I'm a commercial real estate agent. Our business normally stays steady even when the residential market takes a dive. It hasn't been the case this time around, and I am suffering. I haven't been able to take income this year at all.

We have just had our 5th Mortgage company exit stage in the middle of the night. One left all of their files and computers behind (with all of their client information). Scary stuff!

Large warehouse users (such as kitchen cabinet, countertops etc.) are downsizing because their businesses are dwindling because of the slow market. I have landlords that have never had vacancies now sitting with thousands of SF empty.

I don't sell houses, but a close friend of mine who does currently has 50 listings with not one contract.

In this area you can't really get a livable decent house for under 200k (even townhouses). Most of the houses cost much more (in the 400k range). These listings are very slow to sell now because rates are going up for houses costing more than $417k (which is the current maximum loan that can be done using pools of money from mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC)). If the loan amount is higher, it can be done - it's called a "jumbo loan", but the money comes from private institutions, not from the large government sponsored entities of Fannie and Freddie which makes for high rates.

We don't have new houses going up around here because we have a water shortage. That’s not good for the builders, but it is a little better for us. At least people will look at the "used" houses.

I'm a die hard optimist, so I am confident things will turn around soon, but it has been a scary year in real estate in this area.