A report from the Mercury News in California. "Michelle Ronco, senior product marketing manager with MLS subsidiary Aculist, put Silicon Valley’s housing market in perspective for local Realtors at a meeting in Los Gatos. Santa Clara County’s sales volume peaked in May and the median sales price peaked in March at $1,454,500. The median single-family home cost $1,150,000 in December 2018."

"Ronco explained that last year the market reacted to what appeared to be a weakened demand and by the September-October period, home sales dipped in all counties (San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey). Home prices also fell, giving way to one in four price reductions. Then sellers made adjustments, and in December, sales volume increased."

From Forbes. "Buyers should revisit the housing markets in Los Angeles and San Francisco for new buying opportunities according to Selma Hepp, chief economist at the San Francisco office of Compass, the national luxury brokerage firm."

"'The story is there are real opportunities out there for buyers now. There have been price reductions which is good for buyers since there was strong price growth in Los Angeles and San Francisco over the last few years,' Hepp observes. 'I do think to bring (those) buyers in larger numbers who got buyer fatigue back into the market, there still needs to be more price reductions.'"

"Hepp’s January 2019 numbers point to the year-over-year decrease in home sales continuing at double-digit-percent rates, with the three-month average decline in the Bay Area at 16 percent. Los Angeles was down even further by 18 percent."

"'In other words, over the last three months, about 1,100 fewer units sold on average per month than last year in Los Angeles, while the Bay Area averaged about 700 fewer sales,' said Hepp. Hopefully, sellers are taking note of cooling buyer demand along with higher inventory numbers so they will change their pricing expectations to more sane levels."

"Look to May 2018 to see when the separation on prices between Bay area buyers and sellers caused potential buyers to simply walk away. The numbers in units sold tell their own story. Consider there was a 4 percent increase in April 2018 which slid down to a 16 percent decrease in January 2019."

"The decline in buyer demand led to a notably larger increase in price reductions than seen in prior years,' Hepp notes. Price cuts went from 7 percent of inventory in March 2018 to 34 percent in January 2019."

"In the Los Angeles area, Spring 2018 saw market prices appreciate 14 percent. Buyers were discouraged and began leaving the market. This caused the highest increase in properties with price reductions over the past three years. In January of this year, those numbers showed 30 percent of sales had price reductions. The spread between listing prices and actual sale prices was increasing."

"The take-aways for buyers according to Hepp include good news and a dose of real-time reality. 'Buyers now enjoy more favorable conditions than they did in the second half of 2018. However, many buyers have exited the market and are unwilling to purchase homes until they see larger price reductions and cooling home price growth.'"

From SCV News. "The inventory of homes and condominiums listed for sale throughout the Santa Clarita Valley continued to rise during January even as high resale prices and seasonal forces combined to keep sales in check, the Southland Regional Association of Realtors reported."

"The 550 active listings at the end of the month were up 58.5 percent from a year ago, representing the eighth consecutive month-to-month increase after two-and-a-half years of monthly declines in inventory. 'We haven’t seen a supply that high since February of 2012,' said Amanda Etchevery, chair of the Santa Clarita Division of the SRAR. 'Part of the sales slowdown is seasonal, yet part of it also is due to high resale prices that generate buyers’ resistance.'"

"Realtors helped negotiate 103 single-family closed escrows during January and 51 condominiums transactions, down 30.4 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. Those totals came close to the record lows of 99 home sales and 31 condo sales; both records were set in January 2008."

"'It’s good to see homeowners listing more properties in a market that desperately needs housing,' said Tim Johnson, the Association’s chief executive officer. 'Now, the challenge for REALTORS® will be to convince those sellers that the market is in transition and yesterday’s prices may meet resistance today.'"