A report from Seattle PI on Washington. "It’s a buyer’s bonanza! Well, not quite yet but it we’re rolling briskly in that direction. For now, Seattle’s condo market is a bit of a contradiction, at least in August with skyrocketing inventory along with rising values. Inventory rose an incredible 161% over the same period last year, reflecting 470 Seattle condo listings for sale last month. That was also 16.6% more than in July. Historically, we’d normally see inventory taper off by now."

"With the spike in listings and tempered sales, the inventory supply rate increased to 2.2-months of supply. That’s significant for two reasons. First, it is the first time in five years that the supply rate surpassed 2 months of supply. Second, the supply rate is an indicator of market condition with a sellers market having 3 months of supply or less and a normal/balanced market between 4 to 6 months of supply. Last month, we were half way towards a balanced housing market."

'That’s based on MLS listed properties. In reality, it’s a little higher as there are non-listed new construction units for sale that’s not accounted for in the officially published NWMLS statistics. There were 210 pending sales transactions (listings with accepted offers), reflecting a one-year decline of 34.6% and a one-month drop of 11%. As with pending transactions, the number of closed condo sales also declined, reducing 14% year-over-year and 9.4% from July."

From Globest on Texas. "Construction in the Dallas-Fort Worth TX metropolitan area retreated 23% during the first half of 2018 from a year ago, as a 7% increase for multifamily housing was outweighed by a 36% drop for commercial building, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. For the full year 2017, commercial and multifamily construction starts had fallen 12%, which followed very strong increases in 2015 (up 60%) and 2016 (up 28%)."

"'Commercial construction may have seen a decrease in the DFW area, but we have only seen continued growth in the multifamily sector, specifically in the size of the projects that we’re seeing,' Brian Webster, KWA Construction president, tells GlobeSt.com. '2017 was KWA’s best year on record, and with numerous high level projects in the pipeline, we are already on track to surpass that this year.'"

"The commercial building total during the first half of 2018 recorded a substantial decline for new office starts, down 52%, as well as weaker activity for hotels (down 56%), commercial garages (down 55%) and retail (down 14%)."

"'After the huge mega-projects we just finished such as the Toyota and CityLine projects, which led to inflated activity, we needed a little breathing room,' Dana Walters, vice president of business development, MYCON Construction, tells GlobeSt.com. 'That’s natural. This is an untested cycle where everyone is trying to predict what will happen. There are thousands of jobs coming in every month, stretching us out to the suburbs. Tertiary markets are becoming primary markets.'"

"Metropolitan areas showing decreased activity for commercial and multifamily construction starts during the first half of 2018 in addition to Dallas-Fort Worth ($3.4 billion), were Los Angeles ($2.9 billion), down 38%; San Francisco ($2.8 billion), down 38%; Chicago ($2.7 billion), down 37% and Atlanta ($2 billion), down 43%."

"'Multifamily housing has proven to be surprisingly resilient so far during 2018, following its 8% decline in dollar terms at the US level that was reported for the full year 2017,' says Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics. 'With apartment vacancy rates beginning to edge upward on a year-over-year basis, banks had been taking a more cautious stance towards lending for multifamily projects.'"

From The Oregonian. "Price drops on gilded 1882 Italianate mansion. The gilded Italianate mansion has captured attention since the day it was built in 1882 for a wealthy Portland shoe merchant. Original owner Morris Marks lived under gold-leaf ceilings and frescoes. The property is for sale at $1,995,000, a drop for the original asking price of $2.75 million."