The Providence Journal reports from Rhode Island. "The sharp rise in home foreclosures, according to data cited by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, follows a run-up in house prices at a time when wages have remained largely stagnant. Reed and local housing officials yesterday laid much of the blame for rising foreclosures on mortgage lenders who sold borrowers 'interest only' loans with low teaser rates that are now adjusting upwards."

"The homeowners are people such as Aida Maria Jansen, who got a no-down-payment loan less than a year ago to buy a $250,000 house that she cannot afford."

"'I didn’t even have a job,' she said at the news conference. 'They told me my payments would be $1,200 a month and to get a roommate.'"

"Aida’s mortgage was actually two loans which totaled about $2,000 a month. Last year, Jansen earned $11,212, according to her tax returns. 'I have money for two more payments and them I’m totally broke,' Jansen said after the hearing. 'In nine months I’ve paid $18,000 on that house...I’m exhausting everything.'"

"Jansen said that she never should have qualified for the loan. 'They all ripped me off,' she said. 'They put double my income to get this mortgage.'"

The Buffalo News from New York. "The buyers are well-heeled, even affluent, and their new homes will be among the most expensive ever built in Buffalo, luxury lakefront condominiums with price tags as high as $659,000."

"And to help ensure the upscale condos sell, City Hall added an incentive, a 10-year break on property taxes. All at an average savings of about $100,000 for each home buyer."

"'I’ve never heard of such a thing,' said Michael J. Wasylenko, a professor of economics at Syracuse University."

"'This is found money,' said developer Carl Paladino. 'The city is giving away tax revenue that doesn’t exist today. Besides, don’t we want wealthy people moving into the city?'"

"To hear Paladino talk, tax breaks are the difference between the project making money and losing money. He said the benefits help bridge the gap between the project’s high construction costs and, by national standards, the city’s low real estate values."

"The tax breaks allow for higher prices, but Paladino said the higher prices are needed for the project to finish in the black. Not everyone buys that. 'We don’t see any reason why it’s necessary to give tax abatements to prospective luxury homeowners,' the homeowner association at a complex next door said in a statement."

The Asbury Park Press from New Jersey. "If you thought the real estate market had hit bottom, think again. Increasing numbers of New Jersey homeowners are faltering on their mortgage payments, state and local records from the first three months of this year show."

"At the current rate, there would be nearly 36,000 foreclosure filings statewide this year, up from 23,875 in 2006."

"James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, is concerned the state is in the middle of a multiyear housing down cycle, on par with the bust years of 1988 to 1992."

"'There's no computer model that can figure this out,' said Hughes, who studies regional economics. 'We don't know the full scale of the problems. If you bought in 2005 or 2006, you will be the one with the long-term correction. If you were a peak of market buyer, that's a scary prospect.'"

The South Coast Today from Massachusetts. "With the numbers for the first quarter of 2007 in the books, Realtors are hoping they can finally shake words such as 'slumping' and 'cooling' from the vocabulary describing the local housing market."

"'This is a wonderful time to buy a house,' said Linda Hopps, president of the Greater New Bedford Association of Realtors. 'The rates are great. The prices are good. There is a lot on the market so you have a lot to pick from.' But 'I think buyers are now afraid to make that jump because they keep reading everything in the paper that's saying this is not the time to buy.'"

"Part of the frustration for Realtors is that the market is often compared to the real estate boom of 2003-05, during which prices were driven rapidly higher by a limited supply of houses, relative to the number of potential buyers."

"'The mind-set overall of the consumer has changed,' said Ralph Grassia, president-elect of the Greater New Bedford Association of Realtors. 'They're not in the panic buying situation, which has taken the real estate market and made it more even.'"

"Caught up in the bidding frenzy, many new homeowners found themselves in over their heads with mortgages, taxes and utility expenses bigger than their budgets. Two or three years later, those houses are beginning to turn over."

"'There are a lot of them,' Ms. Hopps said. 'There really are. A lot of people qualified for mortgages for whatever reason and they didn't look at the big picture.'"