A housing report from the Idaho Statesman. "If you are in the market for a high-end house, you're in luck. Following more than a decade of boom, the Treasure Valley housing market this year will continue to undergo a market correction that started last year. 'We've been through a heckuva transition period,' from decades of stagnant growth to an unprecedented valleywide boom to a minor bust in the form of a housing market slowdown, John Starr told an audience in Boise."

"The local housing market in 2006 ended with a more than 40 percent drop in permit activity and a glut of high-priced homes and lots. 'The market is going to punish you if you are building above $380,000 homes,' said Michael diVittorio, director of business development for Group One in Boise."

"Thirteen planned communities covering 18,000 acres with 72,000 homes are in the works for Ada County; about 2,000 condominiums are in the pipeline for Downtown Boise alone."

"Since few condominiums are for sale in Downtown Boise, but hundreds are under construction, experts cannot determine how much the market will embrace condominiums."

The Associated Press reports on Oregon. "Portland-area house buyers are finding more inventory to choose from as the market starts to cool. The overall number of houses for sale jumped by 80 percent, to 9,901 on March 1, from 5,503 a year ago, according to figures from the Regional MLS."

"The increase reflects the backlog of houses for sale for several months as well as a 44 percent rise in new listings — 4,155 houses in February, compared with 3,397 a year ago."

"The number of closed sales fell 6.8 percent in February, compared with a year ago, consistent with falling demand since last fall."

"Economists don't expect Portland to experience a sharp drop in house prices in the months to come. Local growth constraints keep supply from overwhelming demand, said Jerry Johnson, of the Johnson Gardner economic consulting firm."

"'It stops developers from doing what they do best, which is overbuilding a market and inadvertently providing affordable housing,' Johnson said."

The Register Guard from Oregon. "Looking for your dream home in a beach town? You might find more elbow room at open houses these days. After five years in which median sale prices for homes in the Florence area surged more than 100 percent, buyers have backed off."

"There were 320 homes sold in and around Florence in 2006, a steep drop from the 449 houses sold in 2005 and the 561 the year before that, said Tawfik Adhab, a Eugene appraiser. 'What we had is a huge withdrawal of buyers.'"

"Until recently, retirees from states such as California arrived on the Oregon Coast with fat wallets. But when the national housing boom slowed last year, it showed just how tied to the rest of the nation Florence is."

"Meanwhile, there are plenty of options for buyers, especially those willing to fork over more than $300,000 and especially in the condominium market, where several projects approved during the boom haven't been built yet and may have to wait awhile to find owners once they're built."

"What's happening now is a return to equilibrium, Adhab said. 'There's no doubt we went through the darkest phase in 2006,' he said. 'Now we're probably headed toward recovery, if we're not already there.'"

From News Channel 8 in Oregon. "Less than credit-worthy mortgage loans are falling apart in record numbers and loan defaults are causing a downward spiral in the housing market."

"Right now there are six months worth of homes on the market in the Portland area. And while sales have been brisk in the past, so now are delinquencies. They're on the rise. realtor Mary Low said."

"'The fallout is we're going to see more houses coming on the market,' Low said. 'It's going to be tougher for a young couple who doesn't have good credit. They're going to have a harder time finding a loan.'"

"Low blames the sub-prime mortgage business and less than honest realtors and mortgage brokers taking advantage of peoples' desire to own a home at any cost."

"Brian Bushlach, a senior mortgage advisor with Alpine Mortgage, said that while the Portland market is still healthy overall compared to the rest of the country, there will still be fallout in the metro area."

"'That's where it's going to hit at the neighborhood level is people who are trying to sell homes. The entry level price point for a builder or a resale, they can't now,' he said."

"And it goes beyond the 'For Sale' sign. 'Quite a few local mortgage company's could go out of business,' said Bushlach."

The Seattle PI from Washington. "The typical house in the Seattle metropolitan area was 31.7 percent overvalued in the last quarter of the year, up 6.4 percent from the prior quarter and 24.3 percent from the end of 2005, according to Monday's joint report."

"Local experts question the idea that Seattle houses are overvalued at all. Randy Bannecker, a consultant housing specialist for the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors, said there just are not enough homes available to cause overvaluing."

"'The overwhelming supply shortage is really what's keeping the prices where they are,' he said. 'It's hard to see where just kind of a run-up for run-up's sake is in play.'"

"Last year, there were 41 percent more foreclosures in King County and 42 percent more nationally than in 2005, and the number could get higher, according to RealtyTrac. The reason? Wall Street investors poured money into the booming housing market in recent years and lenders found increasingly creative ways to get it to borrowers."

"About 20 percent of Seattle mortgages had adjustable rates in 2004, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau numbers. 'There are huge numbers of people in foreclosure because of being in ARMs or being put into loans that are completely inappropriate for them,' said lawyer Melissa Huelsman, who specializes in foreclosures."

"Part of the problem, said Erin Rearden, a mortgage default counselor, is that many borrowers don't understand their loans. 'A surprising number of people don't even know if they have an adjustable-rate mortgage or a fixed, or don't even know what their interest rate is,' she said."

"Those in trouble seem to be in deeper, she said. 'What we're seeing now is people who have permanent reduction in their income or no income. They're six, seven, eight months behind.' Just about everyone has refinanced to take equity out of their homes, she said."

"Adam Stein, president of the Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers, said he's seeing the market's impact on loans. Six months ago, he said, he could get 100 percent financing for someone with verified income and poor credit. Now, people with low credit scores need 10 percent or 20 percent down payments."

The Olympian from Washington. "All those low-interest and no-interest mortgage loans that helped fuel South Sound’s hot housing market last year are coming back to haunt some homeowners.

"Thurston County led the state in foreclosures as a percentage of households last year, according to Realty Trac."

"South Sound real estate agents and mortgage lenders blame some of the increases on programs that enticed buyers into the market with mortgages that required no money down or allowed buyers to pay interest only for several years. 'If you could fog a mirror, you could get a loan,' said Jeff Crandell, broker in Lacey."

"The pace of South Sound home sales slowed during the second half of last year as the inventory rose. That trend also lengthened the time it took to sell homes and slowed the increase in their value."

"Homeowners increasingly find themselves with homes that take longer to sell and sales prices that aren’t enough to pay off their loans, said real estate agent Dan Dillashaw."

"For consumers who expected home values to keep rising as quickly as they did two years ago, 'They find themselves lucky today to get back the amount they got loaned,' Dillashaw said. In many cases, the only choice left is for the lender to foreclose on the loan, he said."