The Palm Beach Post has this report on that Florida real estate market. "The gavel slammed down almost as soon as the bidding had started. In minutes. As fast as the words could tumble out of the mouth of the auctioneer, whose voice buzzed like a bumblebee: Sold for $165,000."

"'We're in the basement, folks,' the auctioneer said. 'What a bargain.'"

"And that was just the beginning. About 200 people turned out Saturday for a reserve auction at a hotel near Stuart, where the Graham Auction Company took bids on 43 properties in two posh Ginn Co. developments: Tesoro Club and Tesoro Preserve."

"Promising 'prices we have not seen in years,' auction organizers said the sea of sellers looking to unload properties was anything but a poor reflection of the Tesoro communities."

"Rather, this is a case of novice investors who got caught up in a hot housing frenzy and now can't afford to carry their properties, auction organizers said. 'This is definitely a reflection of the type of real estate market we're in now,' said Ann Cusa, an agent of the Treasure Coast who worked the event. 'Things have just slowed down.'"

"But not every bid was accepted, even after the auctioneer's gavel slammed on the podium. Sellers reserved the right to decide whether to accept the bid. One property with a home, reportedly worth more than $1.5 million, was taken off the auction block when no registered bidders appeared willing to shell out $800,000, the seller's minimum."

"Not all those who attended the auction were looking to bid, anyway. Some were Tesoro property owners curious about how low the bidding would go. Most people seemed to agree the bids were even lower than expected."

From the News Press. "Homeowners, real estate agents and appraisers alike are finding it hard to tell as prices and the number of sales plummet in Southwest Florida's volatile real estate market. And if you figure you'll just ask for a wildly inflated price and negotiate down, forget it. With 12,000 homes listed for sale in Lee County, buyers aren't even bothering to look at houses that aren't already priced to sell."

"Determining what's a good deal can be a tricky thing these days, said W. Michael Maxwell, a Fort Myers-based appraiser; with a huge inventory of houses for sale, the usual way appraisers work has been turned on its head. Now, he said, 'We have to ferret through the listings' of properties that are still for sale to determine what the market will bear."

"'Most lenders aren't going to want to have sales that are too old' used as the basis of an appraisal, he said."

"Don Kelly, of the Chicago-based Appraisal Institute, said it's not clear whether the current market is exacerbating the problem. 'The pressure to deliver a predetermined value, most often higher, or ignore defects in the house, structural problems, the pressure to use one (comparable sale) outside the neighborhood, is unfortunately nothing new and appraisers across the country face it almost daily,' he said."

"There's legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives that would make it a crime for anyone involved in a transaction to pressure an appraiser, Kelly said. 'Since the beginning of time everybody's tried to influence or hope the appraisal will come down or up,' he said. 'The fundamentals of that have not changed at all.'"