The Santa Fe New Mexican. "When my wife and I sold our Santa Fe townhouse in 2006 and moved to Austria to spend some time with her family, we didn't think we'd be able to afford to live in Santa Fe again. The price of housing was just too high for us. Then, in November 2007, we took a peek at the SFAR Web site. Bingo! There were 93 residential listings for less than $300,000. Granted, many of those were gussied-up apartments — er, I mean 'luxury condos' — but there were several really nice looking homes."

"So, what's happened to the Santa Fe housing market that allows two cheapskates like us to buy a house in the city we love with a mortgage under $800 per month — and still have money left in our savings?"

"'Santa Fe is such an isolated place that it took a while for the housing troubles in places like California and Texas to trickle down to us. But it did, and our market dropped,' said our Realtor, Christine Wiltshire."

"Overall, home sales in the city declined 36 percent over last year, according to the Santa Fe Association of Realtors 2007 Fourth Quarter Market Report. The median house price fell $25,000 to $350,000. The median price in southwest Santa Fe (the most affordable section of the city) dropped to $284,000."

"And nowhere are Santa Fe's market woes (and opportunities) more apparent than in the under-$300,000 range. Sales have fallen in this category 42 percent over last year, resulting in a glut of lower-priced homes. 'The demand is not there, because buyers in that price range are not qualifying,' Wiltshire said."

"According to Bob Chernock of Santa Fe Realty Partners, marginally qualified borrowers who mortgaged their homes with money from subprime lenders are now struggling to keep those homes."

"'The sound of keys dropping on tables is astounding,' Chernock said."

"People in some areas of Santa Fe, who bought their homes two or three years ago have lost 25 percent of their value, but now I think the values are pretty firm,' Chernock said."

The Arizona Republic. "Paul Joray and his wife listed their house in Maricopa for sale in December for less than they paid for it in 2006. The couple, retired university administrators, bought a $719,000 house in Chandler's Ocotillo Lakes in January to be closer to their daughters."

"'We bought there because we knew this is the time to buy, but it's not a terrific time to sell,' Joray said."

"They listed their Maricopa house for $359,000, despite spending about $20,000 in landscaping. 'I guess I'm bummed because I'd like to sell my house for what I paid for it,' Joray said."

"But the town's median home value dropped 19.8 percent in 2007 compared with a year ago, according to Information Market. 'I'm an economist so we understood that it's a great market to buy a house but not a great market to sell a house. We've sort of resigned ourselves to this,' he said."

"Drew Hackney, who lives in Ahwatukee, buys homes and remodels them to 'flip,' or resell them for a profit. Hackney recently bought a 3,500-square-foot home in Ahwatukee for $950,000 and spent $150,000 to renovate it."

"Hackney, who recently appeared on an episode of TLC's Flip That House, initially listed the home at $1.45 million. But after three months of not selling, he dropped the price to $1.385 million."

"'I know I'm setting a new market precedent,' he said, adding that he ignored 'comps' because the house is unlike others in the area. It's a gamble. The house is in the 85044 ZIP code, which saw the median home value fall by 6 percent in 2007 compared with a year ago."

"Buyers like Dan and Joey Bolster like the decline. The couple recently bought a 2,500-square-foot home in southeastern Gilbert for $283,000 that had been foreclosed on by the bank."

"'One man's pain is another man's pleasure,' Dan said. 'This house that we are buying, it's like we skipped that whole first-home step and moved to the whole nice big old mamma jamma. We were able to jump five years ahead. I don't care if it drops (in value). I won't lose a wink.'"

"Bolster said he and his wife have friends who say they are 'upside down' in their house, meaning they owe more than it's worth. 'I want to tell them they should have rented or leased or just hung out for a while,' he said. 'It was just common sense that (values) were going to decline.'"

"While shopping for a new home, Bolster said he and his wife found several houses they wanted but that other buyers had already bid on. 'Right about now, we thought we should do something,' he said. 'I had a feeling that this thing (downturn) isn't going to last.'"

"Quick-flip deals on new homes are long gone. It's the Valley's growing number of foreclosures that has caught investors' attention now. Last month, Ray and Elaine Balderas bought two foreclosed homes in south Phoenix. The couple paid about $100,000 each."

"'If you buy a home for $100,000 in the Valley, you can make money on it,' said Elaine, who used an equity line of credit off the couple's Laveen home to buy the properties."

