The Capital reports from Maryland. "Even though Maryland is insulated from the worst fallout from the proliferation of subprime loans in the past few years, it will still feel some consequences. These foreclosures also hurt lenders. To counteract any financial hit, lenders will try to clean up this 'subprime slime' with tighter credit standards and higher interest rates, said Anirban Basu, chairman of the Sage Policy Group."

"Overaggressive lenders can increase the likelihood of foreclosure, said Tom Shaner, executive director of the Maryland Association of Mortgage Brokers, but one of the biggest problems with these loans is a lack of housing knowledge from buyers."

"'I've had people after buying a house, call me and ask where they pay the rent,' Mr. Shaner said. 'Lenders have been aware of the issues and trying to use caution and we're telling them, but they still want the house.'"

"People were so enamored with low interest rates that they leveraged themselves to the hilt, and they weren't just buying houses. They were buying flat-screen televisions to go in them, Mr. Basu said. 'Contrary to the American dream, for the first time we are hearing people say, 'You aren't ready to buy a house,' Mr. Shaner said."

"There is a whole generation of lenders who came into the industry with the housing boom beginning in the mid-1990s and who have never seen a downturn, said Christian Weller, senior economist at the Center for American Progress."

"During this boom, there was a lot of money chasing too few good opportunities, which gave the lender a free rein, he said. 'You have a whole industry being professional optimists,' Mr. Weller said. 'Both the lender and the borrower have clearly underestimated the risks.'"

"'The last hurrah in the housing market was on the back of the subprime,' said Christian Weller, senior economist at the Center for American Progress."

The Examiner from Maryland. "Homeowners across the state with subprime mortgages may be setting themselves up for financial disaster. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, there was a 12.39 percent increase in subprime loans by Marylanders in the fourth quarter of 2006."

"Residents of Baltimore City...have taken out an alarming 14.2 percent of their loans from subprime lenders. According to statistics acquired by The Examiner from Data Place, this number is only compounded by 33.7 percent of mortgage refinancing loans being brokered by subprime lenders."

"'Even with higher incomes, you may have got suckered in with a low teaser rate,' Urban Institute Senior Research Associate Peter Tatian said. 'People will be able to get out of it, it’s just going to cost them some money to do it.'"

The Washington Post. "Tysons Corner mortgage broker Jose Luis Semidey, who has a popular Spanish-language real estate talk show on Radio Universal, is being deluged with calls from desperate homeowners who are falling behind on their mortgages."

"Semidey said that the most calls are coming from Manassas, Woodbridge and Dale City in Virginia and Gaithersburg, Germantown, Capitol Heights and Langley Park in Maryland."

"An illiterate carpenter bought a $750,000 house in Ashburn Village, Semidey said. Francisco Santos makes $60,000 a year by working seven days a week. He became convinced that real estate was a can't-lose proposition after the value of the townhouse he had bought in Woodbridge in 2002 for $95,000 climbed to $230,000."

"He and his wife traded up to another house and banked part of their profits. The Spanish-speaking real estate agents with whom he negotiated the purchase persuaded him to borrow against his equity to move up again."

"'They called me every day; they said we can do more business, that it's a good time to do it,' he said. 'They talked very sweet into my ear. I believed. I believed these people, and I did this business.'"

The Philly Burbs from Pennsylvania. "Last week, we reported that home sales and home prices in the 43 municipalities of Central and Upper Bucks County and Eastern Montgomery County were both up 26 percent, a pretty significant increase."

"The data on which we based that conclusion, as it turns out, was wrong. The corrected data shows, instead, that prices dropped 1.8 percent in February when compared to February 2006. The median sales price in February was $280,000, well below the $356,500 we reported a week ago. In February 2006, the median price was $285,000."

"Sales also fell 1.7 percent to 282 in February from 287 in February 2006. We initially reported that sales jumped to 357 last month from 283 a year ago."

"The overall trend we've been reporting for much of the last year, a housing market where prices and sales are falling while inventories rise."

"In January, for instance, home prices in the area fell 4.8 percent, the revised numbers show, to $295,000. Last month, citing incorrect data, we reported that home prices fell 6.6 percent. The number of home sales in January fell 12.9 percent, according to the corrected data, a bigger drop than the 2.2 percent decline we initially reported."

The Pittsburg Post Gazette. "David W. Bishoff is so pleased with condominium sales at the Carlyle, the soon-to-be-converted Union National Bank building at Fourth Avenue and Wood Street, Downtown, that he's ready to try it again -- right next door."

"While it might seem like too much to some, Mr. Bishoff has no doubt the market can support it. 'The question isn't whether this city can absorb 200 or 400 or 600 or even a thousand. This Downtown should easily absorb and keep filled several thousand units,' he said."

"Mayor Luke Ravenstahl used the ribbon cutting to pitch his proposed tax abatement program for residential housing that is now before City Council."

"One Carlyle buyer, Brian Ritz, likened his investment to 'owning a piece of the Golden Triangle.'"