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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced Thursday to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam in the country’s largest financial fraud case ever, state media Vietnam Net said. The 67-year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was formally charged with fraud amounting to $12.5 billion — nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP. Lan illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and allowed 2,500 loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion to the bank, reported state media VnExpress. The court asked...

The share of San Francisco sellers losing money on their home sale is sitting near its highest level in more than a decade, largely because prices have come back down to earth after skyrocketing during the pandemic. Nationwide, the share of sellers losing money is much smaller (4%) because home prices remain near their record high. In San Francisco, the typical seller who’s parting ways with their home for less than they originally paid is losing $155,500. Nationwide, the median loss is roughly $40,000. New England sellers are least likely to lose money, with less than 2% of Providence, RI...

The perjury charges were brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting Trump on charges of falsifying business records as part of a hush money scheme. . . . Weisselberg falsely testified that he was unfocused on the details of Trump’s triplex apartment, which was valued at almost three times its actual size on Trump’s financial statements.

The number of cities where the typical home price is at least $1 million has dramatically increased over the past year. There are now 550 U.S. cities where an average home is worth $1 million or more, according to a new analysis from Zillow. The lack of available homes for sale is keeping prices elevated and pushing values even higher. Even as sales inventory has begun to tick up this spring, a typical home in the U.S. is currently worth 4.2% more than it was last year. Homes in million-dollar cities saw values grow 4.6%. Zillow anticipates interest rate decreases...

An anti-squatting "professional" is warning homeowners against taking squatters to court, amid ongoing issues relating to property rights. Flash Shelton, who describes himself as a professional squatter remover, on Wednesday spoke to Fox News' America's Newsroom about how to handle squatting incidents and different ways to remove uninvited dwellers from your home. "First thing, call law enforcement, it's dangerous, don't do anything yourself, it's property, don't risk your life. Call law enforcement and when they tell you there's nothing they can do, contact SquatterHunters.com, let us assess the situation, before you hire an attorney and go to civil process," Shelton...

The Meltdown of Commercial Real EstateIn case you’ve still got money in a bank, Bloomberg is warning that defaults in commercial real estate loans could “topple” hundreds of US banks.Leaving taxpayers on the hook for trillions in losses.The note, by Senior Editor James Crombie, walks us through the festering hellscape that is commercial real estate.To set the mood, a new study predicts that nearly half of downtown Pittsburgh office space could be vacant in 4 years. Major cities like San Francisco are already sporting zombie-apocalypse downtowns, with abandoned office buildings baking in the sun.So what happened? The Fed’s yo-yo interest...

Across the country, deals are starting to pick up, revealing just how far real estate prices have fallen. That’s spurring widespread concern about losses that can ripple across the global financial system — as underscored by the recent turmoil unleashed by New York Community Bancorp, Japan’s Aozora Bank and Germany’s Deutsche Pfandbriefbank as they took steps to brace for bad loans. In Manhattan, brokers have started to market debt backed by a Blackstone-owned office building at a roughly 50% discount. A prime office tower in Los Angeles sold in December for about 45% less than its purchase price a decade...

The way people buy and sell homes in the U.S. may be about to change, following a landmark settlement proposed by the nation’s top real-estate-industry group. But that may not make things easy for home buyers, one mortgage-company CEO says. The settlement proposed by the National Association of Realtors, which will go into effect in mid-July if it’s approved, would require that listings on the NAR-run Multiple Listing Service — a database of homes for sale — no longer have a field showing how much buyer’s agents will earn in commissions on the sale. In other words, buyer’s agents won’t...

Since its founding nearly two decades ago, Zillow has revolutionized the way Americans buy, rent, sell — and fantasize — about housing in the US. But a settlement that breaks the grip of powerful real estate agents could trigger a range of problems for the platform already suffering from declining traffic in an increasingly competitive housing market. The company’s stock has dropped nearly 13% since Friday’s $418 million settlement between the National Association of Realtors and groups of home sellers which ended the standard 6% commission for Realtors. It’s a sign that investors fear the settlement could have seismic effects...

Voters in the city of Chicago are being presented with a referendum on their ballots in the 2024 primary election, asking if they approve of a so-called “mansion tax” that would fundamentally change the way real estate transfers are taxed in the city. The language of the "Bring Chicago Home" referendum asks voters to decide whether the city should move from the current flat tax model on real estate transfers to a graduated tax, which would impact real estate transactions on all value levels. Supporters say that the ordinance would result in a reduction in the transfer tax for approximately...

