Newsday reports from New York. "In January, when retired psychologists Ben Schwartz and wife, Peppi, put their Commack home of 44 years on the market for $649,000, it looked like a safe bet. 'Houses in Commack last year were at a premium,' Peppi Schwartz recalls. 'We thought it would sell very quickly.'"

"Yet, through a dispiriting spring and summer, the house didn't move despite several price cuts. So last month, the Schwartzes chose an alternative that may be cropping up more: They decided to rent their house. They're still hoping to sell, at $499,000, but are now concentrating on marketing the house as a rental, at $3,500 a month."

"'We have to try to unburden ourselves,' Ben Schwartz explains. With the couple now ensconsed in a two-bedroom, low-maintenance Mount Sinai ranch house, rental of the paid-off Commack property would help offset the new monthly mortgage payments. And besides, the emotional wear-and-tear of dealing with the unsold house was just too great, says Ben, who had come to think of his once-beloved Commack home as 'an albatross around my neck.'"

"Some Long Island real estate agents are reporting that an increasing number of would-be sellers, daunted by the cooling of the once-sizzling housing market, are offering their homes 'for sale or rent,' or simply for rent."

"The sale-to-rental approach 'seems to be a trend now,' agrees Deborah Sande, who is marketing several of these houses. She says the sellers have come down in price, 'but there's a point where they want to stop. And they figure they'll rent it and get an income from it, and when the market gets better, they'll put it up for sale again.'"

"In Rockville Centre, (broker) Liz Wallace says 'the market has dipped,' and that is especially likely to affect recent buyers who need to move. 'if they bought in the last two years and paid top dollar, with 5 or 10 percent down, the sale price of the house in this market may not cover what they owe the bank.' Such owners, she says, 'would be more apt to rent' out their house than offer a painfully low price to choosy buyers."

"Sheila Kassay says there's been a change in the sort of person renting out a house. In the past, those putting homes up for rent were often investors. 'In the last six months,' she says, 'we started seeing people who really had no intention of renting their home choosing to rent, because it's sitting empty and they're paying two mortgages.'"

"Ilana and Stu Austin of Long Beach got caught in a two-mortgage situation some nine months ago when a house they long wanted suddenly became available. They bought it and offered for sale their home of nine years, a Spanish-style Colonial they had painstakingly restored. 'The market was hot,' Ilana Austin says. 'My assumption was we would close by the end of the summer.'"

"That didn't happen. So the couple is offering the Colonial as a $3,000-a-month rental, preferably on a short-term basis with options to renew. 'Our intention is still to sell it,' she says. '[But] we can't carry two houses, and the rental will help with some of the expenses.'"

The Main Line Times from Pennsylvania. "In recent months, some experts in the field are questioning if the real estate bubble finally has burst. Kathy Opperman, the incoming president of the Montgomery County Association of Realtors, said,' Generally, we are in a correction mode.'"

"'Over the past year, there has been an adjustment in prices across the entire area, including the Main Line,' Chairman Harrison Tyson of Suburban West Realtors Association wrote. 'prices are getting back to where they should be.'"

"'There is more to look at,' said Opperman. That's a problem Alexis Finger of Bala Cynwyd didn't expect when she put her house up for sale several months ago. In April, Finger listed her home in order to downsize into a new condo in. She expected someone to pick up the house in a second, she said. But the seconds dragged on and on and on. 'I went April through June with nothing, not even a nibble,' said Finger."

"In late September, Finger finally began getting some nibbles. 'It was like a miracle,' Finger said of a few families who began taking a serious look at her home."

The Wellesley Townsman. "The Massachusetts Association of Realtor released figures this week for sales in the Bay State of detached single-family homes and condos for the month of September - and it was not good news. Despite the fact that housing has become more affordable because of falling prices due to supply and the lowest mortgage rates in six months, sales were off 24 percent for single-family homes and 28 percent for condos compared to sales in September 2005."

"In the single-family home category, last month's sales total is the lowest home sales volume since 1996."

"According to Wellesley resident Karl Case, a nationally known real estate expert who teaches economics at Wellesley College, the decline in demand is being matched by seller resistance, and the sellers are holding out for what they think the property is worth. Furthermore, he said, the market is close to becoming illiquid, that is, properties are just not trading hands like they were."

"Commenting on this week's report by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, Case said, 'the numbers are not horrible, but they're pretty bad.'"

The Lexington Minuteman. "Finding the business climate a bit stifling in Massachusetts? The solution is more affordable housing. 'Even if housing prices were to drop 20 percent ... most of the housing stock we have is beyond the reach of most young families,' said Barry Bluestone, a housing expert at Northeastern University."

"He added: 'Greater Boston is the single most expensive place to live [in America]. That's why we're beginning to lose population and lose jobs.'"

The Shrewsbury Chronicle. "In a market where homes are sitting longer and potential buyers are taking their time, real estate professionals are trying new ways, again, to attract business. Some have held art shows during open houses. Others offer incentives, a flat-screen television, low financing, the choice and installation of granite counters, but now they seem to be pulling out all the stops."

"And more and more sellers are burying statues of St. Joseph. 'Basically, when the market is really bad, people will try anything,' said Maria Salomao-Schmidt, owner of Brick House Realty, Holliston."

"'There are whole rituals around all these pagan things,' she said, 'because people just want to sell. I think it helps people think they’re doing something rather than just waiting,' she said. 'And if you believe in energy work, it helps people envision their home selling.'"