The Journal World reports from Kansas. "Mayor Mike Amyx knew this news was coming. As a follower of the local real estate market, Amyx has been hearing for months about Lawrence residents struggling to sell their homes. 'You hear the stories over and over again that people aren’t getting anything close to their asking price,' Amyx said."

"Dale Roubison has been trying to sell his house for 13 months. His original asking price was $365,000, but now it’s down to $338,000 for the four-bedroom, three-bath custom-built home. That’s $18,000 below the market value the county has placed on the property."

"'I had to drop it down because I wasn’t getting anybody to offer anything on it,' Roubison said. 'I think it will bounce back, but I’m stuck in the middle of a bad time right now. I had no idea it would take this long to sell.'"

"Lawrence real estate agents say the moderation is part of a nationwide slowdown in the real estate market. Gary Nuzum, president of Coldwell Banker McGrew Real Estate, said the slowdown was a natural reaction. 'We had five to six tremendous years, and there is just not a lot of pent-up demand,' Nuzum said. 'That time period really opened the door to home ownership for about anyone who had any aspirations to buy a home at all.'"

"'The $200,000 to $400,000 market has taken some licks this year,' said Mark Buhler, VP of Stephens Real Estate. 'Oversupply is part of it. You are seeing a lot of homes in that price range that are being shown that are vacant.'"

"Douglas County Appraiser Marion Johnson said some homeowners should be prepared to see their home values actually decline from where they were a year or two ago. 'We probably have had to adjust more values downward than we’ve ever had to since I’ve had the job,' said Johnson, who has been the county’s appraiser since 1991."

The Herald Leader from Kentucky. "Ohio leads the nation with a 3.32 percent foreclosure rate, compared with Kentucky's 1.76 percent. Chris Evans, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Kentucky, said the state's economy is 'the true driving force' behind the delinquency rate, but there are other factors."

"'I think we have had some aggressive lending practices in Kentucky,' Evans said, especially involving so-called sub-prime loans made to borrowers with credit problems or low income."

"'In the process of growing the number of people who have home ownership in Kentucky, you are ultimately going to grow the number of foreclosures,' Evans said."

"Borrowers aren't the only groups affected by rising foreclosures, however. 'We have seen numerous sub-prime companies literally close -- companies that were buying loans from brokers and banks,' Evans said. 'They shut their doors because they had gotten a little bit too broad on what they were allowing to come in the door, and their delinquency rates are hitting them."

"'The industry can't survive with excessive delinquency rates,' he added."

The Cincinnati Enquirer. "Foreclosure notices were tacked to the front doors of more than 10,000 homeowners in almost every neighborhood of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky last year. For the seventh straight year, foreclosure filings hit record highs not only here but in all of Ohio and Kentucky."

"Foreclosures rose disproportionately across Greater Cincinnati in 2006. The number of new filings rose an estimated 27 percent in Butler County and 22.8 percent in Clermont County."

"Real estate broker Butch Magner in Fort Mitchell, sells foreclosure homes in 'as is' condition for about 10 lenders. Most properties, he said, fetch less than their previous selling price. Most bring down the value of homes around them."

"'Over 2½ years, foreclosures have tripled or quadrupled,' he said. 'They're everywhere, from the inner city of Covington and Newport up to Edgewood and Burlington and Fort Mitchell.'"

"Homeowners aren't the only losers when foreclosures happen. Banks themselves stand to lose a bundle on loans that go bad and collateralized homes worth barely more than the ground they stand on, said Kirk Sampson, a Cincinnati lawyer who has filed foreclosure cases for lenders for 32 years."

"'Lenders are getting killed by this stuff,' Sampson said. 'Lenders lose a lot of money on foreclosures. By the time they complete the foreclosure process in Ohio, they take a huge bath - 50 cents on the dollar sometimes.'"

"Among lenders, the biggest losers are those that lend to the riskiest customers, so-called 'subprime' borrowers with the worst credit."

"The combination of easy credit and free spending is fuel on the foreclosure fire. 'It's a social epidemic, but one that will eventually run its course because lenders will realize that their rate of return on these loans is not what they expected and they'll stop making these types of high-risk loans,' Sampson said."