Despite A Further Rate Cut, Excessive Inventory And Falling Prices, New Home Buyers Are Nowhere To Be Found

A report from CNBC. “The U.S. housing market continues to weaken, as potential buyers face stubbornly high mortgage rates, elevated prices and limited supply of listings. Realtors are reporting that buyer traffic in January was weak. ‘Realtors are putting more signs up, but the buyers are not coming,’ said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.”

From NBC News. “A slew of new data shows that the housing market remains largely frozen at the start of the year. ‘You have more negotiating power now compared to last year, and there are more homes to choose from,’ said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather, ‘so there is no need to accept the terms of a stubborn seller.’ There’s frustration on the other side of the equation, too, said Makeba Evans, an Atlanta real estate agent who’s recently begun focusing on sellers: ‘The price that they want for their home is not rational, so it’s taking a lot longer.’ Chicky Johnson, a Re/max agent who’s served the Chicago suburbs for more than three decades, urged patience. ‘Instead of it being so lopsided and having not enough inventory and too many buyers, which was creating this multiple-offer overbidding,’ she said, ‘I think we have kind of a coming-to-grips.'”

From CBS Colorado. “The Oakwood Homebuyers Club is making homeownership attainable, free of charge. 20-year-old Caidynce Aluise and 21-year-old Aiden Hardy are living proof. They’re newly engaged, and as of this year, new homeowners. Oakwood Homebuyers Club Manager Connie Demos calls herself a ‘dream maker.’ Demos helped the young couple navigate through the home buying process. ‘The Homebuyers Club was a game changer for us, working with Connie specifically. She went above and beyond for us, and I don’t think we could’ve done it any other way. She helped us with receiving a grant to help with down payment and costs and the incentive we got with Oakwood. We paid about $467,000 for our home,’ said Aluise. Now, these lovebirds are looking forward to their next big milestone in life, ‘Building equity and eventually starting a family here once we get married.'”

WJLA on Washington DC. “As the debate over how to reign in government spending continues, federal labor unions, federal workers, and community supporters are working to raise hardship funds for those struggling. Lyman’s Tavern in Northwest, D.C. hosted a happy hour and fundraiser on Friday night. ‘Events like this show that the community is behind us,’ said the anonymous federal worker. ‘Judging by how packed it is, I think we’re raising a ton of money and we’re going to need it. There are a lot of people with mortgages to pay, with dependents, with kids and they’re going to need help in the community.'”

Bradenton Herald in Florida. “Manatee County continues shifting toward a buyer’s market, according to the latest Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee housing report. Single-family home median sales prices dropped 8.6% in January year-over-year in Manatee County, the report said. Townhomes and condos saw a decline in the median sales price. The 172 closed sales in January yielded a $335,990 median sales price, which marked a 6.1% decrease from the same time period in 2024. The report said townhomes and condos have an 8.0-month supply of inventory. In Sarasota County, the median sales price dropped for single-family homes, townhomes and condos. The townhouses and condo category saw the sharpest decrease with the median sales price plummeting from $420,000 to $347,000 year-over-year in January.”

“‘While closed sales have increased, inventory growth continues to outpace demand, leading to an extended months’ supply,’ RASM president Debi Reynolds said in a news release. ‘This shift presents opportunities for buyers while emphasizing the importance of strategic pricing for sellers.'”

The Palm Beach Post in Florida. “Gustavo Alvarez, a licensed engineer, knew he might find problems at the Villa Del Sol condominium complex in St. Lucie County when he entered crawlspaces of several buildings on the morning of Aug. 8 for a safety inspection. Conditions were so bad in three of the six buildings that he made a 911-type call to the county fire marshal calling for an immediate evacuation: The buildings were in danger of collapsing. Resident Eric Johnson and his family are struggling to cope with the fallout of the evacuation order. He managed to find a rental unit in one of the Villa del Sol buildings that was found to be safe. But he is now carrying two properties, paying a mortgage and condo fees on the one he had to leave and rent on the unit where he is now living. He bought his two-bedroom, two-bath unit in 2017. Repairs to his building may not be done until at least April, according to a recent engineering report.”

“Johnson said he was given that estimate of $9.2 million in costs from the property’s management and it would cost nearly $173,000 per homeowner. ‘I cannot afford that and most of the other folks here cannot either,’ Johnson said. ‘It is very difficult. We are just trying to make ends meet. I have a disabled wife and a 13-year-old child. We had no idea there were any issues when we bought in 2017. Who knows how long we were in an unsafe building? It did not suddenly become unsafe on Aug. 8. At least we got out before something terrible happened.'”

“About 100 miles south in Broward County, a court-appointed receiver is looking to sell off Heron Pond, a 304-unit Pembroke Pines condo community, after city officials determined the complex was so unsafe that everyone had to evacuate by Aug. 29. ‘This is so sad,’ said Edward Picon, whose 83-year-old mother had to move in with his brother, who lives in Weston. ‘The HOA collected money all these years and did not do what they should have done — maintain the complex.’ On the other side of the state, similar problems are showing up in Southwest Florida.”

