The Morning Sentinel reports from Maine. "Maine isn't the kind of state where a drive through a large subdivision reveals home after home up for foreclosure sale. Instead, the foreclosure problem in Maine reflects the spread-out nature of the state, a house here, another there, a few more a couple of miles away. Nearly a quarter of Mainers with subprime mortgages are at least 60 days behind in their house payments. And nearly one in eight subprime borrowers is in foreclosure."

"'The idea that we would somehow avoid the problem or that it would not happen here has proven to be a fallacy,' said William N. Lund, superintendent of the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection."

"Caroline Wentworth's rising mortgage bills pushed her to file for bankruptcy. 'I've been through the worst nightmare in my life in the past year,' said Wentworth, of Buxton, 'and it's not over yet.'"

"She said she and her husband refinanced their home four years ago. Their payments, initially $1,200 a month after refinancing, re-set to $1,500 after two years and are now jumping to $2,000 a month after another adjustment."

"The couple's income was pinched when her husband lost his job. Wentworth only recently made a partial payment on what she owes, the first payment she's been able to make since October. Bills are piling up. Filing for bankruptcy has slowed things down, she said, and if the Wentworths hadn't taken that step, 'we would have lost it all,' she said."

"They explored a sale, but the home's value has fallen from about $230,000 to $180,000, and the mortgage is for $200,000."

"'We tried to do everything possible to save this house and we're still trying,' Wentworth said. 'I'm not walking away. I'm not giving up.'"

The Record Journal from Connecticut. "In Meriden, home sales have plummeted as lis pendens and foreclosures have skyrocketed. The ratio of sales to lis pendens was more than three to one in the city in 2006, according to the Warren Group. It dropped below two to one last year, and in January there were 56 home sales and 55 lis pendens."

"The ratio in the state was only slightly better at one sale for every 1.4 lis pendens, and prices were off 5 percent to 14 percent for various sectors from one year earlier."

"Samuel and Chayla Braun of Spring Valley, N.Y., spent more than $2.8 million to buy nearly 20 properties in 2004. They've since sold or lost most of them to foreclosure."

"Another investor, who asked not to be named, said she and her husband bought properties on Springdale, Park and Crown streets in 2005 and 2006. The buildings needed work but there were tenants already in them paying rent, which would defray the cost of the mortgages."

"But the arrangement quickly soured. Tenants trashed the units, she said, and moved out in the middle of the night, once even stealing a toilet that had just been installed in the bathroom."

"'That was the last straw,' she said. 'Thankfully, they turned the water off.'"

"City inspectors kept pressure on the owners to fix the units, and the costs became unbearable because of the lack of rental income. All three were foreclosed on last year."

"Vacant houses are affecting his neighborhood, said Richard Pleines, VP of the West Side Neighborhood Association. 'There's already two over on South Second Street,' said Pleines, a part-time real estate agent. 'They're becoming a hangout for the type of people you don't want hanging out.'"

"Richard Pleines said it could be five or more years before the local housing market turns around. 'We're going to end up with a large volume of property that's up for sale cheaply,' he said."

"An appraiser who works for Robert Claremont was sent to a house in Stratford and the real estate agent wouldn't let her enter. 'The agent told her she needed to call the lender,' Claremont said. 'I told her that is nonsense.'"

"The lender then called Claremont and said he had an appraiser who could put a $405,000 value on the house, and he found another one who could deliver $410,000. But if Claremont's appraiser could bring it home at $415,000, the real estate agent would allow her into the house and she had the job."

"Claremont was outraged. 'This is really about your commission,' Claremont told the lender. 'You are conspiring.'"

"Since July, Claremont has tracked more than 100 requests asking him to violate his ethics. He plays a message still on his answering machine from a broker saying, 'I'm looking for someone who knows how to maximize value without getting into trouble.'"

"Another lender in a home equity loan application wanted him to remove a notation stating that the home had been on the market within the last 12 months. 'Had I caved under that pressure, I've committed fraud,' Claremont said. 'The bank could have come after me. This is out of control. The buyer has no idea this is going on.'"

The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. "The most widely respected index of home prices reported yesterday that Boston's real estate downturn reached 28 months in January, as prices dropped about 3.5 percent compared to the same month last year."

"Prices now have fallen 11 percent from the peak of the local market in September 2005, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller housing price index."

"'We have to look back to 1990 and 1991 to see sales trends that resemble what is happening now,' Timothy Warren, CEO of Warren Group, said in a statement."

"The last major downturn in Boston-area housing prices stretched 43 months from July 1988 to February 1992, according to the Case-Shiller index. Another five years passed before prices reached and then surpassed the high-water mark of July 1988."

