The East Valley Tribune reports from Arizona. "Less than two years ago, Gilbert homeowners Tim and Kris Koster moved to the East Valley and shelled out $433,000 for a five-bedroom home. They recently heard a similar-sized home in the area sold for nearly $130,000 less. Looking back, it was the worst possible time to buy with house prices so overinflated, Tim Koster said. 'I could just remember when we were buying this house, the sense of urgency, because prices were so high we thought we were going to get left behind,' he said."

"The Kosters don't have the luxury to sit tight. They're faced with a job transfer back to Colorado this summer, and the family's options look bleak."

"They already lost $40,000 in equity from their old home, which they used as a down payment. And the Gilbert home is listed at $394,900, a price that would pay off the mortgage and cover closing costs. 'We leave with the skin off our backs, basically,' Kris Koster said."

"She's put the home on Craigslist and other Web sites as a rental, but the rent wouldn't fully cover the $2,100 monthly loan payment."

"The Kosters say their last-ditch option is foreclosure - a dire scenario they never imagined could happen. 'It's always in the back of your mind,' Tim Koster said. 'I don't sleep as well as I used to.'"

"Just more than 7,000 Valley properties entered the foreclosure process or were actually foreclosed in January. That compares to less than 4,400 home sales during the same month last year, according to Information Market."

"When Mesa homeowner Sergio Calderon refinanced in 2006, he knew he was jumping into a 'horrible loan,' an interest-only loan with a 8.25 percent adjustable rate. 'I knew it was a risky gamble,' Calderon said. 'As far as the housing market getting cold, I really didn't see that one coming.'"

"He took out $80,000 in equity to start a landscaping construction business in Goodyear, expecting to sell his house later that year. When gas costs became too much, he rented an apartment close to work and tried to sell the Mesa house."

"After 14 months, he gave up and recently rented out the place. Even with a tenant, Calderon said he'll still be paying $500 a month on the mortgage, while also paying $800 in rent."

"Meanwhile, his construction business is getting hit by the housing downturn, and he worries about losing income. He'll keep making both payments as long as he can. Meanwhile, his family is cutting back on eating out, day care and other expenses."

"People believed values would keep climbing, so they could always refinance again, said Joann Hauger, executive director of Community Housing Resources of Arizona. 'Some of these people started to believe that their savings was their house,' Hauger said."

The Arizona Republic. "A small, young Scottsdale-based home builder says it could not compete with prices on discounted resale homes and with the promotions that bigger, more established builders were offering in the slowing economy."

"As a result, Randall Martin Home decided it could not afford to complete four subdivisions it has started around the Valley, a company spokeswoman said. The decision to walk away from its vacant property and unsold homes has left people who have purchased and moved into the builder's houses worried about their neighborhoods."

"Jason and Cheri Diefenbacher of Chandler said they knew Randall Martin was in trouble when a subcontractor recently threatened to put a lien on their house if a $500 bill continues to go unpaid."

"The couple closed on their home Jan. 18. But since they've moved in, they haven't heard from the builder, who was supposed to complete final repairs within 30 days."

"'It's a concern, because who is going to do the warranty work?' said Cheri Diefenbacher."

"Credit is the oil that greases America's economic engine, and right now, that engine is sputtering. The easy money has evaporated. For Diane Valencia, it could mean losing a home to foreclosure."

"Valencia is a subprime borrower who has owned her Youngtown home since 2004. She has been able to make her payments at the initial 9 percent rate on her ARM, but when that reset recently above 11 percent, things got dicey."

"Valencia did succeed in getting her lender to modify that reset rate back down to around 9 percent, but the relief will last for only half a year. After that, she worries she'll have to sell the home or lose it."

"'All I want is a fixed rate,' she said. 'They can see with my history that all payments are on time, but no one wants to help.'"

The Daily Courier from Arizona. "Approximately 230 people attended the Central Arizona Partnership Economic Forecast conference. Mike Dougherty, president of the Prescott Area Association of Realtors, said buying options are robust, and mortgage rates are good as Realtors enter the traditional selling season that runs from February through October."

"Dougherty described the local housing demand as 'pent-up' and he believes inventories will decline as unmotivated sellers withdraw from the market because they can afford it."

"'In our market, sellers pricing their homes aggressively will succeed because buyers are looking for and getting bargains,' he said. 'I think it's going to be a strong year.'"

"Realtors sold 3,226 homes in 2005, 2,362 homes in 2006 and 2,080 in 2007. Prescott's median home price is down from $390,000 in February 2006 to $306,000 in January 2008."

The Verde News from Arizona. "When it comes to sorting out the slide in Verde Valley home prices, everyone's numbers say the same thing, your house isn't worth what it was a couple of years ago."

"'The problem with statistics is you can make them say anything you want them to say,' said Dan Mabery, of Mabery Caldwell Banker Real Estate in Cottonwood. 'We see that coming out of Phoenix and we see that in the way we decipher them. We say it has only been a 5-percent drop. Well, bull. My belief is that it has dropped at least 20 percent. And that may be conservative.'"

"'Here you don't have as many comps to work with. But you can look at properties in some of the subdivisions or at townhouses and see that what originally sold for $210,000 is selling in the $150,000 range. That's a significant drop, and 20 percent may be conservative. It is not over yet. That's the problem,' Mabery said."

"'At the current rate properties are being sold for the amount listed, it would take three and a half years to sell a home in Camp Verde. The rate is 2.3 years in Cottonwood,' said Camp Verde real estate agent Rob Witt. 'We need more buys. It's as simple as that.'"

"Throw into the mix the foreclosures and the desperation sales, and the basic foundations that support home values are not present, he said."

"In one area of Camp Verde, the average asking price has fallen from $475,000 two and a half years ago to $312,000. Just six months ago the asking price averaged $373,000."

