What do you see in your local housing market this holiday weekend? Builder incentives? Relisted properties? Anecdotes?

How about cheaper land? "During the real-estate boom and recent slowdown, the focus has been almost entirely on the price of homes. But land prices have taken an even wilder ride."

"Residential lot prices in or near many metro areas across the country, including Boston, Washington, D.C., and Naples, Fla., have plummeted in the past year, some as much as 29 percent."

"Big landowners are feeling the pain, too. According to Chicago-based Grubb & Ellis, the median price of parcels averaging between 40 and 94 acres is $162,000 per acre year-to-date, 28 percent below the 2004 price."

"In Boston, in the throes of its weakest housing market since the early '90s, the price of a lot fell 24.5 percent in the third quarter, while home prices fell 9.8 percent. In Naples, Fla., which was recently overrun and then abandoned by speculators, lot prices plummeted 28.7 percent in the same period, while home prices dropped 5.7 percent."

Any construction changes? "Oklahoma City, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore and Norman issued 5,080 single-family building permits through November, a drop of 13.4 percent.'

"The slowdown and increasing inventory, almost a six-month supply of homes on the market compared with a four-month supply at the first of 2006, has some builders offering extras and incentives to buyers, partly to help sell homes, partly to keep from having to reduce prices, home-building executive Dave Osborn said. But some builders are dropping prices, said Osborn, president of Heartland Homes in Oklahoma City."

"Cutting prices 'sends a bad message to both existing and potential homeowners,' Vernon McKown, co-owner and president of sales for Ideal Homes in Norman said. 'We try to show loyalty to the people that show loyalty to us. That means we do our best to protect the investment and trust our customers place with us. We don't drop prices because it literally takes equity away from people who already live in our communities.'"

"'Not to mention, if a customer builds a home, then a few months later the builder slashes prices for their neighbor, it really makes them feel like they were taken advantage of and can leave a bad taste in their mouth.'"