The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. "The 2007 Parade of Homes, which featured five display homes in the $2 million range in Southshore near Aurora Reservoir, illustrates the plight of the struggling, upper-end market in the suburbs. More than six months after the end of the parade on Labor Day, none of the five homes has sold. One is in foreclosure. Another is expected to end up there after its builder dissolved his construction company."

"On April 7, Remarc Homes put its 7,200-square-foot home called Celebrations into foreclosure, according to public records. 'I'm not sure I want to be advertising to the public right now' that the home is in the initial stages of foreclosure, said Debbie Cramer, an owner of Remarc."

"The home, which features a 'woman's getaway space - a place for solitude, renaissance and peace,' according to advertisement literature, is on the market for $1.825 million. 'I think the land was a little overpriced,' Cramer said. 'We all had appraisals that said it could support homes of over $2 million.'"

"Wayde Jester, consulting director for Metrostudy, said the problem 'may be one of simple supply and demand. There's been a lot of building out there. If someone wants to invest $2 million in a home, it might not be southeast Aurora for most people.'"

"'Sometimes builders' egos get caught up in the parade home, and they get carried away,' he said."

"Byron Koste, director of the CU Real Estate Center, agreed. 'Quite often in a parade, a builder wants to make a statement, and they're inclined to overbuild for that specific neighborhood. If home prices keep going up, that's usually not too bad. But when prices are moving in the other direction, the difference is magnified.'"

"'Unfortunately, in difficult times like these, people can't afford excesses,' Koste added. 'And some of these homes might be what you would consider to be excessive.'"

From Real Vail in Colorado. "The Vail Board of Realtors characterizes 2008 as being off to a 'leisurely start.'"

"Other observers say Eagle County's formerly white-hot real estate market has been deteriorating for nearly a year now – and that seemingly bubble-proof mountain home sales are finally feeling the impact of the national housing-market downturn."

"The numbers don't lie. January saw the number of transactions dip to 104 in Eagle County, home to Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas. This is the lowest January figure in 12 years. February improved slightly to 131 transactions, but that's still the lowest number of deals since 115 in February of 2003."

"In Pitkin County, home to Aspen, sales volume has been off considerably more than Eagle County to start 2008. January sales totaled $127,200,000, off nearly 50 percent from the $253,209,000 sold in January 2007. February sales totaled $131,485,000, compared to $192,612,000 in February 2007, a decrease of nearly 32 percent."

"'Everybody was really optimistic coming up on the end of '07, thinking maybe we were going to sneak through and not have the impacts here,' said real estate broker and former Vail mayor Rob Ford. 'Now here we are and everyone's saying, 'Oops, maybe we are going to be affected,' but no one seems to know how deep it's going to go.'"

From ABC 15 News in Arizona. "Despite recent news that home sales increased in the month of February, experts say it is not an excellent indicator of what's to come."

"'The question is, 'What is normal,' Jay Butler, the director of Realty Studies at Arizona State University, told ABC 15. 'A normal resale market for a year would be about 70,000 transactions. We're probably not looking at that this year. Maybe some glimmers of recovery this year. Maybe 2009 we'll approach it. Maybe 2010.'"

"Jamie and David Standage say they're trying to patient when it comes to selling their Tempe home. They've had their remodeled house on the market for eight months, but no one has made an offer."

"'I don't know whether people think now is not the time to buy, or what it is,' said David Standage."

"'We just keep hearing that it's not getting any better and that it's not going to get better,' said Jamie Standage."

"The couple recently reduced their home price by $30,000 in hopes someone will take a second look at their house and make an offer. 'We've done quite a bit of work on this, and I just feel like when the right person walks through here, they're going to say, 'Okay, that's the house I want,' David Standage said."

The Arizona Republic. "Residents in an upscale neighborhood in Gilbert finally saw a clean-up earlier this week that they've been waiting for since October. Weeds at a vacant house in The Grove in the Millett Ranch subdivision had become an eyesore, resident Joanna Turpin said."

"'Nobody in the area has a house for sale,' Turpin said, 'but we were just embarrassed to have people over. Even the guy who cleans up our yard asked what was going on in the house across the street.'"

