NBC 4 reports from Virginia. "With bank foreclosures hitting record levels nationwide, banks have begun turning to extremes to unload properties. News4's Michael Flynn reported that with hundreds of homes hitting the auction block, there could be great deals available throughout the Washington metro region. A single company organized the sale of about 300 foreclosed properties in an auction that will take place this weekend."

"Real estate agent Carolyn Capalbo said that buyers are getting deep discounts from what people were paying for homes within the last few years."

"'I think they'll save quite a bit and be pleasantly surprised,' said Capalbo. 'Just a few years ago the previous owner paid about $450,000. At auction, real estate agents expect it'll go for about $100,000 less.'"

"Thomas Pring, who lives near a home that is soon to be auctioned, said he knows the sale does not bode well for the value of his property. 'I'm really sad because we paid more than what they're offering now,' he said."

The Examiner. "About 250 Washington-area houses will hit the auction block in October as the nation’s largest real estate auction firm that deals with foreclosures makes its first D.C. stop in five years."

"'It’s not unusual at these auctions to see houses selling at 20 percent below what the house was listed at on the regular market,' company spokeswoman Crystal Wright said. 'But people should understand too that nobody is giving property away.'"

"'You do have an opportunity for a bargain,' said Jill Landsman, spokeswoman for the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors. 'But you have to recognize that the previous owner of the property was a delinquent owner, so there is a problematic background there.'"

"Many of the properties listed entered foreclosure last year during the early stages of the subprime mortgage meltdown, but lenders often try to sell the homes through real estate agents for about a year before handing them off to auction firms."

USA Today on North Carolina. "For the past decade, Chapel Hill, N.C., has been attracting more Americans in search of an attractive and affordable place to start a business, raise a family or retire."

"Yet until around mid-August, home sales had slowed and prices had declined, as in many parts of the nation. This year is the first since 2002 in which home sales in Chapel Hill have dropped."

"'A lot of people are deciding to make life changes, and this area is so diverse and popular,' says Kim Dawson, president of the Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors. 'But they can't move here until they can sell their home in California, Florida or New York.'"

The Charlotte Observer from North Carolina. "'Realty Place,' said the blue-and-yellow signs. 'Your Home Superstore.' It was 2002, the middle of the subprime mortgage boom. A young real estate agency was fishing for customers in an unlikely place."

"It targeted people with modest incomes and ragged credit, many of whom had been shunned by other companies."

"But an Observer investigation shows Realty Place worked closely with the builders it had vowed to beat up. The company funneled buyers into low-priced starter-home developments, many of which are now plagued by foreclosures."

"The company collected millions of dollars in bonuses from builders in exchange for finding buyers for their homes. In more than 50 interviews with Realty Place customers, the Observer found no one who was aware of the bonuses. Failing to tell a customer about a bonus violates state regulations."

"The payments also raise questions about the company's presentation of itself as a buyer's agency."

"'It's supposed to be like your mother helping you out on a real estate transaction,' said Jon Boyd, president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 'The idea that your mother would take a kickback in your transaction, well, that's not appropriate.'"

"The company also aimed to convince people that owning was cheaper than renting. An ad distributed at a Concord apartment complex showed a $126,000 home with the slogan, 'Compare $643 To rent!'"

"The number wasn't real. The projected monthly payment actually was about $1,000."

"How did Realty Place justify '$643' in the Concord ad? The company claimed it was an 'effective monthly payment,' reflecting adjustments including a projected deduction on federal income taxes."

"Kenneth Porter, a Charlotte accountant, was paid by Performance Realty to calculate actual tax savings for hundreds of customers. Not once, Porter said, did anyone come close to saving $221 a month, the amount reflected in the Concord ad. 'No way,' said Porter. 'That's pie in the sky.' Few saved more than $100 a month, he said. Some saved nothing."

"Customers flocked to Realty Place. On some Saturdays, the lines of hopeful people stretched back into the malls. 'We had folks that were ready to write up contracts before they ever saw anything,' said former agent John McQueen."

The Times News from North Carolina. "It took three weeks for Mark and Rhonda Evans to get an acceptable offer on their house on Dickey Mill Road in northeast Alamance County in September, 2005."

"Two years later — and not even a mile away — their house has been on the market three weeks with 'just a few nibbles,' Rhonda Evans said."

"'It’s the same agent, the same company,' Rhonda Evans said. But the outcome this time is different. 'The whole mortgage fallout, that has just affected everything,' she said."

"June Larson, owner of Re/Max Diamond Realty in Mebane, said she is still seeing lots of people moving to Alamance County from the northeast and Florida for central North Carolina’s lower cost of living and calmer weather. A lot of these people are slowed by the housing markets they are leaving because most people can’t keep a house in Florida and put a down payment on a house in Burlington at the same time."

"This is the kind of drag that brings all these housing markets together. The Evanses don’t even want to leave their neighborhood. They just want to downsize. They have a contract of the house two doors down, contingent on selling the house they live in." "But that can’t happen until someone gets freed up enough to buy it."

"Builders are still building,adding houses to the market and, potentially, lowering prices, but some are cutting back. Eddie Boswell, owner of Boswell Construction, said his sales have fallen off and he is holding off on building new houses until his current inventory sells off."

"'I don’t know if it’s the finance crunch or what, but there are a lot of houses, I can tell you that,' Boswell said."

"Custom builders are scaling back, Boswell said, but tract builders are still getting building permits. 'Which is kind of a telltale of who’s speculating,' Boswell said."

"Craig Morrison, Cimarron’s president, said...sales have definitely slowed. 'In a normal market, we would be selling more product that we are, but this is not a normal market,' Morrison said."

"Morrison said sales are slower than they were last year, again because newcomers have to sell their homes in other markets."

"Foreclosures are also adding homes to the market. One Web site selling foreclosed homes had 165 listed in Burlington alone. According to the Alamance County Office of the Register of Deeds, 937 notices of foreclosure have been filed this year so far. In 2006 there were 1,043 and 756 a year before."

"Larson said people thought they were getting bargains from out-of-state lenders offering lower interest rates. In the end many got hit with higher-than-expected closing costs because the lenders didn’t know enough about local tax and insurance rates."

"Larson said she thought lenders were going to stop making loans for 100 percent of a home’s value, which is how many people got under so much debt. Larson said she saw people take loans for 100 percent of the home’s value at 14 percent interest."

"'What are the odds he will stay there and build credit?' Larson asked."