A report from the New York Post. "Mayor Bloomberg provided the answer yesterday to the question that's on a lot of New Yorkers' minds: Are housing prices here going to drop? Yes - with an important qualifier - was the mayor's assessment. 'I think you can expect real-estate prices to fall,' he said. He added, 'We're part of America and what happens in the rest of the country's economy is going to have an impact on our economy.'"

"The mayor pointed to new data released this week by the MLS of Long Island, which reported that the median sales price of a home in Queens dropped last month to $446,000 from $480,000 in the same period last year."

"Jim Walker, a 30-year veteran of the real-estate industry, said prices have indeed fallen in Queens, but not as much as in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Walker suggested the downturn would bring the city's overheated property market back to reality."

"'It's an adjustment we have to go through because the market was artificially inflated,' he said. 'We've experienced appreciation [in some areas] of 25 percent a year. That's not normal.'"

From Newsday in New York. "The number of Long Island homes for sale grew by 7.6 percent, but it was the smallest increase since the boom began deflating in 2006 and houses piled up on the market, according to the third-quarter report commissioned by Prudential Douglas Elliman."

"Considering that inventory went up by 75 percent two winters ago, the latest figure may be a tantalizing indicator of more stable times. 'It's still a little early to see if it's an upturn,' said Jonathan Miller, executive VP at Radar Logic, which compiled the report, including data for Queens."

"Dottie Herman, Prudential's CEO, saw the slower growth in inventory as a sign that more sellers are lowering prices to reflect reality. 'Buyers are out there,' said, 'but they're not buying, because they don't feel the price is right.'"

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from New York. "Prices were cut on 15 of the 230 new condo projects in Brooklyn within the last two months in neighborhoods like Park Slope, Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn and Dumbo, and more reductions could come as thousands of recently-constructed units compete for buyers, according to the New York Times."

"Absorption rates have also increased, according to David Maundrell, president of Williamsburg brokerage AptsandLofts.com, who said a 55-unit building there may take 14 months to sell out as opposed to eight months a year and a half ago."

"Greenpoint and Williamsburg have 2,274 apartments under construction and another 9,571 in the planning stages, according to the Times, and Joe Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, has said there are 14,000 units in the works in Downtown Brooklyn."

"In Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights and Fort Greene, experts seem to agree that, generally, buyers are gaining leverage in Brooklyn as more units come on the market."

The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. "Massachusetts will impose some of the nation's most stringent regulations on the mortgage industry in an effort to curb practices that have led to record numbers of foreclosures."

"Lenders and brokers will be prohibited from arranging loans that they do not have a 'reasonable belief' the customer can repay, using available information about the borrower's financial circumstances to make that judgment."

"'There's been mortgage after mortgage where there's clearly been no ability to pay,' she said, citing one example where a borrower had a monthly income of $1,800 and received a loan with a monthly payment of $7,000."

"'It cries out for some reasonableness here,' she said."

"'If these rules were in place five years ago, I think it would have gone a long way toward preventing some of the horror stories that we hear happening in the marketplace now,' said Representative Ronald Mariano, awho chairs the financial services committee and has helped shepherd the bill."

The Street.com on New Jersey. "The subprime mortgage crisis that dragged the country's housing market down this year hit our family's pocketbook in a big way. How big? We came up $140,000 short of our expectations."

"Our perceptions of property values during 12 years as homeowners were guided by the unrealistic frenzy of a hot seller's market. But a surprising development unfolded after listing our home in West Windsor Township, N.J., in April: nothing."

"We had braced ourselves before listing our house in a sagging real estate market, knowing we'd have to lower our expectations about the sales price. That didn't stop our stomachs from churning, however, when we finally agreed to a sales price that was substantially lower than where we started."

"Our desirable town was a hub for corporate transferees, attracted by its top-rated schools and proximity to New York City commuter trains. The nation's economy wouldn't affect us as much, we reasoned."

"The sea of for-sale signs in our community should have been a warning sign. Comparable homes we visited in order to price our own competitively had already been sitting for weeks."

"Price proved to be what ultimately mattered in this market, as perhaps in any market. The small upgrades that real estate experts suggest owners make to enhance a home's appeal were also irrelevant. Prospective buyers didn't seem to notice the shiny cabinet hardware or new ceiling fan."

"The most difficult part of selling was absorbing how quickly and drastically the market was falling, from soft in April to historic lows within a few months."

"Our home's value peaked at over $800,000 in 2006, nearly twice what we paid seven years ago (even we had commented on the absurdity of the home being worth so much). In that context, letting it go in the high $700,000s seemed fair. But we lowered the price another $25,000 after a few weeks passed with just a trickle of interest."

"The process wore us down, enough to tolerate a second price reduction, down to $749,900. But interest, not offers, was all we attracted as the 'resale inventory' (other homes for sale in the same price range) ratcheted up to 15 in our community."

"Some neighborhood houses, meanwhile, finally sold in the $680,000 range, the first scary indication that we'd have to let the house go for less than we imagined. Our bottom line sales price of $725,000 was slowly slipping away, we realized, as we lowered the price yet again."

"The chance to unload our house, for $650,000, finally arrived in August. Even our buyers claimed to be hurting, falling stock prices consumed a chunk of their anticipated down payment, necessitating a low offer, they said."

"We've moved on, to a different state with lower property taxes and real estate values. Friends who asked if we bought a bigger house were surprised that we did not, another choice that helped us make the most of the cash that we managed to net from the sale."