A report from the Santa Fe New Mexican. "At the beginning of 2019, there were 1,052 homes available in the Santa Fe multiple-listing service area, which includes nearby cities such as Los Alamos and Pecos. Britt Klein of Sotheby’s International Realty, said she works with sellers to come up with a fair price. 'Sometimes we’re the bearers of bad news as the brokers, but I hate surprises. Oftentimes we renegotiate the deal. A buyer’s going to ask for credits, a price reduction, and that becomes a very traumatic experience for a seller.'"

The Post and Courier on South Carolina. "Home sales, showings and mortgage applications have all slowed in recent months from the record pace set in 2017. The softening housing market doesn’t mean it’s a full-on buyer’s market, but it does bring a few items in buyers’ favor, according to residential real estate agent Duval Acker."

"Because of current market conditions, she says prices won’t skyrocket as they have in previous years, the inventory of available homes won’t change much as demand continues to outpace supply, bidding wars are mostly over except in a few hotter areas, and higher interest rates are driving fewer buyers into the market. That means sellers might have to make a few concessions, and it leaves more room for negotiations."

"'This spring, buyers will likely see fewer bidding wars, slower price growth and less competition,' Acker said. 'But sellers will still have some leverage.'"

The Houston Chronicle in Texas. "Joe Mandola, president of Trendmaker Homes, sat down with a designer on a recent Tuesday afternoon. Their goal was to finalize redesigns that would lower the cost per square foot for their various lines of homes."

"'We’ve been going through our whole product line and truly redesigning it all,' Mandola said of his effort to maintain healthy profit margins. 'Not sacrificing the quality of what we’re delivering, but going back and looking at the cost side of it.'"

"'Builders are definitely not able to increase the price of new homes the same percentage upwards as the costs are increasing,' said Lawrence Dean, Houston’s regional director of Metrostudy. As a result, he said, builders are having to receive incentives or accept a smaller profit margin per home."

"'We had 30,000 new home starts in 2018. We expect to see almost the same amount, perhaps with a slight decline, in 2019,' he said. And if costs continue to outpace home prices, many more homebuilders may be going back to the drawing board to make their plans more cost efficient."

"'Builders are having to get more creative,' Dean said. 'Or they just have to accept that they’ll make a smaller margin per home and adjust their business accordingly.'"

From the Los Angeles Times. "Allen Iverson’s former home, which he lost to foreclosure, has traded hands in Georgia for a dirt-cheap $725,000. Wells Fargo & Co. took ownership of the estate in 2017 after suing the Hall of Famer for failing to make mortgage payments on the property, according to reports. Iverson paid $2.19 million for the place in 2006, records show."

"No stranger to foreclosure, Iverson has also lost homes in Atlanta and Denver."