It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Look around Phoenix and you see cranes and construction sites, new buildings everywhere. New home construction in Phoenix largely came to a halt during the recession, but land speculation continued. 'In the early 2000s, a property would be priced at about $10 a square foot for a completely vacant piece of land and near downtown Phoenix. And often after being bought and sold about six times in the span of two years, these properties went up to over a hundred dollars a square foot. So in many times these properties went up tenfold and value without any, any improvement whatsoever being done to the property itself,' said Ben Stanley is a postdoctoral researcher at ASU’s School of Sustainability."

"'It doesn't seem especially sustainable, not just for actual environmental reasons, but just for economic reasons that how do you have an economy that it constantly requires more people to move to the, so the area is constant, requires unending construction and so on?' Stanley asked."

"Arizona lead the nation in new mortgage debt, most of which comes from homeowners refinancing loans to take advantage of lower interest rates. If you add up all the home mortgages Arizonans owe, they total $53.8 billion. That’s over a 2% increase from March. George Mason University real estate finance professor Tony Sanders said refinanced loans make up the majority of all new home loans in Arizona. 'And so what's happened is that since housing prices in the entry sector have really skyrocketed since their lows, that's what's really driving a lot of the debt coming in out of Phoenix for housing,' Sanders said."

"So how likely is a recession? And could Southern Nevada be impacted? 'It was really difficult to get capital, it was really difficult to find credit from banks, and now, it’s not as difficult. It’s just that the banks are scrutinizing people more closely, so I feel more secure in that,' said Dana Berggren, commercial real estate broker. 'Everybody has been a lot more conservative in their business dealings.'"

"It’s getting harder and harder to buy a home in San Diego. But according to Veterans United Home Loans, VA loans in California are surging, and they’re up 15 percent this year in San Diego. VA purchase loans in California are up 66 percent from 2013 to 2018. Chris Birk, Director of Education at Veterans United Home Loan, says in some cases veterans and service members, if they qualify, can get a VA loan for no money down. 'They don't have to build pristine credit,' adds Birk."

"Vets like Wendell Stone and his wife Tessie rented for 30 years. That's when their daughter-in-law Aurora Perez, a realtor at Century 21, helped them understand they could qualify for a VA loan. 'They were able to purchase a home with my help in the Temecula area,' says Perez. 'And then they were able to purchase another home in Oceanside and turn that into an investment property.'"

"Currently, there is a $690,000 cap on VA loans in San Diego County. But Perez says the laws are about to change and next year if a veteran or service member can qualify, there will be no cap for VA loans."

"In the once red-hot Bay Area, home values aren't just growing more slowly, but have actually fallen – the value of the typical home fell 10.5% last month in San Jose and 1.1% in San Francisco compared to July 2018. For reference, at the same time last year home values grew 24% annually in San Jose, a 34.5 percentage point difference."

"Inventory was also up year-over-year in 30 of the nation's 50 largest markets. For-sale inventory grew the most from a year ago in Las Vegas (up 53.5% year-over-year), San Jose (32.6%) and Denver (26.9%). Unlike prior months, recent inventory gains look to be driven largely by growth in newly listed homes – and not necessarily homes lingering longer on the market. Sellers put more than 385,000 homes on the market in July, up 5.7 percent from a year ago and the first annual gain of the year."

"The price on a Napa Valley estate owned by San Francisco restaurateur Pat Kuleto has been cut by $2.8 million since it was first listed more than a year ago. The 6,000-square-foot home went on the market in May 2018 for $8.499 million and has since seen a series of reductions, including one this week that pushed the price down to $5.699 million. Listing agent Lisa Sheppard of Compass real estate said the new price is a reflection of a 'normalizing' market."

"The Twin Silo estate, now for sale in Doylestown, has just experienced a $350K price drop. The property, dating back to 1710, is now priced at $5.9M. On Aug. 13, the price was lowered by $350K. It's the second price drop for the property this year. The house was listed May 15 for $6.75M. Attempts to sell the house for $10.5M in 2014 were not successful."

"A former political candidate last month cut the price on his massive French Regency-style mansion in Winnetka to $4.9 million, almost half of its asking price when it was first listed seven years ago."

"Median home sales prices declined once again last month in Seattle. The survey also found that the July median home price in the Seattle area was 2.6 percent lower than it was in June - an average drop of about $14,000 per home in one month. 'July home prices and sales were weaker than I had expected, especially given that falling mortgage rates have been luring homebuyers back to the market since early spring,' said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather."

"Any Hamptons real estate professional asked will agree that the South Fork market was off to a shaky start in the first half of 2019. Ann-Marie Horan: I think its part of the trifecta: That, plus eight years of price appreciation, coupled by 750,000 lost jobs on Wall Street over the last 10 years."

"Jennifer Friedberg: It’s a buyers’ market and sellers are starting to accept the realities of the new marketplace. That said, inventory is up and buyers are even more price sensitive, spending longer looking and kicking tires. Aimee Fitzpatrick Martin: To my eye, it feels like the scale has tipped a bit in favor of buyers. This is not the time for a seller to 'test the waters' on pricing. If sellers truly want their house to sell and not have it sit on the market, they have to price their home accordingly. Realistic sellers are selling their homes."