A report from the Arizona Daily Star. "Chris Tanner and his wife found their dream home last year, a four-bedroom, 3,100-square-foot house on the Northwest Side with a pool, a postcard view of the Santa Catalina Mountains — and an uncomfortably high mortgage payment of about $3,000 per month. 'I knew if we ever fell behind on this mortgage, then we're done,' Tanner said."

"Tanner said past rapid appreciation in the market made him feel pressured to buy his current home. He wound up in a bidding war for it, which didn't seem like a problem at the time."

"'It became apparent that if you didn't buy a house (then), next year it was going to be $50,000 more,' he said."

"Now Tanner expects to lose his house in a little more than a month to foreclosure. A former account executive for a mortgage lender, he could no longer afford the payments after losing a job last year and struggling to earn equal commissions in other mortgage jobs."

"More than 5,000 homes have fallen into foreclosure in the Tucson region during the first nine months of this year, according to RealtyTrac. That's nearly double the number over the same time last year."

"The surge includes homes in virtually every part of town — from lower-income neighborhoods on the South Side to upscale areas near the Catalina Foothills, according to RealtyTrac."

"Maria Jimenez, who works for Sun Tran, said she is afraid she will lose her home near West Valencia Road and Interstate 19 because of an increasing payment for an adjustable-rate refinance loan she received about two years ago. The payment is set to rise from about $980 to $1,300 in December."

"Meanwhile, her husband, a roofer, has been unable to keep a job because of the slow housing market. Jimenez filed for bankruptcy to help keep foreclosure at bay, but she doesn't think she'll be able to afford the higher payment."

"'I still have to pay my lawyers,' she said. 'It's just really outrageous.'"

"Even bankruptcy may not protect Jimenez. Lenders can foreclose on borrowers in bankruptcy with the court's permission, said University of Arizona law professor Jean Braucher."

"Many properties repossessed by lenders will likely end up sitting on the market with an already-high inventory of nearly 10,000 homes, said Fred Hubbard of HomeVestors."

"Midvale Park Neighborhood Association President Joe Miller said some buyers may have stretched their finances to get in. 'They were probably overly optimistic,' he said."

The Arizona Republic. "Home prices in metropolitan Phoenix took a healthy drop in October. No one who owns a home wants to hear that, including me. But real-estate analysts say home prices in many parts of the Valley need to come down after climbing too high during the frenzy of 2004-05. The decline will help the market stabilize, they say."

"The median price of an existing Valley house fell to $242,000 last month, reports the Realty Studies department at Arizona State University. It's an almost 10 percent drop from the median resale high of $267,000 the housing market hit in early 2006."

"Remember, before the 50 percent price run-up in 2004-05, metro Phoenix was long considered a hot housing market for having steady annual home price gains from 6 to 10 percent."

"Market analysts have been saying for the past several months that Valley home prices were due for a correction as big as 20 percent. Most big builders in the Valley cut prices at least that much a few months ago to keep selling homes. Some say home prices still have some sliding to do, so October's price drop is a move in the right direction, even if it's painful."

"David Highmark, CEO for Northern Trust's Southwest region, said he senses 'definite weakness' in the Arizona economy and predicts housing values will have to drop from current levels before buyers return in force. He also thinks banks and other lenders will report problems throughout the fourth quarter."

"But he also views the real-estate slump as a 'healthy' correction for squeezing out greed and unrealistic optimism."

"'People have a tendency to forget what happened in the past,' he said. 'You can't become a good banker and lender until you've been through some of these cycles.'"

The Sierra Vista Herald Review from Arizona. "The Herald/Review recently sat down with Melissa Clayton, president of the Southeast Arizona Realtors Association, to ask her about the year past and future in local real estate."

"Q: What are the foreclosure rates in the county? A: There are more foreclosures than normal. Q: Are lessons to be learned? A: I think the main lesson is not to use your house like a charge card."

"Q: What are your predictions for the coming year? A: I think there will continue to be foreclosures based on irresponsible borrowing. The bottom has passed here but not everywhere. The market will start picking up and it’ll be a great time to buy a house."

"Q: Do you have any advice for homebuyers and sellers? A: For buyers: Be serious when you’re writing an offer. This is a not a market that will accept what we call a lowball offer. And be qualified and ready to buy. Don’t wait because it’s perfect for someone else, too."

"For sellers: 2007 is not 2004. Price your house appropriately and listen to suggestions and your Realtor’s advice… Be ready to look at all offers. Good, bad and ugly."

The Review Journal from Nevada. "Virtually every major builder in the Las Vegas Valley has pushed big sales this fall, and the price breaks have been steep."

"Pulte Homes marked down prices 15 percent on certain models, with discounts of up to $80,000 on some completed new homes during one October weekend. The builder's Del Webb subsidiary sliced $55,000 from some of its asking prices."

"Rhodes Homes has offered as much as $100,000 off on finished houses. Lennar Corp. has slashed prices on some models by about a third; Lennar cut the cost of a 5,000-square-foot home in its Earlstone community from $911,490 to $662,490, and a 4,498-square-foot home in its Silver Creek subdivision went from $807,290 to $612,290."

"Pulte Homes had an 'exceptional' weekend during its 'Monster Sale' Oct. 19-21, said Nick Parks, the builder's local director of marketing. 'It's a new market, and you need to provide the consumer with new value propositions to be successful today,' Parks said. 'It's a positive indicator that the market isn't as depressed as some want us to believe.'"

"Toll Bros., a luxury builder that also hasn't marketed any discounts, had zero net sales in the week ended Nov. 11 and a negative net-sales rate of two homes in the week ended Oct. 14."

"That means the company, whose homes are priced from $345,975 to more than $1 million, had two more cancellations in Las Vegas that it had sales."

"Toll spokeswoman Kira McCarron said sales of new homes and standing inventory 'are consistent with current marketing conditions.'"

The Salt Lake Tribune from Utah. "New-home construction along the Wasatch Front dropped sharply for the second month in a row in October to the lowest level since 1990, mirroring the downturn in housing markets felt nationally. Builders locally took out permits for the construction of 530 single-family homes, down from 1,186 in October 2006, according to Construction Monitor."

"The last time residential building activity along the Wasatch Front in October dipped that low was 17 years ago. 'It's definitely the most uncertain time for builders in Utah that we've had in at least 20 years,' said Jim Wood, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah."

"'I've never seen the market change so quickly,' said Curtis Dowdle, executive officer of the Salt Lake Home Builders Association, who has been in the business since early 1970s."

"Another factor was the homebuilding boom, said Jim Bringhurst, president of the Utah Association of Realtors."

"'We've built a lot of homes in the last couple of years,' he said. 'The supply kind of got ahead of the demand. It's going to take some time for those homes to be acquired.'"

"'The problem is that consumers are afraid to buy right now,' said Eric Allen, director of the Utah/Idaho region for Metrostudy, which tracks new-home construction. 'They are under the impression that prices are going to come down.'"