From the Pioneer Press. "For years, construction companies worked on the assumption that if they built homes, buyers would come. But that no longer holds true, and nearly 3,000 new single-family homes sit empty in a cooling Twin Cities market. So, how did we go from builders feeling like they couldn't put up homes fast enough to builders begging for buyers?"

"Part of the issue is the nature of homebuilding. 'If you look at the overall market, builders have always speculated — that's part of the business they're in,' said Todd Shipman, president of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors. 'If they don't have buildings up and ready to purchase, they don't have a product to sell.'"

"Builders of condos and town homes often must reach a certain number of pre-sales to receive money from their lenders, said Betty Hardle (who) tracks new developments. Once that level is reached, the complex can be built and the rest of the units sold on spec."

"For years, homes built on spec flew off the market because of an expanded buyer pool, said developer Rick Packer. 'Everybody got used to this high-demand, low-supply environment and just started putting up stuff like there's no tomorrow,' Packer said. The Metropolitan Council has been projecting that 16,000 to 18,000 homes need to be built. From 2001 to 2004, builders put up 18,000 to 21,000 homes a year, according to permits."

"'Builders are not just going to stop building because the averages show that there is going to be an oversupply,' researcher Mary Bujold said. 'If their neighbor is selling homes and they are selling homes, they are going to keep building.'"

"The people most affected by the glut of spec homes are the sellers of 2- or 3-year-old houses that are near or in the same developments as empty new houses, said Shipman. 'Now they're (buyers) going to sell and they're breaking even or barely breaking even,' said Shipman."

The Detroit Free Press. "The construction of most new commercial, industrial or residential developments would be barred in the City of Taylor for six months under a compromise reached last week."

"Mary French, who supported the moratorium, said it would allow people struggling to sell their homes some breathing room. 'Why build new homes when there's a market of already established homes waiting for new people?' said French."

The Baltimore Sun. "Baltimore, which saw an astonishing uptick in residential real estate investing during the housing boom, is now flush with inexperienced property owners who might not have the wherewithal to deal with a no-longer-hot market. City advocates, worry now that further slowing could leave investors so financially strapped that they walk away from homes they bought."

"City home sales to 'non owner-occupiers,' almost entirely investors in a market not known for vacation properties, totaled nearly 5,300 in the first half of this year. That was 62 percent of all sales, triple the share elsewhere in the state. They paled in comparison with the last six months of last year, when state records showed investors snapping up 9 of 10 homes that sold in the city, more than 8,000 in all."

"Auctions that last year were a tumult of outbidding are now drawing circumspect buyers; some properties aren't attracting so much as an opening bid. Rehabbers are getting pinched as homes sit on the market longer and longer. More investors are choosing to rent rather than sell, either by choice or by default."

"No one wants to admit to losing money, but everyone seems to know about people who have."

"Nationwide, a record 40 percent of transactions last year had non-owner-occupier buyers, according to National Association of Realtors surveys. In Baltimore, it was 80 percent, state numbers show, up from 35 percent four years earlier. Buyers surged in from across the country, particularly New York and Washington. Many homes were passed from investor to investor as longtime landlords unloaded hundreds of properties."

"City home sales dropped 30 percent in August versus a year earlier, while the number of homes on the market nearly doubled."

"Tracy Gosson, of a nonprofit that markets city living, is amazed and appalled at the prices investors are now trying to get for homes in some of the most troubled neighborhoods in the city 'Oh my God!' Gosson exclaimed as she pulled up one listing, a largely unrenovated two-story rowhouse priced just under $300,000. The investor who owns it has been trying to sell it for nearly five months."

"She fears overreaching speculators will eventually give up, leaving neighborhoods to deal with the damage of deserted and foreclosed properties."

"In pricey neighborhoods such as Federal Hill and Canton, lots of properties are languishing because so many hit the market at the same time. Associate broker Alyssia Essig found nearly 300 homes for sale advertised as 'Canton' when she checked the multiple listing service recently. That's more than triple the number that sold in the entire ZIP code in August."

"A pair of investors she's working with have cut $50,000 off the asking price of their high-end Fells Point rehab, following the trend. Now they're getting ready to list it for rent, too. their holding costs are hurting them after eight months on the market. 'They put a lot of money into this house,' said Essig."

"At Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc., which holds large real estate auctions at its Towson offices every other month, residential interest 'has definitely leveled off,' mainly for homes that don't come with renters, said vice president Jon Levinson. Though the room was well filled last month with potential buyers for about 100 properties, mostly Baltimore rowhouses, almost half went unsold that day."

"In some cases, sellers didn't like the top bid. 'We're going to pass on that,' auctioneer Paul R. Cooper said when an Upper Fells Point shell failed to get offers above $205,000."

"Or there were no bids at all. 'Who will open up at $25,000?' Cooper asked, referring to a vacant East Baltimore rowhouse. 'Any interest? No interest?' Afterward, Cooper said he is convinced that the large number of vacant homes hurt the auction results.