It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Home prices slipped in some of the costliest U.S. markets in the second quarter. Prices slid 5.3% in the San Jose region. Prices slipped 1.9% in the San Francisco area and 1.2% in urban Honolulu. 'Housing unaffordability will hinder sales irrespective of the local job market conditions,' said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the Realtors group. 'This is evident in the very expensive markets as home prices are either topping off or slightly falling.'"

"In the Los Angeles-Orange County metro area, total permits — an indication of future construction — fell by 25%, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Single-family permits dropped 18.5% in the region, while those for multifamily projects such as apartment buildings -- a category in which activity tends to be more volatile -- fell 28.6%. 'We are going in exactly the wrong direction,' said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics."

"Over the last year, they said, the potential profit on many new projects has shrunk to the point at which it doesn’t make sense for builders or their financiers to take the risk. 'No one is interested in doing loans to lose money,' said Scott Laurie, chief executive of Olson Co., which builds single-family and town homes throughout Southern California. Laurie said land sellers also have gotten a bit 'more realistic' with their pricing, which could help more builders like him break ground. But it’s still hard to find places to build the $400,000-to-$650,000 homes the firm specializes in."

"Though the numbers are great, we are seeing some change in greater Nashville. 'To be honest its slowed down a bit this year compared to years past, it was a rat race, multiple offers, things selling 20-30-40 thousand above list price,' said. 'I think that has to do with more competition, more homes, more inventory.' He added that suburban areas are finally starting to catch up to demand and it’s making it a market for buyers where sellers are now willing to negotiate terms."

"Daniel Satizabal, born and raised in Miami, is paying off his student loans and soon looking to buy a home instead of renting one. But since his friend tried to make an offer on a home in Tampa and was outbid by a foreign investor, Satizabal has been feeling discouraged. He sees new developments popping up across the state but wonders how many of them are even being occupied by full-time residents. 'It makes you question who they are building these [condos] for?' Satizabal, 29, asked. 'There’s such a disparity between the value of these places and the median income of people working in these cities.'"

"Satizabal asked: How many vacant homes are in Florida, and what is the extent of this problem? As it happens, there are quite a few. Using data recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau, LendingTree found earlier this year that 17.09% of Miami’s 2 million households were vacant. Vacancies include housing that is for seasonal use, for sale, for rent or unoccupied. The March 2019 study found that the top three U.S. cities with the highest vacancy rates were all in Florida: Miami had the highest percentage, followed by Orlando (16%) and Tampa (15.3%)."

"Buffalo, NY is seeing the greatest spike in foreclosure filings—they jumped 33% over the previous year. Buffalo was followed by Orlando, FL, where foreclosure filings were up 32%; Jacksonville, FL, at 18%; Miami, at 7%; and Tampa, FL, at 5%."

"In Melfort, as with most places in the northeast, it is a buyers market. Just south, Humboldt is also in a buyers market right now. 'When you price your house right, or get it in that price range where the buyers are willing to pay, then stuff happens,' broker Dan Torwalt told northeastNOW. 'And I think it’s been a little bit of a learning curve for the market, especially the sellers to understand that the glory days of four, five, six, seven years ago aren’t there, and I don’t know if they’ll come back again to that for a while unless something big happens in this area.'"

"RICS said an index of prices returned to clear negative territory. Weakness was felt most in London, East Anglia and the South-east, where values are expected to continue declining over the next year - despite a falling pound making it cheaper for foreigners to buy UK assets. 'Some support may be provided by an easing in the cost of money which could feed through into lower mortgage finance costs, but this may be insufficient to provide a spur to lift activity given the clouds hanging over the economy,' said RICS' chief economist Simon Rubinsohn."

"Property prices have crashed in some of Cape Town’s priciest suburbs as demand evaporates. In a statement on Wednesday, estate agent Seeff’s MD for the Atlantic seaboard and city bowl, Ross Levin, said recent sales had been concluded at 'anything between 20% and 50% below the asking prices.' He added: 'The market is already down by 40% since 2016/17, and despite the expected uptick following the election, the reality has been a further decline of 15% in value generated during the first half of this year. High-end sales remain especially slow.' Rentals have also plummeted, said Seeff’s rentals manager for the Atlantic seaboard, Natalie Muller."

"Singapore remained in the world’s top ten most expensive market for prime residential property, even as prices here fell 1.1 percent during the first half of 2019, revealed a Savills report. This comes as the 'slowdown seen across the world’s leading prime city housing markets during the second half of 2018 continued into 2019,' noted Savills."

"Billion Development and Project Management on Tuesday released the first batch of flats at its Tsuen Wan project at discounts of up to 10 per cent to rates prevailing in the district, in the first sign that two months of unrest in Hong Kong is having an impact on property prices.The smallest flat is priced at HK$3.81 million or HK$17,558 per sq ft. 'The price of the newly released flats is lower than some of the second-hand flats nearby, like Chelsea Court and Vision City,' said Sammy Po Siu-ming, chief executive of Midland Realty’s residential division. 'There haven’t been any new flats released for less than HK$4 million in Tsuen Wan in recent years.'"

"Sales volumes remain 30 per cent below the June average for the past three years in what is already a seasonally-weak period, according to analysis by Morgan Stanley. 'If clearance rates can be sustained in a lifting auction volume environment than we may see a stronger housing recovery – although this looks unlikely at this stage,' its analysis warns. 'Melbourne remains a buyers’ market,' says Perron King, HTW Melbourne director. 'Buyers are not as rushed as they once were and now have time to consider options.'"