There Was This Belief The Market Would Only Go One Way

A report from CNBC. “Overinflated home prices, high mortgage rates, rising supply and falling demand are all joining forces to cool the nation’s housing market. Nearly one-third of the largest 100 markets are now showing annual price declines of at least a full percentage point from recent highs, and the trend suggests more markets will do the same. ‘There are two competing forces in the housing market right now,’ said Andy Walden, head of mortgage and housing market research at ICE. ‘Increasing inventory levels are helping to make homes more affordable, but prices are falling in an increasing number of markets and homes are taking longer to sell, which could make homeowners reluctant to list.’ Cape Coral, Florida, saw the biggest decline, with prices down just over 9%. Austin, Texas, and Tampa, Florida, are also seeing price declines, as are seven of the 10 major markets in California.”

Gulf Coast News in Florida. “At the Seascape Condos on Little Hickory Island, it looks more like a construction zone than the coastal paradise residents are used to. ‘I would have imagined it done at most a year,’ Ron George told Gulf Coast News. ‘It’s really been, I have to say, a nightmare.’ George is a resident and the president of the board at Seascape. Part of the nightmare has been the rising cost of living there. When George moved in nine years ago, the annual association fees were about $5,000. Now, due mostly to surging insurance rates, those fees are $13,000 a year. That’s not to mention the money needed to rebuild, which has cost each condo owner nearly $50,000 more in assessments. ‘Had we known how much effort we were going to be dealing with, we would have had more serious talks about throwing in the towel. But we never got there,’ George said.”

From WPTV in Florida. “At the Springdale Homeowners Association in Palm Springs, there are 103 buildings and more than 400 households. However, in a few months, they stand to lose their coverage from Citizens Insurance. ‘It’s tough. It’s really tough, especially when we did what they asked us to do,’ property manager Susan Meyer said. ‘We did 180 roofs, what they asked, and we asked again, ‘give us the next set, we’ll meet what you need us to do,’ and they don’t care,’ Meyer said. ‘They dropped us. They came back with an almost 3,000-page report, and in this report, they basically said all our buildings were horrible and they weren’t going to renew anything. Now I’m back in hurricane season, how am I going to get a roof done now if I need to get it done now? It’s going to be tough.'”

From Realtor.com. “There was a time when home payments were stable—you could count on a monthly payment that did not go up for years. But with soaring costs of home insurance (required for most mortgages) and rising property taxes, the promise of long-term stability in homeownership is eroding. This is leading to serious delinquencies in loan payments. ‘The combination of climate-driven insurance hikes and maintenance expenses is starting to force some difficult decisions,’ Mick Duchon with The Corcoran Group in Miami tells Realtor.com®. ‘We’re getting more calls from sellers who are realizing that their home is no longer financially sustainable long term.’ ‘You’ve got a lot more natural disasters, from hurricanes to floods to ice storms to wildfires in some cases, combined with a fraud-riddled insurance market,’ adds Martin Orefice, founder of Rent to Own Labs in Orlando, FL. ‘Premiums are going up fast, and many insurers are pulling out of these states completely. That leaves homeowners with increased costs, and many of them are struggling to keep up.'”

“But it’s Louisiana that tops the list for mortgage delinquencies. This state was hit on all fronts: It had the highest rate of delinquencies for Veterans Administration loans (5.44%), Federal Housing Administration loans (3.96%), and conventional loans (1.25%). ‘Louisiana leads the nation in serious delinquencies, with the highest share of loans 90-plus days past due of any state,’ explains Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality. Seamus Nally, CEO of rental property management firm TurboTenant, who lives in Fort Collins, CO, tells Realtor.com he has seen a slight uptick in foreclosure properties this year in his state. ‘Rising insurance costs is absolutely contributing to it,’ he says. And while he says that Colorado (No. 10 on the list) has made efforts to build more affordable housing such as condos and townhomes, people are staying away because of high HOA fees. As for Texas (at No. 5), Jeff Adams, a Houston-based real estate investing strategist at Home Investors Zone, tells Realtor.com that rising unemployment is partly to blame. ‘Texas Big Tech and startups have taken a major hit over the last two years, and that employment slide is just beginning,’ he says. ‘I predict more owners will realize they don’t have any real alternative now but to walk away from the home.'”

Good Morning America. “Six months after the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, California, destroying thousands of homes and structures, one family that lost a total of nine homes in the fire remains displaced and separated for the first time. Members of the extended Jenkins family all lived within a 2-mile radius of each other in Altadena for generations. Now, family members are scattered throughout California as they try to rebuild their lives in Altadena. Another family member, Marcus Betts, has faced additional challenges in trying to rebuild, as the stress of the recovery process, including the insurance and permit processes, has taken a toll on his mental health, he said. ‘Here we are almost six months later and, you know, sleeping is still a challenge because of all the deadlines,’ Betts said. ‘They’re now requiring you to submit an itemized list with pricing, which is nearly impossible in a home that’s been owned for over 40, 50 years. It’s like … it’s almost torturous.'”

