Some housing bubble reports from smaller markets. The Salt Lake Tribune, "The Wasatch Front's residential real estate market began to take off in early 2005, years after housing markets in other states such as Arizona, Nevada and California began to heat up. Those markets have now begun to cool while Utah is booming. 'It's amazing to see how much prices are increasing,' Bryan Kohler, CEO of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors said. 'We're finally catching up with the rest of the country.'"

"And many buyers are willing to pay above the asking price. 'Half the time you can't get a home in the neighborhood you want because there are five other people making an offer on the same place,' said Kohler. 'Some homes are sold even before the sign goes up.'"

"Many Utahns are doing whatever they can to buy now. Some are taking out adjustable rate mortgages with low introductory rates or interest-only loans. Others are accepting smaller homes with fewer amenities or buying farther out in the suburbs or on the west side, where prices are more moderate."

"'There's definitely a feeling among buyers that they need make a move now before prices and mortgage rates increase even further,' said Salt Lake City Realtor Troy Burnett. 'There's some concern, especially among first-time buyers, that they will be priced out of the market if they wait" to buy.'"

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette. "Arkansas home sales declined from a year earlier for the sixth-straight month in June as the housing inventory and mortgage rates crept up, the Arkansas Realtors Association said Wednesday. 'There is so much new construction that the buyer has so much more to choose from,' Tom Rasmussen, president of the Rogers Board of Realtors said."

"'All markets have ups and downs and corrections,' Rasmussen said. 'Nothing goes up forever. This is just a normal economic cycle based on supply and demand.'"

The Morning News. "'Huge price reductions! The agent will include a brand new side by side refrigerator with the purchase of any of these homes,' a newspaper advertisement for homes in Spring Creek subdivision, along Arkansas 265 in Springdale, said."

"Past reports on real estate markets in Benton and Washington counties have said the market was oversupplied with higher-priced homes, which were selling slower. The trend has spread."

"The average Benton County home sold for $192,854 in January through June, a 9.51 percent increase from the same six months of 2005. Benton County's steep price rise, coupled with the double digit percentage drop in home sales, left local economist Kathy Deck without a good explanation."

"'I would have expected that (price increase) to be a smaller number, because the oversupply should be putting some pressure on housing prices to go down,' Deck said. She said home prices likely will have to come down in the future. 'I sit in restaurants and I am hearing people say, 'No, no, no, you don't want to buy a house now. Six months from now, there are going to be some great deals,' Deck said."

"That soft market means buyers already can get some better home deals. Another newspaper ad indicated a home in West Fork was now listed at $259,900, 'price reduced $20,000! Seller says sell!'"

"Builder Ron Payne said there's no doubt there are too many homes on the market. He said builders are to blame. 'I think that the builders are behaving like lemmings,' Payne said."

"What he meant was one builder constructed a subdivision full of large homes and made huge profits several years ago. Other builders blindly followed, and built more homes that were higher priced, and so on."

"'Instead of looking at the numbers and seeing that times have changed since that first builder built a big home and made a big profit, they (other builders) keep doing the same thing, until they all contribute to the oversupply,' Payne said. 'If the numbers did not back that up, it would simply be an opinion, but facts are kind of stubborn things.'"

"Payne said builders need to construct smaller homes that more people can afford and stop building large 'McMansions,' unless they are custom homes that already have buyers whose checks or loans have cleared the banks."

"Banks who have made construction loans to builders or mortgage loans to home buyers don't need to worry about a mass of loan defaults in the slowing market, according to Tim Yeager, the Arkansas Bankers' Association chair in banking at the University of Arkansas."

"He said construction loans tend to carry more risks for banks, because there are no federal entities like Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae to guarantee construction loans in the same way as individual mortgage loans. 'Usually, when the bank sells the individual home loan, they get rid of the default risk,' Yeager said."

"Executive broker Brad Bruns based in Springdale, said the slowing real estate market does not bother him, because 'people have to live somewhere. They may just have to live in smaller homes that cost less.'"