A report from Bloomberg on Washington. "Just a few days after Vancouver announced a tax on foreign property investors, Seattle real estate broker Lili Shang received a WeChat message from a wealthy Chinese businessman who wanted to sell a home in Canada and buy in her area. After a week of showings, he purchased a $1 million property in Bellevue, across Lake Washington from Seattle. He soon returned to buy two more, including a $2.2 million house in Clyde Hill paid for with a single cashier’s check. Shang says she’s been inundated with similar requests from China and Hong Kong. 'The tax was the trigger of this new wave of investment now coming to Seattle,' Shang said. 'Why pay more for the same thing?'"

"'The key point for Chinese investors is still, ‘Let’s move that money out of China, you never know what will happen to it,' said Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta. 'So they’ll go to Seattle or Toronto.'"

The Plano Star Courier in Texas. "Realtors across the Collin County and D-FW are researching the ballooning in housing prices. According to the Texas A&M University Real Estate Center, housing prices have ballooned to $200,00 - $310,000 and more. In September, median prices were $289,995. Low level affordable homes have all but disappeared. 'The lower priced homes, the ones that are under $300,000, those prices have been increasing like crazy,' said Rochelle Mortensen, public relations specialist with Metrotex Association Realtors. 'A few years ago, what would’ve sold for $50,000, you’re lucky to get under $200,000 now.'"

"Across Dallas-Fort Worth, the median price of housing is $245,000, so 'you need to have an income of $55,000 and that is not the median income of the families that live here,' she said."

The Sun Sentinel in Florida. "Delinquent South Florida homeowners could be getting long-delayed foreclosure notices after a court ruling cleared the way for lenders to revive cases that have stalled for years. The Florida Supreme Court ruled last month that lenders can refile foreclosure cases against owners still in default, even if the cases started more than five years ago, beyond the statute of limitations. Among those worried about what happens next is Adam Broder, who paid $386,000 for a two-bedroom condominium in Delray Beach in April 2005, just before the housing market collapsed."

"He stopped making payments in 2009, he said, and hoped to get a mortgage modification. Instead, his lender, BAC Home Loans Servicing, filed a foreclosure action that BAC later dismissed voluntarily, records show. The case has been in limbo for seven years. 'I just want to settle at this point and get on with my life,' said Broder, 36. 'But the ruling gives [BAC] as much room as they want to start all over again.'"

"Attorneys and industry analysts say they expect the Bartram ruling will lead to hundreds or thousands of refiled cases that were on hold until the Florida Supreme Court ruling. 'Banks have been keeping a bunch of cases in their back pockets,' said Thomas Ice, a real estate attorney in Royal Palm Beach. 'They're saying, 'Let's wait and see what happens in Bartram before we start spinning our wheels.'"

From Quartz. "Scott Shatford didn’t bargain for criminal charges. The official complaint arrived at his front door in May, more than a year after Santa Monica, California, voted to ban the short-term home rentals flooding its small beachside community. Shatford knew the rules but had chosen to ignore them, continuing to list two properties for short stays on Airbnb. He found the city’s ban ridiculous and assumed it would be difficult to enforce. Even if he did get caught, Shatford figured a few fines would be a small price to pay for properties earning him around $60,000 a year."

"But Santa Monica came down hard. After Shatford failed to respond to multiple warnings and fine notices—sent to rental property mailboxes he never checked—the city filed a criminal complaint against him. Local officials called Shatford an 'egregious' violator who repeatedly defied citations and 'boasted publicly' that Santa Monica would be unable to enforce its own law."

"In July, Shatford became one of the first Airbnb hosts in the US to be convicted for renting out units illegally. He agreed in a plea deal to stop listing apartments, pay the city about $3,500 in penalties, and be placed on two years’ probation. That same month, Shatford closed down his rental operation and moved to Denver. 'I expected fines,' he says. 'I really wasn’t expecting them to start to make criminals out of people that were just trying to make a living.' On Sept. 2, Airbnb sued Santa Monica over its ban in federal court."

"What happened in Santa Monica wasn’t an isolated incident. Airbnb’s peer-to-peer rentals are being scrutinized in Los Angeles; Miami Beach, Florida; Portland, Oregon; Toronto; Barcelona; and Berlin. In its hometown of San Francisco, a federal judge on Nov. 8 upheld rules that levy hefty fines on hosts. In New York, the company’s largest US market, governor Andrew Cuomo in October signed into law some of the toughest limits on short-term apartment rentals in the country."