News reports from from Oklahoma. "There's a cooling trend, but not a cold snap, in Oklahoma City home values, once hot but apparently never as overheated as in many big cities' bubbly housing markets. Realtors said the excess of homes on the Oklahoma City-area market is causing it to take longer to sell houses. Home buyers are driving harder bargains, but most sellers aren't overreacting by slashing their asking prices, Realtors said."

"'Buyers are looking for a bargain and they want to see everything out there. Used to, I could pull the top 10 houses, the top 10 neighborhoods. Now they want to see everything,' said Karen Blevins, a Realtor in Oklahoma City and Edmond."

"There's more of everything to see. July ended with 9,328 houses for sale in the Oklahoma City area, a 5.6-month supply based on average monthly sales the past 12 months. That's up from a 4.8-month supply at the end of 2006."

"It's a buyer's market and buyers know it, said Linda Finch, a Realtor in northwest Oklahoma City. Sellers' asking prices are starting points, but just starting points, for negotiations, as far as buyers are concerned, she said."

"Blevins said buyers...expect to get something at the closing table: closing costs, which can be between $3,500 and $4,000 on a $150,000 home."

"Sellers are bringing the cash, Blevins said, but 'they're being a little more patient than they used to be. They have to be more patient to get their price.'"

"Cross-town buyers are usually sellers, and 'They want it both ways,' she said, top dollar for the house they're selling, the best price for the one they're buying. They don't usually win on both ends, though. It's a buyer's market, so they win on the buying end, she said."

"Finch's advice to sellers: Spend a little money to make improvements and add value to a home, as a cushion against buyers' expectations of a price discount."

The Star Telegram from Texas. "Foreclosures have been surging for five years in North Texas, and almost nobody cared. Now suddenly the problem is part of a global financial crisis."

"It's easy to blame California, Florida and Nevada, where the housing bubble is going pop. But this is a bill that we ran up, too, and it had to be paid sometime. 'It's going to be a cold winter,' says John Baen, a real estate professor at the University of North Texas, who predicts tough times ahead for housing and the broader economy."

"Foreclosures aren't the cause of the trouble; they're a symptom of scores of bad home loans and years of overbuilding. In this area, rising foreclosures were sending a signal to the market three or four years ago, but they were ignored, with few consequences. And that says a lot about how the housing market became so overheated."

"In North Texas, foreclosure postings have tripled since 2001, according to George Roddy, of Foreclosure Listing Service. Yet the local economy has shrugged them off as a nonevent."

"Until recently, the housing market was on a tear. When loans were easy and cheap, home builders kept adding volume in Texas, even as defaults climbed. The area lost 80,000 jobs in the 2002 recession, yet home starts continued to surge, notes Ted Wilson of a Dallas real estate research firm."

"'By 2003, we thought there'd be a decline in housing starts,' Wilson says. 'But builders said they could qualify anybody for a house, and they were making huge profits on the East and West Coasts. They wanted to use Texas to increase their unit counts."

"That strategy is over. Home builders have suffered crippling losses, and many subprime lenders have gone under. In the Fort Worth area, residential building permits dropped 34 percent in June; on the Dallas side, building-permit activity is running at levels last seen 10 years ago."

"Wilson says that many local builders have laid off workers, and mortgage companies presumably have cut back, too."

"Through the first nine months of the year, foreclosure postings rose 12 percent for North Texas and rose 14 percent in Tarrant County. In the latest postings, the average loan originated in 2003, according to Roddy. And an even greater number of risky loans were made in '04, '05 and '06."

"'Do the math, and that means we have two to three more years of this left,' Roddy says."

"In North Texas, the largest concentration of foreclosures involve starter homes and subprime loans to people with poor credit. 'We increased homeownership a whole bunch in the past five years,' says Baen, the UNT professor, 'but the great American dream became a nightmare for a lot of these people.'"

The American Statesman from Texas. "Plans for a $4 billion, 3,500-acre development in Leander that would have clustered homes with parks and commercial developments, as well as more than doubled the city's population, have folded."

"Florida-based Avalon Park Group Management Inc. terminated an agreement with the city and a local developer last week, citing a weak national homebuilding market."

"'It wasn't the right time to go with a project of this magnitude considering the overall market,' Beat Kahli, CEO of Avalon, said. Kahli said the project would have depended on national homebuilders, most of which are struggling because of the jittery market."

"The development would have clustered more than 10,000 buildings with park and commercial developments between Crystal Falls Parkway and Lakeline Boulevard. It was similar to the city's 2,300-acre residential and commercial development that centers around a rail line that will run from Austin to Leander."

"The $4 billion project would have been a record for Leander. Avalon officials originally requested between $240 million to $300 million in incentives, but the city only offered $120 million, which would have been another record, Leander Mayor John Cowman said."

"The collapsed deal is a blow to Leander, which could have gained an increased tax base from the development, but city leaders say other projects are in the pipeline. Bill Hinckley owns the 3,500 acres that would have been developed by Avalon."

"Hinckley said three new communities are being planned on the 3,500 acres, and, with roads such as the 183-A tollway in place, the area is ripe for development."

"Despite national home market problems, the Austin area is still a hot spot, said Mark Sprague, Austin partner of Residential Strategies Inc. Sprague said new jobs being created by high tech companies, such as Samsung, as well more people moving into the area, have cushioned it from feeling a major ripple from the national market."

"'We're in a great bubble here in Austin,' he said."