apart, we’re back again to listing or going back to court.’ Even if a sale is approved, Brown said she would have no choice but to pursue foreclosure. Following the evacuation, she could no longer afford to pay her mortgage or the special assessments levied by the board. Brown said owners are exhausted and still seeking answers over who could be held accountable for the construction flaws that forced them from their homes. ‘This has crippled me. And I know I can speak for dozens of owners who are just at a complete and utter loss.'”

The NL Times. “The surge in Dutch housing prices seen since mid-2023 has begun to taper off, according to data from Makelaarsland, the Netherlands’ largest online NVM real estate agency. ‘While the housing market remains tight, we are receiving signals that the market is cooling slightly,’ said Ivor Brevé, director of Makelaarsland in an interview with the Telegraaf. Makelaarsland observed a ‘slight shift’ in buyer and seller behavior in the last quarter of 2024. Buyers are increasingly making offers below asking prices. According to the real estate agency, 34 percent of transactions in the final three months of the year involved bids below the asking price, compared to 27 percent in the third quarter and 25 percent in the second quarter.”

“‘Until last summer, overbidding was the norm, and most properties attracted excessive interest,’ said Brevé to the newspaper. ‘Now, our agents see more opportunities for buyers. While there are still properties selling quickly and well above the asking price, we are also seeing homes with significantly less interest. Some sellers are surprised by the moderate interest their properties are receiving,’ Brevé added. ‘They thought it was still very much a seller’s market, but we’ve been sensing this change for about three months.’ The slowdown in buyer interest was most pronounced in the large cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague.”

Radio New Zealand. “A number of housing developments are sitting unfinished and seemingly abandoned, leaving some neighbours frustrated. An air of mystery surrounds the seemingly abandoned developments, with many living nearby worrying about problems with squatters, vandalism, rain runoff and ageing materials. The Epsom Central Apartments Project halted five years ago, after Auckland Council found it had not complied with building consent. The original partnership, Epsom Central Apartments LP, was put into receivership in 2022, and purchased by Xiao Liu, the director of a company named Reeheng Limited, in September 2023. Since then, community members and business owners have said there has been an air of mystery around what will happen to the building, which at one point was filled with rats and squatters.”

“Greenwoods Corner Epsom Business Association president Dominique Bonn described the multi-storey building as a ‘blight on the Epsom landscape.’ It was covered in graffiti and ‘entombed’ in scaffolding. ‘It’s an eyesore – certainly not something we welcome in the area. We’re very keen to see something built to conclusion, but we have no real gauge on what’s going to happen.’ Over on the North Shore in the coastal suburb of Mairangi Bay, locals said they were concerned about what appeared to be an ‘abandoned’ construction site of new build homes. Nick Rogers, who lived near the site on Beach Road, said only the exterior shell of the houses was complete. ‘The site with its considerable excavation has been an eye sore for months. No one knows what will happen to it.’ Work began on the site more than two years ago, Rogers said, and he had not seen the ‘handful’ of workers since about July 2024. ‘There is an open window in the apartment block and debris and earth are accumulating around the garages, which are just bare concrete unroofed structures.'”

From ABS-CBN News. “In an interview with ABS-CBN News, Leechiu Property Consultants (LPC) CEO David Leechiu said rental rates for mid-market condo units have already dropped to their lowest in about 15 years. He expects this downward trend to continue this year, particularly in the Manila Bay area, Alabang, and Makati where the exit of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) have resulted in a lot of vacancies. Leechiu also noted that renting is more preferrable than buying, even if recent data by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) report also showed a decline in housing prices, including condo units, in the National Capital Region.”

“‘Yung bagsak ng presyo sa rental prices is so big compared to the capital values. If you want to buy units right now, the discounts are probably 10, 20, 30 percent of the purchase price. The rents are discounted at 50 to 60 percent,’ said Leechiu. He said renting allows people,particularly those in the middle class, to save more money which they could invest in something else. ‘Ang tawag doon is free capital. The money you could’ve put buying and borrowing money, you could use that to grow a business or invest in the stock market,’ he said.”

“Apart from money, Leechiu added that it would also save a lot more time, especially if people are able to find a unit that is closer to where they work or where they study. ‘Instead of you staying 2 to 3 hours a day, 4 hours a day in traffic, you can do much more. You can spend more time with your children, you can spend more time with your loved ones, you can spend more time with your girlfriend and boyfriend, you can work out, you can sleep in… You can do many things for yourself instead of sitting in traffic,’ he said. According to LPC’s estimate, it would take 34 months or about three years before the current supply of condo units is taken up.”