The Des Moines Register reports from Iowa. "Iowa Realty agent Lora Murphy could be called a motivated seller because the three-bedroom home she's marketing is her own. Murphy has no illusions that a new owner will emerge as quickly as she did a year ago, when the home sat on the market for a day. Nor that it will sell in less than the week it took in 2004, amidst of a five-year housing boom."

"Home sales last month dipped 3.4 percent from a year ago. The average sale price fell 3 percent, nearly $5,000,to $158,631." "April's home sales report from the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors showed the market had 453 more homes on the market than a year ago. In April, 6,616 homes were listed."

"'There's a lot of great inventory and a lot of choice,' said Carolyn Helmlinger, who leads Coldwell Banker Mid-America Group. 'It's going to take a lot longer to make a decision.'"

The Journal Sentinel from Wisconsin. "Wisconsin's spring housing market is like a clogged drainpipe. Sometimes sales flow; sometimes it's no go. The clog: contingencies. Most fearsome among contingencies is the sale of the would-be buyer's home, said Peter M. Stefaniak, partner with The Stefaniak Group in Milwaukee."

"'Sellers are happy to have an offer, but the offer's chock-full of contingencies,' said Wisconsin Realtors Association chairman Roger C. Rushman."

"'Two years ago, buyers were willing to buy without making their own home sale a contingency. Now there's fear it won't get sold and the buyer will be stuck with two mortgages,' Stefaniak said. 'We're doing contingencies these days even on the market's lower end. And on a lot of the upper end, the seller has offers, but some unrealistic buyers won't come down on their own house's price.'"

"Sluggish sales times aren't news to Jim and Bonnie Hemmerich, who put their 4-year-old Okauchee Lake home on the market for $1.19 million in March. Now asking $1.09 million, they've endured a steady stream of seemingly casual lookers."

"'Buyers are more demanding,' says Jim Hemmerich. 'One broker told us that one guy has seen 100 houses, and nothing is satisfactory. Seems like some people are turning into professional buyers.'"

From WLNS 6 in Michigan. "Dozens of foreclosed homes are on the auction block. 18 are being auctioned off by John Leggett. He says with foreclosures rising, his company is holding more auctions all across the state."

"Leggett says many of the homes will probably sell for a deep discount. While most the homes need improvements, Leggett says your could save between twenty 5-50% on the homes. 'Sellers are getting rid of these properties because they want them off the books, because they have a lot coming in.'"

The Enquirer from Ohio. "Ohio’s Foreclosure Prevention Task Force held its fourth meeting today in what was billed as an opportunity for borrowers facing foreclosure or people who’ve been through the foreclosure process to tell their stories."

"Mark Lawson, a senior attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, told the panel that his organization has so many people calling for help with mortgage-related problems that it can’t begin to handle them all."

"Lawson cited one example of an unidentified woman who bought a two-family house in 2005 with an adjustable-rate mortgage that started with an interest rate of 9.5 percent. The property was appraised at $130,000, although an earlier appraisal put its value at only about $70,000."

"She bought it on the recommendation of a real estate agent who, Lawson later discovered, was an owner of the company that arranged the mortgage."

"The loan included $15,000 for repairs necessary to make the second unit rentable, which the real estate agent contracted to perform himself, Lawson said. The repairs were never completed, and the woman will probably have to give up the property, he said."

From CBS 2 in Chicago. "A record number of homeowners are now defaulting on their loans and risk losing their homes, 7,000 in the Chicago area in April alone." "Debbie Clark owns a home in Marquette and recently got the shock of her life. Her adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM, will jump from 7 to 13 percent in a year."

"'It's all over the city,' researcher David Rose said. 'Even neighborhoods like this one in Jefferson Park saw an 89 percent increase in foreclosures.'"

"Hot neighborhoods like the West Loop saw foreclosures soar 440 percent; the South Loop by 600 percent; and Washington Park, a potential site for the 2016 Olympic Games, by 786 percent."

"Investor T.J. McKinney says that there are plenty of foreclosures in suburbs, like Glenview, Naperville, Plainfield, Forest Park and Oak Park."

"Here's what they have in common: most were ARMs. 'The adjustable rate mortgages gave people a false sense of what was affordable,' McKinney said."

"The interest in an adjustable rate mortgage goes up or down based on a specific financial index. That's the kind of loan that got Clark in trouble. For the last two years, she's paid about $1,000 a month. In August, it jumps to $1,300, in February $1,410, finally capping at $1,635."

"'They would say do not worry, when you have to worry, because if you don't worry, they will come two years later, hike your mortgage up so high that you cannot even eat,' she said."

"But experts say this is just the tip of the foreclosure iceberg. 'The actual crisis hasn't started yet,' said John Groene of Neighborhood Housing Services. 'We'll see that in a couple years.'"

The Southern Illinoisan. "The housing bubble in Southern Illinois hasn't burst yet. No one really expected it to, largely because there was never a bubble to burst."

"The Illinois Association of Realtors reports homes sales dropped 13.9 percent in Williamson County from the first quarter of 2006 to quarter one of 2007. Five other counties, Franklin, Johnson, Perry, Pulaski and Randolph, also experience drops in that time frame."

"Marion broker Dave Thompson hopes potential buyers won't be dissuaded by what they hear about the housing market on television and in other media. 'I think the biggest thing right now is we listen to too much of the national news, and I think (buyers) are having difficulty making decisions,' he said."

The Register Mail from Illinois. "For the first quarter of this year, 114 single family homes were sold in Knox County, down 25.5 percent from the 153 for the first quarter of 2006. However, the median home price remained basically unchanged, down 1 percent from $53,000 in 2006 to $52,450 in 2007."

"Single family home sales across the state were down 15.5 percent for the first quarter of the year. The statewide median home price was down 1.9 percent."

"Some area counties did better than Knox County, while others also had a tough first quarter. In Warren County, first quarter sales were down 20 percent, while the median home price was down 8.2 percent, from $49,000 to $45,000."

"'Looking forward, we are likely to see smaller year-to-year declines as we enter the traditional buying season,' said Robert Zoretich, president of the Illinois Association of Realtors. 'Homes that are priced to reflect realities of today's market will continue to sell.'"