They Will Look For A Seller That Has Their Home Looking Like A Cream Puff With A Reasonably Compelling Price Point

A report from the Associated Press. “Confusion and chaos loom as hundreds of thousands of federal employees begin their workweek on Monday facing a deadline from President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting chief, Elon Musk, to explain their recent accomplishments or risk losing their jobs. Democrats and even some Republicans, including Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, were critical of Musk’s ultimatum. ‘If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, please put a dose of compassion in this,’ Curtis, whose state has 33,000 federal employees, said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’ ‘These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. … It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well.'”

The Philadelphia Inquirer in Pennsylvania. “Almost 30% of Zillow’s listings for homes for sale are described as renovated, which the company attributes to a pandemic-era boom in renovations. Before the pandemic, Zillow found that home listings that included such terms as fixer, TLC, needs work, or good bones saw more demand and were more likely to sell. Now, across the country, a home listing that uses the term fixer-upper sells for about 7% less than expected — the largest discount in three years, according to Zillow. And home listings with the terms needs work or TLC sell for about 8% less. Stacey Middleton, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, Realtors based in Newtown Square, said that in Philadelphia and Delaware County, homebuyers don’t want fixer-uppers. They say they’re too much work. ‘The fixer-upper is really suffering,’ she said. ‘Even when it’s in a great location, a great property, a great opportunity. Their answer really is no.’ She’s also seeing fully rehabilitated properties sitting on the market, and their sellers are cutting prices.”

WESH in Florida. “As people continue to move into the Orlando area, they’re looking for homes. There’s good news. The experts say it’s the highest housing inventory in years. The great news is that the Orlando area has seen the highest supply of homes since 2010. ‘Inventory for January 2025 was recorded at 11,697,’ according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. ‘What about median home prices? It’s great to have an inventory, but can we afford them?’ WESH 2 reporter Gail Paschall-Brown asked. ‘That’s where the good news of the inventory comes in because if there is inventory, that means you are going to have those sellers that are negotiable,’ said Rose Kemp, past president of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.”

The American Statesman in Texas. “Steady as she goes. That about sums up the 2025 outlook by real estate experts for the housing market in the Austin metro area, a five-county region stretching from Georgetown to San Marcos. For house hunters, the anticipated continued growing supply of homes means more choices, and — in some cases — lower prices. Rob Kellogg, a real estate agent with Realty Austin, said he expects 2025 to be ‘more of the same,’ with buyers taking their time to select a home. ‘They will look for a seller that has their home in tip-top condition, looking like a cream puff with a reasonably compelling price point. Closing costs will likely need to be on the table and assist in buying down those elevated interest rates,’ Kellogg said.”

“‘In the Austin market, we’ve seen a decline in home prices over the last year from the high prices we experienced post-COVID, mainly attributed to rising interest rates, which in turn caused pressure on affordability,’ said Josh Santos, vice president of corporate homebuilding operations for Landsea Homes. ‘With increasing inventory, we’ve had to adjust prices in order to sell those homes. Sellers of resale homes will 100% need to be more realistic about pricing in order to sell their homes and stay competitive with new construction homes” (for which builders can offer financial incentives and mortgage rate buydowns). These offers really are unmatched right now, making new construction homes even more appealing and affordable. I would encourage anyone looking to sell their home right now to consider the competitiveness of the market and why they want or need to sell at this very moment. It might be worth holding off for the time being to see what happens with interest rates.'”

From Realtor.com. “Ana Wold, a single mother from Northern California, had been saving up for years to buy her first home, but she got to enjoy it for only a month before it was annihilated by a fast-moving wildfire that scorched its way down the Santa Cruz Mountains in August 2020. More than four years later, Wold, 51, the owner of a wine bar in Santa Cruz, is more than $450,000 in the red, after fighting with her insurance company, her mortgage lender, the public adjuster, and the contractor she had hired to rebuild her dream home in the town of Boulder Creek, who then sued her when she ran out of money. ‘And I don’t even have a house to show for it. I have nothing to show for it,’ Wold told Realtor.com® in a recent phone interview.”

“Wold was among the lucky Californians who had private home insurance, instead of the state’s insurance of last resort, the FAIR Plan. However, after the fire, she discovered her insurance broker had made a colossal mistake in her policy. As a result, her property ended up being ‘severely underinsured’ for only $284,000, she said. ‘It’s very hurtful for all of us,’ she said. ‘We’re not getting that help, and it would’ve been nice if we had gotten that help. … I only got a total of $5,000 from FEMA. That is all.'”