As former president Donald Trump battles a $464-million bond requirement from New York’s attorney general amid appealing the state’s $355-million punitive damages award, alarming constitutional questions lurk. These questions relate to the potential premature seizure of Trump’s property and the excessive nature of the gargantuan financial punishments themselves. One potential worst-case scenario gives New York authority to unilaterally seize and liquidate Trump’s real estate assets and businesses. This could happen before appellate courts including potentially the Supreme Court — render their final decisions on the matter. If Trump prevails and has the colossal penalty deemed unconstitutionally excessive, he may find...

The CRE implosion is picking up steam. Check out the grim stats on Pittsburgh.Unions are also a problem in Pittsburgh as they are in Illinois and California.Downtown Pittsburgh ImplosionThe Post Gazette reports nearly half of Downtown Pittsburgh office space could be empty in 4 years.Confidential real estate information obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette estimates that 17 buildings are in “significant distress” and another nine are in “pending distress,” meaning they are either approaching foreclosure or at risk of foreclosure. Those properties represent 63% of the Downtown office stock and account for $30.5 million in real estate taxes, according to the...

The powerful National Association of Realtors last week agreed to settle a big lawsuit and change the way real estate agents get paid — from a standard commission to something truly negotiable. Why it matters: The deal could open up a tightly controlled market to genuine competition, and create opportunities for new players and business models in a relatively old-fashioned world. It could do for real estate what the internet did for stock trading — bring down broker fees. The impact: That'll likely mean lower costs for sellers, who brought the lawsuit as a class action. The impact on buyers...

The National Association of Realtors has agreed to a landmark settlement that would eliminate real estate brokers' longstanding automatic commissions, commonly of up to 6% of the purchase price. Instead, home buyers and sellers would be able to negotiate fees with their agents up front. If the $418 million legal agreement is approved by a federal court, consumer advocates predict the ranks of real estate agents will thin, further driving down commission prices. "For years, anti-competitive rules in the real estate industry have financially harmed millions," said Benjamin Brown, managing partner at the Cohen Milstein law firm and one of...

Remarks last week by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell about a spate of coming bank failures related to the faltering commercial real estate sector have sent shockwaves through the financial world, leading some investors to run for cover and others to look for opportunities. With the typical U.S. commercial lease ranging from three to five years, the clock is ticking for office and retail property owners and their creditors in the financial sector as remote work has taken off and prompted changes in urban land use. Office vacancy rates have climbed sharply in the wake of the pandemic after falling...

Homeownership has long been a cornerstone of the American dream. It symbolizes independence, financial security and prosperity — but is it a dream worth chasing? Not if you ask real estate investment guru Grant Cardone. “Buying a home without a doubt is the worst investment people can make, yet it’s also the most common one,” he wrote in an Instagram post earlier this month. “Is it because [of] the lack of knowledge people have when it comes to financial education? Or is it just because too many people are trying to fulfill their American dream?” Whatever the reason, Cardone says...

In December 2020 I had to put my home on the market and move 1,000 miles away. Two months before I’d considered refinancing my mortgage and the bank gave me a valuation of $285,000. I thought it probably should have been higher but didn’t really feel like taking the time to look into it because I wasn’t really that worried about it. Suddenly in December I was forced to worry about it. So I reached out to a realtor friend (an actual realtor, not a guy with a side gig) and asked him to give me an estimate. He thought...

New York Community Bancorp sent its shares plummeting 26% on Friday after the regional lender said has discovered “material weaknesses” in the ways it tracks loan risks and that its CEO is leaving. The New York-based firm announced late Thursday that CEO Thomas Cangemi would be leaving NYCB — capping off a 27-year tenure at NYCB — and that Alessandro DiNello would take his place, effective immediately. DiNello, NYCB’s executive chairman, had been acting as the bank’s true boss since earlier this month ... One NYCB director, Hanif “Wally” Dahya, said in a Feb. 25 letter that he “did not...

The latest hot spots in commercial real estate aren’t in Manhattan or Miami. Instead of snazzy hotels or glistening office towers, the new property darlings are power-hungry data centers, often in places like Northern Virginia; Columbus, Ohio; and Salt Lake City. Traditionally box style, these buildings are all about function: A place for racks and racks of computers to be stacked up high, kept cool, and girded for the boundless stream of images, videos, chats, text, internet searches and the digital detritus of our lives. Their goal isn’t merely to contain, host and sort data billowing from computers and smart...

One-quarter of American ultra-high-net individuals plan to buy a home this year... The ultrawealthy ranked “lifestyle” and “investment” at the top of their list of priorities, followed by taxes and safety... .... One-quarter of American ultra-high-net individuals, or those worth $30 million or more, plan to buy a residential property this year, according to the Douglas Elliman and Knight Frank Wealth Report. The average ultra-high-net-worth individual already owns four homes, according to the report. One-quarter of their residential portfolio is outside their home country. When it comes to priorities for their next big purchase, the ultrawealthy ranked “lifestyle” and “investment”...