A report from the Union Tribune in California. " February sales were down 8.1 percent compared to the previous year, but that was not as severe as the last few months when sales dropped 10 percent to 22 percent. All types of housing in San Diego County had declining sales in February. After months of slowing sales, there are more homes on the market for potential buyers, said the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors. In February, there were 6,362 homes for sale, up from 4,636 at the same time last year and 4,415 in 2016."

"Dana Kuhn, a director at John Burns Real Estate Consulting, said he didn’t anticipate a heating up of the market like there has been the last few years, mainly because wages have not been increasing as fast as home prices. 'There is far less motivation for someone to buy today than a few years ago,' Kuhn said. 'Even though (interest) rates have come back down, there is a widespread sense that we are at the end of cycle.'"

"Chris Thornberg, economist and founding partner of Beacon Economics, said it was ridiculous to think home prices would not rebound with lowering interest rates and home inventory at historic lows. Thornberg said the slowdown was caused by rising interest rates and a belief by buyers that prices would go down. He said a strong economy and a shortage of homes for sale throughout California mean prices will continue to rise and spring will be a busy time for sales."

"'The market was going to move again, regardless,' he said. 'It takes a big mess to cause home prices to fall. I don’t just mean a mess in the housing market. I mean an economic mess.'"

The Los Angeles Times. "Sales have now fallen for seven straight months, swelling inventory and forcing sellers to trim their asking prices. The regional median is $24,500 below its all time high of $537,000 reached in June. Last month, prices dropped 1.4% compared with a year earlier in expensive Orange County."

"'[Buyers] are just being more cautious where they are putting their dollars,' said San Fernando Valley real estate agent Deanna Medina."

"'I haven’t seen anything come across my desk in several months where someone paid above asking price,' said Jeff Lazerson, president of Laguna Niguel mortgage brokerage Mortgage Grader."

The Ventura County Star. "Home sales aren’t just down in Ventura County: February marked the seventh straight month that Southern California home sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis. There were 567 homes sold in Ventura County last month, according to CoreLogic. The report noted that is a 12 percent decline from the county’s 644 home sales in February 2018."

"Southern California has seen a decline in year-over-year home sales for much of the past year. Sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis for the past seven consecutive months and in nine of the last 10 months, according to the CoreLogic report."

"The numbers are similar throughout most Southern California regions, all of which saw their sales numbers decrease from February 2018 to February 2019. There were 13,466 homes sold in Southern California at a median price of $512,500 last month. That’s an 11.7 percent decrease from the 15,245 homes sold in the region in February 2018."

"'February was the third month in a row in which Southern California home sales were the lowest for that particular month in 11 years, since shortly after the last housing downturn began,' said CoreLogic research analyst Andrew LePage."