The Rocky Mountain News looks at the May housing numbers in the Denver area. "The record number of unsold homes in the Denver-area market topped 30,000, and the inventory glut is expected to drive down home prices in an already soft market. That eclipses the record set in April, when 29,045 homes were on the market, and it is almost 21 percent more than the 25,198 homes available in May 2005."

"The ever-growing number of 'for sale' homes competing with one another is being fueled by foreclosures. Blame overbuilding, a loss of high- paying jobs and rising interest rates, experts say. In 2005, 2 percent of all homes in the metro area ended up in foreclosure, the highest rate in 15 years, and that trend has continued this year."

"'I'm just floored by these numbers,' said (broker) Kurt Poole in Highlands Ranch. 'It's hard to find anything positive to say about the home sales market.' Poole noted that he has been saying for the past two years that the market is at the bottom and should start to creep up. 'But clearly it is not at the bottom yet,' he said. 'It seems bottomless.'"

"The huge number of unsold homes is causing a bottleneck in sales and likely will drive down home prices and make homes tougher to sell, (realtor) Steve McGuire warned. 'It's really the basic law of supply and demand,' McGuire said."

"It now appears that the price of homes in upscale areas such as Cherry Hills Village and Greenwood Village are starting to soften, McGuire said. 'And there's no support for the low end of the market,' McGuire said, which is being hammered by near-record numbers of foreclosures, especially in Adams County and parts of Aurora."

The Denver Post. "'The foreclosures are causing things in the lower price ranges to really stop (selling),' said Steve McGuire. In May, 6,459 homes were put under contract and 5,010 sales were closed. Both of those measures fell from last year."

"High gas prices also are a factor, said Mike Rinner, a real-estate analyst in Englewood. 'Supply and demand are more out of whack in neighborhoods that are older and farther from jobs, and in remote areas where commuting times are longer,' Rinner said."

"(Broker) Judy Templeman said 2006 'is what we call a cleansing year.'"