The Housing Bubble

The Press Democrat reports from California. “A total of 47 cases were scheduled for hearings Thursday in Judge Alan Jaroslovsky’s Santa Rosa bankruptcy court, each involving a creditor seeking permission to seize a debtor’s property. The vast majority involved lenders attempting to foreclose on homeowners who had sought safe haven in the courts from the fallout of the subprime mortgage crisis. Instead of fighting for their homes, however, most didn’t even bother.”

“In case after case, homeowners simply let lenders begin foreclosing on homes that are now worth less than the mortgages owed on them. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before,’ Jaroslovsky said before the hearing. ‘I’ve never seen so many people care so little about losing their homes.’”

“In previous periods of economic hardship, homeowners typically fought like hell to save their homes, Jaroslovsky said. Today, however, it’s a very different story. Bankruptcy courts are seeing a sharp increase in cases filed by homeowners unable to make payments on houses whose values are plummeting.”

“‘What you’re seeing is the fallout from the mortgage crisis,’ said David Chandler, a bankruptcy attorney in Santa Rosa. ‘In case after case after case, there’s just no hope.’”

“‘People have been living off the equity in their houses and their credit cards. Now, both of those things are ending,’ said Doug Provencher, a Santa Rosa bankruptcy attorney. ‘It’s going to create an interesting problem.’”

“Paul Jamond, a Santa Rosa bankruptcy attorney, said he believes this year will prove to be a massive one for bankruptcies in the county because ‘people are beaten.’ ‘It’s like a tsunami,’ Jamond said. ‘The water recedes from the shore. Oh, well, that’s nice. Well, what’s coming?’”

The Sacramento Bee. “Thelma Pugh of North Highlands came to rely on home equity as a cushion. She and her husband took out a $25,000 line of credit a year and a half ago from Countrywide Financial Corp. They’ve used about $9,000, mostly to pay for home repairs and – when her husband was hospitalized recently – to pay some bills.”

“‘It was like a lifeline,’ she said. ‘If I couldn’t make ends meet, I had this.’”

“That lifeline was just cut off. The Pughs were among 122,000 Countrywide customers recently notified that, because of vanishing equity, they no longer can tap into their lines of credit.”

“In the fourth quarter of 2006, so-called equity extractions – from refinancing, home-equity loans or outright sales – accounted for about 17 percent of Californians’ disposable income, according to Scott Hoyt, the director of consumer economics at Economy.com.”

“That was about twice the U.S. average. Only in Arizona and Nevada did homeowners depend more on home equity for cash.”

The Ventura County Star. “The median sales price of new and existing homes and condominiums in Ventura County dropped from a high of $630,000 in 2005 to $525,000 at the end of 2007.”

“‘If we can’t sell, we’ll just walk away,’ said Maria Ambriz, who with her husband, Jack, has watched the monthly payments on the Camarillo home they bought in the spring of 2006 soar from $2,500 to $4,700. They’re spending about 85 percent of their monthly income just to cover the payments.”

“The couple said they didn’t understand the rate increase that came with their adjustable-rate mortgage loan. While the couple said they are partly to blame, they think their Realtor and mortgage broker should share some responsibility.”

“‘No one ever explained that to us; they sort of smoothed things over and said we could do it,’ Ambriz said.”

“A friend of hers who cleans houses is facing similar problems after being coaxed into buying a $400,000 home. ‘It makes no sense that she got a loan, and now she’s like $30,000 in debt because she was using a credit card to try and cover her payments,’ said Ambriz.”

“John Kaspar is not as big a risk-taker. Ventura County’s high-priced market has kept him on the sidelines. Kaspar is hesitant to leap in and buy. Married with three children, Kaspar watched prices even in middle-class parts of Camarillo nudge up past $540,000 two years ago when he began looking.”

“By traditional lending standards, a family would have to earn $150,000 a year to afford a home in the range of $511,000 to $612,000, according to some estimates. ‘We prequalified for $500,000, but there was no way I was going to do that,’ he said.”

“Kaspar didn’t want to overextend his family. He’s seen booms and busts before. He felt the ‘bubble was about to pop.’”

