Demand Is In The Gutter And Some People Just Desperately Need To Sell

A report from the Edmonton Journal. “Dairy Belle is a linchpin in the community of Dania Beach, Fla. On Sundays, there’s lineups out the door for ice cream, poutine and toasted hotdogs. The proprietor, Francois Grenier, took over Dairy Belle from his mom and dad. But the past is giving way to a new present. And Dairy Belle has moved from its former shack into an airy space in a Dania Beach strip mall. It’s a sign of how the old Florida, a place for the Canadian pipeline of retirees, is giving way to the new Florida. Grenier has seen the number of Quebec regulars dwindle. The Canadians who had time shares and condos are leaving. And the number who choose to vacation in Florida are shrinking. But Florida tourism continues to boom. Fact is, they don’t need the Canadians anymore. But Grenier said Trump’s anti-Canadian language is just a small part of a much larger issue. He said he started to detect the reduction of Canadian tourists about a decade ago. And each year, it’s more noticeable.”

“‘Canadians are not coming back,’ said Grenier. ‘They are selling their condos. They used to spend a lot of money down here, and it’s not good.’ But if it’s not all Trump, how did it start? ‘The dollar is weak,’ said Grenier. ‘It costs a lot to come here, now.’ He also said that snowbirds are dying off. And the next generation isn’t interested in going to the same vacation spot, year after year. ‘They want to go to different places, one week at a time. They go to Mexico. Or Cuba. They want to know where the deals are.'”

The Clermont Sun. “Condo owners across Florida are bracing for steep financial shocks as new state- mandated building inspections and reserve funding laws are making associations fully fund reserves, almost overnight in some cases. For many retirees and long-time residents, these changes could mean the difference between staying in their homes or being forced to try to sell their homes that are saddled with untenable financial burdens. In some communities, quarterly dues are doubling or tripling overnight to meet the new reserve requirements.”

“‘I’m paying $2,900 per quarter now, and when this goes into effect for our condo association in July, my quarterly payment will increase to $7,100 per quarter for a one-bedroom condo,’ said one frustrated condo owner. ‘How can retirees on fixed incomes handle this? Many of us feel trapped. We can’t afford to stay, but with fees this high, who’s going to buy our units?’ For now, thousands of condo owners are left scrambling — reviewing budgets, exploring loan options, and in some cases, making the painful choice to sell, move or have their unit foreclosed on due to non-payment of these fees. ‘We all want safe buildings,’ the condo owner added. ‘But it feels like the state is pushing us out of our homes to get there.'”

The Denver Post in Colorado. “Available homes in the Denver metro surged 48% year-over-year in May, producing the highest inventory levels since 2011. According to monthly data compiled by the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, the 13,599 active listings in May are up 14% from April and 48% from the 9,159 available a year ago. ‘As more homes enter the market and fewer are closing, we’re seeing a build-up of active listings rolling into the next month,’ said Amanda Snitker, chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee. ‘This is where strategy and staying power come into play. Sellers need to be mindful of how their home is positioned — while buyers may finally have more room to breathe.'”

“Data from April’s REMAX National Housing Report indicates that Denver is among 10 major metros where conditions favor buyers for the first time in years. Denver ranks third in that report behind San Diego and Raleigh, N.C. Andrew Abrams with Guide Real Estate expects the number of available listings in the $750,000 to $999,999 category to continue to increase. More inventory lets buyers prioritize low-maintenance homes while sellers face more challenges. ‘If their property isn’t turnkey and priced appropriately, they are left with two difficult choices,’ Abrams said. ‘Wait for the right buyer or reduce the price to stay competitive with other available options.'”

The Union Tribune in California. “The man who claimed to be disrupting the backyard housing industry — securing financing, permits and building granny flats across San Diego County, before collecting millions of dollars without doing the work — is now seeking federal protection from his many creditors. Jose Frausto, the founder and chief executive of Multitaskr and many of its satellite companies, has filed for personal bankruptcy months after the company was sued by scores of disgruntled clients. The bankruptcy filing also notes that Frausto sold his Maserati sports car, a Louis Vuitton handbag, a Gucci wallet and other designer goods. The house where he lives is owned by a trust in another person’s name, county property records show.”

