It’s More Of A ‘Oh S…, We Couldn’t Sell It’ Thing

A report from Realtor.com. “She’s only been in the real estate business for nine months, but one Tampa, Florida, agent is already drawing a large following for her cheeky humor in listing tour videos on TikTok. Breanna Banaciski, 30, is the mastermind behind the sardonic listing tours, in which she roasts everything from baby boomers and her ‘neckbeard’ fanboys to the lamentable state of housing affordability. Those client connections have proven crucial for Banaciski as she launches her real estate career in a decidedly slow market. ‘This carport is tall enough to fit your jacked-up F-150,’ one recent video begins. ‘But not tall enough to fill the void of when your father left.'”

Houston Agent Magazine in Texas. “The Houston housing market showed signs of ‘continued stability’ in April, the Houston Association of REALTORS® said in its latest Housing Market Update. Active listings jumped 30.3% year over year, with 54,978 homes on the market in April. Houston townhome and condominium sales decreased 15.2% year over year, with 451 units sold. The average price decreased 4% to $267,507, and the median fell 6.5% to $215,000. The city has a 7.4-month supply of townhomes and condos.”

NBC San Diego. “The Encinitas City Council recently voted 4-1 to support the Our Neighborhood Voices initiative, a statewide effort to restore local control over land use and housing developments through a California constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot. Bruce Ehlers, the mayor of Encinitas, characterized the initiative as ‘a fight to maintain our standard of living and quality of life.’ ‘The state keeps edicting new laws that reduce our ability to protect our own city from overdevelopment,’ Ehlers said. ‘If you think that density is a surrogate for affordability, then Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York and L.A. would be the cheapest places to live in the world, and they are not,’ Ehlers said.”

CBC News in Canada. “London realtor Doug Galbraith said the last time he saw a housing market as slow as today’s was in 1983 when all the houses on his childhood street were listed for sale at once. ‘A couple years ago, you would put ‘for sale’ signs on lawns with ‘sold’ stickers already on them,’ he said. ‘Realistically, now you’re looking at 30 to 45 days on a property that’s priced right. If it’s not priced right, it’ll just sit. People are drowning and I see it,’ Galbraith said. ‘I’ve done mortgages for people in the last six months that are just trying to pay their bills.'”

Riviera Maya News. “Demand in the Tulum real estate market has faced a 40 percent slowdown caused by an oversupply of housing units. Mario Antonio San Miguel Herrera, the new President of the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals (AMPI) says the oversupply has created an imbalance between supply and demand. Unlike places such as Playa del Carmen where real estate activity has remained more level, Tulum experienced a development boom following the COVID-19 pandemic. San Miguel Herrera said that boom saturated the market. ‘We estimate a 40 percent drop in purchase interest since then,’ he said. The excess of available units has also impacted the rental market with many properties remaining vacant or reporting very low turnover. He says the market has been overwhelmed mostly with the construction of one and two bedroom apartments particularly since 2024.”

The Telegraph in the UK. “London flat owners are in trouble. Flat owners in the capital have seen their investment lose a quarter of its value in real terms, on average – and in some cases they have been unable to sell up, leaving them trapped or faced with making a significant loss. Laoise Davidson, 56, has been forced to reduce the asking price of her London flat by £150,000 since putting it up for sale last February. After putting her property on the market for £725,000 last year – the amount an estate agent told her it was worth – she was unable to secure a sale. In the space of less than a year, Davidson has been forced to slash the asking price to £575,000. ‘It’s devastating. It’s still not really getting any interest – we had one viewing last week and one this week, and we haven’t had feedback from either of them yet. My husband and I want to buy our forever home in London – we can’t both live in my flat. We are looking at houses, but it is really tricky as house prices are going up while flats aren’t. We can’t afford the house we are looking for, and we are really stuck…. I wish I’d sold in 2016.'”

“Eliza*, 39, who wished to remain anonymous as her property is still for sale, purchased a one-bedroom leasehold apartment in Stepney Green – a trendy area of East London – in 2016, for £440,000. She used the Help to Buy scheme to fund 40pc of the purchase. However, having recently had a baby with her husband, Eliza is now desperately trying to sell up in order to buy a house outside the city. But, despite being on the market since last March, the flat remains unsold. ‘The first estate agent wanted to put it on at £490,000, but we had no offers. We got an offer for £450,000, only £10,000 more than I [paid for it], so I would not break even with all the interest. That’s a bitter pill to swallow. And then that offer fell through.’ Ultimately, Eliza thinks the price she paid for the flat in 2016 was inflated due to the Help to Buy scheme. ‘I do blame Help to Buy for inflating house prices,’ she says. ‘They knew people needed the scheme, and that it sounded great on paper.’ All things considered, Eliza is not particularly hopeful about selling her flat in future. ‘We might just have to auction it and move on.'”

The Star in Kenya. “When your investment plan starts with ‘I saw this on TikTok…’ Let’s start with this uncomfortable truth: Everyone is giving financial advice these days, especially the people who should not. On TikTok, a 22-year-old with a ring light and a ‘passive income’ sweatshirt is telling you to invest in crypto mining, drop shipping or flipping distressed real estate in markets they have never visited. On Instagram, someone’s sharing screenshots of their trading account (real or not, who knows) and promising you will double your money in 30 days. Everyone’s shouting. Few are qualified. Even fewer are honest. It’s financial fast food, quick, addictive and not at all nutritious. And like fast food, it leaves you full of regret and wondering where your money went. And when you ask where the advice came from? It’s never a CFA. Never a regulator. Never someone who has weathered a full market cycle. It’s usually someone with a mic, a Wi-Fi connection and just enough confidence to pass for credibility.”

Radio New Zealand. “Developers who do not want to try to find buyers for properties in a tough market – or who have had no luck – appear to be choosing to rent them out instead. The rental market has shifted in favour of tenants, with large numbers of properties listed for rent and asking rents softening. The number of available rental listings on Trade Me is 31 percent higher than in May last year, which was 41 percent higher than the year before. BNZ chief economist Mike Jones said every part of the country had experienced a double-digit percentage increase in rental listings this year. Vacancy rates had also increased, particularly in Auckland and Wellington. He said there was anecdotal evidence of a new build ‘townhouse glut’ in both areas.”

“Steve Goodey, a property investment coach and investor, said he had noticed developers putting properties on Airbnb that they couldn’t sell. He said it was not like a build-to-rent model, where developers intended to rent the properties for the outset. ‘It’s more of a ‘oh s…, we couldn’t sell it’ thing.'”

Greater Kashmir. “Kashmir’s once-thriving real estate market has collapsed into a buyerís market nightmare, with property values plummeting by up to 30 percent and sellers desperately slashing prices as demand evaporates across the Valley. The devastating terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22 has delivered what industry experts are calling a ‘knockout blow’ to an already struggling real estate sector. Properties that commanded Rs 1 crore just months ago are now attracting offers as low as Rs 70 lakh, marking one of the steepest declines in the region’s property market history. ‘The market has taken a nosedive,’ says Muhammad Shafi, a property consultant in Soura. ‘Properties that once sold within weeks are now languishing for months without a single inquiry. I have bought a house to dispose of it with a small margin, but now what I am encountering is 30 percent less value. This is one of the incidents, there are many such instances.'”

“Kashmir’s real estate sector stands at a critical juncture, facing unprecedented challenges from economic uncertainty and dramatically shifted buyer expectations. The transformation from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market has been swift and severe, leaving property owners grappling with significant paper losses and developers reassessing their investment strategies.”