The Record Online has this update from California. "These days are a good time to buy a residence, says Leslie Brewer, who has been shopping for a condominium since March. And she's content to take her time doing so. 'I'm hoping that prices will fall more while I'm looking,' said Brewer, a Stockton renter who commutes to a job in Livermore."

"Real estate agents and brokers say that those small residential units, which often are rental apartments converted into condos for sale, are just as slow moving these days as pricier single-family homes. 'There's very little activity in that market any more,' said Randy Thomas, a commercial real estate broker specializing in the Northern California apartments market."

"'The demand is not there any longer. Prices are starting to fall and people are saying, 'Why should I buy now when I can wait around and afford to buy a single family house?' Thomas said."

From the Times Standard. "Realtor Rochelle Defuentes said that last year Shelter Cove had its biggest real estate sales year ever, with around 60 homes sold and numerous lots. Most of the buyers, she said, were from out of the area and planning to retire or build a vacation home. Now many of those buyers are selling the very homes and lots they just purchased."

"'We have around 40 homes for sale right now and 226 lots, basically a big percentage of our entire market is up for sale,' Defuentes said, adding that so far this year, only 10 homes have sold in Shelter Cove."

"Along with the sudden flooded housing market, Defuentes said that the average home last year sold for around $500,000 with some fetching as high as $600,000 or $700,000. In contrast, this year many of the homes are selling in the $300,000 range."

The LA Daily News. "Rising interest rates and a cooling housing market has made it a nail-biting time to be a homeowner. Many Southern Californians who dove into tempting zero- percent-down loans with huge variable-rate risk now realize they may have bitten off more than they can chew."

"Like many Southern Californians trying to buy homes as prices went through the roof and lenders opened up their wallets, Bianca Garcia secured her loan through a finance company instead of a conventional lender. In 2003, she and her husband paid $173,000 for a four-bedroom, two-bath house with a three-car garage in Palmdale. Two years later and 90 days in default on her loan, Garcia was on the road to foreclosure."

"'We just had so much going out at the time,' said Garcia, who is still living in her house, thanks to an arrangement she made with a mortgage investment firm. The company paid the first and second mortgages on the house, put it in a trust, and began work on repairing Garcia's credit."

"Still, there is only so much these firms can do. Foreclosures are on the rise, and the peak is probably still a few years out. Foreclosures in Southern California are up almost 30 percent since January by 56 percent in Riverside County, 10 percent in San Bernardino County and 16 percent in Los Angeles County."

"'I started the business two years ago," said Tingting Zhang. 'We had 90 people a day in foreclosure. As of today, the number is 295.'"

"Ideally, prospective homeowners should take time to educate themselves a bit before jumping into homeownership. 'The mentality is, OK, you're buying a home for, say $650,000. It's a great price. You're thinking you're getting a great deal, but you're forgetting that you are still going to be paying $5,500 with insurance and interest a month,' said Fred Lopez, a manager at a credit-repair company in Van Nuys."

"'With a good credit report you could get these loans without proving income on it. We just saw someone with a 680 score, but he had a house that went into the foreclosure process. Now he's being turned down for other houses. We see a lot of people with the monster homes and cars, and they are so in debt it is insane,' Lopez said."