A trio of reports on the New York housing bubble. "The moment of truth is coming sooner for New York real estate sellers, and sometimes it's not pretty. Real estate agents are increasingly finding that sellers who hoped to make a killing on their properties need to inject their visions of profits with a dose of reality when they price their apartments, or go through the time-consuming process of marking them down."

"'You need to sit down and establish a relationship with the seller. They have to see that the market is in flux at the moment.' says associate broker Eileen Richter. 'One thing I tell them when the market gets a little soft is that I want them to be aware of the price I will take them to.'"

"For some agents, convincing sellers that it's time to reduce a price, or that they shouldn't ask for as much as they want in the first place, means confronting them with the cold, hard facts. If a seller really wants to sell his property, they'll typically understand the wisdom of taking a more aggressive approach, said agent Pierre Moran. 'I ask them: 'you hired me to do what?' 'I can be Mr. Nice Guy, but you didn't hire me to be Mr. Nice Guy.'"

"Moran is currently marketing one of just a handful of townhouses in Battery Park City, the original asking price: $3 million. Moran says original price was set by the owner against his recommendation, but it was what the seller wanted. 'I prepared the guy up front as much as I could,' Moran said. After two months with very little action, Moran reduced the price on the Battery Park townhouse to $2.75 million."

"'Will it sell for $2.6, $2.5? We'll see,' Moran said."

"How prices are set and reduced are just as important as timing, brokers and agents say. If an apartment was priced at $850,000, reducing it by just $10,000 would probably be a waste of time, (broker) Jacky Teplitzky says. 'I will not reduce it to $840,000 or $830,000. In my opinion, you are not going to get new buyers. If you reduce it in drops, it becomes a stale listing.'"

"Instead, she says she would probably take a listing that hadn't gotten offers at $849,000 and reduce it to $799,000. 'At the end of the day, the market is being made by the buyer, not by the seller,' says Teplitzky."

The Long Island Business News. "Local Realtors, in the middle of prime buying and selling season, say they’re working harder to sell 56 percent more homes than were on the market this time last year. 'Everybody feels the change in the market,' Mark Malsky said."

"As the market changes, inventory is soaring as sellers attempt to cash out before buyers seize the upper hand. In April, the region’s total inventory, which includes Queens, topped more than 36,000, up 56 percent from a year ago. Suffolk homebuyers could pick from 14,951 properties, up almost 48 percent from 10,125 the year earlier. Nassau lists 10,532, up 58.6 percent from 6,641 a year ago."

"Some buyers are holding out, convinced the much-discussed bubble is poised to pop and prices will plummet. They’re wrong, said Pearl Kamer, chief economist at the Long Island Association. 'Prices are a little softer, but they’re not going over the cliff,' she said. 'Buyers have the mistaken notion that next week there’s going to be a 20 percent reduction in prices. That’s not going to happen.'"

"Sellers, however, remain enchanted by those eye-popping gains of late, and many are still holding out for what are now excessive prices."

"The number of existing single-family houses sold in the Hudson Valley and Catskill regions year over year in April was down while prices continued to rise. According to New York State Association of Realtors spokesman Salvatore Prividera, Jr., the drop off in home sales in the local area mirrors what is going on statewide."

"'There is a slowdown in the number of sales, which is atypical for this time of year; usually in the spring and summer months, it’s very strong here in New York. Seasonally, the winter months tend to be slower,' he said. 'What you’re seeing in the Catskills and we’re seeing statewide is really a readjustment in the market."

"Sales of existing single-family homes in April fell by 20 percent in Columbia County, by 50 percent in Delaware County, by 13 percent in Dutchess County, by 32 percent in Greene County, by 30 percent in Orange County, by three percent in Rockland County, by almost four percent in Sullivan County, by 20 percent in Ulster County and by 19 percent in Westchester County."