A housing report from the Boston Globe. "Only now, months into a soft market, are home sellers finally beginning to concede on prices, but only so much. 'I realize this is a buyers' market, but it's not a seller's suicide market,' said Georgi May, a realtor based in Lowell."

"Certainly it is acceptable to offer several thousand below the seller's asking price to begin negotiations. Donna Coffin, an agent in Marlborough, said some potential buyers have come in with unrealistically low offers. 'What they're hearing is, go in low,' Coffin said. 'They think the prices are going to come down further.'"

"After buying and moving into a new home in Carlisle, Denise Galejs has been unable to sell the family's four-bedroom home in Chelmsford, which has been on the market for several months. She has tried tempting buyers with price reductions and money toward closing costs, but finds potential buyers to have cold feet."

"'Sealing the deal is very hard to do,' Galejs said. 'I think [buyers] must be very unfocused.'"

The Philly Burbs from Pennsylvania. "If there's any doubt in your mind that the local real estate market has slowed, ask a seller. 'It seems like people are coming and looking, but nobody's making an offer,' said Terri Kiriakidi, who has been trying to sell her mother's Warminster house since June."

"Or a real estate agent. 'I've never seen anything like this in my life,” said Herman Petrecca, a real estate agent in Warminster. 'I've got a bunch of properties sitting on the market.'"

"The number of homes sold in August, 521, was off 25 percent from a year ago. And they show that the local inventory of homes for sale hit an all-time high in August of 3,565, almost double December 2004's level of 1,814."

"Kiriakidi recently reduced the price of her mom's four-bedroom house from $349,900 to $309,900, to no avail. 'Nobody's even offering anything,' Kiriakidi said. 'I don't understand.'"

"The only homeowners likely to lose money in the current market are those who bought last year and are selling now, Thompson said. 'If they bought their home any time prior to last year, they're still going to make money,' (broker) Sue Thompson said. 'But those multiple offers of the past are just that.'"

The Middletown Press from Connecticut. "Houses across the region, and the country, now are taking longer to sell. Owners are lowering their asking prices and, in many cases, still finding it difficult to coax offers from buyers. There's been a noticeable shift, from a seller's market to a buyer's market, in the region, said Jim Porto, president of the Greater New Haven Association of Realtors."

"Gus and Charlotte Kardaras can't wait to move into the new house they finished building in Guilford last month. There's just one problem, they have been trying since March to sell the two-story home they've lived in for the past 21 years and are having no luck despite cutting $25,100 off the listing price."

"'We've had very few lookers. We've gone weeks with no lookers,' Gus Kardaras said. He paid $160,000 for the house when he bought it in 1985. Now he is asking $449,900."

"Tricia Monaghan of East Haven has lowered her asking price for the 1,800-square-foot Cape she has been trying to sell since early July from $334,900 to $329,900. 'We haven't had one showing,' she said. 'We never expected that we wouldn't even have a showing yet.'"

"Discouraged now that the spring and summer buying seasons have passed, she doesn't expect the house she paid $145,000 for five years ago to sell until at least next spring. 'I don't think anybody's looking for a house now,' she said."