The Courier News from New Jersey. "When Barbara Taylor, a Realtor in Bridgewater, inherited two homes from her brother a couple years ago, she thought the one in Bridgewater would sell as fast as the one in Lavallette. She put them both on the market last year, hoping to get out of the landlord business. What happened was not what she expected."

"Her listing Realtor in Lavallette suggested a price of $675,000. Nothing happened all spring, so Taylor rented the place during the summer. She got one offer of $500,000, which she turned down. Then she took a closer look at the market. She realized that... comparable homes in her neighborhood were more in line with the $500,000 offer. So in August, she dropped the asking price to $499,900 and immediately got two offers. The house was sold by September."

"The Bridgewater house still hasn't sold, even though Taylor has installed a new kitchen and made many other improvements. 'I think the values at the Shore are holding better than they are in Bridgewater,' she said."

"Tino Columbo, manager of Diane Turton's Point Pleasant Beach office, said that in Ocean County, which includes the Point Pleasant and Long Beach Island areas, there were 5,747 homes sold in 2005, 4,479 sold in 2006 and 3,893 sold in 2007."

"In 2005, the average seller got 96.57 percent of his asking price. In 2006, sellers averaged 95.68 percent of their asking price, and in 2007, they averaged 94.7 percent of the asking price. The question that Columbo's figures can't answer is how much have asking prices dropped. 'The value is still in the land,' he said. 'If a home is priced right, it'll sell, but if the seller is unrealistic, it won't sell.'"

"'I think we've seen the worst,' said Dan McDonald, proprietor of Central State Appraiser Service in Lake Como. 'I think we've come close to the bottom, but I don't see a substantial turnaround until 2013 or 2014. The value of homes overshot what it should've been because of creative financing.'"

"'The bottom of the market will suffer,' McDonald said. 'If McMansions and higher-priced homes sell at discounts, then the smallest, least-expensive homes will have fewer buyers...The values decline most in communities where there is still a lot of land to develop.'"

"'Prices are lower than they were at the peak a few years ago, and interest rates are below 6 percent,' said Mary Burke is the broker of record for Heritage House Southeby's International Realty, a company with five offices in upscale Monmouth County communities. 'We've seen the market start to pick up. I think that at the end of 2008, people who didn't buy now will look back and wish they did.'"

From Financial Week on New York. "A foreclosure sale on tony Further Lane in East Hampton, N.Y.? A year ago, such an event would have been practically unthinkable. Yet a Further Lane property was in the early stages of foreclosure last month."

"John Brady, an agent in the East Hampton area who handles the sale of foreclosure properties for banks on eastern Long Island, confirmed that a $15 million Further Lane home was in pre-foreclosure status due to delinquent payments. The owner apparently brought his account current about two weeks ago, avoiding any further legal action."

"Mr. Brady said a year ago, the possibility of a foreclosure wouldn’t have arisen. Now, the Hamptons, the summer hangout for Manhattan’s rich and famous, is seeing its fair share of troubled real estate."

"There are about 40 homes in various stages of foreclosure in East Hampton and another 40 in Southampton, he said. 'A year ago, you just didn’t see that.' The houses involved include a $4 million property, although most are more modest homes, he said."

"Mr. Brady said some buyers put little money down on their purchases, believing that the properties would not only serve as vacation getaways, but as rapidly appreciating investments and tax write-offs."

"Mr. Brady noted that 1,030 homes in East Hampton are currently listed for sale. That’s up about 40% in the past year alone. 'People are still being unrealistic' about resale values, he said. 'I say if you want to sell right now, take the last sold [nearby property] and knock off 5% or 10% to beat the curve in a declining market.'"

"In East Hampton, the last property sold on Further Lane, a beachfront estate on two acres, went for $25.7 million on Nov. 9, according to a published registry of deeds record. The prospect of a foreclosure just down the lane must have had the new owners in a Gatsby-esque tizzy."

The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. "The City of Boston conducted a lottery last summer for 18 homes in Dorchester, expecting a huge demand. Only 10 homes sold. The city and local nonprofits are now spending money marketing the rest."

"In Lowell, three units in a subsidized condominium project sat unsold for almost a year before a community development agency decided to convert them to short-term rental housing for needy families."

"A Worcester nonprofit slashed prices this summer on six condos, then hired a local real estate firm to help sell the units, which have now been on the market al most 20 months."

"'In the city of Worcester, affordable housing is no longer a bargain,' said Marti Orne of Achieva Realty. 'People say, 'Look, I can buy something without deed restrictions.'"

"'For years the for-sale market was so strong and so tight that as long as you developed a unit that was affordable, it would just sell,' said Tina Brooks, undersecretary of housing for Governor Deval Patrick."

