The East Valley Tribune reports from Arizona. "Cash-strapped homeowners facing foreclosure are abandoning their homes in higher numbers and leaving behind potential public safety and health risks. City code enforcers and county health officials are saying many of the vacated houses are showing up in newer high-end subdivisions historically immune to such trends."

"And it looks like there will be more empty homes dotting the Valley. More than 2,400 foreclosure notices were sent to Valley homeowners in July, according to the Information Market. Last month, more than 2,800 were mailed out as of Aug. 30 — about 93 per day — according to the firm."

"Currently about 37 percent of the houses for sale in the Valley are listed as vacant, said Jim Sexton, owner of a Phoenix based realty firm."

"Three years ago there were about 20,000 to 25,000 houses for sale statewide. 'Now there’s about that many vacant homes just in the Valley,' Sexton said."

The Arizona Republic. "Metro Phoenix home sales and building are off 20 percent to 30 percent from last year - which was down 30 percent from the overheated housing market of 2005, according to RL Brown, housing analyst and publisher. Home prices are down about 5 percent. Foreclosures have climbed 10-fold. A record 50,000-plus homes are for sale across the Valley."

"Many companies and real-estate buyers and sellers thought...that the Valley's strong population and job growth were enough for housing to boom awhile longer. They weren't."

"'I have yet to meet anyone who thinks they predicted a market downturn quick enough,' said Landiscor Aerial Information President Nora Hannah. 'It takes about six months to realize a slowdown isn't just a blip.'"

"Brown said Arizona companies need to face reality and try to make money in the current housing climate, because a repeat of 2004 and '05 isn't going to happen."

"'Businesses that made a lot of money because of the housing market a few years ago better expect to give some of it back this year,' he said."

"'The slowdown in housing and now the rise in foreclosures are putting pressure on prices,' said Mary Gomez, a West Valley real-estate agent. 'If people don't need to sell, they should wait.'"

"Many believe the southwest Valley, which has much vacant land, is an indicator of where the overall Valley real-estate market is headed. Goodyear, Avondale and Buckeye are among 2007's 10 fastest-growing suburbs in the U.S."

"Sharon DeMoss, a realty agent in Goodyear, said...because of the subprime meltdown, the market is flooded with listings."

"'Many of them (resale homes) are overpriced,' DeMoss said. 'We are sitting with our sellers and saying, 'You guys have to be the lowest price in your subdivision for your floor plan.' And many times that doesn't even do it because many buyers are coming in and saying, 'I don't think the bottom is here yet. If I pay $250,000 for this house, how do I know that in six months I'm not going to be able to get it for $200,000?'"

"DeMoss said new homes are a great buy now because builders are cutting prices or offering incentives."

"'A couple of years ago, these same builders were making people stand in line to get on a list to get a house,' she said. 'My personal opinion is that during that 2005 frenzy, many builders went out and bought a whole bunch of land, and now they have no choice but to go ahead and build.'"

From AZ Family. "Just a few years ago, housing permits were going through the roof and many speculated that Buckeye could soon pass up Mesa when it came to the number of homes. Well, a lot of those homes in Buckeye were built, but that doesn't mean people are living in them."

"As lifelong resident and Buckeye Realtor Brenda Bruehl will tell you, many of the homes are vacant. 'There's a lot of investors that bought and couldn't get them rented out so it's been sitting vacant,' Bruehl."

"According to the Arizona MLS, there are 708 houses for sale in Buckeye and 241 of those are sitting vacant. That's more than a third. 'I remember when there was only 500 homes in Buckeye,' Bruehl said. 'Seven hundred and eight active is a lot.'"

"According to data compiled by the research group that tracks foreclosures in Maricopa County, there were 453 foreclosure filings alone in the town of Buckeye this year. That means Buckeye makes up 10 percent of foreclosures right now compared to the rest of Maricopa County."

The Arizona Daily Star. "The developer of the Santa Rita Hotel renovation in Downtown has dropped its idea of turning the property into high-class condominiums, citing softness in the housing market."

