We’re Seeing A Disconnect As Sellers Remain Hesitant To Lower Their Prices Beyond A Certain Threshold

A report from the Jerusalem Post on California. “On January 8, Michaela – who requested to use her Hebrew name rather than her Persian one due to privacy concerns – learned that she and her family had lost their home in Pacific Palisades, and that her elderly parents had lost their home as well. Michaela and her husband owned a condo in a multi-unit building that was destroyed by the fires. Her elderly parents owned a condo in the same building, three doors away. The headquarters of Michaela and Avi’s business was also located in the building. ‘We invested nearly everything in our condos – both my parents and I,’ said Michaela, who added that her mother and father are working extremely hard ‘to be able to afford it since they are still paying a mortgage on their condo and were severely underinsured.'”

“‘Everything was in those homes that they lost; they don’t have a cushion to do it again,’ said Sara Raoof Jacobs, director of Maman Nonprofit in Los Angeles. ‘These Jewish families moved into those homes 40 years ago, when it was first affordable. Those homes were everything they had.'”

WFLA in Florida. “As downtown Sarasota continues to develop, more and more residents are calling condos their home. With the growth of these high-rise buildings comes a rising concern over safety, costs, and insurance. A new bill, House Bill 913, is making its way through the state legislature, aiming to address these issues, but at what cost to condo owners? The bill calls for stricter regulations targeting buildings that are three stories or higher and at least 30 years old. Tony Barrett, a Sarasota-based realtor, shared his concerns about the potential financial burden on residents. ‘If you are on a fixed income and you knew what you were going to pay monthly, and the assessments, you knew what you were going to pay monthly,’ Barrett said. ‘It might make you out of the affordability range. You’d have to decide whether to buy groceries or pay assessment fees.'”

“The bill’s impact on condo insurance could trigger a chain reaction affecting condo associations and owners statewide. Natalie Coldiron, a lawyer with expertise in property law warned that the inability of condo associations to obtain insurance could lead to defaults on loans, blocking potential sales. ‘If unit owners and associations can’t get insurance, then loans could be in default,’ Coldiron said. ‘That might stop a sale of units in their tracks.'”

WSYX Columbus. “Some real estate experts are describing an overnight shift in the central Ohio housing market as potential buyers are now eligible for thousands of dollars in incentives. ‘It’s going to be a surprise. People still think things are the way they were last year,’ realtor Angela Kamanga told ABC6 Investigates at her open house in the Linden neighborhood last week. ‘There’s a lot of help right now to get buyers in homes.’ Kamanga is showing a 2,000 square foot home made up of three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The seller also added a second floor and finished the basement. The price now lists at $324,000, but Kamanga said her seller is offering up to $7,500 in closing costs, and an area lender is offering $10,000 in down payment assistance. ‘I would advise buyers to come out now because they may not know the seller will be willing to work with buyers right now,’ said Kamanga.”

“The next day, realtor Hayley McSweeney was showing a renovated $435,000 house in Franklin Park made up of three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The mixed-income neighborhood in south Columbus is subject to a community lending program, which could bring down a potential buyer’s interest rate. Lender Tim Schilling with CrossCountry Mortgage was also on hand to discuss his company’s two percent down payment assistance for qualified buyers. He said qualifications could even be a credit score down in the 500s. ‘Most people are shocked to find out what they qualify for to help with a down payment,’ said Schilling. ‘We’ve been aggressive in ways to get creative and help buyers get into homes. We don’t want the restrictive piece to be the down payment necessarily.'”

Market Watch. “About a year and a half after Robert Johnson bought his four-bedroom home in Texas in 2022, he lost his job. The 49-year-old military veteran and father of four was in a senior management role at a technology company until February 2024. Finding another role at the same level and pay was tough. He eventually found another role, but with less pay, he had to find a way to make his monthly payments a lot more manageable. Luckily, he found one through the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) loan program, implemented by the Biden administration to offer VA mortgage holders a last-resort option to avoid losing their homes. If VASP were eliminated, he added, ‘you’re going to have a lot of veterans who are going to be on the street.'”

