The Staten Island Advance reports from New York. "Need more proof it's a buyer's market? How about getting a new car, money to pay closing costs or free home furnishings to go with your new house. They are not prizes in a game show, but the perks some new home builders are offering in the let's-make-a-deal atmosphere that's come with a softening real estate market and rising inventory."

"A free $15,000 Saturn Ion might be the most unique inducement as of late. Brokers marketing a 72-unit townhouse development in New Dorp thought giving a free new Saturn with each new house might attract ambivalent buyers. Some buyers didn't even take the car, opting instead for $15,000 in closing costs or money toward home furnishings, said broker james Prendamano."

"Sweetening the pot is what a lot of builders who are trying to sell multiple units are doing in a changed market. Last summer, home builders also lost what had been a standard marketing tool over the years, the ability to offer buyers an eight-year tax abatement on new homes."

"'Builders are trying to make up for the [loss of the] tax abatement program, which didn't exist for resale homes,' said (realtor) Neil Litvin in Dongan Hills. 'If one builder has some homes that have a tax abatement and another doesn't, the second builder has to do something to make his homes more appealing to the buyer.'"

"Litvin said builders such as Dora Homes and the Biadon Group are offering to pay down the interest rate on mortgages, or paying $15,000 in closing costs and throwing in upgrades such as more expensive granite countertops when it comes to marketing the custom detached colonials."

"The Advance reported last month that home sales dropped 16 percent and housing inventory rose 25 percent, according to figures from the Staten Island Board of Realtors."

The Boston Globe. "Morning, noon, and night, on workdays, holidays, and weekends, the whir and grind of buzz saws echo through South Boston. Some of the noise comes out of the old three-deckers that are being converted into fancy condominiums."

"Some comes from housing complexes sprouting up on previously vacant lots. The rest is from the new towers soaring over the neighborhood, altering the cityscape."

"'We've got 5,531 condominiums coming on line in the next couple of years,' said state Representative Brian Wallace, who has spent months researching development plans. 'The amount of development going on in the town is astronomical, and people are saying, `Enough is enough.'"

"Tomorrow, Wallace will meet with residents to discuss the building boom, and ways to stop it. He said many of his constituents want a moratorium."

"Scott Malone , a business executive who grew up in South Boston, said he is amazed at the development and its impact. 'It's almost comical when you hear the prices they're asking for these condominiums,' he said. 'If you grew up here, you know what they used to be.'"

"He is concerned that pending development will flood the neighborhood's housing market to an even greater degree. 'They can't even sell what's out there now,' he said."