"'Got Weeds?' is a question often asked of Johnson Ranch residents after their homeowners association began its neighborhood maintenance program last year. Some associations are setting aside money to help maintain the yards of houses facing foreclosures, said Cynthia Dunham, executive director of The Leadership Centre."

"'We're just beginning to see the ramifications of this,' Dunham said. She said she expects Gilbert's outlying areas with newer developments to be hit the hardest with foreclosures because those often contain investor properties. Dunham said more associations also are seeing their residents fall behind on assessments because of financial hardship."

"'With the market as bad enough as it is, you want to have the allusion that you have a nice neighborhood,' Turpin said, who added people she's talked to throughout the Valley say their neighborhoods have foreclosed properties that aren't being maintained."

"'What kind of recourse do we have as neighbors?' she asked. 'Should it be up to us to clean it up? That doesn't seem like it should be the case.'"

"Though Canadians account for only small part of the Valley's total housing market, their interest is growing. Through mid-March of this year, 381 buyers from Canada invested in metro Phoenix homes."

"Canadian investor Trevor Matheson has taken an interest in metro Phoenix's real-estate market. So much so that he plans to buy six homes in the area over the next year."

"'There are definitely deals to be found in Phoenix,' said Matheson, who plans to hold onto the properties for at least three to five years."

"Matheson purchased his first Valley home in January...a house in north Phoenix's Kierland area that sold for $785,000 in 2006. The owners were facing foreclosure, and Matheson got it through a short sale for $470,000."

"Matheson is looking to sell six homes in Edmonton, Alberta, to buy homes here."

The Review Journal from Nevada. "Most foreclosed homes in the Las Vegas Valley are concentrated in newer subdivisions and have average home ages of less than 10 years, a local housing market analyst shows."

"The average age of homes in the top 10 foreclosure ZIP codes in Clark County ranged from 4.5 years in 89148 (537 foreclosures) to 25.1 years in 89108 (395 foreclosures). The median was eight years."

"'I think that was where the amateur investors and flippers were going because they could get a loan there,' SalesTraq President Larry Murphy said. 'I can get a new home and it's easier to get a loan. Don't get me wrong. It happened in older areas too, but people flocked to sales offices in 2004 and 2005, they got their houses delivered in 2006 and in 2007 they basically gave it back to the bank.'"

"The rise in 'mortgage walkers' is a new phenomenon for Las Vegas, Realtor Steve Hawks of ReMax Platinum said."

"Home prices have dropped to 2004 levels, so most homeowners who bought into communities built after 2005 are going to owe more than their house is worth, he said. 'When they try to sell for whatever reason, they either have to do a short sale or get foreclosed on. In addition, many investors purchased in these new areas and now are so upside-down they don't see the break-even point,' Hawks said."

"'Meanwhile, they're paying on a loan that's probably going to adjust, or even if it's fixed, they can't get the rent to cover the mortgage when their new neighbor just purchased the same house for $220,000 when they paid over $420,000. The person who bought for $220,000 can rent it out for far less, obviously, and the snowball continues,' he said."

"Home ownership in Las Vegas has become more affordable under current market conditions, with the median resale price dropping 19 percent from a year ago to $235,000. But they're being denied that opportunity, said Cory Frey, senior loan officer for Southern Fidelity Mortgage, because they can no longer use so-called stated income loans, or loans based on income other than reported wages."

"Before Assembly Bill 440 was enacted last year, Nevada law required lenders to ensure that borrowers could repay their loans before issuing a mortgage."

"The bill amended the law to make it unfair for a lender to 'knowingly or intentionally make a home loan, other than a reverse mortgage, to a borrower including, without limitation, a low-document home loan, no-document home loan or stated-document home loan, without determining, using any commercially reasonable means or mechanism, that the borrower has the ability to repay the home loan.'"

"Bankers look at loans in foreclosure and see that a majority of them are either stated income or adjustable rate, said Ed Jamison, chairman of Community Bank of Nevada. It's an unfortunate dilemma because people got money they probably shouldn't have, but the product was available, he said."