“But it has been difficult to sit and watch. ‘I have a friend who refied’ five times and mostly for silly things,’ he said.”

The Tribune. “The Central Coast is suffering as the housing market slumps, but it may be in better shape than many other California regions, said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.”

“‘One of my key messages is that real estate is local,’ said Appleton- Young, who spoke at a conference Thursday called ‘Special Weapons and Tactics to Survive a Down Market.’”

The Daily Breeze. “The monthly New Home Sales and Pricing Report issued by CBIA/Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, said 61,861 new homes were sold last year, compared with 89,773 in 2006. Single-family-home sales fell 29.7 percent. Condos took the biggest hit, with sales falling 38.6 percent. And sales nose-dived 67 percent in December.”

“Jonathan Dienhart, director of published research for Hanley Wood, suggests we may be nearing the bottom of this cycle in the new-home market. ‘The 30 percent decline in sales for 2007 is likely the largest annual decrease we will see during this downturn,’ he said.”

“So far, there is no sign that’s about to happen. ‘We’re trying to find more things to disqualify you now than qualify you,’ said a Countrywide Financial Corp. manager whom I bumped into while running errands.”

“Two big homebuilders are offering deep discounts to attract buyers. D.R. Horton will hold the final session of what it calls an ‘UnAuction’ on Saturday at developments from Bakersfield to Imperial County.”

“The company is offering discounts up to 50 percent. And a company spokesman said nine hopeful buyers were camped out Friday at the Port Marluna project in Oxnard, where an auction was scheduled the following day.”

“‘It’s not like they are auctioning off dogs. They are auctioning off very nice homes,’ he said.”

The Napa Valley Register. “Because of declining residential values and adjustable mortgages resetting to higher rates, the city of Napa’s affordable housing program is losing two single-family homes.”

“Both owners got in over their heads when their adjustable mortgages reset to higher rates. They couldn’t afford the increased monthly payments, said Jan Maurer-Watkins, manager of the city’s housing authority.”

“Making matters worse, each house had lost more than $100,000 in value. The mortgages exceeded what the houses are now worth, Maurer-Watkins said.”

“‘The fundamental question is, will the real estate market turn around next year?’ Maurer-Watkins said. ‘If it does, we’ll see less of these. If it doesn’t, we’ll see more.’”

The Union Tribune. “Home loan failures in San Diego County continued their steady climb in January, setting records for both foreclosures and the notices of default that are the first step in reclaiming mortgaged properties.”

“Marc Carpenter, a San Diego real estate agent who specializes in defaults, says sometimes it’s better for consumers to go into foreclosure than to keep sinking into debt.”

“‘A lot of people are starting to look at it like a business decision,’ he said. Most distressed homeowners are ‘your normal, hard-working families. They got caught up in the frenzy of the market and kept expecting it to appreciate.’”

“One of those people is Dave Pierce, a veteran real estate agent who recently went into default on a five-bedroom, 3,864-square-foot Torrey Highlands home, which he bought for about $1 million 3½ years ago.”

“Despite his 30 years in the real estate business, Pierce says he misjudged the market, getting in over his head with financing much like thousands of other San Diegans. He can’t refinance his loan because his home is now worth far less than he paid for it.”

“Pierce, who has Parkinson’s disease, lives with two adult children, who had been helping him with his $6,000 monthly mortgage payments. He is seeking permission from his lender to do a short sale, selling the home for $790,000 and repaying less than the full amount of his loan.”

“‘I know about a dozen people who are losing their houses,’ Pierce said. ‘All are in real estate. This business is really hurting.’”

“In the late 1990s, the last time Lisa Richards’ catering business was hit by a recession, she came up with a new ‘Value Menu’ for her corporate clients. This year, there’s a new offering – dubbed the ‘Recession Menu.’”

“‘I could call it the value menu or the discount menu, but I’m just tired of playing semantics,’ said Richards. ‘It is what it is.’”

“Richards said she started noticing a ’softening’ in the catering business in April, as it became apparent that the housing boom had gone bust. ‘The contraction was quick. Companies – particularly the real estate developers and brokers, anything related to real estate – just quit having events,’ Richards said.”

