Bloomberg reports from New York. "Luxury home prices slid in New York's Long Island and Queens in the first quarter as more property came onto the market and took longer to sell, appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said. The median sales price fell 5.3 percent to $900,000 from a year earlier and houses took 25 percent more time to lure a buyer, the companies said today in a report."

"An oversupply of expensive houses for sale is reducing demand, said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel. 'You're just not seeing the demand level that you had been seeing in prior years,' Miller said. 'You just reached a saturation point to what the economy could support.'"

"The median sale price of a condominium dropped 4 percent to $240,000, Miller Samuel and Prudential said. The weakness at the high end also hurt the overall housing market on Long Island, and in Queens, a borough of New York City."

"Sales fell 6.4 percent to 7,001 from a year ago and the median sales price slipped less than 1 percent to $437,500. The number of homes for sale jumped 18 percent to 31,954."

"'Inventory levels today are double what they were two years ago,' Miller said. 'It's a real issue. What that's going to do is temper any price appreciation going into the spring market.'"

From Newsday in New York. "In Nassau inventories climbed 19 percent, to 9,260 houses. In Suffolk the listings rose 20.1 percent, to 13,424. In Queens the supply of homes listed for sale rose 13.7 percent, to 9,270."

"Dottie Herman, Prudential's chief executive, said the rising inventories shouldn't be a cause for alarm. She said homeowners got used to a red hot market when 'everything sold in two days' but that was an 'anomaly.'"

"'In the last few years, you could put a home out in any condition...and it would sell,' she said. 'And now that's really not the case.'"

"A MLS of Long Island report issued for February showed a rise in inventory listings, compared with January. Need more evidence that it's a bad time for sellers? Median prices and total sales were down on most of Long Island in the first quarter of the year."

The Buffalo News from New York. "Mortgage brokers are defending themselves against accusations by politicians and consumer advocates that they are to blame for causing the meltdown in the mortgage industry by giving loans to borrowers who couldn’t afford them."

"'Don’t just keep labeling mortgage brokers as the bad apples,' said Nancy B. Gascoyne, past president of the New York Association of Mortgage Brokers."

"'There are so many aspects of why the subprime world is having problems,' Gascoyne said. 'To blanket it across the world and say it’s bad mortgage brokers, that is irresponsible.'"

"'When you look back at who’s actually been fined for predatory lending, it’s been Ameriquest, Citigroup, Household Finance,' said Harry H. Dinham, president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. 'Not everybody out there who does mortgages is a broker. The lenders are the ones that are actually approving and closing these loans.'"

"At a press conference last week, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy cited projections that the number of foreclosures in Suffolk would increase by 117 percent betwen 2005 and 2008. In Nassau, the increase is projected to be 111 percent."

The Courier Post from New Jersey. "With unemployment below the national average, Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, described South Jersey's economy as 'doing better than many other areas of the U.S.'"

"Despite the good news, Plosser told an audience 'uncomfortably high' inflation and a housing market bogged down with unsold inventory are clouding the forecast."

"These trends signal a continued buyers' market for homes and an employees' market for jobs."

The Citizen from New Hampshire. "Joe Kevlin and his wife Lynne are in a foreclosure situation that is becoming more and more common across the country."

"The Kevlins, like many families, encountered serious money problems after refinancing their home through an adjustable-rate mortgage. Their house payment went from $1,000 in past years to nearly $2,000 when they consolidated their bills and dropped a local bank mortgage that offered a fixed rate."

"The Kevlins thought consolidating their bills was a smart choice considering that the financing plan they were given appeared to allow them to pay a slightly higher payment than the mortgage alone. What they didn't understand is that the payments wouldn't stay that way for long."

"'There really wasn't a big difference, but then the rate kept going up,' explained Kevlin."

"Both Lynne and Joe Kevlin admit to being at fault for not fully understanding the terms of their refinancing plan, but say they are among the many well-meaning homeowners who are now in big trouble after being sold on a plan by a large national financing company."

"'They tell you the good stuff ... they say its only going to be one payment (per month),' explained Joe Kevlin."

"As a mortgage consultant for a local bank, Chris Guilmett said underwriting guidelines sometimes require him to turn down an applicant with less than perfect credit thus creating a situation where they could turn to subprime options."

"'What I see, and it bothers me, is that I could end up saying 'no' to somebody, but I know one of these predatory lenders is going to say 'yes,' said Guilmett."