Unfortunately For Sellers, The Movement Is Slow And Steady In The Wrong Direction

A report from WUSF. “Some of Florida’s condominium owners are struggling with unintended consequences of legislation intended to protect people from unsafe buildings. Lynda Bablin is the treasurer of her condominium’s board in St. Petersburg. She said she’s heard of building assessments that need repairs that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it’s the owners who foot the bill. ‘There are a number of complexes where it’s kind of been stated to the homeowners that if you’re having a hard time with your HOA fees now — because, a lot of people are on fixed incomes — so, if you’re having a hard time right now with your HOA fees, you might want to sell,’ she said.”

“Pamela Rose bought her condo unit in 2023. Since then, she said her HOA fees have skyrocketed. And in the past year, she’s been hit with more than $10,000 in assessment fees. ‘My concern is that we look like we’re going to lose our property, and I’m crying,’ she said. Rose’s neighbor, Virginia D. Jackson, has had similar experiences. ‘I’m single. I got one check. I pay a mortgage,’ she said. ‘I don’t even have money to buy groceries with.’ Jackson said when she brought up concerns at a recent condo meeting, the board’s president told her, ‘If you can’t afford to live here, you need to move.'”

Bisnow South Florida. “Shovel-ready sites are popping up for sale all over Miami as developers that had planned to join in the Magic City’s building boom look instead to take the money and run from an increasingly uncertain market. The hope is to cash out at a premium while the window is still open, brokers said. ‘We see it quite frequently where, in many cases, would-be developers are calling us because they’re trying to figure out their best next steps,’ said Brad Capas, CBRE multifamily sales and land development sales executive vice president. ‘They’re not in a position to break ground today. In some cases, these developers had intended to break ground a year or two ago, and now we’re not sure how much longer this choppy environment is going to last. In some cases, they may have lender pressure or partner pressure to go ahead and sell, or they may just want to deploy that money elsewhere.'”

“The target percentage for return on cost for developers is 6.5%, and if that becomes harder to obtain, they won’t build, he said. So the only option may be to sell. ‘They’re going to see if they can sell their site and go do something else, because their business plan did not materialize the way they had intended,’ Capas said.”

Fox 5 Washington DC. “The D.C. housing market is hot. Amid a shakeup in the federal government, there are more listings in the metro area and that’s good news for anyone looking to buy. Compared to this time last year, the number of active listings in the D.C. region is up nearly 47 percent. Bright MLS Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant has been tracking the data and told FOX 5 in March alone there were just shy of 5,000 new pending contracts in the D.C. area. Ultimately, this could explain why ‘for sale’ signs are popping up in neighborhoods in the District and surrounding areas. By many accounts, the abundant home inventory is being fueled by impacted federal workers listing their homes for sale. For buyers, this could be a good thing.”

From Arlington Now. “Question: How did the Arlington and Northern VA housing market perform in the first quarter? Answer: There is no doubt that we are seeing significant market shifts across the region – we can feel it within the industry and we can see it in the data (illustrated below). Within our team, we see the fragility of the market in real-time with some homes getting multiple offers and six figure escalations and others cutting prices after unexpected days on market, offering buyer incentives to put a deal together. According to Redfin, new listing volume in Q1 2025 was up 5.2% nationwide. Arlington County is up 5.5%, Fairfax County is up 8.3%, and Loudoun County is up 21.4%. I suspect that the higher increase in Loudoun is correlated to new Return-to-Office mandates, causing more homeowners to sell to shorten their commute.”

The American Statesman in Texas. “‘The tariffs have affected the bond market, which directly impacts mortgages,’ Austin real estate broker Eric Bramlett, owner of Bramlett Residential, told me. ‘They’ve caused turbulence in the stock market, which causes consumer confidence to go down. So, it’s a combo of fluctuating mortgage rates and bad consumer confidence affecting our local real estate market in the wrong direction.’ Quoting directly from Redfin’s news releases, are some of the brokerage’s latest reports. Although tied to the U.S market, many of the highlights apply to the Austin-area housing market as well. ‘Gone are the days of 2021 and 2022, when most home sellers were getting multiple offers and fetching more than their asking price. Now, homebuyer competition is cooling; roughly one-quarter (27%) of homes sold for over their list price last month—the lowest March share since 2020.'”

