The Washington Post reports on New York. "After years of soaring prices, the unstoppable New York real estate market has either taken a breather or a truncheon to the skull, which will send it staggering soon enough. Already, apartments are lingering for weeks on the market, and for the first time in years, sellers are cutting prices."

"Marketers of super-pricey buildings in Manhattan are engaged in a sort of high-end amenities arms race, where extravagance and gimmickry are the weapons of choice. The alliance of 255 Hudson, for instance, was celebrated at a cocktail party in the club's showroom/garage months ago, with a couple of women hired to mingle and grin wearing little more than pasties and body paint meant to evoke racing stripes. If this is the smell of developer desperation, New York is about to inhale a lot of it."

"'I count 40-plus construction projects in my neighborhood alone,' says Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at New York University, who lives in Tribeca. 'There's going to be a huge glut in six months here in New York. And unless you see a huge increase in hiring in the financial industry, you have to wonder, who is going to buy all these units?"

The Boston Herald. "A small but growing number of Boston area condo and homeowners are finding themselves 'upside down.' That’s real estate parlance that describes what happens when home owners owe the bank more money than their houses are worth."

"And in a real estate market where home values are declining, it’s leaving some people who are trying to sell their homes facing a jam. Home owners whose mortgage covers most of the original purchase may walk away from a sale owing the bank a big chunk of change."

"Lois Meisler, who runs Somerville-based Asset Disposition Management, launched her firm back during the real estate crash of the late 1980s to help banks unload homes and condos. She suggests Boston looks like a fertile market once again. While foreclosures are her bread and butter, Meisler sees major potential by specializing in short sales for home and condo owners trying to make the best of a losing hand."

"Meisler doesn’t buy suggestions from the real estate industry that prices and sales may have finally hit bottom. 'The brokers are saying the market is turning when we have hit bottom. I don’t think so,' Meisler said. 'We predict that short sales are going to become very popular.'"

"Lauren Snedecker, a mortgage broker based in Quincy, is exploring putting on a short-sale seminar for local Realtors. Real estate brokers say the math just doesn’t add up for those unlucky enough to have bought condos at the height of the boom market."

"The first-time buyers Snedecker is working with now have a much different price limit, below $300,000. But would-be condo sellers stuck trying to unload units in a difficult market may be looking to get as much as they can, even if it’s far less than what they paid."

"One downtown broker describes a North End condo owner who bought his one bedroom at the market’s height for $330,000. He is now 'in pieces' after having to sell for $320,000."

"And then there’s the Back Bay condo owner who bought her one bedroom for $359,000 back in 2003. She put it on the market earlier this year for $369,000, just as prices and sales began to collapse. The price now: $339,000."

The Boston Globe. "Seven Century 21 franchises in Boston's western suburbs merged yesterday to create one of the state's largest real estate agencies. The merger parties hope the deal bolsters their competitive edge by allowing them to combine advertising budgets, share expenses, and beef up compensation."

"The deal comes on the heels of a shakeup in other housing-related companies, particularly mortgage lenders adjusting to the end of a market boom. A plunge in home sales has stoked competitive pressures. Local banks said they have shaved their lending units slightly, Eastern Bank by eliminating the overtime required in boom times and by reassigning a few employees and Citizens Bank by attrition."