The Hartford Courant reports from Connecticut. "On one thing almost everyone agrees: The real estate market in Greater Hartford has slowed compared to a year ago, with more houses listed for sale and fewer houses selling. Homeowners in Portland listed their property for sale last June, asking $524,900 for the 3,600-square-foot house."

"June turned to summer and summer to fall. Now, with winter here, the price of the well-kept home has dropped to $449,000 and the owners, who purchased the house in 2004 for $435,000, will probably lose money on their purchase. The owners did not want to be identified."

"'I'm as frustrated as they are," said Tom Abbate, a real estate agent in Middletown, who has the listing for the house. 'The owner said to me, 'Should I come down more?' Coming down $10,000 isn't going to make a bit of difference. There hasn't been a house sold in Portland in this price range in the past few months.'"

"'In the $400,000 to $500,000 price range in my market, it's a very limited market. There simple aren't any buyers out there in that price range,' he said."

"Middletown and surrounding towns, such as Portland, Cromwell and East Haddam, have all felt a slowdown in the mid- and upper-level price ranges, basically anything $400,000 and above. And there are more houses for sale in that price range than a year ago."

"'I'm hitting my head against the wall,' Abbate said of the lack of interested buyers. 'It's not that this house is not worth that money. It is. And I've got several others just like it. It's just that there's no buyers out there.'"

"When the owners of a contemporary house in Simsbury decided to downsize, they put their house on the market with a listing price of $378,000. The house sat on the market all summer and through the fall. The price dropped, three times, until it is now listed at $354,900."

"'I don't understand the market at all,' said the home's owner, who asked not to be named. 'It changed so fast. It was slow in the summer, it perked up in the fall, and now it is really slow. There's no reason for this to be happening.'"

The Boston Globe. "Sovereign Bancorp. said yesterday it will cut 800 jobs, 77 of them locally, and close most of its wholesale mortgage operation in an effort to slash costs by $100 million annually."

"In a statement, CEO Joseph Campanelli said it was a 'difficult decision' to cut so many jobs during the holiday season."

The Record from New Jersey. "David Moro and his wife stretched their budget to the limit when they bought their center-hall colonial in 2003. They took out an interest-only loan. Moro dreads that day."

"'What's getting me a little squirrelly is seeing interest rates go up,' said Moro. 'The reality is when I went into this mortgage, I didn't fully understand it. I'm not going to be able to make the payments.' Moro would like to refinance to a fixed-rate loan, but can't find one with monthly payments he can afford."

"For many home buyers, including the Moros, these mortgages were the only way to afford a house in recent years, as prices skyrocketed from 2000 to 2005. In addition, option adjustable-rate mortgages let buyers vary their monthly payments, in some cases, paying so little that the mortgage actually grows, rather than being nibbled away over time by monthly payments. These are called negative amortization loans."

"'That's a scary product,' said Mary Johnson, at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of New Jersey. 'You can be losing equity on the home while you're making your monthly mortgage payment.'"

"'They come to us when they're two, three, four, six months behind in mortgage payments,' Johnson said. Many of these homeowners borrowed more than they can really afford; others have seen their monthly payments readjust to unaffordable levels. Some are paying half of their income for shelter."

"'We don't have an easy solution for people in this situation,' Johnson said. Some people are so determined to keep their homes they take on second jobs, she added."

"Much of the fallout from the boom in exotic mortgages hasn't hit yet. Many people took out these loans in 2004 and 2005, locking in the low rates for three to five years, or longer. But looking ahead, mortgage professionals, borrowers and regulators are worried."

"Mortgage consultant Alex Giassa said he has a client who chose an option ARM, but can't pay all the interest every month. So it is being added to the body of the loan. 'Her mortgage balance has increased by almost $20,000,' Giassa said."