Newsday reports from New York. "Winter is coming, and Long Island builder Steven Klar doesn't relish safeguarding unsold homes over the winter, paying for snow removal and heating the big, empty insides so the pipes don't freeze and burst. That's why he's offering a new $52,000 Mercedes to buyers of his model homes in his Huntington, Manorville and Locust Valley developments."

"'Does that sound desperate? No, it's making the sale,' says Klar. 'It's definitely generated a lot more traffic and interest than if we just said 'Take $50,000 off the price.'"

"Sellers and agents hope these deals will keep home prices, agents' commissions and neighborhood property values up, though some homeowners have become willing to reduce prices. Sellers' concessions were not unknown before boom years, but the perks nowadays are breaking out of the box."

"Even open house parties must stand out. In May, one agent threw a party at one of his listings in Oyster Bay Cove, complete with DJ, champagne and models in the pool, though he still has no contract."

"Samira Johnson decided to forgo Paris and give a seven-day stay at any luxury Marriott worldwide with the sale of her three-bedroom Northport ranch. She will hand over her 115,000 reward points, after hearing a California seller offer a year's free beer and pizza. She'll do another open house this weekend after a lackluster response to her vacation offer."

"Giving up Paris didn't take money out of Johnson's pocket, which price reductions will: Since putting the house on the market with a real estate agent in May, she has lowered her asking price from $549,000 to $509,000."

"As of August, there were 13,999 homes for sale in Suffolk, up 59.3 percent from 8,790 the same time in 2005, says to Mohsen Zandieh, vice president of the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island and treasurer of the Long Island Board of Realtors. In Nassau, the number was 10,041 in August, 66.8 percent higher than 6,018 last year; and Queens' was 10,005, up 76.2 percent from 5,677 a year ago."

"He says the slower activity stems partly from sellers hoping for boom-time prices and buyers waiting for more price-slumping. 'Sellers are living in last year's market,' Zandieh says. 'Buyers are living in the future.'"

"Feeling like the perpetual bridesmaids, Larry and Samantha Brittan decided to shell out $10,000 for closing or property taxes after potential buyers kept on picking 'the other house.'"

"Already in their new home, the couple pay a mortgage on two houses and see a little relief in the doubling of open house visitors since offering the incentive. Set for another viewing of his Colonial in Northport this weekend, Brittan, working with a real estate agent, is asking $559,000, down from $639,000."

"When it was Ginger Scarpino's turn at her $1.1 million Dix Hills ranch last month, she spent hundreds of dollars to create a patio-side gourmet luncheon. She's also proposed giving a $5,000 bonus to her agents, who declined it, and $11,000 for a buyer's closing costs. 'Maybe it'll work, rather than coming down another $100,000,' says Scarpino, who already had reduced the house $400,000."

"Shawn Elliott's Luxury Homes & Estates last month spent $8,000-plus on an open house for a Gold Coast client who's willing to buy a Mercedes for the agent who bags a buyer. 'He feels motivating the brokers is better than giving the house away,' says Elliott."

"Some agents worry buyers might wonder if they're shown good houses or if the agents just want that bonus.'I think it diminishes our profession, somehow cheapens it,' says Kathryn Martin, an agent in Northport."

The Andover Townsman from Massachusetts. "It is taking Andover residents nearly twice as long as it did last year to sell their single-family homes, and sellers are getting about 8 percent less."

"That's according to third-quarter statistics compiled by New England Association of Realtors. NEAR's numbers show that single family home sales in Andover are down about 34 percent, reflecting a national trend."

"'It's stabilization,' local realtor J.B. Doherty said of the current local real estate scene, with which he has been involved for the past 33 years. 'Wall Street guys are saying real estate is not a bubble. It's a soft landing and it's here.'"

"Buyers just won't overpay, he said, so anyone looking to make a profit from a home sale they made within the last 18 months will be disappointed. 'There's not much appreciation if you just got into the housing market,' he said. 'It's more like depreciation.'"