A report from the Berkshire Eagle in Massachusetts. "Single- and multifamily home sales showed modest gains over the first half of the year, according to the Berkshire Realtors. South county has a glut of homes for sale in the $1 million-plus range — 19 percent of homes for sale in the southern part of the Berkshires are in that price range, but make up less than 5 percent of sales."

The Bay Area Newsgroup in California. "The number of rabid bidding wars among Bay Area home buyers is sinking, with some of the steepest declines in the San Jose metro area, a new report says. The drop in bidding wars is a sign of just how far the housing market has cooled. The Bay Area declines mirror a national trend, in which the percentage of offers with bidding wars sunk to 11 percent last month, according to Redfin — the lowest level since 2011."

"Sales of existing Bay Area homes already have swooned. In June,  sales fell 13 percent from the previous year, according to CoreLogic. That was the slowest June since 2008, when the real estate market tanked and the U.S. economy sank into a deep recession."

"Even though prices have come down, they’re not falling far enough, says Matt Regan, a housing expert for the Bay Area Council. 'A limited number of people can afford a million dollar mortgage. More and more people are waiting on the sidelines to see if the insanity will end.'"

"Alan Barbic, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors, says  bidding wars still happen when a home has been realistically priced. 'But it’s not as off-the-charts as it was last year,' says Barbic. 'A lot of sellers just don’t get it. You have to price it right. That’s critical. Otherwise you may have to do multiple open houses and price reductions.'"

The Orange County Register in California. "In Silicon Valley, prices took the nation’s second-biggest loss in the quarter: a 5.3% year-over-year decline. That’s quite the contrast from 2016-2018, when the San Jose-Santa Clara market’s prices averaged 15.7% annual gains — the No. 1 gain nationally."

"Just to the north, San Francisco suffered the seventh-biggest U.S. decline of 1.9% in the year. Again, quite the flip-flop: In 2016-2018, San Francisco prices averaged 9.6% annual increases — the No. 19 gain. Looking at a broad spectrum of housing benchmarks, one thing’s clear: California’s big price gains are history."

"Let’s have a chat about what’s a bubble and when is it bursting. Bubbles are unsustainable economic advances. Falling prices alone do not indicate a bubble or its imminent bust. But depreciation is certainly a negative trend worth serious attention. And this may be a case of 'be careful what you wish for.' You could dismiss these 2019 price dips as a predictable plateau after a long-running upswing. But painless plateaus are hard to accomplish."

"That’s because depreciation hurts economically … and emotionally. Lots of people talk about wanting more 'affordable' housing in California, but the creation of relative bargains with price cuts on existing homes often scares off the same house hunters who claim they want to pay less. Why? These wannabe owners can get scared of overpaying as a price slide begins. Or they’ll wait to buy, hoping the discounts only get steeper. That wait-and-see mentality can amplify an already souring situation."

From Showbiz Cheatsheet on New York. "This season of Million Dollar Listing New York started with a few shockers. In addition to learning that two new cast members became fathers and the return of Luis D. Ortiz, brokers shared that the New York luxury housing market is drying up."

"For years the brokers scored multi-million dollar listings, breaking sales records while amassing quite a personal fortune. However, the days of making an easy sale are long gone. Cameras follow the cast’s struggle to sell even discounted properties."

"During the season 8 premiere, broker Ryan Serhant explains how long a typical Manhattan luxury property remains on the market. 'This is no joke,' he revealed in a confessional interview. 'Homes over $4 million have an average days-on-market of 450 days. It has never been that way.'"

"As properties become stale on the multiple listing service, sellers are in panic mode, slashing prices to unload properties. Heavy reports that '11% of sellers in the Manhattan real estate market cut their prices as homes on the market increased by 11.7%. In February 2019, the Street Easy Manhattan Price Index decreased to its lowest level since July 2015."

From CNBC Make It. "Actor Nicholas Cage was once a top earner in Hollywood, worth around $150 million, but he didn’t hold onto the fortune for long. Cage squandered it on a string of expensive and often eccentric purchases, eventually facing foreclosure on several properties."

"At one point, Cage owned 15 residences across the world, including homes in California and Las Vegas and a deserted island in the Bahamas. He also bought a series of more bizarre items. What really put Cage in the red financially weren’t the eccentric items, however, but his overstuffed real estate portfolio."

"For Cage, part of the appeal of real estate also stemmed from his childhood. Growing up outside of Beverly Hills with his professor father, he lived modestly. 'I would take the bus to school, and some of the older boys were going to school in Maseratis and Ferraris,' he tells the Times."

"Even at a young age, he longed for more. 'My uncle [Francis Ford Coppola] was very generous. I would visit him for summers, and those summers — I wanted to be him,' he explains. 'I wanted to have the mansions. That was driving me.'