Buyers Are Lowballing, They Know They Have A Lot Of Leverage

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Often nobody but the dreamers get hurt when their impossible dreams fall flat. Daniel and Ebony Edwards’ big dream gone wrong was that other kind. Their more than eight years of failed attempts to revive an East Side neighborhood by filling vacant blocks with new, affordable homes left over a dozen Kansas City families who bought into that dream feeling disappointed, bitter and abused. Taxpayers, too, invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the dream. And years later, there’s almost nothing to show for it. Even Daniel Edwards told The Star that his dream has turned into ‘a nightmare, a shitshow.’ Those families made down payments on houses that were never built. The Edwardses kept the deposits.”

“But the setbacks haven’t stopped the couple. The Edwardses have once again revived efforts to raise cash to build their housing community that has yet to materialize. While many of the families who bought into the couple’s dream in the past wrote off their losses and moved on, others who lost money on the first and second go-arounds are warning potential new investors that they best be wary of Daniel Edwards and his big talk. ‘I have watched him strut around Kansas City like nothing happened,’ said Karamel McCoy, whose family lost $15,000 on a house that was never built. ‘So sad. These people are not who you think they are,’ McCoy said she told one local TV station that ran a glowing report on Edwards. ‘I need you to do some fact-checking and digging. They owe people. They owe a lot of people a lot of money.'”

“British real estate developer Christian Candy and his wife are shaking up their New York portfolio with a move from a historic townhouse to one of Manhattan’s most high-profile skyscrapers. The couple recently acquired a four-bedroom triplex penthouse at 111 W. 57th St. for approximately $47 million, people familiar with the transaction told the Wall Street Journal. The unit was initially priced at $66 million in 2020, reflecting a deep discount amid a broader trend of luxury price corrections along Billionaires’ Row. Their new building, 111 W. 57th St., is also known as the city’s skinniest tower. Since breaking ground in 2014, it has faced multiple hurdles — including lawsuits, internal disputes among developers and construction delays — that initially hindered sales. Discounts have become common in the building: one unit recently sold for $17.5 million after being listed at $30 million in 2020, according to StreetEasy. Nikki Field of Sotheby’s International Realty, whose team took over marketing from the Corcoran Group last summer, told the Journal they’ve seen a marked uptick in buyer interest. ‘The adjusted pricing brought people back and gave them a comfort level,’ Field said.”

“According to Alexandra DuPont, a real estate agent with DuPont International Realty in Pompano Beach, FL, a number of her Canadian clients are now seeking properties in Mexico out of fear about the reception they might receive in the U.S. ‘They’re worried. There are a lot of question marks,’ she says. ‘Many of them are looking instead at Mexico.’ As they opt to take their business to Mexico and South America, some Canadians who own property in the U.S. are now looking to sell. ‘Typically, in high season, I would have 10 to 15 listings, maybe 10 to 12 on a good season,’ says DuPont, noting that most of her sellers are Canadian condo owners. ‘Right now, including rentals and everything, I’m up to 37.'”

“Buyers, she says, are ‘lowballing. They know, especially in the condo market, they have a lot of leverage. So they’re telling me, ‘Listen, there’s 80 other condos in the community, we’re trying to do multiple offers and find the best deal.’ So they’re definitely negotiating.’ ‘Not only have Canadians been electing to divest from their vacation homes and investment properties in Florida, they have also been canceling their trips to the area, which is having a negative impact on our vacation rental market,’ Robert Washington, of Savvy Buyers Realty in St. Petersburg, FL, previously told Realtor.com.”

“The Southern California lawmakers who represent the Eaton and Palisades fire zones introduced a bill in Congress on Thursday that would give homeowners affected by natural disasters nationwide a break on mortgage payments for almost a year. The bill, introduced by U.S. Reps. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), would require lenders to grant a six-month pause on mortgage payments for homeowners who could document evidence of damage or destruction to their properties. Payments would be paused with no interest, penalties or fees, but would not be forgiven. That pause, known as mortgage forbearance, would apply only to federally backed loans in areas where a federal disaster declaration has been signed by the president, said Chu, who represents Altadena.”

“‘They’ve lost their home, their whole life, they’re living with friends or living in a hotel, they’re still working with their insurance company to get that hotel bill covered, or they’re applying to FEMA, and now the mortgage is due, too,’ said Sherman, whose district includes Pacific Palisades and Malibu. ‘So it’s like paying rent or a mortgage twice. Some of them are finding that quite difficult.’ Chu said the bill was inspired in part by a story she read in the Pasadena Star-News reporting that as many as 3,200 survivors of the Eaton Fire and Palisades Fire missed mortgage payments after the January fires. The story quoted a report by an insurance firm that found that on-time mortgage payments in the Palisades fire area fell 23.9% from December to February and 16.7% in the Eaton fire area.”

“Jeremy Padawer, a 16-year Palisades resident Palisades resident and entrepreneur in the toy industry, lost his home in the January wildfire that destroyed thousands of residences across Los Angeles. Since then, he’s been tracking the pace of lot sales in his neighborhood and says the numbers paint a troubling picture. ‘There’s a significant inventory buildup,’ he says. ‘We’re listing lots faster than we’re selling them. If something doesn’t change soon, the Palisades is going to see a long and painful recovery.’ According to figures he compiled, the Palisades currently has over 200 active listings, with only 31 lots sold in the past 90 days. Altadena, by comparison, had more than 100 sales during the same period on just 81 active listings. ‘That means Altadena is moving inventory nearly nine times faster,’ he says.”

