A report from the Arizona Republic. "Downtown Tempe is in flux. Construction has torn up streets. Building plans are coming in every month. High-rises are popping up where once there was nothing. Construction projects are continually coming in. City estimates project an estimated 5,000 home units, bringing about 10,000 residents to Tempe's downtown area within the next five years."

"'Though it's really hard to tell how many people it will ultimately be until they start getting occupied and we can see if it's going to be single people, couples, people with a couple of kids, or ASU students with a roommate or two,' said Kris Baxter, who works in Tempe's Economic Development Department."

"Jonathan Dalton, a Valley real estate agent, said there might be too many in the works."

"'There is a glut in townhouses,' Dalton said. 'But all these (Tempe) projects were put together when the market was still moving and the momentum is such that you can't cancel them. I see an oversupply in a lot of the upscale townhouses and condos near the Tempe-Scottsdale border.'"

"A new report shows Valley renters will pay 5.4 percent more this year, to $785 a month. That monthly rent is just about equal to the average weekly paycheck of $794 in Maricopa County."

"But renting is looking more attractive to people priced out of the housing market. The latest forecast shows one paycheck will cover the rent; you would need at least two paychecks to cover the median monthly mortgage payment of $1,300."

The East Valley Tribune from Arizona. "Sagging home prices sent foreclosures climbing throughout the Valley in 2006. Some 3,388 East Valley properties entered the foreclosure process in 2006, up 13.8 percent from the year before, a report shows."

"In the Valley, many of the foreclosures are likely involving investors who hoped to cash in on the boom but bought too late, said Jay Butler, director of Realty Studies at Arizona State University. Even experienced investors got caught because the market turned so quickly, Butler said."

"John Burpee, owner of Mesa-based Foreclosure Help Group LLC, said he receives 10 calls a day from investors and homeowners in danger of foreclosure. About 30 percent of those are from people who haven’t yet received their notice of trustee’s sale, a document that starts the 90-day foreclosure process, he said."

"'There’s going to have to be an adjustment for that exuberance we just went through,' said Tom Ruff, a partner at real estate data company Information Market."

The Palm Beach Post reports on Las Vegas. "Before high-rolling Las Vegas lender USA Capital came up $962 million short, it bankrolled grand plans for 719 Executive Center Drive in West Palm Beach. Ultra-high, ultra-chic condo towers would replace the shabby but affordable apartments that had been there for decades."

"Today, the scrap of land is a patch of empty. The abandoned apartments have been picked clean of stoves and refrigerators. Blinds flap in open windows."

"'It is an unbelievably bad, bad situation,' said Aventura's Dennis Flier, a member of the bankruptcy court's committee representing USA investors. In an Internet chat room reserved solely for USA investors, horror stories abound, he said."

"Even wary investors were sold. 'I actually took a trip to Las Vegas to their home office because I don't buy anything sight unseen,' said a Miami investor who asked that his name not be used. 'I did not do it haphazardly.'"

"USA said it built security into its loans. For instance, investments would top out at 60 percent of the property's value. That way, even if the project collapsed, a sale of the property would ensure people got their money back."

"But USA's 60 percent solution was a shot in the dark. According to a 2-year-old Securities and Exchange Commission letter to USA, 'More than half of the loan portfolio was not supported with independent appraisals.'"

"The revelation was alarming. If USA had no solid idea of how much properties were worth, investors could have no solid idea of how much risk they were assuming. There is speculation that at least some investors will get back 75 cents on the dollar, a decent return for assets in a bankruptcy proceeding. But Boynton investor John Ulrich calls that 'wishful thinking.'"

The Review Journal from Las Vegas. "Mayor Oscar Goodman long has pushed and prodded downtown developers to hurry up with their plans for high-rise condominiums. Now he's taking out the whip."

"'I'm very concerned that the city was being played for a fool by developers coming to us, asking for entitlements ... with no expectation of building those plans,' Goodman said."

"But the two developers complained that the Las Vegas high-rise market has gone soft, with investors scared off by high labor costs and construction material shortages."

"'I can only tell you the development climate all over the valley is not good right now. Construction prices are driving property values down. Investors are scared to come here,' Leanord Mussina, spokesman for Club Renaissance, told the City Council."

"Club Renaissance is a 60-story, 950-unit project at Casino Center Boulevard and Bonneville Avenue. Like dozens of other projects, the lot has sat vacant and untouched while only a handful of projects are under construction. Only one, SoHo Lofts, is completed."

"'We're just a victim of construction costs. Financing has dried up to a large extent for Las Vegas. We're redesigning, trying to value engineer, to do something affordable,' Mussina said."