What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Lower prices? "Orange County's median home sale price dropped to $291,500 in July, down 11.2 percent from a year ago, according to data released Monday by the Orange County Association of Realtors. 'We've been averaging a 1 percent drop per month,' said Chris Scibelli, president of OCAR."

"Sullivan County's median of $167,750 was down 23.7 percent from a year ago, according to the Sullivan County Board of Realtors. July sales of Orange County condominiums and town homes plunged 53.7 percent from a year ago. Through the first seven months of the year, sales are down 39.1 percent."

"In the New York metropolitan market, including northern New Jersey, home prices in the April-June period fell an average of 6.6 percent from the second quarter of 2007, and 14.2 percent of homeowners who bought during the last five years are under water, Zillow said."

"'That means one out of every seven people in New Jersey are facing negative equity, and that number rings true to me,' said Jeffrey Otteau, head of Otteau Appraisal Group in East Brunswick and an expert on the state's housing market."

"'We're seeing short sales all over, and the situation does not know economic or town lines,' said Ken Baris, president of West Orange-based Jordan Baris Realtors. 'These days, it is considered an acceptable cost of business for some lenders to have these short sales.'"

Builder problems? "Through the first half of 2008, new-home construction on Nantucket is on pace to be about half of what it was in 2007. For island carpenters like Ralph Kurash, who specializes in interior finish work and cabinet-making, the numbers at the Building Department reflect a grim reality."

"'It's extremely slow,' Kurash said. 'It hasn't been like this since the recession in the late 1980s, and I'm not sure that was as slow as it is now. I talk to the masons that I work with and I've hardly heard of anyone putting foundations in.'"

"'It just hasn't been like the past, where we were crazy,' said one longtime island builder who wished to remain anonymous. 'To be honest, I'm looking to make a deal with them. We've got one job now, but it's not enough to carry the winter. I've got two more I'm bidding on, and if I need to get the job I'll cut prices and make a deal. I've got people coming up to me and asking for work all the time. Everybody is cutting corners and trying to save.'"

"From January to June, Gresham housing permits decreased 60 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. Brian Lessler, president of Gresham-based Persimmon Homes, said the company has dropped prices on three homes in the upscale Persimmon Country Club area by almost 20 percent. For those houses, which have been on the market for about a year, he said, 'we're not trying to make a profit anymore; we're just trying to turn the dollars over.'"

"The Beranger, an upscale condominium development, has gone mostly unsold. Seventy-one percent, or 17 out of 24 condos, are still on the market.Other companies have been forced to pull out of the Northwest region altogether because of the housing downturn."

"Kimball Hill Homes closed its Northwest division in June 2007. The company had planned a 38-lot subdivision in Gresham to cater to first-time, move-in buyers, said Mark Lee, the former Northwest division president for Kimball."

"The company was less than a month from opening a sales office for the subdivision. The streets were developed, and the lots were ready for utilities, he said. Even as regional president, he was 'totally baffled' by the division's sudden closure."

"'It's a horrible time to sell property,' Lessler said. 'It's a buyer's market, there's no question about it.'"

"Homebuyers waiting for the prices of Carroll Creek's luxury condominiums to drop further will have waited too long after this weekend. If all goes according to plan, K. Hovnanian Homes will sell off the remaining 10 residential units in Maxwell Place at a 'big closeout sale' Saturday at its sales center at 69 S. Market St., said sales associate Bill Shukey."

"Bob Carney, a Long and Foster Real Estate agent in Mount Airy who has toured the condos, said the units have been overpriced at $600,000 to $700,000 for several years. 'My guess is that was because of the novelty of the area,' Carney said. He said the $400,000 range would be closer to market value for most of the units."

Or incentives? "Grand Junction is starting to see big-city tactics when it comes to selling a house. Gene Covello, who with his wife is looking to sell an area home at an asking price starting at $1.2 million, has thrown in the incentive of a new car with an acceptable offer on the home."

"The home in question is a 4,150-square-foot house on 1.6 acres in the Redlands. It has been on the market since May. The automotive incentive tops a GrandValley home whose owners threw in a $2000 gas card."

"'I'd heard about them doing it in Las Vegas where the market was real slow,' said Covello, who is also offering another home in Grand Junction and will live in whichever house doesn't sell. 'My wife woke up and said she had a dream that we had an open house and we had a car out there that we were giving away if they bought it.'"

"The latest MLS figures show that just 21 homes priced at or more than $700,000 have been sold this year in the Grand Valley as of Aug. 1, Covello said. There are 143 homes in that price bracket on the market. Between August 2007 and August 2008, 40 homes in that price range have sold."

"'People have a lot of options when they go to buy a home,' said Kelley Burford, the real estate broker on the home. 'There's a lot to chose from. Real estate brokers are probably going to do whatever they can to set their product above the rest and differentiate. In Denver, some are offering cruises and vacations.'"

"Renters rejoice. Apartment owners are dangling freebies in front of new tenants who sign 12-month leases. One company, Mark Taylor, is even going so far as to offer a free iPod, a $25 iPod tunes gift card and two months of free rent to new tenants who lease any apartment in its 34 Valley complexes, including eight in Chandler, four in Tempe, four in Ahwatukee and two in Gilbert."

"With a glut of cheap rental homes on the market, apartments are facing more competition than ever and many are sitting with empty units as vacancy rates soar."

"'In extreme cases, landlords are offering three months free,' said Pete TeKampke, a commercial real-estate broker and board member of the Arizona Multihousing Association. 'This is a great time to be a renter.'"

"During the Valleywide condo craze, 30,616 apartment units were converted or sold to investors who planned to convert them to condos, TeKampke said. By the middle of last year, 18,000 units had reverted to apartment rental units and many investors had scrapped their conversion projects."

"The result has left some apartment complexes with a patchwork of owner-occupied condos, investor-owned condo rentals and apartment rentals."

Or foreclosures? "The national home foreclosure trend is finally showing up in New Mexico with a large jump of residents losing their homes in the last year. In the last 12 months, New Mexicans have seen a staggering 270-percent increase in foreclosures."

"Experts say housing trends across the nation usually show up a bit later in New Mexico. 'Typically, we'll see things begin on the West Coast and the East Coast. Then, six to 12 months later, we see the effect occur locally,' the Albuquerque Realtors Association's Don Padilla said."