A report from the Los Angeles Times in California. " The sluggish Southern California housing market took another hit in January, with sales plunging 17% from a year earlier, according to a report released Wednesday. The median is now $32,000 below its all-time high reached in June and sales, clocking in at 12,665 last month, haven’t been this low in January since 2008."

"'You are hitting the limits of people’s incomes,' said Robert Castaneda, a real estate agent who works throughout Southern California. Castaneda said some buyers 'are fearful' of buying at the top and don’t want to overpay. As a result, they’re submitting lowball offers. 'A lot of them think they can offer below asking,' he said."

"As homes have sat unsold, the number of listings has swelled, spurring more sellers to trim the asking price to close a deal. In Los Angeles County, nearly 28% more homes were on the market in January than a year earlier, according to Zillow. Nearly 16.5% of those listings had at least one price cut last month, up from 10% a year earlier."

The Daily Bulletin. "The housing market across Southern California continued to slow last month as home sales had its weakest January in 11 years, according to CoreLogic. The firm reported 12,665 homes and condominiums changed hands in January, a 17.1 percent decline from 12 months ago and 19.8 percent fewer sales than December."

"Last month was the weakest January since 2008 when the housing bubble across the region had just fractured. Sales have declined year over year for the last six months and in eight of the last 10."

"In the four-county area, the steepest sales declines in the last 12 months were in Orange County, at 20.3 percent and Riverside County, at 16.8 percent. Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties declined 15.8 and 13.1 percent, respectively. Sales in January tumbled 22.9 percent in Los Angeles County, 21.4 percent in Orange County, 20.8 percent in Riverside County and 7.6 percent in San Bernardino County."

"The glacial pace of new homes sales dragged on January, tumbling 57.9 percent from the January average spanning the last 31 years."

The Ventura County Star. "It’s been a slow few months for home sales in Ventura County, and the new year hasn’t brought much early relief. Ventura County saw the largest year-over-year decline in home sales of all the counties cited in the report. There were 527 homes sold in the county last month, a 21 percent decline from January 2018’s 667 home sales, according to the report."

"A previous CoreLogic report that analyzed December’s housing statistics noted that Southern California home sales also reached an 11-year low for that month. 'January marked the second consecutive month in which Southern California home sales were the lowest for that month in 11 years, since the early days of the last housing bust,' said CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage."