The Philadelphia Inquirer reports from Pennsylvania. "If one word could describe the new-home market in the Philadelphia metropolitan region today, it probably would be sluggish. 'It's an enigma,' said said Diane Williams, in Montgomery County, who has been selling new and existing homes in the eastern part of the county for 24 years. 'It's bad even though interest rates are great. Some builders are even going as far as saying that it's dead.'"

"Granor Price Homes lowered prices at its townhouse development in Royersford, 'A few earlier buyers called us about it. We asked if they would rather live in a community with 30 homes sold and 300 unsold,' said principal Marshal Granor."

"The Center City condo market is suffering from decisions, made three to five years ago, to focus on newly built units more expensive than this market can sustain. 'How many million-dollar condos can you build?' asked Joel F. Naroff, chief economist at Commerce Bank. 'This is not New York. They're supplying to the wrong level.'"

The Times News from Pennsylvania. "In northwestern Pennsylvania...the number of foreclosed properties listed for sheriff's sale (is) changing the way people buy homes."

"That number has been rising steadily since 1999 when 218 properties were listed for sheriff's sale. After putting a record 636 properties up for sale in 2006, the Erie County Sheriff's Office saw that total grow by more than 12 percent in 2007, with 716 properties listed for sale before the end of this year."

"Among the Erie County real estate sales figures for October, Dennis Weed, a Realtor for Century 21 Stover Real Estate, finds another troubling statistic. Weed said nearly 20 percent of the month's 437 sales involved lenders foreclosing on properties or selling their foreclosures."

"'It used to be anybody could get a loan,' he said. 'All you had to do was call around.' Now, Weed said, he's had clients who have decided to put off buying for a year until they can improve their credit scores."

From WJZ.com in Maryland. "Last month, the housing market took a big hit in the Baltimore area as home sales saw the largest drop in eight years. There are too many houses and not enough buyers. Experts say that's just one reason home sales have plummeted. The last time sales dropped this low was back in 1999."

"'There were too many people who were able to access credit earlier in this decade. [There were] people who really couldn't afford the homes that they purchased and as a result, many homes were built,' said local economist Anirban Basu."

"That leads to too much supply. Basu says the only way to clear the inventory is for prices to fall."

"'Sellers--if they're looking to move their homes very quickly--then they have to price to this market. They have to be aggressive in prices and they have to be realistic about pricing. Many are not, which is one of the reasons home sales aren't being made,' said Basu."

The Baltimore Sun from Maryland. "The number of homes sold in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties in October totaled 1,918, down 31.74 percent from a year earlier, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. It was the biggest year-to-year drop recorded since MRIS began tracking homes sold through the MLS in 1999."

"'Buyers are hesitating to make any kind of decision,' said Sonya Francis, an agent in Catonsville. 'Buyers don't feel they should be paying the price the seller has listed. They're looking at a $400,000 house and saying it's only worth $350,000.'"

"'Sellers are beginning to realize it's not 2005 anymore,' said Melvina Brown, an agent in Ellicott City. 'I tell people they're not going to make the money you made in 2005, that's long gone.'"

"John and Amy Cooney, architects who gutted and redesigned their Fells Point rowhouse with a custom oak staircase, a heated kitchen floor, glass block walls and a sky bridge to a carriage house, put the home on the market for $889,000 and got a contract last month, after just 13 days. But a month later, the buyers backed out of the contract."

"'It's frustrating,' said John Cooney, who will be relocating to Portland, Ore. 'In a hot market three years ago, you'd have three or four offers lined up. Luckily, we don't have a time frame and are not in a position that I have to sell it.'"

"Metrostudy said this week that the region, which it defines as Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland minus the Eastern Shore and far western edge, is in better shape than most of the markets it follows. But the continually increasing stock of unsold existing homes is a problem for builders, who aren't immune to that competition. And on top of that, local builders are feeling the mortgage crunch."

"Sales in the region dropped about 50 percent last month, compared with September, Metrostudy said. The cancellation rate was 60 percent. 'The banks are going into a bunker mentality,' said Kenneth Wenhold, Metrostudy's director for Maryland and Virginia. 'It's a major problem.'"

The Daily Press from Virginia. "When Pennsylvania-based Fulton Financial announced in 2004 that it would buy Virginia Beach-based Resource Bank, it looked like a simple, logical combination of small community banks."

