It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "In April, there were 1,852 more homes on the market than the same time in 2018, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. That’s a 36 percent increase and the most active listings in five years. But as the supply grows, demand has fallen in Denver. The number of sales dropped 7 percent in April. This is a phenomenon playing out across the country."

"For some sellers, that has been a tough transition. 'We do see sellers start to panic a little bit after a couple of weeks on the market if they don’t have it done. If they don’t have a contract they start to flip out,' said Justin Knoll, a longtime metro Denver real estate agent."

"In previous years, Knoll said, supply was at or near record low and demand was frenzied. 'You had to make a decision on the hood of the car right now,' Knoll said. “If you’re going to sign this contract or make an offer on a property, you had to decide right then, because five other people, at least, we're doing the same. But now it’s like, 'let me think about this overnight, let me talk to my lender again, let me talk to my financial planner.'"

"For the past five months, homes values have fallen in the Bay Area, breaking a seven-year record of insane gains where prices reached unsustainable levels. New homes are under construction and more homes are for sale, but buyers are not out bidding each other anymore. 'It is less about job loss, less about recession, this is a housing market correction,' said Skylar Olsen with Zillow."

"A report from Redfin reveals that while significantly more homes are available for sale in Seattle, the city is still seeing a decrease in prices over last year. The buyer’s market in Seattle tracks with larger trends in the rest of King County, where inventory increased 78.5 percent over last April, while prices dipped 4.83 percent."

"That’s a downturn Windermere Chief Economist Matthew Gardner labels 'a move back to reality' that the region has been awaiting 'for almost 20 years.'"

"Sale prices in Southwest Washington have generally trended upward each month in the past year, though April was an exception, according to the RMLS data — the average residential sale price dropped. New listings jumped to 1,140 in April, a 10.9 percent increase over the 1,028 new listings the month before and a 14.3 percent increase over the 997 in April 2018. In fact, the report said, it was the strongest April for new listings since 2008."

"Looking at the near-term future of the housing market, Gardner said he expected to see a similar pattern in Clark County and much of the western United States — 'a move back to a more balanced housing market.'"

"It’s no longer just a slowdown: Portland-area home prices have begun to slide after a long post-recession boom, according to one industry measure. Home prices have slowed across the country but overheated West Coast markets have seen a more dramatic turnaround. According to Zillow, home values in Southern California, the Bay Area and Seattle all turned negative before Portland."

"Tim Duy, a University of Oregon economist, said the decline reported by Zillow tracks with other indicators. 'This is broadly consistent with other price measures which show that housing price growth in the Portland area slowed to a crawl beginning in the second half of last year,' Duy said."

"The air is starting to come out of Houston’s robust housing market. The number of homes on the market has been rising, and the average time it took to sell a home has been growing longer. In addition, a large numbers of homes have been selling for less than their list price. These indicators come as mortgage rates have been in decline since November, a factor that should spur homebuyers to enter the market."

"'This most certainly hasn’t happened in a long time,' said Skylar Olsen, Zillow’s director of economic research. 'It’s not common. And it’s definitely not common for it to happen without a recession to match it.'"

"In the usually high-flying Hamptons, the housing market is in a rut. Inventory is up; prices are down. As Aspasia G. Comnas, the executive managing director of Brown Harris Stevens, observed, 'Sellers in the Hamptons are used to the market always going up every year, and if they priced aggressively it didn’t matter.'"

"But in today’s market, homes that are not priced competitively 'are going to have to go through a series of price reductions' before they sell, she said — at all levels of the market, not just at the high end."

"'The Hamptons are trending much like the New York City metro area,' said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, noting that the situation is similar in other parts of the Northeast and in California, where real estate is pricey and property taxes are high. 'The slowdown in sales represents the disconnect between sellers, who are anchored to better times, and buyers, who have a lot of changes to process.'"

"Marvin Arrieta, a broker associate at Century 21, said he received seven offers from buyers the first week after he listed a four-bedroom, three-bath home on a corner lot in South Miami Heights. But Arrieta said the seller had to lower his asking price to $320,000 because banks declined to finance any of the offers received from buyers, many of whom were using FHA loans."

"'Every buyer loved the house and qualified for the loan, but the banks are tough about appraisal,' Arrieta said. 'They are concerned about the value of the house, even though it’s rare to find a single-family home near Kendall at this price. Usually it’s $400,000 or more.'"

"The fact that this condo sold at a loss may indicate a weakness in the luxury condo market in Miami-Dade County. A condo at Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach sold for $10 million, which was less than the price it traded for as a brand new unit. It last traded in 2017 for $11.23 million."

"The number of new foreclosure filings in the Tampa Bay area jumped in April. According to ATTOM Data Solutions, filings rose 9.15 percent in Hillsborough, 15.6 percent in Pinellas and a whopping 112 percent in Pasco. On an annualized basis, foreclosure starts in Florida jumped 34 percent."

"One in 290 properties in Osceola County, Florida started the foreclosure process during the first quarter of the year – the 16th highest foreclosure rate among U.S. counties with at least 100 foreclosures nationwide, according to an ATTOM Data Solutions. Osceola County's foreclosure rate was the highest in the Sunshine State. The foreclosure rate in the county was up 79.9 percent from the same period a year earlier."

"Those major metropolitan statistical areas with a population greater than 500,000 that saw a large annual increase in foreclosure starts from last year included Orlando, Florida(up 90 percent); Miami, Florida (up 45 percent); Columbus, Ohio (up 35 percent); Portland, Oregon (up 31 percent); and El Paso, Texas (up 22 percent). 17 states had an annual increase in foreclosure starts. Those states included Washington (up 38 percent); Florida (up 34 percent); Oregon (up 22 percent); Louisiana (up 12 percent); and Georgia (up 11 percent)."

"States with the highest foreclosure rates were New Jersey (one in every 980 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Maryland (one in every 1,218 housing units); Delaware (one in every 1,249 housing units); Illinois (one in every 1,371 housing units); and Florida (one in every 1,415 housing units). Among 220 metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000, those with the highest foreclosure rates in April 2019 were Atlantic City, New Jersey (one in every 702 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Fayetteville, North Carolina (one in every 732 housing units); Clarksville, Tennessee (one in every 853 housing units); Columbia, South Carolina (one in every 946 housing units); and Deltona-Daytona Beach, Florida (one in every 966 housing units)."

"10 states posted year-over-year increases in REOs in April 2019, including Washington (up 53 percent); Connecticut (up 22 percent); Kentucky (up 19 percent); and New York (up 3 percent)."

"Five years after the collapse, the rest of the nation had reduced its foreclosures to pre-crisis levels. That has taken New Jersey more than a decade — a period in which not only has it led all others states in the rate of foreclosures, but Atlantic County has led all other U.S. metropolitan areas in foreclosures. While court actions protected hard-pressed borrowers, they also helped prolong the damage to the real estate market caused by abandoned and foreclosed properties."

"The New Jersey reforms will probably ensure that it doesn’t have America’s worst performance next time a recession is sparked by a housing crisis. Whether the improvements are enough to ensure the state doesn’t needlessly prolong foreclosures and the next downturn, only experience will tell."