A report from the Virginia Pilot. "More than five times as many homes are for sale in Hampton Roads now as were on the market during the heady days of the real estate boom in 2004, and the excess inventory is showing no sign of shrinking anytime soon. 'The calls - they've just stopped coming in,' said Bob Bristol, a Chesapeake mortgage broker who described the market today as 'the slowest I've ever seen' in 15 years in the business."

"In September 2005, Sean Kentch paid $538,000 for a five-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot brick home near the intersection of Mount Pleasant Road and Centerville Turnpike. Late last year, he learned he would soon be reassigned. This fall, he put the house up for sale, asking $579,000. He didn't get a single offer."

"Finally, Kentch decided to rent it instead. Within a week, he had a tenant, though the rental income will cover only about two-thirds of the $3,000-plus-a-month mortgage."

"Between February and mid-October of this year, 13 of the 15 homes sold in Kentch's subdivision went for less than the assessed value; all but two of the 15 homes were sold by builders, according to city real estate records."

"Bill Dore, a Hampton Roads housing market analyst, said the run-up in home values between 2003 and 2006 led many to see what they wanted to see. 'We got sloppy,' he said. 'We took those three years as a trend, instead of an aberration.'"

"The 'trend,' however, was actually a market blip driven by the notion that land for development was disappearing rapidly, along with available housing, Dore said."

The Baltimore Sun from Maryland. "The mortgage crisis roiling communities across the country is being acutely felt in Prince George's County, where thousands of residents, many lured in recent years by relatively affordable real estate prices, are in danger of losing their homes."

"Stephen Fuller, an economist at George Mason University, attributes the crisis in Prince George's to several factors, including the general affordability of the county's housing stock."

"'You think of that as a strength, but it also attracted buyers who were marginally financially capable of supporting the mortgage,' Fuller said."

"Compounding the problem was a construction boom in the county where, unlike other areas in the Washington region, vast tracts of land had remained largely undeveloped, Fuller said. 'They just couldn't stop it,' Fuller said of construction there."

"Samuel Moore was a D.C. renter when he started looking for a home in 2006. A real estate agent suggested a four-bedroom house in the Prince George's town of Clinton, and he paid $283,000 for the house that November."

"Within weeks, he said, the ceiling in the dining room caved in, pipes burst and the toilet in the main bathroom crumbled. After spending his entire savings on repairs, Moore said, he could no longer afford the house. 'It turned into a money pit,' he said."

"He put the home on the market early last year, and so far, four potential buyers have expressed interest to his real estate agent. But he said none qualified for a mortgage. Moore said he has not been able to find a renter and will not be able to make this month's payment."

"'I thought I had enough foresight' to avoid buying a house with so many problems, he said. 'I wind up exhausting all of my savings.'"

The Philadelphia Inquirer from Pennsylvania. "Without a doubt, fewer people are purchasing houses now than were a year ago. Houses for sale are abundant, and prices tend to drop the longer a place goes unclaimed. Time on the market is increasing both in this region and nationwide."

"'The big problem in the current housing market is gridlock,' said economist Joel Naroff. 'Most move-up buyers look to the equity they have in their current house to buy a new one, so they don't believe they can make an offer without selling that present house.'"

"That's the predicament Robin and Joe Finkelstein find themselves in."

"'We've been talking about moving to the Philadelphia area [from the Washington suburbs] to be closer to Joe's job in the Poconos,' Robin Finkelstein said. 'But we have the smallest townhouse in a community where a lot of bigger ones are for sale and have been on the market for a long time.'"

The Pocono Record from Pennsylvania. "Monroe County's record-high 2007 home foreclosure rate may not be a surprise to informed observers, but it still can shock the senses."

"There were 1,253 foreclosure filings with the county Prothonotary's Office, according to final figures released by Prothonotary George Warden. The previous all-time high, set in 2003, was 941."

"Warden's office records foreclosure filings but doesn't track the causes. 'I think it's the subprime market,' Warden said. 'The price of gas, perhaps. People aren't able to commute and work.'"

"What Warden does know is the 2007 foreclosure filings are more than double the 540 recorded in 2005. There were 835 foreclosure filings in 2006."

The Ithaca Journal from New York. "With relatively low prices for houses, a stable housing market and steady employment, Ithaca hasn't experienced the real estate crash some places have."

