It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Realtor Kim Trouten said the Charlotte market is starting to shift. Buyers are getting more picky, especially with higher interest rates, and sellers have had to change their expectations, Trouten said. 'They’ve been able to put a price tag on it and sell it,' she said. 'That’s no longer the case.'"

"Metro Orlando home sales slid 5.4 percent in February compared with the same month a year ago as the region’s real estate market continues to cool. The trends are not as good for homeowners looking to sell, as prices peaked during the summer and have come down since. There is both a bigger supply of homes for sale than there were a year ago."

"Tara Moore, a real estate agent based in Winter Garden, said there are a lot of overpriced homes on the market that aren’t selling, making inventory appear higher than it is. Zillow said the number of listings in the Orlando area with price decreases increased in January to 20 percent of all properties on the market. 'We’ve been in a seller’s market for so long,' said Moore. 'Things seems to be shifting back more towards neutral.'"

"In January, the median prices of homes sold in Boulder, Denver and Douglas turned negative, and the update from CAR shows Adams and Broomfield joined the downward march in February. 'There is a shift in the market, and everyone is trying to predict where it is taking us. Opinions vary widely on this point,' Denver Realtor Jim Brown said."

"Several high-end property markets are softening, which presents a buying opportunity — or a selling crisis. Parts of the Manhattan market have cooled, said Noble Black, a broker at Douglas Elliman. 'The era of aspirational pricing is over,' he said. 'Anyone who is selling a property is selling it for less today than 12 to 18 months ago.'"

"Former New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez slashed $1.25 million off his mid-century Los Angeles home, bringing the asking price down to $5.25 million. Mr. Rodriguez listed the Hollywood Hills home last November for $6.5 million. He purchased the home in 2014 from actress Meryl Streep and her husband for $4.8 million."

"Call it a sign of the times. A home for sale on Vancouver's West Side is getting a lot of attention, and for the first time in years, it's because of how low its price is. The large, detached property on Chaldecott Street was recently listed for just under $4 million. It's more than $2 million under what the same home sold for last spring."

"And the sellers are far from alone. 'Very, very slow sales, and the houses that are selling, you're seeing these very, very large price reductions,' economist Tom Davidoff told CTV News."

"Buying a house in Italy is the stuff of dreams. But try selling one. In the last few years, that has become a nightmare. Well, one man has found a way to beat the market: a raffle. Like so many homeowners in Italy, Jamie Abbott has become a victim of the housing crash. 'The property market is so bad that even for a gorgeous house like [this]...' Abbott said."

"House raffles have been popular in the UK for years, but in desperate Italy they’ve gone past raffles and are practically giving away houses. In January 2018 the town of Ollolai in Sardinia sold 200 uninhabited houses for a euro each. Gangi in Sicily has sold homes for €1 euro since 2014. Sounds desperate? It is."

"A multi-year bull market for Hong Kong housing came to end in August last year. By the end of December the cumulative loss for home prices was 9.2 per cent. Among other headwinds, smaller developers are expected to offer steep price reductions in areas where large numbers of new homes are under construction, such as Tai Po and Tuen Mun."

"DBS Bank believes there is little that can stop the correction in asset prices. 'When buyers realised that there are continuing uncertainties and gloomy outlook about global and regional economies, they will have second thoughts,' said Jeff Yau, a senior research director at DBS. 'The market seems to be better just because it is not as bad as we think half year ago, it does not mean we are in good shape.'"

"Million dollar apartments have become luxury prisons for 48 residents at Tauranga's Cayman Apartments after it was revealed their Code Compliance Certificates 'may have been issued in error' by Tauranga City Council. Apartment owner Deborah Lake has joined a $36 million lawsuit after her lock-and-leave lifestyle apartment turned into a ball and chain alleged to have structural defects, weather-tightness issues and incorrect fire protection."

"'It is a struggle to pay those fees,' she said. 'We've all had to come up with a lot of money and I am unsure if a mortgage would be given on these properties with the Code Compliance Certificate in question. I never knew the council could do that, essentially take away your CCC with a notation. It's just shot our value completely.'"

"The property downturn has left the buyers of as many as 450,000 properties across Sydney and Melbourne with homes worth less than what they paid for them and this figure will almost double if the market continues to fall. The property clock has already wound Sydney prices back to June 2016 levels with values falling 13.2 per cent since they peaked in July 2017. In Melbourne, prices are back to the same level as they were in November 2016, with prices falling 9.6 per cent so far."

"In Perth, property values have fallen 17.8 per cent since they peaked in June 2014 and are now back to where they were in May 2006, almost 13 years ago."

"'That's nearly 1 million people, which would be almost 10 per cent of households – it's a significant number and that's not including Perth or Darwin where property prices have also fallen,' AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said. 'These are people who would be under water in terms of their purchase, although not necessarily equity, and there would be another group of people who bought in 2013 who are now finding they are only a little bit ahead.'"

"But investor Wycee Kohr, who has bought two properties in the last two years – one in Sydney's west for $920,000 and another in Brisbane for $400,000 – isn't convinced by the 'wealth effect' argument. 'I have three daughters and we just bought a dog,' he laughed. 'I don't think I'm going to be cutting back.'"