Where the Deals Are

FOR more than a year, home buyers who have been looking in the suburbs of Manhattan have struggled to reconcile market rhetoric with metro-area reality. Technically, the overstocked and sluggish market gave them the upper hand. But when it came to actual negotiations, sellers were clinging tightly to the past, and many scoffed at price reductions of more than a few percentage points. Now, after a nearly nonexistent spring selling season and a summer marred by stock-market jitters, buyers and sellers are closer to a meeting of the minds.