The Business Journal reports from Indiana. "Melinda and Brooks Bertl know the ups and downs of the current real estate market—personally. They started looking for a home to buy this spring and it took them only two weeks to find one they liked in Carmel. In March, the couple put their Castleton-area home on the market, where it has languished ever since."

"They’ve lowered the price 15 percent and recently installed new carpeting throughout the A-frame, tri-level house to make it more attractive to prospective buyers. Since listing the property, the Bertls have had two offers well below their asking price. Behold the down side."

"Recent data from the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors show they’re far from alone. The nine-county Indianapolis metropolitan area had 1,998 pending sales of single-family homes and condominiums in September, down 16.8 percent from the same month last year."

"The more than 20,600 active listings in September were up 5 percent over the same month last year."

"'The thing we cannot control is consumer confidence,' said James Litten, president of F.C. Tucker Co.’s Residential Real Estate Services Division. And when people worry, it has a ripple effect because they don’t spend money."

"That’s something the Bertls know well. 'It’s not a conducive market right now for people selling their homes,' Melinda Bertl said. 'Just lowering the price doesn’t entice people to buy.'"

The Courier News from Illinois. "Chances are that the people walking into Caroline Hernandez's South Elgin office aren't thrilled to be there. And Hernandez, a real estate attorney specializing in foreclosures, readily admits that her newfound popularity may be a little bittersweet."

"'People were given the wrong impression of what they could afford,' she said. 'As opposed to being frugal and saying, 'I know how much I can afford,' it became, 'Why don't I buy?'"

"Lenders may or may not have run a credit report on potential buyers, said Hugh Smeed, with Crown Community Development in Naperville., 'but nobody called your employer or checks your tax return.' Interest rates came down to almost historic lows, he added. 'All of that contributed to people who were supremely unqualified to buy a house,' doing just that."

"'So many of these people applied for loans stating income they didn't have. Banks look at it now and say, 'How did you afford this' '? Hernandez said."

"Area developers and mortgage lenders are creating programs and offering deals to help ease the suffering that has come with the nation's housing market slump."

"Fountain Square in downtown Elgin, a mixed-use building with condominiums ranging in price from $229,900 to $474,900, is giving home shoppers the chance to live there for six months free. No mortgage payments, real estate taxes and homeowner association fees for six months provide homeowners with a 'financial cushion that gives you time to sell your existing home,' according to sales manager Katie Lange."

"'It isn't desperation,' she said. 'It's just to give an incentive.'"

"A mortgage licensee based in Crystal Lake is mailing out fliers proclaiming, 'If you can prove your income, we have a home ownership solution for you, regardless of your current credit situation.'"

"The company has teamed up with Advantage Financial Partners and JP Realty to make buying a home 'fast and easy.' This is possible, according to their advertisement, because a 'large inventory of homes priced under market value' are available this very moment."

The Chicago Tribune from Illinois. "One local housing snapshot says Chicago-area sales continue to decline, as do the numbers of homes under contract."

"Headrick-Wagner Consulting reports that in the 12-month period ending Oct. 1, the Chicago region averaged about 5,000 sales per month, down from about 6,300 the previous year. In the 2005 period, sales averaged 7,300 a month."

"The report said there were 1,649 fewer homes under contract Oct. 1, compared to a year earlier, and about 4,300 fewer than two years earlier, generally considered the very end of the boom."

Business Week reports on Illinois. "Chicago...has the second-highest housing inventory level in the country. Inventory has shot up 17.2% in the past year, to 82,839, even though the area did not experience the housing boom and speculation buying that led to a market correction in much of the country."

"It may be that even in Chicago, buyers and sellers have become wary because of all the negative national news about real estate, suggests ZipRealty CEO Pat Lashinsky."

The Des Moines Register from Iowa. "As some downtown Des Moines developers are shifting from condos to apartments, Hubbell Realty says it will spend nearly $6 million to turn the former Mitchell Transmission building into 31 condominiums."

"Jarad Bernstein, a Hubbell spokesman, said the company knows the downtown market, it has condo and townhouse projects on Court and Grand avenues, and expects the West End Lofts to sell well."

"'Housing may not be selling as fast developers wish, but it's not a soft market,' Bernstein said."

"Forty-eight condos and lofts were sold downtown from January to September, totaling $10.4 million, records from the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors show. For the same nine months a year ago, 69 downtown condos sold, totaling $12 million."

"The average sale price of downtown housing climbed from $174,587 to $215,728 last year."

"The Des Moines real estate group shows 352 townhouses and condos on the market, the same as a year ago. Downtown housing took 277 days to sell this year, compared with 161 days a year ago. The association said time on market is high because developers often list homes before construction is completed."

"'The downtown market has gotten a bit of a bad rap,' said B.J. Knapp, an Iowa Realty agent. 'It has more to do with the overall market slowing than with the downtown market. But it's nothing catastrophic. This isn't South Florida or Las Vegas.'"

The Detroit News from Michigan. "Thousands of Michigan real estate agents, some with decades of experience, are getting squeezed out of the business, casualties of one of the worst housing slumps in state history."

"Michigan agents say a lack of home buyers for the glut of houses on the market is driving them from the business. Those who do manage to move a property are realizing lower commissions as a result of dampened real estate prices."

"In the last year alone, the Michigan Association of Realtors has lost 10 percent of its membership, or about 3,500 agents. An untold number of agents have taken second jobs to weather the slump or have put their licenses in 'escrow,' basically not using them until the market turns around."

"John Kurczak, now an agent in Sterling Heights, said his current job is one that's only gotten harder as friends and even family members have fled the real estate business while he's tried to hold on."

"Both of his brothers got their real estate licenses within the last year. But after seeing Kurczak struggle, including a situation last winter in which Kurczak was dropped by a couple looking for a home after he took them on 70 private showings, both brothers have decided to wait to get in the business until the market."

"Sandy Covert said she wishes she had done just that. Lured by tales of plump paychecks and the allure of a job that came with a business card and no uniform, Covert decided in November 2005 to ditch her merry-go-round of low-wage retail jobs for the world of Metro Detroit real estate."

"But after thousands of dollars spent on preparation and six months working every angle of the market she could, Covert had sold only one home."

"'It was a complete embarrassment,' Covert said of the dilapidated structure a few blocks from her own Dearborn flat that she sold for a mere $4,500. 'That was all I could sell. I tried harder at this than anything before in my life and I couldn't make it work.'"

"'It's not as if we're not working hard,' said Kurczak. 'But you can't make people buy houses, which is unfortunate. I'd be a very rich man if I sold everything there is to sell in Metro Detroit.'"