USA Today reports from Colorado. "Auctioneer Bret Richards barely broke his rapid-fire chatter as he eyeballed uncertain bidders. Less than a minute later, the house was sold. In two hours, 61 were auctioned, all of them foreclosures. One of main factors pushing up foreclosures: the number of borrowers who've fallen behind on their adjustable-rate subprime loans."

"The loss of a job is the No. 1 reason people go into foreclosure. That's what happened to Bill and Dana Pittman in Denver. Dana lost her job last year, then needed surgery. The couple managed their mortgage payments with Bill's wages and an inheritance from Dana's parents."

"When the inheritance ran out, they fell behind. 'I should have tattooed across my forehead, 'Real estate stupid,' says Dana. She says she wrote 'a letter of hardship' to the mortgage company last summer, but 'It was, like, 'Oh, well, too bad. We want our money.'"

"To stave off foreclosure on their suburban home, the Pittmans have been trying to sell a small vacation home they own in a remote valley three hours south of Denver. But with no takers despite a cut in the asking price, they don't expect to sell it before they put their main home up for auction on Jan. 3."

"'In California, I saw a billboard that said, 'Own the home you want, not the one you can afford,' says Thomas DiMercurio, a Denver real estate broker who specializes in bank-held foreclosures. 'That was so silly.'"

The Denver Post. "Tighter credit could worsen the housing downturn by reducing affordability for a large block of buyers, said Tom Di Mercurio. Now that the market is slowing and needs capital to avoid a more severe downturn, lenders are becoming more risk averse, Di Mercurio said."

"That was a mistake lenders made in the collapse of the Houston real estate market in the 1980s, and Di Mercurio said he fears it will be repeated."

The Brighton Standard Blade from Colorado. "Fewer homes are being built in Brighton, Brighton finance director Bernadette Kimmey said. 'What we’re seeing is on the number of foreclosures in Brighton, there’s an inventory of existing houses,' Kimmey said."

"The significant downturn in housing construction in Commerce City, director of finance Roger Tinklenberg said, follows market trends. 'Nationwide the whole housing sector of the market is down significantly,' he said."

"'Economists are projecting 2007 is going to be worse than 2006.' In the metro area the market 'is just overbuilt,' Tinklenberg added."

The Wickenburg Sun from Arizona. "Significant for those in the real estate business is the number of homes sold during these years. 'The selling frenzy has stopped,' said appraiser Tadd Nixon. 'While values have not significantly dropped, the number of homes being sold has drastically decreased. This year we are only doing about half the number of appraisals as we did last year.'"

"Nixon attributed the rapid increase and present slowdown in the market to multiple factors affecting both Wickenburg and Arizona as a whole. He called the housing boom a rolling boom having started in California and traveling to many other hot spots of the country."

"According to Nixon, the Phoenix market has experienced a sharp slowdown, which has been felt in Wickenburg to a lesser extent. While prices have not statistically fallen much in Phoenix, he expects that to happen since the rate of foreclosures is up sharply. With sales off in Wickenburg, he expects to see this market also soften somewhat in price."

"'High raw land prices are keeping the market up at the present time,' continued Nixon. 'We have several developments about to come on line, and when that happens we will see more available lots and can expect lot prices to level off or even drop a little. Generally the Wickenburg market moves in the same direction as Phoenix but a little later in time.'"

From Fortune. "Bret and Tricia Baird are all too aware of what they're getting into. Friends and family have admonished them to rent when they move this month to Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix."

"With an inventory of more than 38,000 homes for sale, up 94 percent from this time last year, Phoenix is one of the shakiest markets in the country. Nevertheless, Bret and Tricia have decided to make a leap of faith. They just put in an offer of $400,000 for a 2,700-square-foot, five-bedroom house right next door to her sister."

"The place looks like a pretty good deal, 8 percent off the original asking price of $434,000 and $5,000 less than what the seller paid for it last year. But with the way things are looking in Phoenix, the Bairds realize they could be paying too much."

"Tricia's sister, for example, bought her house two years ago for $225,000. 'We're nervous,' says Tricia. 'If for some reason we have to sell a couple years from now, we're not confident that we could get what we paid for it.'"

"'It's possible that the broader housing market will firm in the next few months, that the worst is over,' says economist Mark Zandi. 'But that to me is a dead-cat bounce.'"

"This time last year the big question was whether the real estate market was going to slow down. Today it's 'How bad will it get?'"