The Beacon Journal reports from Ohio. "Area home sales in July were down just slightly from a year ago and there still is a lot of inventory available. 'Gone are the days when you could put a 'for sale' sign on your front lawn and the offers would start pouring in immediately,' said Marc Hustek, office manager of Realty One in Cuyahoga Falls. 'The housing market isn't anywhere near what it was in 2003 and 2004.'"

"Hustek said foreclosures in a neighborhood might be affecting sales of homes nearby. 'It depends on how long the home has been on the market. If it's been on the market 18 months to two years, it could affect the overall numbers. It definitely affects the value of a home because lenders are trying to at least get what they loaned on it,' he said."

The Dayton Daily News from Ohio. "The current slowdown in residential construction could get worse before it gets better, according to a top official with the Ohio Home Builders Association."

"In the Miami Valley, residential building permits filed through July were 36.6 percent behind last year's figures for the same period, according to data from the Home Builders Association of Dayton and the Miami Valley."

"'The numbers aren't great, and we're seeing that across the state,' said Charles H. Simms, president-elect of the OHBA. 'The projections are for another potential 20 percent decrease for 2008 in Ohio.'"

"'Right now, it's kind of like a Bermuda Triangle of bad luck,' he said. 'When the stock market fluctuates, that makes the older buyers nervous. Then there's the credit crunch, which cuts out the marginal younger buyers.'"

"Additionally, he said, the inventory of unsold homes remain high, further driving down the need for new housing stock."

"'It just creates more competition,' he said. 'The biggest potential problem is for real estate values to begin to decrease...but I don't foresee a big drop in Dayton or in Ohio in our future.'"

The Times Online from Indiana. "At about 75 percent, Indiana has one of the highest homeownership rates. Yet it also has the second-highest foreclosure inventory rate."

"Peter Novak, of the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors, (said) that low rates of appreciation on real estate values coupled with affordable housing and high loan-to-value loan ratios are major factors."

"The fallout of yearslong subprime lending is occurring locally and nationally, Novak said. 'I don't have local statistics to prove that, but it's common sense,' Novak said. 'Anyone with good credit who could afford a fixed rate and traditional financing would have done so.'"

"Tom Dinwiddie, of the Indiana Bankers Association, said it's wrong to assign blame. 'We're a victim of success. Policymakers want to increase home ownership, but at some point you have to wonder if it makes any sense.'"

The Cadillac News from Michigan. "Nancy Crawford doesn’t remember much about the foreclosure paperwork when she first began working in the Registrar of Deeds office in Osceola County. In fact, there was no need to have more than a few copies in the drawer."

"'It wasn’t something that we dealt with on a day-to-day basis,' Crawford said. 'When I first came into the office, I think we had two copies in the drawer.'"

"It really didn’t surprise her to find that there has been a more than 200 percent increase in the number of foreclosures in the county since 2000. 'It is a sad thing. But it isn’t just here, it seems to be everywhere,' she said."

"'There are a lot of reasons out there attributed to the increase in foreclosures,' said Vander Meeden, president of the Better Business Bureau of Western Michigan. 'One of the real problems we have seen in the last five years is the creative financing.'"

"'A big group of people who opted for adjustable rate mortgages when the real estate market was booming three years ago are approaching an interest rate reset point,' he said. 'Some lenders allow people who aren’t quite ready to get a home, to do just that. The problem is overaggressive lending practices of mortgage companies and banks.'"

From GM Today in Wisconsin. "Just a year ago, mortgage adviser Cathy Savaglio seemed to have little trouble finding a loan for most of her customers."

"'A year ago you could get a 80-20 loan with no money down,' she said, referring to a type of mortgage that is split into two separate loans with different interest rates. 'Now those are completely gone.'"

"'It’s unfortunate. I’ve had situations where it’s hard to find loans for homeowners,' she said."

The Journal Sentinel from Wisconsin. "Housing has been rattled by the abrupt disappearance of investors who snapped up properties during the nation's 2001-'05 sales boom and a tidal wave of mortgage foreclosures tied to what Marquette University economist David E. Clark called 'sloppy underwriting that wasn't serving buyers well.'"

"'An awful lot of foreclosures have already hit the market, and our prices seem to be holding,' Clark said. 'We may see some further price softening in the third quarter, however.'"

"Foreclosed properties are not factored in to the MLS sales counts used to determine median price, Wisconsin Realtor Association President Bill Malkasian said. But with 10,891 new foreclosure filings in Wisconsin the first seven months of this year alone, he said, it's clear that distress sales are hampering market recovery."

"'There's a ton of houses for sale out there. How can you raise prices when there are 10 other properties like yours looking for a buyer? And if there's a $250,000 foreclosure down the street from you, how can you sell for $290,000?' Malkasian said."

"'I know there will be more foreclosures coming,' said Patrick Essie, executive director of Wisconsin Association of Mortgage Brokers, 'but the crisis of people getting into loans they shouldn't - I think that's over. For the most part, those types of loans are no longer available.'"

"Wisconsin embraced 'stupid loans' over-sized for borrowers' means just like other states did, but generally on a smaller scale, said Stephen R. LaDue, president of Affiliated Mortgage Corp. in Wauwatosa."

"'Anyone who lets greed overcome their thought process pays for it. We're seeing that sorting itself out across the country, and it's going all the way up the chain to the securities dealers who made deals in the international market,' LaDue said."

"'There are pockets of the country that will get clobbered now and lots of speculators getting their butts handed to them,' the mortgage broker said."

"'True, some suburban markets had a price decline (and) if you overpaid by 20 percent for a house during the boom, it's worth less now. But remember when home prices were in the toilet in the early '80s and you could buy a house for $65,000 in Mequon? That house is probably worth $250,000 now. Sit in there long enough and you'll be OK, too,' he said."

The Albert Lea Tribune from Minnesota. "Nationwide housing market reports show sales were low for the second quarter this year compared to a year ago, according to Realtor.org. Realtor Shawn McCarthy of in Albert Lea said the buzz around the country of a terrible housing market is skewing the ideas of the average buyer in Albert Lea."

"'Compared nationally, Albert Lea is doing very well,' said McCarthy."

"As of Friday, there are 275 residential property listings in Freeborn County on the MLS, according to Broker Bill Leland. He said that number is more than the area had at this time last year."

"The large amount of homes available to purchase, Leland said, is creating a downward pressure on housing prices. Sellers are having to knock down housing prices in order to keep competitive."

"This goes back to basic economics. With an increase in supply, if demand doesn’t keep up, then the prices drop."

"There are a lot of vacant homes in the Freeborn County area — 89 out of 275 for sale — but not all are foreclosures. Houses in Albert Lea are sitting empty for various reasons, Leland said, and only 10 of the 89 vacant homes are due to foreclosures."

"While it’s nice to know what is going on with housing markets on the national level, McCarthy said, buyers need to focus on the trend locally. Even when the housing industry seems to be struggling elsewhere in the country, Albert Lea is not seeing a dramatic decrease in sales, prices or foreclosures."

"However, Leland said, 'it’s a trend that I wouldn’t want to see continue because it could be tough.'"