The Asbury Park Press reports from New Jersey. "Westminster Communities and Paramount Homes representatives say they are concentrating on selling the condominiums they have built and will continue to do so despite a housing market that, in Metro Homes' Dean Geibel's words at a business luncheon last week, is 'frozen in place.' 'The marketplace is not good,' said Sam Gershwin, president of Westminster Communities. 'We're building for those people who have bought units and finishing the rest of the buildings we have on the way.'"

"'When we or someone else can figure out when the marketplace is going to change and people want to buy real estate, we will get involved again,' Gershwin said."

The Boston Herald from Massachusetts. "Think the subprime mortgage meltdown was frightful? Now consider the prospect of your home losing half its value."

"The whopping 86 percent rise in home prices from 1996 to 2006 was 'a classic speculative bubble, driven largely by extravagant expectations for future price increases' and not economic fundamentals, Yale University professor Robert Shiller wrote in a paper accompanying his speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium."

"'The worst downturn in the real estate market in my lifetime resulted in a 15 percent decline' over five years, said Tim Warren, CEO of The Warren Group. 'So I have a hard time getting my arms around a 50 percent decline.'"

"'I think that the fundamentals in Massachusetts are relatively strong, and there’s still strong demand for housing,' said Bob Buckley, who works with commercial and large-scale residential real estate. There will be 'some price adjustment' as the market responds to subprime mortgage problems, he said, but New England is somewhat insulated thanks to its tight zoning controls."

"And John Ford of Ford Realty heartily disagreed with Shiller’s warning, saying that while Dorchester and Mattapan will get hit hard thanks to a glut of low-verification and creative financing loans, 'Boston proper will hold its own.' Worst-case, he said: Boston-area home prices decline 5 percent to 7 percent over the next 12 months."

"'I don’t think there’s any signs of panic here,' Ford said. 'Yes, prices might drop. But 50 percent is totally unrealistic.'"

"New data shows that home foreclosure petitions in Massachusetts jumped nearly 67 percent last month compared with the same month a year earlier."

"That makes it 18 straight months the total has risen compared with the previous year. The information comes from the Warren Group, a Boston-based publisher of real estate data."

The Cape Cod Times from Massachusetts. "While the Cape saw a roughly 27 percent increase in foreclosure petitions in July, it was not the hardest hit region of the state for the month."

"Foreclosure petitions more than doubled in Essex and Nantucket counties and doubled in Hampshire County in July. During that time, Middlesex County, which includes Cambridge, saw a nearly 92 percent increase."

"In July, there were 35 completed foreclosure deeds recorded at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds. That's more than four times the number of foreclosures recorded at the registry in July 2006."

The Republican from Massachusetts. "Foreclosure auction announcements have more than doubled in Hampden and Hampshire counties over the first seven months of the year, according to data released this week."

"Franklin County's auction announcements almost doubled, by 92.5 percent, to 77 in the first seven months of the year. Terence F. Egan, editor-in-chief for The Warren Group, said this week that Western Massachusetts lagged behind the state in the real estate boom and has lagged in the real estate slump."

"'That may tell us that the worst is yet to come in terms of foreclosures, because the downturn in the real estate market really hit Western Massachusetts much later than it did in the eastern part of the state,' he said."

"When home prices start to slide, 'that's when troubled borrowers start hitting a real wall,' he said. 'Borrowers who end up in difficulty with their payments really start seeing their options dwindle,' said Egan, and a greater number of the petitions to foreclose start working their way to actual foreclosure."

"The number of petitions to foreclose, the first step in the auction process, are running at more than 2,000 a month statewide, he said, whereas last year they were running at about 1,300 a month. 'That's a pretty clear indication that this is going to remain a trouble spot for some time to come,' Egan said."

NPR reports on Massachusetts. "In 2005, Tami Amato bought a modest two-family home for herself and her three children in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. She bought the home with an adjustable rate loan that was fixed for just the first two years."

"Amato says she could afford the initial 6.4 percent rate. And she says her lender promised her the loan payments would never go up, because she could refinance before they did. But she says that wasn't true and that the interest rate rose to 9.4 percent."

"'I thought, 'I can't do this,' Amato says. 'It was just too much money.'"

"Today, Amato's house is full of moving boxes and almost devoid of furniture. Afraid that the bank is going to foreclose any day, Amato has been moving her belongings into storage."

The Queens Chronicle from New York. "The subprime lending crisis that has devastated many of the borough’s working-class communities took on new urgency last week as experts predicted another wave of foreclosures in the coming months."

"In July alone, Queens saw 882 foreclosure filings, the most of any borough, according to a report released last weekend by Sen. Charles Schumer. That tally marks a 56 percent increase from February, when foreclosure filings reached 566."

"Industry analysts say more problems are right around the corner. In the fourth fiscal quarter of 2007, which ends Sept. 30, a wave of adjustable-rate mortgages first issued in 2005 are expected to reset."

"Queens is already home to the shortest-lived mortgages of all properties in the city that eventually go into foreclosure. In 2004, for instance, the average foreclosed mortgage lasted just under four years before the loan defaulted. In the first half of this year, the lifespan had shortened to about two years."

"A federal bill would (place) limits on the steep fees that often find their way into the fine print of subprime loan contracts. The bill, introduced by Schumer, would also make brokers more liable for their loans and offer them incentives to follow fair lending practices."

"The senator is the author of a recently passed bill that requires all lenders to register their credentials with the federal government. Now, he’s hoping to tighten the reins even more."

"'The mortgage crisis has created a perfect storm for homeowners in New York and across the country,' Schumer said. 'We need all hands on deck to stem the rising tide of foreclosures.'"

The Staten Island Advance from New York. "Those caught in the subprime lending squeeze shouldn't expect a good cry on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's shoulder."

"Sounding more like a Dutch uncle than a rich uncle, the mayor yesterday put much of the blame for the crisis on homeowners who took bad loans in the first place."

"'What happened here is a bunch of people who really didn't have the wherewithal to get mortgages got mortgages. If they didn't have access to those mortgages, the elected officials would scream you're discriminating against them,' Bloomberg contended during his weekly radio address yesterday."

"The mayor made his comments yesterday on the lending crisis in response to a reporter's question about how foreclosures might affect New York."

"'It can't help. I mean, there are people who have subprime loans and variable-rate mortgages and when they get reset they're going to get very badly hurt,' he said. 'We're not immune to this. ... We will get hurt less, I think, than the rest of the country. But make no mistake about it, it's not good for America and it's not good for New York.'"

"'Buyers are not totally innocent in this process. Consumers have not been truly honest with themselves as to whether they could afford the mortgages, and some consumers, frankly, were not ready for homeownership,' Simone Wegge, an economics professor at the College of Staten Island, testified last month."

"'Some of them lied about their incomes,' Bloomberg added. 'Now they said the salesman convinced them to do it. OK. But we live in a world where, when you put your signature down, you're supposed to know what you're signing, and we have to take responsibility.'"