Some housing bubble updates on Florida. From the Palm Beach Post, "Amid the month's first cluster of mortgage defaults and property liens are four Tiara condos lost to post-hurricane rehab bills. The condo association charged 320 unit owners $48,000 to $72,000 each to begin reconstruction. But the towers remain unlivable almost two years after the storms, and some residents have not been able to keep up mortgage payments, the cost of temporary housing and repair bills."

"In fact, some who moved in back in 2001 paid only a little more for their unit than the higher-end repair bills they are being assessed. The units may not even be worth that much now. Property tax bills for 2005 were largely based not on the condo structure, but on the value of the sand beneath it."

From Realty Times in Naples. "As the height of the season begins to come to a close, I am seeing housing prices lower and savvy buyers trying to pick up property at low levels. Not many transaction are getting done as greedy and unrealistic Buyers and Sellers are looking for 'their' prices. I am still seeing numerous price reductions throughout town, but not many properties are actually being sold."

"A price retracement of 20% to 30% is currently happening. There is a tremendous amount of supply on the market (Over 9,300 properties as of 5/7/2006), especially the further east you go off the beach. Sales in March declined 64% from the previous year and it will take some time to get through the large amount of supply we have on the market before another leg up in prices occurs."

"Demand for property declined as 665 properties were sold in April versus 1,502 the previous year, a decrease of 55.7%. Sellers are slowly realizing they cannot get last year's prices for their homes and prices are decreasing. In Naples, I have seen numerous price reductions over the last two months; the low end of the market ($200,000 to $500,000) is weak as too many investors flooded into the market over the past 3 years."

The New York Times. "Until the summer, investors were crawling over each other trying to get their hands on Southwest Florida homes. Now that lemminglike rush seems to be operating in reverse. Listings are stacking up, prices are going flat and words that haven't been heard much in some time are being spoken: 'non-performing loans' and 'foreclosures.'"

"Southwest Florida Realtors are faced with four times as many listed homes and three times as many condos as in July, when the market began falling apart after a brilliant longterm run-up. The empty dwellings worry Realtor Steven DuToit. He says that as some of those sellers cave in to the pressure of two mortgages and other carrying costs, their departure will drive prices down further."

"'This whole market has been driven by investors,' said DuToit."

"For the last two years, Fishkind & Associates, an Orlando-based economic consulting firm, has been advising clients that the Florida residential real estate was approaching a market top that needed to be heeded."

"Now we are past the peak and in the downside of the cycle, and all the things we said would happen are happening,' said Fishkind economist Stan Geberer. 'That includes a reduction in prices, a drying up of investor activity, nonperforming loans, condominium projects that will not be built, and certain projects in certain locations seeing dramatic and significant reductions in price.'"

"In the first quarter of 2006, the state knocked out 29,636 foreclosures, a 14 percent decline from a year earlier. What the statistics don't show are deals in which investors have simply walked away from their deposits on newly built residences. The developer is stuck with continuing to carry the construction cost loans until he can resell, and is newly saddled with paying the property taxes on a finished residence."

"'You just look in the Sunday real estate section to see `All closing costs paid. We will give you $15,000 in upgrades. We will throw in the fancy appliances and the marble counter tops,' said Geberer."