Newsday reports from New York. "Well, the sky isn't falling, but local real-estate market conditions remain mostly cloudy, for sellers at least, according to housing data released yesterday."

"The latest data was more confirmation that the long run of double-digit price increases on Long Island had ended. The price slowdown has proved challenging for real estate agents. 'It's been kind of like a roller coaster,' said Rosie West, an associate broker in Freeport. 'The sellers, or some of them, are still in last summer's prices, whereas the buyers are in this season's prices.'"

"Potential buyers are holding out, betting that prices will decline, she said. One big result is that the 'really over-priced' homes are 'coming into reality,' West said."

"As another measure of the market's slowdown, the increase in residential housing inventory, rose to 13,313 homes in Suffolk from 9,847 a year ago. In Nassau the number of houses on the market jumped to 9,457, from 6,786. In Queens, the number spiked to 9,170 from 7,024."

"That higher inventory has increased the amount of time it would take to sell all the houses on the market. It would now take 12.9 months in Suffolk, compared with 9.4 a year ago. In Nassau, the figure rose to 11 months from 8.5. In Queens, the number rose to 12.5 months from 10.8."

"Also telling are the median prices for houses in contract, a number that indicates the latest overall housing prices. That value slipped in Suffolk by 1.0 percent to $395,000 from $399,000 a year ago. In Nassau, it declined by 2.1 percent to $465,000 from $475,00."

The New York Daily News. "As the city's once-booming real estate market cools, many Bronx homeowners are starting to feel the heat. The number of 'lis pendens' actions filed in the Bronx, an indication of upcoming foreclosures, has risen 21% in the first 10 months of this year over last, according to the latest mortgage statistics."

"'It's ugly out there,' said Sarah Ludwig, director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project."

"Ludwig blamed a range of scams and unscrupulous lending practices, from 'interest only' mortgages to 'one-stop' real estate brokers, for the rash of lis pendens filings."

"'A major factor is the resetting of adjustable-rate mortgages,' said Ludwig. 'Lots of people are seeing their payments go up by hundreds of dollars a month.'"

"In areas like Throgs Neck and Middletown, the main culprit is the recent trend of refinancing, where most often elderly homeowners take out new loans to make home repairs but fall victim to hidden fees and rate hikes."

"Manhattan saw a drop as striking as the Bronx's rise, with 17% fewer lis pendens filings this year, attributable to the island's hot real estate market making it easier for distressed owners to sell, said Robert Ugorets, who runs a foreclosure-tracking Web site. 'If you got into trouble in that market,' said Ugorets, 'you could just get out.'"

"But in the Bronx, where most mortgage-holders are homeowners rather than speculators, getting out from under an impending foreclosure isn't so easy."