The Mesa Tribune in Arizona. “A leading analyst says the Valley is turning into a buyer’s market for single-family homes and Mesa is edging closer to that scenario. The average sale price of $549,776 was a 4.3% drop year over year, Phoenix Realtors data show. The inventory of for-sale homes in Mesa grew 22% year-over-year to 629 in Mesa – reflecting a Valley-wide trend that the Cromford Report called troubling. The Cromford Report indicated for the last two weeks that sellers are quickly losing their advantage at the bargaining table as the result of rising inventory.”

“‘Supply continues to barrel higher, something it should not normally be doing in April,’ it said last week. ‘If it increases in April, then it is likely to increase further during the second half of the year, unless conditions change drastically. If conditions stay on their current track, sellers will have even more of a challenge in the second half of 2025 as each seller will be competing with too many other sellers who are equally anxious to attract a firm offer. Price cuts and concessions are going to hit new highs under these circumstances.’ The Cromford Report also said homebuilders are hitting a wall. ‘The cost of building a home is rising quickly because so many of the physical components are sourced from abroad, but new home selling prices will have to come down when supply exceeds demand to the extent we are now seeing,’ it said. ‘Unlike the stock and bonds markets, movement in the housing market is slow and steady but unfortunately for sellers, the movement is slow and steady in the wrong direction. Pricing finally shows signs of weakening for the bulk of the market. As we move into the warmest months, we anticipate pricing charts moving lower, particularly during the third quarter.'”

Consumer Affairs. “Home sellers have been giving concessions at levels not seen for years, another sign that housing has shifted to a buyer’s market. Some 44% of home sellers in the first quarter of 2025 gave concessions, deals that lower the total cost of buying a home, which is just shy of the record 45% rate in 2023, according to Redfin. Concessions can include money towards repairs, homeowners association fees and closing costs, but don’t include when the sale price is dropped even though that has been increasingly happening, too. ‘Buyers used to ask for concessions to cover little things like repairs. Now they’re negotiating concessions so they can afford to buy a home,’ Chaley McVay, a Redfin Premier real-estate agent in Portland, Oregon said in a statement. ‘A lot of sellers are offering money for mortgage-rate buydowns, and I recently had one seller cover seven months of HOA fees for the buyer.'”

“Seattle, Washington had the biggest share of home sales concessions in the first quarter of 2025, with 71%, up from 36% a year ago. The other top five metros for concessions were Portland, Oregon (64%), Atlanta, Georgia (62%), San Diego, California (61%) and Denver, Colorado (59%). ‘It’s super common to see seller concessions for condos and new-construction townhomes, but less so for single-family homes — unless the single-family home has been sitting on the market for a while,’ said Stephanie Kastner, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Seattle, in a statement. She said it is much more common for concessions to be offered with condos because of skyrocketing HOA fees, insurance and it is in the best interest of builders to keep sales prices high even if they will cut deals. ‘Condos have become a tougher sell,’ Kastner said. ‘And builders are offering concessions because it’s in their best interest to keep sale prices high; they’re willing to pay buyers’ closing costs and maybe provide a free washer-dryer if it means they don’t have to drop the listing price.'”

KQED in California. “Federal prosecutors this week announced bribery and conspiracy charges against the owners of an East Bay housing development firm, alleging they offered an Antioch city council member thousands of dollars to help approve a residential project in the city. At least the alleged bribe was proffered in a reusable cup. According to the indictment, David Sanson, 60, and his 33-year-old son, Trent Sanson, met on several occasions with the unnamed council member in June 2024. The owners of Concord-based DeNova Homes first offered $10,000 and then tried to sweeten the deal with an additional $5,000 in cash stuffed inside a travel coffee mug branded with the company’s logo.”

“The alleged transaction by the father-son duo came after a city of Antioch planning agency opposed approval of DeNova’s proposed 533-unit Aviano housing development, saying the company had not completed all required public infrastructure improvements. The indictment describes a video-recorded meeting on June 12 between Trent Sanson, a Walnut Creek resident, and the council member, during which Sanson allegedly asked the council member to place a motion on the City Council agenda to approve the next phase of the project. He said his father, who now lives in Montana, was willing to pay $10,000 in exchange for the favor. ‘You’re not going to see anything directly, but Dave will be doing something for you,’ Trent Sanson allegedly told the council member during that first meeting, adding that his father would likely give $5,000 in cash and another $5,000 as a donation to a political action committee or as an independent expenditure.”

