It’s Friday desk clearing time. “2007 is expected to be a year of transition,, according the National Association of Home Builders’ Regional Housing Starts Forecast. The earlier boom in housing can be attributed largely to excess demand generated by historically low interest rates coupled with aggressive mortgage lending practices, a combination that made homeownership more affordable but also attracted investors and speculators into many markets.”

“‘Because the boom and correction cycle has largely been driven by national rather than local factors, most regions have experienced some degree of over-heating and correction,’ said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders.”

“Once upon a time, would-be home buyers had to outbid each other and forgo inspections to get the place of their dreams. Now, sellers are the ones making concessions. ‘The buyers are in the driver’s seat,’ said John Eric, a real estate in Arlington, VA.”

“With foreclosures now at a record high, banks are once again getting picky. ‘It’s not just a buyer’s market,’ said Leon Bailey, a real estate agent in Prince George’s County. ‘It’s a buyers-with-great-credit market.’”

“Louisville-area homebuilders didn’t accept the idea last year that the market for new homes had slowed, but they’re true believers now. Last month, builders took out 55 percent fewer permits for single-family homes in Jefferson County than in February 2006.”

“‘We’ve got a lot of people tightening their belts and holding on,’ said Chuck Kavanaugh, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Louisville.”

“Vacation home prices in Spain, a leading indicator of Europe’s property market, may face a slump that’s worse than the real estate decline in the U.S., based on the loan terms banks are imposing on developers.”

“‘Banks are imposing terms on real-estate firms similar to those for defaulted loans,’ said David Malpica, who helps manage $5.6 billion of real-estate and distressed debt assets in Europe and the U.S. ‘It reflects the high volatility of real-estate assets.’”

“A survey of realtors found condominiums to be a more popular choice for housing in markets where prices have gone up most, such as Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon and Kelowna. ‘Especially since January, the good product [sells] right away, reealtor Aaron Best said. ‘The prices are already high and they have to over-bid. There’s general frustration with that as well.’”

“Donald Trump almost lost his shirt 15 years ago when the North American real estate bubble burst. The 2007 version of that disaster will be much more benign, the real estate magnate predicts, although there is softness in some urban markets, such as Toronto and San Francisco.”

“‘We’re talking very minor [problems] compared with the depression of the early 1990s,’ Mr. Trump said. He said that two years ago, when the market was at an all-time high, he was telling people not to buy real estate. ‘Now I’m telling them to do it.’”

“Just two days before Shari Scott and her family were supposed to move into their new home, her loan officer at New Century Financial Corp. called her with some bad news: The company wasn’t going to be able to lend her the money for her mortgage after all.”

“‘I literally stopped the car and threw up,’ says the 30-year-old accountant from Burleson, Texas, who got the news on her cellphone while driving home from work this month. By that point, she was supposed to close on the loan the next day. ‘Homeless was the first thing that went through my mind,’ she says.”

“Large national investment funds are starting to shy away from financing condo projects, instead turning their focus to apartments. Portland saw the trend for the first time Thursday when the developers of Ladd Tower, a planned $85 million condo high-rise, changed course. They announced they will build luxury apartments.”

“Developer Opus Northwest, based in Minneapolis, said it changed plans for the Ladd Tower because the world changed around it in the past year. Also, Opus Northwest’s John Bartell said condos weren’t selling as quickly as he hoped.”

“The possibility that Katherine Gwinn will lose her St. Louis home has unfolded like a nightmare. The 53-year-old resident of the Hill is among a rapidly increasing number of Americans swept into a maelstrom of foreclosures created by subprime mortgages.”

“‘We are not even hitting the crest yet. We are standing here waiting to be knocked over,’ said Chris Krehmeyer, executive director of a St. Louis based nonprofit. ‘What is astounding is the scope and scale of it.’”

“‘There was no subprime market 15 years ago. If you didn’t meet the qualifications you couldn’t get a loan,’ said Dennis Norman, president of the St. Louis Association of Realtors. ‘Over the last few years it has become big business. To get more market share, more business and greater volume, lenders kept lowering their standards, and that’s why so many of them are now in trouble.’”

“Congress is making noises about doing something to help homeowners who can’t meet their mortgage payments hold on to their slice of the American Dream. As a sideshow, our elected representatives will probably spank regulators for not doing more to curb deceptive lending practices and hang executives of subprime lenders out to dry for presiding over the boom-bust cycle.”

“While lawmakers’ intentions may be noble, it’s a pretty safe bet that, left to their own devices, they will muck things up even more.”

“The percentage of loans entering foreclosure rose to a record 0.54 percent in the fourth quarter. Delinquency rates rose for all major loan categories, with subprime loans at a four-year high of 13.33 percent. That’s creating a ‘political firestorm,’ says Andy Laperriere, at the ISI Group in Washington. ‘Congress may be forced into action in the same way they were forced to do something about accounting issues after (the scandals at) WorldCom and Enron.’”

“Housing is already a tax-advantaged asset. The folks who write the tax laws have decided that it should be. When these incentives are compounded by easy money and loose lending standards, it’s not hard to understand how solid economic fundamentals translated into perhaps the biggest residential real estate boom in history.”

“When transactions go well, no one complains,’ says Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor. ‘When they go sour, fingers point in every possible direction.’ Early indications from Congress are that fingers will be pointed at everyone except constituents.”