A housing report from Maine Today. "Workers have begun framing the first home in a new subdivision in Westbrook. It's a 1,400-square-foot cape with a base price of $204,000, roughly $50,000 below the median home price in Cumberland County. That price point is no accident. The builder had initially planned 'move-up' homes, with garages, paved driveways, gas fireplaces and other extras that would sell for $270,000 or so."

"But as the housing market slowed and potential customers had trouble selling existing homes, the builder redesigned the project to make it more affordable for first-time homebuyers."

"Cutting amenities is one way southern Maine homebuilders are weathering the national downturn. They're also offering buyer incentives, writing contracts contingent on the sale of existing homes and lowering prices. Some, like Custom Built Homes of Maine, are staying away from price segments already burdened with too many 'for sale' signs."

"'We're trying niches that keep us out of the $350,000 to $400,000 market,' said Ron Smith, the company's owner."

"Builders such as Smith say these adjustments really just reflect a correction, a return to a more-stable construction environment after a few hectic years. But housing-start figures for 60 towns in southern Maine, collected by Construction Data New England, show that the brakes have come on fairly hard."

"Through the end of October, the number of new building permits dropped 27 percent from the same period last year ­ 1,515 compared with 2,069."

"Kasprzak Builders of Waterboro develops condominium communities in Wells, Kennebunk, Gorham and Brunswick. The company typically builds 60 units a year and has had to make adjustments to stay on track. Overall prices have been cut about 5 percent this year, according to Bob Georgitis, the company's VP."

"Customers typically have homes to sell, and that can be a slow process these days. 'It wasn't a problem in the past,' Georgitis said. 'But now, people are unwilling to sign contracts until they are near closing.'"

"'Buyers will remain very price conscious, Smith said, and builders will need to respond. 'It's going to be very competitive, no doubt about that,' he said."

The Portsmouth Herald from New Hampshire. "The current housing market may give those on the lower income bracket a chance to look at buying their first home. 'We are in a snail's pace market,' Realtor Florence Ruffner joked. 'Prices have leveled; people can get in now that maybe couldn't get in six months ago.'"

"'I think it's gone back to a more normal market,' said Ruffner, in Exeter and a 25-year industry veteran. 'It can now take six to nine months for a property to sell, before it was just wild. That was just a very different kind of market. It's more like what it used to be before the wave. We rode the wave and now it's calm.'"

"'People are taking longer in making decisions ... they have the luxury of taking their time,' she said. 'Still, people are not giving houses away, and they shouldn't. People are entitled to fair-market value of their home.'"

"Loan officer Mark Danie thinks the market is switching from a seller's market to a buyer's market. 'It's a supply-and-demand situation,' he said. 'Those out there looking for the $250,000 range have many to select from. They are able to compare and contrast properties. They can be more picky than they were before.'"

The Nashua Telegraph. "Every town in Hillsborough County complains about too much growth, so when the Federal Reserve Bank does an in-depth study of New England migration patterns, what does it find? More people are leaving the county than entering it, the study found."

"Of all the people who moved into Hillsborough and Rockingham counties in the year 2003, 47 percent were from the Bay State. And southeastern New Hampshire wasn’t the only Massachusetts magnet; the whole state was a draw. 'Massachusetts had a net out-migration of 47,600. Of those, 18,444 (39 percent) went to New Hampshire,' said Carrie Conaway, deputy director at the New England Public Policy Center."

"But unlike the state’s other nine counties that drew Bay State immigrants, Hillsborough saw more people pack up and leave than unpack and arrive in 2003. (The population didn’t decline, however, because of more births than deaths.)"

"'I don’t think that’s all that surprising, for two reasons,' said Steve Williams, executive director of the Nashua Regional Planning Commission. One is jobs, he said: 2003 was a down time for the Boston-area tech industry, and 'Hillsborough County, and especially the Nashua area, tracks Boston very closely in terms of employment.'"

"The other is that old bugaboo, housing prices. 'At some point people began to realize there are less expensive housing opportunities not too far north, in Merrimack County, or out to the west,' he said."