A pair of reports from California. The Union Tribune, "Shares of Brookfield Homes dipped yesterday after the company cut its full-year forecast for home sales, mostly because of slowing markets in San Diego and Washington, D.C. The company, which also builds homes in the Bay Area and greater Los Angeles, blamed the bulk of the sales decline on the San Diego/Riverside region and in the nation's capital."

"For the first six months of the year, Brookfield had orders for 94 homes in San Diego/Riverside, where it has seven communities actively selling. That compares with orders for 342 homes in six communities for the same period last year."

"'Those numbers are very consistent with the year-over-year decline in home sales,' said Peter Dennehy, VP of a real estate advisory firm. 'I think we're all used to it now. Year-to-date sales levels, whether you're looking at the new or resale market, are off about a third.'"

"Rising interest rates and buyer uncertainty are driving the slowdown. San Diego County's median sales price was $490,000 in May, down from a peak of $518,000 in November, according to Dataquick."

The Tri Valley Herald. "A chief economist for the California Association of Realtors said the housing market isn't a bubble ready to burst, but more of a souffle with prices of higher-end homes coming down more than others."

"Marian Norvis, president-elect of the Central Valley Association of Realtors based in Lathrop, said Leslie Appleton-Young confirmed the differences between seller expectations and market direction."

"'A lot of that seller expectation, in our neck of the woods California and the Central Valley in particular, (they) think the national (real estate) news applies to us,' Norvis said. 'But it doesn't. We're like our own country.'"