The Long Island Business News from New York. "As Long Island’s housing market continues to soften, real estate executives refuse to utter the 'b' word: Bubble. But one area economist isn’t afraid to use it. 'In the bubble areas, i.e. long island, things are really coming down quite quickly,' said Irwin Kellner, a Hofstra University professor and North Fork Bank’s chief economist. 'You don’t need me to tell you this.'"

"Inventory has soared by as much as 75 percent in some areas, Kellner told the group of Long Island’s key economic development players and real estate developers. 'The housing market bubbled up in a way that it had not before,' he said."

The Boston Globe. "For Barry Bluestone, an encounter in an airport last spring crystallized the high cost of living in Massachusetts. The Northeastern University economist began chatting with the passenger next to him. She told Bluestone, 'Even on our salaries, we can't afford it here,' Bluestone said. 'If we can't keep pediatric dental surgeons here, heaven help us.'"

The Boston Herald. "The increasingly troubled Bay State home and condo sales market is racing into a downturn that could take years, not months, to work itself out, experts said. 'It could get very bad,' said Bluestone of the impact of a recession on the housing market. 'We already have a weaker economy (in Massachusetts) and we suffer from this terrible cost of living.'"

"A market that stabilizes this fall, while not impossible, is unlikely, said Chip Case, a Wellesley College economist and top real estate expert. 'There are so many different scenarios,' Case said. 'I don’t expect this to be a long, drawn out thing, but it damn well could be,' Case said."

The Lowell Sun. "Marci Rossell, who has worked as chief economist at CNBC and now teaches at DePaul University in Chicago, said the current slowdown -- she despises the term 'bubble' -- had to happen."

"'It used to be that mortgage rates were only influenced by long-term (interest) rates, and that's because the only mortgage you thought about was the fixed 30-year loan,' she said. Now with all the innovations, adjustables, interest-only and option-pay mortgages, rates are far more susceptible to short-term rates, which are controlled by the Fed."

"'And what has the Fed been doing to interest rates?' Rossell asked, egging on the crowd with an emphatic thumbs-up. Higher rates deplete demand, she said."

"Rossell closed by hinting that too many homeowners are obsessed with real-estate values, anyway. 'If it's where you live, it's ludicrous to take a short-term perspective,' she said. 'I mean, seriously: What do you care?'"

WBIR in Connecticut. "After years of going up, housing prices are now heading south in some places, so has the 'bubble' finally burst? Kate and Hans Koning have been trying to sell their Easton, Connecticut house for nearly a year. So far there are no takers, even though they cut their price not once, but twice."

"'I started at $875,000 and at the time I thought that was really a reasonable price for the house,' says Date Koning. The Konings are not alone. Sellers across the country are struggling with a weakening housing market."

"'The people who bought at the top and sell out at the bottom can get really hurt and so there will be bankruptcies, foreclosures and people out of jobs, but we will recover from it...this is not nuclear war,' says Economist Robert Shiller."

The Times Argus. "Central Vermont's real estate market is holding its own this year, despite national trends which continue to show a marked decline in new home construction, a swelling inventory of unsold homes, and stagnant prices. However, there is less urgency in the market, according to Nancy Gale, broker associate and president of the Vermont Association of Realtors."

"'There's a lot more inventory available, but we're not seeing prices coming down as much as we're reading in the [national] news. It's giving buyers more choices,' she said."

"Broker John Biondolillo said he hasn't seen prices falling. 'Except on houses that were overpriced to begin with,' Biondolillo said."

"Claire Duke, who has been selling real estate for 25 years, said 'The thing that's somewhat different is this extra lump sum that sellers have been adding to the price in hopes of it working is probably changing."

"'Some of that reaching is going to stop to a degree, at least for the more ordinary properties,' Duke said. 'Sellers need to come to terms with being more realistic about prices than they have been in the last three to four years.'"