The Lawrence Journal World reports from Kansas. "The number of foreclosures has increased across the country, and Douglas County is no exception. In the first four months of 2007, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office auctioned 39 homes. Comparatively, in the first four months of 2006, 28 Douglas County homes were auctioned at a sheriff’s sale. That’s a roughly 40 percent increase."

"Many more homeowners, closer to 80, have received notices from the sheriff’s office that auction was pending unless they paid up on their mortgages."

"Robert Baker, counselor at Lawrence’s Housing and Credit Counseling Inc., said a main reason for the increase in foreclosures is a change in the economy. 'The economic times aren’t quite as heady as they were in the go-go ’90s,' Baker said."

"Jonathan Becker, a bankruptcy and real estate attorney, lists four reasons for the rise in foreclosures: a lessening of credit standards, an increase in the kinds of loan options, a lack of home value appreciation, and a decrease of new homebuyers’ financial experience and education."

"Combined with any catastrophic event such as a job layoff, reduced income, illness or car accident, 'you’ve got a recipe for foreclosure,' Becker said."

"Becker said he is starting to see a lot more homeowners come into his office who are caught with loans that carry interest rates that are suddenly going up. 'The 2-28 loan was becoming the welcome mat into the house. It’s now becoming the prison bars when the 28 (years) kicks in,' Becker said."

The Rocky Mountain News from Colorado. "The Denver-area housing market likely will buck this year's national trend of falling home prices and sales, and may appreciate next year by as much as 10 percent."

"At least that's the assessment offered Wednesday by the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. 'All real estate is local,' said Lawrence Yun."

"He said the Denver area just recently started to recover from the downturn of the tech train wreck that cost the region tens of thousands of high-paying jobs since late 2000."

"'Denver did not really participate in the boom of other cities for the last couple of years,' Yun said. 'But Denver is ripe for a turnaround. You still have a high inventory problem that needs a little working off, but I think this year your prices and sales will be positive.'"

"At the end of May, there were 29,110 unsold homes in the Denver area, a 4.6 percent drop from the 30,457 in May 2006. 'I think you will outperform the nation as a whole this year and next year,' Yun added. 'I feel by the end of 2008, your housing prices could rise by better than 5 percent and as much as 10 percent.'"

"Broker Todd L. Crosbie agreed with Yun's assessment. 'Simply put, Denver has had some really negative press during the past couple of years because of its foreclosures,' said Crosbie, who has been selling real estate since 1986. 'I've seen positive cycles and I've seen negative cycles. While it's not a boom market right now, it is not gloom and doom, either. Homes are still selling for a good price, and if priced correctly, they will move pretty fast.'"

"The Denver area home sales market is flat overall, with two exceptions: sales of foreclosed homes and homes priced at more than $1 million."

"Chris Mygatt, president of Coldwell Banker Residential in Colorado, cautioned that a surplus of high-end infill developments, from Hilltop to Sloan's Lake, is cutting developers' profit margins."

"Sam Barnes, a broker in Westminster, said the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market eventually will help the foreclosure crisis."

"'The best news is that when all of these subprime lenders took hits, it washed a lot of people out of the market who were buying homes that shouldn't have been,' Barnes said."

The Denver Post. "A rally organized by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also known as ACORN, demanded the Federal Reserve crack down on high-rate mortgages."

"ACORN groups across the country gathered in front of Federal Reserve Bank branches with a list of demands, including the elimination of prepayment penalties in subprime loans and a one- year moratorium on foreclosures so borrowers late on their mortgages could set up payment plans."

"'We're letting (politicians) know that this foreclosure thing is getting ridiculous. It's the mortgages; they're rip-offs. They're predatorial,' Melvin Scott said."

"Facing a sale date only 12 days away...the Scotts said they refinanced two years ago to pay bills and that an adjustable-rate mortgage was the only loan the bank offered."

"Gov. Bill Ritter has endorsed five bills to address the problem; the bills are not expected to help those already in foreclosure but should prevent future foreclosures with tighter regulations on mortgage brokers."

"Colorado led the nation in rate of foreclosures for much of last year, and the state is on pace to record more than 37,000 foreclosures by year-end, an increase of about 30 percent from 2006."

"Amid the soaring home prices, the rock-bottom jobless rates, the traffic jams and the worker signing bonuses, one indicator typifies the giddy exuberance of the new energy boom: $56 double shots of Grand Marnier 150."

"Coming back is the big question in Mesa County. Can the economic boost currently provided by the energy industry keep coming back, month after month and year after year?"

"Here in the commercial hub of western Colorado, raw memories of the last colossal energy bust are never far from the surface."

"'There's that ever-lingering taste in the mouths of people who remember the oil shale bust,' said Mesa State College professor John Redifer."

"Home prices are soaring. The median value for single-family homes in Mesa County has gone from $129,000 in 2003 to $151,000 in 2005 to $196,000 this year, an appreciation rate of 52 percent in four years."

"Building permits for single-family homes in Grand Junction are 20 percent higher this year compared with 2005, with some new homes in the Redlands area west of town approaching $2 million."

"One beneficiary has been Bob Fuoco, whose Fuoco Motor Co. in Grand Junction has been one of the main suppliers of the ubiquitous white pickup trucks favored by oil and gas drillers and related service companies. 'Every month this year we have exceeded our best sales ever,' Fuoco said."

"That's well and good, said winery co-owner Bob Witham, but that doesn't alleviate his concern about the sustainability of the boom. 'You really need to be thinking about what happened 25 years ago,' he said. 'History repeats itself, and that's a scary thing for me. I wonder if people realize that it could crash just as fast as it has gone up.'"