DNR Online has this report from Virginia. "The housing market has flattened, those who work in real estate say. 'The housing inventory is the highest in years,' said Don Earman, financial consultant with CTX Mortgage Co. of Harrisonburg. 'Many sellers are actually lowering their prices since it is taking longer to sell homes.'"

"Home sales were down 5.9 percent in July and down 1.7 percent in the first seven months of the year, according to the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of Realtors. Other parts of the state have taken severe hits. In Winchester, home sales were down nearly 30 percent for the first seven months of the year. In the Dulles area, that number is 36 percent."

"The biggest declines will be the high-end homes, because fewer buyers are willing and able to make the purchase, experts say. Builders will suffer because they can’t afford the carrying costs of finished houses sitting on the market."

"The boom-based pricing is ending because housing shortages no longer exist, Earman said. Some buyers may be waiting for prices to drop, which has happened in Northern Virginia in recent months."

"Earman doesn’t think that will happen here; he says the appreciation rates will just return to a more normal pattern. 'The boom is over,' he said. 'And the boom-based pricing is going away.'"

And Morningstar has a new report out. "Sales and home prices fell at a faster clip than expected and inventories climbed further in August as the housing market continued to deteriorate, according to a Banc of America Real Estate Agent survey."

"'Consumers are shifting from a mindset of waiting for a better price to one where they do not want to buy at this time, no matter what the price is,' the study said."

"The study also found that prices fell sequentially for the 11th consecutive month. Prices tumbled in 82% of the markets surveyed. In July, only 79% of the surveyed markets fell. The use of incentives continued to rise, hitting record levels. The amount of inventory rose in all markets, except Austin, in August."

"'Consumers are just of the mindset at this point that it is not the time to be buying a home and this becomes increasingly problematic for housing,' Raymond James analyst Rick Murray said. 'Inventory levels right now would suggest that this downturn is probably going to last a period of years as opposed to quarters,' the analyst said."