The Journal Sentinel reports from Wisconsin. "Hard bargaining and a molasses pace mark the home-selling trade these days. 'So many people have had their houses up for sale for months and months,' said appraiser Paul Vozar in West Allis. 'I'm seeing concessions anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 in recent weeks, given as a credit at closing. Or sellers just drop their asking price.'"

"The cost of stubborn resistance: Buyers snub your property, said Donald J. Moore, president of Houses.com in Elm Grove. 'It's the old 'irresistible force meets immovable object' law. A black hole forms and all real estate gets sucked into it,' said Moore."

"Buyers who had to cope with a supply-tight market just 18 months ago, now have plenty of 'for sale' offerings laid out before them. In metro Milwaukee, 34,805 existing homes came up for sale in the first 10 months of this year, more than double the 16,766 sold, according to Metro MLS in Wauwatosa."

"'We don't have an economic problem. We have a confidence problem,' said Maddente, who is executive VP of Wisconsin-based First Weber Group. By looking long and hard without making any offers, she said, 'buyers are waiting to see how low prices will go.'"

"'You can tell if a property is overpriced. It sticks out like a sore thumb,' said Realtor Bonnie Duffin, who works in Milwaukee. 'Buyers are going down too low on some properties.'"

"The Gaber family of Muskego sees things differently. 'We have looked at so many places over the last six months,' said Faith Gaber, sounding weary. She and husband Greg are helping their son Garrett hunt for his first house. Among under-$200,000 offerings, she said, 'everything seems either overpriced, or big fixer uppers.'"

"As the ambitions of sellers and demands of buyers collide, Maddente said, 'our biggest difficulty is holding deals together.'"

The Star Tribune from the Twin Cities. "In April, Marie Senn found the home of her dreams, a condo that hadn't even gone on the market yet. Then she fell into a nightmare of a mortgage, a type of adjustable-rate mortgage known as an option ARM. 'I was a young buyer,' said Senn. 'I'd never heard of this loan,' she said. 'There are so many things that I wish I knew then.'"

"'If I was in charge of the world, they wouldn't exist.' said Kris Wilson, a loan officer in Bloomington. Wilson said she has seen a growing number of lenders put people like Senn into option ARM"s by enticing them with the possibility of extremely low payments.

"'It sounds like the streets are paved with gold,' Wilson said. 'But people don't realize how big a trouble they can get into, and then they quickly end up upside down.'"

"That's where Senn was headed. Her payments eventually would have tripled from a low payment that came with her option ARM if she hadn't just refinanced into a fixed-rate mortgage, which still leaves her strapped with higher monthly payments than she had planned. 'I want to put this behind me,' she said."

"'There are risks with a loan like this, but it's still a good product,' said Ewald, of the Minnesota Mortgage Association. 'In an ideal world, you've got wonderfully educated consumers working with caring loan officers.'"