WBUR reports from Massachusetts. "More than 9,000 homes around Massachusetts have gone into foreclosure so far this year. That's 38% more than the same period a year ago, and according to Foreclosuresmass, the trend has spread to three quarters of the state's communities. 'Claudia Sierra's condo sits in a triple-decker along the waterfront in East Boston. WBUR's Bianca Vazquez Toness reports. 'Sierra bought the property in March of last year. She worked then as a real estate agent making more than $80,000 a year. That's until she got sick and couldn't work for six months, then the real estate market started slowing down.'"

"After missing a few payments, she did what lenders say you should do if you can't pay your mortgage: She contacted her mortgage company."

"Sierra: 'This is my home, I have no other where to go. So I told them, 'Tell me the income figure that I need to be at in order to qualify. What did you consider my fixed expenses to be? And I'll make the numbers work.'"

"Sierra made the numbers work by letting the bank repossess her car. She also sent her kids to live with relatives so they wouldn't be counted as an expense. That way Sierra could use her now much smaller paycheck to cover three monthly payments of $3,200."

"Virginia Pratt is a foreclosure counselor at a Boston nonprofit specializing in protecting home ownership. She says if a client is lucky enough to get a repayment plan, it's often unrealistic for the homeowner."

"Pratt: 'They take it and are struggling to make their payments at the expense of everything else. I have a family who has been without heat for like six months because they decided to stick to their repayment plan, but have not been able to pay their gas bill to keep their hot water on.'"

"And she says that's a problem since many of these loans were written based on wildly inflated incomes. Or, in Claudia Sierra's case, on an income that didn't last."

"Sierra: 'I was referred to an attorney and they advised me to file for bankruptcy. And I thought that's not how to deal with it. I mean, I owe this money to the bank. I'm going to work with them. And I'm just going to pay it. But sometimes I feel like, especially my daughter being away from me just so I could qualify for this, I just thought it was not even worth it.'"

"It appears Sierra's lender will foreclose. And despite a repayment plan, her home will be auctioned off on June 2."

The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. "Three times, Thomas and Tracy Barboza found a path out of foreclosure. Three times, their lender failed to help them."

"Unable to afford their mortgage, the Barbozas are trying to sell their home. They have received three offers since last summer. But because the offers - between $220,000 and $225,000 - are less than their $320,000 mortgage, their loan company, Countrywide Home Loans, would have to sign off on the deal and accept a loss."

"Countrywide has either rejected or ignored the offers and foreclosure seems imminent. 'It's like they want things to go sour,' Tracy Barboza said, sitting at the kitchen table of their home, stripped bare of other furniture after they moved into an apartment in anticipation of a sale."

"The longer troubled properties languish, the more they undermine other homeowners trying to sell into a market of mushrooming inventories. 'It's killing the market,' said the Barbozas' agent, Tina Golant."

"To move on with their lives, the Barbozas rented an apartment from a cousin. Yet they're latched to their property, maintaining and heating it for the second-floor tenant."

"Thomas Barboza is incredulous about their circumstance. 'I either get extremely angry, or I start laughing,' he said."

The Boston Herald from Massachusetts. "These are tougher times in the real estate market, even for the super-wealthy. The number of mansions sold in some of the state’s toniest towns - Weston, Wellesley and Brookline - has plunged more than 30 percent during the first four months of the year."

"And sellers of luxury homes are having to bargain in order to cut a deal. Just take the 20,000-square-foot, 20-room and nine-fireplace palace constructed by Dr. John Meola, a wealthy dentist. At one point, he hoped to get $18 million."

"After years on the market, the Weston mansion is finally under agreement with the listing price at a mere $10.9 million."

"'At its asking price, you couldn’t replace this house,' said one real estate executive familiar with the deal. 'It’s a bargain.'"

"One key to the slower times on mansion row is the recent financial market turmoil. With the collapse of hedge funds and roller-coaster stock prices, even those at the top of the economic pyramid are feeling the pain. 'I would say that end of the market is no longer escalating the way it once did in terms of price escalation,' said Peter Casey, former president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors."

