Newsday reports from New York. "In Queens, the trend of bucking the area's declining prices ended last month. The median closing price fell to $466,400 in April, versus $499,000 a month earlier and $473,000 a year ago. Home sellers have yet to come to terms with a slowing market, some agents said. 'There are so many overpriced homes on the market,' said Mona Holzman, branch manager of June Shapiro Realty Laffey Associates in Great Neck."

"As a result, buyers are holding out, she said. Holzman said she showed a four-bedroom, 21/2 bathroom house in Great Neck about 90 times before a buyer bit, scooping up the house, which was originally listed at $949,900, for 'considerably less.'"

"Broker Audrey Livingstone said that sellers in her area, Freeport, Roosevelt, Uniondale and Hempstead, aren't getting their asking prices either."

"Despite that, 'some sellers are still not budging,' she said. 'That's why the inventory is there.'"

From Bay News Brooklyn from New York. "For the thousands of Brooklyn homeowners facing onerous mortgage payments and the threat of foreclosure, City Comptroller William Thompson, Jr. has launched a new Foreclosure Prevention Helpline."

"'There are people that have bought million dollar homes that thought they could afford them, that find out they can’t make the payments,' said Bruce Solomon, the Comptroller’s Associate Director of Community Relations."

"Senator Charles Schumer predicts that over the next two years, 91,000 New York City homeowners are 'likely' to lose their homes. Schumer said 6,100 Brooklyn families are at risk."

"The is particularly troublesome given that New York City already has the lowest home ownership rate—33 percent—of any major city in the United States."

The Poughkeepsie Journal from New York. "Building construction contracts have continued to show a decline in Dutchess County, and to a lesser extent, in Ulster County, so far this year."

"Homes are down by 58 percent in dollars in Dutchess, with 95 single-family units on the books for the year so far, versus 179 in the same period in 2006, a drop of 47 percent. No apartment deals have surfaced so far this year, versus 338 of them a year ago"

"The situation benefits buyers. 'The interest is out there, but the traffic is no doubt less than it was,' said Jean Rowe, executive officer of the Builders Association of the Hudson Valley, so there's more inventory to look at and price reductions are common."

The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. "The Massachusetts housing market will remain in a slump, and by the time it hits bottom about a year from now, prices will have dropped 14 percent from the peak in 2005, according to an economic forecast released yesterday."

"Such a decline would mean the current downturn would match the real estate collapse of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the median single-family home price also fell about 14 percent."

"'Although these price declines are not welcome by existing home owners, they are healthy for the economy,' said Alan Clayton-Matthews, the University of Massachusetts professor who prepared the forecast. 'With housing prices in line with incomes, Massachusetts will once again be affordable for the state's future labor force.'"

"Increasing foreclosures will put more homes on the market and make it difficult to reduce the sizable inventory of homes for sale. In Boston, for example, nearly 30 percent of the subprime mortgage debt is delinquent, suggesting more foreclosures ahead, said Clayton-Matthews."

"'All this is going to force prices to adjust,' Clayton-Matthews said."

The Republican from Massachusetts. "This city came in second in the state in the number of foreclosures filed during the 12 months that ended April 30. Boston, whose population of 559,034 is nearly four times that of Springfield, saw just under twice as many foreclosure filings."

"Jeremy Shapiro said his analysis of the statewide numbers 'has revealed the foreclosure crisis is hitting urban, suburban, rural, wealthy and poor communities in every part of the state.'"

"Statewide, 23,116 foreclosures were filed in the 12 months ending April 30, up 81.3 percent over the previous 12-month period. In April alone, statewide foreclosures rose 63 percent to 2,002."

"'This is the seventh straight month with over 2,000 foreclosures,' Shapiro said. 'Even if the numbers were to stabilize, they would still be astronomically high.'"

"Michael J. Farrell, president of Northeast Financial Group in Wilbraham, said he's working on about 30 foreclosure cases right now, with about 20 from Springfield."

"'There's just an abundance of fraud in the origination documents,' he said. 'It's not something I used to look at in the process of working with somebody in trouble, and it's one of the first things we look at now.'"

"He's dealing with 'numerous cases filled with fraud,' he said, with 'phony income numbers, out-of-town appraisers' overvaluing properties to enable bigger loans. He said all the cases involve mortgage companies, not banks."

"Farrell added that in some cases, the homeowners made bad financial decisions so there are some cases 'where the borrower has to take some blame here.'"

The Glouchester Times from Massachusetts. "The nonprofit developer of Pond View Village didn't know it, but Cape Ann Housing Opportunity was in a race against time to get its condos built and sold before the overheated market began too cool in a regional and national real estate downturn. It was a race Cape Ann Housing Opportunity lost."

"Taken together, said Christine Cousineau, executive director of the project, when the condos went to market last summer, they were at least one year late. In the interim, the housing boom on Cape Ann swooned, with condos leading the dive."

"It had reached its high point, according to Alan Pasnik, data analyst for The Warren Group, in 2004, the fourth straight year of spiraling prices and demand. 'By then,' he said, 'demand had squeezed all the credit out of the mortgage companies. People were buying houses they couldn't afford,' he said."

"Prices began declining as supply continued expanding, giving a boost to The Heights next door to Pond View Village as apartments at The Heights were converted to condos and marketed."

"The tumble of prices was dramatic. The $293,000 average condo price in 2003 was down to $250,000 the next year, then continued to fall to $225,000 in 2005. Prices fell further, to $194,000 in 2006."

"That was the year Cape Ann Housing Opportunity finally got to market with its housing stock, at prices between $229,000 and $359,000. None was sold."

The Martha's Vineyard Gazette from Massachusetts. "The real estate market on the Vineyard has swung strongly in favor of buyers, as record stocks of unsold properties force agents and owners to begin to heavily discount prices."

"Figures for the first quarter of this year showed the total inventory of residential property up more than 40 per cent over the same period a year ago. The median sale price also continued a decline which began last year."

"According to the numbers provided by the real estate listing service Link, there were 549 properties on the market, compared with 391 for the first quarter of 2006. The number of unsold properties has risen rapidly over several years. At the same time in 2004, there were 242, or fewer than half as many unsold houses, and in 2005, 314."

"The trend also is evident in inventories of land. In 2004, there were 59 parcels, in 2005, 73, in 2006, 97, and in March of this year, 115."

"Further adding to the gloomy picture, foreclosure notices are sharply up and there is evidence that the slowdown is affecting other sectors of the Island economy."

"Eleanor Wilson, owner of Link, said...that people are being forced to lower prices. 'In fairly large leaps and bonds on specific properties,' she said, adding: A price drop of $100,000 is not unheard of. 'It seems that the people who are keeping their places at a price they could have got a few years ago, are not moving them.'"