The Capital Gazette reports from Maryland. "Anne Arundel County home prices dropped last month and sales slowed amid the national fallout from the subprime mortgage market. Homes also were sitting on the market nearly twice as long as they were at this time last year."

"Meanwhile, people are losing their piece of the American dream. Carolyn Krohn, an Annapolis attorney who specializes in consumer bankruptcies, said she's seen 'more people lose their homes in the last year than the entire time I've been in my practice.'"

"Her practice has shifted to focus on Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases, which homeowners file to stop their homes from going on the auction block, she said. 'The Chapter 13's have increased exponentially,' she said."

"'People are really taking their sweet time,' said Bill Hyland, an associate broker in Annapolis. He said there are currently 29 condos and townhomes for sale in the Chesapeake Harbour community of Annapolis. So far this year, five homes in that community have sold, and for at least 10 percent less than they would have last year, he said."

"Mr. Hyland said one home was originally listed for $590,000 in March 2006 and sold in February for $390,000."

"Jeanne Hawkins, who lives in Carroll County, said she's in no rush to buy a home. She and her husband have been shopping for a waterfront home in Anne Arundel and Annapolis since January."

"'There's so much inventory,' she said. Ms. Hawkins said sellers have come down on their prices and more homes are coming on the market 'but they are not selling.'"

"She said she'll buy a home 'as soon as we find the right one at the right price.'"

The Baltimore Sun from Maryland. "The average sale price in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties rose 1.88 percent from $310,323 in April last year, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. reported yesterday. Half the jurisdictions in the region registered an increase, and half a decrease."

"Arundel County had the biggest drop, at nearly 5 percent. In Baltimore City, the average price fell 1.79 percent, from April a year ago, the first drop since January 2003."

"The mixed-price picture came as home sales continued to stumble. The city's price drop likely reflects a slump in once rapidly appreciating, expensive waterfront neighborhoods such as Canton and Federal Hill, rather than a broader drop, said one economist."

"'Those were areas seen as very hot markets," said Daraius Irani, of Towson University. 'People rushed into those markets and housing prices were bid up substantially. As the market has softened, and there is a decline in demand and tightening credit restrictions, those are areas that are likely to see slowdown.'"

"The arrival of spring hasn't brought the boost to the housing market that typically comes with the season, agents said. And some believe that tightening credit requirements will reduce the pool of buyers."

"'It is somewhat of a random market,' said Tom Mooney, a partner with O'Conor & Mooney Realtors in Baltimore. 'We're getting showings, but buyers are not as quick to pull the trigger. There's very little impulse buying any more.'"

"While 6,524 homes were listed for sale in April alone, contracts and contingent contracts were reached on just over half that number, or 3,536, properties, the MRIS said. The number of homes for sale topped 17,000, nearly three times as many as were listed two years earlier at the height of the housing boom."

"Buyers are holding out, expecting that prices will come down more."

"'The market has not stabilized to the point where everybody is on the same page yet,' said Sharon Martin-Sims, a broker in Baltimore. 'For this time of year, we should have been a little stronger by now.'"

"'Since buyers know it's a buyers market, they want to offer much lower than what sellers are asking for,' Martin-Sims said. 'Sellers, on the other side, don't want to understand the fact that prices should be coming down a little bit.'"

"Offers tend to be for less than asking price, by 5 percent to 10 percent, on average, Realtors said. Martin-Sims said sellers are beginning to adjust prices more quickly. A four-bedroom Colonial with a two-car garage in the Ten Hills neighborhood of Baltimore went on sale for $499,000 in September and has now been reduced to $399,000."

"Condo jitters are rippling through major downtown Baltimore projects on the drawing boards."

"A developer planning twin towers that could be the tallest in Baltimore presented designs for the first phase yesterday, but said the towers themselves will have to wait until the condo market picks back up."

"Meanwhile, two other companies planning downtown skyscrapers said yesterday that they've pulled back on the number of condos they plan to build."

"Richard W. Naing of RWN Development Group, thinks it's not a good time to be selling or building condos. 'It's not just the market, it's also the perception,' he said. 'Right now the perception is very negative, you couldn't even get financing if you wanted to.'"

"Baltimore has fewer condo units being actively marketed now than it did a year ago, in part because several projects were dropped, said William Rich, of Delta Associates in Alexandria, Va. Even so, sales have slowed so much that it would take more than four years to sell them all at the current pace, compared with less than two years this time in 2006, he said."

"'If they all were to come online now,' Rich said of the skyscraper projects, 'that wouldn't bode well.'"

The Gazette. "While the residential mortgage market is 'tightening up' across most of the nation, mortgage industry players in Maryland are more sanguine."

"'It’s good to buy now. The weather has broke, housing prices are low and mortgage rates are good,' said Charles DiPino, president of the Maryland Association of Mortgage Brokers."

"Still, 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,' DiPino said."

"According to Michael Galeone, executive VP 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.'"

"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.'"