The Herald Sun reports from North Carolina. "The median sale price of resold houses in Durham dropped from $167,500 in the third quarter to $155,000 in the fourth, according to Market Opportunity Research Enterprises. That amounts to a 7 percent decline and is $15,000 below the median in the fourth quarter of 2005."

"'The abruptness of the negative numbers surprised me and the extent to which they've become negative surprises me,' said Bernard Helm, president of MORE. 'The phenomenon is not unique to Durham County, it is Triangle-wide although not necessarily to the same extent. There is obviously some excess inventory in terms of the number of buyers available.'"

"It seems clear that prices have dropped for existing homes in Durham because there are so many on the market. 'It means some sellers are reducing prices to move their houses,' Helm said."

"Nick Tennyson, executive VP of the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties, likened the drop in existing home prices to a correction. 'I think there might be people with unrealistic expectations of what their house was worth,' he said."

"It appears that the fourth-quarter jump in the median sale price of new homes is linked to an increase in the number of high-end homes sold during the fourth quarter. 'I suspect in the first quarter that is not going to be as pretty a number as it is now,' Helm said. 'As the price difference [between new and resale] gets larger, you get some downward pressure on new home pricing.'"

The News & Observer. "Record numbers of homeowners in the Triangle and North Carolina were threatened with losing their homes through foreclosures last year."

"Foreclosure proceedings were filed against 6,451 homeowners in Wake, Durham, Orange and Johnston counties last year, up 4.5 percent from 2005. Statewide, foreclosure filings jumped 6.1 percent to a high of 45,512 during that period. And this year's numbers could be even worse, experts say."

"'It's horrible,' said Shawn Kornegay, whose Knightdale home was sold at auction in January."

"Because proceedings can be stopped many ways, statistics aren't available on how many foreclosure filings result in owners losing their homes. But some housing experts say more than 50 percent end up with owners losing their homes."

"In Wake County, which had the majority of the Triangle's foreclosures, at least 40 percent of homeowners in foreclosure are estimated to lose their homes, said Lynne Murray, a former assistant clerk of Superior Court who handled foreclosure cases for 18 years."

"The number of people who actually lose their homes has risen, Murray said. About 25 percent of foreclosures resulted in people losing their homes in the 1990s, she said. 'People weren't borrowing as much money then,' she said. 'It was easier to work things out.'"

"The surge in foreclosure filings shows a downside of the housing boom that powered the national economy through the economic downturn at the beginning of the decade."

"Mark Pearce has seen his share of mortgage fraud. As deputy commissioner of the North Carolina Banking Commission, Pearce has investigated lenders who pad a home buyers' bank account so they will qualify for a loan, then take it out and charge the person a fee."

"He has seen other lenders let family members with good credit sign for a relative's home. And he has seen lenders falsify loan applications, even changing a potential home buyers' annual income."

"'People just get out the Wite-Out or cut-and-paste documents,' Pearce said."

"On the face of it, such actions don't make sense. Why would a lender provide a mortgage to someone who can't afford it? Because a lender gets paid up front. And in some cases, the original lender will sell the loan to another lender."

"'For the past five years, mortgage complaints have taken up about half my time,' said Joe Smith, the state banking commissioner."

"Now the banking commission is looking at new rules and regulations to clean up the mortgage industry, and hopefully lower the number of foreclosure filings."