"'People talk about the real estate bubble bursting, but in Tompkins County the bubble never really got that big to begin with,' said Elia Kacapyr, economist and Ithaca College professor."

"Brokers tell stories of some houses in the Fall Creek neighborhood and other neighborhoods near downtown Ithaca having as many as nine offers two years ago."

"Homes in Ithaca were selling so fast and prices rising enough that buyers were moving to outlying towns, according to both broker Steve Saggese, and Everett Boutillet, a mortgage officer. Prices and taxes were so high, people were moving to towns like Groton, bringing prices up there as well, Saggese said."

"Depending on whom you ask, after several years of bidding wars on desirable property and bids exceeding asking prices, Ithaca is changing to a buyer's — or at least an even — market."

"'It is definitely becoming a buyer's market here. There are more houses on the market, fewer multiple bids and especially in the higher end of the market, where it generally starts,' said Beth Carlson Ganem, an associate broker who specializes in higher-priced homes."

"Buying a house on Ithaca's West Hill recently, Kenton Hensley and his family first had to face selling in an overstocked, depressed suburb west of Boston. 'A month and a half after we managed to sell our house, there was an article about the slow pace in the Boston Globe, and they used our town as an example,' Hensley said."

"The town they left, Southborough, 25 miles from Boston, and others nearby had a lot of houses sitting on the market, he said."

The Boston Herald from Massachusetts. "Some of Greater Boston’s most exclusive residential enclaves are seeing a startling spike in foreclosure activity." "Wellesley, Weston, Sudbury and Newton in MetroWest, one of the nation’s wealthiest suburban clusters, all saw big increases last year in foreclosure filings, statistics from the Warren Group show."

"Even the wealthiest communities are not immune to the trends that have fueled a nationwide foreclosure epidemic. 'I don’t think this is just a low-income problem,' said Robert Pulster, head of a Boston nonprofit that counsels foreclosure victims."

"Wellesley foreclosure filings more than doubled last year through October - to 30 - from just 13 during the same period in 2006. Sudbury had one of the largest increases of any MetroWest town. Foreclosure filings soared 145 percent, from 11 in 2006 to 27 last year."

"Meanwhile, more condo owners are also falling behind on their mortgages in downtown Boston, home to some of the priciest condo towers in the country, the Boston-based data firm reports."

"In downtown Boston, which covers pricey neighborhoods like the South End, Back Bay and Beacon Hill, foreclosure filings rose 25 percent in 2007 to a total of 74."

"Some of the foreclosure activity in these well-off towns and neighborhoods may stem from home owners who stretched to buy during the run-up in real estate prices back in 2004 and 2005, said Alan Pasnik, Warren Group’s real estate analyst."

"That likely led those buyers to make the same mistakes as many others now facing the loss of their homes, such as taking out variable rate loans that later reset to much higher rates, even as home values have fallen, Pasnik said."

"'It’s a smaller percentage of the (overall) community, but it is the same ugly story, over and over again,' he said."

The Providence Journal from Rhode Island. "According to the city clerk’s office, the number of properties taken back by banks in Pawtucket has almost tripled, rising from 65 in 2006 to 172 last year."

"Peg Ramos, the clerk responsible for recording real estate transactions, said foreclosures used to be so rare — there were just 3 in 2004 and 17 in 2005 — that she would have to look up how to enter them in city records."

"Now they are so common the task has become second-nature. 'I’m getting three or four a day,' she said."

"In an effort to trim the deficit, the city administration has imposed a freeze on expenditures. In addition to property taxes that haven’t been paid because of foreclosures, the city is projecting a $125,000 drop in the amount of money it collects in real estate transfer taxes and a $200,000 drop in real estate recording fees."

"Tax revenues have plunged because banks that foreclose on delinquent borrowers don’t have to pay taxes on the foreclosed property until it is sold to another buyer, Finance Director Ronald L. Wunschel said in an interview."

"To prevent the reserve fund shrinking further, city officials are being extra careful about spending. 'Every expenditure that comes across, we look at it and we challenge it,' Wunschel said."

"It doesn’t matter if an item has been included in the budget. It is still being scrutinized, Wunschel said. Employees who have gotten budgetary approval for such things as a new computer or new set of tires on their city-owned vehicle are being asked whether they can put off the purchase until next year."

"'Do you really need four new tires on that vehicle?' Wunschel said. 'Can you get by with two?'"