A report from the Daily Independent in Kentucky. "The Ashland area real estate market continues to demonstrate significant strength despite coming off a record year for home sales in 2018. Veteran real estate agent Cindy Conley-Jones said sales are hot in Boyd County in part because of USDA loan incentives that allow for zero down purchases in rural areas."

"There were some dips in price points, according to the numbers from the Board of Realtors. Adding up the monthly median closing prices over seven months, the median closing price dropped by 2.9 percent. Total dollars sold dropped by 4.8 percent."

The Press Herald in Maine. "Before the foreclosure auction, Jack and Sue Cary had lived in their retirement home on Nicklaus Drive for nearly three years. They had signed a contract to pay developer Bernie Saulnier Jr. $345,000 in cash to build the one-story house in his new subdivision, The Legends. They paid more than $200,000 in contracted installments and, after the closing was delayed, were granted occupancy while waiting to complete the purchase."

"But Saulnier never closed the sale because of unpaid liens, they said, leaving them living in a house they didn’t legally own. On June 4, after Saulnier’s primary lender foreclosed on his $1.5 million loan, the Carys’ house, seven undeveloped lots and another occupied house in the neighborhood were auctioned off and purchased by the same lender, County Mortgage of Newton, Massachusetts. The Carys, who say they could not afford to pay twice for their house, stood on the sidewalk and watched as it was sold for $350,000."

"'You want to know what it was like?' Jack Cary, 71, said. 'It was like getting shot and knowing you’re dying.'"

"Saulnier, however, disputes the town’s claims there is a lot of unfinished work in the subdivision. He said he had intended to take care of a few remaining issues and close with the last two homeowners before the project ran into financial trouble. He could not move forward with work on the subdivision after encountering unexpected costs, an investor stopped raising money and County Mortgage changed the terms of his loan, he said."

"'If the investor doesn’t continue to invest or the lender doesn’t continue to lend, there’s no money to finish stuff,' Saulnier said."

"After years of unfinished work and flooding problems from improper drainage, the residents of the neighborhood tried to get police and the Maine Attorney General’s Office to open investigations into Saulnier’s handling of the subdivision. But neither has, the residents said. 'This is the neighborhood from hell,' said Geraldine Day, who moved to The Legends three years ago."

The Hartford Courant in Connecticut. "The spring home buying market — traditionally the strongest of the year — didn’t do much to boost overall home sale prices in greater Hartford this year, a new report Friday showed. John M. Zubretsky, president of Weichert Realtors-The Zubretsky Group in Wethersfield, said the spring market ended up with a disappointing finish. 'It started out with a bang and then it stalled,' he said. 'It just didn’t maintain.'"

"Part of the reason, Zubretsky said, is that buyers have turned very demanding in a market that is still recovering. 'They expect a perfect house, at a great price and the seller to cave in on everything,' he said."

The Press Democrat in California. "The leading bidder for a 72-acre Santa Rosa site slated for affordable housing has pulled out of the process amid worries about prolonged delays from litigious neighbors and the two-step, county-city approval required to build up to 750 units on the former county hospital complex. Both the withdrawn bid and a preceding proposal put forward under a controversial failed sale to a local developer two years ago stood to be the single largest housing project in Santa Rosa in a generation.

"The threat of a similar lawsuit loomed large over the California Community Housing Agency proposal and even played into the property’s low appraisal, which dropped to $4.24 million from $7 million in 2016. EAH Housing and Oakmont Senior Living, the other two bidders, each promise 25% of the housing built in their projects would be considered affordable. Either deal, however, would be lower than the $11.5 million offered in 2017 by local developer Bill Gallaher."

From WBIW in Indiana. "Ball State University economists dismiss news media accounts and social media posts that the Midwest is suffering from a housing shortage. 'I hate to throw a wet towel on this, but there is no housing shortage,' said Michael Hicks, director of the Ball State Center for Business and Economic Research. 'Prices haven’t caught up with inflation.'"

"While the Indianapolis area is in a building boom, areas of the state that have experienced population loss are most at risk of too many empty single-family houses, according to the study. Indiana has roughly 316,000 such units, which is enough vacant homes to house nearly a third of the state’s residents. And, about 62 counties face markets where speculative new home construction is not profitable."

"The presence of so many empty homes, as well as a home building industry facing unprofitable conditions, are challenges that Indiana shares with other Midwestern states, the study found. 'We also found that the oversupply of vacant homes suppresses home values in counties and regions where they are most concentrated,' Hicks said. 'This in turn attracts lower skilled workers to communities with more affordable housing.'