A report from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader in South Dakota. "It’s a bit like Black Friday, but for homes instead of 72-inch TVs. Home buying is so competitive now that anyone looking has to plan ahead, down to their maximum offer. 'Maybe they’re approved for $300,000, and they offer $275,000 and get turned down; we want to get them approved (for that) offer of what their max is (to get) that home,' said Blaine Fopma, a 12-year mortgage banker at Reliabank Dakota. '(To) not give up is the biggest thing,' said Fopma of looking or getting a loan. 'I’m willing to take a look at their situation and sometimes we do that every six months until they’re approved.'"

From WABI. "Maine’s housing market is red hot. 'I haven’t experienced it in my timeline. To see this, like this and it’s a little, a little daunting maybe for me because I worry more about my clients and what they’re getting themselves into,' said Lisa Caron, Broker at NextHome in Bangor. 'I would say two years ago that $150,000 home was probably 125, sometimes a little bit less. We’re seeing that the increase is there but the quality the home isn’t necessarily there it’s still probably the quality, it was before.'"

"After purchase you will still need to be able to afford that home and avoid that dreaded title of being house poor. 'The scary thing for agents is to see someone in that desperation mode because they’re getting to the point where they’ll just pay anything to get into a home,' Caron said."

The Sun Journal in North Carolina. "In Craven County, the housing market still favors the sellers’ and will remain that way, however a steady balancing has begun. 'We are still in a sellers’ market and interest rates are still very affordable. I don’t think we will fly into a balanced or buyers’ market very quickly, but rather, I think it will be a steady change over time,' said Amber Jones, local real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty New Bern."

"In the past two to three weeks, however, homes are starting to stay on the market a little longer and there has been a slight increase in listed inventory. 'I think with lumber prices becoming more reasonable and with people wanting to travel during the summer, the race and interest to find a home now is slowing down,' Jones said."

From Click on Detroit. "The market is finally seeing a slight shift in demand. Over the last several months, the housing market has been cut-throat, with people offering way more than houses are worth, and sometimes all in cash. Jeanette Schneider, president of RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan, says the situation isn’t as bad as it was a few months ago. 'What I have seen is that the frenzy that I saw -- buyers were crazy for houses -- has cooled a little bit,' Schneider said. '(We’re seeing) five or six offers, not 20 offers.'"

From Mortgage Professional America. "Sales of newly-built single-family homes fell to a pandemic low in June, indicating that the COVID-induced homebuying frenzy is calming down. Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan said that while the June sales were significantly lower than projected, the slump in sales was not surprising. 'A recent measure of homebuilders’ sentiment revealed a pullback in the buyer foot traffic metric, which reached the lowest level in nearly a year, while the June 2021 Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index showed a further increase in the share of respondents indicating it’s a bad time to buy a home. We believe many of the past year’s buyers likely pulled forward their intended purchases to take advantage of low mortgage rates and remote working opportunities, while stimulus checks provided down payment support,' he said."

"'New home sales fell in June to their lowest level since the depth of the pandemic, in April 2020,' said Holden Lewis, home and mortgage specialist at NerdWallet. There were 353,000 new homes for sale at the end of June, the highest monthly inventory since December 2008, according to Lewis."

From Arlington Now in Virginia. "How has Arlington’s condo market performed in the first half of 2021? I think the biggest story in the condo market for Arlington and the D.C. metro area is the historically high number of condos being listed for sale since Q3 2020. There is clearly a flight out of condos by homeowners and investors, and the demand is not high enough to absorb the extra supply, so inventory levels have returned to 2015-2016 levels when we were in the midst of a near zero-growth condo market (in Arlington)."

"The return to 2015-2016 inventory levels isn’t a bad thing, but the suddenness of that shift was difficult for sellers to manage after we experienced a red-hot condo market from late 2018 (Amazon HQ2 announcement) to early 2020 (pre-pandemic)."

The Washington Post. "According to AEI, approximately 14.7 percent of the 7.6 million FHA borrowers were delinquent in May and 10.5 percent were seriously delinquent (90 days or more past due), compared to 17.4 percent in September 2020 who were delinquent and 11.8 percent who were seriously delinquent. In the Washington area, 15.8 percent of all mortgage loans were delinquent as of May 31 and 14.5 percent of loans were seriously delinquent. FHA loans represent 13.7 percent of all loans in the metro area."