The Recordnet. “Starting out in September 2003 with five employees, Shaheem Ali’s All-America Funding grew quickly. By last August he operated three offices with 42 employees, 16 of them in Stockton.”

“Then it all came crashing down. Expecting to fund 19 home loans that month, All-America only funded two after Ali’s major national backer suffered its own huge losses and changed guidelines in midstream. ‘The business just fell off the cliff,’ Ali said.”

“Ali’s story is not unique. But Central Valley Association of Realtors interim chief Cliff Coler said a lot of people got into business for themselves believing there was easy money to be made quickly, comparing it with shooting fish in a barrel.”

“‘With more people getting in, you’re going to have a bigger fallout. What we just witnessed was historic in nature,’ he said.”

The Press Enterprise. “In San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the preliminary indications are the area lost jobs in 2007 for the first time since records have been kept.”

“Chapman University does a quarterly survey on Californians’ consumer sentiment, and its fourth-quarter reading was sharply lower, economist Esmael Adibi said.”

“‘Even someone who pays his mortgage and has been in the same home for 10 years can look around the neighborhood. He sees his neighbor’s homes that used to be worth $700,000 or $800,000 and are now worth $400,000 or $500,000,’ Adibi said. ‘And when you see that, you just don’t feel as wealthy.’”

“Norco is sharing in the nationwide problem of home foreclosures, with about 9 percent of homes in one development there believed to be abandoned.”

“An informal survey by Norco Fire Chief Jack Frye found that 53 of the 588 homes in Norco Ridge Ranch, a newer development, appeared to be vacant, City Manager Jeff Allred said.”

“‘We wanted to find out how prevalent the problem is here,’ Allred said. ‘It’s comparable to other places in the Inland Empire.’”

“Yvonne Torres, a real estate agent who works in Riverside County, added that abandoned homes that fall into disrepair can make it hard for neighbors to sell their houses. Torres lives on Mt. Shasta Drive. She said on her street alone, five of the 25 homes are now vacant.”

The Desert Sun. “Many real estate agents who once made a killing off the booming housing markets in the Coachella Valley, California and across the nation are now forced to leave the business or supplement their income with a second job.”

“Coachella Valley home sales were down 21.4 percent in 2007 from the year before and almost 46 percent from 2005, according to Real Data Strategies. In 2007, 52.1 percent of real estate agents who used the MLS - 1,900 people - did not close a single sale, according to Real Data Strategies.”

“‘Without a doubt, so many people went into real estate over the last five years that it’s just a natural cycle,’ said Greg Berkemer, executive VP of the California Desert Association of Realtors. ‘There aren’t enough transactions for all of them to do the business they’d like.’”

“That translates into 7,000 former California agents who once thrived on big commissions but now have to find other work where they can.”

“Real was like like matchmaking for Rosemary Chapman. And she was good at it. She mostly worked with investors, who would buy multiple homes, fix ‘em up and sell them for a profit. Commissions were plentiful.”

“The former executive for a furniture design company in Chicago came to the desert more than eight years ago. At that time, the best jobs - and best money - were in the rosy real estate market.”

“‘I caught (the market) when it was starting to go up,’ she said.”

“And for most of her eight years in real estate, she did well. An agent for Coldwell Banker, she dealt mostly with high-end homes and investors. A smile instantly lights up her face when she talks about selling the Frank Sinatra House in Palm Springs in 2005.”

“When she got that $78,000 commission check, she splurged - on herself and her friends.”

“Chapman brightens when she talks about those days. Days when sellers lined up to find a deal. Days when she’d wait outside a house before the for-sale sign was posted, once at 6:30 a.m., so her client could make the first offer. Days when she’d indulge on travel and dinners.”

“‘I thought it would keep on going and going and going,’ Chapman said. ‘Unfortunately it didn’t.’”

“Chapman tried to hold out during the months after her last sales in February 2007, hoping for the market slump to end and sales to pick up. She worked the phone. Kept in touch with clients. Tried to entice interested investors.”

