The Herald Tribune has this update from Florida. "For months, real estate pundits have been talking about..an erosion of pricing. In May, in Southwest Florida, it happened. Prices in the Charlotte County-North Port market dropped 2 percent when compared with the same month in 2005. It might be the first drop in pricing since the early 1990s, long-term market observers said."

"In the Sarasota MLS, for example, there are now 7,304 houses available for sale, three and a half times the level of a year ago. The average weekly sales rate is now 97, down 38 percent from a year ago."

"'The rate of deterioration has accelerated,' economist David Scott said. 'For every house that was available for sale last year at this time, there are four or five times as many now.'"

"Peter Schiff, an acknowledged long-time real estate bear who runs an investment firm, said home prices are at the beginning stage of a fairly lengthy decline that will leave many homeowners, investors and lenders hurting. 'The market has topped. We haven't had the bursting yet. There is still complacency out there, and denial,' he said."

"Statistics show the market is absorbing 15 percent of the available supply, Schiff said. He figures that by the end of the year, less than 10 percent of the houses now for sale will sell, leaving record-high supply. 'If you figure prices started getting out of control three or four years ago, prices are going to fall back below what they were when the whole thing started,' he said."

The Wall Street Journal. "In some markets, such as South Florida, vacancy rates for large apartment buildings are down and rents are up. However, the supply of condos and homes available to rent in the region is growing as investors clamor to rent out properties they are having trouble selling."

"Owners of large rental buildings fear that this 'shadow supply' of rental properties could eventually put a lid on rent increases in some markets where speculation has been rampant."

"'We're having a flood of rental properties coming back into the market simply because the investors who bought with the intention of flipping them have not been able to,' says Brenda F. Gerdes, broker-owner of a property-management firm in Port St. Lucie, where average rental rates for properties owned by individual investors have fallen about 20 percent over the past year."

"Real-estate agents say individual investors need to be realistic about their asking rents, even if the rent isn't enough to cover their monthly costs. Robert Fowler, owner of a rental Web site, tells clients to base their asking rents on what similar properties are fetching, not the rents charged by large apartment complexes. If tenants aren't forthcoming, 'don't wait too long before making adjustments,' he adds."

"J.P. Johnson has been trying for the past three months to rent out a four-bedroom, 31/2-bath home in Palm Beach Gardens, that he purchased for $661,000. He recently dropped the asking rent to $3,000 from $3,300 but has yet to find a tenant. 'The market has slowed down,' he says. 'We have had a few phone calls, but nothing solid.'"