A report from the Arizona Republic. "Marilyn Olinger can give you a tour of her house, but it won't be the kind from a beaming new-home owner. Instead of bragging about the space or crown molding, Olinger sees only flaws: a peeling porch roof, flaking stucco, chipped doors, bowed walls."

"She contracted for a new home more than a year ago and has spent countless hours calling the builder to get workmanship problems fixed. 'I have been through hell and back for the last year,' Olinger said."

"Cheryl and Joey Gustafson are also fed up. Crushed ductwork when they moved in resulted in enormous electric bills during the hot months. The tile floor in the master bedroom has cracked, and a bowed wall has Cheryl concerned about the foundation."

"'We've spent no less than 100 hours of effort to repair and make phone calls,' she said. 'The stress was horrific. I told myself if I don't relax, I'm going to kill myself.'"

"The Gustafsons have been reimbursed for repairs, but...calls to the builder left them feeling like they got the runaround or their home was subpar. The Gustafsons paid about $376,000, but 'as far as I am concerned, these homes are worth substantially less than what we've all paid,' Cheryl said."

"'A big piece of crown molding just fell on my head,' said Eric Barna. 'I was cooking and closing a cabinet and it just fell. That's pretty crazy.'"

"Barna said the first night he moved in, he said, the plumbing was clogged up. Then there's a wavy fence he'd like fixed, walls that aren't level, scratches in appliances. 'This has been a long, ongoing thing,' Barna said. 'They've worked on some stuff. At this point, I don't think anything else is going to be done.'"

The East Valley Tribune from Arizona. "With once-massive waiting lists dried up and thousands of homes sitting empty in new subdivisions, Valley builders are trying to jump start sales by offering hefty financial perks to real estate agents."

"The market turned, inventories shot up dramatically and homes began sitting on the market longer. It’s a cyclical process, said John Fioramonti, managing director of real estate research firm Hanley Wood’s Valley office. When the market is hot, builders don’t offer commissions or incentives, he said."

"But when the market turned sour in 2006, they began giving 6 percent to 10 percent commissions, Fioramonti said. 'That’s outrageously high to try to mend some fences,' he said."

"From a marketing standpoint, reaching out to real estate agents is more cost effective because they have instant pools of buyers to tap, Fioramonti said. Valley builders need to rid themselves of an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 homes."

"It’s not just the builders who are offering incentives. Homeowners trying to sell existing properties are too, said Frank Dickens, president of the Arizona Association of Realtors."

"Dickens isn’t convinced, though, that offering incentives to agents is a major advantage for sellers. 'A good broker will do what’s best for a certain consumer,' he said. 'The last thing they look at is what the compensation package is.'"

The Review Journal from Nevada. "Home appreciation in Las Vegas has slowed dramatically from the torrid pace of two years ago and turned negative in some areas of the valley last year, a local housing market analyst said."

"With nearly 18,000 homes for sale on the MLS and sales of existing homes down 24.1 percent in 2006, prices started to slide at the end of the year. The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported a 2.6 percent decline of median home prices in January to $302,000."

"Kurt Lehman of Realty One Group found it 'hilarious' that consultant Steve Bottfeld predicted positive home price appreciation at the Crystal Ball 2007 housing seminar in February. Lehman said prices have to come down after the spikes of the past few years."

"'Simple economics says that 25 (percent) to 35 percent appreciation in housing asking prices doesn't work when wages and salaries only go up maybe 3 percent,' he said. 'It's an oversupply and an inability-to-buy thing. The market cannot bear these prices.'"

"The percentage of people who could afford a median priced home in Las Vegas dropped from 79 percent in 1999 to 14 percent in 2006, John Restrepo of Restrepo Consulting Group said. 'We've had (price) adjustments here, but it's not making homes any more affordable,' he said."

"Lenders were bending income-to-expense ratios three and four years ago to get people into 100 percent mortgages, literally more house than they could afford, Lehman said. Now Las Vegas has the second-highest foreclosure rate in the nation, he noted."

"A local homeowner who asked not to be identified put his home on the market last year at $430,000 when comparable homes in his northwest neighborhood (ZIP code 89131) were $450,000. It sat for months. He kept lowering the price and recently sold it for $350,000."

"'I still do not know why this home did not sell in the $400,000 range,' he said. 'I have just about every conceivable upgrade in this house.'"

"Bob Hamrick, CEO of Coldwell Banker Premier Realty, said what happened in Las Vegas is not that properties are worth $100,000 less than they were a year or two ago, but they may not have been priced accurately then."

The Las Vegas Business Press. "The modest increase in taxable sales last year indicates that, relative to Nevada’s population growth, discretionary spending is declining, an analyst said Thursday."

"'We’ve seen the per capita spending, in the aggregate, in decline,' said Brian Gordon, a principal with Las Vegas consulting firm Applied Analysis."

"The latest figures indicate that taxable sales fell in seven counties last December compared to the same month in 2005. They were Carson City, and Churchill, Clark, Lincoln, Lyon, Storey and White Pine counties."

"Gordon said this decline in one of the state’s largest sectors proves consumers have been less eager to open their wallets compared to 2004 and 2005. The state is still rebounding from a housing market that did an about-face starting in late 2005."

"'We’re in the process of the real estate market finding a new equilibrium,' he said. Many consumers have money tied up in real estate they can’t offload because of softening demand, Gordon said. He speculated others may be playing it safe now that their net worth is leveling out or declining."