TIME magazine: "Many (sellers) remain defiant to the point of delusion, demanding one more drink at the housing bar". Classic.

TIME is getting closer and closer to putting the epic housing collapse on their cover. Can't you feel it? Here's highlights of this week's edition:

The Boom Is--Is Not!--Over: The Great Real Estate Debate - There's an anxious face-off between sellers and buyers of homes as expectations of big profits fade

When Holly Schiller bought a town house in Fort Lauderdale in the fall of 2004, she figured she would pocket a profit before the place was even finished. Schiller, 51, and her husband had already flipped several properties in Florida's sizzling market, and this one sounded sweet: three bedrooms, private elevator, designer appliances. Villa Medici, promised the builder, would be modeled after a "true Italian Tuscan village," featuring Mediterranean façades and a resort-style pool. "As with any 'limited edition,'" the pitch stressed, "demand always exceeds the supply."

Well, maybe not always. The housing market in parts of South Florida is melting faster than a snow cone on Miami Beach.

Schiller's town house has languished on the market for 18 months. She has slashed the price by $75,000, to $565,000, offered a $2,500 bonus to the selling agent and at one point threw in a $2,500 store credit for home furnishings--all to no avail.

"Buyers are extremely hesitant," says her broker, Rob Rose, adding that hundreds of similar properties are for sale, with similar gimmicks--from free Caribbean cruises to gym memberships (personal trainer included).

Schiller is nervous. She's renting out another property at a loss, while trying to sell that one too, and has a deposit down on a second town house under construction. "They keep telling me 1,000 people a day move to Florida," she says. "I don't know where they're going. They're not buying."

The house party had to end eventually, even if sellers refuse to believe it. Many remain defiant to the point of delusion, demanding one more drink at the housing bar.

In places like Phoenix, Ariz., Las Vegas and Los Angeles, epicenters of the boom, look out below.

Sales of existing homes nationwide are down 8.9% this year, including a 17% free fall in the West, according to the NAR.

If you live in Bubbleopolis, things certainly look scary. In Miami there's a 17-month supply of single-family homes for sale, according to the NAR. Some 75,000 condos are coming on the market in Miami--Dade County, many purchased by speculators with no plans to live in them. "There will be lots of foreclosures, lots of auctions," predicts real estate agent Rose.

Experts in market psychology say stubborn sellers have a classic case of denial. Richard Peterson, a San Francisco psychiatrist who specializes in financial decision-making behavior, points out that "people would rather gamble and hope prices come back. They ignore information suggesting that prices are dropping." It's the same mentality that leads blackjack players to double down in a losing streak.