A housing report from the Boston Globe. "The Massachusetts housing market continued its decline in November, with sales of single-family homes and condominiums dropping by double-digit percentages and sales of single-family homes reaching its lowest November tally since 1992, according to a housing report issued today."

"The Warren Group said the single-family home median sale price fell 6.5 percent, decreasing to $315,000 in November from $337,000 in November 2005. Last month's median is down more than 13 percent from the $364,000 peak registered in June 2005, and has now dropped in eight of the last nine months."

"Condominium sales fell by 10.1 percent from November 2005. Statewide, the condominium median sale price dipped 1.8 percent to $269,900."

"Through November this year, all 14 Massachusetts counties have seen single-family home sales decline. The declines were most pronounced in Nantucket County (29.6 percent) and Barnstable County (22 percent)."

"It was the Boston market's worst year since the early-1990s housing bust. Reversing a spectacular run-up that made the Hub one of the nation's most expensive housing markets, the median price last year for existing homes plunged 19.3 percent between the first and second quarters, according to Global Insight. That second-quarter decline was the biggest since 1991."

"With the glut of suburban homes for sale nearing records, by October it took homeowners on average four months to sell a house. Boston condominium prices slipped 7 percent in the autumn quarter from a year earlier. Foreclosure filings soared as homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages were hit with higher rates."

"But prices haven't fallen enough to ease economists' warnings that exorbitant housing costs remain a huge drag on Massachusetts' economic growth. 'The worst drops are over,' said Larissa Duzhansky, Global Insight's economist. 'Are we going to see every quarter lose? No we're not, because Boston is still a desirable market.'"

The Boston Herald. "The once-hot condo market has cooled in Boston. City and business leaders are soul-searching about how to spark job growth in a still sluggish local economy."

"Job growth has been a mixed bag, with Massachusetts, and its economic engine Boston, still recovering from the last recession. Overall, the state is still down 143,800 jobs from 2001. The one area Boston had seen strong growth in - housing - now appears to be cooling."

"Outgoing City Hall development chief Mark Maloney recently boasted of the city’s big housing push - 17,000 new units since 2000. But even that accomplishment may be in trouble, with condo sales slowing downtown and developers of planned projects weighing whether to start building."

"Dean Stratouly, the Boston tower developer, called Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s plan to form a City Hall sales group to market Boston to companies a step in the right direction. 'It’s better late than never,' Stratouly said. 'When you have this...exodus from the city...it is horrible. It is a wake-up call.'"

The Worcester Business Journal. "Mark Fitzgibbon, CFA and director of research at Sandler O’Neill & Partners, LP, cites two significant headwinds that will affect the 2007 banking market. One is the yield curve. The second thing impacting the 2007 banking outlook is the slowing housing market, particularly in Massachusetts."

"'Credit qualifications will decrease from the current pristine level and credit costs will rise,' he says. He expects credit quality to deteriorate in 2007, and that there will be more problem loans than we’ve seen historically. Some preliminary signs of this change were apparent in third quarter 2006, he says."

"The region’s slowing housing market worries everyone from bankers to homebuyers. 'There is speculation as to whether we’ve bottomed out,' says Steve Groccia of Bay State Bank. 'The time houses spend on the market has increased, which is driving prices down. Foreclosures are way up.'"

"Analyst Mark Fitzgibbon agrees that the housing market has slowed to a crawl, particularly in Massachusetts. 'We are already seeing the impact of higher interest rates in the housing market,' he says. 'Some builders have gone bankrupt.'"

"Barnstable and Berkshire counties, with many second-home mortgages, showed the highest foreclosure rates in the Commonwealth in 2006, Fitzgibbons reports. 'People tend to let their second home go first,' he says. 'This is consistent with prior cycles. The consumer appetite for debt has been satiated by mass home equity and principle residence refinancing.'"

"John Merrill of Sovereign Bank Massachusetts warns against interest-only mortgages. 'Trying to afford mortgage payments is pretty challenging when rates go up,' he says."

"Mark Crandall of TD Banknorth suggests that the refinancing craze is over. Meanwhile, the refinancing craze brought out predatory lending practices, the effects of which we’re still seeing, he says."