The St Louis Post Dispatch reports from Missouri. "The downtown St. Louis turnaround that seemed just around the corner last fall may take longer than many had hoped. Indeed, the once-booming downtown residential market has cooled considerably. Over the past two years, 2,500 new rental and for-sale units were added to the 4,746 already in downtown, according to the Downtown St. Louis Partnership. Only 298 new units are expected to be added this year, said Jim Cloar, executive director of the partnership."

"'I have never built condominiums before so I have nothing to compare sales to, but the pace is slower than I would have expected,' said Craig Heller, managing partner of St. Louis-based LoftWorks LLC, which is developing the Syndicate building."

"'If we can get the building built, we will get the condos sold,' said Steve Smith, a partner in the St. Louis-based Lawrence Group. 'Because housing prices are slowing, the psychology of the buyer is to wait and see if it becomes cheaper.'"

"One victim appears to be a boarded-up building on 14th Street, which was to be converted, starting a year ago, into Ford Condominiums. Condo and loft prices are falling along with the pace of development, said Lewis."'

"The last thing developers want is inventory sitting on their hands, so they will take a hit, sell at a lower price or give concessions,' said Bob Lewis of St. Louis-based Development Strategies Inc. 'We are starting to see that.'"

"Downtown has long faced distinct challenges: obsolete buildings, the difficulty of assembling land for large projects, and competition from cheaper, easier-to-develop suburban sites. 'If St. Louis had constraining factors that prevented sprawl, that would give downtown an advantage,' Lewis said."

The Journal Register from Illinois. "The number of single-family homes started in Springfield last year was at the lowest level since 1984, and even fast-growing bedroom communities such as Chatham, Rochester and Sherman saw a slowdown in construction."

"The Reserve, a 60-acre development on the southwest side of Springfield where most homes start at $500,000, sold out in three years. But father-son developers John and Steve Klemm decided to lower the price range when they started the adjoining Savannah Pointe development last fall."

"'We didn’t think there was as much demand now in that market (The Reserve). It’s somewhere between The Reserve and Panther Creek. We kind of toned it down a bit,' said Steve Klemm."

"He said he expects homes in Savannah Pointe, which is just south of Panther Creek on Illinois 4, to start for about $300,000."

The Chicago Tribune from Illinois. "Once a relatively obscure slice of the real estate business, foreclosed homes that are now in the possession of lenders loom much larger as the economy flattens and housing sales stagnate."

"Across the country, federally chartered banks held more than $12 billion worth of foreclosed properties at the end of 2007, about 100 percent more than a year earlier. Of those, $6.6 billion are residential properties of one to four units, said Keith Leggett, senior economist at the American Bankers Association."

"One housing data firm said it found the same extraordinary doubling in the Chicago area in what's known as REOs—real estate owned by lenders and investors."

"Janice Lee fears she will lose her 1,400-square-foot Wilmette home next month. Lee found herself heading for trouble after she was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2003. To keep pace with her medical bills, Lee sought a $70,000 equity line on her home in 2004. Two years later, she sought a second line."

"Nearly half of her $130,000 loan, or $60,000, went toward her mortgage and property taxes. But that pushed her monthly payments to $4,000 from $2,500 in two years. In January 2007, she refinanced, pushing her monthly payments to more than $6,000, she said."

"She missed her first payment last March and received a foreclosure notice in June. Lee said she has tried to get the terms of her loans modified and still hopes to work something out. She's due back in bankruptcy court next month."

"'It's like quicksand. ... I went from a very normal, upper-middle-class existence to 'Oh, my God, I can't pay anything.' It's just crazy,' she said."

"David McCarthy, CEO of a Denver-based company that manages and disposes of REOs, said it will take three to five years to work through the properties on lenders' books. The REO manager has 7,500 foreclosed homes in its inventory—double the amount from this time last year."

"'Some lenders want to explore leasing properties in hopes the market will turn around, and others are just churn-and-burn, get it off the books,' particularly in struggling housing markets such as Detroit and Cleveland, McCarthy said. 'They think, 'The first loss is the best loss.'"

The Detroit Free Press from Michigan. "A three-bedroom, dusty pink colonial sits cold and empty among the family homes on a sophisticated Huntington Woods street. Last spring, the owner tried to sell the house for $399,900. But it would have been tough to overlook the blue cabinets in that unloved kitchen, the outdoor pool that spans the tiny backyard or the fact that metro Detroit's housing market had hit the skids."

"The house went into foreclosure, and this January the bank-owned property got slapped with a price tag of $239,900."

"Next Sunday, if no buyers are found, the once stately house built in 1927 is expected to be part of The4closurebus Tour -- a creation of Jeffrey Reiter and Pat Teeley, real estate agents in Huntington Woods."

"'A year ago, I couldn't have done a foreclosure home tour,' said Reiter. Earlier, he said many of the foreclosed homes were grotesque, had bad cases of mold and weren't priced to sell."

"Now, thanks to record foreclosures and the credit crunch, he and his partner see more banks becoming aggressive about pricing. And they're spotting opportunities."

"In Oakland County, one of the wealthiest counties in the country, there are 13,980 homes for sale. And 2,016 of those homes are either owned by banks or would need bank approval to sell."

"Teeley, who has been selling real estate in southeast Michigan since 1995, blames part of the foreclosure mess on Michigan's loss of jobs, greed and the fact that some people shouldn't have been able to buy some of the homes that they did."

"That said, she's stressing the growing mainstream acceptance of shopping in the foreclosure market. 'People can't believe in this market there can be 10 offers on a house, but it's happening. But only on foreclosures,' she said."

"We visit another home in Royal Oak. The home had a $280,000 mortgage on it in 2006. It's now got a foreclosure price tag of $154,900."

"Investors from as far away as Hong Kong and Hawaii are coming to Detroit to make their fortune buying foreclosed homes in bulk."

"'This is a millionaire's market,' said Jeremy Burgess, a 28-year-old investor from Washington state who has been living in Detroit for the past year. 'I feel like I'm driving through the city and stopping to shovel diamonds in the back of my truck.'"

"His wife, Jeanna Kiehle, and partner Jared Pomranky formed Urban Detroit Wholesalers to scour the city for houses they can fix and rent. The idea is to generate cash flow until the market improves, and they then can sell the houses. They own 38 houses now and close on 15 more before the end of the month."

"Burgess said homes in Detroit's better neighborhoods are renting for $850 a month. His company manages the properties for the out-of-state investors. The investors are banking on a Detroit recovery in the next 5-10 years."

"Banks see Detroit as a sore spot, said said broker Mark Nagy, because they cannot move the properties and there are so many."

"'Bulk buying will become more commonplace by the end of the summer,' Nagy said. 'Right now, so many properties in Detroit are like a hot potato. Whoever ends up with it will be crushed.'"

"In many cases, a bank today wants 55-65 cents on the dollar for a suburban property, yet investors want to pay 40-45 cents on the dollar, he said. In Detroit, the bank may want 30-35 cents on the dollar, and investors want it at 20-25 cents on the dollar."

"'Those two points have not met in the middle yet,' Nagy said. 'It's an evolution process. It's going to evolve that bulk sales will increase.'"

"'Right now, people are buying for the thrill because prices keep going down,' said John Graham, a real estate agent in St. Clair Shores who works primarily with investors. 'The rental market is going to be crazy good. That's what these out-of-state people are seeing.'"

The Journal Sentinel from Wisconsin. "Developer Scott Fergus, whose First Place on the River condominium development was taken over by a court-appointed receiver in January, filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition Tuesday."

"Fergus listed assets of $721,567 and liabilities of $80.9 million in documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Milwaukee. Most of Fergus' assets are tied to his Oconomowoc home. Cost overruns and a lawsuit involving its former general contractor have plagued First Place, among the largest housing developments downtown."

"Fergus, a former state legislator, has completed other housing developments in the Milwaukee area, including a 10-story condo building at 601 E. Ogden Ave."

"Fergus had planned to develop the $120 million Pointe Blue, with 434 condos, 90 apartments and commercial space overlooking Lake Michigan, just north of downtown Racine. He dropped those plans in January after he was unable to secure financing."

The South Washington County Bulletin from Minnesota. "There are...indications of a booming American economy gone bad in a city where almost nothing stood in the way of growth for decades: For sale signs that won’t go away, single-family homes converted into rental properties at an increasing rate and a disconcerting spike in mortgage foreclosures that dot the sprawling suburban landscape."

"The wave of foreclosures in Washington County — 148 alone in Cottage Grove during 2007; more than 850 county-wide — has left government agencies scrambling in a search for how best to help, city officials trying to stay on top of vacant properties and some homeowners, buffeted by a lagging economy and lower home values, hunting for help."

"'Up until the end of last year, people would’ve assumed it was an inner-urban problem,' said Ed Nelson of the Minnesota Home Ownership Center in St. Paul. Now, 'most people understand it’s across the board, it’s not hitting one specific neighborhood, not hitting one type of income group.'"

"Lack of knowledge about the home buying process turned into one of the multitude of contributing factors in the surge of foreclosures. Nelson said many buyers took out adjustable rate or no-down-payment mortgages without comprehension of what fluctuating interest rates could mean to their monthly payments."

"'In the suburban areas specifically we are seeing that clients were maybe overextending themselves, getting into a little more home than they could handle,' he said."

"It has all led to a problem so vast, so void of easy solutions, it has many experts scratching their heads in a search for solutions. 'I’ve been working in this field since 1992 in urban areas,' said Rich Malloy, deputy executive director of the Washington County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, 'and (I’ve) never seen anything like it.'"

The Star Tribune from Minnesota. "Not long ago, Minnesota home builders led the way out of recessions with placards that read, 'Now Hiring.'"

"During the last two recessions -- one seven years ago, the other 17 -- home-building jobs bounced back earlier and more energetically across Minnesota than they did across the nation."

"From March through November 2001, Minnesota home builders turned in an astonishing performance. They hired more workers each and every month of a national economic downswing."

"This time around, Minnesota home builders have few incentives to be heroes in the job market in the face of a brake on sales that started almost two years ago, said Pam Perri Weaver, executive VP for the Builders Association of Minnesota. 'Never have they been in an environment where interest rates are 5.5 percent and residential home building is not rising,' Weaver said."

"Said state economist Tom Stinson: 'Even though interest rates are low by historical standards, you still have to convince people to borrow money to buy an asset that may be going to continue to decrease in value for a year or more.'"

"'This is a sector that, all of a sudden, has enormous leverage on the rest of the economy,' Stinson said. 'It's affecting the free flow of credit,. Not just credit for housing but credit for all kinds of activities.'"

"Another reason Minnesota's home-building industry held up well in the last two recessions -- and may be more vulnerable now -- was that the state's population was growing at its fastest pace in decades, said Steve Hine, director of labor market information at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development."

"'We were a magnet state,' with job and population growth that outpaced the nation in many industries, he said. 'As our unemployment rate has approached the national unemployment rate, that magnetism has been reduced.'"