Tag: real estate

China’s Real Estate Collapse Infecting Troubled American Sectors

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China Real Estate

The crumbling Chinese real estate sector is starting to put properties around the world on the market at deep discounts, threatening debt-laden American commercial developers and the U.S. banks holding the loans, according to Bloomberg.

In a bid to pay off massive debts, Chinese real estate developers are having to offload a huge number of properties onto the global market, depressing prices even further for a sector that already has had borrowing cost hikes, causing a loss of $1 trillion in office property values, according to Bloomberg. The drop in property values hits American commercial real estate particularly hard due to the huge amount of debt the sector holds and the dwindling U.S. demand, with banks that hold the debt also fearing they may lose out on their investment.

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Home Prices Hit New High In Nine Month Climb as Affordability Tumbles

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U.S. home prices climbed to their highest point ever in October alongside nearly 8 percent mortgage rates, fueling home unaffordability for average Americans, according to data released Tuesday by S&P Global.

The Case-Shiller home price index, which measures home prices in 20 major metro markets, rose by 0.6 percent for the month of October when seasonally adjusted, or 4.8 percent year-over-year, higher than the 4 percent seen in the previous month, according to a release from S&P Global. The month-to-month growth resulted in the highest level of home prices in U.S. history, following nine months of consecutive increases.

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Wall Street Investors Are Snatching Up Single-Family Homes and Taking Over the Rental Market

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An ongoing shortage of housing will make it easier for banks and other Wall Street investors to take control of the market for single-family rental homes, National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Institutional investors, such as banks and other large investors, are on track to own 40 percent of single-family rentals in the U.S. by 2030, MetLife Investment Management predicted, according to CNBC. An ongoing shortage of single-family homes in the U.S. would normally limit growth potential for Wall Street firms looking to buy single-family rentals, but it is also making it easier for them to tighten their grip on the market, Yun told the DCNF.

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DeSantis, State Legislature to Further Limit Chinese Influence in Florida

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’s considering banning Chinese entities from purchasing property in Florida and that the state legislature was looking at ways to further restrict the communist country’s influence in Florida.

“We don’t want to have holdings [in Florida] by hostile nations. If you look at the Chinese communist Party, they’ve been very active gobbling up land … and when they have interests that are opposed to ours and we see how they have wielded their authority especially with President Xi [Jinping], who’s taken a much more Marxist-Leninist turn, that is not in the best interest of Florida to have the Chinese Communist Party owning farm land, owning land close to military bases.”

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Report: Hunter Biden Reached $40 Million Real Estate Deal with Russian Billionaire While Joe Biden Was Vice President

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In yet another revelation regarding the Biden family’s influence-peddling during Joe Biden’s vice presidential tenure, it has been reported that his son Hunter attained a Russian real estate deal worth $40 million back in 2012, while his father was still Vice President.

Breitbart reports that the deal was made between Hunter and Yelena Baturina, a Russian billionaire and the wife of the late former Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov. The deal was made some time after Baturina had already paid a $3.5 million fee to Hunter’s real estate entity in exchange for access to the American business market. These details come from documents obtained by the Kazakhstani Initiative on Asset Recovery, an anti-corruption group, and were first reported by the Daily Mail on Monday.

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Mortgage Rates Surpass Seven Percent for First Time in 20 Years

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Mortgages have hit their highest rates in decades, with the 30-year fixed interest mortgage rate surpassing 7% for the first time since 2002, according to the Mortgage News Daily (MND) index.

At 7.08%, the current fixed rate is a far cry from September 2021 rates of 2.86%, and has increased by nearly 2% since the end of August 2022, according to MND. Applications for home refinancing have dipped by 10.9% and new home buyer applications fell by 0.4% in September as interest rates continue to climb, Trading Economics reported.

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Commentary: The Biden Bust Could be Coming to a Neighborhood Near You Soon

Admin

For many readers, the above title will conjure up memories of the 2008 housing crash caused by the proliferation of subprime mortgages and the subsequent tsunami of defaults. But a better corollary for the coming Biden bust is the Carter crash that occurred three decades earlier. During the final two years of Carter’s term, sales of existing and new homes collapsed because the Fed was forced to raise interest rates sharply to get double-digit inflation under control. This, in turn, produced double-digit mortgage rates that priced millions of potential buyers out of the market.

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Buyers Need 40 Percent More Income to Buy a Home in Top Metro Areas: Report

The Center Square

Demand for homes in certain areas of the country has caused supply to dwindle, prices to skyrocket and buyers needing nearly 50% more income than they would have last year to even enter top markets, according to a report by the real estate brokerage firm, Redfin.

“Housing is significantly less affordable than it was a year ago because the surge in housing costs has far outpaced the increase in wages, meaning many Americans are now priced out of homeownership,” Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr said.

