Readers sugested a topic on the spring housing market. "Speculating on what will happen after the New Year. I think we’ll see some real capitulation and 2008 will be the year that was. Of course, elections will play into all this. Can 'they' (TPTB) keep it all gamed until the elections are a done deal? Can capitulation be staved off until after the elections?"

One picked a date. "As we all know, everything will be just fine when Super Bowl Sunday comes and goes…. Have a cookie and you’ll feel right as rain….'

Another posted, "Hope will be way up there for the first few months - waiting for the spring selling season. A lot of people here have talked about a dead cat bounce on home sales. Anyone think it is up for this spring, or is it too early?"

One points at inventory. "In the past month inventory in my town went down from 121 to 98 this morning. I’m predicting come Spring the inventory will see highs like never before. The quantity of houses that sell won’t matter to me so long as the prices go down."

One concurs, "I’m seeing the same change in inventory almost everywhere. The inventory is still up a net 30% since 2/27/07 though."

Another adds, "Same here in the Mid-Lands of South Carolina, the used house pitch books in the grocery stores are much thinner. I certainly see a flood of 'new' listings come spring. Just about everyone around here buys into the RE BS lock, stock & barrel."

One noted the time of year, "I’m also seeing a decline in inventory. Some is probably the 'holiday effect.' But I’m seeing a lot of homes in the MLS are also for rent on Craigslist, so I presume a lot of the 'dropped inventory' went to rentals. Anecdotally I’ve seen a lot of people who can afford their house and don’t have to sell are taking them off the market, some until spring, some indefinitely."

One saw this fallout, "So, let them take it off the market for the 'spring sale.' All it means is they have the carrying costs for 3 or four extra months before they try again…just increases the financial pressure to unload that sucker. It’s all good."

One cited cause and effect, "IMO, sales will pick up when prices stop falling."

Another added, "Sales will pick up when we come off the insane fantasy prices by another 40-50%."

One thinks it will take longer, "I think, with all the candidates promising in one form or another to keep house prices propped up (an obscene notion, in my opinion), it won’t be ’til 2009 that the correction intensifies."

US News & World Report. "Until a few weeks ago, the relentless whack, whack, whack of the construction crews down the street from Randy and Lacy Sullivan's Colorado home was a constant reminder of the competition the father and daughter face as they try to sell her three-bedroom house before the bank forecloses on it."

"'Why are you people still building?' Randy asked the construction supervisor for Richmond American Homes recently. 'You've already got all these houses on the market.'"

"Lacy paid $312,000 last year for the home in the 12,000-lot Reunion development northeast of Denver. Brand-new versions of the same house now sell for about $280,000— 'and that's with the finished basement and the granite countertops,' says Randy."

"Unable to make the $2,200-a-month payments, he and his daughter had to lower their asking price to $255,000. 'I told them, 'You're nuts! You're just cutting your own throats in the end!'"

"With few prospects for the undeveloped land that builders hold, 'the only way to stay in business is to build a house on it, then sell it at cost,' says mortgage banker Lou Barnes."

"Upwards of 10 percent of homeowners in the Reunion area now face foreclosure and eviction. That introduces an even lower priced competitor into the market: banks desperate to unload foreclosed homes for whatever they can get."

"The result, as in similar developments across the nation, is a trail of empty houses, unkempt yards, and abandoned lots, along with a corrosive database of depressed 'comps' that drag down property values even further and force those who remain, from equity-deprived neighbors to increasingly property-tax-poor local governments, to prepare for the worst."

"One builder, Lennar, sold a dozen houses in Reunion to a single investor. This month, it also signed a deal to sell thousands of undeveloped lots in Colorado and elsewhere to Morgan Stanley Real Estate at 40 cents on the dollar, infuriating neighbors and competitors alike."

"Doreen Jaress, an entrepreneur and real-estate investor from California, figured she and her husband would live for a while in the Tuscan-style home she bought last year for $1.6 million, then sell at a profit. But her 'city boy' husband 'could never get his arms around living out here,' Jaress says."

"She put the house on the market in August—plenty of time before her three-year-option adjustable-rate mortgage resets."

"Unfortunately, that was shortly after Jaress's other next-door neighbor tried to short-sell the 6,500-square-foot home he had bought for $1.8 million. Meanwhile, a builder down the street listed a comparable home for just $1.17 million."

"Last month, Jaress planted a 'for sale by owner' sign in her front yard and offered owner financing. 'I don't believe discounting is the answer,' she says of her $1.7 million asking price. 'It's the terms.'"