The Boston Globe reports from Massachusetts. "Prices for Massachusetts single-family homes plunged nearly 11 percent last month, the biggest slide since the depths of the real estate downturn in the early 1990s. 'The Bay State's housing market is looking a lot like it did at the end of 1990,' said Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of the Warren Group."

"A separate report on the local housing market was also issued today by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. The reports showed mostly similar trends. The March median selling price of a detached single family home in Massachusetts was $315,000, a drop of 8.4 percent from March 2007, the association said."

"'Foreclosures are still running rampant and causing a glut of homes to hit the market,' Warren said. The last time house prices fell this much in Massachusetts was an 11 percent slide in December 1990, he said."

The Republican from Massachusetts. "There were two cars parked in front of 144-146 Prospect St. Friday morning; one of those cars sported a bright red banner that said 'AUCTION.'"

"About 90 seconds after the auction began without even the clap of a falling gavel...there was a single bidder at the sale. The mortgage holder, LaSalle Bank NA, purchased the three-family home for $101,250. 'They need to protect their interest,' said Ronald J. Marcella, an auctioneer from Dalton who represented LaSalle at the sale."

"Nearly 3,000 Massachusetts homeowners had their property foreclosed in the first quarter of 2008, according to a recent study."

"'The number of people losing their homes to foreclosures shows no sign of abating," said Timothy Warren Jr. 'The last time more than 1,000 foreclosure deeds were filed during one month was in August 2007 when 1,018 were filed.'"

"'We hope that represented something of a peak, but March's numbers have shown us that Massachusetts' foreclosure problems continue to worsen. With steady increases in petitions, I don't see this problem going away any time soon,' he said."

"Mary R. Pennicooke, of Springfield, said she got a foreclosure letter from her lender in February. Pennicooke said she bought a house in Springfield two years ago with $18,000 down. Since then, she's lost her job and the payments on her adjustable-rate mortgage have gone from $1,200 a month to $1,600. 'I wasn't earning $1,600 a month,' she said."

From Enterprise News in Massachusetts. "As foreclosures statewide hit a new peak in March, the city has partnered with the state and area lenders to provide discounted services to buyers of bank-owned property. The home-buying initiative, Buy Brockton, launched this week is the first of its kind in Massachusetts."

"It allows borrowers to buy homes in the city that are bank-owned, in foreclosure or being sold in a short sale without the customary 5 percent down payment."

"'The local housing market has been devastated by the foreclosure crisis affecting our nation,' Mayor James E. Harrington said in a press release."

"The number of foreclosure deeds filed in Massachusetts rose to a new peak in March when 1,167 foreclosures were recorded, according to The Warren Group. The figure — a 140 percent increase from March 2007 — represents the highest number of foreclosures recorded in the state since the firm began tracking foreclosure deeds in 2005."

The Boston Herald from Massachusetts. "With a growing number of Massachusetts homes falling into foreclosure, real estate agents say more and more ex-owners and tenants are vandalizing properties on their way out the door."

"Jack O’Leary has seen foreclosed homes where ex-owners put paint on the carpets, anti-bank graffiti on the walls or took everything but the kitchen sink - then stole that, too. 'I’ve gone into houses where the light fixtures are gone, the toilets are gone, the kitchen is gone. And when I say 'gone,' we’re talking stripped down to the bare walls,' said O’Leary, a Brockton real estate agent who specializes in foreclosed homes."

"Broker John Agostinelli just put a Watertown condo on the market where someone removed all doors, kitchen cabinets, appliances, gas fireplaces - even the light switches. 'This property has the most damage we have seen of approximately 30 properties we’re (currently) listing,' said Agostinelli, who’s selling the place 'as is,' knocking down the price some $90,000."

"O’Leary has reduced an Easton split-level ranch’s cost by about $200,000 because someone ripped out appliances, sinks, toilets and more. 'You drive up and say, 'Wow, what a nice house!' the broker said. 'Then you look inside and say: 'My God, what happened here?’ Short of taking the shell of the house, everything is gone.'"

