People Are Bitter – Especially If Their Retirement Depended On It

A report from Fast Company. “Back in June 2022, this home at 1137 Treasure Cay Court in Punta Gorda, Florida, was purchased for $985,000. Just one month later, home prices in the Punta Gorda metro area peaked, and the market slipped into what ResiClub calls ‘correction mode.’ In April 2025, the homeowner listed the property for sale at $1,150,000, and the price has since been cut six times, with the most recent asking price at $899,000. The home just went ‘pending,’ though it will be a few weeks before we know the final sale price. If the home ultimately sells for $899,000—8.7% below its June 2022 purchase price—the seller might consider themselves lucky. Bank of America’s automated valuation model (AVM)—although I take those with a big grain of salt—estimates the home’s value at $721,615, and ResiClub’s analysis of the Zillow Home Value Index shows that home prices in the Punta Gorda metro area are down 18.6% since the market’s July 2022 peak. While the Austin metro area in Texas has seen a larger overall price drop this cycle (down 23% since its 2022 peak), it isn’t experiencing year-over-year price declines as steep as those seen in Southwest Florida markets like Cape Coral and Punta Gorda right now.”

ABC Action News in Florida. “A Hillsborough County homeowner is speaking out after she was arrested and spent a week in jail for what started out as HOA violations involving her lawn. This is a story that came to us from viewer Irena Green, the woman who was arrested following an escalating battle with her homeowners’ association over what started out as minor violations of her HOA’s covenants. Green says the grass isn’t always green in her yard, thanks to a big tree beside her sidewalk. She also blames the poor condition of her grass on a drought that brought with it mandatory watering restrictions last year. But Green says her yard is far from the worst in Riverview’s Creek View subdivision. ‘The grass has started turning brown. So then they started sending notes. And it went from the grass being brown to there’s a dent in my garage,’ Green said. Green was also cited for having a dirty mailbox, which was covered in mildew due to shade and moisture from that same tree. At the jail, she got more bad news. ‘There was no bond. So I couldn’t even go home to my family. I sat in there for seven days. Seven days in the jailhouse like a criminal,’ Green said.”

“During her stay, the suburban mom says she avoided interactions with hardened criminals but did interact with a few inmates. ‘One girl, she kind of came over and asked me like ‘Hey, what are you in here for?’ And I told her it was like for my grass. And she’s like ‘Oh grass, they should make that stuff legal’. She’s thinking that I’m talking about weed and I’m talking about my front yard grass.'”

From Candy’s Dirt in Texas. “Steve Atkinson with Dave Perry Miller Real Estate has 9357 Creel Creek listed for $919,000. It’s a beautiful home in a great neighborhood. Why hasn’t it sold yet? If you’re thinking this home looks familiar, you’re right. We featured 9357 Creel Creek two months ago as our Highlight Home of the Week, sponsored by Lisa Peters with First Horizon, with every expectation that a home as cute as this one in Casa Linda would fly right off the market. So what’s up? Listing agent Steve Atkinson with Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate said, ‘The market has changed. It’s not bad, but it’s a buyer’s market and listings are sitting longer than we’re used to, even in areas that are typically more competitive.’ This isn’t headline news, of course: I didn’t just drop any bombshells on you. But it has been a period of adjustment that we’re still getting used to. I think this is especially true in areas like parts of East Dallas or North Dallas or Oak Cliff that tend to move quickly.”

“Most Realtors will tell you summer is a strange beast from a sales perspective, and that this summer has been one for the books. ‘I don’t know what to expect this summer from day to day,’ said agent Mikey Abrams to me the other day at an open house. ‘I wake up, talk to my client and say, ‘OK, I guess that’s what we’re doing today.’ So what you’ll see this summer is creative marketing and price improvements. In fact, 9357 Creel Creek just came down $30,000, and is priced very competitively for the neighborhood.”

The Denver Gazette. “Real estate markets around the state are reporting what’s becoming a familiar pattern this year: the supply of homes on the market keeps increasing, but without any enthusiasm from homebuyers aimed at absorbing all of that inventory. Colorado Association of Realtors’s Market Trends report issued Monday shows 24,258 single-family homes on the market at the end of June statewide — around 9,000 more listings than were available exactly two years ago. The number of townhomes and condos available stood at 8,686 at the beginning of July, around twice the level at the beginning of July 2023. Colorado Springs agent Jay Gupta noted that a combined 4,055 homes were on the market now, an increase of more than 36.3% over a year ago, and up more than 10 percent over last month. That stands as the highest June inventory in the Colorado Springs market since 2015. Pueblo agent David Anderson saw the growing inventory as an advantage for buyers. ‘Our 861 active listings represented a 17% increase and provided buyers with a lot more to look at,’ he said.”

“In Grand Junction and Mesa County, inventory had grown to 845 listings, but sales have lagged, said Ann Hayes, a regular report contributor. ‘Interest rates seem to be the biggest challenge, as many of the jobs do not produce the income required to qualify,’ she said in the report. In Pagosa Springs, the supply of homes on the market climbed to almost nine months — well into buyer-market territory, according to agent Wen Saunders. ‘Sellers are forced to compete for buyers,’ he said. ‘Strategic home pricing is the most important home sale factor, especially as inventory climbs.’ Listings are also popping up in ski markets, according to Summit County agent Dana Cottrell, reporting 39% more than at this time last year.”

