The Shreveport Times reports on Virginia. "What some analysts are calling the worst housing sales slump in decades prompted U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery to hold onto his Washington, D.C.-area home until at least the spring. McCrery said Wednesday that he put the family's house in McLean, Va., on the market in April but took down the for-sale sign two weeks ago."

"'We just had no idea the house wouldn't sell,' he said. 'We lowered our price $50,000. That didn't help. In Washington, it's a little soft right now.'"

The Washington Post. "Washington's real estate industry, already pinched by a slowdown in residential construction, is bracing for further retrenchment after last week's meltdown in the mortgage market."

"In recent months, companies have begun cutting back in big ways and small. Collectively they are beginning to add up across the region. Economists estimate that the real estate industry accounts for 12 to 15 percent of the jobs in the Washington area."

"At Key Title's Arlington office, the number of closing documents it processes each month has dropped from 100 three years ago to 35, according to Jay Eskovitz, a settlement agent."

"The title searching company that Eskovitz uses to research whether a property has liens against it went from two employees to one. The title surveyor, who draws dimensions of the property and home for settlement documents, has pulled out of residential property closings."

"'It doesn't just stop with us but affects so many more people,' Eskovitz said."

"Gerardo Avila comes each morning to a site in south Arlington where day laborers gather. He has long seen a decline in the number of contractors and remodelers who come by to find workers. Two years ago, summer days were busy, and he was almost guaranteed a job. But at noon on a recent day, the site was teeming with day laborers unable to find work."

"'It's been like this many days,' Avila said."

"'I see the next year as being very slow, so I'm conserving cash for the future,' said Roy Kilby, co-owner of K&P Builders in Bowie, (a) Prince George's firm that reduced its staff."

"Kilby has cut prices on his homes in subdivisions of Prince George's and Charles counties. The new homes are built with luxury finishes, the kinds of bells and whistles people were demanding when credit was easy to come by and his sales offices were full of prospective buyers. Now that it's become harder for home buyers to obtain loans, he's stuck with expensive houses on expensive lots that he is struggling to sell."

"'We're doing just about anything we can do to get people into a house, said Kilby, a 50-year veteran of the home-building business. 'And these are people we would have told to take a hike last year or the year before last.'"

"The credit crunch has turned $417,000 into the magic number for home buyers shopping for mortgages. Caught in the middle are potential home buyers who are getting walloped by higher rates or shut out of the market."

"Tammy Arbogast and her husband, Derrick Fouts, own a townhouse in Germantown. Now that they have two young children, they want a larger home and were planning to buy one nearby until jumbo rates shot up and pushed them to reconsider their options."

"Instead of buying the home and then selling the townhouse, they hope to do the reverse. But even if they get the asking price for their townhouse, they may need a jumbo loan. To lessen the borrowing costs, they could make a larger down payment by dipping into their kids' college savings, but they prefer not to."

"'We can just stay put in our townhouse,' said Arbogast. 'We'll just wait it out.'"

"Doing so might mean passing up the house they've been eyeing, but that's okay, said Fouts. 'You can't get attached to a house in this climate. It's so easy to lose a house because of variables out of your control.'"

"The question now is how long the jumbo rates will stay this high, said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Core Logic. "If this lasts much longer, then people will begin to reevaluate what they can afford."

The Gazette from Maryland. "CBRE Realty Finance plans to revive the Monterey condo conversion at the former Pavilion apartments in Rockville. The conversion has been stalled since the company foreclosed on the project in May when the developer defaulted on its loan."

"CBRE’s struggles with the Monterey and a second conversion project in Towson are a sign of how the condo collapse locally and nationally has begun to hurt lenders."

"In May, the company foreclosed on the Monterey, a 434-unit condominium conversion project, and Rodgers Forge, a 508-unit condominium conversion project in Towson, after Triton Real Estate Partners, the Annapolis developer, defaulted on its debt payments."

"Triton’s collapse was part of the popping of the region’s condo development bubble, which has seen almost 20,000 condominium units removed from the pipeline during the past 12 months, either by canceled conversions or shifts in new construction to rental units, according to an analysis of area condo trends by Delta Associates."

The News Journal from Delaware. "After years of double-digit growth, the rise in farmland values in Delaware slowed last year in part due to a cooling-off of the housing market."

"'There are not a lot of deals getting done, and if you want to sell your land today you have to be prepared to be reasonable with the price,' said Preston Schell, president of Ocean Atlantic Companies, a developer and builder based in Rehoboth Beach."

"Schell said there still is a lot of interest in farmland for development, but some prices have dropped significantly, more than 50 percent. 'Land that would have cost $45,000 to $50,000 an acre now we can buy for $15,000 to $20,000 an acre,' Schell added."

"'When we see really good deals we are still out there buying,' said Schell. 'There are tons of buyers out there; the activity is stronger but the buyer is trigger-shy right now because prices may go down more.'"

The Daily Times from Delaware. "As in most parts of the country, the local real estate market has slowed down substantially in the last year, according to local realtors. 'Depending on who you talk to or what paper you read, some people say we’re in for this for another year, some say five,' said Rick Allamong, broker for Coldwell Banker in Bethany Beach."

"'The market has slowed dramatically from the pace we experienced two years ago,' added Rick Meehan, a realtor and the mayor of Ocean City. Meehan, like most local realtors, says Americans are experiencing a buyer’s market. There’s a wealth of attractive properties to choose from and the sellers are willing to negotiate."

"'There’s never been a better time to buy,' said Kathy Panco, another realtor. 'Concessions are being made to make the transaction happen.'"

"It might be a buyer’s market, but that doesn’t mean that buyers are actually purchasing homes. There are currently 5,461 units on the market in Sussex County and 2,000 in Ocean City."

"'I think the jury is still out on what’s going to happen there,' he said. 'But we have a two-year supply of inventory and only about 30 percent of that will sell between now and next summer.'"

"In addition, many real estate agents say that vacation areas are usually the first to be hit by slowing sales, because they are not primary housing markets. 'Resort areas are usually hit first,' said realtor Ted Smith. 'People don’t have to buy vacation homes.'"

"Most realtors remain optimistic in spite of the slow market. 'Pretty soon people are going to be saying shoulda, coulda, woulda,' Panco said."

Business Week reports from New Jersey. "About 60 people huddle on the front lawn of the white bungalow with green shutters in Ocean Township, N.J. Many of them clutch bright yellow paper signs showing a bidder number. They hope to walk away with a house, winning a good deal at an auction."

"Already, states that never hosted many housing auctions are seeing demand jump as home prices plunge and more borrowers find themselves trapped in unmanageable mortgages."

"'Until six months ago, we were only selling assets in California periodically, now we're selling dozens and it could get into the hundreds,' said Dean Williams, chief executive of (an) auction firm. 'Same thing in Massachusetts, New York, Maryland and Virginia. Places where volume has been light has probably doubled since last year.'"

"Tricia Kelly, a local living with her parents, is hoping for a bargain. Even though the housing slump has stopped the sharp acceleration of home prices, Kelly still finds prices are too high for her in this town. 'I've never been to one. If it's going where I want, I might jump in,' she says."

"Lingering on the sidewalk, Tim Lane is curious to see what his old house will go for. He sold the house two-and-a-half years ago for $255,000 to the investor who lost it in foreclosure. 'The guy tried to flip it for $379,000 a month later. Obviously, it didn't work out,' the electrician says with a chuckle."

"The condo is first and Green rattles off the bids without a breath. The offers start to stall on the condo after its opening bid of $25,000, so Green tries to entice the crowd. 'The last listing prices for this condo was $160,000,' he says."

"Hands shoot up and Tony Nardini, a mortgage broker, finally wins the condo for $75,000."

"'Now, here's the one you have all come for,' Green says, pointing to the quiet bungalow. Opening at $50,000, the bidding surges above $200,000. Kelly shakes her head as the price soars beyond her budget."

"Finally, Antonio Pragosa's offer of $283,000 ends the battle for the bungalow, and the West Long Branch, N.J., resident slips away shortly after signing the auction papers."

"Nardini, who grabbed the condo for his parents, says: 'That guy paid way too much. He let emotion take over as opposed to reality. At $200,000, it would have made sense.'"