A report from the Journal Times in Wisconsin. "Anyone who tried to sell or buy a home last year knew the residential real estate market was white hot. 'Everything sold within hours or days,' said Jessica Smith, former president of the Racine Board of Realtors. But 2018’s torrid buying spree was an anomaly, Smith said confidently. By November, the market had softened. People were having home inspections performed and requiring repairs — or they would walk away."

"Many of those who overpaid were having buyers’ remorse, Smith continued, and some of those purchases had led to foreclosures or short sales. The same phenomena had played out on the east and west coasts about a year earlier, she said. 'I don’t expect to have the harried buying again,' Smith said. 'The market’s learned a lesson.'"

"'With that frenetic pace, lenders were understaffed; it would take two to three months to assess properties for sales,' John Crimmings, First Weber Group vice president, told The Journal Times. 'The first half of 2018, (we had) a very robust real estate market nationwide,' he said. 'Then it started to slow down in some of the stronger markets nationally: West Coast and Southwest.'"

The Arizona Republic. "Buyers holding out until metro Phoenix home prices begin to plummet aren’t likely to become homeowners this year. Home values will not fall as they did during the real estate bust of 2008-11, real-estate analysts predict, looking at the numbers and not crystal balls."

"'The supply of homes for sale increased, and sales slowed during the last three months of 2018,' said Tina Tamboer, senior housing analyst with the Cromford Repor. 'But nothing in the current data shows a market crash coming for Phoenix.'"

"She said it's still a sellers' market, but Valley homeowners shouldn't expect the steep annual price increases we've seen during each of the past few years. Home prices recovered from the crash last summer to reach $268,000 and then slipped back down to $262,000 this fall."

"'I have clients who want to sell because they think prices will really fall this year,' said Ali Al-Asady, a Valley agent with HomeSmart. 'They are looking at the stock market. The fundamentals are much different in metro Phoenix’s real-estate market.'"

The Daily Commercial on Florida. "For the past several years, one of the first columns I write to kick off the New Year consists of my overall impression and predictions for the upcoming year’s local housing market. I wrote the following in December 2017: 'For those in the housing market, 2018 will be a tough year with labor issues, higher costs and volatile material pricing. I expect the national housing market to be down three percent or less, and the Lake County housing market will probably follow suit.'"

"After this forecast, I feel like a fortune teller. What should builders, buyers and sellers in the housing market expect in 2019? There will be a shortage of qualified buyers and affordable homes in the first half, which will be eased as home sellers begin to cut asking prices."

"For builders, this is not the year to be speculative. What you build should be sold because a stronger turndown could leave many builders in the financial cold if they have spec homes sitting in inventory. Builders should closely monitor pricing and begin looking for deals on land as property owners begin to see this housing cycle quickly wane."

From the Tennessean. "In a twist of market dynamics, the cost of renting a three-bedroom apartment is currently cheaper than owning an average-priced single-family home in Nashville. This is also true for big cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston, according to ATTOM Data Solutions."

"'This is just looking purely at if you wanted to purchase a home at this moment,' said Jennifer von Pohlmann, spokeswoman for ATTOM. 'Of course, (with home ownership) you'll also have home equity and will get that back at some point, hopefully. But, because of rising mortgage rates and appreciating home prices, it's more feasible to rent than to buy.'"

The Reading Eagle. "Among the many indicators of a housing market shifting to favor buyers is when the final sales price is below the home sellers' original list price."

"The first National Knock Deals Forecast from Knock, a home trade-in company that assists repeat home buyers by purchasing their new home and then selling their current home, found 62 percent of homes in the top 45 largest metro areas sold for an amount below their original list prices this year. More than half of those homes sold for an amount that was 2 percent or more below the initial list price."

"The five markets where buyers found the most discounts were Miami, New Orleans, Chicago, Houston and Tampa. While the average discount from list price to sales price was 1.4 percent nationally, in Miami the discount was 4.4 percent."

"Among the top markets where Knock anticipates buyers will find sellers dropping their prices are Miami, Houston, Chicago, Jacksonville and New Orleans."

From Seattle PI in Washington. "For the most part Seattle’s December market activity was what you’d expect for the slowest month in real estate, but there were a few surprises. Breaking it down by area, most of the neighborhoods realized year-over-year declines in their sale prices."

"The number of Seattle condo listings for sale subsided from November to December by 27.3% to 407 units. Though, that did reflect a 369.8% spike from a year ago. These figures are based on condo unit inventory reported to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). This is not, however, reflective of the total number of condo units for sale as developers do not include all of their pre/under-construction pre-sale units in the NWMLS system. There are more properties available for purchase although they will not be completed for another 2-3 years."

"The 157 closed condo sales wasn’t the lowest all year, though that number was down 25.2% year-over-year. With higher inventory levels and fairly stable mortgage rates, condo buyers will have more options and potentially better values in 2019 than they experienced last year. Sale prices will plateau so sellers should be prepared for a shifting market this coming year."