The Worchester Business Journal reports from Massachusetts. "The Falls at Arden Mills, a gated condominium development in Fitchburg, is eventually supposed to have 204 units. So far, though, only one building of the project, with 48 units, is standing, and only 11 of the condos are occupied. 'It's slowed down quite a bit, no secrets there,' said Steve Callahan, president of Global Property Developers Corp. of Bridgewater, which is developing the project."

"Indeed, Massachusetts condo sales were down 32.6 percent for the first quarter of 2008, according to The Warren Group. With lots of condos in Central Massachusetts sitting empty and more set to be built, Callahan and other developers say there are real costs to the slow market."

"For some, there's not much of a silver lining in the current condo market. University Park Lofts in Worcester has received plenty of publicity for selling only eight of its 37 units before going bankrupt. The remaining 29 condos are scheduled to be auctioned off on May 29."

"Last December, Mark Biller, operations manager at Lifestyle Builders LLC in Holden, gave up on a planned 131-unit condo project in Fitchburg after a fight with the city over improvements to water lines in the area. He said he had already worked on the project for three years at that point, but today he wonders if it wasn't a good thing that he got out when he did."

"Biller also...handles three other condo developments in the area, and he said nothing is selling. At the Village at Westminster Place in Holden, he said, Milford-based Fafard Development planned for 125 units, but in the past three years it's built only 16."

"'Unfortunately the market's not there,' Biller said. 'I don't foresee myself building anywhere.'"

The Morning Call from Pennsylvania. "For nearly a decade, tax-weary people from New Jersey and New York poured into the Lehigh Valley in search of a bigger home on a bigger lot, and developers couldn't build so-called McMansions fast enough to meet demand."

"But as a credit crisis sweeps the nation, forcing a record number of homeowners into foreclosure, home building, especially construction of large homes, in the Lehigh Valley has slowed to a crawl."

"A housing downturn that has made credit more difficult to get, combined with rising energy costs, is pushing the market away from the McMansions built in the Valley the past decade, and toward a more affordable version of the American Dream."

"'We're not looking to eliminate big homes, we just think there should be a balance,' said Planning Commission Executive Director Michael Kaiser. 'Most of what we see now is a 3,000-square-foot home with giant rooms and a cathedral ceiling. The typical firefighter, policeman or medical workers can't afford it.'"

"Last year, the average size of a Valley home declined for the first time since 2001, as the number of new McMansion-style homes fell from a peak of 2,401 in 2005 to 1,088."

"Bethlehem Township developer Abraham Atiyeh announced two weeks ago that he's building a downtown Bethlehem development of town homes starting at $129,000, and national builder Pulte Homes has halted its large-home building in the area and last winter began marketing a new home, called 'The Lehigh,' with 1,050 square feet and starting price of $139,000."

"Urban development expert Christopher Leinberger said one of the main reasons people flooded into the Valley to build giant homes is now gone -- and it has little to do with the credit collapse."

"'That model where people took on a long commute to have a bigger house was predicated on cheap energy, but with $4-a-gallon gas, that market is shut down,' Leinberger said. 'This is the perfect time to reshape your efforts in the housing market.'"

"Consider what happened earlier in the decade: Valley population grew by more than 8 percent, largely spurred by the migration of people who work in the New York, New Jersey or Philadelphia areas. So developers, both local and national, began building the kind of giant homes the transplants demanded -- the model not-so-affectionately nicknamed the McMansion."

"The so-called 'New Jersey invasion' drove up home prices across the region. At the same time, the demand for those massive homes had developers gobbling up farmland, chewing up more than 4 square miles of open space each year Valleywide."

"'McMansion' is a subjective term with no set definition. Avi Hornstein, part owner of one of the area's largest builders, Allentown's Omega Homes, said the term McMansion is more about a cultural trend than a particular size.

"'The McMansion is an 'I can have one, too' product,' Hornstein said. 'It's a production-line version of the mansion. Without the custom touches, it puts a lot of space at a price point that's within reach of people of middle and upper-middle income.'"

"The average home built this decade in the Lehigh Valley is the McMansion. Of the 16,202 detached homes built since 2000, nearly 40 percent have square footage of more than 2,450."

"'Don't blame us, we're just building what the current zoning laws allow,' said Chuck Hamilton, executive officer of the Lehigh Valley Builders Association. 'If a township requires 1-acre lots, no one wants to put a small house on that. If these planners allow smaller lots, we'll be happy to build smaller homes, if people want them.'"

