The Boston Herald reports from Massachusetts. "Massachusetts median house prices have fallen below $300,000 for the first time since 2003, new figures show. Wellesley College economist Karl Case doesn’t think Massachusetts housing has bottomed out quite yet, 'but we may be closer to a bottom than most people think.' However, Case added that, if the U.S. economy enters a deep recession, 'all bets are off.'"

"Timothy Warren of the Warren Group, isn’t convinced that the market has bottomed out yet, either. 'Foreclosures, tight mortgage-lending standards, job losses and a recession are all going to exert downward pressure on (housing),' he said."

The Telegram from Massachusetts. "The median home price dropped 15.6 percent last month to $287,500 from $340,750 in September 2007, The Warren Group reported. Moreover, third-quarter sales dropped to the lowest pace since 1991."

"'I have seen a lot more activity. There are different segments of the market, but I am beginning to see the savvy sages out there,' said Jeffrey W. Hall, president-elect of the Worcester Regional Association of Realtors. 'They’ve been flipping properties for decades. I think they see that we are in the bottom of the skid. They are very knowledgeable people who stay on top of the market, and do it for a living.'"

"Ms. Leonelli said she has a three-decker rental property listed in Millville for $89,000. 'At that price you can’t lose,' she said."

"Andrea Moulton of Westboro has been looking at homes for a year and a half, and has watched the selling prices of properties she nearly purchased drop by thousands of dollars. 'I’ve seen a huge change in the market, and I’m glad I didn’t buy then,' she said. 'What I purchased would have lost value. I’m in no rush to get into anything. Some sellers are still overpricing.'"

South Coast Today from Massachusetts. "In September, the median price of a single-family home in Bristol County was $250,000, 18 percent lower than the same month last year. Plymouth County's median price declined by 14.6 percent to $287,000, and Barnstable County's median price dropped 20.7 percent to $345,000, according to The Warren Group."

"Bob Lima, broker in Dartmouth, said there has been a drop in the last three weeks in calls from potential buyers. Mr. Lima said the bad economic news this month is to blame. 'I think people are scared to do anything,' Mr. Lima said."

"A home-buying fair called Opportunity Knocks...took place at Normandin Middle School and was sponsored by MassHousing and the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. 'We're trying to promote safe home ownership,' said Goretti Joaquim, business development officer for the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency. 'There's an overabundance of homes on the market, so folks have plenty to choose from.'"

The Belmont Citizen Herald from Massachusetts. "U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that fewer prospective homebuyers will qualify for mortgages as a result of the financial meltdown, calling that trend a positive byproduct because 'tens of millions' of people are not suited to own homes."

"Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank said the market will likely encourage a large increase in affordable rental housing. Answering critics who said he was working to deny low-income people access to their own homes, Frank said, 'I'm not denying them the right to own a home, circumstances are.'"

"'We made a mistake as a society in promoting homeownership as a universal achievable goal,' he said."

The Herald from Connecticut. "Characterizing the current economic crisis as 'the worst since 1932,' Democrat Chris Dodd, senior senator from Connecticut, said he was committed to keeping families from 'falling through the social cracks. The job will be challenging but we can do this.'"

"The senator vowed to step up his efforts to slow down the rate of home foreclosures (according to HRA, now at 1,000 a month in Connecticut) and to crack down on predatory lenders. In answer to a question from The Herald about releasing his own home mortgage information, Dodd said, 'No one wants the bipartisan ethics committee to complete their work more than I do. That's what I'm waiting for. Let them complete their work first.'"

"Earlier in the year, Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking, housing and urban affairs committee, praised Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 'for riding to the rescue to help people get home mortgage loans.' He is also on record as saying they 'need to do more to help high-risk borrowers obtain more favorable loans.'"

The Stamford Advocate from Connecticut. "U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport, has turned to a different surrogate in his re-election fight against Democrat Jim Himes. The National Association of Realtors has pumped $804,371 into television advertisements and direct mail to support Shays, according to a Washington, D.C., organization that tracks the campaign money."

"Only one other candidate, U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., received more support from the nationwide association."

"Though Shays acknowledged reaching out to the group, the 21-year incumbent said he didn't expect it to deliver in such a big way. 'I'm grateful for their assistance. I'm surprised by it,' said Shays, a former real estate agent and former member of the association. 'I've sought their help because I'm pretty much in sync with their views.'"

"Many left-wing political blogs have raised questions about the influence of special interests such as the Realtors' group on Shays' campaign, pointing to his support of a controversial bill that would overturn a Federal Housing Administration ban on seller-financed down payments on mortgages."

"A spokeswoman for the Realtors' group, which has 1.2 million members nationally and about 16,300 members in Connecticut, said the association decided to back Shays before he signed onto the bill. 'It did not come into play in our decision,' said Mary Trupo of the Realtors' group."

"Shays' support of a measure that would that create a permanent firewall between the banking and real estate industries won him the backing, she said. 'Think of where we are right now. Imagine if banks were in the real estate market and they were holding properties. It would be catastrophic,"' Trupo said. 'It would offer unfair advantages to the banks.'"

The Connecticut Business News Journal. "According to the National Home Builders Association, the number of new-housing permits is a key indicator of future building activity - and in September, it has been down across the board. National numbers of housing starts have been released and the future looks - grim? Not so, says Liz Verna of Verna Properties in Wallingford, who chairs the Home Builders Association of Connecticut's government affairs committee. 'The 24-hour news media are bombarding people with negative messages about the real estate industry.'"

