Some updates on the housing bubble in Florida. "With lawmakers ready to negotiate an already-flush budget, economists said Wednesday the state will bring in nearly $1 billion more in taxes. Senate President Tom Lee..said lawmakers should put at least part of the money in the state's reserves. The economists said they expect smaller increases in tax revenues in the future, at least in part, because the housing market is slowing down."

"'We need to prepare for the cooling down of the economy that is expected in the next few years,' Lee said."

"Ron Rennick's firm has been hired by Vero Beach-based Glo Investments to auction 65 acres at the Equus subdivision. A developer decided to sell them off at once after finding that sales were slow. Each lot had a previous listing price of about $599,000 but the slowdown in housing sales has affected Equus. There is no minimum bid at this event."

"Brad Hunter, who follows housing trends on the Treasure Coast and South Florida for Metrostudy, said developers find it easier to unload parcels through a quick auction. 'I've heard of more and more people doing this as a result of the slowdown in the market over the last six months,' Hunter said. 'I suspect that we'll see more of these types of auctions.'"

The Herald Tribune looks at speculation. "A national study of housing sales during 2005 confirmed what many had suspected, that speculation has been rampant in the booming real estate market. Single-family home ownership records in Florida shows the same pattern, with far fewer recent new owners taking advantage of tax breaks reserved for resident homeowners, implying that they are investment properties."

"For example, in Charlotte County, 53 percent of homes bought in 2004 did not carry the state's homestead exemption. In Sarasota County, the figures was 44 percent; in Manatee County, 39 percent."

"Don't wait for financial players this year, cautions (realtor) Chad Roffers of Sarasota. 'Speculators are completely out of the market,' Roffers said. 'If I had to guess I'd say 50 percent of our market comes from second-home buyers,' he said."

"Others might view that 40 percent figure with more trepidation. It raises questions about the potential sweep of problems should some home buyers be unable to afford to carry their new real estate acquisitions: What happens with the many investors who tapped so-called hybrid mortgages? If second-home buyers do go 'upside down', is there a risk that they would quickly ditch their second home to cut costs and potentially create a flood of housing stock, particularly in second-home-rich Florida?"

"Although there has been a 'sharp increase in second-home sales recently.. whether they'll be able to keep doing so is the issue,' Northern Trust economist Paul Kasriel said. If they have taken equity out of their first homes 'and equity growth slows or even falls, it might inhibit their second home buying abilities,' Kasriel added."