"In other words, a person who bought a home for $200,000 in the summer of 1988 would have had to wait nine years before being able to sell it for $200,000 again. From peak to bottom, prices fell almost 17 percent."

"Part of the problem is the growing supply of foreclosed homes being resold at discounts. About 6 percent of the homes for sale in Massachusetts at the end of February were either foreclosures or short sales - attempts to sell the property without actually foreclosing on it - according to Movoto."

The Sun Chronicle from Massachusetts. "The dream of home ownership has shattered for unknown numbers of (Attleboro) residents caught in the throes of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and city officials often get left picking up the pieces."

"Homeowners who can't make their payments pack up, move out and slip away, leaving their once prized possession to the mercy of the elements and the mischief of vandals."

"'We had the boom,' Building Inspector Doug Semple said. 'And this is the bust. I expect the numbers to go up. There are a ton of houses out there that have been foreclosed.'"

The Berkshire Eagle from Massachusetts. "A car accident. A job loss. A health problem. A legal mess. A sluggish real estate market. Such are the roots of foreclosure troubles, which are creeping upward in the Berkshires. Foreclosures in the county hit a high of 101 last year."

"'People need to know this can happen to a good person,' said Donna Maree, who is facing foreclosure on her Dalton house by a local bank. 'It can happen to someone who isn't a deadbeat, but you never think it can happen to you.'"

"She had planned that payments on her 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage would be finished by the time her retirement began. But when her son was charged in a rape case, Maree took on a second mortgage against her house to help pay his legal expenses."

"Foreclosure seemed imminent, and last December, she found an apartment in Lenox. Maree has opted to file for bankruptcy to wipe her financial slate clean, even though her house was her only significant debt. Her son is waiting to be retried, and she said she's confident in his innocence."

"'Now it's water under the bridge,' Maree said of her pending foreclosure. 'I am blessed with a good job, my son will be OK, and I have many good things in my life. I am OK with it now.'"

The Plymouth Bulletin from Massachusetts. "The greater Plymouth area in particular appears to be an exceptional case, said Dr. Michael Goodman, the director of economic and public policy research at the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute."

"The housing market still has further to fall, he said, and will likely take several years to recover. In the meantime, the social attitude toward defaults on loans has changed."

"'They’re under water, and walking away from these homes,' he said."

"People who bought homes with the last two years aren’t doing very well, he said. He said the home prices might be lowest at the end of 2008. He said declining prices and rising incomes should improve housing affordability over the next few years."

"'People who are on the outside looking in at the housing market are going to be able to have access to more affordable properties than they would have otherwise,' he said."

The Times Union from New York. "If you're thinking about buying an urban condominium, you have at least 514 options to consider. That's how many units are up for sale, according to a new survey."

"A prior Metzger Report found buyers bought just under 600 condos in the 15 years prior to 2007. That means the 161 bought or reserved last year represents a dramatic quickening of the pace."

"Tracy Metzger, owner of T.L. Metzger, expects the trend to continue, even if the overall market slumps. The reason? 'Pent-up demand,' she said."

"Still, developers kept proposing projects in 2007, the report shows. And the prices being charged were not low: In Saratoga Springs, for example, developers at the end of the year were asking an average price of $564,808. In Glens Falls, it was $386,809."

"Officials in most area cities, save Troy and Schenectady, approved new condo projects during the year. Officials in Cohoes led the way, approving a staggering 384 new condo units, the report says."

"By contrast, Albany approved 26 units, Saratoga Springs approved 58, and Glens Falls OK'd 15."

"To be sure, many of those approved units are far from built. Even many of the 514 units the report says are available for purchase are condos in buildings that have not been constructed, like The Capital Grand project north of downtown Albany, a $30 million proposal."

From MPN News in New York. "When it comes to the real estate market around here, the numbers are mixed: Single-family home sales in Ontario County dropped about 9 percent from 2005 to 2007, from 1,148 homes to 1,046, according to the New York State Association of Realtors."

"The Locke family sold their stately 2,800-square-foot Victorian on Thrall Street in Naples recently — about two years after it first went on the market. After they had no takers in the first six months, they took down the for-sale sign and regrouped."

"The Lockes lowered the asking price some and decided to give it another try about five months later. About nine months later, it sold, and the Lockes moved to a home about half the size in Penn Yan. They got a bit less than what they originally hoped."

"The Lockes suspect that their longer-than-expected sale offering was because their former home is so unique, and because of tough economic times."

"'About five, maybe even 10 years ago, I would actually have people stop as I was mowing my lawn and say, 'If you ever want to sell your house, we’d be interested in buying it,' said John. 'But when it came time to actually sell our house, we didn’t see that at all. The market had adjusted itself, but we didn’t necessarily know that.'"