The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. "The U.S. subprime mortgage mess escalated into a full-blown global financial crisis Thursday - making credit harder to get from Paris to San Francisco. 'What you're seeing is a classic credit crunch,' said Christopher Thornberg, a Los Angeles economist. 'Consumers have been running on fumes, using their homes to finance extravagant lifestyles.'"

"Kurt Herrenbruck, a mortgage planner in Berkeley, saw one client's financing evaporate in the space of three days last week."

"'The client is well-heeled, with (a high credit score), and $500,000 in the bank, making an owner-occupied purchase with a 25 percent down payment,' Herrenbruck said. 'He needs a no-doc loan (meaning he cannot provide documents to prove his income) because of an employment hiccup.'"

"Herrenbruck said Wednesday he found two lenders willing to make a no-document loan. But by Thursday it was down to one. And Friday, when his client's offer was accepted, there was none. 'He can't buy even though he had the strongest profile of any no-doc: superlative credit, money in the bank and a whopping down payment.'"

The Contra Costa Times. "Mortgage agents in the East Bay scrambled on Thursday to find alternative home loan programs for consumers who have been squeezed by a worsening credit crunch unleashed by the housing meltdown."

"'I've been in this business for a quarter-century and I've never seen it this bad,' said Christopher George, president of San Ramon-based CMG Financial Services, a vendor of home loans. 'This is huge.''

"'We're dealing with drastic change on a daily basis,' said Scott Doruff, a certified mortgage planner (in) Fremont. 'Lenders are pulling their programs off the shelf. If they still offer a program, they increase the cost the loan, charge more points, demand a higher interest rate.'"

"Some banks still offer jumbo loans. But they charge such a high rate that the loan effectively disappears, said Guy Schwartz, manager of CMG's Walnut Creek office."

"'The bank prices it so high that they're sending a signal: They don't want to do the loan at all,' Schwartz said."

The Sacramento Bee. "'There's a lot of product this week that's been taken off the shelf,' said Brent Wilson, mortgage strategist with Sacramento-based Comstock Mortgage."

"One Folsom-based mortgage official says that in the long run, tougher credit standards may be better for many buyers and U.S. savings accounts."

"'I think it's great for the client," said mortgage strategist Angela Talent. 'It's a little bit harder to qualify, yet you're probably going to see first-time homebuyers seeing a need for money down. The national savings rate will start to go up. They're starting to require more documentation and increasing (the buyer's) reserves. It's a natural progression.'"

The Santa Maria Times. "Rarely do you see a sale on brand-new homes with prices marked down as much as $30,000. Yet that's what's happening this weekend and next as Centex Homes conducts what it calls its Golden Opportunity Sale at the Gardens at Briar Creek in Lompoc."

"'We don't build homes so they can sit there; we build homes to sell,' said Andrea Bradford, director of marketing for Centex Homes. 'If we can help someone get into a home who didn't think they ever could, that's good. And, of course, it's good for us, too.'"

The Camarillo Acorn. "A soft housing market forced Taft Corporation, a real estate development firm, to reconsider its plan to build a mixed-use building on the corner of Oak Street and Ventura Boulevard in Old Town."

"Kamyar Lashgari, president of the Malibu-based real estate firm, confirmed earlier this week that a downturn in Southern California's housing prices means the property will remain vacant a while longer- perhaps for another two years."

"To make the development profitable, Lashgari said, the two-bedroom townhouses would have to sell for $575,000 to $650,000.'

"Without the housing portion of it, we'd be overburdened with the housing expense,' said Lashgari, who bought the land two years ago for an undisclosed amount."

From KGET.com. "Brian Meares thought he had signed a lease-to-own contract with Crisp & Cole. Two weeks ago, the Meares learned their house is in default, and now they’re holding off on making any more payments. 'They're not paying the mortgage, or not paying enough. We're paying them, so they should be paying the mortgage,' he said."

"Valeri Gusman worried about the value of her home, purchased for $335,000 a year ago. 'I just got on Zillow.com last night, and it was down to $310,000,' Gusman said. 'There's so many empty houses and so many people coming and going...one house was vandalized...we don't know who's living there. Are they coming after my house next?'"

The Orange County Register. "July's home-selling stats from DataQuick showtThe median selling price for the 22 business days ended July 25 is $1,000 above a record set in June. Still, sales are off nearly 19% from a year ago and July will likely be the 22nd straight month where the buying pace failed to meet the previous year's activity levels."

The Daily Bulletin. "The new housing market may not be strong, but what there is of it in San Bernardino County is concentrated in the High Desert (according to)a study by MarketPointe Realty Advisors." "In fact, 66 percent of proposed single-family detached homes in the county in the second quarter of 2007 were in the Apple Valley/Victorville area."

"A slowdown in sales of homes already built has resulted in increased inventory in the county. MarketPointe reports that 2,334 units - about a five-month supply - are currently being offered for sale and are unsold."

"Part of that is a tightening in the credit market. Last week's new guidelines for lenders have made it much tougher, particularly for first-time buyers, to get mortgages. 'These guidelines will add at least a year to the current slowdown,' said Steve Johnson, director of MetroStudy. 'They'll keep a lot of people from buying homes.'"

"The total number of both types of units currently in the planning process in the county is 145,830 spread among 1,214 projects. More than three-quarters, 76 percent, of those are single-family units."

"All over the capital region, home builders are trying smaller lots and shaving extras to bring down prices. But some El Dorado Hills architects are unveiling the ultimate, a return to something not seen here in years. It's the $150,000 house."

"This is not as far-fetched as you might think. Prices for new small-lot houses already are dipping to $230,000 in parts of the region."

"Credit the housing slowdown for giving an architect time to think. 'Based on what we know to be true on sales of homes now, $150,000 is very achievable,' says Kerrin West (a) partner in charge of Iowa-based BSB Design's Sacramento division."

"West believes 'the market for this is huge.' 'We've got so many folks priced out of the market,' she says. 'Also, on the flip side, people are making too much money to qualify for low-income housing.'"

From CNN Money. "The number of homes for sale around the nation jumped over the past year, according to figures from ZipRealty. In Los Angeles, inventory has soared since Zip started tracking it two years ago."

"The number of homes on the market has risen from about 30,000 to more than 106,000. One must consider the population of the area it covers, however, which is nearly 13 million people."

"In a press release Wednesday, NAR's senior economist, Lawrence Yun, said, 'Mortgage disruptions will hold back sales over the short term, but long-term fundamentals are favorable. A modest upturn is projected for existing-home sales toward the end of the year with broader improvement to include the new-home market by the middle of 2008.'"

"Before that happens, motivated sellers may have to slash prices to move properties. Already, in Sacramento, 48 percent of sellers have discounted from their original listing price. Some 47 percent of Orange County, California sellers have dropped their price and more than 45 percent of sellers in both Boston and Phoenix have done the same."