Phoenix's Housing Glut

Signs welcoming prospective homebuyers to the latest patch of desert turned subdivision in the region have less allure these days.

"Across the nation, new-home sales are down by more than 20 percent from their peak last year. Prices fell almost 10 percent in September from a year ago. And that reported drop does not take into account the extras that builders are throwing in free or at steep discounts to lure buyers, which means that effective prices are even lower."

"The reversal in fortune is at its starkest here in the West. For-sale signs in some new subdivisions are so common that Janet L. Yellen, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, recently described them as 'the new ghost towns of the West.'"

Less than a year ago, the region's fast growth meant that new homes prices easily appreciated $1,000 a week or more.