"Agents say that while they can’t condone vandalism or theft, they sometimes understand the frustration - or desperation - that leads to such acts. 'Some of these homeowners were victimized (by scam mortgages) and have legitimate gripes,' O’Leary said."

"But the agent also recalls one case where a foreclosure 'victim' had two new SUVs, a 25-foot boat and a 45-foot motor home parked in the driveway."

"'That’s not victimization,' O’Leary said. 'That’s setting your priorities wrong.'"

The Indypendent from New York. "There was a time when Simeon Ferguson grew tomatoes and callaloo leaves in the garden behind his three-story brownstone in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the home he has owned since 1975."

"But his remaining years of rest and relaxation are facing a major obstacle — his home is at risk of foreclosure. In early 2006, Michael Bocelli, a mortgage broker with the Long Island-based Global Financial Inc., sold Ferguson a new $450,000 option adjustable rate mortgage that was fairly guaranteed to put his house in foreclosure, according to Ferguson’s attorney."

"Mr. Ferguson, a retiree on a fixed income, had no attorney or family members present during the closing, but was apparently quite happy with the deal. He later told his daughter Karlene that he had negotiated a new, more affordable fixed-rate mortgage. In fact the monthly payment of $1,480 on even the 'teaser' rate was greater than his entire monthly income of $1,100."

"On top of his $6,675 broker’s fee, Bocelli was paid an additional $14,420 by IndyMac, the California-based bank that gave Ferguson the loan. This fee was contingent on signing Ferguson up to a 'No Income No Asset Loan,' which carries a higher interest rate, according to documents."

"In its own paperwork, IndyMac explicitly instructs the broker that, 'The file must not contain any documents that reference income or assets.' In fact, Ferguson has only a few sources of easily documented income — social security and a pension."

"Depending on when you speak with Ferguson though, he may or may not remember the details. That’s because he has dementia, a condition he was diagnosed with in 2005."

"By the fall of 2007, one in four homeowners with subprime mortgages in the historically black neighborhoods of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant were in foreclosure, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."

"At age 93, Artee McKoy of Jamaica, Queens, a homeowner for almost 50 of those years, he is still confused about how somebody could take his home out from under him without his knowledge or consent and saddle it with a new $315,000 mortgage from Fremont Investment & Loan, until recently one of the country’s biggest subprime lenders."

"McKoy is also confused why the three-bedroom duplex is currently in foreclosure. Like Simeon Ferguson, he suffers from dementia, a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 2005."

"'It’s a huge warning sign when a 93-year-old man with no attorney present can take out a $300,000 mortgage,' says Professor Ann Goldweber, director of the Elder Law Clinic."

"'Some of the new products that were created in the last few years had a lot of moving parts,' says Evan Wagner of IndyMac. 'For people who got these loans that weren’t really intended for them, it’s kind of like taking a medication that isn’t intended for what it’s meant to do, and sometimes there are bad side effects.'"

The Poughkeepsie Journal from New York. "It is a scene that is played out often these days in the lobby of the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie. In a corner that has become known as the 'foreclosure alcove,' someone's home is being auctioned off."

"On a recent morning, a Pleasant Valley home that belonged to Vernon R. Tatem was sold at auction. A handful of people showed up; no sign of Tatem. Bids began around $130,000, but the lender insisted on at least $169,590. The winning bid, from some local investors, was $1 more than that."

"According to county records, the property was assessed in July 2006 at $310,400."

"'It's unfortunate, really,' said Sandra Nesheiwat, one of those investors. 'The problem now is prices of houses have gone down and the mortgages are well above what the houses are worth.'"

"Foreclosures jumped in 2006, ran high in 2007 and, so far, right into 2008. Bankruptcies, some aimed at staving off foreclosures, rose 41.4 percent in 2007 over 2006 in the region served by the Poughkeepsie Bankruptcy Court."