“But they wanted to wait, determined to hold out to get the most bang for their buck. With the market continuing to tank, everyone wants to time the bottom, they told her.”

“It left Chapman without commissions. Her savings continued dropping during the spring and summer of 2007. Travel. Nights out. Personal luxuries. All cut from the budget.”

“Chapman’s salary used to be in the six figures. In 2006, she cleared $26,000. And with no homes sold since last February and a depleting savings account, Chapman in August had to find another job to make ends meet. She began selling cars at Honda of the Desert.”

“‘I figured if I could sell a house, I could sell a car,’ the 58-year-old said while waiting for her next customer at the Cathedral City car dealership. ‘I had to do something. I had to pay my rent.’”

“Mario Perez of Re/MAX Real Estate Consultants has seen it firsthand. During recent dinners at two different restaurants, the servers were former agents from Tarbell and Coldwell Banker.”

“‘It’s happening and it’s happening like crazy,’ Perez said of Realtors finding new careers.”

“‘There’s nothing wrong with it. You have to do what you have to do. They blow the money (made on the market) and they’re back to doing what they’ve done most of their life,’ Perez said.”

A report from the Idaho Statesman. “Four area home builders and three investors stuck with seven vacant luxury homes have decided desperate times call for desperate measures. They’re going to try to sell their homes, originally priced from $900,000 to $1.7 million, at an auction March 1 in Meridian. The auctioner says homes will be discounted up to 40 percent - although there are no minimum bids, and the owners can reject even the highest bids if they aren’t satisfied.”

“‘We have had housing auctions before, but not seven luxury homes at one time,’ said Phil Hoover, an associate broker in Boise. ‘That’s what makes it significant. It goes to show that the higher you go in price, the softer the market gets.’”

“Three of the homes are in Star, two in Middleton and one apiece in Boise and Eagle. Of the 449 homes sold in the Valley in January, only five were in Star and eight in Middleton, according to the Intermountain MLS.”

“MLS figures also show that Star has a 42-month supply of homes, and Middleton a 15-month supply based on January’s sales rate.”

“‘It is interesting to note that six of the seven homes are in the hardest-hit areas and price range for oversupply,’ said Shaun Tracy, an associate broker in Boise. ‘Once again, this speaks to overbuilding in the wrong location.’”

“Tracy said that even though the owners reserve the right to refuse the highest offer, they could also decide to take it thinking that ‘it’s the best I’m going to get.’”

The Oregonian. “Portland-area homeowners can still smile about home values, but sales trends suggest a frown will break out soon. The inventory of unsold homes rocketed to nearly 13 months’ worth of sales in January. That’s up 50 percent from December and the highest since record-keeping began in 1998. The previous high was 10 months in January 2000.”

“Brokers say they’ve already had to talk sellers into starting prices 5 percent to 10 percent lower than they’d like. The troubles, though, are with buyers: They’re not buying. The number of January sales fell off nearly one-third from a year earlier.”

The Gazette Times from Oregon. “Housing prices in Corvallis gained a little ground in January, but the market continued its sluggish pace at the first of the year. Emboldened buyers were making low offers and seemed prepared to wait for incentives from sellers as more houses pop up on the market.”

“‘There are sales taking place, but I tell people this isn’t a place where you’re going to get multiple offers,’ said Alan Deitch of Raising the Bar Real Estate. ‘If you’re going to sell your house, you’ve got to be the best option out there.’”

“In Corvallis, the number of active real estate listings increased during the course of the month. There were 213 homes on the market during the first week of January. By the first week of February, that number had grown to 224.”

“Mid-range and higher priced homes are sitting on the market, as homeowners seem less likely to be thinking about upgrading even with mortgage interest rates declining. ‘There’s not the enthusiasm we’ve had in the past,’ Deitch said. ‘Without enthusiasm, we could have interest rates at 1 percent and it wouldn’t matter.’”

The Bend Bulletin from Oregon. “A string of new buildings, some empty and others half-filled, line this city’s light-industrial corridor — a reflection of what happens when a slowing economy collides with too much speculative construction, according to property owners, and real estate and economic development representatives.”

