The Wall Street Journal has this report on the housing market. "The Wall Street Journal gathered data on inventories of homes for sale at the end of the second quarter from a variety of local sources. Metro areas showing large increases of homes for sale and relatively weak employment growth include Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York."

"A June survey of real-estate agents..found that home prices had weakened from the prior month in 30 of the 42 metropolitan areas covered. The markets with the weakest pricing trends included Boston, Detroit, Phoenix, St. Louis and Washington, D.C."

"The number of homes on the market in Orlando, Fla. is nearly five times the year-earlier level, while the inventory has quadrupled in Phoenix and Tampa, Fla., and nearly tripled in the Washington, D.C., area."

"In Miami prices have been about flat in recent months, says Ronald A. Shuffield, president of (a) brokerage firm. Mr. Shuffield says he expects prices of condos in less-attractive parts of the Miami area to fall slightly in coming months."

"So many new homes are available on the outskirts of Phoenix that it is 'a total bloodbath,' says Ivy Zelman, a housing analyst for Credit Suisse Group. She doesn't see a recovery in most major metro areas in the near term. 'It could actually get worse before it gets better,' she says."

"Sherry Chris, COO of Prudential California Realty, says condo prices in downtown San Francisco are about level with a year ago because new buildings have helped supply catch up with demand. Overall, the number of homes on the market in the Bay Area has more than doubled from a year earlier."

"Orlando shows the biggest surge in inventory. Beverly Pindling, president of the Orlando Regional Realtors Association says prices in the Orlando area generally are down about 3 percent to 7 percent from a year ago. Home builders, eager to make sales, are 'romancing the Realtors,' she says; some are offering agents who bring in buyers commissions of up to 10 percent."

"Kent Fowler, a real-estate agent and investor in Washington, is bracing for an extended period of pain. Construction was recently completed on a condo near the city's Chinatown district that he bought in 2004 for $629,000. Mr. Fowler believes the two-bedroom condo now is worth at least $800,000. But potential buyers are scarce in today's glutted market."

"So he is trying to find a renter for the condo for the next year or two at around $3,500 a month, even though that rental income would fall about $900 short of his monthly loan payments, condo fees, taxes and insurance."

"'I do think we're going to see some tougher times ahead,' says Scott Anderson, senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis. By August, he says, most cities in California will be showing modest declines from a year earlier in home prices, and prices also may decline further in parts of Florida, Nevada, Arizona and the Northeast."

"Headlines about falling prices could make buyers more aggressive in negotiating and persuade some sellers to 'get out with what they can,' Mr. Anderson says."