The Journal News from New York. "Listings are the low-hanging fruit of real estate. So why did J.P. Endres, a (realtor) in Scarsdale, start turning away some listings last spring? She's concluded that the would-be sellers wanted too much money for their homes. 'I said, 'No thank you,' Endres said Friday about the first listing she turned down. 'It would have been a pure-dollar-loss for me.'"

"The potential customer wanted $2 million in an area where the highest selling price had been $1.75 million. The home went on the market with another agent securing the listing. The price was lowered three times before the listing expired with the house unsold."

"Though housing inventories climbed throughout most of the year and sales softened, the median sales price actually continued rising to record highs in Westchester County. The quarterly high was set in the third quarter at $716,125."

"Fourth quarter data won't be in until late this month, but it's likely prices will be lower in both Westchester and Rockland counties. Preliminary numbers from the New York State Association of Realtors last week showed Westchester's median was down to $595,000 in November, down 8.5 percent from $650,000 in November 2005."

"Endres, who's wrapping up a year as the president of the Westchester County Board of Realtors, said 2006 actually ended up being more of a normal year after five years of 'insanity,' but she still thinks most of the homes for sale are overpriced."

"'Only about a third of the inventory is priced right,' she said, estimating that the remaining two-thirds is overpriced by 10 percent or more."

The Asbury Park Press from New Jersey. "(Broker) Gloria Zastko in North Brunswick, said recent price downturns are nothing new in real estate. But she cautioned people about the more exotic mortgages available."

"'When the housing prices do dip a bit, this is going to be a deadly thing. Their monthly payments will go up. It's just too bad that the criteria is not a little more stringent to make sure that these people can afford to continue with these houses. Surely, people should buy, but they should be qualified to buy,' Zastro said."

"Buying a home is the largest investment most people will ever make, said Shrikant Nadkarni, a certified public accountant. Nadkarni said that in today's market, with rising interest rates and softening real estate prices, buying a home to make a short-term profit is certainly not an attractive proposition."

The Vineyard Gazette. "The price of the typical home on Martha's Vineyard fell for the first time in six years in 2006, as buyers left the market and sales figures dropped by nearly 30 per cent. The median price for properties was down to around $690,000 in the third quarter of 2006, a fall of almost six per cent compared with a year earlier when the median price was around $732,000."

"Land sales were down 35 per cent compared with 2005 and more than 50 per cent compared with 2004. And while complete figures for the fourth quarter are not yet in, industry experts are expecting the market to continue to trend down or at best stay flat." "Meanwhile, agents' inventories of properties for sale were up around 30 per cent throughout the year."

"'We have seen a definite change over 2006. But things have been going up for eight or nine years. It had to end sometime,' said Sharon Purdy, a 35-year veteran of the Island market's ups and downs. But Mrs. Purdy said she sees no signs of a bursting of the housing bubble, rather a slow deflation, which was on balance healthy."

"'People are waiting to buy and renting instead. Until that stalemate comes to a conclusion we will remain dormant for quite some time,' Mrs. Purdy said."

"'It's a classic standoff. The sellers want their price and the buyers want their price and the two have not come close yet,' said the president of Dukes County Bank, Chris Wells. 'But I think this correction is different in that leverage is less and there's a lot less speculation in the market than in the last significant downturn, in 1987 to 1991.'"