The Daily Press reports from Virginia. "The percentage of Hampton Roads subprime loans at least 60 days late, which are close to default, rose from 4.5 percent at the end of 2005 to 7 percent at the end of 2006. Adam White, a Virginia Beach attorney who serves as a trustee for foreclosures, said he had seen a big increase in the past year."

"'I have never seen an environment like the one we are currently in,' he said, 'with the rate of defaults and the volume of foreclosures. This is as bad as I've seen it in 18 years, and I think it's going to get worse.'"

"New Century revealed in April 2005 that it had made more than 10,000 mortgage loans in Virginia totaling $1.75 billion. That lending clearly had just accelerated, with the company extending 4,000 loans worth more than $720 million in the previous year."

"White said he was amazed at how many people were extended credit who couldn't handle it. He said he knew this reckoning would eventually come in the wake of lax lending standards. 'All of the gloom and doom that everyone was predicting a year ago is occurring because of reckless lending practices,' White said."

"Housing prices rose slowly last year in Hampton Roads, but the number of houses sold each month was down from 2005 as an oversupply built up. White is seeing fewer investors making bids for homes hitting foreclosure."

"These properties are getting sold by the lenders at discounts, so they can get their money back as quickly as possible. White said, 'They're putting downward pressure on the sales price.'"

The News Leader from Virginia. "Despite the recent nationwide housing correction, area real estate insiders say the Staunton-Waynesboro-Augusta County market is still seeing strong growth, both in terms of units sold and the price for which they were traded."

"Thanks to a high inventory of homes on the market now, 'there's more inventory for buyers to select from,' said Fred Morgan, immediate past-president of the Greater Augusta Association of Realtors. That's particularly good news for buyers."

"Morgan sees a 'normalized' market in 2007. 'I don't think we're going to experience the frenzy of activity we saw in 2004, 2005 and early 2006,' he said."

"'With all the incoming businesses and growth not only in Augusta County but from what I hear is coming in across the mountain and in Rockingham County, we're in great shape,' said Pat Rexrode, current GAAR president."

The Virginia Pilot. "For the fourth year in a row, the Census Bureau says, Norfolk is shrinking. Virginia Beach, too, for the second year in a row. Is that possible? Are Virginia's two most populous cities really losing residents?"

"Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim laughed when told about the new census estimates. 'The Beach is growing,' he said. 'And so is Norfolk.'"

The Washington Post. "The galloping growth of Washington's outer Virginia suburbs is slowing at last, according to Census Bureau estimates to be released today, with high housing costs beginning to dull the appeal of counties that have long been a magnet for newcomers."

"The shift brings Northern Virginia in line with the District and Maryland, where Montgomery County's growth rate continued to slow and growth in two other counties, Anne Arundel and Prince George's, stagnated in 2006."

"In Anne Arundel, where census figures indicate a net loss of 97 people, county demographer Kavi Maddula said that the county issued more than 2,300 building permits during the year, a figure that suggested to him that the population had grown."

"'I haven't seen this data, but I would be surprised if those numbers were correct,' said Maddula5. 'If it were losing population, I don't think we would have the kind of activity that we've had in residential and nonresidential construction.'"

The Philadelphia Inquirer from Pennsylvania. "A borrower with a credit score of 580 can no longer get 100 percent financing, said Ricky Boone, a Trevose mortgage broker. 'Nobody will buy it,' he said of the investors. 'People now looking to buy houses, they are going to have to have more down-payment money.'"

"'There's nothing left. It all disappeared in a heartbeat,' said Bill Metalsky, a loan officer with Creative Mortgage Group Inc., of Willow Grove, which had 15 percent to 20 percent of its business in the subprime arena."

"Metalsky said he had a customer with a very low credit score, but a 20 percent down payment. It would have been easy to find a lender at the beginning of the year. 'Now I can't find anybody. Now I would have to have 40' percent down, he said."

The Phillyburbs from Pennsylvania. "The area's inventory of unsold homes was up in February, to 3,646, from 2,526 a year ago, and from 3,389 in January. At January's sales pace, that means there's a 10.2-month supply of homes on the market."

"The average house sold in February sat on the market for 68 days before receiving an offer, a 119 percent increase from the 31 days the average house took to sell a year ago."

"Many real-estate insiders say days-on-the-market figures understate how long it actually takes houses to sell, because Realtors regularly pull slow-moving homes off the market and re-list them to make it appear they haven't been for sale for too long."

"In Bucks County, sales of new homes were off 36 percent in January. There's little sign of a market turnaround in building permit data. Permits for single-family homes pulled by developers fell 40 percent in Bucks County in January, and 30 percent in Montgomery County. February data is not yet available."

The Star Ledger from New Jersey. "Mark and Debbie File's dream home is $8,000 from completion. That includes the two air conditioning units stolen last fall. And the stainless-steel refrigerator and microwave that were ripped from the walls over Labor Day weekend, perhaps, as Mark File suspects, by a contractor angry that the builder, Kara Homes, was behind on payments."

"The rest of the development, Horizons at Birch Hill in Old Bridge, is much the same, partially finished and in disarray. While 'No Trespassing' has been spray painted on the boarded-up garage doors of unfinished homes, it has done little to deter vandals. One was so brazen he stole the front door off a unit."

"Kara has yet to file a reorganization plan, although the bankruptcy court judge last week ordered the Old Bridge-based company to file one within 30 days or start making interest payments on its $230 million in construction debt."

"'Every day we delay upsets a group of people, except these people who are making $500 an hour,' said Birch Hill homeowner Alan Ross. 'The longer this site sits, the more undesirable it gets.'"