"But the deal has become a gigantic headache for Fulton. It soon became apparent that Resource, which was one of the leading mortgage lenders in Hampton Roads, had embraced some of the industry's lax lending practices and run up huge liabilities."

"'The management of Resource Mortgage has been replaced,' said Fulton CEO R. Scott Smith on a recent conference call. 'and the offices giving rise to virtually all of these potential losses have been either closed or are in the process of being shutdown.'"

"The large Wall Street banks have spent recent weeks reporting big losses on packages of high-risk, high-return mortgages they bought. But many of those mortgages started at Main Street operations like Resource, which dropped lending standards because Wall Street was willing to buy the risky loans."

"'This real estate market got out of control for everybody, and we're all guilty,' said Smith in an interview."

"Most of Resource's problems are not even tied to mortgages it sold to its own banking customers. The mortgage wholesale division of Resource that lent the bank's money to borrowers nationwide is the source of most of the defaults. These independent brokers — mostly in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina — embraced weak lending standards to sell mortgages that used Resource's money."

"Fulton revealed in a securities filing that...investors asked the bank to buy back loans that financed the entire cost of a home with no documentation of the borrower's income. The investors were able to force the bank's hand because so many borrowers had failed to make one of their first three payments."

"As a result, Fulton took a $6.4 million loss when it bought back a package in July of $34.7 million in mortgage and home equity loans with high default rates. These loans were made in late 2006."

"Fulton said that of the $34.7 million loan package it bought back, $21 million was placed in non-accrual status. That means the borrowers are at least 90 days behind in their payments, but haven't been foreclosed on yet, and the bank doesn't expect the loan to ever be fully repaid."

"Another $9 million went onto its books as real estate it owns."

"Fulton appraised the properties on the loans it has bought back, which were mostly in Maryland and Virginia, at the end of September. They were worth 14 percent less than the original appraisals."

The News Leader from Virginia. "Here are some quick tips from GAAR President Pat Rexrode, who also serves as an associate broker in Waynesboro. For Buyers: Don’t get in a hurry, or 'It’s better to be safe than sorry.'"

"'When we were in a really hot market and we had bidding wars going, people were putting in contracts on homes and waiving inspections just to beat the competition and have their offer accepted,' she said. Rexrode explained that as some of those properties are starting to come back on the market, their current owners are faced with making — and paying for — repairs that should have been caught when they purchased the residence."

"'In some cases, we’ve got people who didn’t make anything on the house over the last couple of years because the appreciation didn’t cover the cost of the repairs that were needed to sell the house this time around,' said Rexrode."

The Charlotte Observer fronm North Carolina. "At the end of a Plaza-Midwood street, real estate broker Ryan Dawson blew up balloons and brewed coffee as he prepared to sell a property in a home auction."

"His company needed to unload the four-bedroom house that recent Sunday afternoon for any reasonable price. It had languished under a traditional real estate listing for months. The company was planning to take a hit on the price, he said. 'This was our first one. I hope I won't have to do it again.'"

"In this sluggish real estate market, a growing number of sellers are turning to the auction block to get out from under properties that aren't moving the traditional way. Long the purview of high-end art dealers and foreclosures, the auction option is entering the real estate mainstream."

"The required opening bid at the auction for the Heritage home was under $300,000, and there were only three bids. Less than a year ago, the 2,400-square-foot house, with heated bathroom floor in the master bedroom, granite countertops, soft wood and wide plentiful windows, might have fetched $500,000 or more, when compared to the recent selling prices of other nearby homes."

"The company finalized a deal with one of the bidders the next morning, but it won't reveal the selling price until the sale closes next month."

"N.C. auctioneers, such as Mark Rogers, say they've seen an increase in the Carolinas. Rogers said that home auctions are only likely to keep increasing. 'Sellers bought in this run-up of crazy appreciation, and the reality has now set in. Some of that was unrealistic,' he said. 'I see those people as having to take deep discounts.'"

"Be prepared to take a lower price than your neighbor who sold through an agent only a few months ago, says Rogers. 'There's the perception of market value and then there's the seller's perception,' he said. 'Even sometimes in a slow market, comparable sales (of other homes in the neighborhood) may still be too high. You have to be realistic.'"