The Denver Post reports from Colorado. "David Bahr was all set to sell his Denver loft last year and move to Chicago, but the housing market had other plans. The loft lingered for six months without a serious bidder. 'We reduced our price by $25,000, but almost nobody came through (to look),' says Bahr of his property. 'Renting was definitely not our first choice, but we were stuck. It's awfully nerve-racking to not have the place rented and have two mortgages.'"

"Bonnie Whitehouse of Henderson put her house on the market in March 2005. She planned to move to Europe and needed to sell quickly. When a buyer didn't surface, she quickly found someone to rent it until she moved back. 'The values had just fallen since I purchased my house. It wasn't a good idea to sell it,' says Whitehouse."

"John Dunn says his Denver-based property-management firm receives calls every week from people who can't sell their properties. First-time renters often misunderstand how the rental market operates."

"'A lot of people think, 'My house payment is $1,900 a month, so I have to get that, plus (the property management) fee.' Dunn says. 'The payment has nothing to do with what the rental market is.'"

The Arizona Daily Star. "First Magnus, one of Tucson's largest employers and one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, grew astronomically right up until it suddenly stopped writing home loans and laid off most of its work force on Thursday. How could the rising star that had never had an unprofitable month collapse overnight?"

"'First Magnus was riding a wave created by an enormous amount of liquidity,' said Chris Lamoureux, at the University of Arizona. 'They were staking a lot on the continuity of that wave.'"

"'We had tremendous momentum going as recently as three weeks ago,' said Gary Baraff, company spokesman. 'Three weeks ago we were at the pinnacle.'"

"'When you start talking about bankruptcies at companies like Countrywide, you start wondering about the pillars of the industry,' said Richard Beidl, a mortgage-industry analyst. 'We have artificially allowed a considerable number of people into the home market to buy homes who shouldn't have been in the market.'"

From KVOA News 4 in Arizona. "With lending giant First Magnus taking a big hit, real estate experts say Tucsonans will experience the re-percussions."

"'A lot of people in Tucson are obviously extremely scared. About a third of the borrowers in this market are not going to be able to get a loan,' said associate broker Curt Stinson. There is a positive side to all of this. 'There is going to be extreme opportunities to be purchasing homes here in the near future at drastically reduced prices.'"

"Larry Harvey i's trying to sell 27 acres of land. 'Before, it used to be so much cheaper to buy land and build a house. Now I think it's going to be a flipside, with all the foreclosures. I think land is going to sit and people are going to go out and buy some foreclosures a lot cheaper than buying land itself.'"

The Arizona Republic. "Obtaining a home loan is going to get even more difficult. 'The mortgage market has changed drastically in just the past few weeks,' said Tom Miner of the Scottsdale-based mortgage firm Miner Kennedy Chmura Associates. '"We are getting calls from buyers who can't close anymore because lenders want more documentation or money down.'"

"Cheryl Serbic wanted to buy a condominium in central Scottsdale. Earlier this summer, the restaurant manager qualified for an adjustable-rate mortgage that required little down. But a week before she was to close, her lender said she needed a bigger down payment. Serbic called other lenders and got the same bad news."

"'I didn't think I needed a down payment. My friend bought last year without one,' she said. 'But if the housing market is going to keep going down. I'll save and maybe I'll find a better deal then.'"

The Tucson Citizen from Arizona. "Foreclosures in Pima County have increased by 76 percent over the past two years, from 1,078 new filings in the second quarter of 2005 to 1,896 filings in the second quarter of this year, according to Realty Trac."

"Fewer houses are going up this year, though Pima County housing starts have risen steadily since January, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which tracks construction permits. There were 592 new home permits issued in Pima County in June, up from 329 in January but still fewer than last June's 792, the Census Bureau reports."

"'You can still drive anywhere and see homes being built, being remodeled, tons of infrastructure projects, said Don Wehbey, an economist with the Arizona Department of Economic Security. 'The activity out there hasn't been halted.'"

The Nevada Appeal. "The realities of home ownership have finally hit Northern Nevada, and the truth, for some, can be summed up with one word: Foreclosure. July statistics released by RealtyTrac show Nevadans experienced the greatest foreclosure rate per household this year."

"A Northern Nevada Realtor said the foreclosure trend here, accompanied by the cooling market, is a means to a more 'realistic' future."

"'In the last couple years when the market was very high, I'd show doctors around, and they'd say 'I have student loans, I can't afford to live here,' said Kathy Tatro, a Realtor (in) Carson. 'Our cost of living shouldn't be higher than our wages.'"

"'Right now, it's hard to be a Realtor, it's hard to be a lender, it's hard to be in the title company - in the long run, the market change is a really, really positive thing,' said Tatro."

"The long run may not come soon enough for several local real estate investors, who stand to find themselves homeless, and, at the very least, with credit in shambles. The state documented a total of 11,514 foreclosure filings during the first quarter of this year, an increase of 66 percent from the previous quarter and more than double the total reported in the first quarter of 2006."

"Those dealing directly with beleaguered homeowners say the number of bankruptcies resulting from foreclosure locally has gone up 'substantially.'"

"'We've seen an increase of about, I would say 150 to 200 percent in persons coming in who have a foreclosure pending or are in arrears on their primary home,' said Carson City bankruptcy attorney Stephen Young. 'The main problem seems to be in good times people were refinancing their homes to reduce debt caused by overspending, not budgeting back before they refinanced.'"

"'So, they overspend, they accumulate credit card debt, refinance to eliminate credit card debt and the cycle repeats itself,' he said."

"One Carson-based mortgage broker said things could get worse. 'This is the beginning of the foreclosures,' said mortgage broker Kesa Pascal of Trans-Western Investments. 'In Washoe County you get 40 defaults a week. As these foreclosures are happening more, lenders are going to cut more.'"

"'The mortgage industry was stretching people so thin - there were some strange loans. The change is positive and it's weeding out people that shouldn't have been in there in the first place,' Realtor Tatro. said."

"'What's happening with the mortgage industry is a very positive thing,' she said. 'I just saw an editorial cartoon with two bankers, one saying to the other 'What's the deal with people with bad credit not buying housing?'"

The Salt Lake Tribune from Utah. "Max Johns of Salt Lake City should not be having a problem qualifying for a mortgage. His financial house is in order, and his credit score is well above the minimum most home-loan providers have had in place for years."

"But Johns, a construction contractor, is having problems qualifying for a home loan. Sitting in a bank office a couple of weeks ago, Johns was told that although he probably would have qualified several months ago for a real estate loan, he no longer does. 'My credit score is only a little bit below what they want now, but they definitely aren't making any exceptions. It's frustrating, he said."

"Stung by widespread losses, investors are now demanding higher lending standards to reduce the risk that those loans will end up in default. 'It's back to more traditional lending standards,' said Glen Ogden, president of the Utah Mortgage Lenders Association."

"'There's not a day goes by that some new guidelines don't come by my desk,' said Michael Blackham of VelocityLoan.com in Holladay 'There are more loans being denied than in the past.'"

"Brady Devoe of Sun Valley Mortgage in Layton said one change affecting many first-time home buyers is the increased difficulty finding a loan to finance 100 percent of the purchase price of a property."

"Many young families in Utah have purchased homes in recent years through 'no down' loan programs, he said. 'A lot of potential home buyers are going to need at least 5 percent to 10 percent down now.'"

"The prospect of falling housing prices has rattled Johns, the borrower who was told his credit score was too low under new lending guidelines. 'Maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to buy anything now, anyway. Who knows what's going to happen next?' Johns said."