The homebuilders are turning negative. "Rising mortgage rates, deepening affordability issues and the retreat of investors/speculators from the marketplace are prompting single-family home builders to further adjust their perspectives on the new-home market, according to the National Association of Home Builders."

"The HMI declined six points from an upwardly revised reading in the previous month to hit 45 for the latest report, its lowest mark since mid-1995. All three component indexes declined in May. The index gauging current sales and the index gauging sales expectations for the next six months each fell five points, to 50 and 54, respectively. Meanwhile, the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers declined seven points, to 32."

"The decline in builder confidence was broad-based and registered in every region this month. The HMI fell three points to 47 in the Northeast, two points to 30 in the Midwest, six points to 51 in the South and eight points to 61 in the West."

"The index shows more builders say the market is 'poor' than say it's 'good.' The index has fallen 23 points in the last seven months. A year ago, the index was at 70."

"The industry group expects new home sales to fall 12% this year from the record 1.28 million in 2005. They expect housing starts to fall about 7% from 2005's record 2.07 million."

"'Any really further setback (in the index) is just going to continue to reinforce the picture and people will then begin to question how big of a magnitude we're going to see in terms of a correction,' said (economist) Glenn Haberbush."

"'The days of double-digit price appreciation are over,' said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate. 'It is very much a buyer's market rather than a seller's market.'"

"On Tuesday, the Commerce Department will report on April housing starts. Economists are looking for a small increased to about 1.97 million annualized starts from 1.96 million in March. It used to be that the builders' index tracked housing starts quite closely, but the relationship has broken down in this decade. Starts have been much stronger than would be implied by the builders' index."

And the Downtown Journal has this on a developer in the Twin Cities. "Jim Stanton was building in the North Loop before most of Downtown’s condos were a glimmer in a developer’s eye. Stanton, says he’s learned a few things over the last 44 years in the development business. And all those years, he’s been churning out projects Downtown and around the metro."

"'I’ve never had long-range plans,' Stanton said. 'When the opportunity is there, I take it. I think most developers are like that.'"