"'It's always been a nod and a wink with certain segments of our economy on what they make,' Jamison said. 'Candidly, that segment has dried up because of the risk factor. Bankers are pretty dumb, but when you get hit in the head several times, you say, 'OK, that's not a good product.'"

"Luxury high-rise condo resales increased to 29 units in the first quarter from 24 in fourth quarter 2007, Las Vegas-based Restrepo Consulting Group reported. The number is up from 27 in the same quarter a year ago."

"There were 523 high-rise condo listings as of March 31 at a median price of $749,900, or $482 a square foot. Three major projects were completed during the quarter. The $250 million, 40-story Allure tower on Sahara Avenue brought 428 high-rise luxury condos onto the market."

"The high-rise condo market continues to show signs of weakness, Restrepo Consulting project director Elena Shampaner said. 'This comes as no surprise considering the current housing recession, as well as the national credit crunch,' Shampaner said."

"The $420 million, 49-story Palms Place on Flamingo Road added 599 condo-hotel units; and the $1 billion, 64-story Trump Tower on the Strip added 1,282 condo-hotel units."

"For the condo-hotel segment, 11 units were sold at a median price of $395,000."

"No mid-rise luxury condos were resold during the quarter, Restrepo Consulting reported. The firm showed 132 mid-rise listings at a median price of $636,950."

In Business Las Vegas from Nevada. "It is the classic tale of boom and bust in Las Vegas. Investors of apartment buildings saw an opportunity and went on a buying spree to obtain complexes, upgrade the units and sell them as condo conversions at a hefty profit."

"The market took off with nearly 8,000 units closing in 2005 when investors were in a frenzy, according to Home Builders Research. By 2007, the number of closings dropped to 1,612, and the condo conversion market today has virtually ground to a halt."

"Many major investors see what has happened to those who bought complexes to convert into condos, only to see them sell one-third or half of the units and rent out the rest as apartments, said Gary Cuff, senior director of multifamily investments with Cushman Wakefield Commerce CRG in Las Vegas."

"'The ones that can are hanging on, and the ones that can't are going to be swallowed up by the sharks who will come in and buy these properties for deep discounts and hold them, rent them as apartments until such time they can take them to market,' he said."

"With the decline in home prices, first-time buyers would rather spend $150,000 for a small home in a good neighborhood with a back yard than the same prices for a converted apartment, Las Vegas housing analyst Steve Bottfeld said."

"The median price of condo conversions in 2007 was $180,000. That's down from $197,140 in 2006 when the market slowed."

"'The one thing you have to do to have success in condo conversions today is not sell them to investors,' said Bottfeld. 'Because as soon as there is a perception that you are buying into an apartment, you have lost the entire panache. The whole idea behind conversions is the first-time home buyer.'"

"'The greed meter got going for a lot of people, and they thought they would get in on it,' Cuff said. 'Some did well, but those who got in late were left holding the proverbial bag when the market slowed down.'"

The Nevada Appeal. "Developers fought to get one of the city's largest subdivisions approved more than two years ago, but not one room at the Shulz Ranch has been built. Work on the 521-home development in South Carson City might not start any time soon either."

"Shulz Ranch Developers, managed by Lennar Communities in Reno, defaulted on a $26 million loan on the property last month."

"Work on subdivisions being developed by other companies has also been slow. More than half of the nearly 2,000 vacant home lots were approved by the city after the start of 2006. Home sales in the city last year were half of what they were in 2002, and the average home sale price rose more than $100,000 in that time."

"The market, however, is getting better this year, at least for the 1,075-home Silver Oak subdivision, said Mark Turner, a sales agent for the developer. Prices for the homes have dropped about a third, he said, but the worst time for business was in the last two years. The company has about 475 lots left to sell."

"The number of building permits for homes in the city dropped by more than half from 2006 to 2007. A slow down in home construction should not be a surprise with the country's building and credit problems, though, said Bambi Spahr, director of the Reno-based Builders Association of Northern Nevada."

"'They're not building 'A Field of Dreams,' she said."