It's Friday desk clearing time. "Jeffrey Taylor and his wife bought their dream home in Purcellville for $538,000 last August. Now they have to sell it and neither one can afford the mortgage alone. The most they could get for it was $430,000. After paying all the real estate commissions and taxes, they will still owe the bank $118,000."

"'Five months later, I lose $100,000,' Taylor said. 'I don't think I can take $100,000 into the stock market and lose it faster.'"

"Wilbur Van Wyck, former president of the Ocala/Marion County Association of Realtors, said that while Marion County isn't short of prospective buyers stagnant markets in both South Florida and in the Northeast have made it difficult for people to make the move here."

"'The biggest problem I've seen is that people want to buy here, but they can't sell homes elsewhere,' Van Wyck said."

"Banks began foreclosure proceedings against 56 percent more North Carolina homeowners last month compared with a year ago, according to a new report."

"Peter Skillern, director of a Durham nonprofit group, said he was not surprised by the big spike in North Carolina. 'I think the primary cause for the increase is the use of adjustable rate mortgages. Borrowers simply can't afford them,' he said."

"Spanish real estate companies took a hammering in the stock market Thursday as evidence mounted that Spain's 10-year property boom is over. 'The Spanish real estate sector is not a bubble, it is a huge balloon. When it blows up there will be an enormous bang,' said one Madrid trader."

"Leading estate agents have begun to feel the pinch of the property market slowdown with confirmation of redundancies at two main companies over the past couple of months. Gunne Residential has made eight people redundant and has closed two branches in Bray, Co Wicklow, and Swords, Co Dublin."

"'It's diabolical at the moment,' said one agent who did not wish to be named. 'And I would expect more redundancies in the sector in the next few months.'"

"The slowing (Arizona) real estate market has claimed its first victim among local home builders. The nearly four-year-old AmericaBuilt Construction Inc. and its affiliate, AmericaBuilt Communities Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Thursday."

"'They were always a good business to work with,' said Jennifer Green, office manager for ROR Construction Co. 'We all know what the housing market is doing right now.'"

"Housing starts slipped 37 percent in the Toledo area in the first quarter to 223 from 356 at the same time last year. When a competitor's estimate for a basement-finishing job came in a third lower recently, it didn't take Dennis Wolke long to figure out why."

"'It was a home builder out looking for work,'recalled Wolke."

"The hottest get-rich-quick investment in Texas is an old-fashioned one: land. In Bandera, Blanco, Kendall and Kerr counties together, the median price per acre topped $7,086 last year, up 22 percent since 2005, and up more than 118 percent since 2001, said Charles Gilliland, research economist at A&M."

"'It's sort of like a trip to the horse track,' Gilliland said."

"The statewide land rush continues to defy economic history and decades of data that track the rise and fall of rural property values. It's enough to make an economist sound like he's spinning a yarn."

"'Sometimes you have to worry about your credibility,' said Gilliland, who doesn't think people are overpaying for land yet."

"A Placentia loan officer was arrested Wednesday after police say they caught him in the middle of stealing copper from a vacant Irvine building."

"I'm average Seacoast resident. I've got a wife and a kid and a decent-paying job. However, due to a mortgage, plus property taxes, in the range of $1,900 a month, we cut corners, make due, yet still face an uncertain future."

"My wife and I bought our house in 2004 for about $235,000 and it appraised a year later at $265,000. If my house appreciates by 227 percent by 2018, it would be worth $602,273. Hallelujah! Jackpot, right? We'll all be in serious trouble if starter homes in America cost more than half a million dollars."

"Economists use words like affordability, economic diversity and sustainability. Politicians use them as a punchline. Is this a code red on the housing industry? You're damn right it is!"