September 13, 1981

For the past three months William Stark, a 35-year-old accountant, has been experiencing what he considers to be something of a nightmare. Because he could not find a buyer for his ranch-style home in suburban Detroit, he did not have enough cash to purchase a home near his new job in Stamford. So he has been living in a motel room in Fairfield and visiting his family four days a month. He was afraid to leave the Detroit house empty or to rent it because he believed he would have a harder time selling in the end. So he commuted and finally sold the house last week for $43,600, or $22,000 below what the agents originally had suggested as an asking price. Potential buyers are finding the going equally tough. Cathy and Gary Olsen are among hundreds of young couples who have temporarily had to give up hope of buying a home.

POLITICIANS and voters searching for lessons from the primary elections across Connecticut last Tuesday might consider at least three: 1. Never underestimate the pulling power of an incumbent. 2. Don't overestimate the importance of an endorsement from a party organization. 3. Don't underestimate the ability of a black or minority candidate to mobilize a strong vote, especially in the larger cities long controlled by whites. Primary elections, especially to choose candidates for municipal offices, are usually decided on such things as local issues and personalities and the ability of candidates to get their supporters to the polls in what is normally a relatively light voter turnout.

IT started earlier this summer with a little red spot on the boy's cheek. No one thought anything of it - until weeks after he had left Fire Island for camp in New England. Then, suddenly, the 11-year-old fell ill with flu-like symptoms and had to be hospitalized for arthritic pains. Lyme disease had struck again. Named for the Connecticut shoreline community where it came to attention in 1975, the nonfatal skin, muscle and joint disease, which is believed to be spread by ticks, has since turned up on Long Island, elsewhere along the East Coast and in other spots across the nation. This summer's cases on Fire Island have been linked to ticks carried by a herd of deer on the island's Federal preserve, but the bloodsucking parasites are also said to be carried by mice and perhaps household pets.

Every Little Bit Helps In much the same way they treated his immediate predecessor, nervous financial markets have forced Ronald Reagan to reassess his budget proposals. However, it may not take much to placate investors. Allen Sinai of Data Resources says that if further cuts keep next year's deficit between $45 billion and $50 billion, they would have a calming effect on the credit markets. So too would an easing of the Federal Reserve's tough monetary policy, which in the past has always been relaxed in the face of slack economic conditions.

CHICAGO C OULD Sears, Roebuck & Company, that giant of American retail chains, finally be rising from a long deep sleep? For five years, Sears seemed to mark time. Its customers drifted off to livelier competitors, and profits sagged under the weight of an overloaded management staff. In recent months, however, traffic has been picking up in the 800 stores and the mail order rooms of the country's biggest retailer. Some of the old serenity has returned to the executive corridors of the Sears Tower, following a rash of company-sponsored early retirements that wiped out a whole layer of middle management and some senior officers as well. Profits are growing once again. And confident now that it has finally mended its traditional businesses, Sears is again moving into ventures that, management hopes, will get the company growing again. ''The elements of a turnaround seem to be in place,'' says Joseph Ellis, a Goldman, Sachs analyst. Sears' reprieve from bad times comes at a time when other large retail chains are under increasing stress. K mart, which grew phenomenally in the 1970's, and Montgomery Ward, owned by Mobil, have been struggling recently.