A report from Reuters. "Over the past four years, the number of entry-level homes for sale – defined as those priced in the lower third of a local market – has fallen by 34 percent, according to a Reuters analysis of data compiled by listings firm Trulia. The market is even tighter in many cities. In Salt Lake City the average number of starter homes on the market has fallen by 83% since 2012, and in San Diego by 71.5%. Cambridge, Mass. and Portland Ore. have both seen drops of more than 60%. As individual and institutional landlords have siphoned off rentals at the low end of the market, new construction has been slow to meet the demand from homebuyers."

"Average residential land values are up about 79 percent over the last four years, to a level last seen when the housing market peaked in 2007 and 2008, according to the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy. PulteGroup Inc, one of America’s largest home construction firms, says that market forces have pushed it into building more expensive homes. 'We don’t see a lot of value today in running out into the exurbs and buying a lot of lots,' PulteGroup Chief Financial Officer Bob O’Shaughnessy said at an investor conference. If there's another housing downturn, he said, 'that is the stuff that will shut down first.'"

The Denver Post in Colorado. "Metro Denver home builders are swinging their hammers faster than at any time since the last recession. But production, which remains concentrated on more expensive homes, appears to be ramping up just as the overall housing market is showing signs of cooling off. Measured at an annual rate, starts are running at 10,610 homes, up 35 percent from last year and the fastest pace since 2007."

"One out of four homes constructed cost more than $500,000, while 64 percent cost more than $400,000. The average price of a new home built in metro Denver the past 12 months is $512,788. As in the existing home market, more signs are emerging that prices have outpaced what most buyers can afford. Visits to new housing developments are down 11 percent in the first half of the year. Builders closed on 2,303 new homes in the second quarter, up 4 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, but far below the percentage increase in starts, the report said."

"'In a growing market, starts will always outpace closings, but the gap between annual starts and annual closings is the largest Metrostudy has tracked in 15 years,' John Covert, regional director of Metrostudy’s Denver office, said in the report. Covert urged builders, especially those selling homes on the higher-end of their given markets, to exercise more caution going forward."

Bloomberg on New York. "According to real-estate website StreetEasy, 12 of the condos in Manhattan currently listed at over $20 million have had their prices cut by 5 percent or more in recent months, while only 2 of them have seen any increase in their listing price. Among the cuts is a condo at 1 Central Park South. It's been on the market for more than 250 days, and is now on sale at $45.5 million, $6.45 million less than its price a few weeks ago. That's just one of the indications that the market may be slowing down."

"Some sellers are acting cautious amid a perceived glut in supply. One developer had all the approvals he needed to start listing luxury units at 111 W. 57th St., but he has decided to hold off, saying 'if you have a market where you think marketing would be ineffective for now, why would you launch and spend the money?'"

The Houston Chronicle in Texas. "Houston-area home sales fell 8.8 percent in July, the most severe decline since last winter and a sign that the oil slump finally may be catching up with the housing market. For now, economist Ralph McLaughlin calls the July downturn a 'cautionary yellow flag.' 'If the year-over-year drop continues over the next two months where it's becoming a trend, that's where the yellow flag should turn into a red flag,' said McLaughlin, chief economist for Trulia."

"The high-end market in The Woodlands, an area that saw a big run up in prices during the boom, is now hurting. The average sales price among the top 5 percent of the market was off 24 percent, according to Redfin. Sales are down in the Greater Heights neighborhoods, and properties aren't selling as fast as they were a year ago. In 2014, Elizabeth Winston Jones and her family decided to list their Heights home when they saw how hot the market was. But as they were preparing to sell, they realized they needed to make repairs. By the time they were ready, the market had started to soften."

"They were told not to worry, that their house may take longer to sell but that they would still get the top range of what they were hoping for. By the time the for-sale sign hit the yard, 'it really felt like a buyers' market,' Jones said. 'Clearly we missed the sweet spot,' she said. 'We were still able to sell our home, but it certainly wasn't the high end.'"

"The market had been holding up for much of this year because pent-up demand from Houstonians edged out of the market during the boom continued to fuel sales. 'That pent-up demand is just about gone,' said Patrick Jankowski, chief economist for the Greater Houston Partnership. Sales last month were off in all price ranges, with the worst declines in the lowest and highest ends of the market, according to the local realty data."

"Housing inventory, while still low by historical standards, reached 4 months in July, the highest it's been since the fall of 2012. Conventional wisdom holds that anything higher than six months of inventory is a buyers' market. If it's below six months, sellers typically have the upper hand. That won't be true this time around, Jankowski said. 'As people recognize the direction the housing market is going, sellers are going to be more in a hurry to make a deal before things get worse,' he said. 'Buyers will have more options.'"