"AEI’s research found that in the Washington area neighborhoods with a high concentration of FHA loans are also areas with a higher share of minority borrowers and higher debt-to-income ratios, which compare the minimum payment on all recurring debts with gross household income. Currently, the area with the highest concentration of mortgage default risk and FHA loans is Prince George’s County, which was the hardest hit county in the D.C. area during the foreclosure crisis."

"The 10 cities at risk because of a large percentage of FHA loans overall and a high percentage of delinquent or seriously delinquent loans include: 1. Atlanta. 2. Houston. 3. Chicago. 4. Dallas. 5. Washington. 6. Baltimore. 7. Riverside-San Bernadino, Calif. 8. San Antonio. 9. Fort Worth. 10. Philadelphia."

From Fox 5 New York. "Are there signs of the housing market slowing down? Agent Craig Winters of Keller Williams Points North is finding for the first time in months that more people are putting their searches on hold. This trend coupled with the foreclosure moratorium set to end on July 31 could bring more homes on the market and may also impact the high housing prices, according to economist Dr. Martin Cantor. 'You have the supply chain and an increased cost of lumber and the components put in a new home. And that is increasing the prices and making it a little bit unaffordable for new buyers,' he said. 'When you have more supply and existing demand, the housing prices have to go down. That's pure supply and demand.'"

"So what can buyers and sellers expect? 'I wish I had a crystal ball but I think, at this point, prices will more or less plateau, smaller dips than we've seen,' Winters said. 'As far as the big climb — I think that's over.'"

The Bay Area Newsgroup. "There are signs of hope for buyers. Inventory in the San Jose metro and an Francisco and the East Bay inched up in May, giving shoppers more choices now and possibly slowing future price increases. In the East Bay, Pleasanton agent Tina Hand said buyers are still stretching budgets to land a house. Some recent buyers have backed out of deals, and others have just left the market in frustration, she said."

"'For first-time buyers, it’s still tough,' Hand said. More homes have been going up for sale this month, she said. Prices do not rise forever. 'There has to be some sort of correction,' she said. 'It’s not sustainable.'"

The Haliburton Echo in Canada. "Following more than 12 months of feverish, non-stop activity, Haliburton County’s housing market is showing signs of slowing down according to numerous real estate agents in the area. And while prices have gone up – around 30 per cent over the past year according to Brandon Nimigon, owner of Century 21 in Haliburton – buyer interest seems to be subsiding somewhat as we head into the latter months of summer. 'Quite a few of my agents have said it’s been slowing down now for the past couple of weeks. We’re getting to the point now where we’re having one showing over a weekend, versus being fully booked,' Nimigon told the Echo."

"Jeff Strano, an agent with RE/MAX Haliburton, held a similar opinion, saying the panic that was brought on by increased demand over the spring has certainly died down. 'Demand is still strong, but it’s certainly nowhere near what it was over the first three or four months of the year,' Strano said. 'In the spring, if you had a vacant one-acre lot for sale, you could have got, say $120,000 for it. Now they’re just sitting there. They’re not selling at all. The market is kind of returning to normal. It’s the same residentially too – the odd residential property will sell over the asking price, but it’s more the exception than the rule at this point.'"

"Residentially, during the first quarter of the year, there were 72 units sold, for a median price of $462,750. Over the second quarter, that increased to 81 sales, for a median price of $424,900. 'That just speaks to the inventory levels,' Strano informed the Echo. 'There has been a little more inventory on the market, but noticeably less buyers. Whereas before, back in the spring, it was normal to get 15, 16 offers on a single property, today we’re maybe seeing one or two… The number of showings, instead of getting between 30 and 50 people through a property, we’re now seeing six to 10."

"'It was bound to happen sooner or later. It’s sort of coincided with a usual lull we see in the summer, but there was no way things could continue the way they were going,' Strano added. 'I feel bad for first-time buyers. We just sold a place on Gelert Road. It was listed at $249,000, and it sold for $300,000 to a first-time homebuyer… It’s basically a cottage on piers, with plywood skirting, so she’s going to have to winterize it and do a ton of work,' Strano said."