Some condo bubble reports from the Philadelphia Inquirer. "When it comes to price, Philadelphia was the biggest winner. The city's median represented a 32 percent increase over the 2004 median. The address for much of the region's home-price success? Downtown Philadelphia and surrounding neighborhoods, where loft conversions and new construction on long-vacant former industrial and government-owned property moved speedily from conception to reality."

"'You can't stand too long on any corner, or they will turn you into a condo,' said Bari Shor, an agent in Center City."

"Can Philadelphia have too many million-dollar high-rise condos? As the city's real estate market slows along with those of the region's and the nation's, some local observers say that high-end housing seems poised to take the biggest hit."

"It's my gold-faucet condo theory," said Fred Glick, president of US Loans Mortgage L.L.C. in Old City. 'Ten separate developers hire consultants who tell them to build high-end, high-rise condo buildings, and 10 different shovels go into the ground. When you look closer at the market, there are only enough buyers for five of them."

"Real estate agents say they are seeing a summer slowdown in sales in all price ranges for the first time in two years. As a result of the current slowdown, city listings are climbing into the thousands of units. And, with interest rates heading upward, buyers have been losing that sense of urgency that they need to buy a particular house now."

"'For the first time in years, buyers are low-balling offers and then moving on to the next house when the seller won't budge,' agent Mark Wade said."

"Although investors have played a major role in pushing up prices in many neighborhoods in the Northeast, (broker) Chris Artur said, higher prices have cut the number of them by about 50 percent and sent them down to the Kensington area."

"'We are now about one-third investors and two-thirds first-time buyers, but a lot of those buyers come with credit problems that need to be addressed, even though lenders will still give you 100 percent if all you have is a pulse,' he said. 'It's taking a while to get these sellers to look at reality,' Artur said."

"The long term for the Philadelphia market still looks good, even if, as Center City Realtor Allan Domb insisted, 'half of the projects planned likely will never be built.'"