The Gazette reports from Colorado. "Colorado Springs’ housing market suffered through one of its worst downturns in recent memory during 2007. Foreclosures broke a 19-year-old record, home construction slowed to a pace not seen since the early 1990s. And as foreclosed homes come on the market, they’ll continue to create competition for builders and the resale market, where prices already have declined during the past few months."

"Several parties, not just lenders, are to blame for the mortgage woes, said El Paso County Public Trustee Carol Snyder. Homebuilders, real estate agents and mortgage brokers all eagerly worked to sell homes, she said, while many buyers bought too much home for their budgets."

"'You put a larger housing stock with all of the creative financing, and all the eager people at all ends of the spectrum, and you end up in the situation we are in now,' Snyder said."

The Rocky Mountain News from Colorado. "The final tally of foreclosure filings in the seven-county Denver area in 2007 represent a 41.5 percent increase over the record filings in 2006. Last year's 26,326 filings were the equivalent of every home in Littleton and Louisville going into foreclosure."

"In August, Broker Brian Bartlett started tracking the number of us foreclosures in Denver's MLS, and found the percentage increases had doubled by the end of the year. At first, about 6 percent of the homes listed for sale were either owned by lenders or the Departmentof Housing and Urban Development and 13 percent of the sold and closed homes were foreclosures."

"Now, those numbers have risen to 13 percent and 26 percent, respectively."

"'That is consistent with the raw data you have on foreclosures,' Bartlett said. 'Every week and every month, the numbers have gone up. And that may be under-counting it, because some lenders will not allow the listing agent to put the home in the MLS as a lender-owned.'"

The Daily Times from New Mexico. "If being spotlighted on NBC's 'Today Show' were not a big enough deal, the Farmington and San Juan County real estate market was highlighted Monday by the National Association of Realtors as one of the top 10 fastest-growing places in the country."

"During November...homes in San Juan County sold for median prices between $200,000 and $275,000, according to Elizabeth Tafoya, incoming president of San Juan County's Board of Realtors. 'We're not artificially inflated, and we have affordable housing,' Tafoya said. 'We have some foreclosures, but they're mostly in the manufactured home market.'"

"The housing market 'went out of control' even in the state's metro areas, and took a hard fall, Tafoya said."

"In light of the roller coaster ride that has been the national home real estate market in recent months, outgoing Board of Realtors President Rosemary Hart hopes local buyers and sellers will learn a lesson."

"'News about the foreclosures, lending crisis and decreases in value nationally gave us an unnecessary scare here, but didn't really affect us,' Hart said. 'But people panicked and we saw a decrease in sales. Other than what I call the panic stage,' we've had steady sales.'"

"Her advice to people considering buying or selling here this year is to do their homework, but make sure it's homework that's based on the local real estate market. 'Stay focused in your location when you get educated,' Hart said. 'The house you're buying or selling isn't in Las Cruces or Roswell.'"

The Sun News from New Mexico. "After a red-hot pace in 2006, the Las Cruces real estate market took a slight step backward in 2007. About 2,400 homes sold in 2006, while slightly less than 2,000 sold this year, according to statistics from the MLS compiled by Kaye Miller of Steinborn Realty."

"'There are more homes on the market,' Miller said. 'It might take longer to sell, but the homes are eventually selling. It's a little bit of a tougher market; there's more on the market and sellers have to be aware that they have to price it right. They have to be a little more patient.'"

"Stacey Melzer sold her Las Cruces home in 2007, but it was on the market for more than six months. 'I did not think it would take (so) long,' she told the Sun-News after one deal fell through because a contingent sale did not pan out."

"Eventually the house sold, but she had to make two mortgage payments for a while, she said."

"Miller said the national real estate market affects Las Cruces because it is taking out-of-towners longer to sell their homes in other markets and delaying the purchase of homes here."

"'We are so lucky here because we are sort of in this little bubble,' she said. 'Other areas across the country are hurting so badly. It's impacting us because people who buy a lot of these homes have to come in from other places.'"

The Arizona Republic. "Two years after Scottsdale's real estate market started to cool from its red-hot run-up, the big question for 2008 remains whether the market has hit bottom."

"Optimists among local real estate professionals think it has and the new year will see improvement. 'We're on the other side of the dip,' said Janine Brown, Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors president."

"A Greater Phoenix Blue Chip panel of economists noted that new-home permits fell to about 32,000 in the Valley this year, about half the totals of two years ago and will drop to 30,000 in 2008."

"Scottsdale Realtor Mark Tait said the softer market is motivating sellers to price their homes more reasonably and do improvements that they were not willing to do when multiple offers were rolling in on homes a few years ago."

"And back when people were camping out to pay $190,000 for 15-year-old condo conversions."

"'They realize it is a buyers market and prices have retracted,' Tait said."

"People in real estate and construction are fighting to hold on until the market improves. 'Builders are selling finished lots for 20 cents on the dollar just to stay afloat,' he said, adding that as many as two-thirds of the smaller builders will not survive."

"There should be some good indicators of where the Scottsdale market is headed by the second quarter of 2008, Tait added. 'When is the bottom? Nobody can answer that,' he said. 'The bottom is when the media starts writing all kinds of good stories.'"

"Thanks to recently passed federal legislation, getting out from under mortgages with a short sale is easier in the troubled Southeast Valley real estate market."

