It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "'The slow-down in the New York market can be attributed to the glut of high-end apartments in New York City, which have sat longer on the market as foreign investments in New York City have slowed down as well,' said Frank J. Rizzo, president of Cornerstone Realty. 'This creates a ripple effect downstream and in the rest of the market.'"

"Actress Meryl Streep has put her penthouse in downtown New York back up for sale at a reduced price of $18.25 million. That’s a 26% price cut from when the unit at the River Lofts, a full-floor condominium building in Tribeca, was first brought to market for $24.6 million in August 2018. Rob Lowe has sweetened the deal in Montecito. With no takers at $47 million, the actor has trimmed the price of his 10,000-square-foot mansion down to $42.5 million."

"Purchased for $285,000 in September of 2007, the 580-square-foot single-family home at 17 Laidley Street hit the market priced at $749,000 this past March. Reduced to $730,000 in July and then to $657,000 last month, the “cheapest single family home in San Francisco” has just been listed anew with an official '1' day on the market and a further reduced $599,000 list price."

"A shift in the St Louis housing market has some homes taking longer to sell, realtors say. Realtors say the shift started about one to two years ago when larger, more expensive homes began sitting on the market longer. They believe it's now a buyers market. Jason Dausman is selling an historic home he renovated in the Central West End. Dausman says he and his wife put the home they renovated on the market two years ago. He's dropped the price over $350,000."

"'It was sort of labor of love for us. Yeah, we hope to do well and make a profit but if that doesn’t happen, that’s okay,' said Dausman.   

"The developer of the Palm House Hotel, one of the largest EB-5 frauds in South Florida history, can no longer afford to pay his lawyers. Matthews was the developer of the condo-hotel project in Palm Beach that began soliciting EB-5 investment in 2012. The development group assured investors that the project would be completed in less than a year and that their money would be protected in an escrow account with a bank."

"For some realtors and developers, the pain continues. On the ground in Vancouver, where sales and prices have been dropping for a little over a year, it’s a story of delayed projects and slashed prices. Michael Geller, the developer behind the Vinson House project, told Star Vancouver in April he was “desperate” to sell the project, which had been sitting on the market for months. One of the three-bedroom units recently sold at $1.7 million, reduced from an initial asking price of $2.59 million, according to MLS records."

"Geller declined to comment on the Vinson House development for this story but said another similar project, Major Rush Mews, is coming to market in two weeks. Geller said he was thinking of creative ways to sell the project, such as trying to identify a large extended family who might like to buy the homes together. 'Hopefully on Rush Mews, I’ll break even,' Geller said."

"Homeowners trying to sell their property at the moment for the price they had initially hoped for may feel that they're fighting a losing battle. But new figures suggests that those vendors who are realistic about the value of their home are succeeding in getting offers - as long as they shave an average of £8,000 off the initial asking price to secure a sale, according to Zoopla. In monetary terms, the biggest discount was in Kensington, where asking prices were typically discounted by £125,000. It equates to 8.3 per cent, based on an average property value in the borough of £1,395,000."

"If you have ever wanted to live in Kileleshwa, Lavington, Loresho or Westlands, but high rent rates were hindering you, the time could be now. Reginald Kariuki has been camping in Loresho for five years now. He lives in a Sh170,000 three-bedroom house. It surprises him that the price has gone down and he believes it can go lower than that. 'I am now paying Sh150,000 and I am confident the landlord can make it go lower because now we can negotiate. Nobody would want to leave such a big house empty, it would look bad on him,' he said."

"Citic has become the latest Hong Kong developer forced into selling new flats at huge discounts to attract buyers amid a property market battered by months of civil unrest. Citic launched its residential project in Ma On Shan at up to 20 per cent below the price of similar properties in the same area. In a bid to woo buyers, other developers have been forced to offer their projects at lower prices."

"'The second-hand market is under pressure, and some owners, especially those with less holding power are willing to reduce their asking price, allowing more room for negotiation,' said Thomas Lam, head of valuation at consultancy Knight Frank."

"Real estate salesman Niko Kloeten, of Harcourts in Pukekohe, agreed there were more cheap operators in the market. He said some people had come into the industry when it was busy and easy to sell properties. Now things were cooling down, it would become harder for the cheaper business models to work. 'You can't just chuck a sign up and wait for people to come and buy the house.'"

"While Australia is made up of many different housing markets driven by different conditions, national house prices were on a rocket rise before peaking around two years ago, and then slipping. 'We're going to see, I think, a significant loss of demand in the high-rise sector specifically,' said Digital Finance Analytics' Martin North. 'We know that more people are now not wanting to 'complete' on high rise buildings that they actually committed to buy off-the-plan. Those rates of default have doubled compared to where they were … in some [areas] property values in the unit sector are down 30 per cent now from where they were and we know there's more ahead.'"