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Virginia Husband and Wife Realtor Team Plead Guilty to Federal Wire Fraud Charge, Now Await Sentencing

Kaitlin Housler

A husband and wife realtor team from Abingdon, Virginia, pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal wire fraud charges related to their scheme to create fake residential sales contracts in order to obtain advance sales commissions to which they were not entitled, according to a press release by the Western District of Virginia U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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Commentary: Real Estate Scams Are on the Rise as the Housing Market Remains Hot

RealClearWire

When Jeff, a retired marketing consultant from Chicago, was closing on his home sale, he received a new set of instructions at the last minute on where to send several thousand dollars in closing expenses. At first blush, the email looked legit with an official-looking logo and professional language specifying the amount owed and itemized expenses. But one thing caught his eye: The email address looked strange. Just to be safe, he called his mortgage broker.

“Don’t do that!” his broker told him in an alarmed voice. It was a scam. If he hit “send,” his closing fees would go to a thief who had been monitoring his emails. “I was a keystroke away from losing thousands of dollars,” Jeff recalled.

As the housing market sizzles across the country – with nearly 6 million homes bought last year – scammers have been finding new ways to tap into this once-secure market. Real estate transactions still demand reams of paperwork and regulations involving lawyers, brokers, title insurance companies and banks, but the fact that much of this work now takes place online gives thieves countless opportunities to exploit vulnerable buyers. Last year, more than 11,000 homeowners were scammed out of more than $220 million in closing funds alone, according to the American Land and Title Association, a trade group that represents professionals who perform property transactions.

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Stock Market Nosedives as Massive Sell-Off Continues

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Major stock market indices plummeted Monday in a continuing sell-off tied to China’s declining property value, increasing COVID-19 cases and lack of progress in Congress on increasing the debt limit.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), an index measuring 30 major U.S. corporations, dropped 1.78% on Monday. The S&P index, which measures 500 of the largest publicly traded companies, fell 1.7%, while the NASDAQ, an index composed largely of technology firms, declined 2.19%.

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Phoenix Housing Market Booms as Migration from California Continues

The Center Square

Phoenix was the most popular migration destination in the second quarter of 2021 for users of Redfin.com, a technology-powered real estate broker, who were looking to move to a different major city. 

In Phoenix, institutions or businesses that purchase residential real estate, known by Redfin as investors, purchased 24.5% of homes sold in the second quarter of 2021. Redfin said that out of the 41 U.S. metropolitan areas analyzed, Phoenix had the highest percentage of home purchases by investors. The Valley was followed closely by Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Las Vegas.

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Housing Prices Hit Record Highs, Up 23 Percent as Buyers Struggle

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A modern home with a light blue roof and matching siding

House prices are at their highest point ever as the housing market continues to boom, leaving some buyers struggling to afford a home, according to a real estate group.

The median existing-home price topped $350,000 for the first time in May, a 23.6% increase from a year earlier, according to a Tuesday report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). While existing-home sales fell 0.9% from April to May, prices continued to increase as supply struggled to meet demand.

A combination of home buyers leaving cities, low interest rates, and constrained housing supply has caused prices to skyrocket, according to a report from Redfin. While the market has benefited sellers, some buyers have been priced out, the The Wall Street Journal reported.

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BLM Co-Founder’s Consulting Firm Goes Offline as Reports Expose Her Multimillion Dollar Real Estate Buying Spree

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Patrisse Cullors

The website for a consulting firm owned and operated by Black Lives Matter Global Network co-founder and executive director Patrisse Khan-Cullors went offline recently amid reports that she’s in the midst of a multimillion-dollar real estate buying spree.

The firm, Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, LLC, is named after Khan-Cullors and her spouse, Janaya Khan. The firm stated on its website, which the Daily Caller News Foundation reviewed on Friday, that it specialized in “Transforming Organizations One Strategic Planning Session at a Time.”

Khan-Cullors, a self-described “trained Marxist,” has purchased four homes across the U.S. since 2016 for a total of $3.2 million, according to the New York Post. Her latest acquirement came on March 30 with the purchase of a $1.4 million home in the Topanga Canyon neighborhood in Los Angeles through a corporate entity under her control, according to a celebrity real estate news site.

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Top BLM Activist Demands Investigation Following Co-Founder’s Multimillion Dollar Real Estate Buying Spree

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BLM protest signs

A top Black Lives Matter activist called for an “independent investigation” into the group’s finances following a report that the group’s co-founder is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar real estate buying spree.

BLM Global Network Foundation co-founder and executive director Patrisse Khan-Cullors, a self-proclaimed “trained Marxist,” has purchased four homes across the U.S. since 2016 for a total of $3.2 million, according to the New York Post.

Khan-Cullors latest acquisition came on March 30 when she purchased a $1.4 million home in Los Angeles in the majority-white Topanga Canyon neighborhood. She purchased the home through a corporate entity under her control, according to Dirt, a celebrity real estate blog.