“Craig Studnicky of ISG World, a South Florida real estate consulting firm headquartered in Aventura, said almost no one is buying condos 30 years or older in Palm Beach, Broward or Miami-Dade counties. Buyers are only looking at new condos, resulting in prices of those units surging while those at older buildings are plunging. More than 80% of all condos listed for sale in South Florida in the first quarter were in buildings that are over 30 years old, according to ISG World. That comes out to nearly 16,000 condos. ‘It is a total seesaw,’ said Studnicky. ‘Since 2023, units less than 10 years old have risen in value by 9% while those older than 30 years have fallen 21%. Buyers — not knowing what the inspections are going to show and how high special assessments will be — are afraid to buy in older buildings.'”

“‘I’m hearing from people on a daily basis,’ said Greg Batista, the owner G. Batista Engineering & Construction in Fort Lauderdale. ‘Their stories are heart-wrenching. Many of them are living off Social Security. They cannot afford a $30,000 special assessment. Some of those people are just walking away. Overall, though, this is a good law. It is going to ensure safe buildings.'”

Market Watch on California. “Since the wildfires burned down her Pacific Palisades home, Maylee Witham has been extraordinarily busy, head down in a mountain of paperwork. Witham and her husband bought their four-bedroom home in the Palisades in 1999 for $1.2 million. Rebuilding now it would be tough — and expensive. One contractor told her it would cost $1,000 per square foot to build a new house on the lot. That would put the price of a rebuild at around $3.8 million. ‘Does that seem like a lot of money? Because that is a lot of money — it’s insane. I’m just trying to wrap my head around that,’ she said.”

“Witham could also sell the empty lot. Thousands of homeowners in Los Angeles like her are facing the same difficult dilemma: Should they spend the money to rebuild their home and face years of costly construction, or bite the bullet and sell their burned-down property for far less than they originally paid? Brock Harris, a real-estate agent in L.A., said he’s been getting about 10 to 20 calls a day from people he calls ‘tire kickers.’ They aren’t real-estate developers or investors, but rather just people looking for a possible deal on a burned-down property. Harris recently listed a home that was destroyed in the Eaton fire for $449,000. It got 12 offers, and a sale is now pending for $550,000. The homeowner bought the house in 2023 for $965,000, he said.”

“In Witham’s area, another burned-down lot was listed for $999,000 and got six offers. The sale is pending, and the real-estate agent, Richard Schulman, said that the final offer was for $1.2 million. But the owner of that lot might be taking a financial hit: The home was purchased in 2005 for $1.5 million, so the offer could amount to a roughly 35% loss in value for the seller. Schulman said homeowners who lost their houses should beware of lowball offers for their land. What does he consider a lowball offer? ‘I would not sell anything I owned in the Palisades for under $1 million,’ he said.”

The Los Angeles Times. “They knew Dr. Tin-Jon ‘T.J.’ Syiau as a prestigious kidney specialist with a gift for real estate investment. For years, the San Gabriel Valley physician ran a side company called RAC Development, whose website enticed clients with the question, ‘Looking to maximize your passive income?’ At gatherings hosted at a relative’s home, Syiau convinced hundreds of people to invest nearly $60 million, and told them he would buy up homes, hotels and distressed properties across Southern California and ‘flip’ them for profit, federal court documents say. But the doctor’s reputation as a shrewd property investor began to crumble in April of last year.”

“Amid mounting pressure, Syiau gathered his investors in a Zoom meeting and said he was unable to repay them any of their funds, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. Eventually, Syiau fled the country for Taiwan and has ‘informed investors that he was on the run to avoid being arrested,’ the lawsuit says. Now, Syiau’s former clients are accusing the kidney doctor, in the suit, of running a sophisticated Ponzi scheme that preyed on local Chinese Americans who lacked investing experience. Instead of using contributions to buy and flip properties, Syiau and close relatives allegedly diverted the money for their own personal gain.”

“Many of Syiau’s investors are retired and elderly, and some told The Times that they invested their entire savings or retirement funds into the company, only to see all of it disappear. Some have had to return to work during what they thought would be their golden years. ‘I just feel so much regret,’ one 65-year-old investor told The Times. ‘All of the savings are gone.’ The woman, who requested anonymity because she fears reprisals for speaking out, heard about RAC from a college roommate and decided to invest nearly $350,000 of her and her husband’s life savings. When RAC gave her a $3,000 check seven months later, she thought the business must be doing well. But the lawsuit says RAC simply paid claims from older clients with ‘sham’ investment funds they collected from newer clients.”