"'I don't think many Realtors can tell you they have been through anything like this,' Mabery said. 'They [prices of homes] have never gone backwards in my experience. But they needed to. They went way too far. The people living here cannot afford to spend the kind of money people were getting. It doesn't work that way.'"

The Reno Gazette Journal from Nevada. "Home foreclosures in Washoe County more than doubled in January from December and rose six-fold from a year earlier, a report shows. Using data from the Washoe County Assessor's Office, analyst Brian Kaiser calculated a total of 177 foreclosures of single-family homes and condominiums in Washoe in January, all but one in Reno-Sparks."

"That's up 113 percent from December's total of 83 and a 510 percent jump from 29 in January 2007. By comparison, there were 169 sales of new and existing homes and 57 sales of condos countywide in January. Among foreclosed properties, there were 58 sales in January, all in Reno-Sparks."

"'It's great for buyers, but's really rough on sellers,' said Wayne Capurro, president of the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors."

In Business Las Vegas from Nevada. "There were 881 new-home sales in January, which includes condos and apartment conversions, 1,124 fewer than in January 2007, says Dennis Smith, the president of Home Builders Research."

"In January, the median price of the sales was $274,000, a year-to-year decrease of $60,945 or 18.2 percent, Smith says."

"Most of the recent new-home sales are priced under $250,000, and for the first time in years there are many homes being sold for less than $200,000, Smith says. Centex, Richmond American, Astoria, Rhodes and DR Horton have lowered prices recently at all or some of their subdivisions, he says."

"Centex, for example, has sold homes at its Mesa Verde community in North Las Vegas for $97 to $113 per square foot, he says. In addition, Centex was offering 5 percent co-op fees and paying some closing costs for buyers."

"By the end of 2007, there were finished lots selling for little more than $50,000, Smith says. He adds he won't be surprised if major public builders offer finished lots at some locations for less than $50,000 per lot 'about half of what many spent on lot improvements less than a year ago.'"

"'I have spoken to clients who are looking at these prices as great opportunities for land banking lots for two to three years,' Smith says. 'The vultures are circling. Most are investors, but not all. I have been contacted by builders that are ready to pounce on the right deal. Obviously, location is a key factor, but at prices that are equivalent to those we saw seven to eight years ago, these price points have to be classified as a can't-miss investment.'"

"The slowdown in the housing market has some builders thinking about building rental homes in the wake of the apparent success of a similar Las Vegas project."

"Signature Homes had originally planned to sell all of the 92 detached three-story units it built near downtown Las Vegas, but with the downturn in the market, the builder decided to lease the homes as income-producing property."

"Late last year Signature sold the gated housing community to Copperfield Investment and Development Co. of Los Angeles, a private equity group, for $18.4 million - $200,000 per unit. It continues to rent the homes."

"When it envisioned the project, Signature had planned to sell the homes but once the project was under way, the builder realized the market wasn't going to support it, said Michael Shaffner, a senior associate with Marcus & Millichap that represented a subsidiary of Signature Homes, in the sale."

"'Once they started doing the development phase, they were at the point of no return,' Shaffner said. 'They were committed and took a gamble and thought they could go ahead and lease them out.'"

"'I have been in communication with other developers who are looking at this as maybe something they can do to position themselves during these trying times,' Shaffner said. The idea is that once the market rebounds, the builders would sell the homes as they would any other subdivision they built, he said."

"A fast-growing 24-hour community lends itself to having a large number of rentals, Shaffner said. 'The gap between renting and owning is very large here,' Shaffner said."

The Las Vegas Sun from Nevada. "Taking a weekend real estate tour on a bus called the Foreclosure Express might seem a touch ghoulish, like robbing the dead or at least whistling past a graveyard. But you would be wrong. On the Foreclosure Express, they sing."

"'All aboard the Foreclosure Express,' Realtor Barbara Zucker sings with a show-tune lilt, snapping her fingers. 'Climb aboard, get your houses for less.'"

"In the Great Circle of Real Estate, we all have our roles to play, even scavengers. Especially right now. More than 22,000 houses are for sale in and around Las Vegas, Zucker says. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are coming off house prices like the faces melting off the Nazis at the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.'"

"The story of the Las Vegas real estate crackup is told in numbers, and the numbers on this house, a nice three-bed, two-bath with tile, granite counters and a small bricked yard are as follows: It was first sold in 2003 for $235,000. In 2006, it was resold for $395,000."

"Today, the bank has it listed at $285,000, and Barbara says she’d offer less. The bank owns too much property and banks aren’t too proud to negotiate."

"Sometimes, people who lose their houses do awful things to them. 'Not meaning any disrespect, because you’ve got to have a lot of compassion for them,' Barbara says. 'But they put their foot through the wall, they pee pee all over the carpet.'"

"The bus is appalled. How could they do that? What are they, animals? Barbara says, no, they’re just people under a lot of stress. They’ve lost their houses, they’re upset. And they probably got into it, not to speak ill of anyone, because other, less scrupulous real estate agents and lenders told them they could afford it, afford anything."

"The bus is less sympathetic. 'Is that an excuse?' Diane Cortest says. 'They had to do their homework.'"

"As the bus pulls away from the fourth house, a three and 2 1/2 that sold new in ’05 for $440,000, sold again in ’06 for $469,000 and is now on the market for $269,000, a crowd of adorable, mostly blond children gathers on the curb. They shake their little fists at the bus and jeer."

"On the way back to the office, Barbara leads everyone in one last round of 'All aboard the Foreclosure Express. 'I actually wrote that song in the shower,' she says. A man pipes up from the back of the bus. 'I’ll bet it sounded good in the shower.'"