“A downturn in Central Oregon’s housing market has contributed to a weakening in demand for industrial space by companies in businesses related to housing construction, those observers say.”

“‘Redmond’s industrial market got too big for its britches in 2007,’ according to the report. ‘The simple fact is that new building construction supply exceeded the demand by a factor of three.”"

“Developers are not in panic mode, but another year without filling their spaces would hurt, said Eric Batha, who built 32,000 square feet of industrial condominium space in the Pioneer Industrial Park. So far, the development has not sold any units.”

“‘There are a lot of tire-kickers, a lot of people on the fence that are taking a wait-and-see attitude,’ Batha said. ‘There’s a creepy feeling about the economy. Nobody wants to jump in and have it be a mistake. They want to wait it out and see what happens.’”

“The market has slowed for two reasons — supply and demand, Prince said. ‘Housing-related companies have pulled back because of the slowdown in the residential market and a fair number of (industrial) spaces are already on the market,’ Prince said. ‘There’s a lot to pick from.’”

“Potential buyers of Batha’s condominium units include plumbers, electricians and secure storage companies — the type of businesses that are hurt by the slowing housing market, Batha said.”

“One owner of 16 industrial condominium suites in the Pioneer Industrial Park is offering to pay the first two years of a mortgage on six of the suites that would lock in the buyer as the owner, said broker Steve Larsen.”

The News Times in Oregon. “Veronica Vasquez, the senior loan officer at Family Equity Group in Hillsboro, said that since the housing bubble burst last year, her work has shifted. While she used to help people buy new homes, she’s now helping homeowners get out of the existing mortgages.”

“But with about 50 percent of clients coming to her with bad credit due to late mortgage payments, her hands are often tied, making her play the part of credit counselor.”

“‘I just go and talk to the banks directly and try to negotiate, to try to lock the rate and try to help them keep the same loan,’ Vasquez said.”

“RC Hernandez, the owner of Family Equity Group, said that it’s difficult to turn people away at the door of his mortgage firm when there’s little that can be done. ‘It’s tough feeling helpless because you think there’s got to be something you can do,’ Hernandez said. ‘Sometimes selling isn’t even an option.’”

“The flood of loan troubles has Hernandez and other mortgage brokers inundated with people seeking help. ‘There are mounds of applications from people who needed something to happen yesterday,’ Hernandez said.”

“Ted Troutman, a Beaverton bankruptcy lawyer, said his workload is up over 50 percent from last year. He’s working not only with people who have lost their homes because of the subprime mess, but also with people who are out of a job because of the bad economy, which is tied to the collapse of the housing market.”

“And, things may get worse before they get better. In 2006 1,057 subprime loans were signed in District 29. By the end of 2009, most of those will have jumped to a much higher interest rate and many of the homeowners will likely be looking for a way out.”

“‘We’re going to see twice the applications that we saw during the peak of the housing market,’ Hernandez said grimly.”

The Peninsula Daily News from Washington. “Publicity about mortgage foreclosures is scaring people out of building or buying houses, a builder, a banker and two real estate agents said Monday.”

“‘We do not need this,’ said Kevin Russell, waving a copy of Monday’s Peninsula Daily News and its front-page story about local sawmill layoffs driven by weak housing sales.”

“‘Why do we let the media drive our lives?’ asked Russell, the head of the president of the North Peninsula Building Association as he addressed the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce’s membership luncheon.”

“They might seem bad, though, to the nearly 300 workers temporarily idled from the Inferfor Pacific and KPly mills in Port Angeles and nearly an additional 100 at Portac mills in Beaver and Forks. Another mill, Port Angeles Hardwood, has temporarily cut its daily operating hours by 20 percent.”

“And the number of houses priced below $200,000 in Port Angeles has increased 24-fold, according to agent Brooke Nelson. Only three such houses were on the market in December 2005, she said. Today there are 73 in Port Angeles and another 130 across Clallam County.”

“‘It’s amazing to me what’s available,’ Nelson said.”

