A report from the Los Angeles Times in California. "The Southern California median home price dipped slightly in March from a year earlier, the first annual decrease since 2012 and a sign of a remarkable downshift from the once-sizzling regional housing market. 'It’s slowed down a lot from last year,' said Andrew LePage, an analyst at CoreLogic. 'That’s more important than whether we are north or south of zero by one-tenth a percentage point.'"

"Orange County’s median in March was $20,000 below its all-time high of $740,000 reached in May, June and September of last year. L.A. County’s median last month was $17,500 below its record of $615,000 reached in June. In L.A. County, March prices haven’t been below June levels since 2012, while in Orange County that last happened in 2016."

"Sales continued their declines across the board and have now dropped in each county for at least eight consecutive months. Sales for the region fell 14.1% in March. The latest data show home inventory — the supply of property offered for sale — is rising. According to Zillow, there were 24% more homes for sale in L.A. County last month than in March 2018. In Orange County, listings rose 40%."

"In L.A. County, the softening could also stem from people outright leaving the area or refusing to move here given high costs. According to the latest census estimates, L.A. County’s population declined by 13,000 in the year that ended July 2018. 'It appears we may have hit an inflection point,' in terms of population growth, said Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate."

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. "San Francisco housing startup HomeShare has shut down just weeks after laying off the majority of its staff. HomeShare CEO Jeff Pang apologized to customers and employees in a blog post Friday, pointing to a lack of funds as the reason for the shutdown."

"'As mentioned in our previous blog post a few weeks ago, HomeShare made changes to our service and dramatically reduced staff in an effort to work past unexpected financial constraints,' Pang wrote. 'Unfortunately, these measures were insufficient and HomeShare no longer has funding to continue to operate.'"

"Louise Ho, who has been a HomeShare customer since she moved to San Francisco in February 2018, said she expects to lose about $2,000 to the company in service fees she’s already paid and the room divider deposit that won’t be refunded. 'It feels like I just got scammed, and it’s fraud,' Ho said after receiving the shutdown email."

From 5280 on Colorado. "Buyers, take a breath. A small one. And make it quick, because you still can’t afford to take your sweet time deliberating over whether to stretch your budget to get that extra bathroom—even as the market will likely affect a slightly more leisurely vibe in 2019."

"Multiple bids will continue to be the norm; however, come July and August, Heather Heuer, senior vice president of sales operations for Liv Sotheby’s, expects higher inventory to allow buyers a little more time for deliberation. That could be enough to temporarily slow the feeding frenzy around new listings."

"Says Heuer: 'The bottom dropping out isn’t going to happen.'"

From Preston Hollow People in Texas. "Real estate listings are up in Preston Hollow and the Park Cities, according to data the Texas A&M Real Estate Center. March saw 418 active listings in the Park Cities, up 50 percent from the same month a year ago, and 393 active listings in Preston Hollow, up 22 percent."

"The price per square foot has dropped since December – from $341 to $297 in Preston Hollow and $396 to $392 in the Park Cities."

The Minneapolis/St Paul Business Journal in Minnesota. "Chins up, homebuyers: Prices are still climbing, but not quite as fast. The Twin Cities set a single-month record in March when the median sales price for a single-family home hit $275,000, but there are signs the long-running seller’s market is beginning to turn. That’s the takeaway from the first three months of 2019, according to David Arbit, director of research and economics for Minneapolis Area Realtors, who said the Twin Cities market is 'meandering back toward a middle ground.'"

"'It is good and truly that demand is falling back,' Skylar Olsen, Zillow's director of economic research. 'You had prices appreciate too far, too fast. Income did not keep up, and so homebuyers can't outbid each other anymore.' Olsen noted the most expensive of the country’s 35 largest housing markets, San Jose, Calif., saw home values drop 0.2 percent in March, the first year-over-year decline since 2012."

"'It's starting now,' she said. 'There are places that have already started to turn, that are certainly going, but Minneapolis should join them eventually.'"

"MAR President Todd Urbanski said Twin Cities real estate is still relatively inexpensive compared to other major markets, and a strong, diversified economy helps to keep demand for housing high. Urbanski said the inventory of larger homes in the $500,000-and-up range is growing — 'but I wouldn't call it a glut yet' — and he noted competition for less expensive and especially entry-level homes remains fierce."

From Curbed New York. "A new StreetEasy study on the rental market found that rents in neighborhoods served by the L train haven’t rebounded (as was expected) when the full shutdown of the line was cancelled and a 'slowdown'—which starts today—was proposed instead."

"Earlier this year, StreetEasy’s senior economist Grant Long predicted that rents would 'rise sharply' after the L train full shutdown was called off. But it has been the opposite, the new study found: In the first quarter of 2019, apartments that were previously off the market in neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Greenpoint have now reappeared with lower asking rents."

"StreetEasy economic data analyst Nancy Wu, looked at apartments listed in the first quarter of 2019 that had been on the market during the same period in 2017 and 2018. Of the roughly 4,200 units, 44 percent 'appeared at a lower price this year than in past years.'"

"Neighborhoods with the highest share of apartments re-listed at a lower asking rent, according to the study, include Bushwick (77 percent); Williamsburg (59 percent); Greenpoint (57 percent); and Bed-Stuy (54 percent). 'StreetEasy had predicted that rents in these areas would rise quickly,' Wu said. 'But residual inventory built up from the anticipation of the shutdown has led to a prolonged slump in the area.'"

From The Tribune in Utah. "Salt Lake City is the envy of other mid-size cities for having single-family housing close to the City Center. Ironically, demolition, not preservation of this rich heritage is the growing trend. In 2018, the city approved 60 residential demolition permits, 37 of which were in three zip codes – 84102, 84105 and 84108. A 2018 Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute study says, 'since 1991, housing prices in Salt Lake have increased at a faster rate than housing in San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.'"

"Astoundingly, 91% of all the units approved for construction in Salt Lake City since 2014 were apartments, which a study claims is 'the highest level of new residential construction in the City’s history.' There are now more apartments in Salt Lake (53%) than single-family homes, despite statistics that show the city’s primary population growth from 1990-2010 was 'large, younger families.' How does the glut of apartments satisfy the family housing demand?"