A housing report from the New York Sun. "Veteran real estate broker Deanne Esses said eight people in her Upper East Side office on Madison Avenue are leaving their jobs for alternative careers. Those eight represent 20% of the office's sales staff."

"That's only the beginning. Ms. Esses said she thinks more New York City brokers will be leaving the scene. 'Business here is just not quiet; it has dropped dead over the past few weeks,' she said. 'At the same time, there's a flood of inventory on the market. We run open houses, we run advertisements, but nothing works. There are no buyers, and without buyers, there are no sales.'"

"Ms. Esses made these noteworthy observations: Everything now is negotiated downward from the initial asking price, by a minimum of 5% to 7%. Prices are down at least 10% from a year ago on practically everything."

"The Upper West Side is moving very slowly. The Hamptons have turned especially soft. 'We're in a transition stage where sellers will have to come down in price, and right now it's a waiting game to see what the buyer will do,' Ms. Esses said. 'Since there's only one Manhattan, I don't see a crash. But who knows?'"

"Real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller also cites a sharply slowing trend, with actual sales activity flat. There's a big gap between buyers and the sellers, and more realism will be required by the sellers, he said. His reasoning: swelling inventories, especially condominiums."

"Early in 2004, Mark Clemente left Detroit to go east and, hopefully, make his fortune in real estate. Shortly thereafter, he became a broker at a small firm in Newark, N.J. Over the past six months he has held a number of part-time jobs. 'I'm going home; my real estate career is over,' he said the other day."

The Lowell Sun from Massachusetts. "There's more bad news this week for the state's flagging housing market. When will it end? Not anytime soon, according to economist Larissa Duzhansky."

"'It doesn't seem like things are going to pick up in the next year or so,' Duzhansky said. 'I feel like the market is still overvalued, and you have..high mortgage rates. When you put all of that together, there's no room for it to improve.'"

"Duzhansky said she expects median single-family home prices, which fell to $352,000 in August, according to MAR, will drop at least another 10 percent in the next year."

"Compounding that pain is the fact that as prices plummet, buyers who find themselves in over their heads no longer have an escape valve. In Lowell, foreclosure proceedings were initiated on 379 properties from Sept. 1, 2005 to Aug. 31, 2006, up from 179 in the previous 12 months. That's a 112 percent increase, as opposed to 45.6 percent statewide."

"According to Duzhansky, the increase in foreclosure filings and the decline in prices could create a vicious cycle, prices could be driven down even further."

From the Herald News in New Jersey. "Gerard Herard was able to finally purchase a home in 2003 through a $225,070 mortgage from Security Atlantic Mortgage. His payments on the quaint Totowa Avenue house in Paterson were a reasonable $1,300 a month. But Herard's payments have since increased to $2,200 a month and the mortgage has grown, not shrunk, to roughly $300,000."

"Herard is not entirely sure why his situation changed so dramatically and is struggling to deal with the increase. 'I'm trying to climb a steep ladder,' said Herard."

"The sweet deal is ending for thousands of Americans who took out interest-only and payment-option adjustable rate mortgages, or ARMs. After that initial grace period, homeowners faced serious sticker shock."

"'I have had calls from people saying that their mortgage started at $300,000, and now it's $315,000,' said Tom Cosentino, a mortgage specialist."

"Wendy Nastasi of Crossroads Finance Discount Mortgage, said that two out of six calls she's received within the last six months have been from untraditional adjustable-rate mortgage-holders. 'Anybody who has one of these now wants out it,' Nastasi said. 'They lie to people,' Nastasi said. 'They don't explain the details to them.'"

"The Fed has promised to establish more guidance around the loans since last year, but they still have not provided a timeline for acting on this. But the beefed up regulations won't save current loan-holders. 'You have to cut your losses like it's a bad stock,' Cosentino said.

From Maine Today. "Corliss Chastain couldn't understand why her house in Hallowell wasn't selling. It went on the market in June with a price tag of $192,500. After a long line of buyers traipsed through without making any serious offers, she dropped $3,000 from her price. Still no takers."

"Now, like many other homeowners in Maine, Chastain said she is probably going to drop her price yet again to see if it will sell in a crowded market. 'I was shocked,' she said. 'My Realtors are, too. We thought it would go really fast, but it didn't. I've had a lot of people look at it.'"

"Maine's sagging housing market is just now catching up to a national trend in falling sales, according to Don Plourde, past president of the Maine Association of Realtors. 'I think we follow the curve a little bit slower,' he said."

"The number of homes selling in Maine dropped 17.8 percent in August compared to 2005, according to Tuesday's release from Maine Real Estate Information System."

"For now, many homeowners are holding out for the best possible price, according to Sheryl Gregory, a broker in Winthrop. 'Some people are 'optimistic,' shall we say, in their pricing, and have to come back to the real world,' she said." Gregory said this year is a good one to buy a house. With the market flooded with houses, potential buyers can afford to be choosy. Rick Sirois, an associate broker in Gardiner, affirms this."

"'From what I've seen, there is just a huge housing inventory on the market,' he said. 'People are still trying to ride that real estate wave where a lot of people were trying to sell their homes.' Sirois said many houses on the market are seeing the expiration of their six-month listing agreements or a price discount."