The Post and Courier reports from South Carolina. "Mount Pleasant has more than double the number of homes for sale than last year, and town leaders are worried. As of Sept. 6, Mount Pleasant had 1,399 homes on the market. On Sept. 5, 2005, the town had 645 homes for sale. 'What the trend means is something that we don't understand completely,' said Councilman Joe Bustos."

"In April, May and June, Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties had 3,903 homes for sale compared with 2,798 homes on the market for the same period last year. 'I think it's a lending bubble. Lending is out of control. The way some people finance their homes is crazy,' said Brad Rundbaken, a real estate appraiser."

"Councilman Paul Gawrych also expressed concern at the committee meeting about houses that aren't selling like they used to. 'All of a sudden, there's a flood of houses out there that are for sale. Why are there 1,300 houses on the market right now? Are we doing the right things?' Gawrych said."

"Amy Campbell Kelly wishes she had listed her $315,000 home for sale in Snee Farm three months ago when the market was better. 'Everything was selling like crazy,' Kelly said."

"Now, things are different. 'If I would have listed this in May, I have a feeling it would have sold in two weeks,' she said. Instead, she's shown her home only twice in three weeks."

The Courier Journal from Kentucky. "Roger Burke was relying on recent history when he bought a house across the street from his in St. Matthews last year to remodel and sell. 'Normally, in this neighborhood, properties sell in the first few days,' said Burke, who has had the house on the market since June."

"Henry Cochran is willing to wait for a bargain. 'I look at the price of houses, I'm looking to knock $25,000 to $30,000 off the price,' Cochran said."

"When the Louisville real estate market was on its way to a third consecutive record in annual sales in the first half of last year, Cochran might have been more concerned about losing a good house and Burke probably would have sold his by now. But the balance has shifted this year."

"Builders have gotten the message. They took out 41 percent fewer permits for one- and two-family residential buildings in July and 44 percent fewer in August than they did last year."

"Real estate professionals are reluctant to call Louisville a buyer's market, because they think the term suggests a decline in property values. Adam Hall, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Louisville, put it this way: 'There's going to be a lot more choices for the buyers out there and probably a lot more competition among sellers to get their properties sold.'"

"Burke has dropped his asking price from $275,000 to $259,500. 'I've had an enormous amount of traffic,' he said. 'But I think everybody is being ultra-cautious right now.'"

"Cochran said he has seen about 20 houses, including Burke's, and 'probably half of them were empty.' More houses are on the market in Louisville. Realtors took 589 listings and had about 300 sales during a typical week in August last year, Hall said."

"Opinions vary on why so many homes are for sale. Hall said, 'we're all going to have to be a little more creative' in using nontraditional lending tools: having sellers pay the upfront mortgage points; loans that require only interest payments in the first few years; and having sellers or builders pay some of the interest for the first few years."

"But those mortgage products have critics who wonder whether they are responsible for some of the increase in homes on the market. 'People are getting into loans that, for one reason or another, they cannot afford,' assistant professor William Cahaney said. 'And they're getting into them because lenders are doing everything they can to get people into the loan.'"

"Burke figures he'll find a buyer eventually. 'I'm in hopes this house will be appealing to somebody who's downsizing,' he said. 'But they're stuck with not being able to sell their house, so it's like a traffic jam on the interstate.'"