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Amazing. We all knew that the situation was serious here in America:

The condominium market is about to get worse as many cities brace for a flood of new supply this year -- the result of construction started at the height of the housing boom.

More than 4,000 new units will be completed in both Atlanta and Phoenix by the end of the year. Developers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., are readying nearly 10,000 total new units in a market already struggling with canyons of unsold condos. San Diego, another hard-hit region, will add 2,500 units, according to estimates provided by Reis Inc., a New York-based real-estate-research firm.

Lenders of all sizes have $42 billion of condominium debt on their books, according to Foresight Analytics. In just three months -- between the third and fourth quarters of last year -- the delinquency rate rose to 10% from 5.9%, says the Oakland, Calif., research firm.

Ouch!

But in the glorious Republic of Kazakhstan?

Kazakh homebuyers are being left out in the cold by the global credit shortage.

In Almaty, the biggest city in the oil-rich Central Asian state, about 30 people on March 18 rallied against the hole in the ground where their new apartments should be. Work stopped after builder AO Corporation Kuat couldn't get funding.

"All they've done is dig a crater," said Laura, 23, who paid $70,000 for a one-bedroom unit that was supposed to be ready by May. "Now we have to rent an apartment for $600 a month," she said, declining to give her full name as police checked the papers of reporters covering the demonstration.

About 29,000 people like Laura had prepaid for uncompleted apartments by September, when credit for Kazakh builders dried up, according to the Industry and Trade Ministry. More than 140 housing projects have been halted in Almaty alone, forcing the government to provide $4 billion of emergency funding to get contractors working again.

You know it's bad when you can't get a loan in Kasakhstan...right?

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