Builder Dan Tingen found out firsthand about the national housing slowdown when it took three tries this summer to sell a house in Wake Forest.

The first miss came in July, when a couple moving to the area from Atlanta contracted to buy the $410,000 house, only to back out when their home in Georgia did not sell. Next, a couple moving from Northern Virginia put the house under contract. Same problem. "It was two bad experiences with three buyers to close one house," said Tingen, who finally found a buyer in late September.

Tingen, the president of the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County, said that in his 26 years in business, he has had only a handful of customers back out. Other builders and brokers have had the same experience.

Talk to anyone in the local housing industry and you'll hear how job growth and moderate interest rates have kept the Triangle housing market humming at a record pace since 2003. Last year, sales of new and existing homes totaled a whopping $9.3 billion.

But in recent months, builders and brokers have found that the region's reliance on transplants for home sales means that the area is not shielded from the nationwide housing slump.

"Raleigh-Durham is one of those [regions] that draws many new residents from other states for jobs and baby boomers who are retiring," said Lawrence Yun, an economist for the National Association of Realtors in Washington. In 2005, there was a net population gain of 25,600 in Raleigh and Cary and a gain of 2,600 in Durham, he said.

"They are coming from places where they are having housing market problems," Yun said.

In Northern Virginia, California and Florida, speculators drove prices sky-high and are now trying to dump their properties. That's causing a housing glut that's keeping homes on the market, Yun said.

In Florida and Northern Virginia, second-quarter sales were down more than 20 percent from a year ago and now are slowing even more. The National Association of Realtors expects third-quarter sales in both areas to fall 40 percent compared with last year, and it might be next spring before prices drop enough for sales to pick back up.

Locally, sales to people moving to the area are estimated to account for between 20 percent and 50 percent of home sales, according to builders and realty companies.

Many of those people are still able to sell their homes. Often, companies that are transferring workers to the area buy homes the owners can't sell. Still, much is at stake when people can't sell their homes elsewhere.

About 46,000 people work in the housing market -- building, selling and supplying materials -- in Wake County alone, according to the home builders association.

So far, nobody is laying off employees or slowing building, but that's a possibility. Potential effects extend beyond the housing industry.

Michael Helmar, an economist for Moody's Economy.com, predicts that retail spending will go down because people paying rent and mortgage or dual mortgages won't have as much disposable income. He expects some layoffs and slower construction but doubted that they would be widespread, although sales nationally are predicted to decline through 2007 and not pick back up until 2009.

"Raleigh-Durham isn't like much of the rest of the country," Helmar said, referring to job growth and moderate house prices. "It's just slowing from the really hot pace it was on for the last few years."

The slowdown is affecting all aspects of the market.

* McCar Homes, which averaged about 29 home sales per month in the Triangle most of this year, dropped nearly 50 percent in the past two months. Relocations are about 30 percent of sales, said Jennifer Greene, marketing manager for the Atlanta-based company.

* Fonville Morisey Builder Marketing Group, which sold about 1,100 homes worth about $400 million in the Triangle last year, expects 2006 sales to be down about 50 homes, partly because of the national slowdown. Relocations were 48 percent of total sales last year, president Audie Barefoot said.

* Drees Homes is losing three or four sales a month since July because customers can't sell their homes in other areas.

* Homeowners who want to sell are being affected, too. The August inventory of 14,496 homes was the most homes on the market since October 2004, according to the Triangle Multiple Listing Service.

* Fonville Morisey, one of the region's biggest brokerages, last year sold homes with a total value $2.6 billion in the Triangle. This year's sales might be down 5 percent, partly because of the slowdown in other cities, general manager John Hawkins said.

* York Simpson Underwood last year sold a record 3,300 homes, and this year, it will be even higher, chief operating officer Phyllis York Brookshire said. But almost daily, the company is losing a sale because of slow markets somewhere else, said relocation director Karen Williams.

"A year ago, we heard about it occasionally, maybe once a week," Williams said.

Like other brokers, she is offering customers tips on how to sell their homes: Clean up clutter. Paint with neutral colors.

Pulte Homes, one of the Triangle's larger builders, has a similar program, working with real estate firms in the potential buyers' hometown. It has offered the program for a few years but now "we're finding buyers are much more interested,"said Steve Schlageter, division president for Pulte.

Pulte built 526 homes in the Triangle last year, and "relos" -- people moving from other areas -- accounted for about 25 percent of sales.

"We're having to be more aggressive in terms of figuring out what we need to do to enable them to buy here," Schlageter said. Pulte is now helping out with mortgage payments to boost sales.

What most people don't want to do is lower their asking price, whether they are local builders trying to sell or homeowners who need to sell houses elsewhere.

Daniel Wall, a builder in Fuquay-Varina, has tried to sell a $349,000 custom home in the Broadmoor subdivision in Johnston County since June. Two potential buyers who wanted to escape Florida's hurricane season were interested but both backed out when they couldn't sell their homes. Even though monthly payments on the construction loan are $2,500, he's reluctant to reduce the price because it's already $8,000 below market value, he said.

Mark J. Kistler, who moved from Gainesville, Fla., to Raleigh for a job as an assistant professor at N.C. State University, understands that attitude.

He's been renting an apartment for $1,500 a month since July because he can't sell his Florida house, which has been on the market for 17 weeks.

Kistler is asking $319,900 for the Gainesville home, which he bought for $285,000 a year earlier. Real estate prices have appreciated 16 percent a year since 2002, and Kistler knows he bought near the housing market's peak. But he doesn't want to reduce the price, because brokers advised that it's still below market value, Kistler said.

"The market is soft, and they aren't selling properties like they used to, but the broker still feels we're priced competitively," Kistler said. "Did I pay too much? Should I reduce the price? Those are the things going through my head. I could drop the price significantly and get a buyer, but I don't want to take a loss.

"All the Realtors tell me it's still a sought-after market, not flat like on the coast. I don't know the answer. I wish I knew so I could sell my house."

Until it does, he won't be eating out, making any big purchases or taking a vacation.

HOME SALES

Home sales in this region (up 4.5%) remain strong compared with other major markets, but a national slowdown will affect the Triangle.

Existing home sales, second quarter 2006 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Las Vegas, NV-20%

Phoenix, Ariz.-31%

Miami-23%

Sarasota, Fla.-29%

Washington-21%

San Diego-22%

Sacramento -35%

Boston-9%

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS

WAITING FOR HOMES TO SELL

As homeowners in other areas took longer to sell their homes this summer, the Triangle's rate improved, reinforcing this housing market's health.

(Number of days existing homes remained unsold)

MSA/June 2005/June 2006

Boston/ 58/108

Detroit/75/103

Las Vegas/46/55

Los Angeles/34/54

Miami/47/67

Phoenix/21/53

Washington/27/48

Triangle/88/77

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS