The Saugus Advertiser reports from Massachusetts. "Homebuyers are paying less these days to jump in to the Saugus market, following the nationwide trend. Prices have fallen to an average of $380,100 for a single-family home in Saugus, according to MLS statistics. At the same time, it’s taking longer to sell a home. The Saugus market peaked in 2005 with an average sales price of $404,000 for the 285 single-family homes that were sold that year."

"Meanwhile, there have been 47 foreclosures in the town of Saugus in the past 180 days, according to foreclosuremass.com. 'The aggressive predatory mortgage industry put a lot of people in a bad situation,' said Arthur Coombe of Century-21 Coombe Real State."

"He further explained that homebuyers with variable mortgage rates and no money down are in the biggest trouble. The market had been rising steadily for nine straight years, added Combe, who said that it was inevitable that an adjustment period would eventually take place."

"'I see a change with sellers and buyers coming to grips with the market,' added Rick Parziale of Red Coach Realty, who gave the example of a seller from Indian Rock Hills whose home might have sold for $725,000 during the recent market peak, but would now probably get closer to $625,000 for the home."

The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. "More than 9 percent of all homeowners in Massachusetts with adjustable-rate home loans, about 10,000 borrowers, are facing larger housing payments when their mortgages reset to higher interest rates over the next three months. The total value of all those loans, according to First American LoanPerformance, is $2.45 billion."

"'This is an unprecedented wave of resets,' said Wellesley College economics professor Karl Case. 'It’s going to lead to a credit crunch for people who will find it hard to find loans,' he said."

"'I don’t know how I’m going to survive,' said Sana Masoud, a single mother facing a $600 a month increase in one of two mortgages she obtained to buy a two-family house in Brighton for $712,000 in 2004."

"That mortgage will reset on Dec. 1 to 7 percent, from 6.125 percent, pushing up Masoud’s total monthly housing costs to $4,350. She rents the second unit for $2,400 and earns $63,000 a year. But her income will not be enough to cover the mortgage and other expenses, such as property taxes, college tuition for her eldest daughter, and ongoing medical bills for her youngest daughter."

"'I don’t want a foreclosure,' said Masoud, who is asking her lender to renegotiate her mortgage."

The Staten Island Advance from New York. "Ada Diaz's belongings are packed in boxes, ready to be moved sometime in the next 10 days. The bank recently sent her a notice to get out of the Mariners Harbor home she owned for 17 years before losing it in July to foreclosure, the result of a series of increasingly calamitous subprime mortgages."

"Ms. Diaz refinanced four times over the last four years, public records show. WMC Mortgage Corp., where Ms. Diaz got her last and what she says was her worst mortgage in 2005, was recently shut. A Long Island-based mortgage broker solicited Ms. Diaz and originated the last loan, allegedly falsifying her income in the process."

"'We wish Ms. Diaz's case was unique but it's not. It's happening all over America,' U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer said during a visit yesterday with Ms. Diaz at her Grandview Avenue townhouse. 'It's just criminal,' he added."

"She said she was seeking some extra cash to finish work on her house. Loan documents show her income was listed by the broker as $8,000 a month. The broker also said she worked at a cleaning service, even though she was retired and not working at the time."

"What was supposed to be one mortgage payment turned into two payments of $1,769 and $550, respectively, for a combined total of $2,319. The first mortgage was slated to reset next year to $2,314, and the total monthly payment represented more than 90 percent of Ms. Diaz's income."

"The broker, meanwhile, made $10,000 to originate the loan, noted Margaret Becker, director of the Foreclosure Prevention Project for Legal Services NYC/Staten Island."

The New York Times. "With home foreclosures on the rise, buying a property in default may seem a sure route to profit or, at least, a cheap way to get a home. It can be. But it is not an endeavor for the shallow of checkbook or faint of heart."

"'Before, even if you didn’t know what you were doing, you were safe because the general market was on the upside,' said Joseph Tammaro of Brooklyn, a real estate agent and investor. 'Now, when you buy foreclosures in today’s market with property values in decline in certain areas, you have to be careful because you might be catching a falling knife.'"

"Brad Rozansky, a real estate agent in Bethesda, Md., cautioned against thinking that buying and selling foreclosures is an easy way to make a living. 'I have plenty of customers who have lost $20,000, $30,000 or $40,000 on a house,' he said."

The New Haven Register from Connecticut. "Connecticut’s home building market continued to pull back in August, with the number of permits issued falling 13 percent from July levels. For the year to date, the number of permits issued statewide was down 12 percent at the end of August."

