The Pioneer Press reports from Minnesota. "The hilltop trophy house in Stillwater, built in 2003, was once valued at $1.4 million. But $729,000 will start the bidding on it at a mass foreclosure auction this month. The house is among 325 bank-repossessed homes from across the Twin Cities headed to the auction block in one of the largest foreclosure auctions in many years, observers say."

"'Lenders aren't in the business of holding property,' said Michael Schack, senior VP of the company running the Minneapolis auction."

"Of course, it's not the first time banks have bid for buyers en masse in slow markets. Schack's company has been around since the 1990s, when it auctioned off houses after the savings-and-loan crisis in the late 1980s, Schack said."

"It 'went dormant,' he said, after 1997, until last January when lenders sought it out again. He expects swift business for at least the next two years."

"The 325 homes it's auctioning in Minneapolis are just a fraction of the record 34,800 homes for sale in the Twin Cities, where foreclosures have been rising steadily for years. This year, more than 8,000 homes in the seven-county metro area have gone into foreclosure and been sold in sheriff's sales."

The Journal Sentinel from Wisconsin. "This year's building permit volume is running about 22% behind last year, MTD Marketing Services of Wisconsin Inc. reported Monday. 'Builders are busy, but not as busy as they could be,' said Bruce A. Johnson, president of the Metropolitan Builders Association of Greater Milwaukee."

"Average prices are rising, to $326,755 in September, not counting the building lot, because today's buyers, though fewer, are commissioning bigger, more expensive homes, said Matt Moroney, executive director of the builders association."

"'My educated guess is that prices are at last year's levels or a little below - maybe five percent,' Moroney said of overall prices."

"Three builders, whom Moroney would not name, have gone out of business this year, he said."

"MTD's report shows that much of Wisconsin shares the nation's housing sales and price slump, the backlash from speculative and lending excesses during the 2001-'05 boom. All markets it tracks - metro Milwaukee, metro Madison, Racine-Kenosha, Jefferson and Walworth counties, the Fox Valley and Green Bay - have shrunk this year by varying volumes."

"Many would-be deals have been delayed or dashed by contract contingencies from buyers who want to get their old place sold first and see what price it fetches, said builder-developer Scott Simon in Brookfield. 'They're hesitant,' he said."

The Flint Journal from Michigan. "Kevin and Kassie Gast listed their four-bedroom home in Grand Blanc's tony Kirkridge Hills subdivision last July for $267,000."

"When it didn't sell in three months, they repainted and recarpeted, and lowered the price to $230,000, then to $220,000 and again to $203,000. Finally, in July they slashed it to $199,000."

"No luck yet. 'I haven't received a single offer,' said Kevin Gast, who moved from the area with his family to work."

"Gast might have to lower his asking price even more to compete in today's local housing market. During the past year, the average sale price of homes has dropped in every school district in Genesee County, according to a new survey by the Flint Area Association of Realtors."

"There are more than 8,000 homes for sale across the county, a number that's been climbing by about 1,000 each year for the past three years. Real estate agents say a whopping 45 percent of area homes for sale are foreclosures, the bulk of them in Flint. Agents said banks are accepting offers so low they are driving down the price of other homes."

"Gast said he's willing to take a hit in the pocketbook just to unload his 2,800-square-foot home, which he bought seven years ago for $215,000."

"'This was going to be the one house I'd make money on. I knew it for a fact,' he said. 'I couldn't predict the economy was going to hell. Now I know I will take a loss. I'm just trying to mitigate how much of a loss.'"

"In the meantime, he's paying two mortgages and double taxes, with no end in sight."

The Chicago Tribune from Illinois."Deb O'Dell has been renting since her divorce several years ago. 'I initially did feel that I had missed the housing boom,' she says admits of her first years in the two-bedroom 1,200-square foot Oswego home."

"But now, with home sales slowing and foreclosures swelling, O'Dell says, 'I'm kind of relieved I didn't buy because I would be tied to a mortgage I couldn't afford.'"

The Journal World from Kansas. "Fewer homes are being sold and at lower prices than last year in Lawrence, leaders of the Lawrence Board of Realtors said Monday."

"'Buyers are a lot more careful here, but it’s nowhere near the stories I’m hearing when I talk to my cohorts in other parts of the country,' said August Dettbarn, the county’s appraisal manager. 'I have a friend in California, and some of the horror stories he tells are really, really scary.'"

"Through the first nine months of this year, Dettbarn shows that 1,271 single-family homes have been sold in Lawrence and North Lawrence. That’s down 296 — or nearly 19 percent — from the 1,567 sold through September 2006."