WWLP in Massachusetts. “A Longmeadow businessman pleaded guilty in federal court to orchestrating a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud lenders out of nearly $20 million through fraudulent real estate loan applications. Louis R. Masaschi, 59, entered guilty pleas to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. According to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, Masaschi and his wife, Jeanette Norman, who is also charged and awaiting trial, engaged in a scheme that involved falsifying rent rolls and forging lease agreements to fraudulently secure commercial loans for properties they controlled in Springfield and East Longmeadow, as well as Enfield, Conn. Prosecutors said the fraudulent activity occurred between May 2016 and November 2018 and involved approximately $50 million in loan applications, ultimately resulting in $19.3 million in losses to financial institutions and lenders. Authorities alleged that the pair misrepresented the income of these properties by fabricating tenant information and lease agreements to make the building appear more profitable, thereby deceiving lenders into issuing multi-million dollar loans.”

The Journal Sentinel in Wisconsin. “One of Milwaukee’s best-known buildings is now operated by a Florida-based investment and asset management firm following a foreclosure auction. The 20-story Gas Light Building, 626 E Wisconsin Ave., known for its Art Deco design and decorative natural gas flame, was sold for $4 million on April 21, said James Burnett, chief of staff and public affairs and community engagement director for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. The property’s assessed value is $17.4 million, according to city records. A $14 million default foreclosure judgment was issued in January against building owner Gas Light Milwaukee LLC − an affiliate of Chicago-based M&J Wilkow Ltd. The M&J Wilkow affiliate bought the 131,727-square-foot building in 2015 for $20.5 million.”

The Globe and Mail. “An example of the challenges created by the comparison precon costs to the current resale market demand comes from the recently cancelled condo project called Birchley Park by Diamond Kilmer at 411 Victoria Park Ave. in Toronto. The site was intended to create more than 860 units and 62 affordable rental apartments in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. But, over the weekend, Diamond Kilmer posted on the project site that ‘Due to the ongoing challenges in the Canadian real estate market, we’ve made the difficult decision to release condominium unit purchases at Birchley Park as we reassess future plans for the site.’ It’s a decision several builders have made recently, according to Urbanation, which tracked four projects totalling 1,042 units cancelling so far in 2025.”

“Data from Housesigma.com shows one-bed-plus-den Linx units sell for around $850 psf – 28 per cent lower than a similar Birchley Park precon unit – with the more expensive three-bed units faring not much better at about $940 psf (which is still 21 per cent lower than Birchley’s pitch). Never mind that if you bought a Linx precon one-bed-plus-den unit in 2023 and you tried to sell today your current market losses could be 38 per cent, costing you more than $200,000 in cash.”

“If more and more projects like Birchley close up shop, and fewer condos start, Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation Inc. also worries about the impact on jobs and the economy writ-large. ‘Two years ago we had the highest number [of condo units] we’ve ever seen under construction; in 2023 it was 105,000 and we’re at about 69,000 now,’ said Mr. Hildebrand, noting that the number of projects under construction has fallen from 206 to about 135. His rough estimate is that each condo project under construction accounts for about 500 jobs at any given time, so the drop-off the region has seen so far could mean there are already 35,000 fewer construction workers on sites. ‘That’s going to ripple through the whole market; condos are a massive part of the Toronto economy, if you’re not building condos you’re not building much of anything,’ he said.”

Radio New Zealand. “One property investor says there is pain for some investors in the rental market as listings reach record numbers. Trade Me Property says the number of homes available for rent has reached a level not seen in more than 10 years. There were 41 percent more rental listings in March than in the same month last year, the highest number since 2014. ‘I think there’s there’s quite a few contributing factors at the moment,’ said Trade Me Property customer director Gavin Lloyd. ‘We’ve got a lot of new build properties that have come to market in certain parts of the country. That’s putting a lot more stock into the market. I also think we’ve seen a lot of people leaving the country and vacating rentals, so combination of those two things is certainly having an impact in certain markets.'”

“Property investment coach Steve Goodey said a number of property investors were struggling. ‘It’s a classic oversupply, we added so many houses to the market with the Ardern [government’s] incentives, that we have too many homes and renters have so many options. Add to that the massive increase in the cost to supply a home to market and you get a situation where landlords will have to discount to get homes full and we have a renters’ market. If you have a $700-per-week house empty for eight weeks you’re $5600 down so it’s better to take it down to $600 per week and get it rented in two weeks.’ He said things were worse than they appeared for some parts of the market. ‘Plenty of people are slowly going backwards and hiding their heads in the sand.'”