We’re Seeing The Price Difference From Anyone That Had Bought In The Highs Of 2022

A report from Yahoo Finance. “In the heart of the traditional spring homebuying season, sellers are enthusiastically listing. But increasingly, buyers just aren’t materializing. ‘Buyers have their choice, even though the market is stabilizing,’ said Eve Metlis, a Realtor at Watson Realty Corp. in Orlando. In the central Florida city, listings are up 42% from a year earlier. But sales are down 11%. ‘A lot of sellers still think it’s 2021 or 2022,’ she added. ‘I call it aspirational pricing.’ Redfin found that the median newly listed home had a record-high list price of $469,729 in March but ultimately sold for 9% less. The gap between buyers and sellers hasn’t been that big since May 2020, when pandemic lockdowns were causing major market disruptions.”

7 News in Washington DC. “Housing inventory is up in the D.C. metro area but pending sales are down, likely due to the impact of DOGE and federal workforce cuts, according to Bright MLS. Realtor Sam Medvene, who is also the president of the D.C. Association of Realtors, believes multiple factors are at play. ‘I think the current crisis that we’re facing is dealing with the federal impact and decision on furloughs and cuts, the tariffs that we’ve been seeing come in and the economic uncertainty with the free market as well,’ he said. Medvene is seeing more buyer hesitancy than before. ‘Double-digit clients ended up having to pull out of contracts because they lost their jobs or they were hearing grumblings of this and they said, ‘This is too big of a decision to really lock in and move forward.'”

Culture Map in Texas. “Austin’s homebuyers are uncovering an uncertain future for the housing market, as April sales took a nearly 14 percent dip from last year and housing inventory increased by 11.5 percent. New home listings in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan statistical area (MSA) rose to 5,710 homes in April, adding to a total number of 13,351 active home listings. That’s nearly 20 percent more from April 2024. Only 2,484 homes in the Austin area were sold in April, and median home prices took a small 3.2 percent dip year-over-year to $450,000. Despite a cautious drop in home sales, Austin’s increase in housing inventory at affordable price points should be seen as a ‘market correction,’ according to housing economist Clare Knapp, Ph.D. Home sales in Bastrop County dropped dramatically by 25.4 percent year-over-year with only 91 homes sold in April. Median prices also decreased to $344,900. There were 692 active listings on the market and 219 new home listings. ‘Austin was one of the most affordability-constrained markets emerging from the pandemic,’ Knapp said. ‘Many parts of the country are still supply-constrained, but in April, the Austin area posted the highest inventory level affordable to the standard household since 2012.'”

National Public Radio on California. “For a long time, buying and selling a home in the U.S. generally went like this: The seller would pay a commission that would be split by the buyer’s and seller’s agents, often totaling 5% to 6% of the sales price. These new rules have created an opening for brokerages that charge a flat fee. Leanne Liang is an agent with Redfin in the East Bay area outside San Francisco. Selling a house in today’s tough market, she says: ‘It’s not just putting a house on the MLS and then just wait for the offers to come in. In a challenging market, I think we as agents really work for our paychecks.'”

Fox 9 Minneapolis. “It’s been nearly a year since historic flooding hit parts of Waterville, Minn. hard, and some people are still in limbo as their homes sit empty. Wood, concrete and black mold are all that’s left of Jennie Johnson’s dream cabin on the shores of Lake Tetonka in Waterville. FEMA only offers disaster relief for damage to people’s primary homes, so the Johnson’s claim was denied. Johnson owned the cabin for just seven weeks before the flood, and she has no idea if her family will ever be able to make memories here again. In the meantime, they are paying the mortgage, and covering water and sewer bills for a home that’s been gutted for months. ‘I just hope it gets torn down. I think that’s the best solution. It’s a permanent solution. No one will ever have to go through this again,’ said Johnson.”

Big Island Now in Hawaii. “A foreclosure has stalled the development of Punaluʻu Village in one of the most biologically rich and and culturally revered places in Kaʻū. The future of Punaluʻu is now uncertain after a Hawaiʻi circuit court approved an order of foreclosure against developer Black Sand Beach, LLC, after the company defaulted on a $3.4 million mortgage. The 147-acre property is now headed for public auction, pausing plans for a sprawling luxury development that faced sustained public opposition. The developer’s proposed ‘Punaluʻu Village’ project included 225 residential and vacation rental units, a commercial center and golf course renovations.”

