A pair of reports on the California housing bubble. "Has the north state real estate market tipped in the buyers' favor? Two new homes in the Land Park subdivision in northwest Redding were discounted $70,000 this week, slashing the list price to $409,900. The reduction so surprised real estate agent Brad Garbutt that he initially thought it was a mistake."

"'They have scaled back prices to what they could have gotten nine months ago,' said Garbutt, a member of the Shasta Association Realtors board. 'There are probably going to be some starving real estate agents around.'"

"Signs of a buyer's market are elsewhere, sales are down, about twice as many homes are listed for sale in Shasta County as a year ago and open houses are abundant; three times more are advertised in the newspaper today than in September."

"Data Quick reported that Shasta County recorded 161 single-family home sales last month, down from 277 in April 2005. The number of homes for sale in Shasta County in recent months has wavered between 1,500 and 1,600, a level not seen since the late 1990s, when the market was mired in a recession and the average home sold for under $130,000."

"Greg Lloyd, president of the Shasta Association of Realtors, has said a boom in construction (the city of Redding recorded a 15-year high in housing starts in 2005) helped produce a glut of housing. But Lloyd and others say more homes on the market is not a bad thing. It's created competition. 'On the flip side, it's a great opportunity for buyers,' said Garbutt."

The San Francisco Chronicle. "In the latest sign that some of the steam is seeping out of the region's housing market, Bay Area real estate developers are trimming prices, converting residential projects to commercial uses and, in some cases, walking away from certain properties altogether."

"Developer Opus West last month scrapped plans to build 100 condos on the south side of Mission Creek in the sprawling Mission Bay development in San Francisco. Home builder Shea Homes recently dropped plans to build nearly 100 townhomes and live-work lofts on a 5-acre site in San Jose."

"Lennar Corp., after beginning negotiations to develop several hundred units on a downtown block in Oakland late last year, decided in early March not to move forward." "Other builders find they must work harder to sell the homes they have ready. Their incentives range from swanky events to straight-up cash discounts to free cars."

"'Much of it depends on how much inventory they have and how quickly they need to move it,' said Joseph Perkins, president of the Home Builders Association of Northern California, noting that many large, publicly traded builders must meet quarterly sales projections."

"Doug Krah, president of Standard Pacific's Northern California division, is hoping to appeal to consumers' wallets. His firm is offering packages worth as much as $75,000 in the form of discounts, incentives to brokers and upgrades. With those tactics necessary to sell homes in some developments, Krah is hesitant about laying out lofty sums for new land."

"'We're just like the buyer who's wondering whether this house is going to cost more or less this year,' he said. 'If they think it's going to cost less, they don't buy. If I think that land is going to cost less next year, I don't buy.'"