The Hickory Daily Record reports from North Carolina. "In the Hickory region, the surplus occurred within the past three or four years. 'Everyone was hearing how great the market was and sellers couldn’t understand why we couldn’t sell their houses,' said (broker) Diane Cline in Hickory."

"Dee Blackwell and Taylor Dellinger, analysts with the Western Piedmont Council of Governments, estimate about 10,000 homes are for sale now, more than ever before."

"If there isn’t a surplus now, there could be in the future. A study performed by the WPCOG found 24 potential major housing developments in Catawba County with more than 6,000 potential lots. River Oaks, located on Lake Norman, just north of the town of Catawba, will contain 2,000 home sites."

"Key Harbor in northern Sherrills Ford is second in number, with 1,400 planned units. Nearly 9,000 more lots are planned in Alexander, Burke and Caldwell counties."

"Blackwell and Dellinger say the development will at least create many questions, such as what occurs in 15 or 20 years when retiring baby boomers begin to die off. 'We’ll have this huge surplus of housing,' Blackwell said. 'And who will be able to afford the housing?'"

The Charlotte Observer from North Carolina. "Mark and Lea Tingley bought a new home in 2001 in a subdivision called Southern Chase. They recall feeling surprised they could afford a house. And thrilled."

"Southern Chase was a new kind of subdivision for Beazer, an experiment in selling low-cost homes to low-income families. The strategy was a financial success for Beazer. But the neighborhood fell apart."

"Seventy-seven buyers have lost homes to foreclosure in a subdivision of 406 homes. That's about one in five, more than six times the national rate."

"Some homes sat empty. Others became rentals. Prices dropped. Mark Tingley pointed to holes in his siding, garbage in neighboring yards, overgrown lawns, junked cars. He feels angry, cheated and trapped. 'We were just so happy,' he said. 'Now, no one is happy.'"

"The buyers in Southern Chase share responsibility for the decisions they made. But an Observer investigation found Beazer acted in ways that made a high rate of foreclosures inevitable. Beazer not only built the homes in Southern Chase, it arranged mortgage loans for two-thirds of the buyers."

"The company used that control to arrange larger loans than some buyers could afford. That allowed it to include the cost of financial incentives in the price of homes."

"The night before Southern Chase opened in 1997, people camped outside the sales office, waiting to pick the best lots. Home prices started below $80,000, roughly half the Charlotte-area average. Demand was 'hot as a match,' said Barry Helms, the sales agent who greeted them. He remembers selling six or seven homes the first day."

"The unusually low prices were a strategic decision for Beazer. Beazer also was responding to opportunity. The federal government was pushing to expand home ownership. It was encouraging mortgage lenders to relax standards, to make loans available to many lower-income families for the first time. The FHA offered to insure the loans: If the borrower didn't pay, the government would."

"Contractors did the building. Beazer focused on marketing. It held pizza parties at nearby apartment complexes. 'We believe in the dream,' read a Beazer flier distributed to apartments in Concord. 'We believe that everyone deserves to own their own home.'"

"But as the company pushed to find new buyers, it increasingly crossed the line between selling to people who could barely afford homes, and selling to people who couldn't."

"Lea and Mark Tingley were not looking to buy a home in early 2001. They had little savings. They heard about Southern Chase from Lea's brother, who had just put a deposit on a home there. If he could afford a house, Lea recalls thinking, I can, too."

"They say the sales agent told them Beazer would arrange the down payment. The company also would arrange a mortgage. It would even help with the monthly payments for the first two years. Lea remembers the sales agent saying, Let's just do this. You're pregnant. You need a home of your own. She returned the next day with a $600 deposit."

"The model the Tingleys purchased had a base price of $96,490 on a 1999 price sheet. By 2001, Beazer had raised the base price for the same model with the same square footage to $108,990. Beazer arranged the loans through a subsidiary. From 2001, Beazer Mortgage arranged loans for 84 percent of the buyers in Southern Chase."

"Almost all of the loans were insured by the Federal Housing Administration. That meant Beazer and the lender had little to lose if the borrower could not afford the loan."

"The Tingleys moved into their new home in April 2001. Lea cleared out her 401(k) to pay $2,500 toward closing costs.The keys came in a manila envelope with instructions on the front: 1) Dump on table. 2) Place key on ring. 3) Do the 'Happy Dance' (Jump up and down shouting wildly.)' The thrill did not last."

"Lea had applied for the loan without Mark because he had credit problems. She omitted from her application a monthly payment of $350 on a leased Dodge Avenger. Lea said a Beazer employee told her to do it because the application also didn't include Mark's income."

"'At the time it made sense to me and I was just excited about owning the home,' Lea said. She says she knows she shouldn't have omitted the payment, but she trusted the employee."

"In the summer of 2001, three months after buying the home, Lea called the dealership and asked to have the Avenger repossessed. She could not afford the car and the mortgage."

"2004 was the first year in which many buyers were making a full mortgage payment without Beazer's help. The overwhelmed owners might have sold their homes to pay their debts. But prices in the neighborhood had dropped."

"Too many homes were for sale. Foreclosed homes were available for 80 cents on the dollar. There were newer subdivisions nearby. Many remaining residents owed more than they could sell their homes for, and they lacked the savings to pay the difference."

"Martin and Jill Higginbotham tried to sell their home for two years after Martin took a job in Tennessee. Finally, Martin mailed in the keys and called the lender. 'Do what you have to do,' he remembers saying."

"The lender foreclosed in early 2004. Twenty-nine other owners lost their homes that year."

"The Tingleys had a plan when they moved to Southern Chase. They would sell after five years and move to a larger home. By last fall, the Tingleys owed more than $115,000 on a house valued for tax purposes at less than $108,000. They talked with real estate agents, who quoted even lower prices."

"The Tingleys were struggling to pay their mortgage. The monthly bill had climbed to $1,091, including catch-up payments. They didn't have the savings to sell the home at a loss. 'We can't afford it, we can't sell it and we're hurting ourselves just trying to keep it,' Lea said."