Hartford Business from Connecticut. "Home building permits in Connecticut dipped 15 percent in the first quarter. Bill Ferrigno, president of the Home Builders Association of Connecticut, said the state is poised to recover quicker because it avoided the traps the robust market set."

"'It’s not a huge bubble that burst,' Ferrigno said. 'The builders in Connecticut, in a nutshell, saw what was going on and adjusted accordingly.'"

"'The permits have slowed, but that’s because a number of builders have already been approved for projects,' said Eric Person, executive officer for the Home Builders Association of Hartford County. 'People were watching the news and got a little nervous. It’s really more of a regional thing because the eastern part of the country, for the most part, avoided that huge run-up on real estate.'"

"'There are signs out there, especially that we have a lot of traffic at open houses,' Ferrigno said. 'The buyers are out there. They’re just waiting.'"

"As the remnants of failed mortgages begin to pile up, companies are looking for opportunities beneath the wreckage. That is evident by the Real Estate Investment Road Show scheduled for May 17 — a bus tour of several foreclosed properties in New Britain."

"In March, Connecticut had 2,126 properties with foreclosure filings, according to RealtyTrac. That figure was up 40 percent from March 2007."

"'There are a lot of ramifications from foreclosures, and if too many properties remain out there, it hurts the market and lowers prices,' said Gary Kulik, VP of marketing for McCue Mortgage. 'The hope is to get more people informed and get these properties sold as soon as possible.'"

The New York Post. "Homeowners in the some of the toniest ZIP codes in the Hamptons are facing a frightening reality - they can't afford to foot the bill for their high-priced homes, The Post has learned."

"In the first three months of this year, banks have launched preliminary foreclosure actions - known as lis pendens proceedings - against a record 120 borrowers in East Hampton and Southampton towns."

"Corcoran broker Susan Breitenbach said young Wall Streeters who gobbled up trophy properties in recent years are starting to suffer. She recalled getting calls from Bear Stearns employees desperate to unload their East End homes after the company's recent implosion."

"'These are people who are used to success,' Brady said. 'There is a level of denial and embarrassment when I have to call [people] to ask about mortgage problems.'"

Newsday from New York. "Long Island Foreclosure Tours was launched after Sheri Cambareri, an agent in Mineola, noted to her boss last month that the traditional way of house selling and buying is so inefficient. The agent takes one client to look at one house and if there’s no sale -- often the case in this slower market -- one takes in no money."

"The two helped set up Foreclosure Tours International, which will start trips in New York City next month and has a north New Jersey one in the works."

"The tour, originally $50 per person, has been reduced to $25 for the final seats."

The Press & Sun Bulletin from New York. "Foreclosure activity affected more than double the number of Broome County properties from the second quarter of 2007 to the subsequent quarter and kept rising, according to RealtyTrac."

"In the second quarter of 2007, there were 24 home foreclosure filings in Broome County. By the third quarter of 2007, that number had jumped to 50. In the first quarter of this year, 74 properties were in foreclosure."

"Randy Templeman, regional VP of the New York State Association of Realtors cited one reason for the increase: homeowners who think their properties in the trichloroethylene, or TCE, plume area of Endicott have less value. He said in many cases, their attitude is, 'Why make payments if you can't sell?'"

"Entry-level homebuyers sometimes use various loans and other credit to buy the home and make repairs and upgrades, which can lead to a significant debt load, broker Jim Trevitt said."

"'Typically, you have first-time buyers with low-equity positions, and as a result they don't have as much room to play with,' he said. 'They're not as established financially in many cases. ... There's no safety net.'"

"'This may be a long-term effect related to national, financial trends. We're not immune to what's going on around us,' Trevitt said. 'We traditionally appreciated 5 or 6 percent a year without exception. But nevertheless, we did have lenders who were making loans on very liberal terms and buyers who maybe overextended themselves in anticipation that the market would keep on rising, even at a modest rate.'"

