WILX reports from Michigan. "If you're looking to buy a home, now's the time to do so. There are more than 4,100 homes on the market in the greater Lansing area. 'I think the decline that we've seen is not going to occur,' said Tomie Raines Realty President Debbie D'Valentine."

"It can't get much worse after the Lansing area witnessed a 20 percent drop in sales last year. More than 7,000 were sold in 2005 compared to just 5,600 in 2006."

"While sales volume may have fallen, prices did not. The constant prices haven't helped those like Deborah Frederick who's currently paying two mortgages. 'It's going to get old very fast,' she said."

"Frederick and her husband put their Lansing home on the market last June to buy a condo. More than 6 months later, it's still unsold. 'I was just really shocked the first time we had an open house,' she said. 'I thought a lot of people would show up and there wasn't.'"

The Detroit News from Michigan. "In a sign of just how low Metro Detroit's economy has fallen, one of the nation's largest home foreclosure auction specialists will hold its biggest single-city sale Saturday. More than 300 Detroit homes, all of them repossessed by mortgage lenders, will be sold in a two-day auction. The homes are valued at $5,000 to $300,000."

"Detroit agent Kimberly Simpson said the popularity of risky adjustable rate mortgages is the primary cause for the foreclosures. 'People are getting their ARMs broken,' she said. 'That's the major part of it. It's killing the market.'"

"In November, Detroit had the nation's second highest foreclosure rate, with 3,333 properties. It's a grim picture Simpson doesn't expect to change soon. 'It's going to be a buyer's market for a very long time,' she said. 'I don't see it getting any better.'"

The Star Tribune from Minnesota. "Last year was the worst in almost a decade for Twin Cities-area home builders and developers. The rising number of unsold homes built during 2005 forced builders to dramatically slash the number of homes they could build during 2006, said Betty Hardle of Residential Research in Minneapolis."

"'In 2005, most builders should have been slowing down and only building sold houses, but quite a few didn't,' Hardle said."

"During 2006, builders were issued 7,325 permits to build 12,644 new units. The market clearly is in the midst of a long-awaited correction after peaking in 2003, the year a record 19,000 units were built. Nearly half of those new units were condominiums and townhouses."

"When interest rates started rising in early 2004, demand drooped, leaving builders and developers with deep inventories of unsold homes. They now include a glut of new condominiums in Minneapolis, which last year issued enough permits for more than twice as many units as Woodbury."

"In the Twin Cities, builders and developers are scaling back or abandoning plans for new projects. Brighton Development, for example, passed on its plans for a condominium project in the Mississippi River Mill District. And during the coming year, it's likely that at least a couple of announced downtown condo projects may be scaled back or scrapped as the market absorbs inventory, said Tom Melchior, multi-family real estate analyst."

"Colleen Carey, president of the Cornerstone Group in Edina, said she, too, has embraced a much more conservative approach. The company has canceled plans for two metro-area condominium projects (and) has reduced the size of the company's staff."

"'I believe that now is a time for planning our next move, rather than executing it,' Carey said. 'I think this is a part of a cycle and it will pick up; no one knows the magic moment when things will take off again.'"

The Pioneer Press from Minnesota. "Developers have dropped their plans for a downtown St. Paul indoor farmers' market topped with condos because of the housing slowdown. Now, a former city official is stepping in with his own proposal."

"Brian Sweeney plans to ask the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority on Wednesday for development rights and the land to build a five-story building that will feature four floors of condos."

"Despite the glut of condos for sale, Sweeney believes he can make a go of the $13.5 million project by offering smaller units at prices between $159,000 to $259,000. 'We want to be very sensitive to this softer market and at the same time move this forward,' Sweeney said."

"Developers Michael Lander and George Sherman started to feel uncomfortable last year putting up more condos when they still have other units for sale, Lander said. The decision by Lander and Sherman to walk away from the project comes amid a slowing housing market. Twin Cities home sales fell 23 percent in November from a year earlier in the 13-county metro area and median selling prices had slipped slightly as well."

The Journal Sentinel from Wisconsin, "The city of Milwaukee's torrid home-building pace slackened in 2006 but not as dramatically as that of its outstate neighbors. The Milwaukee Department of City Development reported Friday that volume is 22% below that of 2005, but it beats the 36% plunge in statewide home building."

"Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said, 2006 culminated a seven-year, $830.9 million downtown residential construction boom that sets the stage for job growth. 'It's the city's renaissance,' Barrett said. 'All you have to do is look at our skyline, at the number of cranes and booms out there. People are interested in staying in or moving to the city. Now, companies are saying, 'We want to be in the city because more of our employees live here.'"

"'There's plenty of activity, and I'm excited about what's still coming,' said Bruce Johnson, president of the Metropolitan Builders Association of Greater Milwaukee. 'You hear this skepticism once in a while, along the lines of, 'Where are all these people coming from?' Well, maybe they don't appreciate how many baby boomers are becoming empty-nesters and moving into condos here.'"

"City Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux sums up the city's housing fortunes as 'fabulous.' Years ago, he said, 'all the stories were about how the metro area was doing better, and the city was the exception. Now, metro statistics about the downturn don't apply to us.'"

From GM Today in Wisconsin. "While the real estate market has been in the midst of some great upheavals in the coastal areas of the nation, local industry sources say the housing market in Ozaukee County has been somewhat more stable."

"'There has been quite a bit of appreciation in the last few years, and we’re probably just getting back to an even keel,' said Marie Kaysen, president of the Ozaukee Realtor’s Association."

"As for the influx of homes on the market, Kaysen points to a number of reasons. One factor is the change in employment from some of the larger businesses in the area. Another is the uprise in residential subdivisions, many of which are just getting off the ground. 'The Midwest has weathered changes in housing before, and the real estate market is just going through one of its cycles,' Kaysen added."

"Mike Ruzicka, president of the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors, said while home sales really peaked in 2005, he predicts sales to go back on the rise. 'Because (the market in) 2005 was flooded, the prices became flat in 2006 in comparison,' Ruzicka said. 'A lot of home sellers didn’t want the appreciation on their home to come down, so they put their homes on the market.'"

"'Perhaps they won’t be at the levels of 2003-04 when all the stars were lined up with low interest rates and good demographics,' said Matt Moroney, executive director of the Metropolitan Builders Association. 'Speculative (building) results in extra inventory. A lot of homes were built when the interest rate was 5.25 percent. Then when it edged up to 6.5 percent, things slowed down.'"

"'There clearly was a real estate slowdown that started in the last quarter of 2005, but most of the slowdown has been in the speculative market,' said Jeff Larson, president of Grafton State Bank."