"The median price in Lawrence is down less than 1 percent so far this year; in North Lawrence, which is tracked as a separate market by the appraiser’s office, the median is $122,500, down 3.5 percent. Some high-end homes in certain pockets of Lawrence are pushing two years on the market, Dettbarn said."

The Business Journal from Missouri. "The number of loft apartments in downtown Springfield is expected to nearly double by 2012 – and there likely will be people to fill them, according to an urban housing study."

"About 11 percent, or 28,848, of the Greene County population resides downtown, according to the study. That’s down from about 15 percent in 1990."

"More attention from older buyers, namely 'empty nesters,' is the reason why local lenders aren’t too worried that increasing foreclosure rates both locally and across the country will hurt downtown loft-buying activity, Great Southern Bank VP Brian Fogle said."

"'When we were looking at the housing market five years ago, we had a lot of anecdotal demand for housing,' Fogle said."

The Daily News from Missouri. "Despite reports of a national housing crisis, several local lenders and Realtors didn't feel there was such a crisis in Neosho. To them, the local housing market is business as usual, although at a somewhat slower pace."

"'What we've learned is that the homes that are priced within the market value are seeing good activity,' said Steve Kenny with Red Carpet Realty. 'Homeowners who insist on pricing properties at three years ago market conditions are not seeing this type of activity. The market is much more sensitive to accurate pricing and good marketing.'"

"'In an inflationary market for housing, as long as it's going good, things are jim dandy,' said Pat Youngblood, owner of At Home Mortgage 'As long as it works, they're as happy as a clam at high tide. We hit this cap, and prices started falling off. When that happens, you've got people making the choice of buying gas to get back and forth to work, buying food to feed their families, or making an extra $300 or $500 a month house payment. It's easy to see what the choice is.'"

"'What caused this thing? It all boils down to one word: Greed. Wall Street decided they had all of this flood of money they wanted to put out, and what better than real estate?' Youngblood said."

"Youngblood has been in the lending business since 1967 and said the bursting of the housing market bubble is something he has seen many times before."

"'I can't tell you how many times I've gone from the top of the hill to the bottom of the valley,' he said. 'It seems like every few years, somebody says it's time to shake up the industry, there's too much greed, someone is making too much money and it's time to slap them down a little bit.'"

"Steve Kenny tended to echo these sentiments. 'The national lenders got exactly what they asked for,' Kenny said. 'In the overall scheme of things, this is a necessary correction. It'll mean less foreclosures, better pride of ownership, and a more stable housing market in the long run.'"

"Richard Clemons, owner of Spiva Realty, sales of homes priced above $200,000 are sluggish. This can be seen in areas such as Northwest Arkansas, where homes priced at $500,000 to $750,000 sit vacant."

"'The builders went wild on that end,' Clemons said. 'I don't care how much money you make, there's only a finite number of people who can afford three-quarter of a million dollar houses.'"

The Democrat Gazette from Arkansas. "Home sales in Arkansas for August continued a 20-month decline, dropping 14 percent from a year earlier, the Arkansas Realtors Association said Tuesday."

"Northwest Arkansas’ market continued to deflate as Benton County sales of previously owned and new homes were off more than 26 percent. Sales dropped more than 17 percent in Washington County."

"'On the new-home side, there has been more [downward ] movement in price. With existing homes, people are less willing to give up their perceived gains,' said Jeff Collins, a partner with Streetsmart Data Services of Northwest Arkansas."

"Developers are being forced to lower prices to get some sales, Collins said. 'If you have an inventory of a half-dozen [speculative ] houses, you’re saying, 'Well, I’ve got to at least move one,' Collins said. 'So they’ve been more willing to move prices. You almost can’t get a spec house loan in Northwest Arkansas now. It is very unlikely you can find a lender to finance a spec house.'"

"The average home price increased in August for the 24 th time in the past 25 months, but that’s misleading, Collins said. The reason, he said, is that very high-priced homes, in ritzy areas like Chenal Valley in west Little Rock or Pinnacle Hills in Rogers, continue to sell well."

"'That [high-priced ] market hasn’t gone away,' said Collins. 'There are not that many homes that are sold at those price points, but there are enough of them — and others at very high price points — that it skews the average price.'"

"The median price of homes has declined in recent months, Collins said. The Arkansas Realtors Association doesn’t release median prices. Multiple-listing services in the state also compile median prices but likewise do not make them public."

"Pat Harris, president of Harris-McHaney Realtors in Rogers, (believes) the housing market in Arkansas will begin to turn around next year. 'It’s not going to jump back to 2005 levels,' when home sales set records in Arkansas and the country, Harris said."

"'It may be at 2003 levels and back to where we have been before,' Harris said."