The Voice of San Diego reports from California. "If you want to know how a home building company is holding up in an uncertain housing market, just peek in its break room. 'We used to have amazing food in our break room for free,' Lennar Corp intern Travis Carter said. 'Starbucks every morning with choice of five different creamers.' Now, he said, it's pizza once a month and Folgers instant coffee."

"After many in the industry saw years of double-digit revenue increases, some are now scaling back their land holdings and number of projects, which has often meant laying-off employees. Executives at San Diego homebuilder Hallmark Communities noticed an estimated 40 percent decrease in traffic between the second and fourth quarter 2005. They laid-off half their staff in two waves of cutbacks earlier this year."

"The effects of the cooling market haven't been felt only in the construction industry. Many analysts are concerned that the job growth in construction, real estate sales and mortgage brokering while the market was booming will mean corresponding job losses as the market cools further. 'During this big boom, a lot of people went into real estate,' economist Alan Gin said. 'I think there's likely to be a shakeout there.'"

The LA Daily News. "Scheduled sales of foreclosed properties increased 11 percent in Los Angeles County during the second quarter from the prior three months, with the distress concentrated in the Antelope Valley and South L.A."

"'The Antelope Valley and Norwalk would both be entry-level markets. Sometimes people have really stretched' to buy a house, said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp."

The Ventura County Star. "It's clear that the housing market is losing altitude, but debate continues about how everyone along for the ride is going to land. Ventura County's real estate market is probably in a better position than many communities, economist Mark Schniepp said, because there was less investor speculation in the market."

"His report shows that at the peak, less than 10 percent of purchases in Ventura County were pure investments, where the buyer had no intention of living in the house. In markets like Sacramento and San Luis Obispo, the rate was more like 18 percent."

"'The question is: Do we have enough momentum in all other sectors of the local economy to neutralize the severe weakness demonstrated by the residential real estate market?' he said."

The Union Tribune. "Each of the six economic indicators, residential building permits, unemployment filings, local stock prices, consumer confidence, help-wanted ads and national economic growth, has been in negative territory at least three of the four months from April through July. 'What's been frightening over the past four months is how negative all of the indicators have turned, reflecting general weakness in the economy as a whole,' Alan Gin said. 'In April and May, all six categories were negative.'"