A report from KTVQ in Montana. "The trend continues as it’s more expensive than ever to buy a home in Missoula. Earned income is also up, but housing experts say it’s not catching up fast enough. Brint Wahlberg with the Missoula Organization of Realtors says there are plenty of homes available in the Missoula area, but ones listed under $350,000 are hard to come by and go up quickly when they get onto the market."

"'What happens is when the right property comes up, people are bidding as close as full price, or over full price, and our stats show that. The houses just keep going up, we set the new benchmark, and away you go,' Wahlberg said."

The Wall Street Journal. "The spring home-buying season is shaping up as the best in years, offering new opportunities after last year’s tough housing market drove away many would-be buyers. Evan Busteed, a 28-year-old attorney in Philadelphia, has been looking or a home off and on for a year and started looking seriously in January. In the trendy Fishtown neighborhood, he found homes that looked overpriced and had sat on the market for weeks. He saw about seven places between January and mid-March that fit his criteria."

"Then suddenly, on the first day of spring things shifted. Mr. Busteed saw seven places in one March weekend. 'My phone was exploding with notifications about places going on the market,' he said. 'Once I find the right thing and I’m serious about it, if one of these turns into a bidding war where I can’t afford it, it’s not like there’s a lack of inventory.'"

"The most dramatic turn has been on the West Coast, where price growth has slowed after soaring over the past five years. The rising number of homes on the market has braked that ascent. Inventory in Seattle, for example, doubled in February compared with a year earlier; it was up more than 80% in the San Jose, Calif., metro area, according to Redfin."

"Other major markets like Philadelphia also are experiencing a shift to the buyer. Only 17% of offers written by Redfin agents in Philadelphia faced a bidding war in March 2019, compared with 47% a year earlier."

"Economists and real-estate agents caution that for those planning to resell a home in a few years, now may still be a risky time to buy given that the market appears to be heading for a longer-term slowdown. 'People know that the seven-year run isn’t going to be here forever,' said Mike McCann, an associate broker at Keller Williams Philly. 'It’s a good time to buy as long as long you’re going to stay in the property five-plus years.'"

From The Hour on Connecticut. "The number of new housing permits issued in Connecticut last month was down by 33.4 percent compared to February 2018, according to the state Department of Economic and Community Development. The dramatic decline in new housing permits is further evidence Connecticut’s economy is slowing, said Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist for New Haven-based DataCore Partners."

"'The resale markets are softening up, as well,' Klepper-Smith said. 'Labor market conditions are adversely affecting what is happening on the housing side. Builders are taking a cautious approach toward bringing new inventory onto the market and it’s likely 2019 will represent a step down from previous years in terms of housing activity.'"

From Crain's Chicago Business in Illinois. "One of five homes that were vying to be River Forest's first $3 million sale in over a decade has sold, at significantly less than $3 million. The six-bedroom Italianate house, built 100 years ago on Ashland Avenue, sold March 22 for $1.6 million. That's half the $3.2 million the sellers were asking when they first put it on the market, in June 2017."

"The seller, who had owned the house at 914 Ashland since the mid-1980s, 'had moved out and was ready to get rid of it, and that was the price we could get,' said Robert Swindal, the agent who represented the house."

"All four of the other contenders in the $3 million derby on a two-block stretch of Ashland Avenue have cut their prices to well below $3 million. 'This is where the luxury market is in River Forest now,' Swindal said. 'It's declining.' The asking price had fallen several times, the last time in December, to $2.25 million."

From CNN Business. "In the wake of recent tax reform, affluent homeowners are paying a lot more attention to their property taxes. Now large property tax bills are hitting homeowners harder and spurring buyers to think twice before buying in a high-tax neighborhood."

"'If I have a buyer that is looking for a million dollar house,' says Lehigh Cohen, a realestate agent who works in the northern suburbs of Chicago. 'They will look closely at the tax bill. Is it $20,000? Or is it $30,000? That's a significant difference for the budget of people moving up. They may nix the houses with $30,000 tax bills.'"

"'In Westchester County — towns like Larchmont, Rye, Mamaroneck — the taxes are crazy high,' says Mary Ellen Gallagher, a real estate agent and partner of Compass Westport Team KMS Partners in Connecticut. She says for many luxury buyers, taxes don't always play into their decision to buy a new home, but can be a deterrent for those looking to move up to a larger and pricier home."

"'I think it is hurting the luxury market,' says Gallagher. 'Because people aren't trading up.'"