“Should someone build or buy a house, he or she can expect it to double in value over the next seven to 10 years, said Dan Gase, president of the Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty, citing the history of housing prices in the city.”

“Gase went so far as to suggest investing in a house as a way to finance a child’s or grandchild’s college education.”

“Gase said the slack market won’t last forever. ‘There’s a huge demand beginning to build up here,’ he said. ‘You don’t really have to wait for the feeding frenzy. Have faith in our community. Don’t think about the short term.’”

“That short-term chaos in the mortgage market, said Roger Kelso of First Federal Savings & Loan Association, is due to ‘a perfect storm’ of ‘unbridled enthusiasm’ by investors. It also was caused by companies putting homebuyers into mortgages they had no hopes of affording when the loans’ interest rates rose, said Kelso.”

“‘You’re seeing communities that are decimated by foreclosures,’ he said.”

“The burst bubble in home construction and sales has resulted in more contractors available and eager to work, Russell said. ‘For those of you who were looking for a contractor at the height of the boom,’ he said, ‘now is a great time to call.’”

The Columbian from Washington. “Waiting to buy a new house in Clark County? Local builders say now is a good time to do it, and they’re spreading the word with a new ad campaign and event to showcase their products.”

“In April, a tour of more than 30 new homes will wrap up the ‘Buy New Buy Now’ promotion launched this month, according to the Building Industry Association of Clark County. The group is sponsoring the $80,000 campaign, being paid for by nine local home builders, along with Parr Lumber, Riverview Bank and Countrywide Financial.”

“The advertisements urge buyers to consider low mortgage interest rates and reduced new-home prices, said Morall Olson, VP of the 1,050-member building industry association. ‘We want to get the word out that it’s a great time to buy,’ he said.”

“The TV and radio spots also downplay the notion that home values could continue to slide in Clark County. A total of 312 new and pre-owned homes were sold here in January with a median price (half for more, half for less) of $245,383. It was a 7 percent decline from the median price of $263,900 for the 517 homes that sold in January 2007.”

“The cooling market has kept buyers riding the fence, said Olson, owner of a Kalama-based custom home builder. ‘The reports create a perception of uncertainty for anybody looking to buy or sell. It scares them,’ he said.”

“The number of homes for sale here climbed to a 12.7-month supply in December, according to the Portland-based MLS. ‘There’s no doubt in my mind we’re going to work off some of this inventory,’ said Jon Girod, president of Vancouver-based Quail Homes. ‘The bad news is behind us. We’ve got to stay focused on what’s ahead.’”

The Bellingham Herald from Washington. “This is the time of year when bids are being requested for large public and commercial projects, so local construction companies are trying to figure out how many projects to pursue and the level of competition they can expect.”

“While residential construction is expected to slow down significantly this year, workers should be fairly busy on commercial and public projects. ‘Housing construction has been a boom-and-bust kind of industry as long as I’ve been in this business, but commercial is much more steady,’ said Steve Isenhart, co-owner of Tiger Construction.”

“‘Commercial and custom home projects seemed to be coming along at about the same pace (as previous years), but condominium and apartment projects have really fallen off,’ said Dave Christensen of Christensen Design Management.”

“Some projects, particularly in residential, have halted as financial institutions have become more cautious about lending money. ‘You see projects stall in residential that haven’t been tried in Bellingham, such as the condo towers,’ said Myles Donnelly of Franklin Corp.”

The Seattle PI from Washington. “The Seattle skyline will change, as will the central business district, with the construction of a twin-tower, 43-story building planned for a half-block site across Fifth Avenue from The Westin Hotel.”

“Offering high-end hotel, condominium and office space, as well as deluxe retail space at ground level, developers of the 1.2 million-square-foot building at 1913 Fifth Ave. will break ground next year, said project manager Alec Carlin of Hummingbird Advisors of Seattle.”

“Ishmael Leyva, of New York was chosen as architect, ‘not because we don’t like Seattle designers, but because we feel Seattle is ready for something that’s more edgy, more ‘out there,’ Carlin said.”

