The Journal Star reports from Illinois. "We're not supposed to have much of a sub-prime crisis here. So an ad for a real estate auction caught my eye. 'In a buyer's market, YOU should be BUYING!!!' it said. If the stony-faced buyers gathered last Wednesday are any indicator, be glad that Peoria is supposedly doing well."

"The auction company will take the top bids to the seller. A minimum has been set. But sometimes the sellers will take less. The first house on his slate has two bedrooms, hardwood floors, one bath and a concrete block garage out back."

"'How much? What will you give for it?' auctioneer Joe Cotten cajoles, and the sing-song begins. 'How-much? How-much-will-you-give-for-it? One hundred thousand dollars? I see smiles. It's a buyer's market.'"

"A grin flickers here and there, but that is the last of the frivolity. Even for a first-time buyer, even for a rental property, Cotten can't get a bid until he drops the price to $30,000. There is a brief flurry of activity. It stops at $48,000, which is less than the seller's minimum. No sale."

"House Two has three bedrooms and one bath, a new roof, siding and windows. Bidding stops at $15,500. 'You can make it up in six months rent!' Cotten pleads. No takers."

"House Three has three to four bedrooms, a bath and a 2001 furnace. It rented for $525 a month. Bidding starts at $10,000. No one bites. No bids at all."

"And so it goes. At the end of the first round of bidding, none of them sells, even at prices less than a good used car. Contacted later, Cotten says he ended up selling four of the 17 houses after some haggling in a later round of auctions. He did not think it was appropriate for him to comment much, but this was one of the worst sales he's had in almost 30 years of business. Things have slowed."

"'I don't know why people aren't buying. Interest is good. There's plenty to choose from out there,' Cotten muses. 'It's a buyer's market. They should be buying.'"

The Chicago Tribune from Illinois. "A new monthly report from a pair of Chicago real estate appraisers says there's likely to be a decline in the number of houses for sale in the area this month, though one shouldn't read too much into it."

"Naperville appraiser Chip Wagner, who collaborates with appraiser Robert Headrick to produce the report, says that if home sellers follow traditional patterns, inventories will stabilize or decline in the next three months."

"In the current environment, though, it probably just means that significant numbers of sellers will yank their homes off the market through the holidays."

"The appraisers' report offers a snapshot of how long homes stayed on the market before going under contract in the last year."

"Homes priced $100,000 to $300,000 took 111 days to sell; Homes priced $300,000 to $500,000 took 130 days; Homes priced $500,000 to $750,000 took 148 days; Homes priced $750,000 and more took 194 days."

"Those, of course, are the ones that went under contract; active listings (that is, on the market but unsold) were averaging 153 days, 175 days, 200 days and 242 days, respectively, as of mid-November, the appraisers said."

The Quad City Times from Iowa. "The house on West 14th Street in Davenport has a list of owners and tenants that ends with Deutsche Bank. Foreclosed upon and sold to Deutsche Bank at a sheriff’s sale in August for $72,419, the four-bedroom home is assessed at $51,840."

"The house is one of 49 foreclosed properties in Davenport now listed for sale, according to statistics presented Saturday at the Quad-Cities Reinvestment Coalition’s foreclosure summit. Its asking price? $11,900."

"'These are people who are no longer homeowners,' said Dawn Mutum-Plies, housing director for United Neighbors (a) Davenport organization working to prevent foreclosures. 'People are losing their homes for a nominal amount of money,' sometimes as little as $2,000, she said."

"So far this year, 255 houses have been foreclosed upon in Davenport, with another 13 anticipated before the end of December, statistics show. That is a nearly 100 percent increase since 2005."

"Ninety-two of the foreclosed upon properties in Davenport have sold, statistics from the coalition shows. The average sales price per property was $25,000 below assessed value."

The Journal Sentinel from Wisconsin. "Many hopes for a big revitalization boost for Racine have been riding on planned development that has been touted as 'Miami meets Cape Cod,' but there has been little movement on the project."

"Whether the stall of Pointe Blue is just temporary or ends up being fatal should not be seen as a strike to Racine, area leaders say."

"'I wouldn't pin the entire future of the city on this project and, just because it's stalled doesn't mean it's headed for the skids. I'm still bullish on Racine's future,' said Ald. Greg Helding, who serves on the Plan Commission."

"Pointe Blue, the ambitious condominium development planned for Racine's lakefront, is having trouble obtaining financing, which has delayed the start of construction. Developer Scott Fergus had hoped to begin work last April on the project, which carries an estimated $120 million price tag. But difficulties among large commercial lenders have affected Fergus' ability to secure property acquisition and construction loans for the 434-unit development, said Brian O'Connell, Racine's city development director."

"Helding said the hold-up on Pointe Blue is clearly a national issue and shouldn't be seen as a reflection on Racine. 'It's unfortunate that a lot of upper-middle- and lower-middle-class people who have overextended themselves will potentially end up hurting a program in the city of Racine. That's my read on the subprime problem.'"

"'I think (the Pointe Blue delay) speaks more about the problems in the financing market than on investing in Racine,' Helding said."

"At Pointe Blue, 26% of the condos have been sold, according to the development's Web site. Because of tighter credit standards, some lenders are requiring condo developers to pre-sell 40% of their units in order to obtain loans."

"Pointe Blue condo prices range from $200,277 for a 900-square-foot unit to $995,000 for a 2,600-square-foot waterfront villa. Pointe Blue offers a mix of townhouses, villas and single-family homes, as well as units that would be in three towers."

"Only 17% of the units planned for the towers - one with 15 stories, along with two eight-story buildings - have been sold, according to the Web site."

"Ald. James Kaplan, whose district includes the Pointe Blue project, said he is remaining optimistic the project will move forward. 'I think it's such a fantastic site, almost like an unfinished diamond that just really needs refining,' Kaplan said."

The Wall Street Journal on Minnesota. "Nationally, there were 2.1 million vacant homes for sale in the third quarter, equal to 1.6% of all the homes in the country -- a record."
"At the end of 2006, the value of all homes in the U.S., excluding rentals, peaked at 153% of gross domestic product (or about $21 trillion), the highest level in at least six decades. By Sept. 30, that had edged down to 150% of GDP as home prices began to drop. With huge inventories of unsold homes soon to swell with foreclosed properties, that is likely to continue."

"The downturn is particularly tough on those surrounded by foreclosed homes. Melissa Pohlman and her husband bought a renovated home in North Minneapolis's down-at-the-heels Jordan neighborhood three years ago for $205,000. It was most recently assessed by the city at $230,000."

"Ms. Pohlman hoped it would eventually rise to $240,000, at which point they would have enough equity to stop paying $160 a month for private mortgage insurance."

"But hundreds of homes in the area are being foreclosed, and she doesn't even 'want to know' what it is worth now. 'You're dealing with an already transient neighborhood and then you heap on top of that a ton of foreclosures -- there are a lot of vacant homes, a lot of houses that are boarded up.'"