The Union Leader reports from New Hampshire. "Difficulties in the housing market have spelled trouble for a still unfinished development near MerchantsAuto.com Stadium. A broker working for Chinburg Builders said the company has sold just 14 of the 24 luxury townhouses it has built just south of the stadium and has not made a sale since June 2007. Last Friday, she said, the company slashed starting prices on the remaining townhouses from $349,900 to $249,900."

"'We are doing absolutely everything we can to sell these and market these, what with the challenges in the current market,' said the broker, Maura McLaughlin."

"The lag in sales has delayed the company's owner, Eric Chinburg, from continuing construction on a property that was supposed to hold 45 townhouses and a trio of mid-rise residential buildings. It has also put the city in a difficult spot. Tax revenues from Chinburg's development are needed to pay for the $27.5 million baseball stadium."

"Alderman Ted Gatsas, an early opponent of the stadium deal...reminded his colleagues, 'I warned everybody about this deal.'"

"Alderman At-Large Mike Lopez called the situation unfortunate. 'We went into the deal thinking it would be productive, and unfortunately the economy went south,' he said. 'I don't think anyone is to blame for it.'"

The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. "Benigna Alarcon hoped that reducing her mortgage payment by $700 per month would be enough to save her Chelsea home from foreclosure. But she still can't afford the $1,971 payment. Now two months behind on payments, Alarcon said she must either sell her home or risk foreclosure."

"'I don't want to lose my house,' said Alarcon. 'I spent everything I had [saved] to buy it.'"

"Alarcon's dilemma is shared by hundreds of local homeowners. Foreclosures tripled across the North region in 2007, rising to 1,040 last year from 361 in 2006, according to The Warren Group."

"Abandoned homes, many of them boarded up, have cast a long shadow over the urban housing market."

"'It's tragic when you see it,' said Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. of Lynn, remarking about the Highlands, one of Lynn's oldest and poorest neighborhoods. 'People got into deals that looked too good to be true. . . And then they were left with nothing.'"

"Foreclosures, which also tripled during the month of January across Massachusetts, are expected to continue at a high rate, further weakening the housing market, a specialist said."

"'From what we've seen, they're going to be as high as they've ever been,' said Tim Warren, CEO of The Warren Group. 'Unfortunately, because real estate prices have dropped, these distressed properties just aren't worth what they were.'"

"After renting an apartment in Chelsea for 16 years, Alarcon bought a house for about $330,000 four years ago. She used $35,000, her life savings, as a down payment. She received an adjustable rate mortgage from a local bank, but it was not considered a subprime loan."

"The mortgage payment first was $2,000 per month. After two years, the interest rate adjusted, and the payment climbed to $2,300. It then adjusted again, hitting $2,700 last year, she said."

"At the same time, business at her restaurant also declined, greatly reducing her salary, she said...She sees little hope in reversing her misfortune. 'I saved for 20 years to buy a house,' Alarcon said. 'Now I have nothing.'"

The Berkshire Eagle from Massachusetts. "The continuing influx of second-homers, and more realistic pricing for year-round residents, form a local silver lining for the nation's grim housing crisis. 'There are certainly more foreclosures than I've ever seen,' said Maureen Phillips, a long-time mortgage loan officer at Greylock Federal Credit Union."

"At the Lenox-based Century 21-Franklin Street firm, owner Bob Romeo believes the real-estate slowdown had its initial and greatest impact on the second-home sector. 'A significant number of those folks look at the purchase of a Berkshire home as an investment; when they see it declining in value, they don't buy,' Romeo maintained."

"In his view, the sharp increase in the number of condo units on the market — more than 200 countywide — doesn't help. 'They're targeting the second-home buyer. Sales have not come to a screeching halt but they're darned slow and it takes work to move them,' he observed."

"'Agents are trying to be very realistic with sellers,' emphasized Sandra Carroll, CEO of the Berkshire County Board of Realtors, in contrast with the tendency to 'shoot for the moon' during the height of the mid-decade boom."

"Lance Vermeulen's Egremont-based real-estate firm recently opened a second office in Great Barrington. He acknowledged a 'slowing in the market, somewhat of a correction but not a dramatic change, that has built up the inventory of unsold homes — in June 2005, it was like a curtain dropped on the market, the beginning of the end of the boom.'"

