It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "After years of dramatic price increases in the country’s largest cities, major metro real estate markets are seeing the beginnings of what some are calling a correction — a shift that should bring overvalued properties back down from lofty heights. Sales are down in places like Manhattan, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, key regions where prices have soared since the recession."

"But as coastal cities reel from the unbridled rebound, what’s the outlook in Chicago? 'Sellers need to act now but be a little more realistic about their pricing,' says veteran broker Rafael Murillo. 'In areas like Wicker Park, the West Loop, River North, and Lincoln Park, sellers shouldn’t be so ambitious about prices. Buyers are just not able or willing to pay high prices anymore.'"

"Jack Osbourne is renting out his former family home in Los Angeles. The five bedroom, six-and-a-half bathroom property, located in upscale Studio City, has been made available for $16,500 a month. Jack had originally listed the home for $3.45 million in 2017, but slashed the price to $3.2 million within a month before finally taking it off the market."

"September is usually the month that we’d expect to see real estate activity start to pick up after a summer break – but there's no sign of that this year, new statistics from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reveal. There were just 1,595 home sales in Metro Vancouver in September 2018, which is a dramatic 43.5 per cent decrease from the 2,821 sales in September 2017, and an even more surprising 17.3 per cent month-over-month drop since August this year."

"The numbers certainly place a question mark over the B.C. Real Estate Association's recent assertion that the slowdown in sales across the province so far this year is 'largely behind us' and that activity is likely to pick up this fall. The worst-hit areas for value declines in the detached sector were West Vancouver, where benchmark prices are down 11.4 per cent year over year, and Vancouver West, down 10.9 per cent."

"The 1850-built Enniskerry house and holding owned by the late parents of Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross has failed to raise any offers at auction, despite being guided at €1.6m, less than half of original asking price of €3.75m. Darren Chambers of Lisney said the agency was 'flabbergasted,' but he added that the lack of bidding was symptomatic of a 'general unresponsiveness' from buyers now being felt at the prestige end of the market in general."

"New figures suggest some resorts on the Swiss alpine slopes are undergoing a property slump. In the high Alpine resort town of St Moritz, house prices have plunged more than 11 per cent in the last 12 months. On slopes such as Davos and Klotsers, property values have sunk by nine per cent and 10.7 per cent respectively."

"Residential price declines in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are among the most pronounced in the world over the past year, according to Knight Frank. Values had fallen by 6.9 percent in the UAE capital in the year to the end of June. This made Abu Dhabi the second worst performing city in the index with only Turin, Italy showing a biggest price drop of 7.1 percent in the same period."

"A reliable leading indicator for the world’s least affordable housing market is sending a sell signal for the first time in three years. Losses in the Hang Seng Properties Index on Thursday left the gauge of Hong Kong real estate stocks trading as much as 20 percent below its peak in January. Declines of that magnitude from major highs have preceded the last four downturns in Hong Kong home prices, data compiled by Bloomberg show."

"The former British colony has led a global surge in property prices in recent years that shows increasing signs of reversing in major cities from London to New York. 'Stocks pretty much always peak and bottom before physical properties' in part because the equity market is more liquid, said Peter Churchouse, chairman at Portwood Capital. 'History is telling us something here.'"

"While sellers have been the victors for the past 12 months, Patrick Tynan of LJ Hooker Nowra said buyers were making a comeback in the Shoalhaven property market. 'In our area numbers are down about 21 per cent on last year. Twelve months ago we were in a sellers market, and now we’re in more of a buyers market,' he said."

"Mr Tynan attributed the decline in sales to the ongoing banking royal commission, and tightening of lenders criteria. 'We are finding the financiers are being a bit more critical of lending, particularly for investment properties,' he said. 'We had a little blip in 2008 with the Global Financial Crisis, and we are finding there’s a similar tightening of the banks due to the royal commission where the market has tapered.'"

"In the last 48 hours four Turkish construction giants with decades – in one case a half-century – of history have filed for bankruptcy protection. These were Palet Construction, a firm founded 52 years ago, Ceylan and Nuhoğlu, each more than 30 years in the business, and Nafia."

"Ali Babacan, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s longest-serving deputy prime minister for economic and financial affairs, gave the plainest description of the problematic period faced by the construction sector in a searing piece of self-criticism in 2014, before leaving the party."

"'Without producing anything ourselves, without earning it, we are using credit secured from abroad for luxury construction projects, shopping malls, luxury accommodation ... before long this is going to land Turkey in trouble,' said Babacan."