Those Paying Exorbitant Prices Now Will Be Bag Holders

A report from Fox 5. “Maryland is home to approximately 150,000 federal employees and thousands of them have already lost their jobs as DOGE continues to make federal cuts to the workforce. Now, many are at risk of losing their homes and leaders in Prince George’s County are looking for ways to help. The Prince George’s County Council passed a resolution to ask Gov. Wes Moore to help families avoid foreclosure. Knowing more job cuts are coming, they are being proactive with this as one of many initiatives. It doesn’t forgive the debt but allows the homeowner and lender to have conversations about a payment plan. ‘I think it’s a great idea. I mean, if we can keep them in their house and not be homeless, like, that works for me,’ resident Jason Byrd said. ‘One of my friends, she just lost her job two weeks ago and…you know, I imagine she’s going to be struggling,’ said Nadie Shoenam.”

Arlington Now in Virginia. “Question: Have you seen the effects of the DOGE workforce and spending cuts showing up in the housing market data? Answer: Demand is down, inventory is up (clearly DOGE-related), but most of the D.C. area housing market is performing well for sellers because inventory levels are still well below current demand (in most sub-markets). You can see the drop in demand in the two charts below. We have enough weekly data to start establishing trends and it seems quite clear that the effects of Federal workforce and spending cuts by DOGE can be directly correlated to a sharp increase in weekly new listing activity and total active inventory.”

“New listing activity in Loudoun County has been about 65% higher year-over-year each of the last two weeks, while Fairfax County has hovered around 20% higher year-over-year for the past four weeks. On the other hand, look at Washington, D.C. (third chart) and you’ll see a different story — a market that is already trending well above its ten-year average and can ill afford a further increase in inventory levels (note: the D.C. condo market is responsible for most of this supply). Over the past month, the median asking price has increased sharply across the D.C. area (up 2.2% to 7.5% each of the last four weeks), while the percentage of homes for sale with a price cut is up to 8.4% compared to 6.2% last year. So, on one hand, sellers have launched their sales with record high asking price and on the other hand, more sellers are taking their medicine and cutting their price.”

Charlotte Business Journal in North Carolina. “Awash in data on listings and sales prices, buyers are highly educated about market value, and there’s little patience for homes deemed priced too high, Charlotte residential agents say. ‘It’s a challenging market to price homes,’ says Ben Bowen, an agent with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty. Sellers expect the double-digit appreciation they enjoyed at the start of the decade, while buyers think higher interest rates should surely put downward pressure on prices. In August, Zillow reported that 27.9% of listings in Charlotte got a price cut. Raleigh saw 34.5% of homes dropping listing prices.”

Houston Agent Magazine in Texas. “Sales activity slowed across greater Houston last month, according to the February Housing Market Update from the Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR). Active listings hit the highest level since 2011, with 31,112 homes on the market in February. That’s a 26.7% year-over-year jump. ‘We are seeing a shift to a more balanced market, arguably a buyer’s market, which offers more opportunities for those looking to purchase a home,’ HAR Chair Shae Cottar said. ‘While economic conditions are influencing buying behaviors and decision-making, the expansion of inventory is providing consumers with a wider selection of homes.'”

The Miami Herald in Florida. “In her first term, Miami-Dade’s mayor used federal COVID dollars and extra revenue from a real estate boom to fund tax breaks and spending increases. Now preparing the debut budget of her second term, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is warning of leaner times ahead. The latest forecast from her administration shows a $48 million gap between expected tax revenues and countywide spending next year. In the March 7 memo, she imposed a hiring freeze and paused raises for some county managers. Levine Cava also asked department heads to submit budgets with 10% cuts — reductions that would be the sharpest pullback in county spending since the aftermath of the 2008 housing crash.”

“With $1 billion in federal aid flowing through the county budget since 2020, Levine Cava had extra money to boost spending and services. Real estate values soared through the pandemic too, with the value of the county’s property tax base up 40% since 2021, compared to growth of 19% over the prior four years. Other pandemic dollars landed in county coffers with few limitations on how they were spent. That included roughly $528 million from the American Rescue Plan stimulus legislation approved when Joe Biden was president. ‘It’s a weird thing to say we were prosperous during COVID, but we were,’ Carladenise Edwards, Levine Cava’s chief administrative officer, told commissioners during a meeting last week of the county’s Appropriations Committee. ‘Now we are in a period of austerity. We don’t have the resources we had to do the things we were doing. So we need to scale back.'”