“‘This is a sophisticated design that says Seattle looks not toward Vancouver but toward Chicago and New York,’ he said. ‘It also says Seattle is ready for higher density downtown, which has happened in Vancouver and in Portland.’”

“Hummingbird hopes to benefit from the sweeping development of South Lake Union, Carlin said. ‘We’re hoping it will revive that area, which is on the edge of Belltown, and make it into a vital, vibrant pedestrian area,’ he said. ‘It’s a pretty dead block right now.’”

“Though Seattle is awash with condos, Hummingbird said it thinks the market will support more, as the idea of downtown living is catching on. ‘Right now, there are no downtown supermarkets or Laundromats, but as the density grows, the services will follow behind them,’ he said.”

“This might seem like a strange time to bring hundreds of new suburban houses to the market, but the folks who work for developer Murray Franklyn don’t seem worried. ‘It was in an area that we strategically knew wasn’t oversaturated with inventory,’ Murray Franklyn partner George Reece said.”

“In January, the inventory of houses for sale in the Redmond area was up almost 60 percent from a year earlier, while sales were down nearly 40 percent, according to the Northwest MLS. Countywide, inventory increased about 56 percent and sales dropped almost 31 percent.”

“Put another way, there were enough homes on the market last month to satisfy eight months of sales at the January pace in the Redmond area and 7.5 months countywide.”

“The slowdown didn’t deter Jill and Dan Hanken from agreeing to buy a home in Redmond Ridge East.”

“‘We felt like this was where we wanted to live and that was the house we wanted. We just didn’t want to risk it being sold,’ Jill Hanken said.”

“She said she also felt confident they’d be able to sell their current home.”

What do you see in your local housing market? Construction trends? “With house prices softening, there is less of an incentive to remodel, said Kermit Baker of the Remodeling Futures Program at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing. The return on remodeling dollar spent has dropped from 80 percent to 70 percent. ‘Since the first of the year, it is almost as if someone unplugged my phone,’ said Alan Hanbury, owner of House of Hanbury Builders in Newington, Conn. ‘In 31 years of business, I’ve never had the phone not ring, and I can’t explain it.’”

“‘Now is a great time to remodel,’ Hanbury said, trying to change the mood of his potential customers. ‘You might even get the boss on the job.’”

“The sluggish construction industry continued to sputter last month as building activity slowed to a standstill in nearly every sector, an ominous beginning to a year many hoped would mark a fresh start.”

“The Lake Havasu City Development Services Department reported four single-family building permits were pulled in January, the fourth consecutive month of single-digit totals. Nonresidential construction was even worse. No commercial or industrial building permits were issued last month.”

“‘It’s rock bottom,’ said Bud Schulz, executive director of the Colorado River Building Industry Association. ‘We have an industry that’s struggling.’”

Or foreclosures? “Austin and Travis County have a lot of reclaimed real estate — and you can see some of them by taking a tour. Realty Trac says there are more than 2,200 homes in Travis County facing foreclosure.”

“‘Be ready if you want to buy a foreclosure because everybody else is going to want to hop on it,’ said Gina Warrington with Keller Williams Agency in Round Rock. ‘It’s going to be there today and gone tomorrow.’”

“Hendry Street is just the tip of the iceberg in Boston’s foreclosure crisis. As City Hall turns its attention to the Dorchester street that’s been devastated by foreclosures and boarded up homes, there are about a dozen more clusters of abandoned and foreclosed homes in Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan.”

“‘It has just exploded,’ said John Anderson, a Dorchester-based housing expert. ‘Low and moderate income neighborhoods that were highly dependent on subprime lending, their values are just collapsing. The mortgage (products) that fueled this appreciation just don’t exist anymore.’”

Pricing plans? “Wisconsin is not experiencing the downturn in housing that other states are weathering and Sheboygan County’s Realtors are reporting that business is good. One adjustment sellers have had to make is on the asking price they put on their houses, said Realtor Linda Buchmann.”

“‘People were so used to putting whatever prices they want on their houses,’ she said. ‘Our market was hot for so long, (sellers) just were spoiled … they still have to price their house fairly but they’re not losing money. They’re still making money on their homes.’”

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