“Joshua Cawthorn said he attended two online hearings held so far — one in April and the other last month. The Hillcrest property owner, who planned to build two ADUs in his backyard, said he took out a total of six separate loans to finance the construction. But after two-plus years, he has nothing to show for his investment but a serious hit to his credit rating. ‘The best thing that could happen is the credit bureaus stop reporting that we are not making our loan payments,’ Cawthorn said this week. ‘I don’t think any money will come back. I wish my credit would stop being so violated so I could move on.’ Cawthorn said he had no idea Frausto was seeking federal protection from his creditors — or that he had six prior bankruptcies. ‘I can’t believe anyone has trusted him with money,’ he said. ‘It makes me feel bad that I did too.'”

10 News in California. “For the first time in years, what’s been a seller’s market may be changing. ‘There’s finally starting to be sellers that are moving up, they’re selling their current home to get a better home and they’re taking a hit on the interest rate, they’re taking a hit on the monthly payment, but I think we’re starting to figure out that lifestyle is more important than money,’ said Voltaire Lepe, a real estate broker in San Diego. ‘Buyers right now, they can get closing costs paid by the sellers, they can get credits on repairs on properties, and they can get a discount.'”

“It’s not just single family homes. Gregg Neuman, the head of Neuman Team Real Estate with Berkshire Hathaway, said there are also a lot more condos. ‘Properties are staying on the market longer, prices are being reduced, and buyers are able to get concessions from sellers, buyers are able to get interest rates down, and they’re able to get sellers to pay the commission they owe the buyer,’ said Neuman.”

From Bisnow Boston. “A local developer is looking to scrap plans for a lab project in the Boston suburbs, citing a lack of tenant demand. Boston-based Bulfinch Cos. received approval from the Needham Planning Board in 2022 to build a 500K SF life sciences complex on the former Muzi Ford site at 557 Highland Ave. But the developer is now seeking approval from the board to change its plans to instead build housing, medical offices and a hotel, Banker & Tradesman first reported. ‘There haven’t been any corporate headquarters-type tenants in the market of recent that we’ve been able to court,’ Bulfinch President Robert Schlager told the Needham Planning Board last week. ‘There hasn’t been much interest at all. The life science has pretty much dried up pretty much across the entire United States, not just in Massachusetts.'”

Yahoo Finance. “Falling condo prices and rents in Toronto and Vancouver are driving a construction slowdown, according to an analysis from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The weak condo markets in the two cities have seen sales plummet, just as scores of new completions keep adding to inventory. Recent economic uncertainty means there is ‘little evidence to suggest that price and rent declines are likely to quickly reverse,’ the CMHC says. Low interest rates before and during the COVID-19 pandemic helped fuel demand and a condo construction boom, but a rise in rates in 2022 depressed demand, ‘reducing affordability for homebuyers and potential returns for investors,’ the analysis says.”

“‘We’re just at this period where buyer sentiment is in the gutter, both from end users and of course from investors,’ John Pasalis, president of Toronto-based brokerage Realosophy, told Yahoo Finance Canada. ‘So demand is at the lowest level it’s been in 20 years. And inventory just keeps piling up.’ Pasalis said he met with a condo owner last November, and discussed similar units selling at the time for around $950,000. One month ago, two similar units sold for $850,000, he said. ‘That’s not of course happening everywhere, but this is what happens in really, really slow markets when demand is in the gutter and some people just desperately need to sell.’ Those who bought condos in Toronto in 2019 or 2020 now find them ‘not worth anything remotely close to what they paid for them,’ Pasalis said. ‘Say they bought a brand new pre-construction condo for a million bucks,’ he said. ‘That’s really only worth 700 or 750 grand today. So, many of them are underwater.'”

The London Free Press. “Southwestern Ontario’s housing market, including London’s, is shifting decisively into buyers’ territory in the second half of 2025, a Desjardins economist said. After a couple of years in balanced territory, the region is seeing falling demand and rising supply – a combination that favours buyers, economist Kari Norman told a packed room at London’s RBC Place. The trade war between Canada and the U.S. has dampened consumer confidence at a time when listings continue to pile up to levels not seen in years. ‘Honestly, if you’re not sure you’re going to have a job at the end of the summer or the year, this is not the time you’re going to take on a half-a-million or million-dollar mortgage,’ Norman said.”

