The Beauty Contest And A Price War

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “For many, a federal government job was a marker of stability or a way to serve the country, in some cases a ‘dream’ job. Days after they’d been let go, employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s hadn’t received the paperwork they needed to file for unemployment, said Elizabeth Aniskevich, who was a litigation counsel for the agency before she was told her job was eliminated. ‘We were just basically tossed out on the streets, and so that has been angering and heartbreaking, and our pay stopped the day we got the termination letter, so we’re all without a paycheck as of Tuesday,’ she said. ‘I’m a single person in my house. I’m responsible for my insurance and for my mortgage, and I worked really hard to buy this house on my own after putting myself through law school, and I don’t know how I’m going to continue to make mortgage payments very far into the future.'”

“Katie Butler, a Department of Education lawyer, knew her days with the agency were numbered. The loss of her job has also hit her financially — she had just bought a house in June that she’s been remodeling and also has student debt of around $140,000. She says the job she lost was ‘one of the exact jobs I went to law school for.’ ‘Career-wise, this is a big detour from what I expected,’ she said. ‘I went to law school because I planned to work long-term as a public servant.'”

“Emotions ran high Thursday as a wave of layoffs hit the IRS office at the Appletree Business Park in Cheektowaga. Richard Syracuse of East Aurora also lost his job. ‘This is the best job I ever had being totally honest,’ Syracuse said. The job cuts hit especially hard for Syracuse, who is raising two young children and has a mortgage to pay. ‘It feels terrible. I’ve got two kids turning four and one — mortgage. I’ve been trying to get in touch with my Congressman, Nick Langworthy, for five months — absolutely nothing — absolutely nothing,’ Syracuse said with frustration.”

“If you’ve been thinking about buying or selling a home in Central Florida, now might be the perfect time to act. For the first time since 2015, the region is experiencing its highest housing inventory spike in nearly a decade according to the Orlando Regional REALTOR® Association. With over 11,000 homes on the market as of January 2025, buyers and sellers are navigating a shifting landscape filled with opportunities and challenges. For buyers, the increase in inventory marks a turning point. With the supply hovering above seven months — a threshold that defines a buyer’s market. Don’t expect to list your home and wait for offers to roll in. Sellers need to put their best foot forward. ‘When it comes to sellers, my biggest feedback is, you know, there’s the beauty contest and a price war,’ explains Andrey Bustamante, CEO of Bustamante Real Estate. ‘The way you prepare the home, the way you present the home on the market, matters more than ever.'”

“The former owner of a Vale mobile home park is foreclosing on the property, seeking more than $2 million, according to a foreclosure notice. The fate of the Treasure Valley Mobile Home Park, at 1000 Hope St. in Vale, is unclear. The foreclosure notice was issued to Treasure Valley LLC, whose primary member is Brooke L. Torres, who now lives in Florida and touts mobile home parks as ‘lucrative.’ The park has 67 home sites and, according to state records, 11 are vacant. Tenants are not part of the foreclosure action. ‘I take full responsibility for the past issues related to the management of the property,’ Torres said in her email.”

“The Oregon Housing and Community Services Department shows that Torres declared an intention to sell the park last October. Torres confirmed in a Feb. 17 email that it is listed for sale. She has produced a number of online videos. In one, she describes listening to a speaker describe the benefits of owning mobile home parks instead of other residential real estate. She said there was an image of a mailbox ‘just stuffed with cash.’ She added, ‘I want my mailbox to look like that.'”

“A Berkeley apartment complex was purchased following a foreclosure that helped to shove the property’s value lower, fresh evidence of falling values in the multifamily residential market. The complex, called Higby, was bought for $32 million by Berkeley-based Read Investments according to documents filed on Tuesday with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office. By multiple benchmarks, the Berkeley apartment building’s value — as is the case for a growing number of multifamily residential complexes in the East Bay — has plummeted over the last few years. In 2019, before the foreclosure, Higby was bought for $51.5 million. When lender Union Life Insurance Co. took ownership in August 2024 through a streamlined foreclosure process, the financial services firm placed a value of $36.2 million on Higby. Several transactions have emerged in recent months that hint at a widening slump in apartment markets in Oakland, Emeryville — and now Berkeley.”

“Two prominent San Francisco buildings may be on President Trump’s chopping block. The White House is looking to sell the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on 7th Street and the century-old building at 50 United Nations Plaza. The Trump administration says it will save money by avoiding maintenance on the buildings, selling the properties, then leasing office space for federal workers. Former Congresswoman Jackie Speier says it’s just about vengeance. ‘It’s another example of how he is coming after Democrats. He’s coming after California, and it’s all about payback,’ Speier said. Also targeted is a federal building in San Bruno.”

