They Definitely Do Not Have A Sense Of Urgency Right Now, And Nor Should They

A report from the Wall Street Journal. “The crucial spring selling season is shaping up as a dud, crushing hopes that a housing market that has been anemic for more than two years can gain significant momentum this year. Even in markets where there is a glut of inventory and sellers are offering concessions, it isn’t enough to get the market moving nationally. Hannah and Ben Jacobs purchased a five-bedroom house in Plano, Texas, in March. They listed their previous home for sale in early April. They haven’t gotten any offers. ‘In March I felt pretty good about buying a house, but if I had seen what happened a month later, I probably would not have pulled the trigger due to uncertainty,’ Ben Jacobs said.”

“The real-estate industry had higher expectations going into this year after existing-home sales in 2023 and 2024 dropped to the lowest levels since the mid-1990s. Home builders also built aggressively across the Southwest and Southeast in recent years and are now stuck with an excess of finished homes. They are offering incentives to buyers, including lower mortgage rates. That makes it difficult for sellers of existing homes to compete. ‘We have new construction just clear across the city, anywhere you go,’ said Jesse Landin, a real-estate agent in San Antonio. There were more than 14,000 active listings in the San Antonio area at the end of March, near a record high in data going back to 1990, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center. For many buyers who can afford current home prices and mortgage rates, there is little sense of urgency, real-estate agents say. ‘What a luxury that is, the ability to look at houses, sleep on it, go back the next day,’ said Christine Dupont-Patz, a real-estate agent in Denver.”

The Denver Post in Colorado. “The Denver Metro housing market demonstrated volatility in April, as an increase in new listings and rising inventory challenged the traditionally strong spring buying season. New listings rose 11% month over month and 18% year over year. Active listings are up 23% month over month and 71% year over year. Despite having more options, pending sales dropped 2%. ‘Buyer activity usually remains strong during the spring months, and a month-over-month decrease in pending units, although just 2.27 percent, may reflect an early peak in the spring market,’ said Amanda Snitker, chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee.”

“A report from Redfin indicates that in the first quarter of 2025, Denver ranked fifth among cities in the U.S. for the highest percentage of seller concessions, with 59% of home sales involving a concession. ‘Denver’s market is increasingly driven by the distinct circumstances of each buyer and seller rather than any single headline,’ said Heather O’Leary, with eXp and a market trends committee member. ‘Buyers are scrutinizing location, condition, and HOA obligations more intensely, and they are quick to terminate when a home fails to meet expectations.'”

Big Easy Magazine in Louisiana. “When the New Orleans City Council first passed a moratorium on new commercial short-term rental (STR) licenses in June 2023, the city claimed it was taking a hard stance against the commodification of housing. But nearly two years later, and despite a new wave of reforms passed in April 2025, the reality on the ground tells a different story. Out-of-state corporations like Hosteeva and Sonder continue to operate commercial STRs across the city, using legal loopholes and license renewals to maintain their grip on the housing market. Data from early 2025 reveals over 7,000 active Airbnb listings in New Orleans, while only about 1,350 have valid non-commercial STR licenses. This gap suggests that thousands of properties continue to operate without authorization.”

“Sonder Hospitality USA Inc., another Delaware-registered company headquartered in San Francisco, continues to operate STRs at more than 30 properties across the city. The company has also been tied to multi-unit STR operations in zoning overlays originally intended for light commercial or hospitality use. The company’s long-standing relationship with New Orleans city government has not gone unnoticed. In a 2020 exposé, Big Easy Magazine reported that a Sonder executive had been appointed to oversee the city’s STR enforcement operations. He allegedly responded to criticism by asking, ‘Who’s going to stop me?’ before being fired following a DUI arrest. That story helped reveal the extent to which corporate STR interests had infiltrated regulatory frameworks meant to rein them in.”

The Sahan Journal in Minnesota. “Two of developer Basim Sabri’s south Minneapolis apartment buildings are facing mortgage foreclosures because they allegedly failed to make more than $530,000 in required repairs. Fannie Mae on Friday sued to foreclose on Rana Village and Karmel Village. Sabri said in an interview on Wednesday that some of the biggest repairs demanded by Fannie Mae aren’t needed, and those that were necessary have been mostly completed. ‘We could have done better with the maintenance,’ he said. ‘But does this warrant foreclosure? Absolutely not. They are not being reasonable.’ He called Fannie Mae’s $537,000 repair estimate ‘crazy.’ Sabri, a prominent and controversial Minneapolis developer, is best known for developing Karmel Plaza, where scores of Somali Minnesotans run shops and restaurants.”

