The Sun News reports from New Mexico. "Do you want to sell a house in Las Cruces? A couple of years ago, you could have probably had buyers knocking on your door within hours of putting the home on the market. 'Sometimes, before you could put a sign on, it would sell,' said Louis Sauceda, owner of the Official Mortgage Team of New Mexico. 'I was talking to an agent friend of mine and he said they now have to work a little harder to sell them.'"

"Fewer homes have sold than a year ago. In May 2006, 236 homes closed, reports Annette West, a Las Cruces real estate agent. Through May 29 of this year, that number dropped to 111."

"Real estate agent Barbara Carrison said the fact that homes are taking longer to sell is not caused by a lack of home buyers, but an increase in supply."

"'It's taking a little bit longer because there are so many more homes on the market at this point,' she said. 'There are not less buyers, but there are more houses.'"

"Barbara Dean and her husband recently purchased a home in Las Cruces. The couple moved to southern New Mexico from Scottsdale, Ariz. 'From what I understood, the house was on the market for well over a year,' she said."

The Rocky Mountain News from Colorado. "Gov. Bill Ritter signed five bills into law, including one to license mortgage brokers, that supporters hope will stem the tide of record foreclosures sweeping the state."

"'We're on pace to log another 37,000 foreclosures this year, which was up 30 percent from 2006, and that was up 30 percent from 2005. Those are just staggering numbers,' Ritter said."

"One of the best features of the new laws, said Erin Toll, director of the Division of Real Estate, is if a broker has a license revoked, he or she can't get it back until they've repaid the consumers they ripped off."

"Some experts also questioned whether the new laws will do much to slow the number of foreclosures."

"Peter Lansing, president of Universal Lending, who supports the new laws, said only a housing market recovery can end the foreclosure crisis. 'What we need are rising housing prices and more jobs,' Lansing said. 'Only market forces can stem the tide of foreclosures, not legislation.'"

"Later this summer, rates could rise to around 7 percent, said Lou Barnes, a principal of Boulder West Financial Services. 'A lot of adjustable-rate mortgages are resetting to 7.5 percent and 7.75 percent,' Barnes said."

"Rising rates, combined with a flat housing market, could increase the number of foreclosures in the metro area, he said. Foreclosures already are at a record level."

"'The new lender term is 'jingle mail,' Barnes said. 'They call it jingle mail because the homeowners are mailing their keys back to their lenders.'"

"The biggest weakness in housing prices in the Denver area, and where most of the foreclosures are occurring, is with lower-priced homes, said economist Michael Kone, owner of Housingmetrics Inc. in Boulder. 'There is a lot of weakness at the bottom end.'"

. "A report shows a 35.4 percent year-over-year decline in Denver metro new home sales in April. Andrew LePage of DataQuick, said last month's Denver new home sales total is the least it has on record for an April, with only 830 sales, compared with 1,285 in April 2006."

"'The Denver region continued its yearslong stretch of flat housing prices in April,' according to LePage's report. 'The median price paid fell just shy of the year-ago mark for the sixth consecutive month as sales eased to the slowest pace in at least nine years.'"

The Denver Post from Colorado. "Two more participants in a mortgage-fraud conspiracy that devastated a neighborhood with foreclosures were sentenced to federal prison terms."

"Taiwan Lee bought three homes in Villas at Cherry Creek while he was wanted for violating parole. He managed to buy two more after he was jailed, borrowing a total of $3.1 million for five villas acquired with 100 percent loans."

"U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham sentenced Lee to 30 months for serving as a straw buyer in a scheme that allegedly purchased 17 homes at inflated prices and took $2.1 million from the excess proceeds."

"He also sentenced Talita James, a convicted cocaine dealer who bought two villas in one day for $1.1 million, to 27 months for her purchases and for committing a crime while on supervised release from federal prison."

"To date, eight people have pleaded guilty to felony charges in a continuing federal investigation. Developer Timothy Todd DeNeui and Jerrold Minney, a real estate broker who helped sell the villas, have denied knowing the buyers were engaged in a fraud conspiracy."