A report from the Atlanta Journal Constitution in Georgia. " The number of houses for sale last month in metro Atlanta was higher than the number for sale a year ago, signaling that the market may be entering a new phase, experts say. Yet the number of homes that actually sold continued to decline, as it has for months. The number of sales fell in all five core counties, Re/Max said. "

"For a long time, experts had attributed the drop in sales to a lack of supply: There just weren’t enough homes for sale. But now, it seems that potential buyers are lukewarm about the market. 'The lack of sales now is a demand problem,' said Brad Dillman, chief economist with Cortland, a real estate investment company."

"The market is 'rebalancing,' said John Rainey, VP of Re/Max of Georgia. 'We are beginning to see a shift in the local housing market. As prices and interest rates continue rising, buyers are pausing to see what happens next.'"

The American Statesman in Texas. " Monica Blackburn, an agent with Blairfield Realty in Austin, said she hasn’t seen as many multiple offer situations this year than previously, 'but if the house is priced slightly lower than neighborhood comps it is bound to have multiple offers.'"

"'Price reductions tend to happen when the home starts off too high,' Blackburn said. 'Many times the seller is requesting the higher asking price since Austin is a seller’s market. Pushing the higher price does not always work and price reductions are needed.'"

"As the U.S. housing market slowed during the second half of this year, John Kovas, an Austin real estate broker with Kovas & Associates, said he observed a shift in the local market as well, starting around mid-August. Demand has slowed some, he said, and 'people are getting a little concerned.'"

"'We’re transitioning from a hyper sellers’ market to a more balanced market, where the negotiations are more even-handed,' Kovas said. 'Both sides have a say in the matter, whereas the sellers used to run the whole show. They’d make the rules, and if you didn’t play by the rules, you didn’t get the property.'"

"The transition to a more stable market appears to be the case in the Dallas area market also. In a column this month, written the same week a Wall Street Journal article reported that 'Dallas’ once-vibrant housing market is sputtering' — Steve Brown, real estate editor for The Dallas Morning News, wrote that 'rumors about the demise of the local home market are probably exaggerated.'"

"'And after the boom in housing we’ve seen over the last few years, any kind of slowdown is likely to cause some anxiety for sellers,' Brown wrote. ' Having said that, anyone trying to sell a house knows the residential market this year has changed. Homes are taking longer to sell. And in most cases there isn’t a line of buyers fighting to overpay for your property.'"

"Brown noted that the cooling 'is different from past cycles because the region’s employment market and population — both of which fuel housing demand — are still exploding. The (Dallas-Fort Worth) area housing boom of the last few years is unlike almost any in the last 50 years. And if price increases hadn’t slowed, we’d be looking at a California-style housing crash soon,' Brown said."

The Orange County Register in California. "Southern California house prices rose in November by the smallest margin in nearly four years as sales continue to lag, according to the California Association of Realtors. ' The slowdown in price growth is occurring throughout the state, including regions that have strong economic fundamentals, such as the San Francisco Bay Area,' said Leslie Appleton-Young, state Realtor chief economist."

"San Francisco saw its first house price drop in 1 ½ years. Prices also fell in Sonoma County and Santa Clara County (home to Silicon Valley), dropping year over year for the first time in six years."

"Sales of existing single-family homes had been down year over year in Southern California in 13 of the past 17 months. Every Southern California county saw similar declines. Sales fell 14.4 percent in Orange County, 11.2 percent in Los Angeles County, 9 percent in Riverside County and 3.2 percent in San Bernardino County."

"Statewide, house sales decreased 13.4 percent. Forty-one of 51 California counties posted sales drops, and statewide listings of homes for sale increased for an eighth consecutive month following three straight years of declines, the report said. Buyers, the state Realtor report says, 'continue to sit on the sidelines.'"