A report from the Oregonian. "In the hot real estate summer of 2005, the futuristic John Ross tower generated a buzz never seen before in Portland. Within a week, 222 potential buyers plunked down $5,000 or more to reserve their condos in the 31-story tower on the Willamette River. The talk around town was that developers couldn't build new big-city condos fast enough to keep up with downsizing baby boomers and newcomers. But two years later, the condo boom is over."

"Today, the John Ross has seen so many canceled purchases that developers actually have fewer buyers -- 192 -- than they did two years ago."

"The city has a condo glut, and thousands more are rising out of the ground. In the past six years, developers built 4,042 downtown condos, more than twice the figure from the previous 30 years. Today, developers have nearly 2,114 condos under construction."

"Two towers already switched from condos to apartments. Other projects were shelved, and construction has stalled on smaller projects from Beaverton to Northeast Portland."

"Developers of The Civic had deals to sell all but eight condos. But cancellations pushed that figure to 37, a higher rate than normal."

"Nelda Newton, a senior VP at Wells Fargo...acknowledges that current condo sales can barely keep pace with cancellations. 'That's not great,' said Newton, who led Wells Fargo's lending for several downtown projects. 'There's no great way to slice that, put a positive spin on that.'"

"By early this decade, the city was gripped with full-blown condo fever. Construction cranes could be seen swinging over new towers from the Pearl to the South Waterfront. The condo craze meant developers nearly sold out buildings during construction. They staged lotteries to handle the sales rush."

"Condos in the early 1990s went for about $120 a square foot. Today, prices sometimes are far above $500. But the hype is now on hold."

"'Definitely the brakes just kind of went on,' said architect John Holmes, lead designer of the 937 tower in the Pearl. 'The buyers aren't there.'"

"Recently, developer Bob Ball shocked the industry when he converted the $50 million Wyatt building under construction in the Pearl to rentals. Before the switch, Ball said he'd cut prices and still sold only 53 units, just 21 percent of the total and barely half his goal."

"'The problem wasn't with the Wyatt,' Ball said. 'It was the overall change in the market. We just have too much supply on the market.'"

"Bob Scanlan, whose real estate company invested in the John Ross, says sales are so slow in that tower that he expects his returns to be cut in half. The 303-unit building is almost two-thirds sold...far below initial expectations."

"Even sales that developers thought were in the bag have fallen through in growing numbers. The Civic, the West Burnside Street building marketed to young first-time buyers, got hit by canceled pre-sales. Gerding Edlen Development Co. still has Civic condos to sell. But it is competing with about 20 of its own customers who are reselling just months after they moved in. So many units were for resale that real estate brokers for a time resorted to attaching lockboxes holding house keys to the building's bike rack."

"Scott Byer bought an eighth-floor condo for $250,000 and tried to flip it for $310,000. Like other resellers, Byer dropped his price, to $269,900 last week. But he got few lookers, and no offers."

"Still, real estate insiders remain confident about the long-term future. They say Portland is immune from the downturn that's infected other big cities. 'It's steady as she goes here,' Scanlan said. 'There's no reason to panic.'"

"Dirck Lowe hasn't found condo sales to be so vibrant. Lowe bought into the John Ross at the peak of the frenzy. In summer 2005, he went online to reserve one of the 20-minute slots with a salesperson. Lowe (and) his wife owned a 3,000-square-foot house in Milwaukie."

"'We thought this would be a fun, upscale New Yorkish condo,' Dirck Lowe said of the 21st-floor unit. He later put down about $20,000 to reserve the 790-square-foot condo."

"In 2006, Lowe took a new software job and moved to Long Island, N.Y. He closed on the $371,000 condo this summer when construction finished, then put it up for sale at $399,000. He joined a crowded market. Developers already have 1,000 new units for sale just in 16 downtown high-rises, according to Todd Prendergast, one of the city's top condo sellers."

"After just two showings and not a single offer, Lowe is considering renting the unit. 'It's quiet,' said his real estate agent, Jonathan Heins. 'Anybody that says it's booming, it's not.'"

The Idaho Business Review. "If there’s one place where a declining housing market might be good news, it’s Valley County. Real estate prices in small towns like Donnelly and Cascade shot up when Tamarack Resort was built and the cities made the abrupt transition from speck-on-a-map status to resort community."

"Home prices have dropped by about $20,000 to $30,000 in recent months, said Carol Amburgy, the broker and owner of Idaho Mountain Properties."

"That’s still not enough to serve all the people who need affordable homes in the area, Amburgy said. An average family making $50,000 can afford roughly $174,000 for a home, she said. There are currently 13 listings in Donnelly, Cascade and McCall between $150,000 and $175,000."

"'Most of those are old fixer-uppers not on a foundation or they’re old trailers,' she said."

"But the price drop frustrates developers like Karl Bonar, who is developing a 65-acre, 128-lot project in Cascade called River Woods. Homes in River Woods will range from $150,000 to $500,000, Bonar said, but the low end of the range is required by the city of Cascade. That means 15 percent of the homes they build must be priced from $150,000 to $170,000."

"Bonar said he knows of eight affordable units that are sitting on the market. 'Nobody wants them,' he said. 'The builders are sitting there paying for them…. Qualified families aren’t taking them.'"

"Falling home prices have put some market-rate homes in the same price range as the affordable homes developers have to build to meet city code, Bonar said."

"Some homes priced up to $250,000 have dropped to $200,000 to $210,000, said Michael David, executive director of Valley Adams Regional Housing Authority."

"But that doesn’t take care of most middle-income people, he said. 'You have to make $70,000 to afford a $210,000 home.'"

"Moreover, middle-income families are hurting more than ever because the lending environment has tightened, he said. Thanks to stricter mortgage requirements and the overall housing market, many people are hesitating to buy real estate at any price."