Bloomberg After four years of crammed open houses, heated competition and dizzying price gains that sent the median cost of a home to $1.2mn, San Francisco’s real estate market is starting to lose steam. The inventory of luxury homes is at a record high. A smaller share of deals have bidding wars. Rent growth for large and upscale apartments …

  Bloomberg New-home construction in the U.S. was little changed in May, a sign the residential real-estate industry will add little to economic growth in the second quarter. Housing starts in May fell 0.3 percent to a 1.16 million annualized rate from a 1.17 million pace the prior month, a Commerce Department report showed in Washington. Progress in residential real …

  Bloomberg London’s housing market is facing a “major shock” as private landlords offload properties because tax increases will reduce returns on their investments to near zero, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank AG. New lending rules will also severely restrict the ability of investors, who have accounted for about 40 percent of purchases in recent years, to fund property …