The Arizona Republic has this update on Phoenix. "The business of buying and selling houses provokes extreme emotional outbursts. People yell, they lose sleep, they cry, they're stricken with buyer's and seller's remorse. That's especially true these days in metropolitan Phoenix's post-boom housing market, where nearly everything has reversed since last year's frenzy."

"The number of homes for sale on the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service increased nearly four times from June 2005 to last month, when it hit a level nearly double what experts consider healthy. Many homeowners had their assumptions of what a house is worth and how quickly it should sell recalibrated by the buying craze."

"Real estate agent Neil Brooks was getting the feeling that his client was about to completely lose it. He'd seen it before. He had just broken some bad news about her house deal, and she wasn't taking it well. 'I was thinking, 'OK, here we go,' said Brooks. 'Something's going to happen. Something's going to blow.'"

"He was right. The client whirled suddenly and whipped the phone at him. But he was ready. He ducked, and the phone shattered against the wall behind him. The client stormed out of the house."

"Home prices have become a touchy subject. Builders are discounting speculative homes, and resale prices are flat, or down, in a lot of neighborhoods. Buyers are submitting lowball offers. Even some sellers and their agents are having trouble agreeing how much similar homes in the same neighborhood are worth."

"Two houses on the same north Valley street, similar in size and age, are for sale. One lists for $749,000 and the other for $775,000. A third house came on the market on the same street a few doors from the other two. The new listing was similar to the others in size and age but priced at $659,000."

"'The neighbors were really mad,' said (realtor) Thomas Stornelli in Scottsdale. 'They knocked on the door and asked, 'What are you thinking?' For a lot of people, their home equity is their bank. It's like taking money out of someone's bank, their retirement account. People (future buyers) are going to use that house as a comp, even if it doesn't have the same upgrades. It's going to leave a mark.'"

"The owners of the least expensive home were equally upset. They were in the midst of a corporate relocation and wanted to sell quickly. Suddenly, angry neighbors were confronting them. One night, someone tore down their for-sale sign."

"The market has proven everyone wrong. None of the houses had sold as of the third week of this month."

"A woman walked into Barry's Realty Executives office about nine weeks ago, sat down and began crying. She said she bought two houses last year, fixed them up and quickly sold them, making a $50,000 profit on each. She took her profits, threw in some extra money and bought five more houses. She spent money fixing them up, but when she put the houses on the market, she realized she had bought at the peak, Barry said."

"'Her eyes just started to well up, and she just started bawling,' Barry said. 'She said she couldn't sell them for what she bought them for. She said her monthly payments were about $20,000.'"

"Barry suggested turning them into rentals. She told him she couldn't get enough rent to make it worthwhile. 'She was expecting to flip them,' he said. 'The market flipped her. She was devastated. People have forgotten that houses are not a liquid asset. They never were meant to be.'"