"With adjustments bringing more $350,000 properties down to $300,000 or less, he said he has sold 'plenty of houses' to area residents."

"Nationally, he conceded, the real-estate market is 'taking a beating day after day, but anytime now somebody's going to come along and say, 'Now's a good time to buy.'"

"In Berkshire County, he said, 'We're close to the bottom, not that the bottom was that far from the top.'"

The Eagle Tribune from Massachusetts. "In the early 1990s, a wave of foreclosures swept the city and arson quickly followed, sending weary firefighters racing from one suspicious blaze to the next."

"Now, with more than 750 properties foreclosed or in the process of being foreclosed, and possibly hundreds more threatened, city leaders are taking action to protect neighborhoods all over Lawrence from another epidemic of arson."

"A 'bank responsibility ordinance' adopted Tuesday by the City Council puts responsibility for the upkeep of foreclosed properties right on the new owners — the lenders themselves."

"How banks will respond is unclear. Many lenders are national or international banks, and officials researching the matter have already run into some roadblocks, including 'secretive' bank employees who didn't want to give their last names, said fire Capt. William Lannon."

"Unlike years past, foreclosures these days aren't limited to certain neighborhoods. 'The last time it was mostly the Arlington District. But now it's all through the city,' said Lannon, a member of a foreclosure task force organized nine months ago by Sullivan. 'You name it,' Lannon said. 'They are all over the city.'"

"Above all, Lannon said he would hate to see a repeat of the 1990s. 'We became the arson capital of the world,' he said. 'Lawrence doesn't deserve that moniker.'"

The New York Sun. "After years of sustained growth marked by grandiose, ambitious plans for the city, the real estate development industry is displaying troubling symptoms."

"The number of citywide building permits is expected to drop, public and private funding for projects is drying up, and a stream of multibillion-dollar plans is coming in over budget and behind schedule, with many designs being scaled back or scrapped altogether."

"A shortage of federal housing subsidies and ongoing litigation from resident groups is threatening Bruce Ratner's $4 billion Atlantic Yards project near downtown Brooklyn. The list of public and private projects on hold seems to grow on a weekly basis."

"The president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Steven Spinola, said widespread concern in the real estate community has — so far — fallen short of 'panic.'"

"'I don't know if they are collapsing,' Mr. Spinola, a former deputy mayor for economic development, said. 'There is clearly concern among our members, which is probably more than I feel. Four months ago people believed that if they had a project, that the financing would be available even if they had to put more equity in, or maybe the costs might be slightly higher. A month ago there was a concern that the financial institutions would not want to finance anything.'"

"The chairman of the Singer & Bassuk Organization, Andrew Singer, has already seen a marked change in financing structures from even just a year ago, when a developer could obtain between 90% and 95% of the costs of a project from available financing. He said today that figure is down to around 70%."

"'That is not a bad thing,' he said. 'It means that those projects that go ahead are with the developers that are the most substantial. It is a de-leveraging of the real estate business in general. The high leveraging has created this bubble. It hasn't burst yet. Whether the air gets let out or it comes crashing down remains to be seen,' he said."

The Brooklyn Eagle from New York. "Construction of market-rate condominiums and below-market apartments has fallen far short of earlier predictions. The Eagle researched progress on the 58 projects in some stage of development listed with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership."

"Of the 5,285 market-rate condominiums planned, roughly 1,400 have come on the market, including buildings completed during the peak of the boom years. Based on various real estate databases, half are still for sale."

"'The challenge with residential today is not only related to the credit market,' said Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Joe Chan. 'I think there’s also an increasing mindfulness to the total amount of product on the market right now, particularly on the condominium side.'"

"Other projects listed with the Partnership are stalled, like John Catsimatidis’ Myrtle Avenue project with 360 condos; were killed. 'Unfortunately, the banks are out of business,' and not just for developers, said Catsimatidis. 'Six months ago a person could walk into a bank and put a $50,000 down payment [on a $800,000 condo] and get the mortgage.'"

"'Now the banks are strictly following the old rules of [20 percent down],' he said. 'Brooklyn buyers don’t necessarily have $160,000 to put down.'"

"'With 800 units coming on the market probably within the next year, I think buyers are going to be really fussy,' said Halstead Property Director of Marketing William Ross."