"Mark J. Nuzzolo, owner of Brookside Development LLC in Woodbridge, said...a logjam has been created as many potential buyers put off making a move in anticipation of further price drops. 'Clearly sales are down, and as builders we’re a lot more cautious today than we were in the last recession. We’re not anxious to run out and start building new houses,' he said."

"Nuzzolo said people are attending open houses and expressing an interest in buying new homes, but many cannot find buyers for their current homes."

"'There are so many homes on the market now that buyers are becoming paralyzed by the choices they have,' he said. 'Everything is bogged down, and people are very nervous.'"

The Washington Post. "If there's anything real estate experts agree on these days, it's that you should not buy property unless you are willing to keep it for years."

"'I think a person who's buying, they're not going to do quick flips,' said Sara Rubida, an agent in Arlington. She said she advises her clients to be prepared to own their home for at least three years to break even or make a profit on their investment. 'But I'd feel more comfortable if they lived there at least five years.'"

"'The investors who got into the market recently are really paying the price' for not treating real estate as a long-term investment, said Gregory H. Leisch, CEO of a research firm in Alexandria."

"'Try to save some money so you can come up with a 20 percent down payment,' advised Tom Bryan, a senior VP of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage."

"With Washington area prices as high as they are, that's no easy feat. As of May, the median condominium resale price for the metro area was $303,968, and the median single-family house resale price was $465,726, said Leisch."

"So you'd better have about $61,000 or $93,000 sitting around if you want to get a decent mortgage."

"Condo resale prices in the past 12 months fell in the District and Northern Virginia. New condo prices, meanwhile, declined 0.5 percent across the metro region, according to the Delta report."

"'We're not going to see too much of a rise in the market until all these foreclosures are cleared up, and that's going to take two to three years,' said Randy Morrow, an agent in Arlington."

"In 2005, the pipeline of apartment units planned for construction over 36 months was 18,000. As of June, it had ballooned to 31,030 units, according to Delta."

"For the first time in a long while, the tide may be turning in favor of renters. 'It looks as though, through anecdotal evidence so far, rents are pretty flat from last year this time,' Leisch said. 'We were predicting that rents would turn flat for the next year or so because of all the condos turned into rentals. The more supply, the less pressure there is on rent.'"

The Virginia Pilot. "South Hampton Roads is not experiencing the condo collapse that has plagued some big cities, but in the past year, prices have fallen more than 20 percent, units are staying on the market about a month longer, and condo building permits have fallen off."

"'This is a very tough time to be building these high-rise condominium projects,' Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said, adding that the shortage of credit is killing projects nationwide, especially condominium developments."

"James V. Koch, an economist and former president of Old Dominion University who oversees the school’s State of the Region report, said the climate in Hampton Roads does not appear to differ greatly from the national situation."

"'Verbal reports I have received indicate that some condo buyers are walking away from their condo prior to purchase,' he said. 'They forfeit their deposits rather than purchase units that in some cases have fallen in value since the deposit was made.'"

"The median sales price of a condo in South Hampton Roads, for example, has dropped about $60,000 in the past 12 months, from $289,272 to $229,900, according to the most recent data."

"Not many people are willing to put money down on a condo they can’t see, said developer Bart Frye, of East Beach. 'When the market was white-hot, people were buying without doing as much due diligence as they do now,' he said."

From WVEC in Virginia. "The housing market in Hampton Roads is making some condo developers reevaluate their projects. Crews are hard at work on the East Beach Villas in Norfolk. When they're done, there will be 20 new high-end condos and it’s owner Bart Frye's job to sell them in a tough housing market."

"'Unless you were living on an island someplace by yourself, you'd be concerned about the market,' said Frye."

"Several local condo developments are now on-hold, like the Point Chesapeake project. Economist Dr. Vinod Agarwal says he's not surprised by builders' reactions. There are more condos on the market this year than last year, and they take longer to sell, so developers are cancelling projects and lowering prices for new condos."

The Daily Press from Virginia. "The first home price drop in more than five years means that everyone involved in real estate in Hampton Roads is about to stare down the biggest boogeyman of the business: buyers' expectations."

"Hampton Roads home sellers came to grips with their own expectations and finally recognized in August that they no longer had the upper hand on price in an oversupplied market. August marked the first month since February 2002 when the median price of a home in the region was lower than that from a year earlier."

"'The message is finally getting across to sellers,' said said Perry Pilgrim, broker in Hampton."

"Now that seller psychology is changing, will the consumer get stubborn and wait? Pilgrim said anyone who needed to move would find no problems finding a good deal and mortgage. The buyers who hold out are the marginal ones just looking for a deal that blows them away, he said: 'Some percentage of buyers are always going to wait for the best deal.'"