The Boston Globe reports from Massachusetts. "Prices in the Boston area more than doubled between 1995 and 2005, even adjusting for inflation. Lax lending standards played a big part. Sellers raised prices, and buyers easily borrowed the wanted money. Many families chose to stretch, agreeing to monthly mortgage payments that consumed a larger share of income than the recommended 28 percent - often a much larger share. Many of them are now are facing foreclosure."

"In Boston and other hyper-expensive markets, the surge in foreclosures and the resulting drop in prices isn't bad for everyone. Government efforts to limit foreclosures have the effect of favoring people who want to stay in their homes over the people who want to move in next."

"Tom Callahan, executive director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, said he's torn by concern for homeowners, but 'our hope for home buyers is that the market softens somewhat. When a market has been as hot as it's been for the last while, your hope is for prices to come down,' he said."

"It's also not clear that the government can prevent prices from falling, even if it wanted to. A number of modest efforts are underway to help people keep their homes. But there is no plan in place to forestall the majority of impending foreclosures."

"Even if there was, prices would keep declining."

"George Marshall, a Boston renter who wants to buy a home in the suburbs, has money saved for a down payment, but he's waiting for prices to drop a little more."

"Marshall said he wants people to understand 'how frustrating it is for people who are looking to buy a home to see their governor using their tax dollars against them.'"

"Leave the market alone, Marshall said, so he can buy a home."

"Foreclosures continue to pile up in Essex County, where the filings for most of 2007 outpaced other areas of Massachusetts, according to data compiled by The Warren Group."

"Foreclosure petitions increased 75 percent in the county from January through October 2007, compared with the same period in 2006. Data for November and December is not yet available."

"'There is still an awful lot of potential for people to lose their homes,' said Terry Egan, editor-in-chief of Banker & Tradesman. 'It's a pretty clear indication the problem is still at, or near, its peak.'"

The Republican from Massachusetts. "Michael J. Farrell, president of Northeast Financial Group in Wilbraham, helps people work out solutions to impending foreclosure. While Springfield is flooded with foreclosures, Farrell said he's also working with homeowners from Longmeadow, Wilbraham, East Longmeadow and other well-to-do suburbs of the city."

"Of the four homeowners he worked with in Longmeadow, Farrell said two were subprime loans. One had a no-down-payment $500,000 mortgage, he said. The other homeowner filed for bankruptcy and the lender foreclosed on the home."

"The two situations he worked on in Wilbraham were also subprime loans, he said, with 100 percent mortgages. Both foreclosures were precipitated by the breakup of the domestic relationships, he said. 'In a typical scenario, had they not been stretched to the max, one might have been able to survive' paying the mortgage alone, Farrell said."

"The actual number of foreclosures in wealthier suburbs to date may mask the potential, Farrell said. 'The banks are being extremely slow in pulling the trigger,' he said, pointing to a foreclosure auction in Agawam that has been postponed four times."

"Farrell said he's noted another worrisome trend lately: 'A huge uptick in non-subprime loans coming through now.'"

The Press of Atlantic City from New Jersey. "As the housing market continues to keep its head just above water nationwide, the oceanfront-home market on Long Beach Island is a whole other animal, according to several local real estate agents."

"'The oceanfront market is a recession-proof market,' said Joy Luedtke, owner of Joy Luedtke Real Estate."

"There now are 37 active oceanfront listings on the island, with three under contract. And 29 closed within the past year, according to the Jersey Shore MLS."

"'Oceanfronts always hold their value. It's about supply and demand, and there are so few available. They’re not making any more oceanfront properties,' said Sonia Ward, owner of Sonia Ward Realty in Harvey Cedars."

"According to Ward, owners of multimillion-dollar properties usually are not in hurry to sell, so prices usually do not plummet."

"'There are distress sales on the oceanfront. These sellers are not going to compromise. They'll sit and wait because they know they have something special,' Ward said."

"For the owners, the downside of not selling is being able to use the property for another summer."

The Chambersburg Public Opinion from Pennsylvania. "Home construction in Franklin County during 2007 slowed from the feverish pace of the three previous years. Some out-of-state developers even abandoned a market that they eagerly embraced while it was peaking in 2004 and 2005."

"The county has a hefty inventory of vacant new homes -- more than twice as many as in 2002."

"'We went through tough times,' Guilford Township Supervisor Greg Cook said. 'Lots and homes didn't sell as quickly, and some developers got hurt or ran into tough times. I think it is imperative for developers not to bite off more than they can chew.'"

"The inventory of newly constructed homes for sale rose while the market was cooling, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.; 134 at the end of 2002, 154 in 2005, 354 in 2006 and 353 in December."

