The Boston Herald from Massachusetts. "The subprime-mortgage sector’s sudden implosion is putting some frost into forecasts for the Bay State housing market’s crucial spring season. 'I was looking for a recovery, or at least stabilization, in Massachusetts home prices this spring, but now I think we might see a little more deterioration,' said economist John Bitner of Boston-based Eastern Bank."

"The Center for Responsible Lending estimates 17 percent of Massachusetts home buyers who got subprime loans in the past two years will ultimately lose their properties. Economist Jim Campen of the University of Massachusetts-Boston said that translates into thousands of extra properties for sale - and he thinks the CRL figures 'may turn out to be conservative.'"

"Experts add that bad publicity surrounding the subprime market might prompt some house hunters to stay on the sidelines this spring. 'The knee-jerk reaction will be: 'There’s going to be a lot of foreclosed properties coming onto the market. Maybe we shouldn’t be so hasty about buying,' Eastern Bank’s Bitner said."

The Boston Channel. "The turmoil in the mortgage market for homebuyers with poor credit history could put tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents at risk of losing their homes in a state where foreclosures already are spiking."

"'For most people in foreclosure, even if they can get good credit counselors, more often than not they can't be helped,' economist Jim Campen said."

"Lenders and homeowners are now paying for lax lending guidelines that allowed people with poor credit to move into homes amid a booming housing market where financing was readily available, said Kevin Cuff, executive director of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association."

"'Those lending guidelines were much more attractive then to Wall Street than they currently are,' Cuff said. 'In the last 60 days, we have seen a tremendous resetting of those guidelines. What goes up, must come down.'"

The Worchester Business Journal.'Worcester investor Harold Avery says the stratospheric home prices of the past couple years have made it harder and harder to make a fast buck in real estate. Apparently, he's not alone. According to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, multi-family sales volume in Central Massachusetts fell by 22.6 percent in 2006, while prices dropped by just 1.4 percent.'

'Everything's come down now, price-wise, but even the crack houses in Main South are $350,000,' he said.'

From Fosters Online in New Hampshire. "Foreclosures nearly doubled last year in New Hampshire and are on track to double again this year, at least in part because of defaults on subprime loans, experts say. Charley Farley, president of Compass Mortgage in Bedford, said climbing default rates on subprime loans will affect the real estate market."'He said investors in the bond market, where mortgage-backed securities are sold, are coming to realize default rates will affect the value of bonds they buy. 'Investors are not going to bid on mortgage-backed security pools that have a high risk of default, unless they are going to get a higher rate of return,' he said.'

'Subprime loans are already possibly the riskiest type of mortgage-backed security in the stock market, he said. The lending industry is re-evaluating underwriting guidelines and tightening loan requirements, he said. 'The industry will make adjustments themselves,' he said. 'The subprime lending industry is realizing the error in its ways.'

'He said loose guidelines that gave loans to people with poor credit scores, coupled with the leveling off or decline in property values, has contributed to more foreclosures. But, he added, the real estate market typically is cyclical. 'This is normal,' he said. 'Property values can't go up all the time.'

The New York Times. "Lawyer David Volman has handled enough divorces to know that many marriages collapse under financial strain. So when his practice, in Shelton, began receiving an unusually large number of divorce cases last summer, Mr. Volman took it as an omen. 'Divorces go hand in hand with foreclosures and bankruptcies,' he said."

"Sure enough, in the first two months of this year, Mr. Volman took on some 50 bankruptcy cases, an 'enormous amount,' he said, given that in all of 2006 he handled 19."

"Many of the cases involve working-class couples in the Lower Naugatuck Valley who can no longer afford their mortgages. 'People are walking into my office and saying: ‘Here are the keys. Do whatever you have to do. I just want to get out of this so I can sleep at night,' he said."

"Preliminary figures for February gathered by RealtyTrac Inc., a national online marketplace for foreclosure properties, show a total of 1,451 foreclosure filings in Connecticut, a 61 percent increase over the corresponding period last year."

"That surge followed a steep rise in January as well. The 1,287 foreclosure filings in Connecticut that month represented a 67 percent increase over January 2006, according to the company’s figures."

"'Connecticut uses the same underwriting guidelines as everyplace else, so what’s happening here is the same as what’s happening in New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts,' said Thomas Egan, president of the Connecticut Mortgage Bankers Association. 'Lending was just a little too loose, along with a real estate market that isn’t growing.'"