What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Rising foreclosures? Motivated sellers? "Fort Wayne and other historically stable housing markets in the Midwest probably will not experience wild swings in housing prices, though home prices are trending downward, according to experts."

"David Augustyniak, owner of RealtyFlex Corporate LLC in Fort Wayne, said prices are dipping because some sellers are growing more desperate. Desperation drives prices down."

"'If you’ve got 12 like-type listings, someone is going to be more desperate to sell than the others, and the trend is going to follow the cheapest price. This establishes a new base and comparables,' he said."

"One factor affecting housing prices across the country and locally is the fallout from the low-cost refinance boom of the recent past. Overaggressive lenders and appraisers have produced a lot of home equity 'that isn’t really there,' Augustyniak said."

"Augustyniak said he heard from a title company that six out of 10 homes sold now are short sales, meaning the outstanding debt is greater than what the property is worth."

New investigations? "New York State is investigating Manhattan real estate practices, seeking information about whether brokers pressured appraisers to inflate property values as prices doubled in the last five years."

"Attorney Y. David Scharf said the subpoena called for information about 'mortgage lenders, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers and sales persons and appraisal management companies.'"

"Appraisers frequently face pressure to revise their findings, said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel."

"'I would seriously doubt that there is one appraiser in the United States that has not been on more than one occasion pressured to make a number,' Miller said."

A local economist? "Alan Garner, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said that despite troubling news about foreclosures and home-price appreciation rates, the state's real estate market was headed for brighter days."

"Garner noted 'serious concerns' about the economy overall, and said 'the housing market is the source of many of those concerns.'"

Local earnings power? "The median income of Realtors last year was $47,700, down from $49,300 in 2004, according to a newly released survey of members of the National Association of Realtors."

"Realtors with two years of experience or less earned a median of $15,300. That hardly pays the cell phone bills and fills the tank with gas."

Signs of speculation? "Real estate flippers watch out, local developers are cracking down. Seattle condominium market expert Warren Ballard says it creates annoying competition for developers."

"'If the developer has remaining inventory to sell, then the flippers come in essentially competing with the developer,' he said. 'So the developer has a lot of incentive to try to keep flippers out of the game.'"

"Ballard says out-of-control investor flipping artificially inflates property values, ultimately leading to a market crash."

"'The big crashes that we've seen in the real estate market in Florida, San Diego and Las Vegas can all be directly attributed to flippers,' Ballard said."