The Orlando Sentinel reports on some Florida speculators. "A year ago, if Shani Parkin delivered an eager buyer to a vacation-home builder in the red-hot Four Corners area, the Kissimmee real-estate consultant had little to show for her effort. Builders then had plenty of their own buyers, thank you very much."

"Today, they call. They send cards. They want her help unloading their new homes. The houses, popular with British vacationers, are getting harder to sell as the properties soar in price, grow in number, and more overseas investors cash in their equity, experts in the business say. Rentals of the homes also are down."

"'The bubble hasn't burst, but let's say it's leaking,' said Parkin, vice president of a business that specializes in helping overseas investors, particularly those from the United Kingdom, relocate to the United States."

"Sales, though, have plummeted in recent months in Polk County. Polk has 4,127 such homes owned by people from the United Kingdom."

"Sales of such homes in Polk dropped more than 35 percent from September to October 2005, remained steady for another month before sinking again more than 48 percent from November to December. Sales were 46 percent less in December 2005 than December 2004. Distribution of sales-tax money from the short-term rentals in Polk is down more than 13 percent comparing January with the same month a year ago."

"One Brit homeowner in Osceola, where about 4,000 people from the U.K. own vacation homes, says it's about money. Simply put, prices are sky-high. Paul Pilsworth, 50, has watched his Kissimmee vacation house leap in value about $90,000 in one year. 'They have gone up astronomically,' said Pilsworth, a British electrical engineer vacationing for seven weeks in the house he co-owns with three partners. 'That's probably what's putting people off.'"

"The same phenomenon happened in England, where the British watched their home values soar and a pound-to-dollar exchange rate tip wildly in their favor." "Anthony Wressel, who co-owns the house with Pilsworth, said he has considered selling, knowing he could get enough to comfortably retire to Spain, another popular locale for Brits. 'Every time we come we are amazed how quickly they build,' he said. 'You reach a saturation point.'"

"Parkin agrees that a glut of vacation homes going up in the past two years along U.S. Highway 27 has affected the market. Thousands have gone up in the Four Corners area where Polk, Lake, Orange and Osceola meet, with more coming."

"Ninety percent of the 294-unit first phase and most of the 678-unit second phase of the sprawling Sonesta Orlando Resort at Tierra del Sol along U.S. 27 is sold, for instance, mostly to international buyers."

"'I know some people say the market is slow, but at least for the next two or three years we feel the market will keep going,' said Vega, who is a realtor and recently bought his own vacation home in Four Corners, which he plans to rent out.'"

"Many of his buyers, mostly from Puerto Rico and New York, plan to hold onto the homes for two or three years and then flip them for a profit."