The Union Leader reports from New Hampshire. "As the number of foreclosures in New Hampshire continues to climb, housing advocates are seeing a disturbing trend: The mortgage crisis is spreading to prime borrowers. Just more than 6 percent of mortgages in New Hampshire are delinquent, according to the latest survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association. For the first time since 1992, that's comparable to the national rate. There were more than 18,000 mortgage loans in New Hampshire with payments past due as of the fourth quarter of last year. Of those, 10,710 were prime loans, 6,390 subprime loans."

"Robert Tourigny, executive director of NeighborWorks Greater Manchester, said his agency has seen an 'alarming' increase in calls from homeowners seeking help not because of adjustable-rate loans, but because loss of income is making it difficult to keep up with their payments."

"'Those, I think, are what's really troubling, because that's a sign of the tough economy,' Tourigny said. 'If you don't have the ability to pay, it doesn't matter what your interest rate is.'"

The Beverly Citizen from Massachusetts. "When the real estate market changes, so do real estate agents. That’s the logic with a recent course from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors designed to help Realtors with foreclosure sales, short sales and selling properties at auction or those banks own."

"Marilyn Jarvis is president of the North Shore Association of Realtors and she took the course. As a real estate agent for the past 25 years, 'I’ve worked through changing markets in the past,' Jarvis said."

"Many situations she has dealt with in the past year have 'positively been more stressful' than sales in 2003 and 2004, for example, when the market was supercharged."

"'Many times they realize the interest-rate adjustment is coming and realize between the mortgage and taxes they can’t afford it,' she said.'

"Increasingly, sellers are realizing they need to price their home based on the current market, something that was a little tougher when the market first began to soften. 'People are starting to realize it is irrelevant what they paid for the property or what they owe,' she said."

The Enterprise from Massachusetts. "Thomas Fitzgerald is happy with the new home he bought two years ago, but not about the vacant houses that surround it. 'My neighborhood is going to hell,' said Fitzgerald, who lives in the city’s north section."

"Recently, an elderly neighbor around the corner was shot and wounded. 'A week after the shooting, police took homeless people out of the house on the corner,' Fitzgerald said. 'Then, across the street, I saw kids kicking the door in and down the hill. Kids broke in and took all the plumbing out.'"

"All three houses were vacant amid the surge of foreclosures in the city. City officials estimate there are 700 vacant houses in Brockton, with some 400 of them left empty by foreclosures."

"The vacant houses lurk throughout the city. They include single- and multi-family dwellings. 'It’s everywhere, there’s no neighborhood that hasn’t experienced them,' said Carol DeLorey, a non-voting member of the Brockton Housing Partnership, a coalition of 13 local lending institutions established to address the foreclosure crisis. 'It’s progressively getting worse,' DeLorey said."

"The abandoned structures, often owned by out-of-city lenders, often attract vagrants, vandals and thieves. 'Scavengers are having a blast,' said Fire Chief Kenneth Galligan."

From WBUR.com in Massachusetts. "The latest home sales numbers show that the Massachusetts housing market is still declining. The state has lost 3,000 construction jobs over the past year. And many of those who still have work are getting less of it. WBUR's Business and Technology Reporter Curt Nickisch rides along with one asphalt and concrete contractor who's hitting the pavement...to find more jobs."

"Adrian Morgado is wearing a T-shirt that says Morgado Construction, the name of the small concrete and asphalt paving company he runs in New Bedford. He bought this truck four years ago when business was as blazing as its red paint job."

"ADRIAN MORGADO: 'It was amazing, there was all these condominiums being built. Non-stop. Every day, paving. Every morning, I knew my schedule.'"

"Dawn to dusk. Money was good. Morgado hired a crew ten strong, and there was more than enough work for them close to home. Today it's different. Now Morgado's heavy work boot rides the gas pedal, rumbling his truck down a Cape Cod highway on $4-a-gallon diesel. He has to drive much further now just to give estimates for paving jobs."

The Telegram in Massachusetts. "Worcester County saw a 34 percent drop in sales for March, from 530 in March 2007 to 350 last month, the data shows. Condominium sales in Worcester County were down 40 percent in March from the year before, and down 37 percent for the quarter, the Warren Group data shows."

"The state data marks the second-steepest price drop since The Warren Group began recording prices in 1987, according to CEO Timothy M. Warren Jr."

"'The Bay State’s housing market is looking a lot like it did at the end of 1990, when December prices fell 11 percent compared to the same month the year before,' Mr. Warren said in a statement. 'That was the low point of the ’90s housing crisis. Afterward, prices began to fall by smaller percentages and by 1993, they were level.'"

"'But that downturn was fueled by the banking failures in the 1980s, while this one has more to do with the staggering number of foreclosures facing Massachusetts homeowners,' he said."

The Boston Herald from Massachusetts. "'The market is in decline - and it’s accelerating downward,' said Warren of the Warren Group, which yesterday reported that median house-sale prices dropped to $304,000 in March. That’s down 10.6 percent from March 2007, trailing only an 11 percent drop between December 1989 and December 1990 as the worst 12-month pullback on record."

"Massachusetts Association of Realtors President Susan Renfrew said she can’t predict when real estate will bottom out. 'I think we’re still working through a market correction,' Renfrew said."

"But Warren, who previously predicted housing would hit bottom some time this year, now expects the tough times to continue into 2009. 'We may see things improve a year from now, but I don’t really think things are going to turn around this year,' he said."

The Boston Globe. "Home sellers in Massachusetts are slashing prices at double-digit rates to close deals, but there is no evidence the lower prices will end a housing slump now entering its third year."