“State Street’s former iconic office tower that motorists see while driving up 93 will soon hit the auction block, the latest sign of a struggling post-pandemic commercial real estate market in the city. The 36-story skyscraper at One Lincoln Street in the Financial District will be up for foreclosure auction next month, according to a recent auction listing. A report from Cushman & Wakefield at the end of 2024 showed the Greater Boston office vacancy rate of 17% — ‘a new record-high for the market.’ The Financial District’s vacancy numbers will probably stay elevated. ‘It’s a tough time there,’ said Greg Vasil, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. ‘You walk through there, and it’s like a ghost town a lot of days. It’s not anything like from before the pandemic.'”

“Name, age: Marques, in his late thirties. Annual income: $100,000. Debt: $214,000 left on mortgage. Savings: $190,000 in savings account, $110,000 in tax-free savings account (TFSA), $50,000 in registered retirement savings plan. What he does: Health professional. Where he lives: Hamilton. Top financial concern: ‘If I am leaving stuff on the table in terms of opportunity costs. If I look back at my life 20 years from now, will I be regretful about my choices today?’ He thinks a lot about the choices he’s made in the past, and wonders whether the choices he’s making now are the best ones to set himself up for the future. ‘I call it second-guess syndrome,’ says Marques. ‘If I were to talk to myself 10 years ago, what would I tell myself about how money works? You’re left to figure it out on your own, and I have at times wasted and mismanaged my time and my finances.’ One instance he still thinks about was an investment in a syndicated mortgage for a property that was never developed and went into receivership. ‘I lost about $23,000,’ he says. ‘A lot of money.'”

“Stunned apartment owners say they have been hit with a whopping £8,800 per year ‘service charge’ from the company managing their properties. Around 60 leaseholders at the Canalside complex, off Water Street, Radcliffe, will see their monthly service fees more than triple in April from around £210 per month to £733. Some owners say the charges, levied by Onward Homes, who manage the properties are ‘extortionate’ and ‘impossible to pay’, with some saying the service charge will be higher than the monthly rent for many tenants. Sheila Brown, 70, owns two flats at the complex. She said she became very distressed when she was informed of the 249 per cent increase in charges. She said: ‘I feel like I’m in a living nightmare, I didn’t sleep last night, I got so upset when I got the bill. It’s simply outrageous and is impossible to pay for the vast majority of us. How could anyone afford to pay it. If it goes ahead the rent will be so extortionate that nobody will be interested in living there. ‘”

“‘When I opened the letter I felt physically sick. I said to them I just can’t afford to pay this.It will be nearly £18,000 a year for the two apartments. My tenants are ordinary people, I can’t double their rent.I don’t want people to think I’m a rich landlord,’ she said. ‘I bought the apartments with my late husband thinking it would be a little bit of a pension.’ Jessica, 37, has owned a flat at Canalside since the complex was opened in 2007. She said: ‘I opened the letter and almost burst out laughing when I saw the amount of £8,793.How could anyone afford to pay it. If it goes ahead the rent will be so extortionate that nobody will be interested in living there.'”

“New Zealand incomes haven’t been keeping up with housing costs, and the crunch is hitting poorest families the hardest. New data from Stats NZ shows that almost one third of the lowest-earning households in the country spent more than 40 percent of their income on housing costs in the year to June last year. Mike Jones, chief economist at BNZ, said the data was ‘entirely unsurprising.’ He said recent news had been more encouraging for households. ‘Rent inflation seems to have flattened off and in fact the rental market if anything looks a touch oversupplied.'”

“As a personal finance advocate, I find it crucial to address the current state of Metro Manila’s real estate market. Recent reports indicate a significant oversupply of condominium units, a situation that presents both challenges and opportunities for potential investors and homeowners. According to Leechiu Property Consultants (LPC), the National Capital Region (NCR) currently has approximately 67,600 unsold condominium units spread across 510 actively selling buildings. This inventory equates to about 29 months’ worth of supply—the highest since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, Quezon City leads with 18,500 available units, followed by Ortigas with 13,500, and the Bay Area in Pasay City with 10,500. With a surplus of units, buyers are in a favorable position to negotiate better terms, prices, and incentives from developers eager to offload inventory.”

“Hong Kong banks were likely to be more selective in extending credit to developers amid a prolonged property slump that could pose a ‘major risk’ to lenders, according to Moody’s Ratings. Hong Kong’s secondary home prices have fallen for three years in a row and the outlook does not look good given geopolitical conditions and the chances of interest rates remaining higher for longer. The 27 per cent combined slump from 2022 to 2024 is the second-longest since official records began in 1993. About 73 per cent of New World Development’s bank loans were unsecured as of June, ‘raising asset risks for its major lenders, which include large Hong Kong banks,’ Moody’s said.”

“Compounding the problem is the state of the city’s commercial property market, which Moody’s said ‘has not yet stabilised’ and there remained a ‘low level of certainty’ about asset prices, as some transactions were completed at discounts of as much as 50 per cent compared with the market peak.”