"During the boom, housing lotteries sometimes drew 100 applications for each available unit. Now, a growing number are sold to the first interested buyer, according to industry participants."

"Housing advocates say people are scared by the spike in foreclosures. 'People are not willing to pull the trigger,' said Tom Callahan of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance. 'There's more nervousness about, 'Is this going to go bad for me like it did for the person down the block?'"

"Falling prices may be the largest factor. Worcester Community Housing Resources Inc. listed nine condominiums for sale in May 2006. Three sold before the market declined in earnest. This summer, the nonprofit slashed prices by up to 20 percent on the remaining units. A two-bedroom can be had for $114,900."

"'In 2003, if you wanted to buy a condo' in that price range, 'there were only about 18 on the market in Worcester, at any given time,' said Adam Pasquale, who owns Achieva Realty. 'Today there's 90 on the market.'"

"The firm has shown the units to almost 70 buyers. One signed a contract."

The Enterprise from Massachusetts. "When the new condo lofts on Court Street in Brockton went on sale a year ago, a two-bedroom-two-bath unit was priced at $214,000. Now the price is as low as $165,000."

"'We've had to respond to the market,' said Ellen S. Goldberg, a spokeswoman for Cathartes Private Investments, which helped develop the Court Street development, known as SoCo146."

"Other developments and projects in the downtown Brockton area face similar situations. Realtor Bernie Hassan said a saturated market and falling prices have created a buyer's market almost unlike any seen before. 'The selection is tremendous,' he said."

"The Warren Group reported that single-family home sales in Plymouth County have dropped by 30 percent over the last year, with prices falling by 17 percent."

The Eagle Tribune from Massachusetts. "There are at least 90 homes in trouble in the city — empty buildings that have either been seized by banks or are in the process of being seized through foreclosure proceedings, Mayor James Fiorentini said."

"It's a relatively low number compared to neighboring cities such as Lawrence, the mayor said, but he and other Haverhill officials are worried abandoned buildings are becoming more common in Haverhill as a result of the real estate slump and national mortgage crisis it has spawned."

"'I don't think it's quite a crisis here yet, but we want to address it now before it becomes one,' Fiorentini said. 'Just one abandoned building can ruin a neighborhood.'"

"Several inner-city streets in Haverhill have more than one abandoned building. A tour last week of Nichols Street in the Acre neighborhood, for instance, revealed six multi-unit, empty homes on a short stretch in various stages of dilapidation."

"Signs on three of the homes said they were bank owned and that electricity and water had been shut off."

"The city becomes aware of vacant buildings primarily as inspectors and fire officials come across them as they travel around the city, Building Inspector Richard Osborne said. 'The biggest problem is when we can't find the mortgage holder,' Fiorentini said. 'We need someone to cite and someone to go after.'"

The Littleton Independent from Massachusetts. "It’s the first time that realtor Kathy Knox can remember the town having such a low inventory of homes for sale. Knox said there are currently just 38 houses for sale in Littleton."

"'For the last year and a half, it’s been a much more volatile market,' she said. 'Homes are selling, but only if they are 'aggressively priced,' or lower than the seller’s expectations, and in good shape."

"She said the inventory is so low because sellers 'got discouraged' when their homes didn’t sell at the asking price, and took the property off the market. She said sellers might have had 'unrealistic' prices in mind."

"Knox said the real estate market is going through a periodic 'adjustment,' or correction that hasn’t happened for 20 years or more. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, she said, home prices kept going up, and a correction was due."

"Knox said homes are now adjusting downward for the first time in two decades, and buyers that bought at the peak a couple of years ago, may not be able to keep up the payments. 'I just sold a home that was assessed higher than I sold it for,' said Knox."

"She said sellers 'do not want to come to the closing with $30,000 in their pocket,' and sometimes arrive with the keys to hand back to the bank."

"Cheryl Cowley’s mother started the family realty business, Cowley’s, on Great Road in the 1960s. Cheryl said now is the time to buy. 'Mortgage companies are pretty comfortable with Littleton,' she said, citing only six foreclosures in 2007. 'I’m seeing some of the best deals in the last 10 years, and I think for 10 years to come. I think we’ve bottomed out.'"

"Cowley said she has seen 'some cute little houses for under $200,000.' 'It hasn’t been so low in as long as I can remember,' she said."

"She blames the media, in part, for the drop in prices. 'With the papers shouting about falling prices, people are thinking they better wait, and it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy,' said Cowley."

"'People have to be realistic,' said Knox. 'For years we saw people double their money in their homes. Now that is not happening.'"

"She said the only people that are getting hurt by the current market are those that bought a home in the last couple of years, and are forced to sell and move for some reason. Those families will not sell their homes for what they paid, in many cases."

"'They are stuck,' said Knox. 'We can’t sell it for what they paid just two years ago.'"