A report from Bakersfield.com in California. "There's been considerable discussion since Trulia, a property listing website owned by Zillow, in November ranked Bakersfield fourth on its list of the top 10 housing markets to watch in 2019. Home appraiser Gary Crabtree has cast doubt on Trulia's bullish pronouncements about the Bakersfield market."

"The problem with declaring Bakersfield a 'hot market,' he said, is that it amounts to the same kind of hype that overinflated the city's real estate during the last bubble. 'The point that I was trying to make,' he said, 'is I didn't want a national company who doesn't have local people, boots on the ground, that doesn't know the market, you know, come out with something like this and then deceive the market into thinking, 'Oh my gosh, … you'd better buy before it goes up too high that we can't afford it,' which is the same scenario we saw in the bubble days.'"

The Victorville Daily Press in California. "After a red-hot market, several industry experts have predicted that 2019 will see a downturn in the housing market. But Amanda Vaage, a Realtor with Shear Realty Spring Valley Lake, echoed other High Desert industry leaders who shared the same views on the predicted housing downturn."

"'The High Desert has its own unique housing market so this expected downturn won’t be the same as the rest of California,' Vaage told the Daily Press. 'We’re the High Desert, not Orange County, Los Angeles, or the Silicon Valley so you can’t compare apples to oranges.'"

"'The High Desert housing market has evened out over the last 4 to 6 months, with the area having a good inventory,' Vaage said. 'But interest rates are scheduled to go up three times this year so now is the time to buy.'"

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. "North Texas home sales slowed significantly in the final months of 2018. The number of homes for sale in the region has grown almost 25 percent. 'The housing market appears to be running on fumes; momentum is keeping price growth in the positive, but signs of a slowdown are officially here,' Cheryl Young, Trulia senior economist, said in a statement."

From Chicago Agent Magazine on Illinois. "The residential property market continues to look better for prospective buyers as the trend of falling prices extends into the new construction segment. In the fourth quarter of 2018, according to data from Zillow, more than a quarter of listings for newly constructed homes experienced a price cut. For comparison, about 19 percent of new construction listings on the market in Q1 had their price reduced."

"In the Chicagoland market, 21.3 percent of new construction listings in Q4 saw a price cut. 'As home value growth slows, the prospect of buying a new home becomes less attractive, because the return on investment becomes less of a sure thing,' according to Zillow economist Matthew Speakman, author of the report."

From Reuters. "U.S. homebuilder PulteGroup Inc reported its worst quarterly fall in orders since 2013 on Tuesday and said it was having to spend heavily on incentives for buyers, weakening its margins, in the face of the shakiest outlook for spring sales in years."

"'Thinking about 2019, there is less certainty about demand heading into this spring selling season than the industry has experienced in a number of years,' said Chief Executive Officer Ryan Marshall on the call with analysts."

"RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Dahl said in a note to clients that Pulte orders were well below expectations. 'We still expect margins to decline in the coming quarters as others such as Horton and Lennar have leaned into incentives,' he said."

From Business Insider on New York. "New York City has more super-expensive and ultra-luxurious penthouse apartments than it knows what to do with. Many of these penthouses sit on the market for months or years and eventually get significant price chops. In the first five months of 2018, 58.6% of luxury homes — priced at $4 million or above — sold in Manhattan were let go at discounted prices, according to an analysis of StreetEasy data by Mansion Global."

"'Like any commodity, when the market is saturated with them, their value declines,' Jason Haber, an agent at Warburg Realty in Manhattan, told Business Insider. 'If under every rock you found a diamond, diamonds would decline in value. That's what is happening right now.'"