A report from the Arizona Republic. "Banks are becoming stricter with lending and foreclosures are on the rise, placing many Valley homeowners in dire straights, struggling to stay afloat. Monique Walker of Intero Real Estate estimates 25 percent of housing inventory are short sales. 'We, as realtors talk to the bank and the bank at times allows the seller to sell the house for lower than they actually owe on the mortgage,' said Walker."

"Gov. Napolitano said, as Governor, she can't turn the housing market around, but is focusing her efforts on lessening the harm done to people caught in the down cycle. She cited a bill she signed last year making it a crime for lenders to mislead buyers."

"She said she wants to avoid a situation like the one in Silicone Valley where people can only afford a home if they are millionaires."

The Arizona Daily Star. "First Magnus Financial Corp. announced this morning that it would substantially cut its workforce, after announcing to its employees late Wednesday that it would stop writing loans today. Employees at the Tucson-based mortgage firm were leaving this morning with packed boxes, many with downtrodden faces and some uncertain about what to do next."

"In an e-mail sent out early Thursday morning, senior First Magnus executives said the nationwide credit crunch forced the company to stop writing or funding new mortgage loans and lay off workers."

"'Despite our efforts to continue normal operations, we have come to a point when we must substantially reduce our workforce. What this means for most of our employees is that Thursday, August 16, 2007 will be your last day of employment.'"

"Home sales are still sliding, and prices are also slipping, according to a monthly report released today by the Tucson Association of Realtors."

"The number of homes sold in July fell 10.51 compared to the same month a year ago, according to information compiled from the Tucson Association of Realtors MLS. The median price fell 2.78 percent to $218,750."

The Rocky Mountain News from Colorado. "Denver-area home sellers from Firestone to Castle Rock are slashing prices and kicking in everything from free plasma TVs to paying homeowner association dues to entice people to buy."

"In recent years, home builders have constructed too many houses in areas that have gone from hot to cold, saddling them with huge supplies of inventory. National home builders, such as Beazer and D.R. Horton in Denver, are offering about $100,000 in price reductions on some hard-to-sell homes."

"In one case, D.R. Horton knocked down the sales price of a 3,201-square- foot home in Firestone to $299,990 from $394,720, or 24 percent."

"Housing consultant S. Robert August doesn't like the practice of builders slashing prices. 'It devalues the homes of previous buyers,' which contributes to the record foreclosure numbers, when a homeowner who bought a house in the same subdivision for a higher price has to sell, August said."

"Still, some sellers, especially in suburban Denver, are offering incentives themselves. Broker Chad Corbett is listing a two-bedroom condo in Aurora at $125,000, which is $15,000 below the assessed value. The owner also is tossing in a 'brand-spanking-new,' 42-inch plasma TV."

"'Mostly, people are just getting a big price reduction,' said John Fritzel of Paragon Real Estate and Development. 'There are some infill homes on the market for $2.5 million, and the offers are coming in at $200,000 or $300,000 under that, and there's not a lot of counteroffers. Nobody seems to be married to a specific house.'"

"In other words, they're willing to walk away from one house to shop for a better deal."

"What the slow market cycle will do is weed out the 'ma and pa guys and the doctors who had a couple of extra hundred thousand dollars' and thought they could make a killing tearing down a small house and replacing it with fancy townhomes or a large single-family home, he said."

"'Usually, these people make some pretty expensive mistakes, and it is pretty easy for their interest carrying costs to get to $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000 a month,' he said, forcing the owners to throw in the towel."

The Denver Post from Colorado. "Colorado reported the highest foreclosure rate of any state in 2006, according to RealtyTrac. But other states have since passed it. Foreclosure filings rose 11 percent in the Denver-Aurora area, which ranked sixth among metro areas."

"For those caught in the slump, the losses can be significant. Denver real estate analyst Gary Bauer said he has a friend who purchased a Las Vegas home for $250,000 a few years ago after a job transfer. He is being called back to Denver, but the move will cost him."

"'He will be lucky to sell the home for $190,000. It may be $175,000,' Bauer said. 'He is crying his woes.'"

The Review Journal from Nevada. "U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Bruce Markell postponed a motion Wednesday for summary judgment against Tower Homes, developer of Spanish View Towers in the southwest Las Vegas Valley."