The Baltimore Banner in Maryland. “The investors stepped inside the marble-floored lobby of Vivo Baltimore and tasted blood in the water. They came wearing suits, sunglasses and boat shoes — one sported a hefty gold chain. They took phone calls, crossed their arms and eyed the competition. They circled like sharks. They left like minnows. Going once. Twice. Three times. The two residential buildings sold after a single bid from the lender: $25 million. Wednesday’s auction was a mixed sign for the future of downtown as a residential neighborhood. As demand for hotel rooms and office space declines, city officials have been encouraging investors to convert them into apartment buildings. That’s what happened to Vivo Baltimore.”

“In 2022, California-based Vivo Investment Group bought adjoining hotel buildings at 101 W. Fayette St. and 110 W. Baltimore St. for about $22 million. Vivo converted the 27-story towers into 550 apartment units with the plans to rent them at relatively affordable rates. The rent for some studio apartments started below $1,000 a month. To buy and renovate the towers, Vivo borrowed $45 million from Los Angeles-based Parkview Financial. But by 2024, Vivo Baltimore was bleeding money and Parkview Financial foreclosed on the property. The foreclosure triggered the auction, where anyone willing to make a $2 million deposit could sink their teeth into a prime piece of downtown real estate. In the end, there wasn’t even a nibble. A representative for Parkview Financial bid $25 million — effectively offering to buy the buildings from itself — and all the other fish swam away.”

The Canadian Press. “Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area were down 23.3 per cent in April amid continued uncertainty over the economy, as prices fell for the third month in a row. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said Tuesday that 5,601 homes were sold last month, compared with 7,302 in April 2024, while sales were up 1.8 per cent from March on a seasonally adjusted basis. Meanwhile, 18,836 new properties were listed in the GTA last month, up 8.1 per cent compared with last year. Active listings hit 27,386 last month, up 54 per cent from April 2024’s inventory of 17,783 units.”

“While it may seem like potential buyers are just ‘waiting things out’ on the sidelines, Scott Ingram, a sales representative with Century 21 Regal Realty in Toronto said many have already ‘left the stadium or been pushed out’ due to unaffordability. Others might be intrigued by falling prices and counting on that slide to continue before they make their move. ‘I’ve got clients that have been looking for three years now … and they’re still keeping their eyes on things, but they definitely do not have a sense of urgency right now, and nor should they,’ said Ingram. ‘There’s plenty more choice than there normally is in the market right now and I think people are a little reticent to buy.'”

From El Pais. “The house where Mairin Reyes is, on a Wednesday before Easter Week, is an annex of a main residence in a middle-class neighborhood in the southeastern part of Caracas, on a street with private security, where the children and grandchildren of a family that is no longer in Venezuela once grew up. She has 15 days to empty out this house, which is attached to another one that she has already cleared. Venezuela has experienced a massive exodus in the last decade and a half, with nearly eight million people estimated to have left, according to the United Nations.”

“Just as objects pile up in Mairin’s secondhand shop, vacant properties are stacking up across the city. Since 2014, home prices have dropped by 50% compared to their original purchase price — another scar left by Venezuela’s onoing crisis. The Metropolitan Real Estate Chamber estimates that there are at least 3,000 unoccupied homes in the capital alone, in addition to some 600,000 square meters of available office space, over one million square meters of industrial space, and a surplus of 200,000 square meters of retail space in shopping centers — where not all stores manage to open and others do so with great difficulty. The rate at which existing inventory is being absorbed is so slow that, according to industry estimates, it could take 25 years to sell what is currently on the market.”

“‘It can take more than a year to sell a property that costs more than $50,000. It becomes a struggle between the agent and the owner to lower the price until it’s attractive,’ says Martín Fernández, vice president of the Metropolitan Real Estate Chamber. ‘Today, deciding to sell a home is a psychological decision,’ he adds, ‘because it means accepting the loss of value and acknowledging that the property they once lived in or bought as an investment is not going to appreciate.'”

From BBC News. “A couple who were put ‘through hell’ by a rogue builder making false promises about their dream seaside home say his trail of destruction has left them and others ‘heartbroken.’ Michael Anderson, 76, from Porthcawl in south Wales, was jailed for three-and-a-half years after admitting to cheating his six victims out of £260,000. Among them were Andy and Denise Fitzgerald, whose picturesque retirement on the coast was ruined after both suffered back injuries trying to rectify Anderson’s sub-par work. Another victim, Jessica Reader, lost more than £130,000 to Anderson on her eco-friendly home but said his prison sentence had brought some justice.”

“‘It was heart-breaking,’ said Andy. ‘But there was a lot more rage and anger at that point, as much as heartbreak, that ‘you’ve conned us.’ Andy and Denise were forced to raid their pensions and savings to fix the work, ruining their hopes of a mortgage-free retirement. Jessica Reader was another of Anderson’s victims, having paid him more than £130,000 to build a small eco-home on land in Wenvoe near Cardiff. Ms Reader wants to see changes to the law, so the building trade is ‘more tightly regulated.’ ‘I didn’t realise until what happened to me that anyone could call themselves a builder,’ she said.”