A housing report from the Boston Herald. "More than a year after home prices peaked, the Bay State housing sector is entering what experts predict will be its second straight soft autumn market. Buyer’s broker Gary Dwyer recently took a house hunter out to look at Allston condos and lined up some 20 units to show her, five times what he would have found just two autumns ago."

"'It really is like night and day,' said Dwyer. 'A couple of years ago, a buyer with a similar price point might have only had three or four good prospects to look at.'"

"Experts expect tough going for sellers this autumn. 'I don’t think we’re at the end of the correction yet,' said David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. Of course, bad times for sellers mean good times for buyers. Wluka said first-time purchasers and others who don’t have to sell before buying 'are the most-powerful consumers out there. People in that position can drive very hard bargains.'"

"Both the volume of homes available for purchase and the time they sit on the market are up sharply since the last strong autumn in 2004. MLS Property Information Network currently lists some 47,600 Bay State houses and condos for sale, nearly double the 24,200 available in September 2004."

"Dwyer estimates that of the nearly two-dozen Allston condos he and his client checked out, 'probably 18 were overpriced or in very poor condition given their price point.' One exception: Unit 10, which lists for $189,000, down from an original $199,000."

"Dwyer also favors Unit E309 at a loft complex that opened last year. Listed at $419,000 (down from an original $459,000). He added that a savvy buyer can probably haggle the price down a bit more."

"South Shore buyer’s agent Georgia Taft Pye likes Unit 3 at Ocean Woods Drive in Duxbury (that) has been on the market for more than five months and currently lists for $479,900, down from an original $529,900."

"Buyers agent Ronn Huth of Hamilton likes homes that list for less than their tax-assessment value, something that never happened in the boom years. 'For years, we were accustomed to seeing properties sell for a good $100,000 above the tax-assessed value - but not now,' he said."

"Huth favors Wenham’s 32 Mayflower Drive listed at $549,900, $13,500 under its tax assessment. The home has been on the market for more than eight months, and the owner has knocked the price down by nearly $70,000. Huth also favors Beverly’s 35 Taft Ave., which lists at $419,000, down $80,000 from the price it originally hit the market at a year ago."

"Newton buyer’s agent Barry Nystedt likes homes where sellers have cut asking prices 10 percent or more and properties have sat unsold for at least 100 days. One such house in popular Newtonville currently lists for $579,000, down from an original $639,000."

"Nystedt likes the five-bedroom house in Auburndale because of its big price cut ($849,000 today from the original $1.2 million) and long time on the market (more than six months)."