Some housing bubble reports from the northeastern US. "Kim Bronson's West Windsor, Vt., home has everything a buyer might expect in a pastoral North Country property. The only thing the property doesn't have is a buyer. Ms. Bronson put her home on the market more than a year ago at $4.9 million, then shaved the price by $1 million in April."

"'I'm really surprised it hasn't sold,' she says. 'I don't think Vermont and New England is going with the same real-estate flow as the rest of the universe.'"

"Andrew Heiblien has been trying to sell his four-bedroom home in Mystic, Conn., since January. As in many of the small towns that dot the Connecticut shore, the number of for-sale signs in tiny Mystic (pop. 4,001) has doubled since then, area brokers say."

"Mr. Heiblien says he 'never dreamed' he'd need to cut the home's asking price four times before finding a buyer. The property went under contract last week for $405,000. 'I really thought the market was stronger when I put the home up for sale,' says Mr. Heiblien. 'I had to adjust.'"

The Westborough News in Massachusetts. "For sellers today it can be even more stressful with homes sitting on the market on average from 3 to 6 months. The inventory of homes available is building across the state because more people are moving out of Massachusetts than in."

"Westborough's Candy Owen has seen houses come down in price about 10 percent over the last two years. 'If sellers adjust homes down 10 percent they sell right away. But, if they're thinking the market isn't different and they don't lower the price the homes are staying on longer,' she explained, saying a home on the market a couple of years ago for $700,000 should now be priced around $630,000."

"Homes have to be priced competitively, agreed (realtor) Richard Hutner. 'Prices have come down considerably from anywhere between 5-10 percent,' he said."

"'The Westborough real estate market has definitely changed. There is a lot more inventory which means buyers have more choices, which means sellers that are motivated to sell need to price realistically or consider price reductions. Buyers have a lot more leverage (than) they ever had,' said (realtor) Susan Flynn."

The Cape News in Massachusetts. "Volume at the Barnstable County Register of Deeds is down for the 17th straight month. In April the number of property sales dipped by 28.3 percent compared to April 2005. Sales were down 21.3 percent in May and 18.2 percent in June this year. This week in Falmouth there were 513 single-family homes on the market, along with 68 condominium units and 12 multi-family houses, said (broker) Robert B. Dugan. 'Those numbers have doubled since last year,' he said."

"Cape-wide, the number of property sales dipped drastically in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In October of last year sales were down 17.6 percent over 2004. By December the figure was 20.7 percent, and in January of this year it ballooned to 26.3 percent."

"(Realtor) Megan Patrick agreed that there is a glut of homes, but has seen activity picking up. 'The market is saturated, but houses are still moving,' she said."

"Ms. Patrick noted that mortgage foreclosures have increased. Many of those were initially bought by buyers who overextended themselves, she said. When they are unable to meet their obligations, she said, their homes hit the market at depressed prices in an attempt to generate quick cash. 'Now we’re seeing five pages of foreclosure notices, where you used to see just one,' she said."

"One of the brighter spots in the market is that lower-priced homes are softening, making it a good situation for first-time home buyers, Mr. Dugan said. 'We’ve finally started to see some listings for less than $300,000 over the last two months,' he said. 'Before, anything under that figure was a fixer-upper,' he said."