"Nick Martini of Mesa may be one Southeast Valley homeowner who gets a break from the new law. In 2005, Martini and his wife bought a house in Mesa and owe $315,000 on it now. The couple has completely remodeled the home's interior, but currently it would probably sell for $280,000, said Martini."

"In November, Martini was laid off and said he is now working a lower-paying job. And, his wife is five months pregnant with the couple's second child. They struggle to make their house payments now, he said."

"'Come April, we're going to fall on our face,' he said. 'We'd like to keep our house. Basically, we need to make more money.'"

"Should the Martinis short-sell their house, they won't be alone. Randy Kutz, co-owner of Phoenix Heritage Real Estate Group and Arizona Short Sale Experts, said his companies have 60 short-sale listings around the Valley, and they aren't going away anytime soon."

"Even if the Valley's housing inventory is reduced, Kutz said many portions of the region are down to 2004 prices. 'I think the short-sale situation is going to be with us for five-plus years,' he said."

The Mohave Daily News from Nevada. "Some Southern California investors in The Hoover Companies projects are claiming they're not getting the money they invested returned to them when they request it."

"The Hoover Companies owns the golf course, country club and master-planned community of El Rio in Mohave Valley. They also own the future master-planned community of Mariposa, across the highway from El Rio."

"The El Rio development, which has been taking shape since 2005, has fallen on hard times like its cousin to the north - Laughlin Ranch - due to the sharp downturn in home sales. Only three residences at El Rio are occupied, according to Hoover spokesman Chaz Martinez."

"Other signs of trouble for El Rio include the fact that its clubhouse restaurant has scaled back its hours, no longer serving dinner. The nearby El Rio Professional Plaza, completed this year, has so far attracted only three tenants. And the Mariposa housing project, adjacent to El Rio, lays idle."

"In an attempt to encourage development, Hoover is offering homes at El Rio with 1,300 square feet starting at $189,000, built on lots discounted at 40 percent and priced at $49,000."

"'I'm proud of this because I don't think other developers have been willing to do what we do in this horrible market,' Martinez said. 'I mean, some developers just go bankrupt. They're not paying anybody back. We would never want to do that. I mean, we're fighting this gloomy period just like everyone else. We have tried to think outside the box to spur economic growth.'"

The Reno Gazette Journal. "A trying time, these past 12 months were for Northern Nevada's economy. At the forefront: The housing market whose downfall was, by most accounts, inevitable after the runup some years back. Even the once-hot condominium market has cooled, as some downtown Reno projects have been halted."

"'Even McDonald's will be affected,' said Tom Cargill, economist at the University of Nevada, Reno. 'People will have less money to spend. That's real. There's a sense of feeling less wealthy.'"

"Ken Wiseman, broker/owner of Reno Rancho Realty, recalls the heady times of a few years ago when homes sold furiously, sometimes in a matter of hours. Those days now are just memories."

"'We've finally seen the 180-degree turnaround,' he said. 'The bubble has burst.'"

"Added Wayne Capurro, incoming president of the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors, 'It was not unexpected, but it certainly feels worse once you're in it. It got so overheated.'"

""Cargill said society has bought into the myth that home prices will always go up."

"'That's simply not true,' he said. 'But this is not a catastrophe. It's normal to have ups and downs. Business cycles are a natural part of the economy. It's a myth to think that these things can be made to go away. This was true 300 years ago, and it's true today.'"

"Observers apply a positive twist to the real estate spinout by saying lower prices can be a good thing."

"'Our market was inflated. It got out of reach for the average wage earner,' Wiseman said. 'Businesses won't move here if it's not affordable. It needed an adjustment. What goes up, comes down. We're going to see it go back to 2003 prices.'"

"Nationally, sales of new homes last month sank to the lowest level in a dozen years, and sales of new homes in Washoe County showed an even worse downturn than the national figures."

"Locally, the November 2006 to November 2007 figures showed new-home sales crashing by 64 percent in Reno and more than 60 percent in Sparks and countywide."

"'The numbers show the housing showdown is real and is showing no signs of getting better at this point,' said Brian Kaiser, an analyst at the University of Nevada, Reno."

"He said looking at a full year of data, Washoe County shows at least a 40 percent decrease in new and existing home sales. 'It’s my feeling we haven’t seen the bottom yet,' he said. 'If you look at the foreclosure data, there’s a dramatic increase in 2007.'"

"Those homes become inventory in the real estate market. They’ll be offered at cut-rate prices and will be competing with existing and new home sales. 'I wouldn’t be surprised if 2008 is another bad year like 2007,' Kaiser said."

"Eugenio Aleman, senior economist at Wells Fargo Bank, told a business conference in Minden earlier this month that the Reno area's housing industry might make a comeback by the end of 2008."

"'Reno is going to come back stronger than Las Vegas,' Aleman said. Aleman expects California's recovery to take longer."

"Sonny Amendola, managing broker for Century 21 Goldcrest Properties in Reno, said the real estate market locally has bottomed out. 'We'll see for sure if this market is going to turn around in April, May, June, when people put their houses on the markets,' Amendola said. 'It just went up way too fast, way too quick.'"

"Prices have dropped by about 30 percent and he's not sure how much more they can drop."

"Part of the equation, though, is California, where many people who move to Nevada have to sell their homes first. 'California always has an impact on Nevada, just because of the sheer number of people who live there,' Amendola said. 'When California rebounds, that will affect us, too.'"