"'In the past 30 years, zoning that was designed to limit development ended up creating the McMansion market,' Hornstein said. 'You can't build a small home on a 1- or 2-acre lot. The costs just don't add up.'"

The Herald Mail from Maryland. "Geographically, the large duplexes going up behind Hagerstown's old Pangborn Boulevard neighborhood are on a hillside. Economically, some of their owners are on a cliff."

"The houses they moved into just a year or two ago are now worth as much as 24 percent less than they paid. 'We don't know what to do,' said Armita Varjavand. Their savings gone, a loan from her mother is the only way they can pay the rising mortgage that the lender refuses to refinance as the property loses value."

"Michael Davis, who lives a few doors away, is applying for refinancing because his mortgage is set to readjust this fall. 'Yeah, but I know a lot of these people have tried,' he said, gesturing up and down the street. 'That's why they have the 'For Sale' signs out.'"

"Such predicaments are typical among the more than 1,000 families who bought the houses that popped up quickly in Washington County during the market's recent boom, an official said."

"'For a lot of these people who purchased with an adjustable rate, they now have a house of less value, they're looking to refinance and they now have less equity,' said Sharon Disque, executive director of a nonprofit organization whose work includes counseling families facing foreclosure."

"Worse yet, Disque said, 'a lot of the people that bought in '04, '05, '06 and '07 are from areas east of here,' and they still commute to jobs there."

"So when gasoline prices began to spike, 'we had a convergence of a housing boom that went bust, and then, it was compounded by a sustained rise in gas prices,' she said."

"Kensington Villas is a 100-lot development on a long, skinny, 20-acre tract bought for $5 million in late 2004 by national home builder K. Hovnanian Homes. Since 2005, K. Hovnanian has been building large two-story duplexes."

"Ten families moved in in 2005, 30 more in 2006 and 24 more in 2007, records show. Robert and Sharon Lopez were among the first. Lopez said he and his wife were living in 'the 'burbs of Washington' when they decided to move here in 2005."

"They read a study showing 'that Hagerstown had the right growth potential, property values were going up,' recalled Lopez, who began investing in real estate at least eight years ago."

"In October 2005, they paid $324,650 for the 2,731-square-foot house at 215 Brynwood St. Looking back, Lopez said he can see now it was very much the wrong time for them to buy - as prices were soaring to their peak and just before they began to drop."

"'Of the investment properties we have,' he said, 'this is probably the worst. We put 20 percent down, and it's (the loss of value) probably eaten up most of that 20 percent.'"

"According to a Herald-Mail examination of new property tax assessments in the Kensington development, Lopez's house has lost 19.9 percent of its value already. The house's worth sunk to just $259,780 in January, when the latest assessments were issued by the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation."

"Fifty-six of the 64 Kensington houses assessed by January were actually worth less than what the owners paid. The combined value of all 64 properties has fallen 11.3 percent. The homeowners paid a total of $18.4 million but, by January, the properties were worth just $16.3 million."

"Sitting in his Kensington house, Robert Lopez said he has seen the up-down of the economy firsthand. 'We bought the first unit here and the (sales) girl told me, 'Almost every time we sell, we raise the price,' Lopez recalled. 'But they started trickling down, trickling down. And here we are today. And, who knows where we go from here?'"

"Several houses up the block is the four-bedroom home of Malick and Brenda Thiam. The Thiams wanted something larger than the town house they had in Montgomery County, Md. Washington County offered 'more home for less money,' Brenda said."

"They were happy in November 2006 when they paid $343,283 for the house here. Then came January 2008 and the assessment notice, saying the house is now worth $257,930 - a 24.8 percent drop in just less than a year."

"Brenda and her husband were incredulous and outraged. 'We wanted so badly to blame someone for the situation we're in, but no one put a gun to our head,' she said."

"So now, they are resolved to work through the situation, pay down the debt and eventually, perhaps, sell and move elsewhere. But some of their neighbors are worse off. Lenders have foreclosed on at least two houses - including 254 Brynwood St., which is next door."

"One homeowner still hoping not to have to sell is Varjavand. She and her husband bought their four-bedroom house for $306,413 early in 2006, according to assessment records. Now, the assessed value is $238,450 - 22 percent less."

"Varjavand said their first real sign of trouble came when the interest rate on their mortgage rose from 8.5 percent to 11.5 percent, which is more than they can afford."

"When their lender refused to lower the payments, the couple used their savings. Now that that is gone, she said, they're borrowing from her mother. They don't know where they can turn next."

"To cope, 'we try to use less water and electricity,' she said. And, 'less driving.'"