The Post Tribune reports from Indiana. "The tiny two-bedroom cottage on Indianapolis Boulevard isn't flashy, but it's been home to Belinda Kovacik for 21 years. She and her ex-husband bought it for $60,000 in 1989. Her mortgage lender plans to foreclose because Kovacik can't afford the $1,010 monthly payment. It was originally $860 a month, but because she got a subprime loan after a divorce in 2004, it started adjusting, and increasing, after four months."

"Kovacik, like many buyers today, got her loan not from a local bank but from a loan originator. Kovacik didn't understand the terms when she signed, and she's still confused. The rate will increase again April 19. 'When I got the paperwork I was like, 'Oh my God,' she said. 'I'm at my limit. It feels like the stock market.'"

"'Historically, one of the major factors of foreclosures was divorce or lack of income or unexpected medical expenses,' said Terrence Conley, of Lake Mortgage Co. in Merrillville, which gives mostly traditional loans. 'Now we're seeing foreclosures caused by the inability of people to refinance these subprime loans into a more conventional mortgage.'"

The Beacon News from Illinois. "The number of foreclosure proceedings initiated in Kane and Kendall counties jumped to more than 1,600 last year, after hovering consistently around 1,000 for the previous three years."

"The number of households spending 35 percent or more of their annual income on mortgage payments, well over the 30 percent benchmark recommended at Old Second Bank in Aurora, has roughly doubled since 2000. Between a quarter and a third of mortgaged homes are now feeling that kind of strain."

"When Jacqueline Hollins and her daughter moved from a rented Lombard apartment to the Lakewood Springs subdivision in Plano, they thought they were home for good. A year later, their belongings are back in boxes while a Realtor shows their house, bought for $132,000, to potential buyers."

"If she cannot sell the house or find another way to catch up on several thousand dollars worth of mortgage payments by July, the home will be auctioned off at the county courthouse."

"Hollins fell behind on her mortgage payments during a long-term illness, which has kept her home from her $20-per-hour public service job since last summer. An officer first knocked on Hollins' door a few days before Christmas, six months after she started falling behind on her mortgage."

"'He came and handed me the letter,' Hollins recalled. 'It had a court date. I just started packing then.'"

"Kendall County Sheriff's Deputy Wayne Dial has noticed 'a sharp incline in the evictions in the past three months.' Courthouse auctions of homes here doubled at the end of last year, from five to 10 per month. Dial said he and his colleagues now are handing out three to five foreclosure notices a week, including quite a few in Lakewood Springs, Jacqueline Hollins' subdivision."

"In the past five years, lenders have offered riskier loans, and borrowers have not hesitated to take them. 'When you didn't have the work history or the down payment,' said Unibanc Senior Consultant Juan Chavez, 'there was always a lender trying to change guidelines.'"

"The number of sub-prime loans brokered at Unibanc in Aurora went from one out of five in 2004, to one of two in 2005, Chavez said."

"At Old Second Bank in Aurora, VP Steve Weber faults companies' willingness to offer riskier and riskier loans. Others blame residents for accepting those offers. 'They didn't think about the fact that in three years they'd have to earn more money,' said Steve Lindberg, a Naperville foreclosure and bankruptcy attorney."

The Chicago Tribune from Illinois. "Last week, I asked readers to opine on why the housing market can't seem to climb out of its slump, and the results are in: We're all to blame."

"Everybody, it seems, who has any connection at all to the market merits a finger-wag in the face, according to my puny, wholly unscientific sampling of public sentiment."

"'There simply aren't enough buyers to absorb all the new homes that have been built,' wrote Debra O'Shea, who lives in the Old Irving Park area of Chicago, where she described a 'glut' of homes for sale."

"'Buyers are expecting more for less, and the developers are offering incentives like multiple free mortgage payments and significant upgrades for free, etc. The seller of an existing home...simply cannot compete with this,' O'Shea said. 'So, ultimately, if they want their home to sell, they have to drop the price, and so the spiral continues.'"

"'(Real estate agents convince) the sellers their home is worth the price, and in their mind, they think that a windfall of profit is just a matter of time,' wrote one e-mailer who didn't identify himself. 'Everywhere I drive around, I see for-sale signs, but the asking prices are still way out of line.'"

"'Sellers have the continued expectation of asking for, and getting, the moon,' wrote Chicago real estate agent Mark Reitman. 'On the other hand, buyers are now expecting bargain prices. This has left a huge gap in expectations.'"

"'Yes, buyers today have a harder time affording as much home as they could two years ago, but this is the lending institutions' fault for giving anyone with a heartbeat a loan,' wrote Chicago real estate agent Josh Feeney."

"And then there is the 'I want it all. Now!' mind-set of the American consumer, as voiced by attorney Diana Brodman Summers. 'Once the house-buying craving sets in, the potential buyer wants a house NOW without doing their homework about how much they can afford or working at fixing their credit history.'"

"And, yes, the news media took some jabs, for spreading hysteria and weakening consumer confidence."

"Among the articulate media critics was real estate agent Reitman, who said he has seen buyers back away from deals after hearing negative news. 'Repeated news reports about the impending 'bubble' in the market have convinced buyers to sit on the sidelines and wait for those predicted prices to drop before buying. The delay in purchasing has made these reports a self-fulfilling prophecy.'"