"In Dutchess, 3,569 subprime loans were made in 2006. Of them, 740 were late 30 days or more on payments and 276 in foreclosure. In Ulster, 302 were late, according to the report. Many of them are also adjustable-rate mortgages. Of those 2006 subprime loans whose rates will adjust by October 2009, likely with higher payments, 759 of them are in Dutchess and 267 are in Ulster."

"Brad Kendall, Dutchess County clerk, said his office's records of default notices, or lis pendens filings, has shot up. 'If you're looking at the number of the lis pendens over the years, it gives you a sense of how much trouble is out there. It's about doubled over the last few years,' Kendall said. Filings in 2007 hit 1,184."

"'It's going to continue upward. The real estate values in the Hudson Valley had been increasing … which had allowed people to refinance their homes to pay off their credit card debts. That cycle has come to an end,' said Thomas Genova, a bankruptcy attorney in Wappinger."

"The 'refi' move no longer works when equity, or the homeowner's share of a mortgaged home, is gone. Tapped by refinancing or home equity loans, what equity may be left disappears when the property value declines, Genova said.

"Another option is to walk away and give up the home. 'The biggest change in this practice over the last six months is people coming in and saying, 'I can't afford to keep this house anymore,' Genova said."

"'It's turned 180 degrees from, 'How do I keep this house?' to 'How long do I have to stay in this house before I have to leave?' Genova said."

The Journal News from New York. "For the past two years, the residential real estate market in the Lower Hudson Valley has resembled a stalemated chess game, in which buyers on one side and sellers on the other have refused to make a move."

"Those in the market to buy are waiting for prices to drop to a level that represents better value."

"Sellers, on the other hand, not keen on seeing some of the vast equity they've accrued in recent years suddenly slip away, are holding firm on prices. They include homeowners such as Soneka Samakai, the owner of a contemporary three-bedroom Colonial in Garnerville."

"Samakai is selling her 2,200-square-foot, two-story home because she recently married and will soon move south with her husband. Though Samakai understands the market has slowed considerably throughout the Lower Hudson Valley, she was reluctant to ask less than the $500,000 that the home first listed at, but has since lowered the price by $15,000, to $485,000."

"Equally vexing to Samakai is why buyers don't instantly fall in love with the home, which features several updates, much as she did when she purchased it in 1999. 'I just don't understand it,' she said."

"Until homeowners and homebuyers can reach some accord, lower sales numbers are likely to continue. During the first three months of the year, sales dropped by about a third in Westchester and Rockland counties and nearly 10 percent in Putnam."

"Meanwhile, prices held firm, with median prices for single-family homes in Westchester dropping by just 2 percent. In Putnam, the number is down 3.4 percent, while Rockland saw a drop of 5.2 percent."

"'One way of expressing what we have for this market is, neither party is motivated,' said Greg Rand, managing partner at Prudential Rand Realty, which has 20 offices in the Hudson Valley. 'A 2 percent decline in median sale price (in Westchester) is disappointing to me,' he said. 'I want to see a 5 or 6 percent decline.'"

"In Peekskill, Gary Henderson and Divette Jones face a short sale on their small North James Street home, which they bought in 1986."

"The three-bedroom, one-bath home was valued at about $300,000 at the height of the market in 2004, Henderson said. Needing to pay back taxes, the couple at that time sought to refinance their fixed-rate mortgage with Countrywide Financial."

"The adjustable-rate mortgage that Countrywide gave Henderson and Jones came with a promise that they could refinance within a year and convert the loan to a fixed rate, Henderson said. But before the year was out, Henderson and Jones saw their mortgage payment rise from $1,600 a month to about $3,500 a month, he said."

"That's more than they can afford, said Henderson, who earns about $31,000 a year. Between his paycheck and Jones' disability payments, the couple bring in about $3,000 a month."

"The couple, who have two children living at home, have turned to a real estate firm that works with distressed homeowners, which has listed the home for $245,000."