"The Balderases know investing is tricky because they have lost money on it before. The couple paid $199,000 for a south Phoenix property in 2007, put $50,000 into renovating it and sold it for only $203,000 in January."

"'The main thing about investing now is to not buy expensive homes because there aren't as many buyers for them,' said Elaine, who teaches and works as a cosmetologist."

"Margie O'Campo de Castillo of Arizona Dream Realty said homes priced below $200,000 are selling much faster now than higher priced houses: 'Foreclosure properties can be a good investment, as long as there aren't too many of them in one neighborhood.'"

"Last month, 2,250 homes in the Valley were foreclosed on. That is 200 more than in January. A year ago, there were only 365 foreclosures in metro Phoenix. New-home communities in the West Valley that led the local housing boom for sales are now plagued with the Valley's highest foreclosure rates."

"Eight of metro Phoenix's top 10 areas for foreclosure rates are on the Valley's west side, according to an Arizona Republic analysis of data for the past 13 months from the Information Market. Tolleson topped the list."

"'The West Valley communities had some of the most affordable new homes during big price run-ups of '04 and '05,' said Jay Butler, at Arizona State University Polytechnic. 'But still, a lot of buyers in those suburbs had to stretch to buy during the boom, and many ended up with subprime loans.'"

"Data released by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America last week show the number of Arizona homeowners behind on subprime-mortgage payments hit 16.2 percent at the end of 2007, which is an almost 3-percentage-point increase in three months."

"Margie O'Campo De Castillo of Arizona Dream Realty said there are neighborhoods in newer West Valley suburbs where there are multiple foreclosures on one street."

"'There are new homes in the West Valley bought by investors that were never even lived in and are now in foreclosure,' she said. 'It's very sad and so hard on the homeowners in those areas trying to hold on.'"

The Review Journal from Nevada. "An increasing number of renters in Las Vegas (are) caught up in the foreclosure mess. They're losing security deposits and rent money because, unbeknownst to them, landlords failed to make mortgage payments and the homes have entered foreclosure."

"Nevada led the nation last year, RealtyTrac reported. The state had 66,316 foreclosures, a 215 percent increase from 2006."

"Clark County had the top seven foreclosure ZIP codes in the country. ZIP code 89131 in northwest Las Vegas, led with 627 foreclosed homes sold last year, Las Vegas-based SalesTraq reported. The median price was $333,000. ZIP code 89031 in North Las Vegas had 502 foreclosure sales at a median of $240,166."

"The situation is not improving. Foreclosures account for a growing percentage of home sales in Las Vegas. Nearly 40 percent of the 983 existing home sales in January were bank-owned properties, Patty Kelley of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors said."

"Jenell and Christopher Chow were renting a four-bedroom home in North Las Vegas from an unlicensed business that advertised 'rent to own' homes. They had plunked down $5,200 and were paying close to $1,900 a month on a two-year lease option."

"One November evening, after just six months of living in the house, the Chows got a knock on the door. It was someone from the constable's office serving a five-day eviction notice to Scott McCabe and occupants. McCabe had rented them the house."

"'We were kind of baffled,' Christopher Chow said. 'Why were we getting an eviction notice in his name? We called him and he said, 'You're out of luck. You've got to talk to the owner.' 'We thought you were the owner. What about the payments I've been sending you?' 'If you have any problem, talk to the owner.'"

"About half of the 22,000 homes for sale in Las Vegas are sitting empty, most of them purchased by investors during the boom years of 2004 and 2005. Now that home values have dropped and adjustable-rate mortgages have reset, the owners can't afford the mortgage, can't sell the house and can't refinance."

"Homes are being rented for $1,000 to $1,200 a month, undercutting the apartment market and driving vacancy rates to 9 percent."

"'You've just got a situation perfect for the landlord to milk out every rental payment and at the same time not make mortgage payments until the bank forecloses,' said real estate attorney Charles Clawson. 'It's not the mortgage company's fault. They have a right to their collateral. It's just a tough situation for the renter if they haven't protected themselves by having a real estate record search.'"

"Mortgage fraud and associated predatory lending practices have become the focus of criminal investigations in Las Vegas, which is quickly emerging as the mortgage fraud capital of America."

"'The FBI has come to Las Vegas in droves,' said Debra March, director of the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 'I've never seen this many FBI people here.'"

