The Review Journal reports from Nevada. "The number of homes listed for sale in Southern Nevada topped 23,000 in May, just shy of the record 23,474 single-family homes for sales in October, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Thursday. The median price of a single-family home decreased 2.8 percent from a year ago. Sales are down 38.7 percent."

"'As we've been saying, we don't expect to see any dramatic changes to these numbers in the next several months,' Realtors' association president Devin Reiss said. 'Inventory continues to trend upward, which tells us, among other things, that sellers need to be more realistic when pricing their homes. There are an increasing number of bargains out there for buyers, but they need to make sure they are making reasonable offers.'"

"Frank Nason of Residential Resources said about half of the homes for sale are empty, probably owned by investors who can't sell or rent them. Most will probably show up as foreclosures or short sales, he said."

"'I showed 10 houses Saturday and all of them were bank-owned and vacant, and I'm talking within a two-mile radius,' said Julie Brown of Keller-Williams Realty."

"A flier distributed in the neighborhood of Decatur Boulevard and Washington Avenue advertised a four-bedroom, two-bath house for auction by owner at $149,500 or best reasonable offer. 'Home will be sold Sunday night to highest bidder,' the flier said."

"The number of condos and townhomes listed for sale in May increased to 6,343, up nearly 50 percent from a year ago and an all-time peak for that residential segment. There were 373 sales, down 38.3 percent. Median sales price dropped 5.9 percent to $189,999."

In Business Las Vegas. "The predictions in 2004 and 2005 that Las Vegas couldn't absorb all the condominium projects that were proposed are coming to fruition. Nearly one-third of the units in proposed luxury condo and condo hotel projects have been stalled or canceled, according to a local analyst."

"John Restrepo principal (of the) Restrepo Consulting Group said those who bought condos in 2004 and early 2005 when prices were cheaper have fared the best if they flipped them quickly or sold them recently. Those who purchased in late 2005 or 2006 and wanted to flip them had less flexibility and may have taken a loss."

"'Right now, it is soft,' Restrepo said. 'It is no different than single family. There are not as many buyers in the market. If you are the seller, more flexibility is the key.'"

"About 15 percent of the condos purchased are serving as primary homes with the remainder going to second homebuyers, investors and speculators, Restrepo said. Most of the buyers are from outside of the Las Vegas market."

"The state's job losses triggered by the downturn in the housing market have been deeper than estimated and could worsen as homebuilders struggle with tightening credit."

"Compared to the 2005 fourth quarter, there were 39 percent fewer framing contractors, 20 percent fewer painting contractors, 19 percent fewer general single-family home construction workers, 14 percent fewer foundation contractors and 10 percent fewer plumbing and heating workers."

"'We knew (residential housing jobs) were falling off, but it was dropping faster than we saw,' said Jim Shabi, an economist with the employment department. 'It was worse than originally estimated.'"

"That trend hadn't turned around in April in the most recent estimates, Shabi said."

"Some had hoped the nation's housing market had hit bottom, but that hasn't proven to be the case. Pulte Homes, one of the leading homebuilders in Las Vegas, announced last week that it's cutting its national workforce by about 16 percent or 1,900 jobs."

"Pulte has already cut a handful of executive jobs in Las Vegas as part of its reorganization and more layoffs are likely. So far, Pulte has already trimmed its Las Vegas workforce by 14 percent from its 2005 and 2006 highs."

"'We are doing what everyone in our industry has been doing for months,' said Richard Dix, Mountain Area president of Pulte."

"'Builders are going to restructure their workforce based on demand,' said local housing analyst Dennis Smith. 'I don't think this is the last one you are going to hear. Other builders will probably have to do similar layoffs unless the market picks up.'"

"There have been no signs of an upturn. New home closings are down 42 percent through April even though builders are ratcheting up incentives to lure buyers. New home prices are down 7 percent for the year."

"'It affects the real estate agents, title companies and mortgage brokers, home decorating companies, home suppliers and home furnishers. All of those things are needed for home sales,' said Monica Caruso, a spokeswoman for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association. 'This is an industry in 2006 that sold 36,000 homes. This year, we will be fortunate to sell 20,000. We are coming down to numbers that put us back at sales levels of 1998, 1999 and 2000.'"

"Smith said 2008 may not be any different from this year given the tightening of credit because of a fallout in the subprime lending market. 'There are much fewer people in position to buy a home,' Smith said. 'Nobody foresaw that this would happen. No one had a model for this because it has never happened before.'"

"'The bottom line is, though a correction is predictable, it is a matter of when and how quickly it would correct,' Shabi said. 'The end of the correction is not in sight yet.'"

From LasVegasNOW. "The University of Nevada Las Vegas conducted the mid-year economic report. Its authors make a couple of predictions. If you're trying to sell your home, it's pretty dire."

"More and more people keep trying to sell and the prices keep going down. For people like Mike Fitzwilliams who bought two years ago and suddenly have to sell, it means big losses."

"Nine months ago, he wasn't willing to take a $9,000 loss. Now, he's looking at offers $40,000 below what he paid for his home."

"Fitzwilliams said, 'There is a lot of anxiety and a lot of stress that goes along with it. You try to go from here on forward and maintain a positive perspective.'"

"Keith Schwer, of the UNLV Center for Economic Research, said, 'There has been a housing bubble, a lot of excess supply. We think about 14-15,000 housing units more than we need and that is depressing home building and home building has slowed significantly.'"