The Billings Gazette reports from Montana. "Ripples from the national mortgage mess are upsetting some Montana borrowers. Mike Thelen, VP of Professional Mortgage Consultants in Billings, said that in early August a client buying a house signed papers on a Thursday for a 30-year conventional loan. 'The following day, the wire wasn't sent and the lender's phone wasn't working,' Thelen said. 'On Monday, I received a notice they were out of business.'"

"The national company, Aegis Wholesale, cut off funds in two other Montana house deals, he said. 'My borrower never got this house,' Thelen said."

"In early September, Wallinder said the national belt-tightening affected some of her loans that were ready to cross the finish line. 'Wells Fargo sent us an e-mail saying if we didn't have our subprime loans closed in three days, tough luck,' said Kim Wallinder Moffet, owner of Wallinder Mortgage in Billings."

The Daily Interlake from Montana. "From August 2006 to August 2007, the number of homes sold through the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service dropped by 45, from 262 in August 2006 to 217 just last month. That’s a 17 percent drop for Flathead, Lake and Lincoln counties."

"'Prices are starting to stabilize, but that’s just a good market correction,' Kalispell Realtor Ted Dykstra, Jr., said. 'We needed a market correction for a number of years.'"

"He estimated that stretch of too-high prices ran for perhaps the past five or six years. 'The correction started somewhere back in March. April and May were somewhat soft, then June and July were real soft.'"

"In a slowed-down market with plenty of housing stock to choose from, said Greg Carter of Rocky Mountain Real Estate, they can take their time and be much pickier on when and what they buy. When they find the right home, they can spend what it takes to snag it — but, he said, they also can wait for a price drop."

"'We haven’t seen this kind of market in a long, long time,' Realtor Dave Alexander said."

"From his standpoint at West Venture Properties, Alexander sees 'we’re definitely heading toward a buyer’s market, and coming out of a very long seller’s market … I don’t think it’s a bad market. It’s a different market.'"

The News Tribune from Washington. "Come next month, some of the cheap loans that got U.S. buyers into homes they might not have otherwise been able to afford are expected to get far less cheap. Adjustable-rate mortgages already are resetting."

"Lisa Brady finds herself among the local buyers caught unaware that her rate would reset after two years. Brady financed the purchase of an 803-square-foot home in Parkland with two loans, the larger of which adjusted in August from a 5.0 interest rate to 11.5 percent."

"'In these little teeny tiny letters it says it goes to an ARM after two years,' said Brady. Payments for the two loans combined jumped from $800 to more than $1,400, she said."

"Brady said she didn’t see the small type when signing the loan documents and her loan broker, a friend, didn’t tell her the term would adjust. Because she’s been late on some of her mortgage payments and she makes only $22,000 yearly plus tips, Brady said she’s been unable to refinance."

"'I’ll keep struggling and make the payments or get a second job,' she said. 'I don’t want to lose my house. I can’t lose my house.'"

"It’s not necessarily adjustable rates that are getting borrowers into trouble; it’s the options attached to them, such as deferring interest that gets added to the principle, said M.J. Walsh, a senior loan consultant at Pierce Commercial Bank."

"'What we’re experiencing today is a result of poor lending decisions that the industry made in the last 24 months. I don’t blame the people or the government. I blame the lending industry that made loans they shouldn’t have been doing,' she said."

"Some potential borrowers, she said, are stuck in homes they expected to sell, because adjustable rates are no longer an option. A client recently pulled his house off the market in Gig Harbor, where prices aren’t keeping up, because he couldn’t get an adjustable-rate loan that would make up for the equity he’d lost, she said."

The Spokesman Review from Washington. "Spokane keeps waiting to see if the credit crunch afflicting the mortgage industry across the country will spread to the Northwest."

"In Spokane County there are 3,240 listings, about 26 percent more than a year ago. Those with a higher price tag need extra work, though, noted Grant Forsyth, an Eastern Washington University economist, 'people from outside are still kind of astonished about what you can get for your money and how modest the taxes are.'"

"There’s another problem that will arise next year, said Tom Flanigan, branch manager for Golf Savings Bank. More than $3 trillion of adjustable rate mortgages change from their fixed-rate introductory years to the variable interest years beginning in 2008. This, Flanigan said, is when the credit crunch could bite Spokane."

"'There’s a ton of adjustables here,' he said."

"Too many people have tapped the equity in their homes and spent it rather than saving or investing. 'Are we immune or do we have our heads in the sand?' Flanigan asked. 'Who’s to say?'"

"Jeff Berglund, owner of Morgan Mortgage in Spokane, said the problems with credit are about context. 'The sky is not falling. People who are taking care of their credit are going to be fine,' he said. 'Some people may have to wait a while to buy their first home, but that’s OK. For a while there, it was easier to buy a first home than to qualify to rent an apartment.'"

"He called the credit crunch part of a market cycle that was overdue and believes that there was a national housing bubble. 'We just simply couldn’t keep up, and yes, I think we’ll see some of it in Spokane,' he said."

From KGW.com in Oregon. "Is the bubble bursting in Portland’s pearl district? Dismal sales in a new condo building have forced developers into converting the property into an apartment building."

"Condo buyers at that building are getting their money back with interest, and trying to figure out what to do next. Gabby Lang is moving from Las Vegas to Portland's Pearl District. He says he found the perfect condo in the almost completed, 238-unit building. Everything looked like it was going smoothly until this week."

"'I did a walk-through last week. I flew up and the place looked great. And I was a little excited,' he explained. But the excitement is over. After a half year of marketing the Wyatt, Pearl Real Estate has sold only a quarter of the building's condos."

"The developer has made a decision that converting the building into apartments will blunt any losses. 'It's a tough decision,' said Chris Suarez, Pearl Real Estate’s principal broker."

"'It's definitely a buyer's market out there right now. There are buyers out there buying. They're just taking a lot longer to make that decision to buy,' he explained."

"But what about the big picture? Condo tower construction cranes loom still loom over parts of the Pearl District. Does the Wyatt conversion signal a trend?"

"'That was inevitable at some point,' said Larry Brown, a city development manager."

"For now, though, price-cutting is common with re-sale condos in the Pearl. Hoyt Street properties, which is also marketing new condo towers, says the slowdown shouldn't impact local buyers, the ones who plan to live in the Pearl District."

"'It's more the people that are investors that think they come in and buy something and flip it and make $100,000 in a year. I think those are the people that we've lost,' said Marilyn Anderson, principal broker at Hoyt Street Properties."

"Lang has had time to reflect on his situation. "Lang says if the Pearl’s condo market is having a hiccup, he's happy to get his investment money back from the developer and try again later. 'Everything happens for a reason. So I'm very happy,' he said."