The housing bubble is changing in Florida. "Like many red-hot real-estate markets in Florida, the Palm Beach market may have started to cool. The number of properties on the market spiked in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to Robert N. Goldstein, chairman of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, who said he believes many sellers are second homeowners who have watched the value of their properties creep up and now figure they can sell and and use the profits to rent a hotel room for many years. People 'think they're going to cash out and reap huge gains,' he said."

"Experts say discounts and deals show housing market is starting to cool. If you've tried to buy a home in the past month and noticed more incentives than usual, you're not alone. Several developers in Central Florida are offering discounts ranging from free homeowner association fees, no closing costs and gift cards for free furniture and appliances."

"Real estate experts say this is a sign that the hot housing market it's finally starting to cool off."

"The Bard family shopped the Orlando home market for months while awaiting the sale of their house in Ohio, but the deal they recently got was too good to pass up. 'I was bowled over,' Brigitte Bard said."

"The condo comes with two years of prepaid fees, cable TV and Internet access, worth $297 a month, plus appliances and $6,500 toward closing costs. Oh, and there is a $5,000 gift certificate for furniture at Rooms To Go. Builders in Central Florida are offering discounts, upgrades and everything except free toasters to would-be home buyers, a sure sign of a cooling market for new and existing houses."

"One Lennar Corp. ad touted last week in a Valentine's Day reference to its Orlando-area homes. That promotion offered up to $50,000 'to use as you choose' by applying it to a premium homesite, a buy-down on the interest rate, closing costs or the home price itself." "Other recent promotions by major home builders in Central Florida offer prepaid homeowner-association fees, stainless-steel appliances, granite countertops and designer lighting. 'They are trying to goose demand,' said Bill Mack. 'It's not just Orlando. It's going on in other markets as well.'"

"Budge Huskey said he views the recent increase in home-buying 'incentives as a 'return to a sense of normalcy' in markets such as Orlando. 'I don't think there's an oversupply of new homes,' he said, 'except perhaps condominiums in some sections.'"

"Still, home builders are reaching deeper into their bag of tricks to find 'new pools of buyers,' he said. That includes paying higher commissions and even bonuses to real-estate agents to bring customers to their subdivisions. 'That had all but disappeared,' Huskey said."

"Higher-priced homes are getting tougher to sell. 'Builders are calling us,' said Roger Soderstrom, owner Sotheby's International Realty in Orlando. There are at least 500 new homes in the Orlando area priced at $500,000 and above, he said, and another 2,000 resales in that price range. 'We can't rely on the buyer next door to buy those homes,' he said."

"Other signs that builders are facing more challenges are increasing. Los Angeles-based KB Home, for example, one of the top five builders in the Orlando market, said in its annual report, filed last week, that it has seen an increase in home-order cancellations nationally in recent months."