The Sun Herald has this update on some Florida housing markets. "As the 2006 high season ends, local builders, investors and real estate salespeople with unsold homes, are still counting on retiring Northern baby boomers to reenergize the local housing market. Some local Realtors say the market is simply shifting back down to its traditional level. Others insist it was as if someone had thrown up a concrete wall last October."

"A specialist in the sale of lots, Arthur W. Broslat reports that at the end of March there were 14,382 lots listed by the Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte and North Port MLS. Broslat adds that just 212 lot sales closed in March, 2006, while 1,204 lots were sold in Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte and North Port in March of last year."

"There currently are 1,085 active lot listings in South Gulf Cove and in the past week six contracts have been signed, after 'large price reductions,' Broslat notes."

"There also is a glut of new homes on the market, apparently holding back sales of older homes. 'There are roughly 1,100 new houses listed by the MLS today, compared to almost none at this time last year,' Broslat says. He also notes that the largest home builders, and even some of the smaller ones, do not list their unsold new homes on the MLS. So Broslat believes the number of new homes for sale is probably substantially higher."

"Broslat also reports that many of those new homes, often called 'speck' homes in the industry, are now being offered well below what it would cost to build the same dwelling today."

An editorial in the same paper. "It has become a buyers market. That means people who are buying are a little more cautious and will no longer just throw thousands of dollars at a $70,000 house priced at $150,000. There have been cases where the homeowner has called and harangued an agent, wondering why the agent has not sold a home. In some cases, the seller has bounced from agent to agent looking for the right person to sell his overpriced home."

"One broker at a nationally known real estate agency advises a homeowner to deal with a national real estate firm. The logic here is they are more established and have national recognition. I fail to see where that comes into play when you are dealing with an irate homeowner wanting to unload an overpriced home."

"For the agent: Don't paint an unrealistic picture, be honest in the pricing, follow your instincts if you sense a troublesome seller that maybe you should pass up, have a list of comparable prices and pictures of homes at different price levels to show the prospective home seller what he's up against. I'll add that now is the time for all real estate agents, either with a national organization or a local one, to work together for everyone's benefit."