“With Wold’s new home only halfway built, the contractor she had hired put a lien on the house, erected a gate around it, and locked her out, she recalled. Then the contractor sued Wold personally for $700,000. ‘I can’t make any progress on my home, because I’m now trying to figure out what the hell I’m going to do, and so my house is just sitting there,’ Wold said. ‘But in the meantime, I’m having to still make mortgage payments, and then on top of that, my insurance company is now no longer paying for a place for me to live.’ Wold is now trying to sell her Boulder Creek property with the unfinished home for $580,000, before her mortgage deferment plan runs out in mid-March. ‘I would like to buy another home eventually, when I’m able to save money and recover from this nightmare,’ she said.”

From Bisnow. “While questions remain about how radically Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency can shrink the real estate footprint of the federal government, the unprecedented nature of the cost-cutting push has left landlords that rely on government rent payments in a precarious position. Before the Trump administration, federal government leases were seen almost as an annuity — a guaranteed, long-term income stream, a leasing broker who works on government deals said on the condition of anonymity. ‘The business model of the certainty and security of a GSA lease, that’s gone,’ the broker said. ‘People are going to have to realize what was once sort of the annuity is no longer the annuity.'”

The London Free Press in Canada. “Compared to other cities in Ontario, 2024 was a strong year for home construction in London, especially on the rental side, with thousands of new units hitting the market. CMHC expects more rental units will hit the market this year as developers complete projects already underway, increasing the overall supply in the city. CMHC believes London’s resale market is going to rebound after two years of lacklustre sales numbers. The question now remains: When? Last month, for instance, only 370 homes were sold in the London area, a drop of 20 per cent compared to the same month last year.”

“‘We saw the vacancy rate rise quite a bit in London because of two factors: You had a lot more supply added . . . and there were fewer renters out there because of the cap put on international students. There’s still a lot under construction currently that will be completed in the next year or two. We think developers are signalling that we’re going to see a lot less ground broken (on) new projects because there’s so much underway,’ said Anthony Passarelli, CMHC’s lead economist for southern Ontario. ‘Sales really don’t seem like they can get much lower than they’ve been . . . so we think that they are poised to rebound. Now, how much they rebound really depends on this level of uncertainty we currently have in the economy with the tariff threats. There are just, at least currently, a lot of people who are choosing to wait and sit on the sidelines longer.'”

From CBC News. “The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is forecasting that Metro Vancouver’s rental market will see growing vacancies but higher average prices over the next couple of years. ‘A record number of units are under construction now, especially in purpose-built rental construction as efforts to increase rental supply,’ says CMHC economist Shiva Moshtari Doust. ‘Most of these units will enter the market in the next few years.’ Doust says demand for rentals is expected to be affected by the federal government’s recent reduction of immigration levels, which aims to stabilize population growth and relieve pressure on the housing market. ‘Recent years have seen large inflows of non-permanent residents. We expect to see this net inflow slow over the next few years. So as a result, we expect to see lower demand,’ she said.”

“Matisse Yiu with the online rental platform liv.rent says she is already seeing more competitive pricing. ‘We’re seeing a lot of property managers or landlords in general doing three months’ free rent or renters being able to negotiate a lower asking rent price,’ Yiu said. ‘And that’s something that I think renters are doing a lot more.'”

Radio New Zealand. “ASB’s latest Housing Confidence Survey for the three months that ended in December found a net 33 percent of respondents thought house prices would rise and a net 23 percent thought it was a good time to buy a house. ‘There still seems to be a little bit of caution in reality, and we would expect to see that caution will start to get thrown over to the wind as the year progresses,’ said ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley. However, Tuffley said the glut of houses for sale could be a reason why would-be-buyers were taking their time, with the high number of homes for sale reflected in the latest data from Real Estate Institute, which showed a surge in new inventory of homes on the market, while sales continued to decline. ‘There may also be some concern about the inflationary impacts of Trump’s re-election in the US,’ Tuffley said.”

Domain News in Australia. “Graduating from first-home buyer to next-home buyer status is not all confetti cannons and celebratory selfies in front of oversized sold stickers – instead, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to upsize from a unit to a house. ‘For somebody who has purchased a unit and they want to purchase a house as their next property, it can probably feel like starting again,’ says Domain chief of research and economics Nicola Powell. Beyond the price gap between a unit and a house, it’s also the disparate capital growth between the two that has this cohort of buyers stuck. The reality for many is that selling and buying costs alone would likely absorb any capital growth from the unit – leaving little for the house deposit itself.”

“AXTON Finance partner mortgage broker Nicole Campbell regularly works with Melbourne-based first-home owners who have outgrown their property and are looking to upsize. ‘I’ve got quite a few first home buyers that thought they were doing the right thing five years ago by buying an apartment, getting in the property market, and five years later it’s only appreciated by 10 grand,’ she says. ‘They had all of the best of intentions but because the property hasn’t appreciated, they’re sort of stuck.'”