The Enterprise has this report on a housing market in Massachusetts. "Across the region, real estate agents and assessors say home prices have been on a downward trend for several months. And the 'for sale' signs are staying up a lot longer. And nowhere is that more apparent than in Brockton."

"When Richard Breault put his three-bedroom Brockton Cape on the market last year at $279,900 for several months, the home did not sell. He took the house off the market for the winter months and recently put it back on sale. About two weeks ago, Breault knocked $5,000 off the asking price, and on Tuesday reduced it another $5,000, hoping to attract a buyer. The home now lists at $259,900, his real estate agent said."

"'It seems like the market has slowed down,' Breault said. 'I certainly don't want to go down any further.'"

"'The pendulum in this market has swung from a seller's market to a buyer's market,' said real estate agent Bill Carpenter in Easton. 'It is not a bubble bursting. My view of this is there is a correction going on in the marketplace.'"

"The median single-family house sale price in Brockton dipped from January to February by $12,000, sliding from $270,000 to $257,900. That's the lowest it has been since July 2004. In a city that is trying to revitalize its downtown with condominiums, the median sale price for condos plummeted $40,000 from January to February, going from $222,900 to $182,500."

"Denise Higgins, a real estate agent in the Bristol-Plymouth area, said pricing is everything right now. 'The absolute key is you must price it right,' she said. 'If it's priced right, there's a buyer for absolutely anything.' Higgins estimated housing prices in this region began to decline last August."

"'We probably didn't see the signs. We in New England hunt for reasons like 'The Pats are playing,' 'It's too hot,' 'It's too cold,' Higgins said. 'When you get to August and don't have any reasons to point to, you realize things have begun to change.'"

"While the housing market is cooling off for sellers, real estate agents say they remain optimistic. 'We're getting pretty good activity,' said Brockton real estate agent Paul E. Clancy. 'People aren't jumping, but they are looking.' After knocking off $20,000 from his original selling price, Richard Breault is hoping someone will do more than just look at the house he and his wife have lived in on Gladstone Street in Brockton for 30 years. If not, he has a plan. 'If we don't sell it this time, we're going to stay,' he said."