"Some of Boston's more popular suburbs had dramatic price drops for single-family homes in the first quarter of 2008 - prices were down 19 percent in Acton, 23 percent in Westford, and 31 percent in Sudbury - compared with the same three-month period last year."

"'It's a self-reinforcing cycle where prices drop and people stay out of the market because prices drop, and that makes prices drop even more,' said Patrick Newport, an economist for a Waltham economic consulting firm. 'There's potential for prices to drop even more than they did in the 1990s.'"

"That housing slump lasted 3 1/2 years and, by the end, prices had fallen 10.2 percent from the market's previous top."

"Real estate agents said the only way sellers in many communities can attract buyers is by cutting their listing prices. But the sharp drop in the number of sales indicates these price cuts have been either too small, or too few, to close many deals."

"'The offers don't come together. A buyer and seller might stale mate over $10,000 or $15,000, and you go back to square one. We're seeing a lot of that,' said Michael Clancy, an agent in Weymouth."

"Condo developers are increasingly turning to auctions to unload units, both in Boston and the suburbs. Next month, 25 units at the upscale Concord Commons development will be auctioned, while the owners of the Residences at Peabody Crossing will auction 18 condos."

"The Peabody project's developer, Town & Country Homes of New England Inc., set minimum prices for various units in the $200,000 range. Some of the units that already sold at Peabody Crossing went for more than twice that, said Sue Hawkes, CEO of Velocity Marketing, which is handling the auction."

"The developer 'was hoping there'd be a good spring market like everybody else and realism set in,' Hawkes said. The company was 'more comfortable moving on and selling the property he has before there is further potential erosion' in prices, she said."

"Thomas Skahen's firm recently dropped the prices sharply for 36 condos in Holden. 'We're still not getting any activity,' he said."

From Bloomberg. "Home prices in the Hamptons, where rich and famous New Yorkers spend summers by the sea, fell in the first quarter as Wall Street job cuts and an economic slowdown took a toll on buyers."

"The median price declined 7.1 percent to $882,500 and the number of sales dipped 29 percent from the last three months of 2007, according to a survey by appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc."

"'If you don't price it properly you're going to sit,' said Prudential Douglas Elliman CEO Dottie Herman, who owns a second home in Southampton. 'Price matters in this market. You're dealing with more inventory so there are more choices for buyers. Sometimes people will look at houses and if it's not priced right it will help sell someone else's who is.'"

"The availability of mortgage financing drove down sales in the Hamptons, said Judi Desiderio, CEO of Town & Country Real Estate in East Hampton, New York."

"'Every market in the country is affected by that,' Desiderio said. 'Unless you have sterling credit and can put one- third down and own everything else you have and can prove it, they're going to give you a hard time.'"

The Pocono Record from Pennsylvania. "New housing permits are on a steep downward slide in Monroe County, and may have yet to hit bottom. 'I would certainly think we would be lower than last year, possibly by more than 50 percent. The downward trend was pretty clear,' said John Woodling, director of the Monroe County Planning Commission."

"Peter G. Gallagher, Pocono Builders Association president, cautioned against year-to-year comparisons. 'It's hard to compare to the last few years. We had banner years,' he said."

"Gallagher noted that the nation's attention on the sagging home market has changed the way consumers approach the buying process. 'We have seen somewhat of a shift in our business and of those I talk to in the association. People are looking for concessions — like free items. However, we all know that nothing is free,' he said."

"Jim Mathiesen, general manager of Target Homes in East Stroudsburg, said his company is finding new ways to compete in what he describes as a slower market."

"'We continue to sell homes, but not at the same rate as in 2005 and 2006. And the market is not as strong as it was last year,' he said. 'Builders have to work harder and offer more value for the customer to get them interested in the purchase. For example, we are offering free granite kitchen counter upgrades and to help with closing costs.'"

"But still, there's optimism in the market. According to Gallagher, 'It's a great time to buy. Mortgage rates are down, property prices are down, and if they wait to long, they may end up buying when it's going back up.'"

The Wall Street Journal. "As the growth in subprime mortgage delinquencies appears to be slowing, lenders are seeing a rapid rise in defaults on a type of mortgage that gives consumers with good credit several different monthly-payment options."

"These mortgages, which are sometimes known as 'pick-a-pay' or payment-option mortgages but are generically called option adjustable-rate mortgages, are turning out, in some cases, to be even more caustic than subprime loans, in part because the loan balance and the monthly payments on some loans is growing even as home prices are falling."

"On Tuesday, Countrywide Financial Corp. said that 9.4% of the option ARMs in its bank portfolio were at least 90 days past due, up from 5.7% at the end of December and 1% a year earlier. Countrywide also reported that it had charged off $125 million of these loans in the first quarter, compared with $35 million a quarter earlier."

"Some borrowers say they weren't suited for these loans or that the terms were poorly disclosed. Edward Marini, a 63-year-old disabled Vietnam veteran, took out a $280,000 option ARM from Countrywide Financial when he refinanced the mortgage on his 2,000-square-foot home in Little Egg Harbor, N.J., in 2005, pulling out cash to pay off some debts."

"'The way I understood it was that I would have a really low payment for five years,' says Mr. Marini."

"Mr. Marini recently received a note from Countrywide that his payment, now about $1,300 a month, would jump to about $3,800 next year, well above his $3,250 a month in disability payments. Mr. Marini, who owes more than his home is worth, says he was turned down by Countrywide for a refinance and, more recently, for a loan modification."

"'I didn't think they would even pull this kind of stuff on someone who is on a fixed income,' he says."