In Business Las Vegas reports on the homebuilders. "In a sign the housing market continues to soften, Las Vegas Valley homebuilders are backing out of land deals as home sales remain sluggish. Centex Homes, which has trimmed its staff by layoffs and voluntary resignations, announced Sept. 14 that it has relinquished various options on land holdings."

"'It's no secret that the housing market is in transition,' Centex said in a prepared statement. 'As a result, we've adjusted sales volumes to meet current demand and have relinquished various options on certain land holdings, which are projected to no longer meet the demand previously anticipated.'"

"New home closings have fallen four of the last five months as builders turned to swimming pools, washers and dryers and other incentives valued at tens of thousands of dollars to boost sales. Builders have continued to cut back on permits, taking out 40 percent less in August than August 2005."

"Developer John Ritter said he's aware of builders, whom he declined to name, who aren't going forward with existing options or escrows in some cases worth several hundred thousand dollars or more. Ritter called it short-term phenomena triggered by an oversupply of homes, both new and resale."

"Housing market analyst Steve Bottfeld said he believes the cut back in land holdings is significant. If Centex is cutting back, than virtually everybody is, Bottfeld said."

"'We are in the beginning of a market correction, and the builders are leading that market correction,' Bottfeld said. 'The market can't sustain excessive growth, and we have been in excessive growth mode for the past 12 months. The builders are reducing their exposure as the market cools and are pulling back to more realistic levels of inventory for which they can sell.'"

"Monica Caruso, spokeswoman for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, said five to six builders, whom she declined to name, have had layoffs over the last several months. That's not unexpected given that sales are down and customer traffic isn't there, so builders need fewer employees, mostly in sales, she said."

The Review Journal. "Las Vegas housing analyst Dennis Smith expects to see some fairly significant price cuts in the resale segment of the market in the next few months to move some of the 20,384 homes listed for sale in the valley."

"The number of existing home sales dropped in August to 3,641, compared with 5,786 in the same month a year ago."

"'In resales, buyers are reluctant to give up the gains they've absorbed over the past few years,' Smith said. 'What they don't understand is that's paper gain. If you've got a house that's been on the market for six months, you'd better adjust the price downward. It's going to happen. People will have to lower prices.'"

"Look for home builders to take advantage of lower material and labor costs over the next few months and reduce home prices in new subdivisions, Smith said."

"'What we're seeing with new homes is the cost to build is going down because as sales decrease, subcontractors lose work. If subcontractors lose work, they lay off people or they'll lower their price to get more business. If that's the case, the builder will offer more space at a lower price per square foot,' he said."

"'New home permits have been falling as the market begins to adjust to shifting economic conditions,' SalesTraq President Larry Murphy said. 'The incredible reduction in permit activity over the last four months strongly suggests that builders are responding to a market correction.'"

"'Speculators are now selling to end users, so that's helping the apartments,' broker Christopher Bentley said. 'We saw the single-family homes and condos as a shadow market because they were competing with us. Now with the resale homes..40 percent are vacant now that speculators are selling houses and no longer renting them.'"