“But the program will stop accepting new enrollees on May 1, the VA told MarketWatch. The announcement comes at a time when tens of thousands of veterans across the U.S. continue to struggle with their mortgage payments. Many with VA-backed loans have missed multiple payments and are in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. Chris Nolan, a former Marine and a real-estate agent with eXp Realty based in Florida, told MarketWatch that some of the veteran homeowners he works with are feeling nervous due to economic uncertainty. One former client who bought a home with him is now having trouble holding down a job, said Nolan, who founded Let the Heroes Know, a nonprofit that offers counseling for veterans. ‘Everybody is just concerned about their jobs,’ he added, ‘and if they can maintain paying for their home loans.'”

The Washington Post. “When Metro selected a developer to turn the parking lot next to its Takoma station into housing, Wikipedia and Gmail didn’t exist, the 20-year U.S. war in Afghanistan hadn’t started, and Donald Trump hadn’t yet appeared on ‘The Apprentice.’ Twenty-five years later, no shovel has even pierced the ground of what is still a parking lot in a corner of Northwest D.C. Over the decades, a number of opponents from the two liberal communities of mostly single-family homes have managed to derail the project time and again. McLean Quinn, EYA’s president and CEO, put it another way: ‘This is not a case study in how to make money in real estate.'”

From Vail Daily. “A long, long, long time ago, making the occasional trip to Denver was a pleasurable experience. The roads were good, traffic was non-existent, and Vail Pass was simply never closed. Today, I get a nervous twitch even when thinking about a trip to Denver. With the trip being so difficult, you might think that someone would propose a high-speed rail link or something. I am sure that many have — the lack of ideas is not the issue, we just can’t get stuff done anymore. I was recently watching an interview with Rep. Jason Crow, who represents Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. He made a very profound statement that, I thought, summarized what I think is one of the largest problems we face today. He said, ‘It takes eight years in Colorado to build a bridge.’ He went on to note the bridge itself can be built in under 7 months. The rest is process and bureaucracy.”

“Take this in. More than 150 years ago, we could build a rail line across half of America in less time than it now takes to build one bridge in Colorado. I am feeling the impact of ‘the eight-year bridge’ effect right now here in the Vail Valley as I am doing what most would consider to be the stupidest and most foolish thing possible — I am building a new house. My last build took about a year from inception to completion. So far, we are a year in and haven’t even broken ground. Please take a moment and consider how crazy this is. Since I built the first home, technology has advanced rapidly. And yet, even with all of these tools, we have made the processes exponentially more complicated. Five design reviews with the HOA, permits, and endless forms. One reason we can’t build affordable housing is that, by the time you add up all of the fees, hurdles, and costs, it simply can’t happen.”

The Abbotsford News in Canada. “There continues to be plenty of houses to go around in Abbotsford, but fewer people who are interested in or able to buy them, according to the latest data provided by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB). Detached homes, apartments, and townhouses have all taken massive dips in sales in March compared to last year, resulting in the number of homes sitting on the market to drastically increase. Even though prices and sales continue their steady downward trajectory, there are still plenty of Abbotsford property owners looking to sell, which is evident by the significant rise in new listings that came to the market in March. The biggest change occurred among townhouses, which had 48.1 per cent more new listings this March compared to February, bringing the total number of active listings to 202 – 90.6 per cent higher than March 2024.”

