More Investors Want To Sell What They Already Have

A report from Yahoo Finance. “For years, selling a home almost anywhere meant immediate interest from buyers, quick closings, and tidy profits. But now in many parts of the country, things are slowing down. In Silicon Valley, Realtor Michael Reyes has listed several condos for sellers who ended up taking outright losses. In one recent deal, a seller paid $715,000 in 2021 for a two-bedroom unit in San Jose, Calif. When it went up for sale this year, it garnered 16 offers, but the highest was for just $670,000. Another three-bedrooom townhome that fetched just over $1 million in 2022 received nine offers when it was listed this year. The highest was for $930,000. ‘They’re getting slaughtered,’ Reyes said of the sellers. ‘Those buyers are saying, ‘I’d rather rent in this nice apartment complex with three beds, and it’ll be cheaper than that two-bed condo at a 7% interest rate and another $500 HOA on top of that.'”

“Leighann Miko, the founder of Equalis Financial, a fee-only financial planning firm, has a number of clients contemplating what to do with pandemic-era purchases that no longer fit their needs. Miko also has personal experience in the arena. Seeking to escape Los Angeles during the pandemic, she and her wife bought a home in Portland, Ore., in 2020 and poured money into renovations with the plan to stay for a decade. But a few years later, they stumbled upon what Miko described as their dream home and bought it. Hesitant to give up the sub-3% interest rate on their first home, they tried their hand at landlording before ultimately deciding to sell this year. After renovations, they lost money. But Miko still thinks it was the right decision. ‘We ultimately sold it at a pretty significant loss, but it was for the greater good in the end,’ she said. ‘If I could paint a picture of my ideal house, this was it.'”

Sarasota Magazine. “State lawmakers have passed another round of reforms. But many in the industry say that while HB 913 is a step forward, it’s unlikely to resolve the affordability crisis that’s been building. The financial strain is now visible across Florida’s condo market, but particularly acute along the Gulf Coast. In Sarasota and Manatee counties, the condo market now favors buyers in a big way. April 2025 data from the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee (RASM) shows Sarasota’s condo and townhouse sales fell nearly 20 percent year-over-year, with 324 units sold. Median prices dropped by 10.2 percent, to $346,500, while inventory grew to 2,714 active listings—a 9.7-month supply, firmly in buyer’s market territory. In Manatee County, the story was similar, but not as pronounced.”

“‘The condo market is being hit hard by insurance and HOA fee increases. In some communities, monthly fees are now as high as the mortgage on an entry-level unit priced around $250,000,’ Rigo Rivera told us in an April interview. He’s a broker and the owner of Listify Inc. in Sarasota. Some associations, particularly those in older buildings, are even weighing whether costly repairs make sense long-term. ‘In some cases, you’re getting to the point where associations have to ask if it’s financially feasible to fund these reserves, or if they’re better off selling and demolishing?’ says Sarasota attorney Doug Christy. ‘That’s a tough conversation.'”

From WHSV. “Residents in one Virginia neighborhood say they have had enough dealing with a home that has had trash piled up for years. For more than six years, homeowners in Fishersville on Celebrity Lane say trash has been building up outside of a home, and it is something that is causing health concerns. ‘There were over 30 buckets, 30 buckets of human feces on the ground in between the house and the building,’ resident Cheri Huber said. ‘Most of us in the neighborhood have had to put up cameras. You never know who’s coming in and out. I do not want to see people squatting next to my house with their pants down. I do not want to see stuff like that.’ According to Huber, she has been begging the county to do something about the problem, but there is yet to be a solution. Some have suggested moving, but that is something Huber says her mother does not want to do with everything going on. ‘She’s never gonna sell this house as long as that’s all happening next door. And that’s kind of tragic,’ Huber said.”

From Bloomberg. “Before the lawsuits started piling up in courtrooms across Connecticut, before his employer accused him of running a ‘massive Ponzi-like fraud,’ and before the FBI showed up, Robert Cappelletti looked well on his way to pulling off one of the greatest muni-bond coups of all time. The plan Cappelletti had put together was so audacious it bordered on the fantastical. The housing agency he ran in Groton, a sleepy town of some 40,000 people along Connecticut’s Thames River, would sell $750 million of bonds to jumpstart a $4 billion project to transform a bunch of run-down shopping plazas into a sprawling, up-scale development. There’d be a new train station, a hospital, almost 2,000 apartments and dozens of shops and restaurants.”

“It would have been the biggest local bond issue in the state’s history and expanded the tiny Groton agency far beyond its role managing two apartment complexes. And yet Cappelletti — a part-time employee with a mixed record running other housing agencies in the state — breezed through a series of crucial steps needed to complete the sale. One of the housing agency commissioners who signed off on the plan, Joe Greene, soon had regrets. At odds with the rest of the board, Greene resigned that September. Two years later, he remains mystified by it all. ‘I still don’t know how you’re going to pay off a $750 million bond in a five-year timespan when you don’t own the property and when there was no business plan,’ he said. ‘People were amazed at the amount of money.'”

