A report from The Olympian in Washington. "The Thurston County housing market cooled in November — just as it did in October — as some buyers stayed on the sidelines because of seasonal factors or slightly higher mortgage interest rates, according to recently released data by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

"Sales of single-family homes dropped 11 percent in November compared to November a year ago. And the total number of homes for sale in Thurston County in November was 20 percent higher than a year ago, the data show."


"'We’re a long way from balance, but we’re moving in the right direction,' said Ken Anderson, president and owner of Coldwell Banker Evergreen Olympic Realty in Olympia."

From Boston Magazine in Massachusetts. "If you’ve so much as thought about buying property in Boston lately, you’ve probably noticed that the upward march of real estate prices seems less like a trend than a Newtonian principle—what goes up must come down, unless it’s the value of a deed in Suffolk County, in which case it shall continue tracing its skyward arc."

"Except that lately, things have started to feel a little shakier: Nationally, the housing market has begun losing steam; the Fed is hiking rates after a decade of easy money; and murmurs that we’re overdue for a recession have grown louder and louder."

"Do they know something we don’t? Is the Boston bubble about to pop? It’s not as crazy at it sounds. In the housing market, for instance, there’s been a recent uptick in the number of properties for sale, and they’ve been staying on the market longer. Taken together, it could all point to a party that’s about to end. "

"James Elcock, president at Colliers International Boston, is particularly bullish on this point, saying, 'I wouldn’t say that we’re bulletproof, but if anything happens to Boston, it’s going to be a dimmer switch rather than a crash."

"Does that mean the real estate market is untouchable here, destined to climb ever upward—sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but up, up, up? I mean, let’s not go wild. But, if you’re sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting to hear that pop!, well, we’re likely still a long way from bust."

The Nevada Current. "With some homeowners still recovering from the Great Recession and the housing crash that decimated Nevada’s market, is the economy about to falter, threatening to plunge Nevadans underwater again?"

"'Do I feel we have a recession coming?  No, I don’t,' says Heidi Kasama, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. 'Our fundamentals are different than when we had the big crash.'"

"'The fundamentals of the market are still strong,' says Kasama, adding a recent lull in sales prices and increase in inventory is good for a market characterized lately by multiple offers and bidding wars on a scarcity of available properties."

"'It’s a needed correction,' Kasama says of flat month-over-month sales prices in November. 'It was just too hot.  Buyers gave up. We have several buyers who just said ‘I’m not going to battle with these offers now.’ We were writing multiple offers, prices were going up and our agents couldn’t get the sale.'"

"'If everybody writes these scary stories about recession, it starts to be a self-fulfilling prophecy,' says Kasama.  'Prices are up 13 percent year-to-year, so the market is hardly going awry.'"

From Curbed New Orleans in Louisiana. "This gorgeous mansion on Milan Street in Uptown just got another price chop. Originally, it hit the market at $2,250,000; now it’s asking $1,650,000."

From Curbed Hamptons in New York. "The incredible 36-acre oceanfront property at 42 Old Montauk Highway in Montauk that was on the market earlier this year for $48 million has just received another price cut. A price cut in October brought the listing down to $39.5 million, but after the most recent change in ask, it’s now listed for $29 million."

"When we featured the property on Curbed back in September and after the $8.5 millon price cut a month later, our commenters thought the ask was too high."