"Verna believes now is a better time than any other recent period to invest in residential real estate. 'At the end of the day, people need a place to live - and people who are afraid to invest in the stock market should invest in real estate,' she adds. 'It's the most lucrative investment, and it's tangible.'"

"'For other states like California, Florida or Nevada, things look bleak but we are still building in Connecticut, so it's hard to equate [what's going on in] Connecticut to what's happening nationally,' adds Liz Verna. 'It's different.'"

The New York Observer. "Harlem condo sales plunged a staggering 76 percent annually in the third quarter of 2008, from 237 closed deals last year to just 57 for the three months ending Sept. 30. The slowdown in buying activity is opening a window for an oversaturation in the Harlem condo market, as several upscale projects like 119th & Third and Graceline Court at 106 West 116th Street are scheduled to open in the coming months."

"The prospect of a drop in Harlem condo prices almost seems unimaginable to brokers and developers, especially considering that prices uptown are already substantially lower than in the rest of Manhattan. The median sales price for a new uptown condo was $560,000 in the third quarter, whereas the median price for a downtown one was $1,275,000, according to the Corcoran Group."

"Brokers and real estate professionals working around Harlem...they remain cautiously optimistic that the newer condos will draw buyers. 'I think Harlem will still gentrify, but I don’t think it will be at the same pace,' Vie Wilson, an uptown-based senior vice president at Corcoran said. 'It won’t stop, because we’ve gone too far to stop.'"

From Newsday in New York. "New York City has seen an explosion of suspected mortgage fraud reported by banks to law enforcement, according to government statistics. For 2006 and 2007, banks and other lenders nearly doubled the number of 'suspicious activity reports' they made of possible mortgage fraud involving borrowers in the five boroughs, the data showed."

"The increase...correlates with the way the housing market heated up in recent years, said FinCEN spokesman Stephen Hudak. 'The banks are more aware of the issue,' Hudak said. 'From what we have seen just the increased volume of transactions leads to the [increased] suspicious transactions . . . the more transaction are up, the more opportunity for suspicious transactions.'"

The New York Post. "John Devaney, who be came the poster-boy for hedge-fund blow-ups when his $600 million fund went belly-up earlier this year after a wrong-way bet on the direction of the asset-backed securities index, was heckled off the stage in Miami last week during the annual confab for the asset-backed securities industry."

"Devaney, who made no friends after his United Capital Markets' flame-out left investors with zero payout, began to speak during a Monday morning discussion at the conference but soon began a rant on why the markets were wrong and he was right. The crowd began to boo and the microphone was taken away from him, according to several spies in attendance."

From Bloomberg. "Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., the New Jersey homebuilder that has lost more than half its value in the past month, asked bondholders to reduce the principal on its debt in exchange for notes that pay a higher interest rate."

"'If you're a bondholder, it's a tough deal, but you might do it anyway,'' said Vicki Bryan, (a) high-yield debt analyst for New York-based Gimme Credit LLC. Three of the biggest lenders to homebuilders, Wachovia Corp., Washington Mutual Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., are gone, pinching the companies' access to capital, Bryan said."

"'If you're one of the weaker links like Hovnanian, you are trying to make sure you have access to credit going forward,' Bryan said. 'The bondholders are being sacrificed, not the stockholders.'''

'The largest stockholder is Kevork Hovnanian, who founded the company in 1959 and is the father of CEO Ara Hovnanian. He owned about 7.6 million shares, or 12 percent, on July 3, according to Bloomberg data."

"In the event of a Hovnanian bankruptcy, holders of the new notes would be third in line, behind banks and holders of 11.5 percent notes issued this year, to be repaid, a higher position than holders of the current notes, said Frank Lee, a homebuilder credit analyst in New York. 'That's why I call this coercive,' Lee said. 'You're asking bondholders to take a big haircut, and if they don't take the haircut they don't have any claim in a bankruptcy.'''

"Some of the bonds Hovnanian is offering to exchange are already trading for 40 cents on the dollar, Lee said."

From Forbes. "When housing was hot, everyone in the industry, from home builders to mortgage lenders, reaped the benefits. Paydays were rich, and more and more job seekers flooded the business for a piece of the pie. Those days are gone, and so are the fat paychecks."

"In a look at compensation over the past five years for 27 senior management job titles across 11 U.S. industries, mortgage-lending directors have had the hardest reality check. Their earnings were down 6.3% in the last five years to $101,400 in 2008. They are the only group in the survey to see a decline."

"This was expected even before the U.S. housing bubble burst in 2006, according to Ed Buchser, president of Pine Brook, N.J.-based Atlantic Home Loans. He says the run-up in house prices caused 'ridiculous increases in compensation.' He sees a return to the norm. 'People that jumped into the industry are finding that the industry doesn't support them anymore,' he says."

"Dane Sinn, manager of survey operations at Compdata, says healthy consumer spending over the last five years spurred demand for finance and marketing gigs. The competition grew fierce and paychecks swelled. 'In the coming year, it will be interesting to see how pay will be affected for these positions,' Sinn says. 'We have not yet experienced the full effects of the credit crisis.'"

"For all occupations, real estate and construction paid an average salary of $100,400 this year, while financial services jobs paid an average $98,700 a year. Says Sinn, 'There will most likely be decreased demand for these positions.'"