From CalMatters. “A $5 billion pot of federal money set aside to help people on the verge of homelessness pay the rent is running out of cash — and no one has a plan to keep the roughly 60,000 renters, more than 15,000 of them in California — from losing their housing after the last dollar is spent. News of the imminent expiration of the Emergency Housing Voucher program came in a March 6 letter the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent to local public housing authorities. A final payment this spring may allow some agencies to keep their emergency programs running into 2026, the letter reads. But housing authorities were advised to move forward with ‘the expectation that no additional funding from HUD will be forthcoming.'”

“The letter came as a shock to Lisa Jones, CEO of the San Diego Housing Commission. Jones said the commission could conceivably pay its share of the rent for the nearly 400 San Diego renters currently assisted by the program through December. After that, she could think of no obvious way to make up for the missing federal dollars. As news of the end of the program has spread among her counterparts, ‘a quiet panic’ has set in, she said. Absent federal money, ‘we don’t have the funding to solve that problem,’ she said.”

“The program was modeled after the much larger and well-known Housing Choice Voucher program. Also known as ‘Section 8,’ that long-standing program pays at least 70% of the rent for anyone earning under a certain income and lucky enough to secure one of its scarce vouchers. The Emergency Housing Voucher program is more narrowly targeted at those in most dire need: people currently living on the street or in shelters, those just on the verge of homelessness and anyone fleeing domestic violence or human trafficking. The emergency program was never meant to be permanent. Creating one of many COVID-19-era additions to the nation’s social safety net, Congress funded the emergency vouchers in 2021 with a lump sum of $5 billion. Once those funds were spent, the program was meant to come to an end.”

The Vancouver Sun. “Martin Buck and his wife, Irene, crossed the border into Canada on Jan. 20, the same day Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the U.S. The Mill Bay residents said they have never been so happy or relieved to be back home. The Bucks, snowbirds who have been spending time in Arizona each winter since 2008, bought a home there in 2010. They are among countless Canadians who have decided to come home early this year or sell up entirely and avoid the U.S. until the end of Trump’s second term in the White House. They aren’t the only ones selling, he said. On the drive back to Canada, the Bucks noticed a lot of empty pads at resort parks that are normally full this time of year with Canadian snowbirds.”

“Martin Buck said the sale of the couple’s resort property in Arizona closed on Jan. 15 and they were back in Canada five days later. ‘Absolutely, we are done for a while,’ Buck said, noting the family is in Cancún right now instead of Maui, where they would normally go. He said in the future, they will consider cruises in the sun, away from the U.S.”

CBC News in Canada. “B.C.’s financial regulator has cancelled the licence of a real estate agent who used the services of a so-called ‘shadow’ mortgage broker to buy a house using fake financial statements a year after declaring a negative annual income of $459. Molenia Golshani is one of three real estate agents stripped of their licences in recent weeks for their dealings with Jay Kanth Chaudhary — a man who earned millions acting in an unregistered capacity to secure mortgages for unqualified homebuyers with altered tax and bank documents.”

“Chaudhary spoke firsthand about his black market business in 2021 at a public inquiry tasked with investigating money laundering in British Columbia, delivering what the Cullen Commission report described as ‘remarkably forthright’ testimony. Chaudhary told the Cullen Commission he developed a word-of-mouth reputation as someone who could arrange mortgages for people who could afford to make payments but who might not meet an institutional lender’s qualifications. He is estimated to have secured more than half a billion dollars worth of financing for approximately 900 people.”

“‘In reality, I don’t think it can be prevented,’ he told the commission at one point. ‘Because there always will be a need for individuals like us and what we did, and because the demand itself is there. The demand comes from the borrowers themselves. The demand comes from people who want a house and do not fit in the traditional guidelines.’ A representative for the regulator told the Cullen Commission, ‘he brought the Chaudhary file to the leadership of the RCMP’s E-Division, but that the RCMP ultimately declined to take on the matter.’ ‘To his recollection, the reason given was that the matter did not fall within their mandate,’ the commission’s report says.”

