The Post & Courier reports from South Carolina. "Joe Desagun hopes to sell his mother's three-bedroom home in North Charleston by fall. So he put it on the market in February, knowing it could take that long to find a buyer in a slowing market. Desagun said he adjusted his expectations after watching friends and neighbors struggle to sell their homes. 'It's been really tough,' he said. 'We lowered the price already.'"

"Charleston hasn't been spared effects of the slowdown, which took hold about a year ago. As a result, the number of homes on the market has more than doubled in two years. Now, many sellers hoping to move to a new home are feeling locked in, while buyers have taken charge."

"'The market in Charleston is in a standoff,' said agent Brigitte McElroy. 'Sellers are living in the glory days, unwilling to come off their prices, and buyers shopping and looking are afraid to put a contract on a home, hoping the prices will fall even more.'"

"'For sale' signs are common sights these days, peppering subdivision entrances and front yards from Mount Pleasant to Summerville to West Ashley. 'There's so much inventory on the market right now that buyers are overwhelmed by choices and it paralyzes them,' said agent Dave Johnston."

The News Observer from North Carolina. "Triangle home sales rose modestly in March as the national housing slump continued to pinch the area's largest business. The inventory of unsold homes rose 13 percent, and the number of sellers dropping prices increased 16 percent compared with a year ago."

"'There's no question things are slower,' said Mark Vitner, an economist with Wachovia in Charlotte. 'The Triangle is doing very well, but we're seeing it slow all over the country and the Triangle is no exception,' Vitner said."

"'Compared to the rest of the country, we're doing well, but we're seeing more and more people who can't buy 'here' because they can't sell 'there,' said Shields Pittman, a broker in Raleigh. Pittman has sold 12 homes this year, slightly ahead of last year, but could have sold four more if owners moving here could sell their houses."

The Baltimore Sun from Maryland. "A large portion of a new-home project in Harford County is scheduled for foreclosure auction next month, an apparent victim of the sharp slowdown in the housing market that has hurt builders across the country."

"Several defaulting condominium projects in the Baltimore area are set to be auctioned, while some Eastern Shore development projects that were started at the peak of the boom are now in trouble."

"About 85 acres, approved for 414 homes, is up for grabs, according to auctioneer A.J. Billig & Co. 'Everything's slower than everyone would like,' said John Kortecamp, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Maryland. 'There are a number of developments that are being delayed.'"

"K. Hovnanian said market conditions were a 'factor' in the Greenway Farm situation and that the foreclosure is a result of a contract dispute with the investor-lenders over land value. Attorney Curtis C. Coon, the trustee appointed by the lenders to foreclose, said K. Hovnanian did not exercise its option to purchase the land that was supposed to be Greenway Farm's last two phases."

"'If they think they overpaid for it, that's their opinion,' Coon said."

"'We are being extremely cautious in underwriting new land opportunities,' J. Larry Sorsby, Hovnanian's chief financial officer, said in a statement when the company's most recent financial results were announced last month. He added that 'land sellers have not lowered their expectations to match today's economic realities.'"

"The market slowdown has prompted similar builder pullouts on the Eastern Shore, said Michael Crosby, president of Crosby New Home Sales & Marketing in Easton. Out-of-town builders rushed to buy land as prices skyrocketed, but when the market turned, they wanted out."

"'What we're seeing now is, the national builders have liquidated or gotten out of deals that they could get out of by giving up, some of them, very big deposits on land,' Crosby said."

The Owings Mills Times from Maryland. "Amid the rows of brick town houses in a neighborhood dotted with big trees and pricey cars, a sign reads 'Foreclosure sale.'"

"'It's a nice property,' said real estate agent Kevin Goodnight. It's a bargain, Goodnight said, at $278,000. Similar homes in the neighborhood have sold for more than $300,000. The previous owner bought the house for $310,000, only to lose it to foreclosure less than nine months later."

"Selling the bargain, however, has been difficult. Since it went on the market three months ago, two accepted purchase offers have fallen through because the would-be buyers failed to secure financing."

"'Foreclosures are coming out of the woodwork, and they're coming from everywhere. It used to just be Baltimore City, but now Baltimore County, Howard County, Carroll County are all big in foreclosures,' said Goodnight, who exclusively sells bank-owned properties in Maryland and Delaware."

"According to Realty Trac, 106 foreclosed properties were for sale in the Owings Mills, Pikesville, Reisterstown and Randallstown ZIP codes last week. 'It's becoming almost epidemic,' said Steve Verstandig, president of Pikesville-based Citywide Properties."

"Verstandig's company specializes in buying, rehabbing and reselling properties, typically from owners in financial distress. The company recently erected a billboard on Reisterstown Road in Pikesville offering to help homeowners avoid foreclosure."

"'We've had a huge response. We don't even have to advertise anymore. I constantly have people coming to me,' Verstandig said."

"But Verstandig said the lean resale market has constrained his business. Properties that typically took 30-45 days to sell now linger on the market for 90 days, and buyers have become more selective. 'Projects I would have jumped on two or three years ago I am turning away today,' he said."

"'I think the (foreclosure) market is just going to explode over the next year,' Goodnight said."