From Bisnow. “Nearly six years after its passage, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 is still Public Enemy No. 1 for the owners of New York City’s aging apartments. It has already led to a surge in defaults and distress, and experts say there is no end to the financial devastation in sight. Two property owners, who combined own and operate almost 4,300 rent-stabilized apartments in New York City’s outer boroughs, opened their books to Bisnow to show the impact of the 2019 laws. ‘The crisis has already started,’ one of the landlords said. ‘It’s just getting everybody to realize how bad it really is.’ The financial records show how the once-secure housing stock has rapidly run out of funding. The dwindling income while values have plummeted means that not only are the owners unable to further invest in the properties, but they may have to dump them, likely causing further distress.”

“As values have tumbled, selling rent-stabilized buildings has become an exercise in stomaching loss. In 2018, a rent-stabilized unit in Upper Manhattan would go for a median price of $290K, according to a report by the University Neighborhood Housing Program. In 2024, the median price dropped to $122K. In Brooklyn, the median price dipped from $275K to $196K. It also dropped from $266K to $175K in Queens and $177K to $112K in the Bronx. Offloading the buildings would mean paying taxes on the depreciated assets as well as taking a cash loss to pay off the debt — if the owner can find someone to take over the portfolio. Earlier this year, L+M Development Partners sued its lender for refusing to take the keys back on a rent-stabilized building in Harlem after the landlord defaulted on its mortgage.”

Global News in Canada. “A report published by Greater Vancouver Realtors found that condo sales decreased by approximately 20 per cent in April compared to the same period last year. The report also states that more than 2,000 new condos in Metro Vancouver are sitting unsold and empty. Adil Dinani, a Realtor with Royal LePage, says he’s never seen this much housing stock. ‘Now with over 16,000 listings on there on the real estate MLS, this is the most listings we’ve seen in over a decade,’ he says. Dinani says the oversupply is leading to consequences for developers, with many presales hitting pause. Dinani says the market may not be back to near normal for years. ‘The outlook for the real estate market for the balance of the year is relatively bleak,’ he says.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “10 Park Lawn Rd., No. 3510, Toronto. Asking price: $819,900 (February, 2025). Selling price: $802,000 (April, 2025). Previous selling prices: $925,000 (May, 2022); $662,637 (October, 2018). Agents Jarrod and Karolina Armstrong told their client an unfortunate truth: the value of their two-bedroom suite with a den was probably as much as $100,000 below the $925,000 they paid during the pandemic, a real estate high-level mark. They agreed to list at under $820,000, but they balked at one buyer’s low-ball offer in the $700,000s. ‘We’re seeing the price difference from anyone that had bought in the highs of 2022, so this seller was reasonable and prepared to deal with the market value at this time,’ said Ms. Armstrong.”

From Bloomberg. “Hong Kong’s rich families are learning about the unpredictability of market downturns, with some having to sell the homes they live in to cut debt. This week, a sea-view villa previously owned by wealthy businessman Chan Ping Che was listed by receivers for HK$430 million (S$70.9 million). Mr Chan, known as Hong Kong’s ‘King of Cassettes’ for the source of his fortune, defaulted on a loan worth about HK$350 million in principal and interest from Fubon Bank Hong Kong earlier in 2025, he said in a phone interview on May 21. In April, receivers took over the mansion he and his family were living in since the 1980s. Mr Chan had tried to sell the property since late 2023 but did not manage to find a buyer.”

“Hong Kong has seen a flurry of mansion fire sales, following years of high interest rates and a property downturn. ‘People often use leverage to purchase additional properties, amplifying returns when prices rise, but also magnifying losses when prices drop,’ said Mr Christopher So, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong. The flurry of offerings adds pressure to a property market that has seen one of its longest downturns. Home prices are 29 per cent below their peak in 2021, government data shows. The number of households with negative equity – when the value of a property is lower than the outstanding mortgage loan – rose to the highest since 2003 at the end of March.”