What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Resetting loans? Builder incentives? "Pennsylvania home builder, Keystone Custom Homes, is offering potential buyers the chance to, 'Live free for a year. Really.'"

"The advertisers for Keystone might have thought they needed the 'Really' to convince skeptical buyers, but nowadays, incentives like this are not surprising."

"'It’s definitely a challenging time to be building homes,' says Keystone president Jeff Rutt. 'Probably one of the biggest hurdles that I’ve seen here locally and just from what I’ve seen nationally, is buyer sentiment.'"

Slower construction? "The number of housing permits issued statewide during the first half of the year plummeted 18 percent compared with the first half of 2006, the state Department of Economic and Community Development said Friday."

"'It’s obviously slowed down a bit,' said Jonathan Shweky, owner of Shweky Developers in Wallingford. 'A lot of this talk of the bubble bursting has been going on since last year. A lot of builders pulled back, in the sense of not overbuilding.'"

"Home buyers are taking their time when deciding whether and when to purchase a house, scared by reports of a nationwide housing market downturn, he said. But Connecticut’s housing market has not been overbuilt like those in California, Nevada and other states, he said."

Failed development? "In a one-two punch, an attorney representing Laughlin Ranch announced it has filed for bankruptcy. Out of 12,500 acres, approximately 1,200 acres of Laughlin Ranch have been developed. Most of Laughlin Ranch has been incorporated into the Bullhead City limits, increasing the area of the city by one-third."

Slowing home sales? "Local realtors say although Alaska doesn't always follow national trends, the market is not where it was one year ago, and inventory is the highest it's been in seven years. Sales of existing homes dropped in June for the fourth month in a row, the slowest sales pace since November 2002."

"Ingrid Thomas has had her home listed on the market for 14 months, waiting for a buyer that has not yet appeared. 'It has been extremely frustrating because we left already, seven months ago, and the house is still on the market. We don't know why it hasn't sold,' Thomas said."

"And the Thomases are not alone in the waiting game."

"'They're on the market longer because there are so many on the market and there's only so many buyers to absorb that number of houses,' said realtor Beth Simpson."

"Anchorage Home Builders Association President Eric Schach said builders are reacting to the slowing market. 'The levels of building were unsustainable from 2003 to 2006 and now Anchorage is just in a self-correction mode,' Schach said."

"Realtors say the most important thing sellers can do is to be prepared to get the price where the market is. Simpson says too many sellers think '"their house is worth more than the next door neighbor's.'"