"Homeowners lack understanding about the housing market, he said. When put in a position where they can't make mortgage payments, they give up."

"In some cases, 'people don't want other people to take advantage of their misfortune,' Templeman said. 'If someone is losing their house, rather than let someone else get a good deal, they'd rather be foreclosed on. They'll even go so far as damaging or destroying the house to reduce its value.'"

"He said he's been in foreclosed homes where the homeowner has punched holes in the walls, taken cabinets or appliances, or urinated or defecated on the floors."

"'Most people are in denial that they will get their job back, they will get their spouse back, they will get their health back,' Templeman said. 'We know that because the lender sends many notices to the borrower in default. ... We end up in the houses and find the letters unopened.'"

"Templeman said the easiest way to avoid foreclosure is for the homeowner to sell the house. Most homeowners facing foreclosure opt not to sell the house, he said."

"'When I check foreclosures that are coming on the market, I check to see if they were on the market previously,' he said. 'Over 90 percent of the houses that are foreclosed on, the owners never attempted to sell the house prior to foreclosure.'"

"'We have more homes available on the market than we do buyers,' Trevitt said. 'As a result, sellers need to get more realistic and more aggressive with their pricing.'"

"Last year, the average absorption rate -- how long it takes to sell the house inventory -- was six months, he said. Now, it's between 10 and 10 1/2 months. 'We may be looking at a buyer's market,' Trevitt said."

The Brick Times from New Jersey. "The face of realty is changing overnight. Sales volumes and housing prices have fallen, new developments are few and buyers have become more focused. 'It's absolutely tougher to make a sale, there's so much inventory,' said Carole Kuiken, a 25-year veteran of the business."

"Kuiken said the number of sales is down and the average price of a home sale generally is down, but she blames the media for a false sense that the industry has collapsed. 'We tend to run in 15-year business cycles and we're on level ground now,' she said."

"'The speculators and the 'flippers' are long gone,' said Donna Walesiewicz, an agent in Toms River. 'Banks with a number of properties on their books don't want to be in the real estate business, so they're willing to make a deal. People make the market and this is a great time to be a buyer.'"

"Lori F. Peterson of Ann Schuld Realty in Bayville senses a pick up in interest with warmer weather, more realistic pricing and the sense that an election year brings a change in attitude."

"'Things were pretty slow at the beginning of the year,' Peterson said. 'Waterfront properties are a different animal, of course, but sellers have become more realistic. Otherwise, they might be sitting on a house for months.'"

"Walesiewicz agreed. She said Beachwood is a typical case with 73 properties listed for sale, but 14 have gone to contract and 17 have been sold this year."

"'It becomes an epidemic,' she said. 'One sign goes on a lawn and three or four get 'sell fever' in the same neighborhood. Some already sold high and bought higher and now need a bigger home. But everyone gets nervous that they're missing out. It is what it is.'"

"Demicco said throughout Ocean County, there are housing clusters that underscored the 'flippers' market' gone bust. In Manahawkin, she said, you can get a three bedroom house never lived in before for $350,000, but there's a catch."

"People are resistant because they want their home to be built to their wants and needs. These houses were built on speculation and some builders learned the hard way not to anticipate the buyers' desires,' Demicco said."

"'This is typically the busy season,' said Sonny Yannon of Beachcomber Realty in Brick. 'The number of housing starts would seem to indicate we're in recession, but nobody wants to declare where we're going.'"

"He said this time last year business was brisk but it died off during the winter months. A lot of inventory has gone unsold even when sellers have reduced the asking price."

"Yannon agreed that sellers are becoming more realistic now, and prices are settling where they were before the buying frenzy of the past few years."

"'Sometimes, you think, 'Hey, my neighbor got such-and-such for his house, why can't I get my price' but it doesn't work that way,' Yannon said. 'The lower price increases the possibility of selling right away, so you have to be realistic.'"