The Queens Chronicle reports from New York. "Foreclosures are rapidly rising in Queens, which has been the hardest hit of New York City’s five boroughs. As of March 19, some 1,223 homeowners lost their properties through foreclosure this year, up 57 percent over last year’s already abnormally high total, and up 91 percent from the last quarter of 2006."

"'It’s hugely spiking,' said Sarah Ludwig, executive director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project. 'What we’re seeing is that the way in which loans were being made wasn’t sustainable.'"

"Desperate to get out of debt, Marie Eduard put her house on the market four months ago. So far there have been no offers. 'I pray to God to sell the house quickly,' Eduard said. 'Now I’m scared to go into foreclosure, because my credit will be ruined.'"

"Eduard told her broker she was uneasy taking out a loan for $495,000. 'I told him I didn’t think I could afford the house because my income was too low. He said, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ that he’d take care of it.'"

"Eduard believes that her broker inflated her income by $60,000 to qualify her for the loan. Now it takes almost every dollar of her $30,000 salary to pay her $2,400 monthly mortgage bill."

"'These loans were created for savvy investors, they were a niche product,' Ludwig said. 'Now they have been broadly sold to the public.'"

"In Eduard’s case, she received a $99,000 piggy-back loan at 12 percent interest, with a balloon payment of $90,000 due at the end of 25 years. With such a loan, a borrower will never build equity and will virtually never be able to pay off the loan, Ludwig added."

"'All of this was foreseeable,'said Ludwig. 'The regulators, the industry and Wall Street in particular have known about these problems for years.'"

"The good news was the recognition that there was a fundamental problem. 'At this point, the whole subprime industry is a mess. I don’t think anybody really contests that,' she concluded."

The Sentinel Online from Pennsylvania. "It’s easier these days to sell a house in Cumberland County than most anywhere else in the United States. 'The growth is cooling but we’re still growing,' said Sherri Pursel, spokeswoman for Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors."

"'It’s certainly not the seller’s market we had previously,' said Karen Detwiler, owner of Help-U-Sell Detwiler Realty in South Middleton Township. 'Buyers have a little more control of the market than during the selling market heyday.'"

"Lenders have tightened standards with the rising delinquencies in mortgages especially in the subprime market, where borrowers with weak credit histories obtained their loans. Detwiler said subprime lenders are scrutinizing the details of housing transactions, including appraisals and 100-percent financing purchases."

"She added that lower interest rates and a sellers market favored subprime buyers. With the increase in the number of foreclosures, 'banks are becoming more accountable.'"

"Locally, homes priced under $200,000 are 'still moving at a good clip' but sellers with homes over $300,000 should choose their asking price carefully, she said."

The Gazette from Maryland. "Industry experts use words such as 'correction' and 'balanced' to describe the ongoing housing slowdown. The insider jargon is little consolation to apprehensive homeowners who are tired of seeing 'For Sale' signs languish in their front yards."

"Average time on the market for a Montgomery County home was 93 days in March, compared with just 50 days in March 2006. In Prince George’s County, time on the market increased from 40 to 76 days and in Frederick County from 65 to 110 days, according to data from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc."

"'The drop in existing home sales in Maryland in the first quarter this year from a year ago was a 'correction' to a more normal homebuying market,' said Ilene Kessler, president of the Maryland Association of Realtors."

"'In 2005 and 2006, there was a lot of interest in buying,' Kessler said. 'It’s now a more balanced market. A lot of people have already bought.'"

"The resale market is down by 15 percent in Maryland and 18 percent in Virginia from the same time last year, according to Metrostudy. 'Flipping is over, but the good news is that homebuilders have slowed down, restricting sales,' said Kenneth Wenhold, regional director of Metrostudy. 'It is a great time to be a buyer.'"

"Maryland’s homebuilding industry, which slumped last year, has continued its slowdown this year. Building permits for new single-family homes fell 20 percent in 2006 from 2005 and continued to slide in January and February."

"'Some experts are saying we’ll reach the bottom later this year,” said John E. Kortecamp, executive VP of the Home Builders Association of Maryland. 'But you never know when you will see the bottom until it’s over.'"

"'The slump began some 18 months ago, said Dan Ryan, president and owner of Dan Ryan Builders of Frederick. 'It was just a matter of time before it cooled off,' Ryan said."

"Prince George’s County led the state in foreclosures in 2006, and has continued that pattern for the first quarter of 2007. A total of 1,558 foreclosures were recorded in the county last year, with 590 in the first three months of this year, up 56 percent from the same period in 2006."

"Darrell Carrington, a senior loan officer with Freestate Mortgage Services in Bowie, said high home prices in Prince George’s, in relation to other nearby counties, is a factor in its high foreclosure rate."

"The parents of many of today’s homebuyers needed to make a 20 percent down payment, 'but those days are kind of gone,' he said."

"Such a down payment on a $350,000 house would be $70,000, and most people don’t have that much cash, he said. The result is that more of the purchase price is borrowed, resulting in higher mortgage payments."

"Mortgage broker Kip S. Douglass in Upper Marlboro, said he has seen the rise in home loan defaults in Prince George’s County. In a listing he surveys, Douglass said, he noted 16 new notices of default filed on April 17."

"That total, about double what he used to see, is no longer atypical, he said."

"'The trend is that the market has slowed nationally, said S. Lynne Pulford, senior vice president of Sandy Spring Mortgage in Columbia. 'There is a large inventory of both new and resale homes. Consumer confidence due to energy prices is having an [adverse] affect on the overall market and pricing.'"

"The home mortgage market is nowhere near where it was two years ago, many say."

"'There’s been a tightening in the subprime market, and Wall Street is not buying loans as much as it did,' said Charles DiPino, president of the Maryland Association of Mortgage Brokers. 'That’s hurt some customers. It’s really based on the real estate business. People are nervous. They’re not willing to take on a riskier loan. They want facets that are locked down. Housing values are stabilizing now, and they’re scrutinizing values more.'"

"According to Michael Galeone, executive vice president of The Columbia Bank, the subprime market was 'abused' during the mortgage boom of two years ago."

"'The subprime market got into trouble as lenders began lending to people with less-than-sterling credit qualifications,' he said. 'Sub-prime lending lets you borrow based on the value of your home, maybe up to 125 percent of the value. The trouble happens when the market goes against those people.'"

"'People bought more than they could afford,' he said. 'In the past, they could buy an $800,000 house at 3.5 or 4 percent interest. Then the market shifted and their monthly payments doubled. Many people didn’t have the cash to cover it, and they’re struggling.'"

"Galeone called subprime lending 'a ticking time bomb. It creates a great potential for failure and can lead to high foreclosure rates.'"

"'Foreclosures are accelerating,' he said. 'People have seen their monthly payments double or triple as rates have gone up, and they’re finding it hard to continue to meet their obligations.''

"Foreclosures in the first quarter of 2007 totaled 2,031 in Maryland, up 88 percent from last year’s first quarter, according to RealtyTrac."

"'In the last few years, you had a lot of people who were not really qualified to buy a house buy a house anyway,' said Cary Reines, executive VP of Mason Dixon Funding in Rockville. 'Now they’re finding out that they can’t afford to keep them. We’ve seen a lot of that in the last six to nine months.'"

"'The refinancing market has declined, but not terribly,' Reines said. 'You’re seeing a decline in housing values. Houses just aren’t going for the same prices that we’ve seen in the last couple of years. The values have dropped, and that affects the refinancing value.'"