"'I think this is only the tip of the iceberg, not just in Las Vegas but all around the country,' FBI special agent Scott Hunter said in February on National Public Radio. 'One of the local detectives I work with said he used to get a complaint a month. Now they get several a day.'"

"Many are at fault in predatory lending, said Cory Frey, senior loan officer for Southern Fidelity Mortgage in Las Vegas. There's the mortgage bank that employed the originator to place a certain loan with a borrower, a loan that was 'doomed should the market miss one step, let alone trip and fall on its face as it just did,' he said."

"There's the borrower playing the market who had to buy, despite his or her ability to pay back the obligation, just so they could realize a future return. And there's the loan officer who, with no hesitation, would do anything to make a buck and not explain certain parameters, Frey said."

"'Much of what I encounter among today's dazed and confused borrowers is that many were simply not aware or did not understand their loan's features, such as negative amortization or its adjustable terms,' Frey said. 'Somewhere along the line...these borrowers were either not explained or did not care to understand the exact features relating to their loan's low payment.'"

The Deseret News from Utah. "Utah's high-end housing market is out of balance, with simply too many houses for sale that are priced $500,000 and above, local economists and real estate analysts say."

"Along the Wasatch Front, more than 1,500 homes priced over $500,000 are currently for sale, according to the MLS."

"About 36 percent of new single-family homes for sale in the greater Salt Lake area were listed at $400,000 and above in the fourth quarter of 2007, and 22 percent are priced $500,000 or more, according to Metrostudy. In 2003, just 7 percent of the local housing inventory was priced $400,000 or more."

"'With the upper-end market, here's the glut of inventory,' said Jason Eldredge, executive VP of sales for a Salt Lake-based real estate research firm. 'If you're a buyer, you love to hear this, but if you're builder, you'll hate it.'"

"'The exacerbation of the whole issue was that builders were building to these $450,000 price points on average, and buyers were affording it,' said Curtis Dowdle, executive officer with the Salt Lake Home Builders Association. 'Then all of a sudden, we have the subprime meltdown and those loans ceased, and affordability became a real issue.'"

"In Salt Lake County, from the fourth quarter of 2006 to the fourth quarter of 2007, the total number of new homes priced over $430,000 jumped 217 percent, according to NewReach. The number of new homes priced $500,000 or more increased 244 percent."

"Utah County saw a 449 percent jump in new homes over $430,000 and a 400 percent increase in new homes over $500,000. Weber County had a whopping 1,500 percent hike in new homes priced greater than $430,000 and 225 percent in new houses more than $500,000."

"In Davis County during the same period, the number of new homes above $430,000 climbed 725 percent, and those above $500,000 jumped 925 percent."

"The absorption of speculator homes will likely begin to occur soon, because investors will seek to avoid paying ongoing carrying costs as they sit on their unsold properties, Dowdle said."

"'There's going to be some adjustment in pricing,' he said. 'There is no magic formula. A builder has to make monthly payments on every house they own, and that's no fun for anybody.'"

"Matt Ure, co-owner of Lake City Custom Homes in Herriman, currently has five finished houses ranging in price from $500,000 to $1.5 million that are currently unsold. Ure said most builders like himself have already cut prices as much as they can without falling in the red. 'I have already lowered many of my homes almost $100,000 since last summer,' he said."

"But if someone were to offer him $520,000 for a $700,000 house that he's listing for $600,000, he says he would rather bide his time. 'I'll say, 'No,' because I can wait, maybe rent it to cover some of the costs, then sell it for what it's worth when the market is comfortable again,' he said."

The Spectrum from Utah. "From a five-year period, land value has increased considerably in St. George. Since 2002, price appreciation has increased 77.85 percent, according to the OFHEO report."

"'You have to keep these things in perspective,' said Carol Sapp, executive officer for Southern Utah Homebuilders Association. She said the five-year appreciation rates give residents a better idea of their home's values."

"Sapp said northern Utah is about a year behind Washington County in terms of the market. 'I don't have a crystal ball, but I would expect the Wasatch Front to drop off a bit,' she said."

"Michael Dinsmore, of Encore Mortgage, said while 2005 is long gone, both buyers and sellers are seeing more realistic prices for homes in Washington County. 'In 2005, the value of properties was less than the selling price,' Dinsmore said. 'Now, the housing is where it's supposed to be.'"