Huntsville Real Time News in Alabama. “Looking to rent an apartment in the Huntsville area? You don’t have to look far. Huntsville’s apartment boom has led to an oversupply of units in the fast-growing metro area, according to a recent report. More than 6,500 units were completed in the metro area (not including Athens) last year, according to a Berkadia-Crunkleton report. That figure matches the total number of apartments delivered in the metro over the 12 years leading up to 2020. Oversupply isn’t the only reason apartment construction is slowing down in the metro. Crunkleton Commercial Real Estate land specialist David Wilson said historically low interest rates just a few years ago helped ignite the boom, but said the capital markets across the country effectively froze about two years ago when interest rates increased and changed the value dynamics of apartment properties and most commercial real estate.”

“‘That was the trigger that really stalled out new construction for most new properties across the country that were not already started,’ he said. ‘You really haven’t seen this historically, we haven’t seen this much of a slowdown in decades. We’re starting to thaw out. There’s been a reset of expectations and attitudes. Right now, there’s too much product on the market, and too many developers are missing their financial targets.'”

Phoenix Business Journal in Arizona. “One of the largest investors in multifamily real estate in the Valley has lost another Phoenix property to foreclosure. Tides on Cave Creek, a Phoenix apartment complex, sold at an auction on May 28 to lender Mack Real Estate Group (MREG) for $61.2 million, according to Maricopa County documents. It marks the third multifamily apartment property that Tide Equities LLC — a Los Angeles-based investor — has lost at an auction in less than a year. The 206-unit Cave Creek multifamily complex located at 12810 N. Cave Creek Road in Phoenix was purchased in 2022 for $59 million from an entity tracing to CVG Properties, a Scottsdale private investment firm, according to Maricopa County documents. About $54 million was loaned to Tides Equities by MREG, according to previous Business Journal reporting.”

The Canadian Press. “During the pandemic, there were massive backlogs at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board (OLTB), and wait times for hearings were taking as long as a year. After clearing the backlog, the board can now hear a case within three to six months, but some landlords say tenants are still abusing the system. According to one landlord group, there is a growing number of ‘professional’ tenants who have found ‘loop holes’ to delay proceedings. ‘She won’t budge and the house is in complete disarray. It’s really bad,’ landlord Danielle Breau of Sunderland, Ont. in Brock Township told CTV News. The home is now a complete mess and overrun with garbage, according to Breau, and she says she is owed $25,000 in back rent.”

“‘She’s paid zero dollars. So, we can’t do anything about it. Our hands are tied and we have tried every route,’ said Breau. Another landlord with a rental property told CTV News his tenant has not paid rent for almost two years and owes about $45,000. Shawn Grewal of Brampton said he’s been before the Landlord and Tenant Board but he has also faced constant delays and the tenant continues to live in his house. ‘These tenants know exactly what they are doing and they will use the system and all the delays to live for free as long as they can,’ said Grewal.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “22 Leader Lane, No. 515, Toronto. Asking price: $649,900 (March, 2025). Previous asking price: $695,000 (November, 2024). Selling price: $640,000 (March, 2025). Previous selling price: $638,000 (November, 2020). Property days on market: 113. This one-bedroom unit with a den at the King Edward Private Residences was used as a workspace during the pandemic, but its owner no longer needed it for that purpose. Weighing the pros and cons of seeking a renter or a buyer, they chose to put the property on the market. ‘I’m seeing a lot of people with condos, [purchased] within the last three or four years, taking losses after they pay real estate commissions and so on,’ said agent Dino Capocci. ‘The owner could have kept it and done a rental. But right now, we’re seeing a lot of bad things happen with residential rentals, meaning tenants not paying rent or bogus applications.'”

“Though there were numerous showings, no one made an offer. After the asking price was cut by over $45,000, one bid came in and, after negotiations, a deal was made at $55,000 under the original asking price. ‘It’s a nice building and the unit showed amazing,’ Mr. Capocci said. ‘Once we reduced [the price], we sold it fairly quickly. Other units in the building hadn’t sold or the listings expired. It’s like that in all of downtown. So we were very fortunate to sell this one.'”

One Roof in New Zealand. “The annual Budget has been and gone and, according to my latest monthly survey of real estate agents with NZHL, has produced no positive movements in the housing market – unless you are a buyer. In early December, a net 27% of agents said they were seeing more people at auctions, and a net 28% said they were seeing more people at open homes. Now, a net 20% say fewer people are in the auction rooms, and a net 16% say fewer people are attending open homes. Similar declines have been recorded across my other measures, including the proportion of agents saying that buyers feel FOMO – a fear of missing out. Late last year, 19% of agents said there was FOMO, but now only 5% say that.”

“The residential real estate market in New Zealand is being driven by young buyers. What about investors? No. Second, more investors want to sell what they already have. This is the part of the equation most people have yet to catch up on. A net 24% of agents say they are seeing more investors trying to sell. The five-year average reading is just 4%. Why are investors selling? The costs of running a rental business have jumped sharply courtesy of big increases in council rates, insurance premiums, and maintenance expenses. Good tenants have become harder to find amidst a plethora of properties being offered for rent because the owner/vendor cannot sell them for the price they want.”

“Is it all doom and gloom? Definitely not. This is almost exactly the environment tens if not hundreds of thousands of young couples have been dreaming of since house prices started soaring in the 1990s. Listings are plentiful, mortgage rates are at or near cyclical lows, investors in net terms are leaving the market, the Government is ensuring more development land and intensification zones are available, and there is little competition from net migration. The only missing element is job security and history tells us that always returns.”