The Chicago Tribune reports from Illinois. "Not far from Illinois Highway 7, Diane Hartman's four-bedroom single-family home waits for a buyer who never seems to come. It's the same story across Will County, in new subdivisions built out of cornfields and older streets lined with mature trees: There are precious few home buyers these days. After cutting her price by $25,000...Hartman said she's resigned to staying as long as necessary, figuring an empty house would fetch even less."

"It's a painful surprise considering how everything was selling such a short time ago: 'We thought this would go fast,' she said."

"'When things were good, I probably would have had it sold in three weeks or so,' said her real estate broker, Jim Karges, who has operated his local Karges Realty for 30 years. 'It's hard for sellers to realize where we're at. They don't have a clue how the market has changed.'"

"At the same time, foreclosures accelerated. Foreclosure specialist Dee Villegas said she has noticed a sharp uptick in Will County homes on the block, and she expects more to come."

"'They all headed out there for these brand-spanking-new houses. They were going after the American Dream,' said Villegas. 'The jobs are there. It's just a shame you need several jobs to hold on.'"

The Herald News from Illinois. "Carolyn Shinault has tried everything to sell her old house. She advertised for a tenant recently but didn't get any takers. Now Shinault and many others who decided to build or move in recent months are caught between two homes."

"'I'm in the new one, and I don't want to go back to the old one,' she said."

"Shinault said she can continue to pay two mortgages for only six more months. She's already lowered the price on her old home from $189,000 to $170,000. 'After that, I'll have to get a second job. I'm sure I'll go lower than that -- for sure.'"

"Laura and Scott Czerkies have been living in their new Joliet home since May 2006, and they've been trying to sell their Willowbrook townhome since June 2006. The couple has lowered the price on the townhome three times. They've also offered to pay association fees for one year and to buy down a potential buyer's mortgage rate. Still there have been no takers."

"'It is quite stressful having to pay for two mortgages, two sets of property taxes, heating bills and association fees,' Laura Czerkies said."

The Times Herald from Michigan. "St. Clair County's land management/equalization director, Kenneth Hill will soon go before the office of metropolitan planning and present his findings about the area's foreclosures."

"'I've never been through a market like this. I've heard about it, from old-timers,' he said. 'I don't want to be a 'sky's falling' kind of guy, but I'm not sure what anybody can do about it.'"

"The last two years have brought near exponential growth in the number of foreclosures in the Blue Water Area. In 2005, there were 453 sheriff's deeds issued in St. Clair County, a figure more than 17 times the number in 1995 when there were 26 sheriff's deeds issued in the county."

"This year, there were 993 sheriff's deeds, a nearly 220% surge."

"Hill laughs when he thinks about how suddenly foreclosure rates have come to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. 'To tell you the truth, a year ago, we kind of didn't know this was happening,' he said."

"'What's happening ... people who are trying to sell their homes are competing against foreclosures, and they just can't,' said Buzz Stanko, a realtor in downtown Port Huron. 'Why would someone looking for homes buy the one for $150,000 (from a seller) when they can have the one for $110,000 (from the bank)?'"

"The situation has grown worse recently as lending institutions have tightened loan practices, said Lester Wilkins, a loan officer at Flagstar Bank in Fort Gratiot. The end result is both mortgage officers and realtors are having a harder time getting buyers into homes, and sellers are faring even worse."

"'It's a vulture's market,' said David Marsh, a developer in Kimball Township, (who has) two of the three homes he owns in foreclosure; all three mortgages are 30-year fixed. 'It's not a buyer's market.'"

The Holland Sentinel from Michigan. "The housing market slump has caused Bosgraaf Homes to announce Thursday it's ceasing production of speculation home building. This type of construction, also known as volume building, is based on the speculation held in inventory."

"'The collapse of the market for new homes has required Bosgraaf Homes to re-evaluate its position and strategy as a volume builder. We have essentially brought to a close our volume business,' said Bosgraaf Homes President Mike Bosgraaf."

"Bosgraaf Homes has been in the housing market for more than 30 years, according to spokesman Randy Boileau. Boileau explained there was no market for volume homes in 2007, nor will there be in 2008 and 2009."

"'It's (volume building) a business that doesn't exist now in West Michigan,' Boileau."

The Journal Sentinel from Wisconsin. "Ken King, who helps Sheboygan-area consumers with debt problems, has noticed a change in attitude among some who come to see him. It used to be that people who owned homes would make it a priority to pay the mortgage. They didn't want to lose their home or forfeit the down payment or equity they'd built up, said King."

"Now, however, some mortgage borrowers who stretched financially to buy a home with temporarily-low 'teaser' payments and no money down - and haven't owned it long enough to gain any equity - are taking the position that it's hopeless to try to save the house."

"They'll await foreclosure and use their money to try to keep up with other monthly bills instead. 'We see people coming in who say, 'We'll just let the home go. We don't have anything in it anyway,' said King, who has been a consumer counselor for 15 years."

