The Key Is To Ask The Sellers In Your Offer And Don’t Be Afraid To Push On Negotiations

A report from the Bellingham Herald in Washington. “Whatcom County’s median home sale price reached an extreme high of $682,000 in July 2024, the highest price from 2012-2025, according to Redfin. Whatcom County’s median sale price across all of June was $595,000, a 1.3% decrease compared with May and a 0.3% decrease compared with the same month last year, according to Jason Lee, a local broker with Windermere Real Estate in Bellingham. The county’s median home sale price in May was $610,000. ‘June 2025 was the first time Whatcom County reached 1,000 active homes and condos for sale since 2017. This inventory level has remained consistent into the month of July,’ Lee told The Herald. ‘The additional inventory contributed to lower year over year median home prices in both Whatcom County and Bellingham.’ In June, Bellingham’s median sold price was $650,000, according to Lee. That’s a 2.7% increase compared with May, and an 8.5% decrease compared with June of last year, Lee said.”

The Eastsider LA in California. “East Hollywood: The lowest-priced sale of a home this week was $370,000 for a one-bedroom on the 700 block of N. Madison Avenue. Property records indicated it’s a 400-square-foot home on a 1,400-square-foot lot. The sale price was well under Redfin’s value estimate of $528,829.”

The Tribune in California. “Stagnancy in the housing market appears to be the name of the game in 2025 — and San Luis Obispo County is no exception. Homes are taking longer to sell, and the amount of inventory is up across the county — but fewer buyers are biting, San Luis Obispo Realtor Hal Sweasey said. ‘We are telling our sellers to treat every offer like it may be the only offer they may see for another 30 days,’ Sweasey said in an email. ‘So well-priced, well-maintained and improved homes can sell quickly, but even those can take more of a normal 30-60 days to sell.’ Sweasey said inventory has risen ‘far faster’ than expected, causing buyer interest to slow down in February in some of the higher-end coastal markets such as Cayucos, Morro Bay and Pismo Beach frequented by wealthier buyers interested in second homes. That trend has spread across the county to a more noticeable extent since then, with some similar homes closing anywhere from 5-8% lower than expected, he said.”

“Realtor Charissa Deegan said this inventory increase has led to more urgency on the part of sellers. Deegan said the phenomenon of homes lasting longer on the market varies by region, with pockets of communities such as Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach still holding to the old norm of homes selling within one or two weeks. The lock-in effect is also having a distinct impact on who’s buying homes, Deegan said. ‘Only 24% of home purchases in 2024 were made by first-time buyers, down from 32% the year before — the lowest share since tracking began,’ Deegan said in an email. ‘In 2025, first time homebuyers are almost extinct. More sellers are open to incentives and other concessions. The key is to ask the sellers in your offer and don’t be afraid to push on negotiations.'”

“Across San Luis Obispo County, prices are generally trending up, with countywide median prices reaching $880,000 — up $10,000 from last month and down 7.6% from June 2024’s median price of $952,000, according to the California Association of Realtors. According to the association, the 593 homes listed last month — 41.9% more than there were this time last year — are spending a median of 29 days on the market in San Luis Obispo County, and 47.7% of active listings are showing price reductions. The city of San Luis Obispo followed the county-wide trends in listings and time on the market to a T, with its 73 active listings representing a 69.8% year-over-year bump and 46.6% of active listings showing reduced prices, according to the association. Pismo Beach showed the most price reductions of any city in the county, with 58.6% of listings reducing prices, according to the association. At the same time, it posted the highest median prices — $1.48 million, down about 9.2% from this time last year. Up the coast, 63.3% of Morro Bay’s 30 listings — 76.5% more than this time last year — saw price reductions, with 10 home sales representing a 42.9% boost from last year and the median price of $845,000 showing a 5.1% decline in that time, according to the data. Nipomo proved to be the hottest market in the county, with its 35 listings — down just 7.9% from this time last year — staying on the market for a median of just 17 days, according to the data. The town showed no growth in home sales with 21, while median prices declined 13% from last year with $800,000.”