"Building owner Lopez said he'll turn the building back into a boutique hotel. It's just not a good time for condos, said Lopez, whose company HSL Properties owns many apartment complexes in Tucson."

"'The whole housing market is extremely soft, prices are falling and the mortgage market is very difficult,' he said."

The Daily Herald on Nevada. "Walking through the gated community of Black Mountain Vista on a hill in Henderson, Nev., Thomas Blanchard offers a guided tour of real-estate woe. A row of stucco duplexes that recently sold for as much as $500,000 sit empty."

"'That's a repo,' the real-estate agent says as he stands in front of 678 Solitude Point Ave. Then he points to the adjacent houses, where yellow patches blot the spartan lawns and phone books lie on front porches, their covers bleached from weeks under the desert sun. 'No. 680, repo; 684, repo. Those two at the end, repo.'"

"Three years ago, this Las Vegas suburb was teeming with modern-day prospectors armed with low-interest mortgages, all hoping to strike it rich in real estate. Now, what started with the subprime-mortgage mess and subsequent credit crunch are turning communities like Black Mountain Vista into luxury ghost towns."

"Real estate is turning into a money pit, sapping the fortunes of home buyers, hedge-fund managers and house painters alike. The really bad news? This is only the beginning."

In Business Las Vegas from Nevada. "Not even the luxury single-family home market, which had been a bright spot, is immune from the housing slowdown in the Las Vegas Valley. Sales of new $1 million-plus single-family homes during the first half of 2007 fell nearly 34 percent from the same six-month period in 2006."

"'I think there is a common misperception that the luxury (home market) hasn't fallen,' said Brian Plaster, president of Signature Custom Homes, who predicted the second half of the year could be worse."

"Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers blamed part of its dismal third quarter showing when it had an 85 percent drop in its profits to its showing in Las Vegas. The company reported a $29 million write-down in Nevada, the same amount as in California, and reported it's renegotiating deals and trying to reduce its land options."

"In a recent report, Toll Brothers rated Las Vegas as an F minus, but CEO Robert Toll said last week, 'You might add another minus to that.'"

"'What are we doing about it?' Toll asked. 'We are out there with the rest of the builders in Vegas praying. There's not much you can do. You can't advertise your way out of that situation. You just have to wait for the market to come back. Yes, in the last eight weeks we have taken seven agreements. So that is what we consider real bad.'"

"As sales have declined, the inventory has grown, in part because of more existing homes coming on the market."

"'More people were able to buy in that price range, and they stretched their financing and maybe they shouldn't have,' said Kenneth Lowman, broker/owner of Luxury Homes of Las Vegas. 'They bit off more than they could chew with adjustable-rate mortgages. Their payments all of a sudden go from $4,000 a month to $7,000, and they are forced to sell.'"

"'Even the wealthy are affected by the credit crunch because interest rates have risen on jumbo loans, making it more costly for them to purchase, Plaster said. 'I think people are scared right now,' Plaster said. 'They don't know what's going to happen in the market.'"

"Despite the pullback, the luxury market is faring much better than the market as a whole. New-home closings are down nearly 43 percent for the year, while existing-home closings are down nearly 35 percent."

The Gazette Journal from Nevada. "As the number of building permits dwindle in Washoe County and local governments discuss staff cuts, spending restrictions and hiring freezes, experts say the longer-term effects of the building and housing market slump have yet to be seen."

"'The bubble has burst,' said Tom Cargill, an economist at the University of Nevada, Reno. 'This is the beginning of how it's going to play out and spread through the economy.'"

"While building permit numbers were down in Reno, Sparks and Washoe County as compared with the previous year, single-family home permits showed the steepest decline, 50 percent or more. In Sparks, single-family home permits dropped 57 percent."

"'The direct and indirect effects keep going,' Cargill said, adding the slump has a chilling effect on people not directly affected by the real estate or construction industries."

"'There's a lot of uncertainty in every part of the economy,' he said. 'The gaming industry and tourism in general will also take a hit, not so much because of what's happening here but from what's happening in California.'"

"'The economy is not going to collapse,' he said. 'We're looking at a readjustment in (real estate), an important sector of the economy.'"