“Padawer attributes this divide to affordability, development feasibility and what he sees as damaging city policy. ‘In Altadena, it’s still possible to rebuild and sell at a reasonable cost. Here, between high property taxes, the ULA tax and construction costs, the math just doesn’t work.’ He’s also critical of what he describes as a ‘dwelling tax,’ where the city assesses property taxes proportionally based on how much of the home has been rebuilt, even before it’s finished. ‘It’s like being taxed for a home you don’t yet live in,’ he says. ‘If your house is 35 percent complete, you’re charged for 35 percent of the value. That’s before you’ve moved back in and while you’re already paying interest and holding costs.’ Padawer believes Pacific Palisades could see lot values drop as much as 40 percent from pre-fire prices if the trend continues. ‘We’re not seeing any meaningful relief or policy change. Meanwhile, holding costs keep rising and developers are staying away.'”

“Recent figures showed home sales and inventory are up across the Bay Area, even though the median home price remains the highest in the nation. Despite the rise, real estate agents said the concern looking forward is the drop in the stock market and the uncertainty people are feeling about their financial futures. ‘I am seeing more inventory, I’m not seeing deadlines on offer dates as much right now. Things are starting to last a little longer on the market than we saw a couple of weeks ago before the tariff changes,’ said Holly Barr of Compass. ‘I think people are nervous about those changes, so suddenly I don’t have that $500,000 in my stock account, now it’s $250,000 or whatever, it just doesn’t make you feel very stable.'”

“It’s small wonder that Americans and Canadians are anxiously watching the turbulence U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policies are inflicting on stock markets. They have a lot riding on them. According to a recent report from National Bank of Canada , corporate equities, both directly and indirectly held, now account for almost 44 per cent of total financial assets for U.S. households — a record high. Concerns about the potential economic hit from U.S. tariffs have ‘clearly unsettled buyers’ this year, causing many to put their search for a home on pause, said Robert Hogue, assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.”

“The hardest hit provinces, Ontario and British Columbia, are also the ones where non-financial assets, mostly real estate, account for the larger share of household wealth. ‘Weakening labour markets and tariffs threatening to strike southern Ontario’s economy hard has significantly soured market sentiment,’ said Hogue. Home sales have plummeted 21 per cent in Ontario in the past two months and 17 per cent in British Columbia. The sharpest drop is in Toronto where sales were down 27 per cent. Prices are also dropped in nearly all markets in the two provinces, with declines accelerating in March. If the job market softens in these regions, which National says is likely, heavily indebted households are in for a struggle. ‘For Canadian households, it seems there are currently few places to hide,’ said National Bank economists Warren Lovely and Daren King.”

“Since buying our second home two years ago in the Cotswolds, my wife and I have spent more than £16,000 in the local economy. Whether it is employing builders to fix up a bathroom, hiring a cleaner or just dropping in to our favourite pub, we help support dozens of local jobs in the community. And as a thank you for our contribution, Stroud District Council has decided to double our council tax bill overnight to £6,716. We are one of hundreds of thousands of second home owners in England this week who are coming to terms with this tax raid. It was on the market for £500,000, well beyond the reach of many first-time buyers, and remained unsold for many months before we bought it. It means that for the time being, we are going to have to put up with the double council tax and see how it goes. But if they consider tripling it, as they have done in some areas of Wales, then our house is going on the market.”

“Building permits for apartments in Germany fell 2.3% in February from a year earlier, statistics office data showed on Thursday, underscoring the fragility of the nation’s troubled property industry. The drop is a setback following two consecutive months of increases that provided some hope of a recovery after three years of declines. Germany’s property sector, which began to shrink in 2022, is undergoing its most severe slump in decades. ‘We are still stuck in the bottom of the trough,’ said Felix Pakleppa, head of the Central Association of the German Construction Industry.”

“Economic offences in the capital rose sharply last year, with a 34% jump in reported cases. Delhi Police say that poor verification, tempting returns, and misleading claims played a big role in how individuals and companies ended up getting duped, reported TOI. A senior police officer said many victims fell for housing scams due to a lack of basic checks. “In several cases, builders didn’t get necessary approvals but went ahead with flashy brochures and showy launches, collecting money from buyers. According to the report, later, either construction stalled or the same flat was ‘sold to multiple people,’ the officer said. ‘In some cases, companies showed inflated profits to secure loans. They returned some money for a while to build trust, then suddenly disappeared. That’s when verification revealed the same property had been used as collateral for multiple loans,’ the officer added.”

“Another officer pointed out that Ponzi and multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes were still very much active. These promise quick money, pay a few early returns to win confidence, then vanish — leaving a trail of lost savings. ‘Such schemes rely heavily on word-of-mouth and often catch unsuspecting investors off guard,’ he told TOI. Joint commissioner K R Chaurasia agreed, noting that many victims didn’t verify what they were investing in. ‘High returns are tempting, but people skip doing basic checks.'”