The Boston Globe reports from Massachusetts. "When Paul Rappoli Jr. put his four-bedroom Colonial on the market for $449,900 in June 2006, he felt good about its chances of selling. Eight months later, the house finally sold for nearly $75,000 less than the initial asking price. 'It was a long, drawn-out, frustrating ordeal, and it was unfortunate,' said Rappoli. 'I felt like we were constantly chasing the market, just constantly chasing it.'"

"Why didn't the house sell sooner? That's easy: the price."

"It was a beautiful house in a great neighborhood. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it,' said Jeffrey Ledin, a broker with in Stoughton who stepped in after Rappoli's contract with his first broker expired. 'The problem was the price.'"

"When Ledin took over the listing, he repriced the house at $379,900. Just nine days later, it sold for $375,000. 'We had eight showings in the first three days,' Ledin said. 'The price sold it.'"

"Peggy Buresh in Quincy initially had the Rappoli listing. She said they were building a new house in Foxborough and were willing to take a bit of time selling. She priced it at the high end, thinking, 'Let's just try it and see what happens. Then the market started to change.'"

"Rappoli said, 'Part of it had to do with what I thought I'd like to get and what other homes in the neighborhood had gone for.'"

"Now, he advises buyers, 'Forget about what you want, about what you could have gotten a year ago, what your neighbor got two years ago - those days are gone.'"

The Eagle Tribune from Massachusetts. "The banner hanging above the entrance to the spacious new home in North Andover captures the plight of the real estate market in just four words. 'MAKE ME AN OFFER,' it pleads."

"Owner and developer William Barrett already dropped his asking price from $929,000 to $799,900 for the house on a sprawling, well-manicured property with a stone wall and brick walkway. Even so, the two-story, 3,700-square-foot, yellow-and-white four-bedroom home with a two-car garage has been sitting idle on the market for 15 months."

"'Basically, right now I'm looking to get rid of the property at the level where I can get rid of the loans,' Barrett said. 'And if I make no money, at least I won't have the monthly payment.'"

"His situation is typical in today's real estate market. For buyers, the climate translates into a plethora of properties from which to choose, allowing them to shop around for deals that did not exist a few years ago."

"Work at the Monarch on the Merrimack has all but stopped, some contractors and subcontractors haven’t been paid in months, and the future of the $200 million condominium complex might be in the hands of a California bank."

"Bob Ansin, a Fitchburg-based developer, needs another $40 million to finish the first phase of the three-phase housing and retail development, Chief Operating Officer Shaw Rosen said."

"Neither Rosen nor Ansin commented on why such a dramatic shortfall surfaced even as signs on the mill promise it will be ready for occupancy this fall. It’s a strange turn of events for a project that has been hailed by city officials as key to revitalization — to bringing new money and energy here."

"Ansin has characterized Lawrence as a place with 'pent-up demand ... for an exciting revitalization' that city residents 'are hungry for.'"

"A potential buyer who toured the site late last month said he was concerned by what he perceived as a lack of progress. 'They were nice enough to give me a (hard) hat to go onto the construction site. But nobody was there,' said Stewart Hou, who lives in Quincy and wants to relocate to the Merrimack Valley."

"'There was no construction going on. I thought maybe they were just taking a break,' Hou said."

"Contractors say they pulled out of the project because they aren’t getting paid. Plumbing contractor David Youngblood pulled 25 of his licensed plumbers off the site in June for nonpayment. They began work at the Monarch on the Merrimack in November 2006."

"'Like everyone else, we are owed a fair amount of money,' said Youngblood. 'All the work has stopped.'"

"Across the street from Monarch on the Merrimack, Lisa Arcand opened an eatery, Fisherman’s Corner. 'One of the reasons I grabbed this place was knowing there would be condos there,' she said. 'This could be a gold mine. My interest in this place is that there would be people living there and all they’d have to do is walk across the street.' Since contractors left, she said, business has suffered."

"Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan said. 'The whole story is easy for me to talk about because it’s very real.' 'Stick with it because it’s going to happen,' Sullivan said. 'I still see this property appreciating. Once people are in there, the prices are still going to go up.'"

The News Times Live reports from Connecticut. "Thousands of state residents never thought they would find themselves fearing the loss of their home. Foreclosure rates in the state, however, have skyrocketed in the past year."

"Industry experts say adjustable-rate mortgages and interest-only loans are just some of the hybrid products offered during the housing boom of the past few years that have gotten homeowners into trouble."

"'There were a lot of people who bought houses they couldn't really afford using mortgage products tailored to get them into the house -- not to stay in the house over the long haul,' said Jay Lent, chief operating officer for Union Savings Bank."

"The brokers, who made their money up front, then packaged the mortgage with others and sold them to investors, ridding themselves of risk."

"Fairfield County alone had 403 foreclosures in July, compared with 240 in July 2006 and 127 in July 2005. During the last 12 months there have been more than 4,400 foreclosures in Fairfield County."

"Sheritha Jones of Danbury refinanced her home with an adjustable-rate mortgage two years ago. Her first mortgage, also an adjustable-rate product, was readjusting and she couldn't afford the new payments."

"'I didn't want to refinance but I had to do something,' she said. Her lender, she said, tried to rush the process, telling her she would have to accept a higher interest rate if she waited. The lender even offered its own attorney to look over the paperwork, Jones said."

"'I knew it sounded too good to be true,' she said, adding that her mortgage payment has increased from $2,000 to $3,000 in the past five months. 'Now I regret it.''

"Debbie Killian, owner of the Charter Oak Lending Group in Danbury and education chairperson for the Connecticut Society of Mortgage Brokers, said several factors led to the current crisis. 'It's not the perfect storm -- it's the perfect tsunami,' she said. 'It was a culmination of several factors moving at the same time.'"