What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Foreclosures? "More people are losing their homes to foreclosure in Lake County. According to one source, there were a total of 457 total foreclosures in April, 80 more than the previous month. The Illinois foreclosure rate has escalated 23 percent since last April, according to RealtyTrac."

"'Our foreclosure workload and files have increased this year from last year almost 100 percent,' said Alex Attiah, broker in Grayslake. 'We're experiencing that in all of the counties in Chicagoland.'"

"He also said that due to the excess supply of properties especially at the entry level market, sellers need to be more aggressive and realistic about their sale prices."

"'Lenders are selling at a very discounted price,' he said."

Legal changes? "Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on Friday banned so-called 'rescue' schemes that entice homeowners facing foreclosure to sign over their property to a temporary purchaser, under the false hope it will help them keep the home over the long run."

"Kevin Cuff, executive director of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association, said his organization welcomed Coakley's move. 'There is no reputable mortgage lender that would approve any kind of rescue scheme,' Cuff said."

See speculation? "Old records for the number of homes sold and the dollar value of sales were smashed last month, as Regina's sizzling housing market remained red hot."

"One house, just sold, was priced initially in the $400,000 range but was sold ultimately for $160,000 above the initial asking price, said Gord Archibald, the executive officer of the realtors' association."

"'It's probably a seller's market,' Archibald said. 'It's the Alberta effect.'"

"Construction of increased numbers of new homes would appear to be one potential way to meet the high demand for homes. But Archibald said that is easier said than done because home builders are already working at full capacity to construct as many homes as they can."

High Inventory? "A record-shattering number of homes were listed for sale last month in the Pikes Peak region, while home construction continued its slump — fresh signs the struggling local housing market isn’t getting better. In May, 6,567 homes were listed for sale in the area, a one-fourth increase over the same month last year and breaking the record of 6,200 set in June 1988, according to numbers released Friday by the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors."

"'Wow,' said Harry Salzman, broker in Colorado Springs. 'The numbers, those are just crazy.'"

"Too many homes for sale raises fears that prices could plummet. Last month’s home sales, meanwhile, fell 18.4 percent compared with the same time last year. Some possible reasons for too much supply and reduced demand: Too many foreclosed homes on the market, while the buyer pool was drained by low mortgage rates that prematurely attracted buyers a few years ago."

"'Competition is fierce,' Salzman said. 'That’s why sellers better price their house right if they want a sale.'"

Economic comparisons? "What happens when the American housing industry enters a downturn? It can last a long time."

"One measure is the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, which measures house prices by comparing the price of a house with what it sold for before. Its composite of 10 major geographic areas shows that in March prices were, on average, down 1.9 percent from a year earlier, and 3 percent from the peak reached last June."

"That index also hit a peak in October 1989, and went into a decline that lasted a long time. It was not until January 1998, 99 months later, that the index climbed above the 1989 peak."

"Prices are falling more rapidly this time, just as they rose more rapidly coming into the 2006 peak than they had a generation earlier, in 1989. In the first couple of months after the peak, sales did not slip as much in 1989, but by the ninth month they were off about as much as they are now, with new-home sales particularly hard hit."

"One thing that was very different at the 1989 peak from the one in 2006 was the trend in the number of homes being offered for sale. When prices peaked in 1989, the number of homes for sale was already declining, and it continued to fall for some months."

"In 2006, however, the number of homes for sale rose as the peak neared, and the latest report shows that more than 4.1 million homes were for sale at the end of April, the largest number ever. That included almost 3.6 million existing homes, also a record high."