The Wall Street Journal reports on efforts to sell the glut of condos. "At a party in Fort Lauderdale last month, guests in clingy cocktail dresses grooved on stage with singer Wyclef Jean. A week later, in Las Vegas, party-goers attended a reception hosted by actress Pamela Anderson. Last Tuesday night, a half dozen invited guests attended an exclusive Manhattan screening with the movie's star, actress Meryl Streep."

"The latest dispatches from the Hollywood glamour circuit? No, it's real-estate developers wooing real-estate brokers and potential buyers of high-end condominiums. The growing glut of expensive condos is pushing high-performing real-estate brokers and deep-pocketed potential buyers by supplying them with coveted party invitations."

"Developers hope to reduce the backlog of high-priced luxury condominiums before rival developers can flood the slowing sales market with even more new properties."

"Last year the Icon Las Vegas condo development hosted a party on the planned condominium site that featured white tigers, fire-eaters and chocolate fountains. It wasn't enough. That project died. Brokers who have been through the vicissitudes of the real-estate cycle say they've never been catered to quite like this before, but they are already getting a bit jaded."

"In Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas and Manhattan, an estimated 167,600 luxury units are due to hit the market in coming months. In all three markets, party budgets are going wild. Some event planners working for South Florida developers say their clients have tripled their spending as condo sales have begun to slow in recent months."

"Developers say the parties are a bargain considering the prices of the condos, and they generate far better returns than dropping the prices of units does."

The Miami Herald. "When many of Florida's leading developers want to know what to build, 'they ask Goodkin.' As real estate prices jumped to new heights and South Florida development boomed, Lew Goodkin has become a cautionary voice, asserting that the market, and particularly the condominium market, is dangerously overheated because of speculators and investors. He's warned that prices are inflated because too many purported buyers are actually flippers."

"The veteran analyst is so convinced that he's now advising clients who are pooling money to form so-called vulture funds. The aim: Buy land and condo units at depressed values to taking advantage of a tanking condo market."

"Q: You have seen up and down cycles in the South Florida real estate market during your career, what happened in this latest boom cycle?"

"A: What happened is that real estate became an investment vehicle as opposed to shelter. There was speculation in some projects where more than 60, 70, 80 percent of the 'buyers' were speculators. Many of my clients were shocked by all the speculation."

"Q: What will be the result of all this speculation you say has occurred in the condo market?"

"A: For the most part, multifamily is in the process of taking a big hit. It will be more than 10 percent in terms of price declines. The reason is that so much of the condo market sales were not based on real users. And if it's not affordable to user demand, the demand will be so off that it will have to be reflected in significantly lower prices."

"You can't have something like this when there is not true demand, a run-up in prices like this will come back to haunt you."

"Q: What about those who say the South Florida's real estate market is different from other parts of the country? The fact South Florida draws buyers from Latin America or Europe."

"A: I believe we have all of those things. But the punch-line is that is not what created this boom. What, did everyone just discover Florida in the last 15 minutes? South Americans buying in South Florida is something new? Florida has always had this appeal. There will be many people ready taking advantage of lower values when it surfaces, and it will."