It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Andrew Bauer, deputy regional executive for the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank’s Baltimore branch said the weakness of Maryland’s housing market 'astounds' him. We’re not a state like some of the other states in the country where they have a huge housing boom that’s created a huge excess supply of homes,' Bauer said. 'In those states, you would expect to see serious reckoning in terms of trying to deal with inventory.'"

"Las Vegas homebuilders last year booked the most sales in more than a decade as buyers paid record prices, but the market is forecast to cool off in 2019. Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith expects closings and permits to drop by roughly 5 percent this year and prices to flatten and eventually slide. 'Yes we are saying these numbers will decrease,' he wrote, 'but that by no means should be interpreted as a sign of a major problem in the making.'"

"Today, Manhattan is truly a buyers’ market, with some of the biggest declines the market has seen since the Great Recession of 2008. In the past three months, the median condo sales price has fallen by 8.1% to $1.48 million. This decline is a whopping 19.8% lower than the peak prices of Q1 2016. To put this into perspective, condo prices have declined as much from this peak as they did back in 2008-2009 during the Great Recession."

"Historically, Manhattan has been one of the last markets to fall and the first to recover, but this cycle things seem to be playing out differently. Other housing markets are just now starting to falter, while Manhattan has been in decline since 2015."

"Home sales markets in local neighborhoods mirrored Houston’s mixed bag in December but ran in stark contrast with its pricing as all markets displayed falling home prices."

"Big drop in home sales in Sonoma County: the numbers are out for 2018, and it’s a significant decline. Those looking for homes after the wildfires drove the market in 2017 and early 2018, and raised median prices to a high of 700-thousand dollars last summer. The median price dropped to 639-thousand in December, and the number of homes sold last year dropped by nearly 350 units. Similar trends are being felt thru-out the Bay Area."

"For years, it's been impossible to find a detached home in the Vancouver for less than $1 million, but it appears that's starting to change. The house at 1578 East 22nd Ave. is priced at $998,000 – despite being assessed in July at a value of $1.26 million. The home's previous assessment was even higher, at $1.32 million."

"The house on 22nd near Knight Street first hit the market last fall at $1.15 million, but the price was recently dropped. 'In December we saw that the market had shifted and we adjusted the price to where we are now, at $998,' realtor Shelly Smee told CTV News."

"When buy-to-let was at its peak in 2007, around 183,000 mortgages were approved to landlords looking to invest in new properties each year, according to UK Finance. New figures suggest the number of buy-to-let mortgages given out in 2018 plunged below 70,000. On top of this, existing landlords are offloading around 3,800 properties a month, Ministry of Housing figures show."

"Higher-rate taxpayer Paul Atkinson, says the new rules mean he will barely break even. 'If someone offered us a good price for the properties, we'd probably sell. At best we are breaking even now, but going forward we will have to subsidise the properties,' he said."

"New condo supply in Pattaya being launched this year should not exceed 5,000 units as more than 12,000 units remain unsold, the highest since 2015, according to a property consultant. Phattarachai Taweewong, senior manager of Colliers International Thailand's research department, said the sheer size of unsold condo units stems largely from massive supply last year."

"Mr Phattarachai said the Pattaya condo market has been slowing down since 2015. Before 2015, new supply of more than 15,000 units was launched every year. The large supply remaining unsold weakened the confidence of both buyers and developers. 'Developers should be more cautious of new supply launches as most buyers in the Pattaya condo market are investors expecting attractive yields. Very few buyers purchased for personal use,' he said. 'If the economy slows down and yield is not as good as expected, these buyers may refuse to accept unit transfers.'"

"Hong Kong developer Sino Land managed to sell only 75 per cent of apartments put up for sale at heavy discounts at its Mayfair by The Sea 8 development in Tai Po. By 3pm on Wednesday, it had sold 171 out of a first batch of 228 units. At an average price of HK$13,228 (US$1,686) per square foot after the discount in the first price list, the property is going for 26.5 per cent less than the HK$18,000 fetched by St Martin, another Tai Po project launched in June last year."

"A 925 sq ft apartment in Park Yoho Genova in Yuen Long sold for a loss of HK$2.88 million, or 24.3 per cent, on Tuesday, excluding stamp duties of HK$900,000. Its eventual selling price of HK$9 million, or HK$9,730 per square foot, was also about 35.6 per cent less than the average price of about HK$15,100 per square foot fetched at the neighbouring development of Park Yoho Napoli this month."

"An NAB survey of 2,000 Australian consumers found most do not think it is a good time to sell their home or investment property. 'Consumers are far more uncertain about the future — around four in 10 said they simply didn't know if it would be a good time to buy, sell, renovate or take out a mortgage,' NAB chief economist Alan Oster said."

"Mr Oster, said this view was broadly consistent across states, although a much higher proportion in Western Australia said it was not a good time to sell their home. 'We suspect this is influenced by the fact that some home owners in WA may also be sitting on capital losses,' he said. 'This very poor result was not unexpected given what's been happening on house prices.'"