The Greeley Tribune reports from Colorado. "Banks and lenders foreclosed on 2,869 Weld County homes in 2007, a 38 percent increase from record-setting 2006. That's not quite to the level of Denver's 41.5 percent increase to more than 26,000, but it dwarfs Larimer County's 1,578 foreclosures for the year. The boom of the past few years prompted an inordinate number of home sales in the region, with brokers helping many new homeowners into homes they could not afford."

"High foreclosures have helped push down home values in the area, which mean homeowners aren't gaining the equity they expected in their homes. Without equity or money down, refinancing to get out of bad loans isn't possible, said Angell Fuchs, a mortgage consultant in Greeley."

"'We can't lend them more than 100 percent, and in order to pay closing costs and loans, and maybe a couple of months (in late payments), you have to have equity,' Fuchs said. 'They may not have as much down and now the values have dropped and now they're upside down. They see their rates are going to adjust and they say, what's the point? That, I think, is part of the problem we're seeing with the bailout.'"

"For those who cannot avoid foreclosure, all is not lost, Fuchs said. 'It's not a death sentence to have a foreclosure,' she said. 'After three years, you can buy another home. People can't feel like they're failures. This was a very difficult situation and they were trusting everyone around them to know what they were doing.'"

The Arizona Republic. "Home buyers, sellers, real-estate agents and lenders all rely on comparable prices as the benchmark for an area's home values. But in many Valley neighborhoods, those comps can't always be trusted. Bad appraisals are often to blame."

"It's becoming apparent that inflated appraisals are behind many problems plaguing the Valley, say regulators, market watchers and many appraisers. 'Almost all the mortgage fraud and foreclosures in the Valley now can be linked to appraisals that were too high,' said Drue Bates, who has been a Valley appraiser for 18 years. 'When a home appraises for $400,000 but recent comps of similar houses on that block are $300,000, it's easy to see something is wrong.'"

"Home buyers in areas with inflated home values could have paid too much for their home and now owe more than it's worth. People 'upside down in their homes' are now driving Valley foreclosures to record levels."

"Heather Minton lost her home to foreclosure. A year after she bought her Pinal County home, it appraised for $200,000, about $75,000 more than she paid in 2004. So she applied for a home-equity loan based on her neighborhood's new, higher comps."

"She fell behind on her payments and tried to sell last year. By then comps in her neighborhood showed her house was worth only $150,000, so Minton ended up losing it to foreclosure."

"'We believed that we had that equity because that's what our new neighbors seemed to be paying,' Minton said. 'Our appraisal came in at $200,000. We got the loan.'"

"In metro Phoenix, the problem worsened during the housing boom when home prices in many neighborhoods were jumping 5 to 10 percent just about every month. Appraisers couldn't count on neighborhood comps to keep up with rising values. That opened the door for some inflated appraisals that continued even after the market slowed."

"'People in the Valley are in denial about how hard inflated appraisals have hurt the housing market,' Bates said. 'I am still seeing cash-back deals and inflated appraisals that are going to lead to bad loans. There needs to be more regulation in the mortgage business or it won't stop.'"

"The final tally is in. No drum roll please, because it's nothing to celebrate. Last year, more than 10,000 homes were foreclosed on across metropolitan Phoenix."

"Almost 90 percent of those houses were taken back by the lender, which means most struggling homeowners couldn't sell before foreclosure. Most of those homes are sitting empty, and when they do sell, it will probably be for less than what other homeowners in the neighborhood paid a few years ago."

"The worst came in December when a monthly record 1,617 Valley homes were foreclosed on, according to Information Market."

"The number of notice-of-trustee sales filed soared to 30,124 in 2007. And these precursors to foreclosure reached a monthly high of 3,852 in December, which isn't a good signal that Valley foreclosures are going to slow anytime soon."

"But here's the good news for Arizona. Nevada has a higher rate of foreclosures."

"Clark County, home to Las Vegas, had more than 26,000 pre-foreclosure filings in 2007. Maricopa County is more than twice the size of Clark County, but the Valley has only about 3,000 more pre-foreclosures."

In Business Las Vegas from Nevada. "Southern Nevada's white-hot growth trends hit a brick wall in 2007 with housing slumps and foreclosures making the biggest business headlines of the year. The price correction that many predicted started to unfold and is likely to continue in 2008."

