A report from My Folsom on California. "Being a Realtor means I have to keep my finger on the pulse of the housing market. For the 16 years I’ve been in the business, I’ve been looking for signs. Yes, there are changes afoot, but this is not the time to panic. In fact, panic is what could actually cause a crash. It’s not as bad as you think. Maybe it’s not bad at all."

"Take, for example, the housing market in my beautiful little city of Folsom California. If you look at homes for sale in Folsom today, you’ll find 109 active listings, and 47 of them have reduced their prices. The average days on market for these listings stands at 52. Since the average days on market for homes sold last month was only 20, this may seem like a sign of the apocalypse."

"If we look at pending sales, we find something that points in the other direction. Of 73 currently pending, 31 of them sold in 10 days or less. Owners of those homes might have the opinion that it’s still a strong, seller’s market, and maybe even wondering if they sold too low."

"The average list price for those was $620k. With the average sale price last month at $548k, doesn’t this look like a sign that prices are rising? But wait, there are some pending that lowered their prices before they accepted an offer. Those averaged 55 days on market and an average price of $529k. A sign that prices are falling?"

"Sometimes the comps (comparable properties) suggest one price, but after getting it listed, the market thinks differently, and you don’t get any offers. If that happens, adjust your price. Don’t wait. As I always say, there’s nothing wrong with any house that a lower price won’t fix."

"My last 3 closed sales and my 2 current pending averaged 5 days on market. On the other hand, I have a beautiful home listed at 785 Travis in Folsom, with comps at the time we listed, at about $789k. 94 days later, we’re still on the market, currently priced at $745k."

"With the slow down and price reductions, the gloom-and-doomers are starting to say, ‘See? I told you so!’ The thing that could make them right is if homeowners panic and start listing en masse, causing a glut of houses on the market, and then start dropping prices to beat the competition."

From Curbed Los Angeles. "Home prices in Los Angeles County have never been higher, but there are signs the local real estate market may be getting slightly more buyer-friendly, according to Trulia. The report finds that 16.5 percent of homes for sale in LA during the month of August were listed with a price cut."

"That may not seem like very many, but according to Trulia it’s the largest percentage of homes with price reductions since 2011, when the company began tracking this statistic. It’s also a sizable increase over August 2017, when prices had been reduced on 12.1 percent of homes listed in LA."

"The median reduction in August 2018 was 2.5 percent of the home’s prior asking price. Based on the median home price given in the report ($612,809), that amounts to a roughly $15,000 discount."

"Some areas have more price cuts than others. By Trulia’s calculation, prices had been reduced on more than 20 percent of listed homes in parts of Calabasas and Malibu during the month of August. Price reductions aren’t only affecting neighborhoods filled with luxury housing. In Pico Union, for instance, 15 percent of listed homes were advertised with a reduced price in August—up from 5.3 percent a year before."

"Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors, confirms that a 'shift' is taking place in LA’s real estate market—though it’s not clear yet how it will affect sales in coming months."

"On the one hand, Appleton-Young says, the number of homes on the market has increased recently, giving buyers more options to choose from. But prices are high enough that many home shoppers are abandoning their searches."

"'I wouldn’t call it a buyer’s market yet,' says Appleton-Young. 'But it is certainly less of a seller’s market than it has been lately.'"

The Orange County Register. "Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has sold his ocean-view, six-bedroom house in Laguna Beach for $7.47 million. The 3,588-square-foot house in guard-gated Emerald Bay took a steep price cut recently. Buffett slashed $3.1 million off it in August 2018, bringing the asking price down to $7.9 million. The home was listed in February 2017 at $11 million."

"The average time on the market for all homes priced above $4 million in Orange County is nearly a year, according to Steve Thomas of Reports on Housing. The higher end of the luxury market represents 6 percent of the overall housing supply, and just 2 percent of the demand, according to Thomas’ math."

"Some of those properties take years to sell, even at steep price cuts."