A flurry of reports on Florida's housing bubble. " The number of home and condo sales declined steeply across South Florida in January compared with January 2005. The number of existing homes sold in January was the fewest in one month since February 1997 in Palm Beach County. In Broward, the January sales were the fewest in a month since the Realtors group started compiling housing data in 1994."

"Median prices also are flat or falling. In January, they dropped below $400,000 in Palm Beach County for the first time since July, indicating sellers no longer are getting huge windfalls."

"Yanet and Yasit Sanchez want to move into a bigger condo or a single-family home. Yanet wants to let the market cool even more. 'I want to wait a few more months for homeowners to really get desperate,' said Yanet. 'I feel like I'm going to get a better deal in the second half of the year. I feel that once a house sits on the market awhile, the owner will say, `OK. Let's work out a price.'"

"At a Thursday meeting of the Sarasota Association of Realtors, veteran broker Candy Swick held her own informal poll, asking the roughly 300 in attendance to raise their hands if they thought prices were still going up. No hands." "Then, raise your hands if you think prices are remaining the same. No hands. 'Then I asked them if they believed prices were adjusting downward. It would be accurate to say 99 percent of the hands went up,' Swick said. Welcome to the new reality of residential real estate in Southwest Florida, where a dearth of homes for sale has turned to glut."

"On the surface, the latest report from the Florida Association of Realtors would have you believe that prices in the Sarasota-Bradenton market appear to be hanging in there at a median of $353,500, a stellar 23 percent above a year ago. But there is a lag time built into that system, as Swick points out. 'I would say the price lag is at least a quarter to six months behind,' she said."

"In the Sarasota-Bradenton market, agents closed just 511 transactions in January, down 48 percent from 976 a year earlier, the FAR reported this week. 'Forty-eight percent, that is shocking,' said Jack McCabe. Almost half the market is gone. And the reason is the speculative investors have quit acquiring properties and have moved to disposition mode.'"

"Asked if a downturn would force banks to re-evaluate lending practices, spokespeople for companies like AmSouth, SunTrust and Wachovia issued statements along the lines of 'we've always been conservative and remain so.'"

"But below the surface bubbles a fear banks could lose their collective shirts on bum condo deals. Bank executives talk about driving past dark windows in newly opened towers that were supposedly sold out."

"Mainline banks shunning many condo projects usually spot red flags: Projects in which investors grab too many units. Projects that allow buyers to assign apartments to new owners before closing. Projects by inexperienced developers who have never tasted the downside of a market."

"Susan Brown, vice president of real estate finance, said a typical warning sign is 'when you start seeing end users buying three, four or five units' in one development." "Trump Tower Tampa began selling its proposed 192 condos about 13 months ago, but hasn't announced who will provide the estimated $200-million loan. Not one of five Tampa area banks surveyed for the story said it's financing Trump's project. Some worried the condos are too expensive. Others questioned the smallish 11/2-acre Hillsborough River lot expected to carry the 600-foot skyscraper."

"Despite the celebrity gleam of Trump's name, not all bankers drool at the thought of handing money to a brash-talking tycoon whohas had his fill of bankruptcies. 'There's some allure to having your name attached to that project. But for our own reasons, that's one that we passed on,' Owen LaFave said of Trump Tower, echoing other lenders. 'I don't know of any new projects we're looking at,' LaFave said."