The Review Journal from Las Vegas. "Earlier this month, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported 1,689 single-family home sales in October, down 34.4 percent from the same month a year ago. It was the 10th straight month of double-digit, year-over-year sales declines."

"'It's an absolute correction,' association President Linda Rheinberger said. 'We needed to have this. What's interesting is prices are fairly flat. But we absolutely needed a correction and across the country; it's helped with affordability. We have an affordability issue here in the county we're going to have to deal with.'"

"In Las Vegas, new home builders pulled 864 permits in October, the lowest total since January 1993, Home Builders Research reported. 'We never thought the monthly permit total would ever again get below 1,000,' Home Builders Research President Dennis Smith said."

The Las Vegas Business Press. "Nevada’s unemployment rate jumped to 4.2 percent last month, up from 4 percent in September. The housing slump, say officials, has caused the increase. The construction industry reported fewer jobs in October after months of strong employment gains."

"'We’ve been hearing for a while that Nevada’s housing market was losing momentum,' DETR Director Terry Johnson said."

"The construction sector (is) the primary driver of Nevada’s employment growth. The construction industry added an average of 2,000 jobs per month from February through September, continuing the strong growth trend seen in 2004 and 2005. October is the first drop, with construction losing 700 jobs statewide in October."

The Reno Gazette Journal from Nevada. "The median price for an existing single-family home in the greater Reno-Sparks area dropped for the fifth consecutive month in October. The median price slipped to $312,400 in the Reno metro area, down 13 percent compared with October 2005, according to the University of Nevada."

"That is down from the all-time high of $370,000 in January this year and down slightly from $315,000 in September. The once red-hot housing market has seen month-over-month decreases in all but two months this year. "

"Home sellers might have to wait through winter, a traditionally slow time for the Reno-Sparks housing market. Because of that, Stephen Haley, president of the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors, and analyst Brian Kaiser agreed February could be the most telling month of whether the market has hit bottom."

"'We're not going to see much of an improvement in the market until after the first (of the year),' Kaiser said. 'These last two months of the year are traditionally very slow anyway for resales, and with the market at or near the bottom I wouldn't expect the November and December 2006 numbers to show much of a reversal in this year's slide.'"

"The median price for a single-family home in Reno rose to $380,000 in October from $370,000 in September, but that was still down 11 percent from October 2005, according to the report."

"In Sparks, the median fell to $294,200, down 12 percent from October 2005, and the North Valleys fell to $260,000, down 12 percent from the same year-ago period."

"The Sparks City Council considered changing an agreement with developer Trammell Crow Co. to reduce the sales price of land needed for housing projects planned on Victorian Square."

"The price tag for the property would change from $10 per acre or $1.4 million to at least $100,000 plus possible revenue sharing of up to $2.9 million."

"What happened: The city council voted 4-1, to change the development agreement. Developers said the original agreement for the land did not take into consideration market declines in property values, and increased costs for construction materials and labor."

"While council members were concerned about the potential risk of loss to the city, many agreed that plans for the revitalization project had progressed too far to deny the price reduction."