"Las Vegas law firm Marquis & Aurbach filed a lawsuit in May to recover deposits for buyers at Spanish View Towers. Managing Partner Terry Coffing said Rod Yanke, principal of Tower Homes, took the Fifth Amendment during a deposition in which he was asked where the money went."

"Yanke had claimed to have 90 sales, but they were actually nonbinding reservations. Coffing said only 20 reservations were converted to 'hard contract,' or sales."

"Larry Shiffman said the luxury condo project with its slickly produced advertisements looked like a good investment two years ago. Now he's resigned that his $168,000 deposit is gone."

"'It's a nightmare. Unbelievable,' Shiffman said. 'There's a lot of fraud involved. They don't expect there'll be five cents left for us, but they hope to get insurance money.'"

"Shiffman said he received an e-mail from Yanke a month ago promising he would never give up on building Spanish Towers. 'This guy is great. He can convince you of anything. He should sell used cars,' Shiffman said."

The Deseret News from Utah. "Presenters at a Wednesday morning symposium on the state of Utah's real estate market also painted a fairly rosy picture of the state's commercial, industrial, retail and residential markets. Of course, there are, as one presenter said, some 'storm clouds on the horizon.'"

"'In life there's not always all good news,' said Gary Wright, a consultant for one of Utah's largest homebuilders. 'There's good news and there's bad news. And so it is in Utah's residential housing market.'"

"Utah's housing market remains one of the strongest in the nation, Wright said, but it has shown 'definite signs of weakness' in the past six months. Single family building permits, for example, have decreased 20 percent since January 2006."

"The biggest threat to Utah's market, analysts agree, is affordability. House prices in the state are increasing at least twice as fast as incomes."

"The average price of a house in Salt Lake County is nearing $300,000, a $110,000 increase over the past four years, according to a recent Wells Fargo analysis. At the same time, Wright said, land prices have gone up 250 percent."

"Kelly Matthews, executive vice president and economist at Wells Fargo in Salt Lake City, agreed. 'At the moment, we just simply can't afford the homes that are being offered for sale vs. the income levels of our people.'"

"Another blemish on the national housing picture, which has plenty of implications in Utah, is the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market. The subprime market meltdown is 'having a large effect on the housing market both nationally and in Utah,' Wright said."

"When Josh and Summer Adams moved to Utah earlier this summer, they hoped to buy a house for their growing family, but...the couple realized that all signs were pointing toward only one option: a subprime mortgage."

"'My wife and I realized that the only way we'd be able to get into a house is to do something similar to what everybody else is now paying for,' Adams said."

"The couple opted to rent a house in Utah County until the volatile housing market settles into a more predictable pattern."

"'It's hard to throw away the money each month for rent, but I'd rather throw my money away for a year ... than to get into something and a year or two from now I'm upset because I acted off emotion,' Adams said."

"Home lenders have tightened standards across the board for all types of borrowers, whether they live in hard-hit areas such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, or in Utah, which has, so far, escaped much of the trauma gripping other parts of the nation."

"'The bubble was not as big here as it was in other places,' said Kelly Matthews, economist at Wells Fargo in Salt Lake City."

"While no one is saying that Utahns will escape the crisis completely unscathed, the extent of the impact is still unknown. 'I think everybody's kind of holding their breath and waiting to see what happens,' said John Norman, executive director of the Utah Mortgage Lenders Association."

"In 2005, approximately 14 percent of all loans offered in Utah were subprime loans, according to numbers kept by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The year before that, 18 percent, or 24,928 loans, were subprime."

"According to the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, 13 percent of all loans offered nationally in 2006 were subprime."

"The majority of the subprime loans offered last year were in the form of adjustable-rate mortgages. 'They shouldn't have been able to get a loan, really, based on their income, and they were getting more than 100 percent in some cases,' Matthews said. 'It's just a disaster waiting to happen.'"

"Tightened lending standards will mean new standards for all homebuyers, regardless of their credit situation."

"'The homebuyer here in Utah is likely going to have to have a larger down payment than they had to have six months ago, (and) they're likely going to have to be in a better financial position than they were,' said Norman with the Utah Mortgage Lenders Association. 'If you've got blemished credit or are a subprime borrower, it's going to cost you quite a bit more.'"

"Which is why Josh and Summer Adams have decided to delay home ownership until the markets stabilize and they have some time to work on their own financial situation. By then, Josh Adams said, 'we (will) be in a position where we wouldn't have to do any kind of creative financing.'"