The realtors association reported existing home inventor was up 39% this week. The Dallas News has more detail. "The inventory data were even more revealing in Tuesday's existing-homes report. At 2.7 million, single-family home inventories are up 33 percent since last year. Drilling down even deeper, at 494,000, the number of condos on the market is up 85 percent."

"When you examine the local data by price, it looks as if we've gotten caught up in the frenzy after all. Starting with the average condo price in the country of about $250,000, our growth in unsold inventory is right up there and then some on the highest end."

"'The market for condos above a $250,000 price seems to be way out of balance," said Jim Gaines, research economist at Texas A&M University. 'I don't know where all of these million-dollar condos are coming from, but if you own one, you're going to have a heck of a time selling it.'"

"If there's one thing about San Diego that does trouble Robert Kleinheinz, the deputy chief economist at the California Association of Realtors, it's downtown. Kleinheinz doesn't have a view over the dozens of condo towers and cranes in downtown. He agreed that the condo market troubles him."

"The spread of condos in downtown San Diego is similar to what's happening in his home town of Long Beach, Kleinheinz said. 'We've got lots of condos, and I'm not quite sure who will be buying those,' he said."

"Told of the current high inventory levels in downtown San Diego and the thousands of condos that are planned for the city, Kleinheinz said what happens downtown will depend on when the properties come on the market and whether there is a sudden flood of condos coming online at the same time."

"Just finding an affordable home in the East Bay can be a serious challenge. Liz Humphrey and her fiance, Harold Joe Smith, lined up with other homeowner hopefuls shortly after 7 a.m. on a Saturday to submit an offer at Reflections, a recent apartment-to-condo conversion in San Ramon."

"Their names were not called until that afternoon, and they were forced to settle for their second choice. For $379,000, they are set to buy what Humphrey said amounts to a 'two-bedroom apartment, basically.'"

"They're not making a down payment, so the monthly mortgage will run more than $2,300. That's quite a leap from their previous living situation: paying $650 a month to share an Antioch apartment with roommates. To make the monthly mortgage, the couple, who are set to wed in early June, plan to dramatically curtail their spending."

"'We won't be able to go out to dinner every weekend or take a trip whenever we want,' Humphrey said. 'We'll have to get a Costco card and buy in bulk. Anything and everything that we can reduce, we plan on doing.'"