Some housing bubble reports from New York. "Doctors Patricia Sheiner and Michael Silver loved their dream house in New York's suburban Westchester County. But they're not living the dream anymore. The family put the 7,000-square-foot home up for sale and moved to a smaller house in December to save on their mortgage payment, utilities and taxes. Now, it's an albatross they can't sell despite dropping the price."

"'We bought our other house feeling our other house would sell quickly,' Patricia Sheiner said. 'And then the market suddenly died. It died. It's a hardship for anybody to pay two mortgages,' she said. They didn't believe one of the hottest real estate markets in the country would cool off so quickly."

"Drive around almost any wealthy suburb these days and you'll see a lot of very big houses, so-called 'McMansions,' under construction everywhere. But the once red-hot housing market has cooled off and the big homes are starting to give a lot of people some serious headaches. As for doctors Sheiner and Silver, realtors say their empty house may be on the market for months more, even if they drop the price again."

The New York Times. "In what may be a 'rude awakening,' as one real estate agent put it, the number of Long Island homes being put up for sale, combined with those sitting on the market, is climbing skyward, according to a report from the MLS of Long Island last month."

"At midyear, there were 75 percent more homes on the market in Nassau County and 65 percent more in Suffolk County than a year earlier. Brokers report far fewer buyers in recent months."

"More homeowners with adjustable-rate or interest-only mortgages are trying to refinance their homes with fixed-rate mortgages as their payments begin to rise, said Bethany Marten, a Baldwin-based broker, who is also a mortgage broker."

"Many of the 'option' adjustable-rate mortgages that were popular with cash-poor buyers when home values were rising rapidly are no longer available, according to Robert Campbell, a professor of real estate financing at Hofstra University."

"Georgianna Velardi, a broker in Long Beach, said she had recently seen more sellers looking for a way out of high mortgage payments. A couple in their late 30’s came in to price their three-bedroom ranch. The interest rate on their mortgage had risen to 9.5 percent, from 3.5 percent three years ago. They didn’t have the equity or good credit to qualify for refinancing at a lower rate."

"To make matters worse, the City of Long Beach raised property taxes 25 percent. 'They needed to get out because they were so overwhelmed,' Ms. Velardi said."

"'It’s not going to bottom out immediately,' Ms. Marten said. 'We’re going to see, I believe, what we saw in 1988: a flattening, a gradual downturn and then down and down until it hits bottom.'"