It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "After two years of historic year-over-year home value jumps in the greater Nashville market, a cooling trend has taken hold. Sellers are dropping prices, buyers are getting more concessions and competition for properties has eased. Cities from coast to coast are experiencing similar housing market deceleration — with the most extreme downturns in Seattle, San Francisco and other areas that saw the most dramatic gains in recent years."

"'The places where the slowdown is more apparent are places that were moving at such an incredible, unsustainable pace,' said Skylar Olsen, senior economist at Zillow. 'When prices go too far, too fast, demand starts falling back and appreciation slows down.'"

"The year-over-year median home sale price dropped in January for the first time since February 2012 in metro Portland, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service. Sellers are feeling their power erode, with homes sitting on the market longer and more of them selling for less than the listed price."

"'The aggressive price increase we saw in the past few years simply became unsustainable as too many potential homeowners were priced out of the market,' said Tim Duy, a University of Oregon economist. 'Prices just became too high. We forget how abnormal this market had gotten.'"

"Total active listings in Pasadena were up 43.5 percent over last January. Jordan Levine, deputy chief economist for the California Association of Realtors said that the tables have turned for California and it’s a challenging environment for sellers. 'Supply-side problems have become demand side problems,' Levine said. 'We’ve gone so many years without enough housing. As a result it pushed the prices up faster than income. Homeowners are pushed out of reach so that’s a demand problem.'"

"One of the only builders of affordable homes in Denver says bad city policy is forcing him to stop new construction. Gary Gibson is unable to sell his affordable townhouse in Stapleton due to the rule changes. Gibson bought the home in 2016 and said his housing cost debt-to-income ratio was nearing 50 percent at the time, but the city didn't mind since he received mortgage lender approval."

"Currently, Gibson faces the prospect of paying two mortgages as he and his new wife and baby are set to close on a new home, out of the affordable housing program, this week. 'Disaster,' he said. 'Utter disaster.'"

"Market experts say a general malaise has settled over the uppermost tier of the residential market in Manhattan, because there is a large inventory of competing projects. 'Developments that came at the height of the market are now yielding to a softening market and it's an understood dynamic among builders that they're going to have to cut their pricing in order to sell,' said Frances Katzen, a broker at Douglas Elliman."

"The heady days are clearly a thing of the past. 'The Canadian housing market is going through a period of decompression: It is now well over two years since the first policy intervention to head off house price bubbles in Greater Vancouver and Toronto, along with addressing the affordability crisis in both metro areas,' said economist Andres Carbacho-Burgos of Moody’s Analytics."

"The cost of property in London's most expensive neighborhoods tumbled in 2018, with buyers using the U.S. dollar making the largest savings. During 2018's fourth quarter those buying top London property in U.S. dollars are estimated to have averaged a 36 percent saving compared to 2014's peak prices."

"Hong Kong’s newest micro-sized housing project has been priced at levels that represent a double-digit percentage discount to similar offerings released only a few months earlier. The offer of cut-price micro flats reflect the eagerness of the developer to adopt a lower pricing ­strategy as the residential market continues to cool. 'Developers now do not dare to price their new homes at a high level. Also, nano flats like this have seen extremely bad results recently,' said Derek Chan, the head of research at Ricacorp."

"Housing finance figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show home loan approvals slumped 6.1 per cent in December 2018. Louis Christopher, CEO of market analyst SQM Research, said the 'atrocious' figures are driven by a lack of confidence in the housing market."

"Christopher says investors are spooked. 'We have been seeing a big fall off in investor demand. Initially, that was triggered by investors not being able to get a loan. Now they’re scared of the housing market. They do not want to actually get the loan.'"

"Those wanting to buy a home are waiting for the market to hit rock bottom. 'Very few people believe we are at the bottom of the housing market. We certainly don’t. We think there will be more falls to come,' Christopher said. 'It’s a tenant’s market and it’s a buyers market. And it’ll become even more of a buyers market and even more of a tenants market overall.'"