The Seattle PI reports from Washington. "Shopping for a home in Seattle? The median sales price appears to be rebounding somewhat, after drops in August and September from July's median. Those numbers do not account for homes that sit on the market for months."

"In a news release Thursday, Northwest MLS director Dick Beeson said floods, snow and ice contributed to November's sales slowdown."

"But wet weather only can soak up so much blame. It did not, for instance, seem to dampen the market in January 2006, whose 11.65 inches of precipitation was not far off the January record of 12.92 inches (set in 1953). That, of course, was in the midst of a frenzy of frequent bidding wars and rapidly rising prices."

"'I still have a lot of people looking but not as many people making the move, pulling the trigger,' said (realtor) Susan Robinet. 'I just think it's the uncertainty the national news has created.'"

"'It seems like there's quite a few homes on the market right now,' Chelsey Hays said after looking through a Phinney Ridge home."

"(Realtor) Bill Garrison said he normally is working with three or four active buyers, but has none now. 'Last December was one of my busiest months of the year,' he said. 'This year I'm getting a lot of home projects done.'"

The Seattle Times. "In King County the number of houses and condominiums on the market was 32 percent above the previous November. Pending sales were down 11 percent compared with a year earlier. Those trends were reported in most of the 19 counties within the MLS region."

"Broker Greg Hoff last month's falloff is a return to normal, not the bottom falling out of the market. 'The question I get is, 'Where's the bubble?' he said. 'They think it's bursting because it's not going up the way it used to.'"

The News Tribune from Washington. "Pending Pierce County home sales dropped 16.17 percent in November compared with the same month last year, the Northwest MLS said."

"The inventory of unsold homes in the 19 Washington counties covered by the Northwest MLS rose more than 35 percent from November of 2005, the report said."

"That increase, which could foreshadow price softening, was particularly dramatic in Pierce County, where the number of homes on the market in November grew from 4,124 last year to 6,012 in November this year, up 45.78 percent."

From the Oregonian. "The Portland area housing market will further weaken in 2007, two economists told a gathering of home huilders. Some areas, such as the condo market, could see even more downward pressure on prices because of oversupply."

"Sellers who think they have the upper hand now, despite buyers who argue the other way, could be in another world next year. 'It's going to be a shift to a buyer's market,' predicted Jerry Johnson, of (an) economic consulting firm in Portland."

"Housing permits and starts are 'in the throes of a sharp correction,' said Dae Baek, acting chief economist for the state. The problem of high inventory may be 'darker than it shows in statistics,' Baek said, because sale cancellations might not be fully reported in those figures."

"'It's not a demand problem, it's a supply problem,' Johnson said. The supply of homes for sale may be rising, Johnson said, but only because builders haven't pulled back enough. Building permits should have fallen 10 percent this year, but they fell 6 percent, he said, 'so we still have some more to go.'"

"Johnson was particularly concerned about the condo market. Although there are about 4,000 urban condos in the works, there are about 16,000 planned throughout the region, he said."

"All that inventory could increase the number of buyers withdrawing from sales contracts and lead to falling prices, he said. This seems to be at odds with the view of many real estate agents in the urban market, who consider their market distinct from the suburbs."

"'If you bought a spec condo last week it was probably a bad buy,' Johnson said. 'But if you bought it two years ago it's probably OK, but will be giving some (value) up.'"

The Mail Tribune from Oregon. "The watch and wait real estate market is in full swing, or on hold, depending on if you are a buyer or seller, real estate brokers say."

"November figures from the SOMLS show the median sales price for a single-family residence in Jackson County has declined modestly over the past year. The latest compilation for the county shows a 3.6 percent decline to $268,000 for the quarter ending Nov. 30, compared to $277,950 for a similar period in 2005. Sales activity for the year is down 35.3 percent."

"'We're consistently seeing price decreases more than actual new listings right now,' Ward says. 'If sellers want to sell, they're going to have to lower their prices.'"

"With houses languishing on the market, buyers remain more apt to take their time. Ward has a Pasadena, Calif., client, who has made several recent shopping trips to Southern Oregon. 'We drive around for a week and look at 15 or 25 houses at a time,' says Jim Ward, an agent in Rogue River. 'I've written four offers so far and if there is one little glitch, he cancels and says there are more homes to see.'"

"The median price has stayed above the $400,000 mark in Ashland. But in neighboring Talent, where the median price has gone up more than 100 percent over the past five years, prices have fallen 12.4 percent, according to the three-month rolling measure, in the past year."

"In the tourist towns of Jacksonville and Shady Cove the declines have been 20.9 percent and 23.8 percent, respectively, over the past year."

"'The only way to get a house sold fast is getting the price down,' agent Jeremy Neff says."

"A three-bedroom, one-bath house with just over 1,000 square feet built 30 years ago drew an offer of less than $180,000. 'The house next to that one sold last February for $205,000,' Neff says. 'There are houses on the same street, built about the same year, that are sitting and sitting.'"