Some housing reports from around the US. "Home sellers in Portland, Maine, are having to cut their asking prices by about 10% because buyers won't pay more than they did last year, says agent Michael Flaherty. The inventory of homes on the market keeps rising. Realtors are also seeing a slight uptick in the number of foreclosures and distressed sales by owners who are 'struggling to sell their home for (the value of) their mortgage,' he says."

The New York Post. "Manhattanites are starting to feel the pinch from rising interest rates and fears about the economy. The Manhattan real estate market has always been a law unto itself, but increasingly apartments are sitting on the market, unsold for months. The number of units on the market is at its highest in more than 10 years, according to Miller Samuel. The inventory in Manhattan rose from 3,922 units at the end of 2004 to 7,640 in the second quarter."

"'We have a classic stand-off between buyers and sellers in New York,' said CEO Jonathan Miller. 'Housing inventory is at the highest level since the late 1980s and demand has cooled off.'"

From MSN Money. "Margot Ray, a radio-ad saleswoman in Stockton, Calif., put her five-bedroom, three-bath house on the market in February for $480,000. There it sat, along with about 3,000 other homes for sale. She dropped the price to $465,000 in April. Nada. 'We'd have an open house and maybe one or two people would come by. I had an open house where nobody came,' Ray says."

"The price is down to $427,000 and, at a recent open house where Ray raffled football tickets and a spa day, 15 groups of potential buyers showed up on a 107-degree day. But it still hasn't sold."

"Ray has a new house with its own mortgage. 'Am I to the point of desperation? Not yet,' she says, 'but I want this house sold.'"

"'We have sellers not only competing with an onslaught of resale houses on the market, but we also have home sellers competing with new developments, where they are offering tens of thousands of dollars in incentives, or even making mortgage payments, buying down loans, putting in swimming pools or paying points,' says Raylene Miller, Margo Ray's agent."

"Real-estate agents are giving stunned sellers crash courses in marketing. In the toughest markets, including the Florida cities, Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas, Stockton, Sacramento and San Diego, incentive is the name of the game. One Florida agent offered a Mercedes-Benz with a house sale. Others dangle vacations or gift cards with thousands of dollars in gasoline."

"People who bought recently and have little equity are in the most difficult situation, says Vince Rizzo, broker for HungryAgents.com. 'There are so many people now that borrowed 95% or 100%, and with the market slipping back a little, and you have to pay 6% commission, you are going to have to bring money to the table,' Rizzo says."

"Short sales have become increasingly common. Sue Hunt, of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta, says that her nonprofit is currently advising '50 or so' clients to short-sell their homes to try to avoid foreclosure."

"Margot Murphy, a Portland, Ore., real estate agent, trains brokers in short sales through her company. It's not easy to negotiate a short sale in which the bank must swallow a loss. Mortgage bankers are often slow to recognize how slow their markets have become, Murphy says."

"Another factor in the stalled market is home sellers' difficulty in letting go of last year's prices. 'If you tell someone in San Diego that they will only get 12% (profit) for their property, they look at you like it's a disaster,' says San Diego agent Steve Faulkner. 'They are so conditioned to a 25% increase that they just think that's what they should get.'"

"Faulkner says speculators are being blamed for running up San Diego prices. Now, with home sales down by 24%, many investors want out. 'If you own 10 properties and your interest rate is going up, it's better to just sell the home and get out of it,' Faulkner says."

"A recent search of Craigslist.org's San Diego's real-estate listings for 'motivated seller' yielded 77 listings. 'Must sell' turned up 68. Another 21 listings appeared in a search for 'short sale.' Some of those desperate-sounding sellers are probably agents like him, Faulkner says."