“‘Looking specifically at some of the major centres in Southwestern Ontario, every single one is in a buyers’ market right now,’ Norman said. ‘There’s deteriorating consumer sentiment, trade uncertainty and lower population growth affecting demand. On the supply side, we have a growing number of new listings and unsold units. That’s going to be a challenge for the rest of the year. No single-family home or detached home is affordable in any of the major centres in Southwestern Ontario. Even townhouses and condos are unaffordable in many markets.'”

The Helsinki Times. “Property sales in Finland continued to rise in May, but housing prices declined month-on-month, erasing gains recorded in April. According to data from the Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies (KVKL), prices fell across major cities, with notable drops in the capital region. Prices for used flats in apartment buildings fell by 4.5 percent in the Helsinki metropolitan area and 1.5 percent in other major cities compared to April. Tampere recorded a 3.0 percent drop, Turku 3.2 percent, and Oulu 0.7 percent. Compared with May 2024, prices were down 6.1 percent in the capital region and 1.3 percent elsewhere. Tuomas Viljamaa, CEO of the Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies, said rising transaction figures point to a slow recovery but acknowledged ongoing pressure on prices. ‘After a strong April, price levels corrected downwards in May,’ he said. Sales of new homes remain weak. Only 126 were recorded in May, a 10 percent decline from 2024 and a 74.6 percent drop from the five-year average. Despite falling prices, the year remains a buyer’s market.”

The Zimbabwean. “I didn’t plan to write this. But sometimes an article burrows into your thoughts and refuses to let go. That’s what happened when I stumbled across a piece online titled ‘Why Are Properties So Pricey in Zimbabwe? Here Are 8 Reasons’ published on 9 June, 2025, by NewZWire. It wasn’t what the article said, but what it didn’t say. They skirted around a critical but uncomfortable reality: that part of the reason Zimbabwe’s real estate is absurdly expensive is not just scarcity, inflation, or investment demand: but the sheer volume of illegal money flowing through the system like a river whose source we’re too afraid to trace. If we are to make sense of this wild, unregulated property market where USD 1,2 million homes are purchased in cash with no financing trail, we must first be willing to acknowledge that it is also a playground for laundered wealth. Not all buyers are diaspora dreamers. Some are opportunists. Others are ghosts.”

“There’s something surreal about Zimbabwe’s real estate market. You could drive through the potholed streets of Harare, where traffic lights blink aimlessly and garbage skips are overgrown with weeds, and then take a sharp turn into a plush gated community with manicured lawns and towering perimeter walls, and suddenly you’re standing in front of a five-bedroom mansion worth US$1.8 million. No mortgage signs. No realtors explaining financing options. Just a crisp ‘FOR SALE’ board,or sometimes not even that, because the house is not actually for sale. It’s just parked wealth. In cash.”

“One week, someone arrives in the country with a foreign passport and no paperwork. The next, they are buying multiple properties, often in cash. No bank flags the transaction. No agency asks the source of funds. No anti-money laundering protocols are triggered. In a country where a security guard earns US$150 a month, someone can roll into Harare with a duffle bag of dollars and buy a cluster of townhouses outright. Smugglers, cartels, gold barons, human traffickers, fuel syndicates, and politically connected elites have discovered that the best place to clean dirty money is not some distant Caribbean island. It is right here on our soil, in our streets, under our noses. Properties are not being priced according to construction costs or supply and demand. They’re being priced according to how much money someone needs to ‘clean.’ A house that would cost US$200,000 to build is listed at US$310,000 not because the market demands it, but because the buyer needs to cycle that much money into the formal system without raising suspicion.”

“Even diaspora buyers, once hailed as saviours of the real estate sector, are now losing interest. One buyer based in the UK, who returned to Harare hoping to invest in a modest home, described the market as ‘insane.’ He walked away from a deal after learning that his seller had acquired the property just six months earlier for half the asking price and was likely involved in smuggling. ‘It’s not just a financial risk anymore,’ he said. ‘It’s a moral and legal one too.’ This is the paradox of Zimbabwe’s housing market: there is both a crisis of affordability and a glut of high-end property. Go to Borrowdale, Glen Lorne, or parts of Greystone Park, and you’ll find dozens of empty mansions. Lights off. Curtains drawn. No residents. These are not homes. They are safehouses for money. Meanwhile, the housing backlog sits at 1.5 million and counting. It is a grotesque reflection of our priorities.”