The Republican reports from Massachusetts. "Foreclosure filings in Massachusetts soared to new heights in February, the fifth consecutive month with more than 2,000 filings statewide, according to a report released yesterday. ForeclosuresMass.com reported that foreclosures almost doubled in the 12-month period ending Feb. 28, compared to the same period a year earlier."

"In the 12 months ending Feb. 28, lenders filed 21,644 foreclosure petitions, compared to 11,894 in the year ended Feb. 28, 2006, for an 82 percent increase."

"'We see this continuing well into 2007,' said Jeremy Shapiro, president of ForeclosuresMass.com. 'We've never seen this volume before, even during the crash of the 1990s.'"

The New York Times on New Jersey. "Broad swaths of Newark are groaning under the weight of mortgage debt, much of it accumulated in the building boom of recent years. In many of these neighborhoods, a heavy mortgage debt has led thousands of residents, many of them first-time homebuyers, close to financial ruin, experts and local officials say."

"According to recent census figures, more than 40 percent of Newark homeowners spend more than half their income on housing, one of the highest percentages in the New York metropolitan region and among the highest in the country."

"Driving the high mortgage debt and the boom in home sales here, and around the country, has been the proliferation of mortgages that have made it possible for people with poor credit, scant savings and modest incomes to buy homes."

"For Quintin Fields, buying a home in Newark was less about finding a place to live and more about trying to find opportunity in the city’s housing boom. It is an opportunity he now wishes he had passed up."

"A first-time home buyer with an annual income of about $36,000 and almost no savings, Mr. Fields did not qualify for a prime loan for the $315,000 house. So his half brother arranged a 15-year mortgage from WMC Mortgage Company, a subprime division of General Electric, and another from the Option One Mortgage Company, the subprime group of H & R Block."

"The $2,312 monthly payments were much more than he could afford, but Mr. Fields said his brother assured him that they could find tenants. They did, but then lost them. Last July, without the rental income, his brother, who was managing the property, stopped paying the lenders. Mr. Fields now owes almost $30,000 in delinquent payments and has fallen out with his half brother."

"'It’s just sad,' said Mr. Fields. 'I can’t even borrow money.'"

New Hampshire Public Radio. "In New Hampshire, twice as many houses went to foreclosure in the first few months of 2007 than did during the same period last year. That increase has been blamed on a preponderance of subprime loans."

"But there’s evidence that more conventional loans have also played a part in the sharp rise in foreclosures."

"Lenders have foreclosed on more than twelve-hundred foreclosures in New Hampshire since the beginning of the year. Most of them were in Hillsborough, Stafford and Rockingham Counties."

"Carol Stacy, the Registrar of Deeds in Rockingham County says she’s seen the numbers take off from last year. 'Well, we’re talking in January, 2006 there were fifteen foreclosures, and in January, 2007 there were 35 foreclosures. In February 2006 there were 13. And in February 2007 there were 28. That’s pretty substantial.'"

The Buffalo News from New York. "Denouncing what he called 'rogue' mortgage lenders and 'liar' loans, New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer on Wednesday called for the national regulation of mortgage brokers, and a ban on riskier products and controversial loan terms."

"However, one Western New York mortgage lender said some regulation is clearly necessary to weed out bad actors. She even supports some of Schumer’s recommendations, although she hopes Congress doesn’t overreact."

"'As usual, the government is reacting far too late to abuses,' said Linda Mallia, president of Devere Mortgage Corp. 'I just hope now that they don’t do what they usually do. I hope what is done is reasonable and realistic.'"

"Schumer conceded that nothing can be done for those who have already lost their house. 'Once it’s foreclosed, you really have trouble,' he said. 'It’s probably something we should look into, but we can’t get them back into their house.'"

The Poughkeepsie Journal from New York. "Economists at a forecasting center in Westchester County say the nation's housing market is far from being done with its downturn. Too-high home values, heavy consumer debt and harder-to-get loans will combine to push prices down, predicts the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center in Mt. Kisco."

"How much? There's 30 percent to 50 percent left to go, they say. 'Flimsy financial arrangements,' or risky lending practices, are being curtailed as people struggle to meet their mortgages and delinquencies skyrocket, the Levy crew said."

"In Dutchess County, prices are already down from the peak, according to the most recent data published by Mid-Hudson MLS in Poughkeepsie."

"For the first two months of the year, the average sales price for Dutchess single-family detached homes fell by 11.2 percent versus the same period a year ago. Volume of sales was about flat while the inventory of listings was high, running 20 percent above year-ago levels."

"David Levy, head of the institute, said in a news release, 'Most people are missing the point. The biggest imbalance is in price, not inventories of unsold homes.' The study predicts prices will fall substantially over several years."

"Kevin Feltes, an economist at Levy and author of the report. said, 'The reason prices need to come back down is that affordability is so low. But also, what's really allowed home prices to go as high as they were was a lot of speculator buying.'"

"'We think that loan problems are going to push lenders to be tighter and tighter,' Feltes said. That means marginal buyers will be pushed out of the market, and having fewer buyers tends to depress prices."

"It is now 'a severe crunch,' said Arnold Restivo, a Fishkill-based lending manager for Tuthill Finance, which lends to people who have been turned down by other lenders. 'As credit standards are tightened with the subprime market, more marginal buyers cannot qualify for as many loans as they did in the past,' Restivo said."

"Pete Plavchan, owner-broker at the Real Estate Superstore, Town of Poughkeepsie, cited a local factor that could wreak havoc: property revaluations done recently in eight local towns, leading to owners getting reassessment notices telling the presumed current market value."

"Those numbers, he said, were taken 'at the top of this bubble,' and seem to be about 30 percent higher than what current sales prices suggest. 'It contributes to false expectations from people,' he said, which encourages them to set prices high, depressing sales and, eventually, prices."

"'There's always going to be sales,' he said. 'The only ingredient that's going to change is price and value.'"