USA Today reports on Arizona. "Some sellers on Scottsdale's tony north side who have homes priced over $1 million are having to shave several hundred thousand dollars off their asking prices...says agent Karina Magana. There's a record 45,175 single-family homes for sale in this bedroom community of Phoenix. When sales peaked in Scottsdale in March 2005, there were only about 2,900 homes on the market."

"'We've gone from an all-time low to an all-time high in supply,' says Matt Deuitch, president of the Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors."

"Compared with May of last year, single-family-home sales in Scottsdale overall are down nearly 23%."

The Arizona Daily Sun from Flagstaff. "Townhouse and condo sales are dominating the summer real estate season. Second quarter sales figures show a sharp spike in the number of condos and townhomes sold, up 90 percent over last year's figures during the same quarter."

"Three large condo conversions projects helped drive down the median price for the townhouse/condo market. Median sale price was $197,000 for the second quarter of 2007, according to figures from Northern Arizona Association of Realtors' MLS."

"This represents a 26 percent drop in sale prices for the second quarter of 2007 when compared to the same time period last year."

"The single-family detached house market also saw a 2 percent decrease in median sales price compared to last year's second-quarter figures."

"The number of single-family homes sold slowed over last year's figures, down 22 percent for the second quarter compared to last year. Median sale price for single family home is currently about $377,000."

The Business Journal from Colorado. "In a slow market, the pressure is on to arrive at residential values high enough to meet real estate broker, homeowner and lender expectations. Some appraisers have been threatened with the loss of future referrals if they can’t 'make the numbers work,' and others have been offered $100 or $200 to meet a lender’s 'target.'"

"Alan Hummel, Forsythe’s chief appraiser, said that the pressure on certified appraisers has always been there, but the increased intensity of demand to meet stated or implied 'loan targets' has mushroomed, largely because 70 percent of residential loans are originated by third party companies, not lenders."

"'Some of these brokers are used to doing 10 loans a week, but with the slowdown in home sales, they’re looking instead at two to three deals a week,' he said. 'If I kill one transaction, I’m cutting their production by 33 percent — and they’re hungry.'"

"'There’s so much liability if you don’t follow the letter of the law, and at the same time, there are mortgage brokers challenging your ethics to make a deal work,' said Colorado Springs commercial and rural real estate appraiser Cheri Santi."

"Locally she has seen appraisers asked to come in with the higher value or even to the exact penny called for in a contract."

"Claudia Klein, a certified residential appraiser and president of the Colorado chapter of the Appraisal Institute agreed. “Most (residential appraisers) have been reluctant to talk about the subject because they fear retaliation from mortgage brokers and Realtors,' she said."

"October Research surveyed 500 appraisers in 2003. Almost 60 percent of respondents said they had experienced some form of inappropriate pressure by mortgage brokers and 47 percent said they had been pressured by real estate brokers to come up with 'the right' number for a seller or buyer."

"Three years later, in 2006, those numbers had risen to 71 percent and 56 percent, respectively."

"'It’s not the lenders who are the culprits,' Hummel said, adding that independent mortgage brokers who 'shop' rates and conditions offered by a range of mortgage lenders are the biggest source of inappropriate pressure."

"Another example cited by the AI’s chief appraiser was an aggressive home builder who advertised 'We will provide you with a new Cadillac in the garage of every house we sell.'"

"'That means the home loan will be based on a $500,000 rather than a $450,000 sales price,' he said, adding that an appraisal slated to come in at 80 percent of the higher value does not truly reflect the value of the real estate."

"Klein has seen the entire range of pressures exerted by anxious brokers and homeowners to meet predetermined expectations in the Pikes Peak region. She also is well aware of techniques used by unethical appraisers."

"'I’ve spent 17 years in this field, but it’s getting harder every day,' she said. 'Fortunately the lenders are really beginning to question appraisals that come in suspiciously high or low. After all, they’re the ones who will end up with the property if it goes into foreclosure.'"

The Rocky Mountain News from Colorado. "Downtown has scored a hat trick of high-end hotels with last week's announcement of a W Hotel on the 16th Street Mall."

"The projects also call for 238 luxury condominiums at the top of the hotels, creating a new market downtown: condo hotels, as they are known in the industry."

"'Downtown Denver is really evolving into much more of a cosmopolitan city,' said Robert Benton (of) Robert S. Benton & Associates. 'But in a recession, the first things to get impacted are travel and hotel rooms, with luxury hotel rooms impacted particularly hard. The real key is can they sell these expensive condos?'"

"Brian Phetteplace, housing program manager for the Downtown Denver Partnership, said the 'condo hotel is something not seen in this market before.'"

"He said people familiar with W Residences will consider Denver a bargain when compared with similar units in California and New York, even though the condos at the W in Denver will likely top $500 per square foot."

"But longtime real estate agent Sonja Leonard Leonard said sales of expensive downtown condos this year have been sluggish."

"There have been only seven sales of downtown condos priced over $1 million so far this year, while 41 are listed in that price range, with 10 under contract, according to Metrolist data, she said. 'One sale of a condo over $1 million each month is not a hot market,' she said."

The Las Vegas Sun from Nevada. "When Jerry Wayne looks out from the balcony of his luxury condominium at Turnberry Place, he sees Strip hotels and, behind them, the big Nevada sky."

"But he also sees cranes, ominous signs that soon, Wayne will see little except for the wall of a 22-story garage and convention center being built less than 100 feet from his spacious balcony."

"It's part of the $2.9 billion Fontainebleau Las Vegas going up at the corner of Las Vegas and Riviera boulevards. 'We won't be able to see the sky,' said Wayne, who paid $649,000 for his eighth-floor unit in 2003."

"Wayne and the owners of about 175 units at Turnberry Place were among the first to get in on the valley's high-rise condominium boom. Now they are becoming some of the first to learn a tough lesson about living the high life near the Strip. There are few safe bets. A nice view is certainly not one of them."

"'You can spit on it,' says Turnberry resident Ann Stager, disgusted enough to make it seem that she might actually try."

"She and her sister, Julie Stapleton, both are widows. They put 'everything they had' into the condo, Stapleton said. 'All of us are going to have the values of our property cut in half,' she said."

"In Nevada, views are not protected by law. Turnberry residents were told when they purchased their condos that a hotel and casino project was planned next door. Still, they say they were told few details about the project and are only now realizing that they won't be looking down on a hotel's pool or lavish landscaping. They'll be looking at the wall of a parking garage topped with a convention center."

"'They didn't tell us they were going to put the butt of it in our face,' complained Turnberry resident Rick Coleman."

"What really peeves many Turnberry residents is that Fontainebleau is being developed by former Mandalay Resort Group President Glenn Schaeffer and, get this, Turnberry Associates principal Jeffrey Soffer, the same man who developed Turnberry Place."

"Initially, residents say, the fact that the developer of their condo complex also was involved in the project next door provided some comfort. 'We always expected something would be built there,' Wayne said. 'But we expected it would be integrated. Never would I have expected a wall obscuring every view I have.'"

"'Clark County is always getting low marks for smart growth and sustainable development,' said Paul Murad, a real estate agent and developer whose $1.2 million unit on the fifth floor will lose all but a sliver of its view."

"Turnberry residents say they plan to appeal the decision in District Court and seek a temporary halt to the Fontainebleau project. 'This is probably the first time there are residents this close to the Strip. There is no precedent,' said Jerry Wendel, another Turnberry resident, himself a developer. 'We are going to go all the way with this.'"