A report from the Virginia Pilot. "Owners of about 2,800 properties in three of the city's more affluent neighborhoods received a rare notice in the mail last week: Their home assessments had decreased. Virginia Beach Real Estate Assessor Jerry Banagan sent letters to residents in North Beach, Lago Mar and The Reserve at Great Neck that their home values were down by an average of $10,000 to $85,000 from the notifications they received in March."

"'These properties still received a healthy increase in assessments,' Banagan said. 'We just backed off a little.'"

"In most neighborhoods, officials found only slight differences from the March assessments, Banagan said. That wasn't the case in the three affected neighborhoods. 'Sales prices just took a nosedive out there,' Banagan said. 'To go back and change an entire neighborhood is pretty rare, but the data was pretty compelling.'"

"Real estate agent Susan Pender said investors who were flipping properties were pushing up prices of homes in North Beach two years ago. But in recent months, homes have been selling for $100,000 to $150,000 below the March assessments, she said."

The Examiner from Virginia. "Demand for housing construction has slowed considerably since the Prince William County board installed a de-facto moratorium on new subdivisions on Jan. 1, though it is unclear if the new rule or the unfriendly real estate market deserves the credit."

"Application fees are down 80 percent this year compared with the same period in 2006, county Director of Planning Stephen Griffin said."

"Because the change dovetailed with an overall chill in the home market, assigning responsibility is a difficult matter, Griffin said. 'The timing is such that we can’t tell the difference,' he said."

"'In my opinion, the market was making the correction on its own, and there was enough inventory with the major builders that they had plenty on their plate and were not going to build anyway,' Cherokee Homes President Shawn Cody said."

The Daily Progress from Virginia. "The Charlottesville region’s real estate market has cooled since the record-shattering year of 2005, but housing prices remain at a level beyond many people’s ability to pay."

"'Affordability is a huge, huge, huge problem,' said real estate agent Ray Caddell. 'It used to be that I’d try to figure out how to get a house for the checker at the grocery store or the maid at the local hotel. It’s very, very hard to do that anymore.'"

"'The problem is that people’s income hasn’t kept up with the housing prices,' he said."

"The Charlottesville area real estate market is in transition, shifting from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. Prices are beginning to drop slightly and homes are staying unsold for longer"

"In the first quarter of 2007, the median sales price for the region dropped 9.2 percent over the same period in 2006. The region’s homes-for-sale inventory is also increasing, giving buyers more choices and slightly lower prices. There are currently 3,443 active listings in the region, representing a three-fold increase over three years ago."

The Morning Call from Pennsylvania. "The number of new listings for homes in the Lehigh Valley hit an all-time high in May, while the number of homes sold fell year-over-year for the 12th month in a row. It's a continuation of trends that started last year as the booming housing market of 2004 and 2005 began to fade."

"The high number of homes for sale is slowing the pace of transactions, and possibly depressing prices. New listings rose 16 percent last month to 1,864 units, compared with May of 2006, which had also been a record. The number of new listings was about three times the number of homes sold in May."

"Prospective buyers are reaping the benefits of lots of homes on the market because they can be choosier and make offers below asking price."

"'As the price of housing goes up, everyone and their uncle wants to list their house, even if they really were not planning on leaving,' said Bethlehem economist Kamran Afshar, who publishes the quarterly Lehigh Valley Economic Review. 'You have more houses on the market than otherwise would have been because it is such an attractive market.'"

"Last month, there were about 3,400 homes listed by real estate agents for sale, or about 1,000 more than the number of real estate agents who work in the Valley."

"Home sales fell last year for the first time in at least 10 years. New listings outpaced home sales by nearly two-to-one last year, according to the Realtors' association."

"Higher-end homes are taking much longer to sell, compared with past years. According to the association's multiple listing service database, there are more than 1,000 homes for sale that are priced between $300,000 and $400,000."

"The average price of a new four-bedroom home last month was $378,000, based on 16 sales. That's down 16 percent from last year."

"The Lehigh Valley Builders Association said nearly all builders doing business locally have experienced slower demand. Some of the national builders with subdivisions in the Lehigh Valley have had to offer incentives here, officials said."