The San Francisco Standard in California. “It might be the coldest SF summer in decades, but downtown’s ultra-luxe condo market is coming out of the deep freeze, with rich buyers drawn in by discounted prices and an improved outlook on San Francisco’s future. ‘Buyers are betting on the AI boom. They either work in the space or know someone who does,’ said Carmen Legarda, a Compass agent who represents 181 Fremont, a luxury tower where three units have gone into contract in the last three weeks. Among those units was a penthouse taking up half the 68th floor that first listed for $15.5 million back in 2019. Like many downtown condos, the two-bedroom, 2.5-bath unit couldn’t find a buyer after the city cleared out during the pandemic. The price was dropped to $13 million last year and $10 million in late February. This month, it went into contract. ‘Strategic price adjustments have made a real impact,’ Legarda said.”

“Prices for condos downtown — which are typically in newer buildings with upgraded finishes and amenities like rooftop decks, social lounges, fitness centers, spas, and 24/7 concierges — used to reliably outpace those for condos in the rest of San Francisco, which are typically older and lack services. But that changed in 2020, when downtown condo pricing started lagging behind the rest of the city.”

From Yield Pro. “As the 2025–26 academic year approaches, student housing preleasing is outpacing recent years, but operators are pulling back on rent increases as they race to fill beds amid a significant supply surge. The cooling rent growth trend was already apparent in Yardi’s April report. Average asking rent per bed fell for the third month in a row, landing at $909 in June—just 1.3 percent above year-ago levels, and the slowest annual increase since April 2021. Operators are increasingly offering lower rates or incentives to stay competitive, especially in oversupplied markets. For example, Arizona State University saw rents fall 10.2 percent year-over-year amid flat enrollment and a flood of new multifamily and student housing projects. Tennessee, Cal–Berkeley, Georgia Tech and Michigan also saw rents decline by five percent or more, largely due to increased inventory. Meanwhile, the supply surge is particularly notable in markets like Knoxville, Tallahassee and Tempe, where developers are racing to complete projects before demand plateaus. More than 19,000 beds are under construction and over 50,000 are in planning or early stages—factors likely to keep competitive pressure elevated through 2026.”

Bisnow on Georgia. “The soaring cost of student housing has pushed Atlanta’s collegiate population to the conventional apartments that have flooded the market. While university students generally prefer to live in a complex together, they are being lured to multifamily by landlords offering concessions like multiple free months of rent, industry players said at Bisnow’s Atlanta Student Housing Summit Wednesday. That has forced student housing owners to drop their own rents in response. ‘You’re seeing probably a greater mix of students and nonstudents kind of throughout Atlanta than you ever have previously,’ Andy Feinour, the CEO of student housing developer Student Quarters. ‘Temporarily, it is depressing rents and is making development harder to pencil.'”

“The drop for units around Georgia Tech and Georgia State University was even more dramatic. After hitting all-time highs of $1,300 per bed in October, rents around Georgia Tech have since dropped 7.7%, according to Yardi. Around GSU, which reached a high-water mark in January of $1,179, rents have fallen 14%. Feinour acknowledged that rents in student housing properties climbed beyond what the market would bear. ‘I think the industry has been searching for where that limit is. And I think over the last three years, we’ve pretty much found it,’ Feinour said. ‘We’ve got to get more creative, and we’ve got to think about things a little bit differently, still creating high-quality options, but mom and dad can still afford it.'”

“Part of why rents are falling is because of fresh competition. Developers poured out more than 18,500 new apartment units in Atlanta in 2024, according to RentCafe. Another 15,800 units remained under construction in the metro area as of the second quarter, with apartment vacancy rates close to 12%, according to Lee & Associates. At the end of June, three-quarters of apartment landlords in Atlanta were offering concessions to renters of at least two months free, Haddow Vice President Allen English said. The U.S. immigration and visa crackdowns will likely put near-term pressure on student housing demand with international students who may not return to school, Yardi Matrix Director of Research Tyson Huebner said. The dynamic has impacted student housing operators in Atlanta. ‘Because Georgia Tech has a lot of international students, that is making the margin a little bit weaker because we’re not sure all of them are going to return,’ he said.”