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Housing Inventory Remains Sharply Down, Fueling Months-Long, White-Hot Real Estate Market

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Housing inventory in the U.S. remains significantly low, driving a white-hot market in which buyers continue to resort to aggressive buying tactics such as inspection-free transfers and hugely inflated offering prices.

Data from the Federal Reserve show housing inventory began declining last summer before dropping sharply in October. From over 1,550,000 units in May of last year, the Fed says stock has dropped to just above 1,000,000.

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Average California Home Expected to Cost $1 Million by 2030

The Center Square

The average home in California is expected to be valued at more than $1 million by 2030, according to research by RenoFi, an online company that specializes in home loans for renovation projects.

California has outpaced the national average for increasing home prices over the past decade, growing 78 percent and sending the average home value from $331,000 in 2010 to $598,000 today.

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Edina Realty Fires Agent for Taking Down Black Lives Matter Signs Outside Apartment

Anthony Gockowski

Edina Realty fired one of its agents last week after she posted on Facebook about removing Black Lives Matter signs from light poles outside her apartment building.

The real estate agency was informed via a Facebook comment that Babette Gillet Bean, a longtime employee of the company, had “actively participated in the removal of BLM signs that have been posted in her neighborhood.”

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Africa-Based Cybercrime Conspiracy Busted For Stealing $15 Million From Memphis Businesses

Chris Alto
hacker

Eight cyber-criminals have been arrested in an Africa-based “cybercrime and business email compromise (BEC) conspiracy” for stealing $15 million dollars related to real estate transactions from businesses and individuals in Memphis. Of the five cyber-criminals arrested in the U.S. three were citizens from Mexico, Ghana and Nigeria, and two were Americans. U.S. officials are seeking extradition for three others who have been arrested in Ghana. It is not known at this time whether the three foreign nationals were living in the U.S. legally. Benard Okorhi, a Nigerian national who arrived in Canada in February 2018, claiming refugee status, is also in extradition proceedings for his alleged role in the cyber-conspiracy. Four others believed to be part of the fraud ring, including Okorhi’s brother, remain at large. Working with international law enforcement, the Department of Justice launched “Operation Keyboard Warrior” in an effort to thwart “business email compromise (BEC) schemes.” By hacking computer servers and using phony email messages, the cyber-criminals diverted funds from businesses and individuals to Africa: Using sophisticated anonymization techniques, including the use of spoofed email addresses and Virtual Private Networks, the co-conspirators identified large financial transactions, initiated fraudulent email correspondence with relevant business parties, and then redirected closing funds through a network…

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Nashville Becoming ‘Chic Urban Playground for the Wealthy,’ Vanderbilt Professor Tells Wall Street Journal

Jason M. Reynolds
Nashville City at night

The Wall Street Journal has taken notice of how Nashville is becoming gentrified and is in danger of becoming a “chic urban playground for the wealthy.” James Fraser, an urban studies professor at Vanderbilt University, told The Wall Street Journal the city needs 30,000 more units of affordable housing and should spend $1 billion to meet the demand. Working people are being pushed to outer suburbs and rely on buses to reach their jobs, while wealthier people are moving into inner neighborhoods, he said. Affordable housing has long been a benefit of living in the South, said Laurel Graefe, deputy regional executive of the Nashville branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. While corporate incentives and low taxation are still attractive, housing demand has outstripped supply, raising prices. From 2008 to 2018, housing values, based on a weighted measure of all transactions in the housing market, rose 75 percent in Nashville, compared with 33 percent in Charlotte, according to the Brookings Institution. The Wall Street Journal story discussed the trend of tearing down older homes and building “tall skinnies”—multistory homes geared toward wealthier home buyers. Much of the issue is from rapid economic growth, the story says. The Nashville…

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Could Downtown Nashville Scrap Metal Recycling Site Move After Nearly 70 Years?

Jason M. Reynolds
PSC Scrap Metal Yard pscmetals.com

PSC Metals is looking to move its scrap-metal recycling operations from its valuable downtown Nashville site on the riverfront and relocate its corporate headquarters to Music City as well, the Nashville Post reports. The company would move its recycling center near Nissan Stadium to somewhere else in Davidson County, the Post reports, citing emails it acquired in a public records request from Metro Nashville. PSC Metals, which used to lease some of the site, bought the rest of the property it did not own last October after a legal battle. Former mayors Karl Dean and Bill Purcell sought to relocate PSC Metals but failed. Former Mayor Megan Barry called the scrapyard an “eyesore.” Her administration released a plan envisioning the site as a park in the 2021-2013 period. The riverside property has been used for recycling since the 1950s after having served as a dump. PSC also may relocate its headquarters from Mayfield Heights, Ohio and has spoken to state and Metro real estate and economic development officials. Potential locations are a Ford Motors-owned site on Centennial Boulevard, a state-owned former prison and a Goodwill site owned by real estate official Bill Hawkins. Benchmark Realty broker Brian Taylor wrote in an…

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