The Tribune Star reports from Indiana. "They are sitting empty all over town. Foreclosed homes, known as REO (Real Estate Owned) properties, have become a huge part of the housing market in Terre Haute, Indiana and the country as a whole. 'This is a national thing,' said Cy Marlow, broker in Terre Haute. Marlow, who deals only in REO properties, already has listed 63 foreclosed properties in 2007 and sold 248 REO listings last year. The REO market 'is huge,' he said."

"Sen. Evan Bayh and other senators say the Federal Reserve is 'looking the other way as irresponsible lenders use aggressive and often abusive tactics to sell borrowers on loans they will never be able to repay.'"

"Others are pointing a finger of blame at real estate appraisers, saying they are overvaluing properties under pressure from mortgage brokers, homeowners and real estate agents."

"Still others look elsewhere for the cause of the problem. 'It’s not due to predatory lending. It’s not due to over appraisals,' Marlow said. 'I think people aren’t living within their means.' The media bombards Americans with the message 'buy, buy, buy,' Marlow said."

"And others say the problem of foreclosures is a result of the bursting of the 'housing bubble.' The end of the 'bubble' means more and more people are finding themselves owing more on their homes than the property is worth."

"One local securities trader who deals frequently in mortgage-backed securities said he witnessed first-hand an incident where a home sold for several thousand dollars more than its asking price so that the borrowers could use the extra money to make the required down payment."

"'This stinks to high heaven,' the securities broker, who asked not to be named, said. But, he added, 'I’ll bet you it happens a lot.'"

"Practically everyone interviewed for this article agreed that historically low interest rates, which reached 1 percent by 2003, generated by the Federal Reserve helped fuel the housing bubble."

"'All of a sudden we had a lot of people in the [loan] market who couldn’t get there before,' said the Terre Haute banker who asked not to be named."

"'Foreclosures are bad for honest Hoosiers,' said Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita. 'We’re almost in a crisis mode in our subprime market,' Rokita said."

The Journal Sentinel from Wisconsin. "The calendar says 2007. Home prices say it's still 2006."

"'If your house was worth $300,000 last year, that's probably what it's worth today. But buyers may come in with a $280,000 to $285,000 offer. I tell sellers, 'If that happens, you need to find a way to make the deal work because there's an awful lot of inventory out there. The buyer will just go find another house,' Dave Schmidt Jr., chairman of Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors, said."

"More than 14,000 properties hit the market in this year's four months, nearly three times the 4,989 recorded sales. April, typically a banner sales month, produced just one sale more than March, 1,493, as 4,014 newly listed properties joined unsold inventory in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee Counties."

"Home shoppers keep pushing their market advantage on one main front: price, said Tammy Maddente, executive vice president of Wisconsin-based First Weber Group."

"'We've had a year of the media saying that the real estate market is tanking. Prices have corrected. The markdowns have been taken (and) it's probably a fair assessment that we're at 2005 levels. But buyers' offers are still coming in way under asking,' Maddente said."

"Lowball offers, typically defined as 10% or more below asking price, have lost their historic status as a deal-stopping insult."

"'You have to start somewhere,' reasoned Joseph A. Horning, president of Brookfield-based Shorewest Realtors. 'Buyers are always looking to keep prices down. Because of such large inventory, they're having success these days.'"

The Grand Rapids Press from Michigan. "The home on Cascade Road SE is listed for sale at $234,900, but you can name your price. Whether it is accepted or not remains to be seen."

"The four-bedroom home on more than an acre is one of 18 foreclosure properties in West Michigan to be auctioned later this month. Troubled properties are hitting an already flooded market."

"More than 3,000 properties joined the market last month in the Grand Rapids area, 5 percent more than April 2006, according to the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors."

"Agent John Hilton, who specializes in selling foreclosure properties for lenders, said they are affecting the rest of the market. 'It's kind of forcing the retail market down,' he said. 'There are so many (foreclosure) properties on the market, it's going to have an effect on price.'"

The Star Tribune from Minnesota. "Two years ago, buyers were snapping up downtown condos and townhouses as fast as they could be built."

"Today, Todd Stutz is pondering the future of a high-profile condo project he had planned to build on a prime site near the Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis. He attributes the demise of the project, which he hopes to revive in some fashion, partly to a scarcity of investors and speculators."

"'That has an impact on everyone's projects,' said Stutz. "We're returning to more of a normal business. That speculative buyer has really [gone] away, which I think is good for the market.'"

"Tom Melchior, a multi-family real estate analyst in Minneapolis, said a flurry of purchase agreement cancellations at several projects suggests that a greater-than-expected number of the reservations were held by speculators."

"'We've all underestimated the impact of this investor market,' he said."

Minnesota Public Radio. "Minnesota lawmakers and the governor have approved bills addressing the mortgage foreclosure crisis."

"'You can bring a direct suit against the mortgage placement person. Not only can they sue them, the consumer will now have the right to get their attorney's fees paid if they win against the mortgage broker. They will also get the right to bring an injunction against that broker so that they don't do it to other people and they can also get their costs of investigation,' says Rep. Joe Mullery."

"Sherrie Pugh Sullivan, who directs the Northside Residents Redevelopment Council in north Minneapolis where foreclosures are spreading like wildfire, says 600 families came to her neighborhood non-profit seeking help because of foreclosure in 2006."

"She says the new state laws will reduce the number of new mortgage scams. But Pugh says there are hundreds of families in her area already locked into bad mortgage deals."

"'We really haven't hit the peak and so we actually think there's potentially another three years that we're going to see people coming through,' Pugh says."