A pair of housing bubble reports from Florida. "The real estate bubble may be showing signs of bursting around the country, but Realtors in Alachua say there's nothing to fear. 'The bubble or whatever you read about in the national news was driven by investors,' said broker Tommy Macintosh. 'Our market has never really been an investor-driven market.'"

"Last year's housing market was feverish, said Lorraine Handler. '(Houses) were selling almost before you could get the sign up,' Handler said. Since then, the market has slowed in some respects but several factors are keeping it strong."

"Tony Boothby said houses are staying on the market longer and listing prices are going down, but for the most part selling prices aren't. 'It's been a seller's free-for-all the past couple of years,' Boothby said."

"Even though local prices have risen dramatically in the past few years, they're still attractive to buyers from other areas, Handler said. Brenda Forrester recently showed a $279,000 townhouse to a couple from California. They remarked that a similar home would sell for at least $700,000 where they were from. 'There are still bargains to be had in our area,' Jim Forrester said."

"The future of the market looks bright, they said. Realtors don't expect the flow of buyers to slow any time soon."

The Herald Tribune. "Homeowners here in Manatee County are selling before they go into foreclosure and are able to because there is still a demand for housing, real estate agents say. (Realtor) Dorothea Sandland helps do just that. She said she frequently sees people in financial difficulty."

"'These people don't have a home but at least they're not going into foreclosure,' she said. 'It's always better to sell than to go into foreclosure and have something bad behind your name.'"

"Broker Leland Wallace said he has seen an increase in the number of homes listed for sale and clients have dropped prices on investment homes and condos when they have not sold quickly. He said he has not personally seen an increase in the number of foreclosures in Bradenton."

"'Whether or not that changes in the next few months, that's hard to say,' he said. 'There are so many investors who bought last year.'"

"Steve Schneider, president of the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers, said supply and demand will dictate whether properties will move. 'Properties are sitting a lot longer on the market than they were,' he said. 'With all the inventory out there, I think people are going to be taking a lot less for their property than they thought they would.'"

"Speculative buying could get people into trouble, he said. Some people buy homes with the intention of flipping them, he said, and they have trouble making the mortgage payments when insurance rates, interest rates and taxes increase and they cannot sell the house in the time they had anticipated."

"Kevin Gill, a mortgage broker in Bradenton, is optimistic that the future rate of foreclosures won't increase. 'People want to move here. People want to live here. There's never going to be a housing bubble in Florida or California because the demand here is too great.'"