Yorkshire Live in the UK. “Demolition work has started at a stalled Huddersfield housing estate after partially built properties were exposed to wintry weather. The Yorkshire Housing development of 22 homes in Hart Street, Newsome, ground to a halt last year after two contractors, a construction company and a stone supplier, became insolvent, leaving behind what locals have branded an ‘eyesore’. Residents have now been told that a new contractor, Termrim Construction Ltd, has been appointed and work on site has resumed. Some existing structures – partly built homes – are being pulled down as repairs are not thought to be cost effective.”

The Independent. “Mallorca campaign organisations and political groups have sent a strong and clear message to tourists who they say have harmed the island when arriving in their masses: ‘Do not come’ and ‘stay home.’ Seven organisations representing residents, such as the environmental association GOB and campaigners Menys Turisme, Més Vida, which was behind the large anti-tourist protest that packed out the streets in Palma de Mallorca last July, have signed an open letter discouraging tourists from visiting the Spanish island. Addressing tourists in a letter published on Saturday, 15 March, the organisations said that until very recently Mallorca’s tourism industry was a ‘source of pride’ but has since become their ‘biggest problem.’ With the island’s tourist industry successfully bringing in high amounts of revenue, this has attracted hoteliers, politicians and real estate investors to Mallorca, however, the letter brands them as ‘parasites’ motivated by ‘greed and avarice.'”

The Korea Times. “Despite fears of an economic recession, Seoul’s housing market remains one of the few still riding a bullish sentiment. The renewed frenzy was triggered by a policy change last month. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon lifted regulations that had been in place to curb real estate speculation, citing concerns over property rights infringement. ‘If you want to secure an apartment in Gangnam right now, you need to have your money ready, wait on-site and transfer the payment the moment the account number is provided — only then do you have a chance. It’s an absolute seller’s market,’ said Kim In-man, the head of Kim In-man Real Estate and Economics Institute.”

“This stands in stark contrast to the prolonged slump in regional housing markets. In January, the number of newly built apartment flats that went unsold surged to 22,872 — the highest in 11 years and 3 months. About 80 percent of these units are concentrated outside the capital region. Once-dominant regional construction companies are also collapsing one after another. Of the 29 construction firms that went bankrupt last year, 86.2 percent were based outside of Seoul. ‘The regional housing market is struggling to clear its unsold inventory, even with measures like discounted sales,’ said Kim Ji-yeon, senior researcher at R114, a housing price information provider.”

Business Times in India. “The Bengaluru real estate market, long fueled by the IT sector, is showing signs of strain. A Reddit user recently sparked a debate, pointing to layoffs, stagnant hiring, and a ‘silent recession’ as reasons for dwindling demand. ‘For years, IT professionals drove the city’s housing boom, but that engine is slowing down,’ the user noted. While politicians and startup founders still invest in property, their numbers, the user wrote, pale in comparison to the flood of tech employees who once fueled the market.”

“The AI boom, which some hoped would drive demand, isn’t creating jobs at the same scale as cloud computing once did. Most AI-related work in India revolves around building tools around existing models developed elsewhere, limiting local employment opportunities, the user wrote, adding that fewer IT professionals are being sent abroad, leading to a decline in NRI investment in the city’s housing market. The impact of hiring freezes and job cuts is clear. ‘Layoffs, no hikes—people are playing it safe. Some might even default on home loans.'”

“Beyond the IT downturn, concerns about infrastructure and sustainability are growing. ‘Water has dried up, the weather isn’t the same anymore. Those paying exorbitant prices now will be bag holders a decade from now,’ another user remarked, adding that poor crop quality and congested roads make buying in the city less appealing. Bengaluru remains cheaper than Mumbai by 16-20%, but property values vary significantly. With uncertainty around IT hiring and infrastructure struggles mounting, Bengaluru’s real estate boom may be facing its toughest test yet.”