The Camarillo Acorn reports from California. "The housing market softened in 2006 but professionals aren’t anticipating a long-lasting slump. The market is only normalizing itself, experts say. 'The circumstances bringing the real estate market into balance are happening unusually quickly,' said Glen Scalise, president of the Conejo Valley Real Estate Association."

"'The general trend is that sales of existing homes are down by 30 percent or more,' said Bill Watkins, executive director for a research program of the University of California at Santa Barbara."

"John Murray, a Realtor who sells homes throughout the area, said the housing market has definitely softened. 'I have seen prices drop from 5 to 10 percent versus earlier this year in a number of areas,' Murray said."

"Because of the declining market, some homes are now valued at less than what the owners paid for them. Short pays, in which lenders forgive all or a portion of a debt to make up for loss of equity due to decreasing house values, are becoming more common, Murray said. 'Part of the problem has been the prevalence of interest-only loans,' he said."

"Developers are making some concessions to sell homes quickly, but don’t appear overly worried about future demand. 'The market goes up and down, but developers are used to this,' said Dave Bobardt, planning manager for the city of Moorpark where several large tract housing developments are underway."

"Prices also are leveling off in Simi Valley as properties stay on the market longer, said Linda Enderson, a director on the Simi Valley-Moorpark Association of Realtors. 'It’s more like a normal market,' Enderson said; lower priced homes sell more quickly. 'A couple of years ago you couldn’t find a single-family home under $500,000, but now you can.'"

"In the Conejo Valley, the market is being driven by supply and demand basics, said Russ Watson, housing manager for Thousand Oaks. 'Homes stay on the market a bit longer than they used to, and that causes pressure to reduce the price a little,' Watson said."

The New York Times. "The Napa Valley ranch house, built in the 1970s, wasn’t much of a looker. And with a price tag of nearly $1.4 million, it wasn’t cheap either. But its location on Highway 29, on an acre of land in St. Helena caught the attention of Jocelyn Singh."

"'We ended up getting it for $975,000,' said Ms. Singh, noting that the seller’s final price wasn’t too far from her initial offer of $950,000."

"Thirty percent price cuts in asking prices for homes aren’t the norm, but stories like this, with sellers willing to negotiate or even drop their asking prices, are increasingly popping up in suddenly cooling vacation home markets."

"Since different factors motivate sellers of second homes, they simply might take their homes off the market or wait longer to reduce prices. 'That’s one of the reasons the price effect can lag,' said Cynthia Kroll, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley. 'It can take awhile for the sellers to accept the reality of lower prices.'"

"The National Association of Realtors predicts that 30 percent of all home sales for 2006 will have been second homes, down from 40 percent last year, and attributes much of that drop to the exit of investors."

"And the places that saw the biggest influx of investors and the most heated activity are likely to see the biggest price drops. 'Areas that had the highest appreciation and that were the hottest can cool the most,' said Edward E. Leamer, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles."

"In Northern California, 'properties under $1 million have reverted back to last year’s prices,' said Mike Silvas, the owner of a real estate agency with offices in wine country and in coastal areas of Northern California. 'The Carmel market is the one that has really ground to a halt. Prices got to more than $1,000 a square foot and buyers finally balked.'"

"In Carmel, prices were off 5 percent this year through October, said Mark Wilson, an agent with Morgan Lane in Carmel. Properties in Monterey County, which includes Carmel, are sitting on the market for an average of 113 days, more than twice as long as a year ago."