“One woman said she knew Syiau’s mother-in-law Amy Cheng for more than two decades; they lived near each other and Cheng would sometimes make lunches for her and her husband. The woman, who requested anonymity from The Times because she fears reprisals from Syiau’s family, claimed that she and her husband eventually invested and lost more than $5 million over about six years. The couple, who are in their 70s and retired, had to return to work after losing their entire life savings. ‘Our loss is already affecting our life,’ she said. ‘My husband has been complaining to me every day because he blames me and said that my friend defrauded us. We don’t have a peaceful life. We are fighting all the time and can’t sleep.'”

“Court documents list 40 properties — including locations in Santa Catalina, Desert Hot Springs, Fort Bragg and Orange and Los Angeles counties — that Syiau allegedly told investors he had purchased, yet never appeared to own. One 63-year-old investor, who also requested anonymity, accused Syiau and his associates of scamming her and her husband out of $1.55 million over several years, echoing claims in the lawsuit.”

“‘We started with $10,000 and then gradually, we felt more confident and we put more and more money,’ she said. Earlier this spring, Syiau told the woman that all of her money was gone and he couldn’t pay her back. She was dealing with Stage 3 cancer at the time. ‘This has created a tremendous difficulty for me personally because it’s not only financial, it’s also mental shock. We couldn’t sleep,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid to tell my son. He lives in NorCal and he works very hard; we thought we could help provide him some financial help. We feel so guilty about that.'”

The Toronto Sun in Canada. “GTA new home sales reached near record lows in January, but with prices down and inventory steady it creates a unique buying opportunity, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) says. There were 347 new home sales last month, down 40% from January 2024 and 77% below the 10-year average, according to Altus Group, BILD’s official source for new home market intelligence. Condominium apartments, including units in low, medium and high-rise buildings, accounted for 101 units sold in the GTA in January, down 58% from January 2024 and 88% below the 10-year average.”

“‘January 2025 new home sales across the GTA recorded a near record low,’ Edward Jegg, Research Manager at Altus Group, said in a statement. ‘Despite a further Bank of Canada cut, excessive inventory and falling prices, GTA new home buyers are nowhere to be found.’ ‘ With spring on the horizon, now is a prime time for new home buyers to step into the market,’ Justin Sherwood, BLD’s senior VP of Communications, Research, and Stakeholder Relations, said in a statement. ‘Prices have dropped approximately 20% from the peak in 2022, and with interest rates easing, buyers have a unique opportunity to secure a new home at a favourable price. But this combination of lower prices and reduced interest rates may not last long. For buyers, now is an ideal time to act before conditions shift again.'”

ABC News in Australia. “The nation’s capital is considered the best place in the country to be a renter. Not in terms of cost — after all, Canberra is the third most expensive capital city to rent in — but in terms of tenancy rights. Heidi Rosin has been in property management in Canberra for more than 20 years. She said there was no question that the ACT was ‘definitely the most renter-friendly’ jurisdiction. ‘We have the tightest laws that protect tenants,’ Ms Rosin said. ‘What I’m hearing from landlords is ‘Why do I even have this property? I’m not getting anything out of it. It’s costing me a lot of money,’ Ms Rosin said. ‘In the last couple of years, we’ve had around 11 per cent of our owners sell their rental property and the majority say it’s because of the constant changes in legislation. They’re deciding it’s just not worth it.'”

“That was exactly the case for Canberra resident Phil Andrews. He once had two investment properties in the ACT as well as one in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. ‘My wife and I made the decision that property would form part of our retirement strategy,’ Mr Andrews said. ‘We were future-proofing on bricks and mortar, which we considered fairly safe.’ But as Mr Andrews watched the legislation in the ACT change in favour of tenants, he reconsidered his property portfolio. ‘It wasn’t very favourable to landlords and the environment in the ACT became one where it was no longer viable to invest in it,’ he said. Mr Andrews sold one of his investment properties in Canberra in 2023 and reinvested elsewhere. ‘If we didn’t have family living in the second one, it would have gone too,’ he said.”

“It’s a bold statement that real estate agent Chris Wilson was quick to echo. ‘I’d probably get two to three landlords a week wanting appraisals done on their home with the view to selling it,’ Mr Wilson said. ‘Generally, they’ve had enough of the laws and don’t want to deal with it.’ As for Chief Minister Andrew Barr, he’s largely unapologetic. ‘When a landlord sells a property, they either sell to another investor or to an owner-occupier,’ he said. ‘The property doesn’t disappear from the housing stock. If it is bought by someone who was renting, this reduces rental demand and frees up the property that person was previously renting.'”

“Joel Dignam, executive director of tenancy advocacy organisation Better Renting also had little sympathy for landlords who ‘catastrophised’ the challenges of the market. ‘When I talk to renters who hear landlords are threatening to sell, the message is actually ‘good riddance’, he said. ‘If you aren’t willing to meet a decent standard of being a landlord then you can sell that property and either a property investor will buy it who is willing to meet that standard or it might actually give someone a chance to become a homeowner.'”