Sellers Do Recognize It’s A Different Time, You Have To Show Buyers You’re Motivated

A report from Miami Today in Florida. “In Brickell, about 1,610 condominiums are on sale, said Oliver Ruiz, a Brickell-based broker associate for The Keyes Company. In the past 30 days, 46 condo sales are still pending while only 74 sales have closed, which is a low number for the area, he said. ‘What’s positive about this is that right now is the best time to buy because inventory is high and nobody’s buying,’ Mr. Ruiz continued. ‘Sellers are fighting amongst each other in order to get an offer.'”

Mansion Global. “Judith Sheindlin, aka Judge Judy, has just lowered the price of her New York City penthouse. Sheindlin listed her Manhattan home in May 2024 for $9.5 million, but now after a $1 million price cut on Monday, the apartment is asking $8.5 million—the same price she paid for it in 2013, records show.”

Fox 26 Houston in Texas. “While some areas like Katy, Fulshear, Cypress, and West U, inside the Loop, maintain strong demand, experts say sellers cannot push the price in most places. ‘What that means is a seller can’t just choose any price out of the sky, for their house. It has to be priced to the market. Your house has to be ready to show, everything has to be in order or your house is going to sit on the market,’ says Houston realtor Tim Surratt, of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International, ‘A year ago, if the neighbors house sold for $800,000, we’d ask for 840 for ours. Those days are gone. What your neighbors house sold for, you have to price yours very similar to that.'”

From Local News 8. “In Idaho, according to Redfin, 14.4% of home in Idaho sold above their listed price. That’s down 2.2 points year over year. There were 30.8% of homes that had price drops from their listed price, which is up from 29% in April last year. ‘Those open houses, you’re going to see a lot more of those. Not just on weekends, we’re going to see them on weeknights. You’re going to see a lot more on social media postings. You’re going to see a lot more fliers in your mailbox. You may even see more realtors knocking door to door, just to get the word out for their sellers, because word of mouth is better than any advertising. But its been a while since realtors have had to do those kinds of things,’ says Carissa Coats, spokesperson for the Greater Idaho Falls Association of Realtors.”

48 Hills in California. “On May 1, the California Department of Finance Demographics Unit issued its annual press release on population and housing estimates for the state. San Francisco’s population has not fully recovered to its pre-Covid levels, and currently stands at 96.4 percent of its Jan. 1, 2020 peak. Yet the city added 15,533 housing units during this five-year period, driving down the persons per household figure from 2.26 to 2.10. As with the statewide data, these figures are not consistent with a physical housing shortage.”

Bisnow San Francisco in California. “Flynn Properties and DRA Advisors acquired Market Center, a two-tower complex with 770K SF of Class-A office space in the Financial District. Flynn and DRA acquired Market Center by purchasing the loan and accepting a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The towers last traded in 2019 for $722M. The acquisition reportedly came at a significant discount of 76%, with a purchase price of $177M, according to The San Francisco Standard.”

Minnesota Public Radio. “A massive proposed housing development in Duluth that city officials have said would create a ‘transformational’ new neighborhood now appears stalled, and may not move forward after all. A New York-based family-owned real estate company headed by Luzy Ostreicher ceremonially broke ground on the $500 million project in December. This week, the Duluth Economic Development Authority, or DEDA, sent a letter to Ostreicher to notify the developer that he is in ‘material breach’ of the development agreement signed with DEDA for the housing project. Ostreicher has also run into troubles at some of his other Duluth investments. His family company has purchased two apartment buildings in Duluth for a combined price of about $77 million. His company Endi Plaza LLC declared bankruptcy the day before the Incline Village groundbreaking, after its lender, Fannie Mae, said the company had defaulted on a nearly $52 million loan for a 142-unit apartment building it purchased in 2021. Fannie Mae said Endi Plaza had submitted false information in at least one financial report.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “The final weeks of the 2025 spring real estate market may bring a burst of activity in Toronto: buyers with children prefer to move before the start of the new school year, while sellers are aware that the traditional summer slowdown is looming. Southern Ontario remains in the grips of a housing correction, which lower mortgage rates have yet to relieve, says Robert Kavcic, senior economist at Bank of Montreal. A glut of condo supply in the GTA is pulling down prices, he adds. Caps on immigration have also put significant downward pressure on rents, keeping investors on the sidelines. In the GTA’s established west-end neighbourhoods such as Baby Point, Bloor West Village, the Kingsway and Old Mill, sellers who were holding off listing during the early spring moved ahead in May. ‘It’s like the floodgates opened,’ says Nutan Brown, real estate agent with Royal LePage Terrequity Realty. ‘Offer dates come and go,’ she says of some sellers who have tried to spark competition with a deadline for submitting bids.”

