The Express News reports from Texas. "The party isn't exactly over for San Antonio real estate, but the champagne has stopped flowing. Home builders, feeding off of the anxiety of the national real estate meltdown coupled with the typical seasonal slowdown, have started offering deals and incentives not available a few months ago. KB Home even has started to lay off employees."

"'I'm hearing more people being concerned than I am (hearing them be) ecstatic,' said Michael Moore, vice president of the Greater San Antonio Builders Association."

"The new home market party started when Fortune magazine anointed San Antonio the nation's strongest housing market, predicting an 8.3 percent home price appreciation in 2006, luring investors who helped push the market to record levels."

"As a result, one segment of the real estate market already has a hangover: single-family home rentals. Out-of-town investors flooding into San Antonio this year have glutted the market with rental homes, and the average rent has dropped $202 a month since this time last year, from $1,301 to $1,099, according to the San Antonio Board of Realtors."

"At the end of October, renters had their pick of more than 2,000 homes. So far this year, more than 10,650 homes have gone onto the rental market, 22 percent more homes than last year."

"Kevin Knight with Liberty Management Inc. said the out-of-state investors had a different mentality than local landlords, who traditionally bought fixer-uppers. The out-of-state investors wanted new homes that required little maintenance."

"'San Antonio investors used to buy for positive cash flow,' Knight said. 'In California, they buy for appreciation. They'll buy a house here and lose $200 to $300 a month and they don't care.'"

"That's helped contribute to a drop in rents. 'We've had owners who are used to getting $1,100 a month in rent and we tell them they have to drop their price,' Knight said. 'They don't want to hear that.'"

"One such owner is real estate agent Missy Stagers. She owns five rental homes that used to be moneymakers, but now are breaking even. 'They've ruined our rental market,' Stagers said of the investors, many of whom cashed out of the East or West Coast markets and planted their money here. 'You can now rent homes cheaper than you can buy.'"

" A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said builders across the state have pulled back on starting homes and have increased incentives to sell rising inventory. 'On the new home side, we're starting more houses than we're selling,' said Bob Gardner of Gardner Financial Services."

"Centex Homes recently offered as much as $25,000 in incentives on its homes. Such deals were unheard of a few months ago. 'We hit a wall at Halloween,' said Leslie Mullins, operational marketing manager for Centex Homes in San Antonio. 'It's not just us. We've spoken to all of the other big builders in town.'"

"No one can say when the party might be over, but as Travis Kessler, CEO of the San Antonio Board of Realtors, puts it: 'At some point you can't go up forever.'"

The Dallas Morning News. "Laurie Minchew said she made the right decision to buy the three-bedroom house in Red Oak. The appeal was both the lifestyle and investment potential of homeownership. 'It was about 50-50,' said Ms. Minchew."

"(Realtor) Kim Fowler just sold a two-bedroom condo in Oak Lawn to Laurie Self. 'Mortgage rates are good now, and it's a buyer's market,' Ms. Self said."

"'I saw how real estate prices were going up like crazy,' she said. 'I can flip it in a few years and have some equity.'"