The housing market is big news in Florida. "Attendees at a little-publicized workshop in Tallahassee received a harsh storm warning this week from the head of Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation. Insurance premiums are going nowhere but up for the foreseeable future, and there is nothing he or anybody else can do about it."

"'I don't want to disillusion you in any way,' he said, addressing the likelihood of achieving lower rates. 'But we're not returning anytime soon to a reversal in insurance premiums.' McCarty rendered a stark and candid picture of..his powerlessness to contain its costs. 'For a long time, seniors of fixed means came here when land was blissfully cheap,' he said."

"All panelists agreed, the proactive prevention of damage from hurricanes must ultimately become everyone's responsibility. As McCarty pointedly observed, the only other alternative is the California solution to the problem. 'In California,' he explained, 'insurance policies don't cover earthquakes.'"

"Some bankers are concerned the flush economic times might be ending. Grand Bank CEO J. Russell Greene said the loan market is slowing and his bank's commercial real estate lending is flat. 'We've been in a very good economy that I think is seeing its slowdown,' Greene said, adding that 'the test of the bankers is yet to come.'"

"'Loans are slowing down dramatically. Interest rates are rising,' he said. 'The cash flows of some of these companies on some of these projects are going to be strained.'"

"Despite a slowdown in sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums in Collier this season, housing starts surged in March, increasing 71 percent compared to the same month last year. As for sales of existing homes, the Florida Association of Realtors reported in late March that sales of existing single family homes in Collier were down 47 percent compared to last year's robust resale market."

And a Fed Govenor spoke today in Naples. "While some U.S. residential housing markets 'have a degree of froth,' investment activity in these regions is starting to slow, Federal Reserve Board Governor Susan Bies said on Monday. When asked by reporters after a speech to a community bankers' group which particular markets concerned regulators, Bies said: 'The markets where the relative growth in housing prices far outpaces the growth of basic employment and population.'"

"In her speech, Bies expressed concern about practices like 'condo flipping,' where condominiums under construction are bought and sold by speculators long before buildings are complete."