A report from the Philadelphia Inquirer. "The word that best describes the real estate market at the Jersey Shore over the last 20 months is volatile. Sales dropped by more than a third in 2006 from 2005 in Atlantic, Cape May and Ocean Counties, and that decline continues overall. But median prices have yet to follow suit."

"It's not uncommon for prices to rise as a real estate market cycles downward, said Kevin Gillen, a Wharton School research fellow. 'Volume and days on the market are leading indicators' of how a market is performing, he said, 'whereas prices are a lagging indicator.'"

"The Inquirer analysis showed that sales in Ocean City fell by more than half in 2006 compared to 2005, to 642 from 1,314, while the median price dropped by $61,000, to $538,250. Still, the median price is twice what it was at the start of the real estate boom in 1998."

"These days, 'incentives and price concessions are both creative and abundant,' said Jay Lamont, host of WPEN-AM's All About Real Estate and an Ocean City property owner."

"'It's the flippers who built duplexes in the middle of nowhere and are asking for $2 million who are watching their properties sit and sit and sit,' said Main Line real estate broker John Duffy."

"For those people who bought at the high end of the market two years ago and now are trying to sell, there is no guarantee they'll get their money back, said AAvalon Real Estate broker Paul Leiser."

"What seems to be missing from the current Shore market is the not-so-well-heeled buyer, he said, possibly as a result of the turmoil in the national mortgage market."

"Duffy said many younger buyers who spent summers at the Shore as kids stretched their resources to the limit to buy pricey places in traditional vacation destinations. Now the mortgage rates that allowed them to do so are getting ready to adjust."

"'They bought a place for $1 million two years ago, that's now worth $900,000,' he said, 'and they soon won't be able to manage the mortgage.'"

The Pocono Record from Pennsylvania. "Jennie Scott is facing higher mortgage payments next month that she can't afford on her $1,000 monthly Social Security income."

"The North Philadelphia widow took on a $55,000 loan three years ago to pay off credit card debt and the remainder of her original mortgage. A mortgage broker locked her into the loan with a prepayment penalty. Now, her adjustable rate mortgage is scheduled to reset higher — a fact she said her broker failed to disclose when she was signing the papers."

"'I'm a little depressed, but I'm trying to keep on going,' Scott said."

"It might be too late for Scott, but the state Banking Department hopes to help other consumers by proposing the most sweeping mortgage reforms in the state in nearly 20 years."

"'We're pursuing it ardently,' said Steven Kaplan, the state's banking secretary. 'I would hope that later this year or very early next year we might actually have something that we can enforce.'"

The New York Times. "Along the streets of Far Rockaway, many recently built two- and three-family town houses sit waiting for even one family to move in. Desperate developers hoping to cover their bets, and stem their losses, tape up both For Rent and For Sale signs inside windows that face nearly deserted streets."

"The same blocks were once home to sprawling single-family houses with wraparound porches. But during the superheated real estate market of just a few years ago, longtime residents sold out to developers who rapidly demolished the old to build rows of plain vanilla town houses sold, it seemed, to anyone who could sign a mortgage application."

"As the market cooled and credit got tighter, many of the new homes sat empty. On a few blocks, developers have built nothing but plywood walls to hide the weed-choked lots after the old houses were torn down."

"'Folks just went crazy and got into the feeding frenzy,' said City Councilman James Sanders Jr. 'They thought money was going to come to everybody left, right and center. Irrational exuberance is what I call this.'"

From Reuters on New York. "The Manhattan apartment market has remained resilient, despite problems in the mortgage market, but brokers are working harder, and for New York City as a whole, the edges may have started to fray."

"For an army of brokers and real estate agents, life isn't quite the same as it was in the heady days of the past two years, when in many cases condominium buildings were sold out before they were built."

"People 'were calling us order-takers,' said Pamela Liebman, CEO of brokerage The Corcoran Group. 'People would walk in the door and sign a contract. Now, you have to have some selling skills.'"

"For New Yorkers who have been spared the pain, a paranoid pall punctuates much of the day-to-day real estate chatter. The financial industry and its big end-of-year bonuses, a major driver of demand for New York apartments, have been roiled since the summer."

"'I would think there's more concern about '09 than 'O8,' said appraiser Jonathan Miller. 'There's more unknowns depending upon how this thing unfolds.'"

"For the whole of Brooklyn...the number of homes sold is down 11.9 percent to 1,247 and the number of days it takes to close an average sale is up 25 days from the beginning of the year to 198, more than six months."

"Those figures most likely don't reflect the recent mortgage crunch, as it usually takes at least two months from contract to closing, said Rich Schuloff, executive director of the Brooklyn Board of Realtors."

"'The number from September 1st to the end of the year -- that's the number that's really going to tell the tale,' Schuloff said."

"The overall New York City market and even Manhattan has been affected by credit market problems, as it has become more difficult to get or qualify for mortgages, especially jumbo loans, those above $417,000."

"'We've seen a few people have to back out because they couldn't get the financing they needed,' said Michael Moran, executive VP, Prudential Douglas Elliman in Williamsburg

The Times Union from New York. "House sales in the Capital Region fell 11 percent in August, and are down 6 percent so far this year, the Greater Capital Association of Realtors reported Monday. The decline was greater than that for the state as a whole, where sales were down just 7.6 percent, according to figures from the New York State Association of Realtors."

"Douglas Engels, president of the Greater Capital Association of Realtors, said...while he wouldn't say that the worst of the housing slowdown has passed, 'the national news isn't necessarily affecting our local marketplace,' he added, referring to the collapse in the subprime mortgage market and increasing foreclosure rates nationwide."

"He called the local market 'relatively stable,' and said financing was readily available 'unless you have horrible credit.'"

"The number of homes sold so far this year -- 6,449 -- is the lowest since 2003, when 5,761 houses were sold through August. In that period, median prices have climbed more than 40 percent, to $194,500 in the first eight months from $138,000 in 2003."

The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. "The median sales price of a Massachusetts single-family home fell nearly 5 percent in August, the 16th straight month of year-to-year price declines, and the volume of sales fell 1.5 percent, according to the Warren Group."

"August was the seventh month in 2007 in which prices fell between 4.5 and 5 percent on a year-to-year basis."

"A separate report from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors offered a sunnier forecast. According to the realtors' group, which uses a different methodology to capture data, the median sales price for a single-family home in Massachusetts rose 1.4 percent in August to $357,000 when compared with August 2006."

"'Although sales numbers have fluctuated throughout the first eight months of this year, we're seeing remarkable consistency in price changes,' CEO Timothy Warren said. 'It seems the market is reaching its natural level for the time being. That trend is likely to continue during the last four months of this year.'"

The Glouchester Times from Massachusetts. "The apartments at Pond View Village were back on the market this week at steeply discounted prices."

"Ruth Pino of Carlson GMAC said Carlson had been directed to drop prices on 33 condos by as much as $100,000 by the representative of major private lenders and the owner-developer."

"Pino said the 33 units, a mix of one- and two-bedroom condos, which had been pulled from the market at prices of $269,000 to $339,000, are now for sale at $165,000 to $259,000."

"The regional condo market, while soft across all prices, is at its strongest in the under $250,000 sector, according to Carlson listing agent Anne Pardee. 'Overall, the market is down,' Pardee said. 'But right now, it's healthiest at under $250,000.'"