The Days Of Dizzying Price Highs Are Firmly Behind Us

A report from the Canadian Press. “Real estate broker Alexandra DuPont, who sells properties largely to Quebecers in southeast Florida, says she’s juggling twice her typical workload with 30-plus listings. ‘I’ve never had this much in a decade. I picked up three new listings on Monday. That’s never happened to me in one day,’ she said last week. Properties used to last on the market for a day or two before being snapped up, said her father and real estate partner, Sylvain DuPont. ‘Now the minimum in southwest Florida is 90 days, and they’re still not selling. Inventory’s growing by the day,’ he said, noting most of his clients are Ontarians and Quebecers. ‘We feel that the market is going to collapse pretty soon … People are panicking now.'”

The Miami Herald in Florida. “Rep. Mike Caruso, a Republican from Delray Beach said elderly residents in condominiums will be soon foreclosed on because they ‘could no longer afford the triple reserves or the quadrupled dues’ caused by legislation that went into effect at the end of last year requiring full funding of maintenance reserves for buildings. Ronni Drimmer, the condominium board president of a 55-and-older association in Clearwater said she just had to pay $7,200 for her part of a new roof required by insurance. The cost of insurance also went up by $25,000 over the association’s 2025 budget. And now the association’s HOA fees are projected to go up by $100 a month on average for 2025 for building maintenance. Drimmer said she and other unit owners won’t be able to afford the monthly increase. ‘Feels like a freight train has run over me,’ Drimmer, 72, said. ‘I have no idea what will happen.'”

Honolulu Star Advertiser in Hawaii. “Sumithra Balraj is moving back to her fire-ravaged Lahaina condominium before completing reconstruction after getting a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency seeking $2, 300 in monthly rent for a unit that was once free since she was displaced from her housing by the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires. ‘What FEMA is going to start charging for a 600-square-foot unit is more than my mortgage, which I already am struggling to pay because of the downturn, and that’s on top of my HOA (homeowners association ) fees rising another $252 to $700,’ said Balraj, who worked three jobs before the fire but, as a result of Maui’s economic downturn, is now down to just one as a caregiver for her partner.”

“Sen. Angus McKelvey (D, West Maui-Maalaea-Waikapu-­South Maui ) said a Maui fire-related foreclosure moratorium ended Jan. 1. He said that next, on Feb. 4 a state-issued eviction ban ends, and on March 1 FEMA will begin charging rent for its direct housing program. ‘The FEMA cliff is huge. Everybody was led to believe that when the continued resolution (federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery ) was passed, ($1.6 billion ) was being made available for housing until 2026. Now we are hearing that FEMA is communicating with people and saying, ‘Hey, oh, no, no. You have got to pay.’”

From CBS News. “Roberto Covarrubias and his family of six have lived in Altadena, California, for 10 years. Their American dream had four bedrooms, four bathrooms and 2,400 square feet. But disaster struck when the Eaton Fire swept through their neighborhood. Now they’re facing a second disaster — a financial one. ‘You’re underinsured when it comes to the policy, there’s clearly not going to be enough to make you whole again,’ said Alex Traslavina, a state-insured, independent insurance adjuster hired by fire victims to negotiate with insurance companies. Although Covarrubias’ homeowners insurance policy covers more than $1 million in losses, it won’t be enough.”

“‘Based off your numbers, it’s anywhere between $500,000 to $1 million short,’ Traslavina said. Traslavina estimates that many of the residents who lost their homes in the Los Angeles-area fires are underinsured, meaning the total cost of rebuilding will outpace what their insurance policies can afford them. For some victims, the loss is both total and totally out of pocket. Nationally, 12% of American homeowners have no home insurance, according to the Insurance Information Institute. With premiums soaring, many of them dropped their coverage, rolled the dice and lost big in the disaster.”

“After Colorado’s Marshall Fire in 2021, a roughly $2 billion disaster, an estimated three-fourths of victims discovered they were underinsured. ‘If your home is completely destroyed, it’s very difficult for most insurance policies to cover the complete rebuild of a property. So there’s a second layer of revictimization,’ said Dr. Jeremy Porter, who studies property values after natural disasters. That’s where Covarrubias finds himself. His savings now compete with a million dollars in uninsured losses.”

From KSL.com. “Beckie Gregg picked up her new puppy after her ex had walked out on her and Zoe followed her from Panguitch to her new home in Tropic, Garfield County. Gregg was renting the home in a program put on by Utah Housing Corporation called CROWN, for credits-to-own, that allowed low-income renters to build up equity in the homes they rented for 15 years and then have the opportunity to buy them and earn the equity. But three years later that water would resurface as a much bigger issue when it was finally time to buy her home. A home inspector found puddles of murky water pooled around the base of the foundation, so she asked Utah Housing for an engineer to look at it. She worried she wouldn’t be able to get a loan on the home.”

“The good news, they were told, was that a new nonprofit wanted to buy the homes and would still offer the renters the chance to buy the homes from the new owner. Gregg found out that was not true — after she lost the opportunity to close on her home. She was 70 then and now is a 74-year-old renter uncertain how she will stay in the home into the future. Tammy Bowman was another frustrated renter in the program. ‘They stole our equity and they didn’t give us the opportunity to go forward,’ she said. David Damschen, Utah Housing’s president, is the former state treasurer. He said selling the homes to the nonprofit was the agency’s Plan B. Plan A was always to sell to the renters. ‘We’re planning for Plan A, we want to create homeowners,’ Damschen said. ‘And then we get into year 15, 16 and we’ve got to fish or cut bait.'”