“In the exclusive enclave of Baby Point on the east side of the Humber River, prices range from $3.5-million for an entry-level home to $12-million or above for the grander houses backing onto the ravine. At the end of May, a detached house in the area listed with an asking price of $2.745-million drew two offers but still sold below asking at $2.7-million, says Ms. Brown. While lots of homeowners remained optimistic about prices in 2024, many are more realistic in 2025, she says. ‘Sellers do recognize it’s a different time. There’s enough evidence to convince them of that. You need sellers to understand that it’s going to take a significant shift to get some traction in the market. You have to show buyer’s you’re motivated.'”

“In the resale market, spurts of activity come from downsizers and first-time buyers, but sales and showings vary from week to week, says Luke Dalinda, real estate agent with Royal LePage Real Estate Services. As in other areas of the GTA, investors have mostly vanished. In late May, there were 328 condo apartments listed for sale in Humber Bay Shores near Park Lawn Road and Lakeshore Boulevard West ‘We’ve never had over 300 before,’ says Mr. Dalinda. ‘It’s beyond a buyer’s market.’ Sellers who see their unit languish on the market are often turning to the rental market instead. ‘That’s a conversation that’s happening a lot,’ says Mr. Dalinda. ‘The landlords you’re seeing now are not landlords by choice – they’re forced to be landlords.'”

Interest New Zealand. “Barfoot & Thompson’s (B&T) average and median selling prices both declined for the second month in a row in May, while the amount of residential stock the real estate agency had for sale hit a 17-year high. B&T is Auckland’s largest residential real estate agency by a significant margin, Its latest results suggest ongoing weakness in the Auckland housing market as it heads into winter. The median selling price was $928,500 in May. That’s down from $934,000 in April and $970,000 in March. It’s now down $83,400 (-8.2%) compared to May last year, and down $311,500 (-25.1%) compared to the record high of $1,240,000 set in November 2021. The weakness in price appears to be substantially due to the large amount of stock on the market. B&T received 1855 new listings in May, the most in the month of May since 2016. However, it sold only 1072 residential properties in May. B&T currently has the most homes for sale at this time of year since 2008, the year of the Global Financial Crisis. ‘The market is in one of those rare moments where prices are stalled and now represent better value for money than at any time in the last two to three years,’ Barfoot & Thompson Managing Director Peter Thompson said.”

From Mingtiandi. “Hong Kong’s Gale Well Group has slashed the price for a beach villa complex in the city’s Southern District by 25 percent over the past four months, as the financially-troubled property investment firm seeks to accelerate asset disposals. Situated in an upscale neighbourhood of detached homes close to the Dairy Farm Chung Hom Kok Shopping Mall, the Gale Well’s luxury complex occupies a site of approximately 102,000 square feet. Gale Well Group has been aggressively offloading assets recently to reduce its net gearing, making many disposals at significant discounts.”

“Last month, Gale Well Group sold a street-level shop at King Kwong Street in Happy Valley for HK$28.8 million, with that price representing a nearly 40 percent markdown from what the company paid to acquire the property in 2008. The company also sold a gound floor shop at 1-3 Jubilee Street in Central for HK$38.8 million, booking a 47 percent loss from its 2011 acquisition cost. In April, Gale Well Group sold the 39th floor of the Far East Finance Centre for HK$194.4 million, with that price translating to HK$18,000 per square foot to mark the lowest price per unit area in the Admiralty office tower since the global financial crisis of 2008.”