The Florida Press reacts to the June home sales. "Roxanne Arnold quit her job and started flipping houses. But now a three-bedroom Fort Lauderdale town house she owns has sat on the market for more than year, and things are so slow that she just got a part-time job."

"'Everyone that needs a home to live in has bought one, and the people that still need a home can't afford these prices,' she said. 'I would not call it a buyers' or sellers' market, because there is no market.'"

"'I am advising all sellers not to blink,' said Craig Studnicky, (who) primarily sells new condos. 'If 1,500 people a day are moving to Florida, the demand curve could catch up by fall.'"

"Condo owner Arnold is willing to wait, although not much longer. Already, she has come down from her initial asking price, and she notes owners of similar units nearby are dropping prices. 'You can't be greedy these days,' she said. 'The old market was just a freak thing. They are out of their minds if they think it will happen again.'"

The Palm Beach Post. "The zoo is not the only place to look for ostriches these days. A lot of local homeowners also have their heads in the sand, analysts say, because they refuse to believe the unprecedented five-year real estate boom is over. 'It's ostrich investing,' said John Pankauski, a West Palm Beach investment lawyer. 'There's a difficulty admitting they made a bad choice, so they don't deal with it.'"

"'So many properties are highly leveraged, 90 percent to 100 percent mortgaged, or even more, especially by investor-owners holding them as third, fourth or fifth properties, prices will not free-fall until renters can no longer cover the mortgage and banks foreclose,' said Clemmer Mayhew, a Palm Beach County Realtor. 'Then lenders realize perhaps they loaned $360,000 on a... property actually worth only $275,000.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "Broward County's existing single-family home sales plummeted again in June. 'It's a stare-down between buyers and sellers, and as time passes, the pressure's on the seller, not the buyer,' said housing consultant Jack McCabe."

"Many investors are now leaving real estate. 'We knew condos had to collapse because there was nothing there supporting it, except predominantly speculation,' said Lewis Goodkin, a Miami-based consultant."

"Homes sales on the Treasure Coast dropped significantly in June. 'Prices are going to drop like a lead balloon in the coming months,' said McCabe said. 'I think people realize that if they wait it out a little, they're likely to find even better deals down the road.'"

"Existing home sales in the Bradenton-Sarasota market took a 40 percent tumble in June, and the median sales price fell $10,000 from a year ago. (Realtor) Barbara Edwards said she is still seeing people choose to leave the area rather than deal with rising insurance and taxes."

"'We're seeing a lot of people, whole families, moving to places like Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina,' Edwards said."

"Local condominium prices continued to fall in Brevard County, the Florida Association of Realtors reported Tuesday, down 6 percent from May and down 19 percent from June 2005. The number of existing local condo sales fell to 55 in June, down 261 in June 2005."

"Ray Wright, owner of a Satellite Beach company that buys and sells local real estate, said he began noticing an increase in local foreclosures early this year. 'People are waiting for the market to hit bottom before they start buying again,' Wright said."

"More than six months into a market correction, existing single-family home prices in Naples showed a year-over-year decline in June as sellers cut prices to lure buyers. The inventory of 9,700 homes and condos on the local market has stabilized at roughly an 18-month supply."

"Naples-area single-family homes sold for a median price of $451,000 in June, down 8 percent from June 2005’s $491,400 median."

"The post Hurricane Charley seller's market is over. Zooming prices made many owners resemble cartoon characters whose eyes suddenly flash with dollar signs. Those days are over. Welcome back to reality. Locally, the Punta Gorda area reported 323 sales of existing homes during June, the report stated. This represented a 34 percent drop from 490 sales during June 2005."

"To take one example from broker Ellen McCarthy's recent listings, an owner was asking nearly $250,000 for a rather modest two-bedroom house with a and swimming pool. After six months, the house hadn't budged. McCarthy said she persuaded her client to come down to a more realistic $181,000. She expects to have a purchase contract within a few days."

"Bill Dryburgh, president of the local multiple listing service, said, 'There are buyers out there, and the buyers are savvy and smart and doing their homework on the Internet. The homes that are priced right are selling.'"