It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The number of new home purchases has certainly slowed amid the construction industry's struggles, though it’s not impossible for buyers to find a new home to purchase. In many cases, homebuilders have simply had to slow their timelines and cut down on how many deals they make at a time to avoid a glut of incomplete homes with impatient owners. 'They’re rationing how many homes they’re even making available for people to put a down payment on,' says Nick Bailey, president of Re/Max."

"The U.S. housing market appears to be straining under the weight of its own pandemic-driven success. Recent data shows the sector is returning from the stratosphere and coming back to pre-COVID levels, as evidenced by a slew of data released this week. 'The housing market isn't caving just yet,' said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. 'Have we reached a peak? That's a possibility, but worst-case scenario, I see a leveling off.'"

"'We may have turned a corner on inventory,' said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. 'There is some softening in the demand.'"

"The boiling US housing market took a refreshing dip in the pool in June. 'I don’t believe you’ll see the kinds of [price] increases you’ve seen in the last 12 months,' Sheryl Palmer, a home-builder executive, told the WSJ. 'That’s not sustainable.'"

"The Austin housing market might be showing signs of slowing down after an intensely competitive period. Mortgage purchase applications dropped by 17.8% from July 10 to July 16 and by 28.5% from July 3 to July 9. Eric Bramlett, owner of Bramlett Residential, said the dip in mortgage purchase applications will feel like a huge slowdown for buyers and sellers. 'It's going to feel like we fell off a cliff, but we're really just returning to the normal, robust market that Austin has been in for at least the last half decade,' Bramlett said."

"'I think we're beginning to start seeing some of that reversion back to norm, because quite frankly, you can't see sales increasing 25% a year or home prices going up 20% a year,' said Jim Gaines, a research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University."

"Amid the current craze, what is the status of the Seacoast real estate frenzy? John Rice, statistician for the Seacoast Board of Realtors said 'If you have a burner on a stove that was on high, maybe somebody turned it down to medium high,' he said of the current market. That may be a sign that the local real estate craze might be beginning to wane, but for now, Rice believes the demand for Seacoast homes still has plenty of stamina. 'This is craziness what we’ve had. It’s craziness, and it’s totally unsustainable,' he said. 'Everyone knows it's unsustainable.'"

"Rice said that the June increase in Seacoast-area home listings, though skimpy compared to years past, means the market could be on its way to correcting itself. 'That can only mean one thing: prices are bound to moderate and buyers will take maybe a little more time to make their decisions because there’s a little more time,' he said. One thing Rice can’t measure is the current consumer confidence in the market, a widespread feeling he said has proved to be 'unshakeable' in recent months. 'There’s a lot of faith in the value of real estate right now. If that were to get shaken then you’d see the market change,' he said."

"Existing home sales in Maine continued on a hot streak in June. However, there are some signs of a summer lull coming to some areas, including Portland. 'In the Portland area we are experiencing a summer slowdown, with not as many situations with multiple offers, houses sitting longer and price drops,' said Brit Vitalius, founder of Vitalius Real Estate Group."

"The number of homes for sale in the Denver metro area grew in June by more than almost any other city in the nation. 'The market before was kind of nuts where you’d ride on a property and you’d be one of 10 offers or even more in some cases,' said John Crosbie of Liv Sotheby’s International Realty. 'If you’re in a neighborhood and all of a sudden when beforehand you were one of the only properties to look at, now all of a sudden there’s three, yeah, as a seller, you’re one of three.'"

"'It's still competitive. We're going from 20 offers on a place to four offers on a place,' said Angelica Olmsted, an agent at Denver's RE/MAX Professionals Cherry Creek. 'It is more important than ever for sellers to price correctly. If it's not priced correctly, it will sit, you will have to drop the price and people will think something is wrong with it.'"

"New listings during the month were up in all four counties — by as much as 42 percent year-over-year in Pasco. Ann Rogers, a St. Petersburg broker associate at Foresite Residential Real Estate, said even though the inventory changes are slight on paper, they’ve been very noticeable in the market. 'It’s making a huge difference,' she said. 'Now all of a sudden, there’s stuff to send my customers.'"

"There are still bidding wars, Rogers said, but they’re a little less ubiquitous. And she’s noticed price reductions on houses that were listed too high, a shift that she’s watching to see if it continues into a multi-month trend. 'I think what we’re going to see is some people taking a pause and saying, ‘If we’ve reached the top of the market, I don’t want to be the last one to pay the highest price in the neighborhood,' Rogers said."

"It’s a sign that more sellers are placing their homes on the market, raising expectations that the year’s nagging inventory shortage will be thrown into reverse. 'The across-the-board increase in the premiums paid for housing throughout the state is very worrisome,' Ken H. Johnson, real estate economist and associate dean at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business, said in a report. 'Trees do not grow to the sky, and neither do home prices.'"

"As the buying frenzy in Toronto-area real estate settles down, sellers need to navigate the market with a little more finesse these days. Andre Kutyan, a real estate agent with Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd., says much of his job this summer revolves around managing homeowners’ expectations. 'Some sellers are in a different stratosphere as to what they think their home is worth.' In the condo market, units in the $550,000 to $650,000 range are sometimes selling for less than similar units sold for in the same building in the spring, Mr. Kutyan says."

"He sold a one-bedroom unit with parking at 230 Queen’s Quay West for $640,500 in June, after comparable units sold for as much as $666,000 between March and May. The seller was disappointed not to break above $650,000. 'The seller was cognizant of the market,' he says. 'Ultimately the longer it sits, the less it’s going to sell for.'"

"Robert Herjavec has snapped up an apartment at New York’s One57 for roughly $34.5 million, he confirmed. The deal represents a major loss for the seller, a limited-liability company with an address at the offices of Pacific American, a company with ties to Chinese conglomerate HNA Group. The company paid $47.37 million for the unit about six years ago, The Wall Street Journal reported, and the apartment was listed for $45 million in July 2020."

"The transaction is the latest in a string of building sales to close at a loss over the past few years. Another company linked to Pacific American sold a different unit in the building for $17.2 million last year, property records show. It paid $29.5 million for the unit in 2014. Jorge Lopez of Compass, Mr. Herjavec’s real-estate agent, said he doesn’t believe the sale price reflects the market, or even the market for the building, as much as it speaks to the seller’s desire to close on the sale quickly. 'The seller wanted out,' he said."