A report from the Bay Area Newsgroup on California. "The seven-year fever driving up Bay Area home prices may finally be breaking. The number of home sales plunged 20 percent from the previous December, and marked the slowest holiday month in 11 years, according to CoreLogic. 'Last month, the San Francisco Bay Area logged one of its sharpest declines in home sales since the end of the last housing downturn,' said CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage."

"Santa Clara County saw home sale prices plummet 10 percent in December. In 2018, homes prices in the county rose by double digits every month through the spring and summer. Year-over-year prices fell in three other Bay Area counties: prices dropped 2.5 percent to $1.33 million in San Mateo, 5.2 percent to $632,500 in Napa and 6.6 percent to $590,000 in Sonoma. Overall, the median sale prices for an existing home in the Bay Area sold in December was $775,000, down from a peak of $935,000 in May."

"Agents say buyers are unable to stomach higher prices and are waiting for deals. Sellers are receiving fewer offers on homes, and house hunters who haven’t given up hope are finding some slight relief. 'My phone’s not ringing like it did six months ago,' said agent Matt Rubenstein in Contra Coast County."

"Santa Clara County agents report homes staying on the market longer and sellers making more concessions. Sandy Jamison of Tuscana Properties in San Jose said sellers are looking for peak prices, while buyers are looking for discounts. She has seen deals collapse over $10,000 price differences. 'It’s been slow,' Jamison said. 'I have a lot of sellers waiting.'"

The San Francisco Chronicle. "The Bay Area real estate market went into 2018 with a bang and out with a whimper. In the first half of the year, the median price rose almost 17 percent to an all-time high of $875,000 in June. In the second half, it fell 10.3 percent from that peak, ending at $785,000 in December."

"An earlier report from the California Association of Realtors — which only includes existing, single-family homes entered into a multiple listing service — said the Bay Area median price fell to $850,000 in December, down 6.1 percent from November and down 3.6 percent from December of 2017. That was the first year-over-year drop since March 2012."

"Many sellers, perhaps unaccustomed to a less-than-ridiculous market, took their homes off the market or let their listings expire. A total of 2,493 listings in the nine Bay Area counties were withdrawn or expired in December, compared to only 1,154 in December 2017 and 1,487 in December 2016, according to analyst Patrick Carlisle of the Compass real estate firm."

"After hitting $1.15 million in June, Santa Clara’s median price has fallen to $1 million in December, exactly where it was a year ago."

From KRON 4. "If you're fed up with traffic, the high cost of living and the lack of affordable housing... Well, you're not alone. The once Red Hot real estate market is cooling. Prices are coming down and a growing number of people are selling out, cashing in and moving on says Santa Clara Realtor Myron Von Raesfeld."

"'I currently have two listings coming on the market, this being one of them, both are leaving the state,' Von Raesfeld said. 'This one has already moved to Austin, Texas. My other couple is moving to Boston, and I have another listing coming up where the people are moving to Seattle.'"

"Redfin says migration is reaching a record high with one in four people searching for a home looking to leave the Bay Area. San Francisco, New York, LA, and Denver have the highest net outflows, which means more people looking to leave than to move in."