Moody's has this report. "Housing prices, slumping after a five-year boom, are projected to decline in more than 100 of the nation's metropolitan areas, with the Northeast, Florida and California among the areas hardest hit. The forecast, 'Housing at the Tipping Point,' by Moody's Economy.com, presents one of the starkest views yet of the housing slowdown that has been gathering force in recent months."

"The firm projects that the median sales price for an existing home will decline in 2007 by 3.6 percent, which would be the first decline for an entire year in home prices since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The forecast is included in a 195-page report."

"'Prices are going to go down and stay down for awhile. It will take at least a couple of years to work off the excesses of the last decade,' said Mark Zandi, chief economist and the principal author of the report. 'Housing's downturn has turned even more dramatic with the rapid flight of the flipper from the market,' the report said. 'These investors have gone from sending home sales and prices shooting higher to driving sales and prices lower.'"

The News Press. "The Fort Myers area is second on a national list of metropolitan areas where housing prices are expected to plunge. In Fort Myers, the decline in prices will be caused by factors including 'a collapse in housing affordability because of a surge in housing values,' said Zandi."

"Also, he said, 'Speculation became rampant particularly in 2005 and 2006. Those flippers are getting wrung out of the market as expectations are swinging from wild euphoria to dark pessimism. Those hopes are being dashed and they're exiting the market rapidly.'"

"'There are signs of too much building. The market is strong, demographics are excellent, but builders are getting ahead of the market, Zandi said.'"

From Marketplace. "Homeowners at risk include those who used adjustable-rate mortgages to get into the housing market in the last few years. Zandi says those rates are now going up, but workers' incomes aren't keeping pace. 'As you go back to the start of the decade, the household in Miami earning the median income could afford 125 percent of the media-priced home. Today, that same household earning the median income can afford to buy only half the median-priced home,' he said."

"The DC area is predicted to be among the regions taking the hardest hit. The Washington area, including Arlington and Alexandria, is Number 14 on the list, with housing prices predicted to drop by 12%."

The Arizona Daily Star. "Tucson's median housing price is projected to drop by more than 13 percent by the second quarter of 2008, according to a forecast. University of Arizona Economist Marshall Vest said a 13.4 percent decrease over the next 18 months or so is plausible. Vest in a speech last week said he wouldn't be surprised if Tucson prices dropped up to 20 percent in the next year or two."

"'It's possible. I am a little surprised they rank Tucson ahead of Phoenix because every other indicator says the metro Phoenix area was more 'overbought,' if I can use that term, than Tucson,' Vest said."

The Tucson Citizen. "Publisher and consultant John Strobeck said Tucsonans shouldn't worry. 'Yes, we are going to see a decrease in existing homes (prices) because we saw a run-up in 2004 and 2005,' he said. 'We have to look at this not as a crisis. It's merely an adjustment. It's perfectly normal.'"

The LA Times. "In Southern California, the report predicted declines of 11.4% in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, 10% in Orange County, 8.5% in San Diego County and 4.8% in Los Angeles County."

The Press Enterprise. "Moody's conclusions met immediate criticism from several Southern California economists who said they believe local home values will be supported by the strength of the local economy and the infusion of higher-income home buyers from Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties."

"'My own feeling is they are wrong,' Inland economist John Husing said. 'If we were only selling houses to each other, they might be right. But we are a market for the people in the coastal counties with substantially higher incomes than the people who live here.'"

"Alan Nevin, chief economist for the California Building Industry Association, said an 11.4 percent loss in home value would be 'a fairly dramatic downturn.' He questions whether Moody's has enough data to make such a local projection. 'I can't understand what methodology you would use that would result in that statistic,' he said."

"But Moody's economists are not alone in predicting a downturn in home prices. Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University, said he expects home prices to start falling by the end of the year and to continue in 2007, declining by 4 percent on average in the Inland Empire."

"Steve Cochrane, senior managing director at Moody's, said homeowners who will get hurt are those who bought their homes very recently at the top of the market and are forced to sell because of life changes such as sickness or job change. Those who financed home purchases with adjustable rate mortgages, that they can no longer afford as rates increase, also could be hurt, he said."

"Jennifer Langrill said she fears that the prediction of falling prices could mean that she and her husband will have to lower the $479,000 sale price of their house in Indio. They have been trying to sell it for three weeks. She said they bought the house in December and intended to stay, but a job opportunity in Anaheim has them heading back to Riverside."

"Talk of sliding prices doesn't concern Pete and Janet Mills. The couple, who were moving into a new home at Suncal's Terra Lago lake development in Indio on Tuesday, said they would be renting out their former home in Indio and holding onto it as an investment. 'People always need to buy,' Janet Mills said."

The Union Tribune. "A new report predicts that housing prices will fall in San Diego. The report projects prices for new and resale single-family homes to drop 8.5 percent in San Diego from the market peak at the end of 2005 to the first half of 2008."

"Prices have already declined locally in the first and second quarters of this year, said Brian Carey, an economist with who worked on the report. Sellers, particularly new-home developers, have been cutting prices as homes have lingered on the market and buyer demand has slowed. 'They do have a lot of excess supply right now,' Carey said of San Diego."

"Condos were excluded from Economy.com's forecast because it lacked good data, Carey said. Condos may be more vulnerable than single-family homes to steep price declines because of the unprecedented construction of new units downtown and elsewhere, as well as a glut of condo conversions either for sale today or planned in the near future. 'We realize the condo market could be hit harder,' Carey said."

"Real estate consultant Nathan Moeder said it's not surprising that home prices would be falling now that buyers are being cautious. But he doubted that any forecast could accurately predict how much prices might drop. 'We've already seen adjustments by developers, not only with incentives but also price decreases because they have to sell their units,' said Moeder. 'But is it going to drop zero or 10 percent? Who knows?'"