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14 THE HOUSING MARKET'S NEW NORMAL? e housing market continued to cool down in December with properties staying on the market for a longer time, especially in the large markets and 15 percent of listings seeing price reductions, according to a report by Realtor.com. e report indicated that while inventory increased by 5 percent across the nation, it rose by 10 percent in the larger markets in December. While homes sold at a pace of 80 days in December, three days faster than December 2017, the pace at which they're selling is decelerating. "December 2017 saw homes sell six days faster compared to the previous year," the report said. Nineteen of the top 45 metros saw properties spend more time on the market compared to December 2017 and included real estate in the hot housing markets of San Jose, California; Seattle, Washington; and Nashville, Tennessee. Homes in these markets spent 14, 10, and six more days on the markets respectively. In comparison, properties in Birmingham, Alabama; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Richmond, Virginia sold at the fastest pace at 12, 11, and 10 days respectively. Even as the median listing price grew 7 percent year-over-year to $289,000 in December, it was lower than the 8 percent listing price seen in December 2017. Despite the lower pricing, listings that saw price reductions increased to 15 percent in December compared with 13 percent in 2017 as home sellers adjusted their strategies in "slowing, pricey markets with growing availability of homes for sale." e report found that some of the largest housing markets in the nation were driving these price reductions with 38 of the 45 top metros seeing an increase in such discounts. Charlotte, North Carolina, topped the list with the share of price reductions growing by 10 percent, from 14 percent in 2017 to 24 percent in December. It was followed by San Jose that saw an increase of 10 percent, Tampa (+9 percent), Phoenix (+9 percent), and Seattle (+8 percent). e steepest declines in median listing prices were seen in San Jose and San Francisco where listing prices declined by $130,000 and $33,000. ON THE WEB WEBSITES TO GET TO KNOW. When booking business travel, managing costs needs to be on equal footing with managing your agenda. SkyScanner.com helps you do both by providing comparisons for millions of flights across thousands of airlines. While you are at it, you may want to check their car hire and hotel options as well. Keeping in line with the consumer's need to save, Skyscanner is free for travellers and cuts out the commission aspect of a travel agent. Whether you are able to book well in advance—or need to pull together a short-notice trip—SkyScanner saves you from individually searching airline websites for the best deals and arrival times. Easy to access on-the-go, you can download SkyScanner's app, which has been recognized by the New York Times and TimeOut. A successful business leader is also a lifelong student–continuously focused on honing the skills that will help them reach the next stage of their career. Inc.edu is the prefect partner in your search for knowledge, offering easy-to- access lessons on how to launch your business including weekly interactive keynotes. "Inc. edu gave me the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs struggling to impact the world, and I was happy to see that we all go through the process and that am not alone," shared one graduate. is online platform is brought to you by the creators of Inc. magazine, renown for its Inc. 5000 list covering the nation's fastest growing companies and is an easy-to- access educational platform ideal for fitting in "classes" during a business work week. Login screens serve a useful purpose but can be frustrating for sites you visit infrequently. Even just clicking on a simple article or video can become an arduous task—even when the site itself is free. BugMeNot.com provides a useful business hack by allowing you to enter the web address of many popular sites and gain access to shared logins. is is ideal for those who hold their business email closely and prevents you from being signed up for spam alerts every time you want to access a new website. Keep in mind, BugMeNot.com isn't designed for websites behind paywalls, but when every site has numerous popups and login screens, still comes in handy for day-to- day use. SKYSCANNER.COM 2 INC.EDU 1 BUGMENOT.COM 3