"Briddell Builders of Libertytown, Md., in November sold for $1.7 million its holdings off Falling Spring Road. The township in 2006 had approved 58 lots for Falling Spring Estates, Briddell's first venture in Pennsylvania. Briddell installed roads and utilities for the first phase and roads for the final two phases. Lots were not sold."

"'They had a lot of money going into the ground and weren't recouping the cost,' Cook said. 'Then the plug came out of the market.'"

The Plain Dealer from Ohio. "Home values in Cuyahoga County are likely to take a big hit because banks that foreclose on houses are unloading them for less than half what they are supposed to be worth, a study shows."

"In Cleveland, lenders are dumping houses for less than a third of their market value as set by the county auditor, according to the study by Case Western Reserve University."

"The study, which tracked thousands of houses sold at sheriff's auctions from January 2000 through last September, found that prices declined every year, but tumbled dramatically in 2006 and 2007."

"County Treasurer Jim Rokakis and others fear speculators are snapping up the cheap, rundown houses and selling them to desperate buyers, possibly triggering another cycle of foreclosures."

"Several out-of-state companies have purchased dozens of houses in Cleveland, some for less than $1,000."

The Toledo Blade from Ohio. "Damaged by a housing market that has been unable to regain momentum, the mortgage industry in the Toledo region took another big hit in 2007. In Lucas County alone, the number of mortgages fell by nearly a quarter to the fewest in more than a decade, according to the county recorder's office."

"Over the past two years, mortgage activity has plunged 40 percent in the region's biggest county."

"The industry had many changes last year. Appraisers are taking a more cautious approach, said Elizabeth Kollar, senior vice president for consumer lending in Fifth Third Bank's northwest Ohio division."

"Once, they alerted lenders to only serious problems such as foundation defects and nonoperating furnaces. Today, appraisers note - and often photograph - less serious problems such as drywall damage."

"Mortgage brokers, who act as middlemen between lenders and borrowers and were involved in many of the subprime loans at the center of current troubles nationally, have suffered the most."

"'It stinks,' mortgage broker Shane Marzullo said of current conditions. Amid a 10 percent decline in sales, he is pinching pennies more at his three-person Springfield Township firm. But several other local firms have folded, noted Mr. Marzullo, who is president of the local chapter of the Ohio Mortgage Brokers Association."

"The Lucas County agency responsible for logging and filing official documents such as mortgages has had a lighter workload and didn't fill a clerk's position recently vacated."

"'Those people are gone,' county Recorder Jeanine Perry said of title insurance workers and others who used to use her office."

The Newark Advocate from Ohio. "Licking County homeowners not only struggle to keep their homes, many are learning they can't sell them, either."

"Sales of homes and all residential property took longer and closed at lower prices in 2007 than in previous years. The housing market includes more foreclosed properties but precious few new homes."

"The average sale price of residential property in Licking County decreased from $130,316 in 2006 to $118,513 in 2007, a 9 percent drop. In Newark, the average price fell from $107,443 in 2006 to $93,229 in 2007, a 13 percent decrease, according to a database analysis."

"Some sellers give up for a while and try later. Others are forced to settle for less than they wanted. Still others stubbornly wait for a buyer to pay their asking price. Ann Moore, whose husband died three years ago, has lowered the price of her Granville Road home from $219,000 to $199,000, but it still has not sold. It's been on the market almost a year."

"'I feel I really need to sell it because I'm alone and it's a lot for me to take care of on my own,' Moore said. 'I really don't feel I can go lower. You can't give your property away. I know a lot of people have been (waiting) two to three years. I don't know what the answer is.'"

"Judy Newton, a real estate agent trying to sell Moore's home, said the market is the worst she's ever seen. 'I've been a real estate agent for 23 years, and I've never ever seen real estate this bad,' Newton said. 'I hate to be negative, but those are my true feelings.'"

"'There's a lot of homes on the market waiting to get sold. Usually, you reduce it $1,000 to $2,000 at a time and now we're reducing it $10,000 at a time. It may be appraised $50,000 more than on the market,' she said."

"Real estate agent Mitch Fellows said sellers can reduce their frustration and their wait for a buyer by lowering their price."

"'Prices have come down a little bit, and sellers need to realize that,' Fellows said. 'Sellers still expect what they could have gotten out of a property two years ago, and I think they have a hard time getting that.'"

"Developers and builders temporarily have given up, as well. In 2006, the Licking County Planning Commission shows 196 lots were approved for platting. In 2007, none were approved. 'I've never seen a year no lots were approved for final plat,' said Jim Leonard, of the planning commission."

"Margaret Wiedenbein finally sold her home when she switched real estate agents. She had it listed for nine months without success, then changed Realtors. The house sold in 26 days." "The key was lowering the price from what the first agent had it listed."

"'I got what I wanted,' Wiedenbein said. 'I thought he had it overpriced. It had been on the market nine months, and anything on the market that long is hard to sell.'"