The Chicago Tribune reports on a not-so-hot housing market. " An early retiree from Ford, Tom Cavanaugh and his wife, Lynne, would like to move to New Mexico to be closer to family. However, since putting their home up for sale last May, they have cut the asking price twice--from $590,000 to $525,000--and have yet to receive an offer."

"Cavanaugh is stuck in Detroit's stalled housing market, where inventory is growing, foreclosures are up and buyers are few. 'I am in real estate hell,' said Cavanaugh, who divides his time between an apartment in Los Angeles and the Detroit suburb of Northville, where he and his wife built a four-bedroom home for $500,000 nine years ago."

"The job loss threat is also playing havoc with other Midwest industrial markets. Michigan, Ohio and Indiana ranked 48, 49, and 50 out of all U.S. states and the District of Columbia in price appreciation for the year ended June 30, 2005, said housing consultant Tracy Cross. Only Texas saw lower appreciation."

"Last September, 'the market just died,' said Mary McLeod in Livonia, 25 miles west of Detroit. 'Very few things are selling. There are a lot of things on the market.' Farther north, Dennis Wolf in downtown Birmingham, said the inventory of homes in his market area, which includes Oakland County--the most affluent in the state--is 50 percent higher than it was at this time in 2005."

"In Detroit's south suburbs, Bob Reume said a lot of homeowners are not even venturing to put homes on the market. They have heard what has happened to others who a year ago optimistically bought a house before selling the old one, said Reume, who has been selling homes for 47 years. 'There are quite a few people who are paying for two houses,' said Reume, who is seeing more foreclosures than before."

"Inventories of existing homes for sale are growing even as the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments estimated there were 20 percent fewer new home permits in 2005 than in 2004. There is no evidence of the panic-selling that occurred in Texas in the late 1980s when oil prices plummeted and house prices fell by nearly half. 'That came out of nowhere. They went from boom to bust,' said Bob Walters. 'Unfortunately for us, it's a slow leak.'"

"'The outlook is horrible,' said Cavanaugh. 'The only people looking are transferees,' he said. Cavanaugh said one transferee told him, 'There are more homes to look at than we even have time to see.'"