"In its third-quarter delinquencies bulletin, the American Bankers Association said consumer payments that were at least 30 days overdue had risen since the second quarter in almost every loan category: home equity, auto, personal and boat."

"The report put the overall consumer delinquency rate, not including credit cards and other revolving credit, at 2.44% of accounts, its highest level since 2001. That was the last year there was a recession."

"'People are getting squeezed real hard. So now the question is, 'Who's not going to get paid?' King said."

"Pointe Blue, a large condominium development that promised to reshape much of Racine's lakefront, is dead, city officials announced."

"Developer Scott Fergus was unable to secure financing for the project, with 434 planned condos, 90 apartments and an estimated $120 million price tag."

"Because there's no way to predict when commercial credit markets might change, city officials and Fergus decided it was best to terminate their agreement on Pointe Blue, said Brian O'Connell, Racine's city development director."

"'It didn't make sense for the partners to just be hanging there,' O'Connell said."

"He announced plans in May 2006 for Pointe Blue. The site overlooks Lake Michigan, just north of downtown Racine. Condo prices ranged from $200,277 for a 900-square-foot unit to $995,000 for a 2,600-square-foot waterfront villa."

"Fergus, a Racine native, described Pointe Blue as 'Cape Cod meets Miami in Racine' when it was announced in 2006."

The Star Tribune from Minnesota. "A growing number of Twin Cities businesses are giving up trying to repay the debts they owe local banks on development projects."

"The area's banks face the highest level of unpaid loans in years, according to a Star Tribune analysis. The share of unpaid loans on business construction and development loans was four times higher in the third quarter of 2007 than in the same period of 2006. Unpaid loans also are four times higher than they were in the third quarter of 2001, a recession year."

"Twin Cities-area banks hover near the top of the list of lenders nationwide reporting business borrowers as slow-pays or no-pays, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)."

"'Typically, construction loans shouldn't be past due,' said Rich Gilloffo, a regional manager at the FDIC's Chicago office. Banks often require borrowers to take out more than they need for a project, creating reserves to keep payments current in case borrowers encounter financial setbacks."

"'When you see [nonpayment rates] go up, they've run out of reserves,' Gilloffo said. 'Are we concerned? Yeah.'"

"A recent FDIC survey of 204 U.S. metropolitan areas found only 16 with higher rates of troubled business loans than the Twin Cities. 'There aren't too many metropolitan areas that are worse,' Gilloffo said. 'What's happened has happened rather quickly.'"

"The boom-bust cycle is affecting business and residential real estate, said George Karvel, a real estate professor at the University of St. Thomas."

"'Our ability to forecast demand is so poor that we tend to facilitate overbuilding by making too many loans,' Karvel said. As real estate values plummet, banks may end up getting paid dimes on the dollar for some of their commercial real estate loans, he said."

"Rosita Fields hit a dead end when she tried to refinance the mortgage on her south Minneapolis house: The appraisal came in at less than what she owed."

"Aaron Smith was equally stymied when he tried to buy a $180,000 house in St. Paul. The appraisal was $10,000 less than the asking price. The sellers refused to budge, sinking Smith's chances of getting financing."

"It's a major turnaround for an industry that critics said was plagued by inflated appraisals which didn't garner much attention as long as prices were rising. Now many lenders are trying to curb their losses by scrutinizing not only the borrower, but the value of the property, as well."

"'Values might have retreated more than the consumer might be willing to admit,' said Tom Musil, director of the Shenehon Center for Real Estate at the University of St. Thomas."

"According to a survey last year by the October Research Corp., almost 90 percent of the appraisers polled said that they were pressured by mortgage brokers, lenders, realty agents, consumers and others to raise property valuations. That percentage was nearly double the findings of a study done three years earlier."

"The study also found that 75 percent of appraisers reported 'negative ramifications' -- including being blacklisted -- if they didn't cooperate."

"Alan Hummel, chief appraiser for Forsythe Appraisals in the Twin Cities and a past president for the Appraisal Institute, has taken his concerns over such practices to Washington, where he testified before a Senate subcommittee on banking and housing."

"He blamed the problems on skimpy oversight and regulation of mortgage brokers, lenders and real estate agents and what he called a systemic coercion of appraisers."

"'Too many brokers and lenders unfortunately view the appraisal process as something to be manipulated,' he told lawmakers."

"The most serious attempts, and those that could have the broadest impact, have come from Fannie Mae, the nation's largest provider of mortgage money, which has issued new rules aimed at protecting lenders and reducing the likelihood that homeowners will find themselves upside down on their mortgages."

"'It'll blow a lot of first-time home buyers out of the market, especially in the most vulnerable neighborhoods,' said Kris Wilson, senior loan officer for Fairway Independent Mortgage. 'I really believe that Fannie is going to cause more damage than good by doing this.'"

"Sellers who had bought their homes at the height of the real estate frenzy are also going to feel the pinch."

"'They are not about to get out of a transaction with any equity and in some cases, may be upside down and be required to bring a check to closing,' Wilson said. 'It's painful.'"