The Record reports from New Jersey. "Diane Barone could hardly wait for the six-month real estate listing on her Elmwood Park ranch home to expire in late January. She had listed with a neighbor, who is a real estate agent, in July. And she didn't think the agent did enough to market the home."

"'All she kept saying from Day One is that she recommended the house be listed at $299,000,' Barone said. 'I had it listed at $325,000. Other houses in the neighborhood have sold for $400,000.'"

"Barone got three offers in the $280,000 range. But, she realized she couldn't sell at that price, pay the commission and pay off the mortgage. She is now working to sell the house on her own."

"Sellers trying to swim the chilly waters of the housing market for the past three to six months, and whose homes remain unsold, now have a decision to make: renew with their current real estate agent, or go elsewhere. 'Absolutely, you should renew the listing if your Realtor has done everything he or she said they would do,' said Joan Sobeck, an agent with 40 years' experience. 'If the price is too high, that's not the Realtor's fault.'"

"Sobeck said that if sellers are holding out for prices their neighbors got when they sold six months ago, their homes are not going to sell. When she does comparable price evaluations, she'll show the seller comparable homes in the area that haven't sold in the past six months."

"'If there are five houses on the market for $550,000 and they haven't sold, why would you put your house on the market for $550,000?' she said."

The Asbury Park Press from New Jersey. "City property owners this week finished receiving their new assessments, all of which are increasing as a result of the city's 'vibrant' real estate market, said an official. But maybe Long Branch did a little too well."

"Although the average increase was 209 percent, many property owners in the Elberon section saw their assessments triple, said Mayor Adam Schneider, who lives in that section."

"'I've got to see if there is a factual basis for that," Schneider said of the significant increases.' 'Sticker shock' is to put it mildly. I've got people on the phone screaming at me. I can't at the moment justify' the increases."

"Schneider said that the assessments may have been done when the real estate market was hotter than it is right now, and many people may be reacting to the fact that they cannot sell their property for the new assessment amount now."

"Ramon Chaparro Sr. said his single-family house on Broadway was assessed at more than $700,000 although when a bank appraised it in 2004, the figure was $260,000. 'If they are willing to give me $700,000 for my house, I'd be happy to give it to them,' Chaparro said."

"In January 2006, another bank appraised the house at $330,000. 'I don't think the market is that great that it is going to go up $400,000' in a few months, he said."

"Gary Gvrdik, who lives in Oceanport and owns six investment properties in the city, said he bought a two-family house at 692 Broadway for $120,000 eight years ago. In 2003, it was assessed at $218,000. Now, it is valued at $751,600."

"'I just don't know where they come up with these prices,' he said. 'You had these investors investing in town and not caring what kind of prices they paid for things,' he said of out-of-state investors' interest in luxury housing. 'Why should we have to pay for their' largess?'"

The Baltimore Sun from Maryland. "Baltimore City homeowners saw some of the region's steepest increases in the recent round of property reassessments. In the city, nearly one in five reassessed homes saw values at least double since they were last evaluated three years ago."

"This assessment cycle, which takes in about a third of each jurisdiction, is the first to straddle both the housing boom and the more recent slump."

"'It'll be a cold day in hell the day someone gets $900,000 for a home in this neighborhood,' said Perry Huntley, a homebuilder who judges that his waterfront house in Pasadena is overassessed at about $923,000. He said it was appraised for $100,000 less when he built it last year, and he believes local values have dropped since."

"'Everybody, everybody I've talked to has complained about the property taxes. ... I think [state officials] are going to be inundated with appeals,' he said."

"Baltimore County's west side has the lowest average home price among the reassessed suburbs, and saw the biggest jump by far, at an average of 76 percent."

"In Howard County, the region's most expensive jurisdiction, assessors are getting angry calls from residents demanding, 'Didn't you read the newspapers? Property values are going down!' Some metro area residents say values have dropped in their neighborhoods since the housing boom ended in late 2005."

"'I appealed it; I was furious,' said Owings Mills resident Dianne L. Stern, a real estate agent whose assessment more than doubled, to about $600,000 from roughly $275,000. She added: 'If someone wants to come and pay me $600,000 right now, they can have this house.'"