The Post Dispatch reports from Missouri. "Christopher Miller wanted an old house with the amenities of new construction. Instead, he found a new home with the character of an old house. And despite numerous upgrades, he got it at a bargain price. Miller expects to pay $315,000 for a 2,200-square-foot house in St. Louis’ Shaw neighborhood that would have cost $400,000 not long ago."

"'The sales manager at McBride & Son Homes said, 'Tell me what you want, and we will put it all together and then crunch the numbers,' Miller said."

"With sales sluggish, many builders are offering incentives, from free cars to discounts of up to $80,000 or $90,000, said Curt Johnson, vice president of new homes for Coldwell Banker/Gundaker."

"The executive VP of the Home Builders of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri, Pat Sullivan, said, 'It seems buyers have gone into a cocoon. It’s not a big deal when it’s just a few people, but when the snowball continues to roll down the hill, it becomes a significant factor.'"

"The biggest hit, Sullivan said, has been in the price range most builders are in: the low $200,000s to $500,000."

"At Chesterfield-based Taylor-Morley Homes, Missouri permits were cut by more than half from 2005, to 148 last year. Bill Taylor, CEO, said job cuts weren’t unique to his company. 'We have probably had two to three rounds of unfortunate layoffs over the last year. About a 30 percent reduction in staff overall,' Taylor said. 'But that isn’t unlike a lot of other builders.'"

"Taylor-Morley isn’t the only company trying to sell excess land holdings, said Randy Mayer, CEO of St. Louis-based Mayer Homes. But that strategy has limitations, given the slow market. 'Reality is, there are no buyers (for the land) out there,' Mayer said. 'Most builders have also had too much staff.'"

"When the market was booming, 'we were receiving price increases from our contractors on a quarterly basis,' said Brett Hardesty, president of Hardesty Homes, based in Chesterfield. 'Now we are refusing to accept increases because business is slower. Everyone is working harder on tighter margins.'"

"Although builders are used to ups and downs, most are scratching their heads over the large decline in sales. 'Other prior downturns have been inflation- and interest-rate-related,' Mayer said. 'This was neither.'"

"The president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Southwestern Illinois, Matt Belcher, says problems in the subprime loan market have derailed a recovery. 'The industry was starting to turn back around, and the subprime market took a swing at the industry,' Belcher said."

"The incentives are getting larger, especially in new house subdivisions with only a few homes left to sell, said Tom Malone, broker salesperson for Coldwell Banker/Gundaker. 'Some of those who bought earlier are having buyer’s remorse for having paid full price,' Malone said."

The Detroit Free Press from Michigan. "Michigan's sour housing market is pushing more sellers to slap rent-to-own signs in their front yards to lure buyers. At the same time, more purchasers are opting to get into homes using this nontraditional method, some real estate agents say."

"Agents say the surge in rent-to-own deals in the region can be attributed to the increase in foreclosures, bad credit resulting from job cuts, homes sitting on the market too long and people not having enough money for a down payment."

"Jaye Simpson of Nextpointe Real Estate Service in Troy, said the jump in her business is due to a decrease in subprime mortgage lending. Such loans are designed to assist buyers who have damaged credit."

"'Since that particular portion of the industry is shrinking, rent-to-own is now a new and more popular strategy,' she said."

"Dennis Fassett, owner of Michigan Property Solutions Group in Franklin, said people just aren't saving enough. 'So the result is that when something happens, even something small, people can't recover and they end up losing their homes,' Fassett said."

"Jeff Wilkinson's Ypsilanti home has been on the market since September 2006. After losing his manufacturing job and moving to Salt Lake City, the 32-year-old is now offering a rent-to-own deal."

"'It's kind of a rough market right now,' he said. Wilkinson is deciding whether he or the future tenant will pay for maintenance. 'I hadn't thought that far ahead,' he said, adding that he'll likely have the renter pay for repairs."

The Sandusky Register from Ohio. "The Erie County Sheriff's office has a record number of houses that will go on the auction block at 10 a.m. July 10 and 31 at the Erie County Courthouse. Eighteen properties are listed to go on sale July 10 and 49 are listed to go on sale July 31."

"'This is the most we've ever had,' said Judy Schwochow, secretary for the civil division of the Erie County Sheriff's office. 'We seem to be climbing.'"

"So far this year, the sheriff's office has received 208 foreclosed properties to sell at its auctions. The sheriff's office handled 308 properties the entire year last year."

"Properties for both dates range from the appraised value of $21,000 up to $570,000, which is the most expensive property listed for sale on July 10."

"A house...in Huron is listed as the highest-priced property up for sale on July 31. The property has an appraised value of $312,000. The starting bid is set at $208,000. Most properties are located in Sandusky, Huron and Berlin Heights and some are in Vermilion and near Vickery."

"Thom Shaffoe, president of the Firelands Association of Realtors, said the spike in foreclosed properties does not surprise him. 'We're probably going to see more sheriff sales as time goes on,' he said."

"Shaffoe said there are a number of reasons why foreclosures are steadily rising. Job changes, company down-sizing, mortgage industry changes and national lenders offering loans that borrowers might not be able to pay are just a few of the factors he attributes to the increasing number of foreclosures."

"'Everything is relative to money,' he said."

"Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown joined a banking subcommittee hearing on the mortgage lending industry and called for Congress to act to stem the tide of foreclosures. The hearing focused on the mortgage origination process, abuses in the mortgage lending industry, responsible solutions to protect consumers in the home-buying process and the impact of the proposed solutions on the market."

"'We face a crisis in Ohio,' Brown said at a hearing Tuesday. 'We have the highest inventory of foreclosed properties in the country and the problem is not behind us.'"