A pair of reports on homebuilders. "Lennar, the builder of U.S. Homes houses, is scaling back operations in the Northern Colorado market. 'We've heard we're not the only national builder that is consolidating,' said Laurel Followell, who, along with her co-workers, will be looking for a job."

"It's all part of the real estate cycle, said Eric Nichols, president of the Fort Collins Board of Realtors. 'National production builders have a business model that won't survive without the high-volume demand to keep their machine running,' Nichols said."

"When asked if the Northern Colorado market is overbuilt, Nichols said, 'Segments definitely are.' Local home builder Steve Spanjer agreed that national builders probably have overbuilt their products."

"Another major factor is the high rate of foreclosures across the state. In Larimer County, 17 percent of the 1,100 homes in foreclosure were new homes, while in Weld County, 16 percent of 1,400 foreclosures were new homes."

From California. "The scent of baking scones wafts through the house as children's feet pound the floors. 'Dad' rushes to get things ready as 'Mom' lounges on the couch. It's a birthday party for Camille Chen. 'Husband' Jason Simmons has a surprise: He and the kids remodeled the den into a game room and won't Mom, a notorious poker fiend, be pleased."

"Except Chen and Simmons aren't married, the kids aren't theirs, they don't really live in the house and they're all Centex Homes marketing director Amanda Larson's employees."

"Welcome to the new reality of real estate. They've been hired to lounge around a model home, read magazines and occasionally pretend like they're having breakfast."

"Centex has 166 homes to sell in its Milestone development, starting at $507,500 and heading into the $600,000 range, and figured it needed just a little something extra to entice people to come check things out. Centex built four model homes, filled them with furniture, then took things one bizarre step further. The company hired four actors to play the role of a family, in a role that's half improv, half sales demo."

"'Where does the reality end and the..good God, reality begin?' mused (publicist) Jim Garfield. 'It's exciting, scary and really unique, all at the same time. You sit at your desk and wonder, will people come, will it work, will people find it interesting and, most importantly, does it get the client's story out?'"

"Some visitors seemed a little taken aback, but others joined right in with the birthday celebration. One family played along with the whole thing, asking how long Simmons and Chen had lived there, then turned chilly when asked questions by a reporter. Centex employees sat on the periphery, but no one seemed to question who they were or why they were there."

"This seems odd, and the company acknowledges as much, but with the formerly white-hot real estate market looking decidedly cooler of late, nothing's too unusual to hook buyers. Just putting in leather couches and baking cookies won't do it anymore, at least in Centex's mind. To make the home-buying experience more real, the company felt it had to employ a very unreal strategy."

"'You imagine yourself in this situation,' MacInnis said. 'If you have a beautiful experience, that gets people to think, oh, I want to live like that!' And, by extension, 'I want to buy this place.' With houses sitting unsold longer these days, it might not be such a crazy idea."