The News Tribune reports from Washington. "It’s been years since Pierce County’s housing market has looked this bleak. The median sales price in June barely inched upward compared to June 2006 and a decline from May 2007, according to figures released Thursday by the Northwest MLS. And sales were down from the same time last year, with 24 percent fewer stand-alone houses and condominiums sold. The slowdown comes at the height of the summer selling season."

"Countywide, the supply of homes for sale has grown to about 6.8 months, pushing the market to one that favors buyers rather than sellers, according to Dick Beeson, a Windermere broker and a MLS director."

"Beeson attributed Pierce County’s lagging price appreciation, in part, to its abundance of new homes and the discounts builders are using to sell them. The year-to-year supply increased 53 percent with more than 8,400 homes on the market. 'We’ve just got too many properties for sale for our county to handle right now,' Beeson said."

"Listing a property today means educating sellers on the competition and price pressures they face, said Tacoma agent Patti Dains DeYoung. Because the market has changed so much so quickly, Dains DeYoung said she now looks only at the previous two months."

"'If you’re in an area with a lot of listings, you’ve got to be one of the very best priced to sell,' she said. 'You almost have to price it a little under average in order to get offers on it.'"

The Olympian from Washington. "Sales of Thurston County houses dropped 17 percent in June, which prompted one real estate agent to say the real estate market has cooled down to compensate from its torrid pace of a few years ago."

"Inventory also climbed to more than 2,300 units, up 37 percent from the same period last year."

"Because current house sales are measured against the boom in housing that started in 2004 and ended in 2006, house sales are bound to be lower, real estate agent Eric Hjelm of Olympia said."

"'We are in a transition,' he said. 'Everyone still wants to sell, it just takes people a little bit longer.'"

"Another factor affecting the county’s housing market is the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market, said Randy Luke, Horizon Mortgage branch manager and senior loan officer."

"'The so-called no downpayment loans for people with credit issues have totally gone away,' he said, estimating that money is no longer available to 15 percent to 20 percent of the home-buying market."

"Luke’s Olympia office now has five loan officers, down from seven, he said. Company-wide Horizon Mortgage has lost 10 percent to 15 percent of its loan officers, Luke said."

"'It’s kind of grim,' Luke said. 'Every now and then you have to make a correction.'"

The Bellingham Herald. "In Whatcom County...the total number of residential homes sold for the first half of the year was down 5.4 percent compared to a year ago. The average time it takes to sell a home, however, has jumped significantly when compared to the previous year."

"Sales were significantly slower in Sudden Valley (down 13 percent) and Birch Bay (down 19.8 percent)." "In studying the numbers, Johnson believes it is still a balanced market between sellers and buyers, despite the continued rise in home prices."

"'These numbers can be deceiving because the average home in Whatcom County hasn’t increased in price over the past year,' said Lylene Johnson in Fairhaven, who has been analyzing data from local MLS groups for the past three years. 'It’s simply that more expensive homes are selling and that raises both the average and median (the midpoint of all sales) prices.'"

"'People want the best value for their money,' Johnson said. 'We’ve noticed a trend where buyers are likely to jump at the right price, but because there is no sense of urgency right now, buyers won’t make a counteroffer when it’s overpriced. They tend to wait and see what happens.'"

"Overall listings of residential homes and condominiums in Whatcom County at the end of June were 2,415, up 12.6 percent compared to the previous year. The inventory for the entire area served by NWMLS, nearly every county in the state, is up 51.5 percent compared to 2006."

The Seattle PI. "Condominium sales buoyed Seattle's housing statistics in June while showing perhaps the clearest sign of a slowing market. Pending sales, which can be a better indicator of the most recent activity, declined 0.9 percent for all Seattle homes and by larger amounts elsewhere."

"June's median for condos decreased from the previous month for the fourth month in a row, adding up to a 5.5 percent drop since February. 'Four months in a row, it's an interesting thing,' said Matthew Gardner, a Seattle land-use economist. 'Is this kind of indicating a slowdown in the marketplace? Yeah.'"

"Gardner also noted that most new condos are not in the listing service's numbers and said month-to-month variations do not mean as much as the yearly price changes, which he does not expect to go negative.'That is a rational market. We haven't seen one of those for quite some time and we're heading back toward it.'"

"Condos also had an outsized contribution to the other significant news in June's housing numbers, the continued ballooning of inventory. Seattle's inventory shot up 59.2 percent in June from a year earlier, noticeably more than the still-significant increases in King County and Western Washington."

"In a news release accompanying the numbers, the listing service noted that inventory was at an all-time high."

"Last Sunday, some potential buyers looking at homes noticed the changes. 'It seems like the market has not gone down, but flattened,' said Jason Shay, of Seattle, who has looked at homes on and off for three years. 'Before there were a lot of homes that just were on the market for like two days. Now it seems like they're sitting a little bit longer.'"

"Agent Mark Petrak hosted an open house Sunday at a Capitol Hill home he's been trying to sell since September 2006. 'People are definitely pickier than they were a year ago,' he said."

"Agent Steve Jones said activity really slowed after interest rates rose in recent weeks. 'There's a ton of homes for sale and not that many buyers right now,' Jones said."

"The market has changed, Mike Larson, a listing-service director and designated broker in Lakewood, said in the release. 'Sellers still don't quite understand that buyers have much more to choose from,- and often a back-up property to act on,' he said."

The Seattle Times. "'Twenty-four months ago, you could put the sign up, put out a price and you'd still get offers even if you were a little bit robust on your price,' said Steve Knoblaugh, an agent for RE/MAX Eastside brokers. 'What we're seeing now is homes are selling, but pricing is of greater importance. That's really key.'"

"Knoblaugh said some homeowners he has talked to have decided to sell this year rather than next because they think the market is going to weaken more, making it harder to get their price later on."

"Marketing consultant Denise Lones said buyers and sellers often make decisions based on what they read in the media. Negative news stories about local events, national disasters or real-estate downturns elsewhere can all spook buyers, she said. And that can make sales decline."

"But the fundamentals behind Seattle's market...mean 'our area is going to thrive and grow,' Lones predicted. 'If it's going to be any kind of a slowdown, I think it's going to be false slow,' she said. 'We're in a very desirable place to live.'"

"Loan officers who work for a Tacoma mortgage company that told state officials in May it was closing say they continue to go without pay."

"Loan officers waiting on months-delayed checks say they can’t pay their bills and are facing ruined credit and foreclosure. California couple Lindy Pine and Devin Rusk, who’ve sold All Fund loans for more than three years, filed a $27,000 wage claim in June."

"Pine and Rusk used their credit cards to make recent mortgage payments and have incurred late fees on cards they couldn’t pay on time. 'I was really hoping they would be honorable and pay us what’s due. I kind of in the back of my mind am still hoping that,' Pine said."

"Bill Wood, a broker based in Hawaii, said...said one of the owners told him that he had underestimated the cost of running All Fund. 'It’s a great system. It’s just that I think All Fund overextended themselves,' he said."