“‘I do not have any family. I am really struggling, still having to work, to pay rent on a house that was supposed to be mine, supposed to be my safety net,’ Gregg wrote in an email.”

The New Haven Independent in Connecticut. “For the first time in more than two decades, a vacant lot and an incomplete apartment building on Winchester Avenue are no longer controlled by NFL cornerback-turned-housing developer Kenny Hill. Last Wednesday, Stormfield Capital Funding I LLC filed a certificate of strict foreclosure for those properties on the city land records. The 12-unit apartment building at 201 Winchester, meanwhile, has received a partial certificate of occupancy for its residential units, according to city spokesperson Lenny Speiller. But, when the Independent swung by Monday morning, the property appeared to be unfinished and empty. Hill declined an interview with the Independent in July 2022. He did say at the time that he hoped to resume construction at 201 and 235 Winchester, and said he had lost millions of dollars​ ‘trying to do good things for the city. There is a lot of nonsense going on downtown. I have gotten totally screwed.'”

The Bay Observer in Canada. “Plans for a twin tower condo development on the site of Philpott Memorial Church appear to have hit a snag. The congregation of Philpott have asked the city for more time to conclude a deal with the builder, Empire homes to secure the property. The condo market is in a significant slump at present with lenders backing away from projects, amid a glut of units on the market and purchasers unwilling to pay the current market prices. At Hamilton General Issue Committee this week, Mike Collins-Williams of the West End Homebuilders predicted a difficult year for his industry. The congregation planned to use the proceeds from the sale of the church to relocate into more modern quarters on King Street. The developer presented expert evidence that the building was not salvageable, and instead, proposed the incorporation of some architectural features into the proposed development.”

The Delta Optimist in Canada. “Let’s do a throwback to see how house prices really shot through the roof over the past few years, making owning a single-family house simply out of reach for many. The 2020 year-end numbers by from the Greater Vancouver Realtors (GVR), and Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVRB) indicated another robust year, despite COVID-19. The REBGV noted that residential home sales in the region that year saw a 22.1 per cent increase from the sales recorded in 2019. A single-family house in Ladner in December of 2020 had a benchmark of $1,070,000, a 14.7 per cent increase from December 2019, while the benchmark for a house in Tsawwassen was $1,200,000, up 12.7 per cent from the previous year. Over the decade, the benchmark for a house in Ladner had increased just over 87 per cent, and just over 105 per cent in Tsawwassen.”

“Ten years earlier, in December 2014, the benchmark price for a house in Ladner was $658,500, and it was $772,300 for Tsawwassen. Today, although the market cooled and prices over the past couple of years have stabilized, house prices are now at a level making it difficult for many to enter the market. According to a Metro Vancouver report, the region had seen an increasing gap between incomes and housing costs, as over the past 20 years the ratio of home prices to income increased dramatically. Before the year 2000, the sale price of a two-storey detached home was around 3.2 times the median annual household income, but by 2015, the cost of an average home was more than 19 times higher than income, the Metro report noted.”

GB News in the UK. “Luxury homes across London’s commuter belt are selling for around £150,000 below their asking prices, marking a dramatic shift in the property market. Sale prices for properties worth £1million or more in the home counties fell by nine per cent on average last year, according to a new report from Investec. Carlos Mendes, a private banker at Investec, said buyers ‘were able to secure some great deals last year, with average reductions of over £150,000 compared to their initial listing price.’ Kent has emerged as the hardest-hit area, with luxury properties selling for 9.7 per cent below asking prices – equivalent to a reduction of £156,344. Hertfordshire homeowners fared slightly better, though still faced significant losses, with properties selling for £133,333 less than their initial listing prices.”

“Jamie Freeman of Haringtons UK said: ‘While some sellers remain overly ambitious, listing properties at inflated prices, the buying frenzy of 2021 and 2022 – when homes often sold overnight with ease – has subsided. The home counties will always appeal to buyers but the days of dizzying price highs are firmly behind us. The market is now settling into a more balanced and realistic phase.’ Nigel Bishop, of buying agency Recoco Property Search, offered insight into seller behaviour, noting: ‘We have seen some sellers who, after failing to sell last year, are now more driven to close a deal and therefore more willing to lower their asking price.'”

The View in Australia. “The number of homes for sale is on the rise, giving buyers a better position to get in the market. Listing numbers have risen across major capital cities including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane according to latest data from CoreLogic. ‘Melbourne is a firm buyers market and Hobart is also still a buyers market but we are starting to see stock levels adjust there,’ said CoreLogic’s Head of Reseach Eliza Owen. The country’s most expensive housing market and strong performer Sydney is also undergoing change. ‘For Sydney, which is more of an emerging buyers market we’re really starting to see a loosening up.'”

“While the news that markets such as Sydney are now starting to turn a corner buyers agent Michelle May said getting a better deal today depended on the type of home you were interested and in what part of the city. She said that for higher density apartments ‘the tide had well and truly turned.’ ‘What I’ve been seeing is more investor property coming onto the market , the newer apartments are selling for less than what they paid for a number of years ago,’ she said.