"By the end of 2007, the median price of resale homes had fallen to $257,000, down 13 percent from its peak of $290,000 in 2006. The price drop is attributed to the inventory of existing homes that was about 26,000 in December."

"The sale of existing homes was off about 40 percent in 2007. In the new-home market, the housing recession was evident with sales down about 45 percent for the year."

"The winners were consumers who saw builders go back to the drawing board to redesign homes to make them less expensive and more to buyers' liking. Many builders touted prices of less than $200,000, and by December the median price was more than $80,000 below the market peak in April 2006."

"Nevada has garnered national and international attention for its No. 1 ranking in the country in property foreclosures, In Business's No. 3 story. Media have come to Las Vegas to document the housing market woes worsened by a large number of investors who bought homes with the anticipation that the high rate of appreciation would continue."

"When it didn't, many could no longer afford payments and some neighborhoods turned into ghost towns."

"The tough times may not be over for the housing market in 2008 unless demand picks up dramatically. That's not expected to happen until the openings of resorts in 2009 attract workers to Las Vegas."

"Buyers had some the best bargains in years. The median price of existing homes reached $290,000 in 2006, but fell to less than $260,000 by the end of 2007 — the lowest prices have been since January 2005."

"Las Vegas housing guru Richard Lee, first VP of First American Title, predicted the decline in 2007 when a year ago he said prices could fall as much as 15 percent. Lee said prices will continue to fall in 2008, but doesn't have an amount."

"'There is an opportunity for those in a cash position with a high (credit) score can take advantage of the marketplace,' Lee said. 'This is the first time in four to five years that people can find an affordable house.'"

"It's getting to the point where there will be opportunities to purchase homes and rent them and possibly break even, Lee said. That hasn't been the case in recent years."

The Review Journal from Nevada. "Some people are losing their homes, life savings and good credit as a result of mortgage scams that have become increasingly prevalent in Southern Nevada's weak real estate market."

"Mortgage fraud is being conducted through a system that is broadly referred to as 'equity skimming,' Secretary of State Ross Miller said. His office is investigating mortgage fraud complaints totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, stretching investigators' loads to near capacity. 'And it's only the tip of the iceberg,' Miller said."

"It's not just sellers who get caught up in mortgage fraud, Steve Hawks of ReMax Platinum said."

"Thousands of unsuspecting home buyers in Las Vegas become victims through cash-back deals involving the seller, mortgage lender, appraiser and other essential parties in real estate transactions. Almost every one of them is pitched as an investment, he said."

"'Let us use your credit and you'll get $5,000 back,' Hawks said. 'Little do they know that there's anywhere from $25,000 to $180,000 getting kicked back to a third-party LLC (limited liability corporation) that the buyer doesn't know about.'"

"The houses were never worth what they were sold for in the first place, Hawks said."

"The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors' MLS showed a Feb. 1, 2005, sale price of $490,000 for a house in Henderson. However, the Clark County Assessor's Office has a recorded value of $800,000 for the sale. The home apparently went into foreclosure and was purchased from U.S. Bank trustee's deed in September for $375,000."

"'Buyers don't find out it's happening until they get a notice of default. The third party rents the house and pays no mortgage. Now when the buyer tries to sell the house, they're overpriced,' Hawks said. 'It's happening to thousands of people.'"

"Jim Garvey of Las Vegas said he got suckered into real estate investing through a client in his automobile detailing business. Garvey ended up buying five homes that were supposed to be recorded under a limited liability corporation."

"He got suspicious when his sister, who joined the real estate investment venture, called and said her name was on a foreclosure list. All of the homes have started foreclosure and are up for short sale."

"Hawks said he examined title work on several homes and found that someone had removed an addendum that instructs the title company to issue checks to a third-party limited liability corporation. The document is removed or hidden, either way with same result, he said."

"For example, a $500,000 listing is bumped to $800,000 and $300,000 gets kicked back to the third party through the addendum. If the institutional investor knew about the $300,000 cash, they would never buy the loan. That's why the addendum has to be pulled or hidden, Hawks said."

"'This is why Credit Suisse and other institutional investors are pulling out of Vegas. This is why Vegas is going to take a dive worse than anyone thought,' he said."