A report from 27 East in New York. "The off-market sale of an oceanfront Southampton Village property just closed for near its $35 million asking price, making it one of the top sales of the year across the Hamptons. James Giugliano of Nest Seekers represented the seller and had a hand in bringing the unnamed buyer. Mr. Giugliano said off-market deals are an answer to overpriced properties. 'Everything on-market right now is overpriced,' he said. 'You’re seeing oceanfronts sitting on the market for two, three, four years now.'"

"He said real estate agents are overpromising to get a listing, using 'ridiculous numbers that would never happen.' 'The data backs it up,' he added. 'If you had something listed for over two years and you had price reduction after price reduction, you clearly priced the property wrong.'"

"He points to the brokers, not the sellers who demand top dollar, as the ones who are responsible for overpricing. 'The reason why it’s so hard is not because of the seller themselves,' he said. 'It’s because of everybody else trying to get a listing. Nowadays, the only way to get a listing is to overprice it.'"

The East Hampton Star in New York. "The East End real estate market continued its nearly yearlong slump, according to a third-quarter report from Town and Country that found overall home sales were down 14 percent compared to the same period in 2018. The decline in sales was steep on both ends of the price spectrum, with homes under $500,000 dropping by 39 percent, and those between $5 million and $9.99 million falling by 60 percent."

"Despite the soft third-quarter numbers, Judi Desiderio, the C.E.O. of Town and Country and the author of the report, found one big reason to be optimistic: the sale of a $20.6 million house on the corner of Lily Pond and Hedges Lanes in East Hampton Village. 'There was one sale over $20 million in 2019, and zero in 2018,' she said."

From Curbed Boston in Massachusetts. "Boston condo prices dropped at the end of the summer, though that did not necessarily translate into more sales. The median sales price of Boston condos dropped 4.4 percent in September, to $645,000, compared with the same month in 2018. It was also down year to date 3 percent, to $649,000, compared with the same point in 2018."

"Why the price drops? It most likely has to do with what drove such drops across the wider region at the end of summer: a rise in available homes to buy. Simply put, prospective buyers had more condos to choose from in Boston, and that helped draw down prices."

"The number of active listings was up annually 10 percent and 24.3 percent from August. The number of new condo listings was up 18.5 percent annually and 137.4 percent monthly. And the months of inventory—that is, the time it would take to buy everything that’s out there—stood at 4.1 months by the end of September, a 17.1 percent annual increase and an 86.4 percent one from August."

"The drops in condo prices in Boston proper did not necessarily translate into more sales—rather the opposite. The number of sales was down 7.7 percent annually and 34.9 percent monthly, and is trending sharply downward for the year. This could all just be the calm before the buying storm, however, given the rises in inventory. Sales were up slightly region-wide in September, and it seems prices will not creep back up, according to the realtors association."

"'With sale prices having begun to stabilize, more homes and condos available for sale, and properties sitting on the market longer, home values have most likely peaked in many areas,' said Jim Major, president of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors."