What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Speculation? "Peter - not his real name - had his dream. Five years ago, he and his wife sold their bungalow in south-west England for £270,000. They used half of the proceeds to buy a house in Britain for their two sons, and reserved half for their palace, a house in a new development called the Albatera Golf and Country Club, 20 minutes by motorway from Alicante."

"The Spanish developers, San Jose Inversiones, called the house design an Amapola. They handed over £82,000 as a deposit and waited for the club to be built. It never was. Today, the Albatera Golf and Country Club consists of a few show homes, a row of apartments and nothing else."

"'I wish I'd never bloody come,' he says. 'I wish I was still in England, in my bungalow, with the way of life, and the friends I had there.'"

Builder problems? "YIT Oyj, Finland's biggest construction company, fell the most in 15 years on the Helsinki exchange second-quarter profit missed analyst estimates on a slumping housing market in the Baltic countries and at home."

"YIT has a backlog of unsold housing units in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and has not started any new housing in those countries this year. It has lowered prices on unsold properties in the Baltics, Kari Kauniskangas, the head of the international construction division, said on a Webcast."

"Housing price increases in Finland 'are more moderate now,' Leinonen said. YIT has 'exceptionally many' Helsinki- area luxury apartments in its portfolio, he added. Price growth in Russia has also slowed since the beginning of the year and housing inflation is now 'normal' at 15 to 20 percent, he said."

"St. Andrews, the large commercial/residential development planned for 330 acres in the southern part of town, has been delayed indefinitely. 'St. Andrews is on hold temporarily and the sole reason for the delay is the bad economy,' Joe Gaudio, a representative of the majority owner of the project, told a recent public forum. 'The capital and credit markets are in disarray.'"

"Gaudio said the national economic scene was 'unprecedented in my experience' and that the impact of rising energy and food prices present 'huge implications for doing business in the town of Hyde Park.'"

Bank problems? "First National Bank, the state's largest locally based bank and a specialist in lower-quality mortgages, was closed by regulators Friday, a victim of problem loans and the lingering real-estate slump. Friday's announcement ends a decadelong odyssey for First National, which rode Arizona's economic boom to become the largest independent bank here, only to collapse even faster."

"Bank executives didn't see the approaching train wreck in the real-estate and credit markets. 'I don't see a bubble,' said former president and CEO Gary Dorris, in mid-2005."

"Northrim Bancorp said its second-quarter profits totaled $1.44 million, down 54 percent from the same three months of last year. The Anchorage-based banking company said profits fell due primarily to two factors: Interest received from loans fell more than interest paid on deposits. Northrim set aside more money to cover bad loans, and it wrote down $977,000 connected to foreclosed real estate."

"'While our housing market remains stable, we have experienced longer sales cycles in our major markets, reflecting a tighter mortgage loan market and reduced consumer confidence and uncertainty,' said CEO Marc Langland."

"The troubled Florida real estate market is continuing to cause major losses for in-state and out-of-state banks, earnings reports showed this week."

"On Friday, officials at Stuart-based Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida said they had written off more than a third of the roughly $100 million they had made in real estate loans, most of it in construction and land development."

"Dennis Hudson III said during a conference call that the bank was gearing up for massive liquidation sales. In some cases, the value of vacant land slated for development has declined by up to 50 percent of the purchase prices paid during the peak of the real estate boom in 2004 and 2005, CEO Dennis Hudson III said."

"Given those massive land-value declines, it's logical that land holders might walk away from their loans, said Ken Thomas, an economist and Miami banking analyst. Thomas said he thinks housing prices won't stabilize until the middle of 2010 and doesn't buy more optimistic projections from groups such as the National Association of Realtors."

"'People don't want bad news,' Thomas said."

Bubble fallout? "In the Chicago area, some communities that keep track of garage sale numbers-and not all do-report a growth in requests for permits this year, from a slight increase in the City of Chicago to spikes in Park Ridge, Streamwood and Bartlett."

"In Bartlett, the Woodland Hills subdivision's fourth annual garage sale last weekend was bigger than ever, a growth that organizers say may have had something to do with cash-strapped wallets."

"'A lot of people [are] talking about how this is a great time to do it because of the economy,' said Ralph Binetti, organizer of the sale, which included 100 homes this year, up from the usual 65 to 75."

"Even in communities where garage sale permits haven't been in high demand, the slumping economy was still mentioned, especially the downturn in the housing market."

"Bolingbrook saw garage sale permits decrease from 809 to 719 during the first six months of the year compared with the same period last year. That decline likely was tied to slumping home sales, said Jules Stanley, assistant to the village's finance director."

"'Because homes aren't selling as fast, there are fewer garage sales for people who are moving,' he said."

Or foreclosures? "The Chicago area had 21,488 properties in some stage of foreclosure in the second quarter of the year, or one of every 144 households, according to a report released Friday by RealtyTrac. Chicago's foreclosure rate marks a 22 percent jump from the previous quarter and a 58.3 percent increase from the same period a year ago."

"Foreclosures are a growing problem in Frederick County and Gray wants to limit the ripple effects. The county had 53 foreclosure filings in 2005, according to RealtyTrac. That number jumped to 100 in 2006 and 898 in 2007. From January to June 2008, RealtyTrac lists 964 Frederick County foreclosure filings."

"The county ranked 18th in Maryland counties for foreclosures in June. Prince George's was No. 1, according to the firm. Frederick County might step in to help alleviate the housing crisis. Next week, the Frederick County Commissioners plan to discuss a new law to prevent overgrown lawns."