A report from Home Town Station on California. "With housing prices starting to 'stall,' interest rates going up and the stock market 'going crazy,' Rich Szerman of Alta Realty Group believes now is the time to take action in order to prevent a real estate market crash similar to that of 2008, and to put an end to the unjust 'zombie' second mortgage market costing people their homes. 'I am in the belly of this on a daily basis,' said Szerman, who provides free foreclosure defense services to the public."

"'Every loan in the state of California has what’s called a due-on-sale clause,' said Szerman. 'What that means is, if I hold your first mortgage and your second forecloses, or if you change the title to the property in any way, I have the right as the first mortgage holder to call that note due and payable.'"

"This is important because of the many homeowners who were told around the time of the 2008 crash that their second mortgage was 'charged off' or something similar, and that no further payments were required. Now about 10 years later, and usually with quite a bit of equity in the home, these 'zombie' second mortgages are coming back to life with a decade of accrued interest and the new servicer demanding immediate payment or they will foreclose on the house."

The Silicon Valley Voice. "The City of Santa Clara’s property values grew at the second highest rate of all county cities — almost 10 percent according to the Santa Clara County Office of the Assessor’s 2018-2019 report."

"County Assessor Larry Stone sees a 'mild economic slow down …on the horizon,' he wrote in his introduction to the report. Stone cites an office space pre-leasing decline — from 80 percent in 2016 to 48 percent in 2017 — 'an indication of an oversupply in office space.'"

"The single family housing market, too, is likely headed for a slowdown, wrote Stone. That market 'has been artificially overvalued … driven by too much money, including foreign investments, chasing too few homes.' Houses bought in the past three to five years are the 'most vulnerable to a downturn.'"

The San Francisco Chronicle. "Though the East Bay still commands some of the nation's priciest property, the top three residential sales for 2018 all closed at millions of dollars under list. This trend is also reflected in California as a whole, with 2018 bringing a slump some analysts predict will worsen in 2019."

"According to Patrick Carlisle of Compass Realty, the most expensive residential sale for 2018 in the East Bay closed in Orinda, where a home that listed in 2016 for $22.5 million and failed to sell came back on the market in 2017 priced at $16.5 million. It finally sold in July, 2018 for $12.250 million."

"This sale was followed by a transaction in Fremont, where a home that listed in May of 2018 for $16 million closed at $12 million in June of 2018. In third place, a Lafayette property closed at $7.800 million in November of 2018 after listing at $9.975 million in September 2018."

The Orange County Register. "It seems timely to take a look at the real estate cycles in years past and project what the market is likely to do in 2019. Even though we have about 59 percent more inventory now than this time last year, and there were about 24 percent more pending sales last year, the cycle should follow the same pattern."

"This increase in inventory and drop in demand has flipped us from the strong seller’s market at the start of 2018 into a slight buyer’s market as we start 2019. This impact can be seen in the average days on the market, which has gone from 65 days on average last year to 127 days as of the beginning of 2019. That’s double from last year."

"For home buyers, this means you have more choices, more time to kick the tires, run the numbers, and get your loan even partially underwritten before you make an offer. You actually have time to go look at the house more than once, for more than five minutes, before you submit an offer. You’ll also probably be the only offer on the table. Multiple offers on the same home are no longer the norm."

"For home sellers, this means put your house on the market the Thursday before Super Bowl Sunday, which this year falls on Jan. 31. You’ll have it staged to perfection, take professional photos, and you’ll price it right at market value, and anything else you can think of to stick out for potential buyers."