The Powell River Peak in Canada. “Condo prices in Vancouver fell eight per cent in June 2025 compared with the same month a year ago, while detached homes and townhouses saw price increases, according to online real estate brokerage Wahi Realty Inc. While 10 major Canadian markets saw prices climb in June, just three big cities—Vancouver, Toronto and Hamilton—saw overall declines, according to Wahi. It’s a case of bad timing, RPS-Wahi economist Ryan McLaughlin said, with many new condo projects completing just as demand weakens due to tariff uncertainty and federal immigration curbs. He said many condo projects, heavy on studios and one-bedrooms, were started circa 2021 when interest rates were low and prices were shooting up. ‘Now we’re starting to see them come out the other end of the pipeline,’ McLaughlin said.”

“Todd Shyiak, an executive vice-president at Century 21 Canada, said for many years, developers in downtown Vancouver and Toronto focused on building small units for investors. He said price and interest rate escalations since COVID-19 have made some of these investments unprofitable. ‘All of a sudden you can’t buy a 500-square-foot condo and rent it out to a waiter anymore, because the cost for rent would be extraordinarily high,’ he said. ‘You’re underwater every month, and those investors that were buying these micro-units are pulling back from their investments,’ he said, adding that some are forfeiting deposits. ‘It’s going to take months and months to absorb that inventory,’ he said. In the meantime, he said buyers will make low-ball offers and seek bargains, while sellers, after they’ve sold, may try to do the same thing. ‘With months and months of inventory that we haven’t seen for quite some time, there’s an opportunity for [sellers] to likewise win out at the other end, whether they are moving up or moving down,’ he said.”

The National Post in Canada. “In Toronto today it’s deemed entirely acceptable to build a mammoth residential/retail/commercial/hotel tower reaching 80, 90 or 100-and-more storeys into an increasingly obliterated sky, and be celebrated for your vision, ambition and architectural brashness. At 105 storeys, SkyTower is six storeys taller than 19 Bloor West, another ‘supertall’ planned farther north at the confluence of Yonge and Bloor, ground zero for high-end shoppers and fashionistas. That structure, in turn, is just down the street and nine metres taller than The One, a much-troubled 85-storey real estate catastrophe that’s been through partnership battles, financial crises, creditor protection and high-wire legal warfare in the decade since it was announced as what would then have been the city’s tallest condominium building. It’s now being revamped and completed by a court-approved builder after failing to attract a buyer a year ago.”

“Glitzy as the supertalls may appear, they find themselves thrusting skyward in a market fast plunging in the opposite direction. A survey by research firm Urbanation Inc. reported that a total of just 502 condo units were sold in the second quarter across the entire Greater Toronto and Hamilton region, an area stretching well beyond Toronto itself to include some seven million people. Don’t reach for your hankie just yet, mind. For years now, Toronto condo sales have been largely a game of buy-and-flip. Some 70 per cent of new units went to investors hoping to make a quick profit by flipping the end product once construction ended, or renting it out at eye-watering rates. But rents are falling along with the market glut, leaving investors holding units worth less than they agreed to pay and having trouble borrowing enough to cover the difference. Dozens of developments have been cancelled or delayed as a result, many stuffed with tiny units 400- to 600 square feet in size, built by developers persuaded people would happily attempt to raise families in shoeboxes.”

From Insauga in Canada. “An Oshawa home buyer who bought a home at the top of the market in early 2022 took a $640,000 loss after putting the property back for sale after ten months and then listing it six more times before it finally sold in May 2025. The house at 2496 Orchestrate Drive in the city’s booming north end was purchased in February 2022 for $1,810,000 and put on the market for sale ten months later for $1,699,000. The home was relisted in March 2023 for $1.574 million and again in July for $1.499 million before the seller bumped the price back up to more $1.5 million in three unsuccessful attempts in 2024. The lender eventually took over and the property finally sold in May 2025 for $1,170,000 – a whopping $640,000 loss.”

“Housing prices have dropped by $1 million in some Greater Toronto neighbourhoods since 2022, with many people who purchased at peak high prices in early 2022, and even some who bought in 2023, are losing money if they need to sell now. A home sold in the Kedron neighbourhood in Oshawa – immediately to the east of the property on Orchestrate Drive – for a $510,000 loss on January 31 and properties in the Northwood neighbourhood on the west side have dropped 44 per cent since 2022, with homes now averaging $751,000 versus $1.35 million three years ago.”