“This general trend of active listings continuing to skyrocket while sales slow down, especially compared to a year ago, is reflected throughout the entire Fraser Valley, explained FVREB chair Tore Jacobson. ‘If not for the economic uncertainty driven largely by U.S. tariffs, we’d likely be seeing a typical strong spring market in the Fraser Valley,’ Jacobson said. ‘Instead, we’re seeing a disconnect as sellers remain hesitant to lower their prices beyond a certain threshold, while buyers, facing tighter financing conditions, are either unable or unwilling to meet it. The resulting inertia is keeping sales low.'”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “218 River St., Toronto. Asking price: $1,850,000 (September, 2024). Previous asking prices: $1,850,000 (August, 2024); $1,995,000 (June, 2024) *under previous agents. Selling price: $1,760,000 (February, 2025). Previous selling price: $298,277 (May, 2002). Agent Kimmé Myles learned that the second agent to list this three-storey row house had no offers over 25 days, despite a massive $145,000 price cut. She decided to focus on producing catchier marketing content, especially online. The effort managed to get seven visitors into the house over five months and a sold offer, though one $90,000 under the revised asking price.”

“‘The market was really in a point of transition with interest rates starting to come down, but not enough to make a difference in buyer confidence and make people actively jump off the fence,’ said Ms. Myles. ‘The market has to respond and work with us,’ she said. ‘If the market doesn’t do that, it doesn’t matter what’s done with the property. It’s situated on a busy street coming up from the Don Valley and Bayview Extension, so that was a bit of a challenge,’ Ms. Myles said. ‘And the area is already transforming, so it’s really just waiting for the right buyer. People should not give up hope.'”

The New Zealand Herald. “A builder who ran three years behind schedule while building a couple’s Auckland home charged them an additional $72,000 for ‘labour and materials,’ and then left contractors to complete the job. Craig O’Brien’s clients Deborah and Basil Richards were stuck with a $130,000 contractors’ bill, despite having already paid O’Brien in advance. O’Brien promised to repay the money they stumped up for the contractors, but the Richards have managed to recoup only a fraction of it. Meanwhile, it is alleged O’Brien has recently built a two-bedroom extension on his own home, a decision from the Building Practitioners Board revealed.”

“While the decision states the home is now finished, Deborah Richards said it was still yet to meet the code and needed more work to get it over the line. The couple were building the house to sell but lost their buyer because it took so long. They then lost potential rent earnings after being unable to tenant it sooner. Deborah Richards said that while seeking legal advice on the matter, O’Brien’s company, Building Labour Solutions Limited, went into receivership. According to the Companies Office, he owes creditors $188,000. ‘Now he’s liquidated and will get away scot-free,’ she said. ‘He just gets to walk away.'”

Times of India. “Many school teachers who lost their jobs following the Supreme Court verdict on Thursday are at a loss over how to meet financial commitments like home and personal loans that they accrued since securing the jobs almost nine years ago. Others are also at their wit’s end on how they will prepare for an exam they appeared in over a decade ago. Rupa Banerjee, who teaches physical science at a govt-aided school in Bhangar, is devastated at losing her job overnight for no fault of hers. ‘My family is dependent on me. I have a loan, and my father is a heart patient. I have to bear huge medical expenses. I do not know how I will tackle these expenses in the coming days. There is so much uncertainty that my emotions have become numb,’ said Banerjee.”

“Deepa Mondal, a physical science teacher at a South 24 Parganas school, said: ‘I wanted to become a teacher because the profession has respect. But I was wrong in aspiring to be a teacher,’ said Mondal. She felt that circumstances were different almost a decade ago when they appeared for the exam in 2014. ‘We were mentally prepared for the exam in 2014. I was not married. I did not have kids. Now I have a family to support, raise two children, and a home loan to pay. Under such circumstances, I do not know how is it possible to appear in another exam.'”

“Another teacher, Suman Sikdar, who teaches life science at a school in Joynagar, said, ‘When the SC is alive to the fact that there are ‘tainted’ and ‘untainted’ candidates, then why are all being punished?’ Sikdar has a kid and aged father at home. His wife is a private sector employee. ‘Since travelling from Barrackpore to my school was hectic and time-taking, I bought a flat in Sonarpur after the pandemic. But all my dreams are shattered as I do not know how to pay next month’s home loan EMI and cater to the needs of my aged father and my kid,’ added Sikdar.”