“‘Having insurance is a good thing, but it’s never enough money to cover actually rebuilding,’ said Jenine Wood. Another family member, Ken Wood Sr., said he felt assured at first because he had insurance coverage, but he has faced time-consuming challenges along the way. ‘Don’t worry, it burned down, we got insurance,’ he said of his initial reaction. ‘But then, when it happened, what it is you have to see this person and that person and that person.'”

From Capital B News. “Six months after California’s Eaton Fire, Black residents of Altadena find themselves at the epicenter of a mounting national crisis as state and federal foreclosure moratoriums expire. A Capital B analysis of public records found that roughly three dozen fire-ravaged properties have been added to pre-foreclosure lists. ‘It’s a nightmare,’ said Everard Horton Williams Jr., who lost his home to the flames and is now struggling to cover his mortgage payments and a new lease in the city of Monterey Park. At the same time, he has been supporting his parents who lost their home to the fire as well.”

“Last month, his father, Everard Horton Williams Sr., passed away at 85. ‘I can’t help but believe that the trauma and stress of losing a home of 48 years and then trying to stabilize his life accelerated his demise,’ Williams said. His mother, who is 85, now wants to sell their family home because she cannot fathom the expense nor the five-year rebuild timeline given by homebuilders in the area. ‘We’re seeing so many families now that are having to sell just for the value of the dead land because they don’t have enough insurance on the property, they don’t have the time or strength to rebuild, or just can’t afford to pay for a mortgage and a new lease,’ said Williams, who is 62 and whose employer recently laid off 7% of its staff.”

Real Estate Magazine. “After a wave of rapid expansion, Canada’s condominium market is facing a dramatic reversal, as a glut of unsold inventory and a sharp retreat by investors have triggered a sector-wide slowdown. CoStar Group found that Canada’s inventory of condos has risen 400 per cent over the last three years. Carl Gomez, CoStar’s chief economist and author of the report, told Real Estate Magazine that much of the inventory is smaller units that were primarily built for investors. ‘Those condo units aren’t designed for people to live in,’ Gomez said. ‘They’re basically more of a hedge, get an investor in.’ However, investors have now fled both the Toronto and Vancouver markets due to higher interest rates than during the pandemic, which have now made units unaffordable.”

“CMHC’s report found that investors face as much as a six per cent capital loss on pre-construction purchases concluded in 2024 in Toronto, and project cancellations have gone up five times in the city since 2022. In Vancouver, cancellations have gone up 10 times in the same time frame, according to the report. Toronto real estate agent Christopher Bibby told REM that the condo market really began to unravel in 2022, after interest rates went up. ‘The writing’s on the wall now,’ he said. ‘Prices have started to come down.’ CMHC’s report says prices have gone down 13.4 per cent in Toronto between 2022 and the first quarter of 2025, and 2.7 per cent in Vancouver. Bibby said the price erosion over the past two months has been the fastest and steepest he’s ever seen in the more than 20 years he’s been in the business.”

“Bibby felt back in 2021 that the market had hit its peak, but he said sellers didn’t want to believe that prices would eventually come down. At the time he felt it was a risky business venture, and he is not surprised about the current situation. ‘People weren’t assessing what they were buying,’ he said. ‘There was this belief the market would only go one way.’ In Vancouver, Realtor Steve Saretsky told REM that what led to this situation was 20 years of a bull market. ‘It’s kind of like a classic bubble,’ he said. ‘It’s just all unraveling on itself. When you have 20 years of rising home prices basically every year, it creates complacency. People think they can’t lose money in real estate. It creates malinvestment.'”

Creators Syndicate. “Many Mexicans have similar complaints about American immigrants as Americans do about Mexican immigrants. Earlier this month, a major city saw a xenophobic protest against immigrants. Those gathered hurled ethnic slurs at the foreigners. Someone spray-painted ‘not your home’ on a wall. One sign read, ‘Respect my culture.’ Complaints included the influx driving up housing prices and foreigners not speaking the native language. At some point, the demonstration turned violent. If that protest had happened in Dallas or Jacksonville, the left would be outraged. They’d blame President Donald Trump. They’d attack Republicans for being racist. They’d smear conservatives as violent, Christian nationalists.”

“That’s harder to do in this case. This protest was in Mexico City, and the protesters were Mexicans. They’re upset about the many Americans and other foreigners who’ve settled in their city, especially with the advent of remote work. Mexican officials actively encouraged this immigration. In 2022, Claudia Sheinbaum, then-mayor of Mexico City, worked with Airbnb to tout Mexico City as the ‘capital of creative tourism.’ Sheinbaum, currently the president of Mexico, claimed the arrangement wouldn’t increase costs for Mexico City residents. Locals are now complaining about gentrification and the increasing number of apartments that are being converted into Airbnb rentals.”

“Many foreigners expect the Mexican waiters to speak to them in English. One study found housing prices in Mexico City quadrupled between 2000 to 2022, even while per capita income fell after adjusting for inflation. Little wonder many residents feel priced out of their own city. The problem isn’t intolerant citizens. It’s political leaders who’ve prioritized the wants of foreigners over the needs of their fellow citizens. There’s a simple way to fix this. The president of Mexico should pursue policies that put Mexicans first. Elected officials in the United States should follow the example of President Donald Trump and do the same for Americans. This isn’t bigotry. It’s common sense — for both countries.”