Some reports from the Arizona Republic. "For the first time in a decade, median prices for resale homes in the Valley dropped last month compared with the same time last year. 'We've had a major correction,' said Lyn Truitt, a real estate broker in Surprise. 'The market has slowed considerably. The new-home market is impacting the resale market.'"

"New-home builders are loading up on incentives for buyers that artificially maintain the price. The reason: It allows builders to maintain the price point and not infuriate recent homebuyers who paid top dollar."

"New-home sales have driven the Surprise market the last few years, and those sales are down significantly this year. 'The domino effect is affecting all sales,' Truitt said. 'People who want to move up can't sell their homes.'"

"The West Valley's resale housing market continued to slide in September, which brewed a storm of increased listings, a drop in the number of recorded sales and a decrease in the median sale price. Glendale's resales slid from 780 to 400, Peoria's declined from 470 to 190, and in Surprise, the number dipped from 415 to 190."

"Median year-to-year sales prices from September fell in every West Valley city except Glendale and Sun City West."

"The process of finding the perfect home can be overwhelming with the large number of listings. 'It creates a scenario where it takes buyers longer to make a decision because there's so much inventory,' said Dave Karrick, a real estate agent in Peoria. 'Without a doubt, people can be more picky in this market.'"

"For years, buyers in metro Phoenix assumed if they purchased a house, it would increase in value the next year. The drop in median price leaves many potential buyers apprehensive about the future. 'That fear is keeping a lot of people on the sidelines,' Karrick said. 'The market has certainly deteriorated and it seems every month it's getting softer and softer.'"

"Kim Arnold and her husband, Rufus, have had their 1,900-square-foot Sun City Grand home on the market for six weeks. 'Sure, if we sold it last April it would have been a piece of cake, but we know that isn't possible right now,' Kim Arnold said. 'For us it's not aggravating because the market is slow and we know the perfect person will come in eventually.'"

"The Arnolds' real estate agent, Meredith Andrews said that during last year's seller's market, at least 10 people would show up to an open house. One showed up to a recent open house at the Arnolds' home."

"Home prices in Scottsdale had increased nearly 17 percent through August, compared with the period a year ago. What a difference a few weeks make. Sales now are way off, and prices are starting to erode in the Northeast Valley, where the number of for-sale signs has nearly doubled from a year ago."

"With Northeast Valley home sales off 56 percent this year, buyers seem to be waiting for prices to fall. Recent home buyer Donna Vanauken of Scottsdale calls it a 'seller's hangover' from last year. Vanauken was determined to wait out the market when she went looking in April at dozens of homes and condominiums."

"She paid $369,000 in July for a 2,000-square-foot home. That was 13 percent below the asking price. Vanauken said she got a good deal but thinks prices will continue to fall. 'I kind of wish I would have waited until the fourth quarter,' she said."

"There were 5,741 Northeast Valley homes on the market as of last Friday, said Karl Stauffer in Scottsdale. That is up 92 percent from the same time last year. There is a nine-month supply of homes now, compared with a 3 1/2-month supply last October, he said."

The Arizona Daily Star. "The median price of a resale home last month reached its lowest level since June 2005 as sellers continued to cut prices in a cooling market. 'We're seeing people dropping their prices in retail and getting back to what was normal,' Tucson housing consultant John Strobeck said. 'We're falling back to normality.'"

"Paul Olson, president of the Tucson Association of Realtors MLS (said) numbers for September will show a decline in the number of new homes listed for sale. 'I think it's a positive thing for sellers, because they're having a hard time right now with the inventory,' Olson said. 'Right now they have so much competition with 9,600 listings that they're waiting a lot.'"

The Review Journal from Las Vegas. "Like other mixed-use developments in Las Vegas touted as the newest hip place to "live, work and play," Urban Village on Las Vegas Boulevard South has apparently crumbled before it ever took shape."

"Several sources in the local real estate industry said the 50-acre, $1 billion project by a resort-style subsidiary of Dallas-based Centex Homes, has been canceled and the sales office is closed."

"The on-site construction office for Centex Construction and Martin-Harris Construction was locked, dark and vacant Thursday afternoon. A banner on a recreational vehicle parked on the property advertised, 'Now Selling Brownstones.'"

"Lane Wright, division president for Centex Destination in Denver, confirmed Thursday that the company has discontinued sales at Urban Village effective immediately and will refund deposits to about 75 buyers in the first phase of development."

"'No surprise, and we expect more to come,' (realtor) Bruce Hiatt said about the canceled project. 'Given current market conditions, it's making it tougher and tougher for builders to succeed,' Hiatt said. 'Any new projects coming into the market are going to be challenged.'"

"Buyers are skittish about the market and are just waiting it out, he said."

"The pool of luxury condo buyers (are) more skeptical about projects in Las Vegas, said Jeremy Aguero, principal of a Las Vegas-based research firm. It's unrealistic to think the market can absorb the entire inventory of some 90,000 proposed units, he said."

"'I don't think it's going to be the last major project we see fall off the radar,' Aguero said. 'You've got a well-positioned, well-capitalized company in a well-located part of Southern Nevada. If that project had trouble making it, how many others are viable? These guys (developers) have a pipeline of projects and the market has changed. The market's not there.'""