A report from the New York Times. "For thousands of luxury condo owners in New York who have received deep tax breaks for a decade or more, the taxman is coming. The end of those benefits, through an expired program known as 421-a, could not have come at a worse time for many sellers, who are faced with mounting taxes and stiff competition in a weak market. Some are selling for marginal returns or even less than what they paid several years ago."

"New York is also in one of the toughest markets for sellers in years, said Lindsay Barton Barrett, an agent with Douglas Elliman. 'People are sensitive to everything now,' Barrett said of buyers, who have ample choice and might be leery of buying a unit that used to have much lower carrying costs. 'It’s almost this sense of unfairness — that the person who came before them got this benefit, and they’re not,' she said."

From WKRN in Tennessee. "Greater Nashville home sales continue to increase at a faster pace than the national average, according to RE/MAX. Though the market is cooling off slightly, it’s still competitive. Erin Krueger at Compass Real Estate, says the numbers are great, but according to Jeff Tucker, an economist with Zillow, compared to years prior, the market is slowing. 'This was a big cooling down year for Nashville, as Nashville is coming off some of the fastest home growth in the country,' Tucker said. Tucker says that’s mostly in part to a rising inventory."

"As for 2020, we’re still seeing all-time highs for Nashville prices, looking out over the next year experts think home price growth will keep slowing but not go into free fall or into the negatives."

The Mail Tribune in Oregon. "Home sales continue to tick up across Jackson County. The numbers show that housing prices have started to decline a bit this fall in some local areas compared to last year, although prices overall are much higher across the county than they were five years ago. The median price of an existing home fell in Talent, Phoenix and Jacksonville between August and November compared to the same time last year, according to the data."

"Existing homes spent 48 days on the market this year compared to 39 last year. New homes spent an average of 58 days on the market in 2018 compared to 99 days this year. Many of his clients are coming from metro areas such as Seattle or Portland, said Scott Lewis, Realtor with John L. Scott Ashland and former president of the Southern Oregon Multiple Listing Service. 'They get the high quality of life here, great weather — plus, flush toilets and electricity,' he joked. 'We’ve got it all.'"

The Colorado Sun. "There’s not enough new housing, and rising prices are still an issue, said Matthew Leprino, managing broker at The Ridgewood Company and spokesman for the Colorado Association of Realtors. But the industry is seeing appreciation slow. He’s hopeful that 2020 could become a buyer’s market — even in Boulder, where the median sales price hit $629,000 in October."

"'Boulder just got so expensive, especially due to the limit-growth initiatives that they have there. But now Broomfield is seeing that spillover while Boulder isn’t getting more expensive,' he said. 'Our spokesperson up in Boulder, Kelly Moye, actually forecast that in 2020, it’s going to be a buyers market in Boulder County, and that’s the first time since 2012.'"

From Mansion Global on Washington. "A futuristic home, dreamed up by a diamond heiress in the town of Tenino, Washington, came back on the market Friday with a price cut of $5.1 million. First listed for $11 million in August 2018, the 8,462-square-foot pad belongs to Rebecca Oppenheimer, heiress of the international diamond corporation De Beers. It went through a $2.11 million price cut this past August before further dropping to $5.9 million."

"The two-story eco-friendly home has four bedrooms, and is situated on an 82-acre piece of land. Ms. Oppenheimer purchased the multi-parceled land for $6 million, said Michael Morrison, the listing agent. After dropping to nearly half of its original asking price, Ms.Oppenheimer hopes potential buyers are motivated to make a move. 'She wants to get it a good steward for the property. It’s not so much about profit,' Mr. Morrison said."

The East Bay Times in California. "They’re the silent scourge of Fremont — open house signs that clutter street corners and sidewalks every weekend, sometimes before dawn and well into the evening hours. Now, after years of hearing residents complain, city officials plan to clamp down on real estate agents who plant the signs in strategic locations to get a leg up on the competition. 'It’s out of control,' Fremont Councilman Raj Salwan said. 'To be the big guy in town, you’ve got to have a million signs, that’s what’s happening.'"

"Although the city has its share of anti-blight rules, when it comes to open house signs it might as well be the Wild West. There are no rules limiting the number of signs a real estate agent can put up, and officials say a few of them are taking advantage of the vacuum. The result has been a house-marketing arms race of sorts, with some agents calling out others for making them look bad."

"Wayne Morris, Fremont’s deputy community development director, said the city likely will limit the number of signs allowed per intersection and per for-sale parcel, set a maximum distance between a sign and home, and establish rules to keep signs away from historic buildings such as Mission San Jose. 'You look at historic Mission San Jose, it’s terrible, the whole intersection is littered with signs,' Salwan said."

"Mattie Wei, a realtor in Fremont who has also received some city-issued fines for misplaced signs, empathizes with residents who think the signs can be a 'nuisance,' but said she has no choice but to put up about 20 per home to compete with other realtors who are placing dozens more. 'Our listings are next to each other, and if I place five signs, what do you think my seller will say to me? ‘Mattie, you don’t have enough signs,' she said."

From Los Angeles Magazine in California. "A new UCLA Anderson School quarterly forecast predicts that while California’s economic growth will hit a speed bump next year, the state will continue to outpace the rest of the country, the L.A. Times reports. 'This is still above the U.S. rate,' writes forecast director Jerry Nickelsburg. 'While we expect further slowing of the California economy as part of the U.S. economic growth slowdown in 2020, this differential is expected to persist.'"

"As is often the case, much of the good financial news doesn’t necessarily apply to Los Angeles. While most of California’s big cities saw job growth of more than 2 percent this year, L.A. matched the nation’s average of just 1.35 percent. With the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown hampering everything from agriculture to tech and hospitality, jobs in construction, professional and business services, and information have grown at a sluggish rate, the study finds."

"As for California’s troubled housing market, there’s not much relief in sight. Nickelsburg notes that lower interest rates on mortgages 'did little to revitalize the real estate market,' with the home building rate stagnating between 100,000 and 150,000 since the summer. And because part of that construction went to rebuild houses lost in natural disasters, Nickelsburg warns that 'the state has clearly fallen behind in home production relative to population growth and future needs, and this is not expected to change any time soon.'"

"The forecast also addresses whether next year will bring a mere slowdown or a full-fledged recession, with UCLA economist Edward A. Leamer laying 19 percent odds that the latter will strike by the third quarter of 2020. Here, too, Los Angeles could suffer its own unique pain. Leamer warns that, along with manufacturing, mining, information and software, 'the movie business' could be especially hard-hit."

"'Now is the time for a personal stress test,' he says. 'Is your family/business relying on income from jobs or sales that are threatened? Do you have debt service obligations that depend on those earnings or do you have other threatened earnings? If yes, sell off some assets to retire some of that debt.… Cash is what you want in a recession when asset prices are plummeting.'"