CBS News in California. “The housing market across the Sacramento region is showing serious signs of slowing, with last month marking one of the worst June’s for home sales in at least 25 years, according to real estate experts. In Fair Oaks, seller Erin Narveaz said she’s been waiting nearly a year for her home to sell, far longer than expected. ‘We were thinking we were going to have it sold in a couple months, but it’s been almost a year,’ Narveaz said. She’s not alone. Many sellers across the region are facing a similar challenge: fewer buyers, fewer offers and rising frustration. ‘Just waiting for the right person and that’s what we’ve been doing. That’s the hard part,’ Narveaz added.”

“Real estate agent Johnny Jennings, team lead at Make 4 More Realty, said the slowdown is evident. ‘May was hard. June was way harder,’ Jennings said. He believes part of the issue is that sellers haven’t adjusted to the reality of the current market. ‘The market is challenging. The key is it has to be turn-key and has to be priced correctly,’ he said. Currently, real estate experts say most pending home sales in the region received just one offer, a major drop from the competitive, multi-offer days of years past. The average home price across Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento, and Yolo counties now sits at around $638,000. But in roughly 40% of pending sales, sellers had to cut their asking price before a buyer finally made an offer.”

CBC News in Canada. “Coleen Thompson had been a renter her entire adult life until she jumped on an opportunity to purchase a home in the small northern Ontario community of Fauquier-Strickland. ‘I’m approaching 50, have never owned a home, have done a lot in the past few years to get myself to a position where that was a reality.’ Thompson is from Guelph, Ont., but closed on a home in Fauquier on July 9, the same day Mayor Madeleine Tremblay announced the municipality was in a financial crisis. Tremblay says that if the province doesn’t intervene, or the municipality doesn’t raise property taxes by around 200 per cent, most municipal services would have to shut down by Aug. 1. Thompson said she first heard the news when her mother shared a Facebook post from the municipality that outlined its financial troubles. ‘I actually cried,’ she said. ‘I was so overwhelmed at the thought that this would be happening and a million things ran through my mind. What is the value of the home that we just purchased gonna look like with our taxes?'”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “A slight stirring in the Toronto area real estate market in June has turned to a spurt of sales in July as buyers respond to freshly cut asking prices. Gradually in 2025, sellers are adjusting to the state of the current market, says Scott Hanton, broker with Hanton Real Estate. Homeowners who bought several years ago are selling for more than they paid, but some feel chagrined nevertheless. They are aware of the rich price they might have fetched if they had posted a ‘for sale’ sign at the top of the market in 2022, Mr. Hanton says. Mr. Hanton points to the example of an Oshawa, Ont., bungalow he sold for $867,500 in late June. The sale price was $300,000 higher than the homeowners paid for the two-plus-two bedroom home in 2019.”

“But that math was of little comfort to the disappointed couple, who had watched similar houses sell for up to $1.2-million three or four years ago. Mr. Hanton says it’s sometimes a struggle for sellers to grasp they have not ‘lost’ the difference in value. In fact, they never had it. ‘When a number sticks in a seller’s head, it’s tough to get it out,’ he says. Mr. Hanton says the belief that prices would only continue to escalate took hold during the decade between 2012 and 2022. That sentiment encouraged move-up buyers, spurred on investors and instilled ‘fear of missing out’ in those trying to get into the market. ‘In 2015 they were just happy to get a house with a door,’ says Mr. Hanton. ‘The buyers would wildly overpay.’ During those years, it was all about securing a property for future value, he points out.”

“Some people who bet on an unstoppable real estate market are forced to sell in the current doldrums because of a change in circumstances, such as a divorce or the death of a spouse. ‘People are bitter – especially if their retirement depended on it,’ he says. Luke Dalinda, real estate agent with Royal LePage Real Estate Services, sees the same dynamics in Brampton, Ont., where swollen supply stood at 2,731 listings for houses and condos at mid-June. His number crunching shows the median price in the area dropped about 21 per cent between January, 2022 and May, 2025, when it reached $1,035,000. Mr. Dalinda recently sold a four-bedroom detached house with a backyard swimming pool for $1,365,000. Comparable houses were selling for $1.9-million between 2021 and 2023, the agent says.”

Kent Online in the UK. “Plans have been lodged to redevelop a long-established campsite in a village, which residents complain has already ‘doubled in size.’ New housing in the area around St Nicholas-at-Wade is one of the chief concerns regarding the latest scheme, which could see another 13 homes built. But the village already has two new housing estates and three more residential schemes recently approved or currently being built, which will result in a further 82 extra homes. The developer of the campsite, Cantium Land and Development Ltd, says its pre-application consultation only resulted in one email from a resident concerned about the number of new houses and those remaining unsold. ‘We already have 13 unsold new houses on the Manor Road site and since the village doubled in size, I have had to call out Southern Water on six occasions to unblock the main sewer serving my property in The Street,’ says resident Ian Meadon.”

The Vietnam Express. “Macau property magnate Loi Keong Kuong and his family have sold five shophouses in Singapore’s Chinatown at prices ranging from 5% to 20% below their acquisition costs from a decade ago. Each of the estates, with approximately 69 years remaining on their leasehold tenures, comprises three stories, according to The Business Times. The total sale value of the shophouses was approximately SGD50.7 million (US$39.45 million), lower than the SGD58.6 million the Lois paid to acquire them. Between March and May 2025, Macau’s residential property price index dropped to 200.7 points, reflecting an 8.7% year-on-year decline, as reported by the Statistics and Census Service via Macao News. This ongoing decrease aligns with a broader trend of falling property values in Macau.”