The St Petersburg Times has this report from Florida. "Coming off an unusually weak summer sales season, many Tampa Bay area home sellers are confronting a market reality they've dreaded: They'll have to cut prices. With an average of nine homes on the market for every buyer, the biggest supply and demand imbalance in years, prices are suffering."

"In Pinellas County, sales prices of single-family homes dipped from $252,000 in June 2005 to $238,000 in June 2006, a decline of 5.5 percent. The market hasn't given back so much since the 1990s. 'Price reduced' on 'For Sale' signs have become as common as mildew on mailboxes."

"Another sign of deflation emerged in the condominium category. Regionally, condo prices dipped about 3 percent from May to June, from $178,000 to $172,000."

"Builders have resisted outright price cuts, but KB Home, the nation's fifth largest, was among the first to break ranks by slicing prices $10,000 across the board in one of its Pasco subdivisions. Buyers who signed contracts at the previous higher price are allowed to rewrite their contracts at the lower price."

"KB Home's Cara Kane said the company spurns the incentives used by other builders as 'temporary discounts.' 'With our lower prices we've been seeing good traffic. Some of the other builders might not be,' Kane said."

"It's no mystery what's pressuring prices: Home listings have exploded as sales have softened. Many listings are from investors who bought during the boom and fueled what builders viewed as a freakish market last year. Total listings in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco have hovered around 35,000 as monthly sales struggle to break 4,000."

"The price cuts are nailing some investors who entered late in the game. They face the prospect of breaking even on their homes, or worse. Many have turned to renting as a desperate expedient. 'We're getting calls, 'We can't sell them. Please lease them,' said central Pasco Realtor Pam Koenig, who pulled listings for 130 properties chasing renters in Land O'Lakes alone."

"Realtors like Jim Knetsch think the market has yet to hit bottom. With the current glut, those who want their home noticed slice the price. 'Every time this year we thought the market might have found its footing, it was a dead-cat bounce and the market fell further,' Knetsch said."

"'It's kinda scary,' Ellenn Poyssick, 41, an investor seller, said as she showed (realtor) Shane Whitlatch a home in St. Petersburg that she and her husband fixed up. She and her husband have renovated eight houses and always sold them on their own. But recently, one of the homes in Tampa's Seminole Heights didn't get a single showing in four months. 'I was so desperate, I went ahead and leased it,' she said."

"A condo-shopping couple from Atlanta whom Whitlatch was helping suddenly has hundreds to choose from, and more every day. Pinellas County sellers alone placed 31,740 condos on the market in the first five months of this year, up from 9,055 the same time last year. Home buyers faced a similar abundance: 45,677 homes this year compared with 17,563 homes last year."

"In June 2005, 60 percent of all homes listed on the market sold. This year, just 10 percent of all homes listed on the market sold in June. The real estate decline in the Tampa Bay area is seen across Florida."

"'There's a bit of anxiety in the market,' said Brad Hunter, a housing analyst in West Palm Beach. 'Fewer people are buying because they are afraid that they'll make a mistake if they buy at the wrong time and then the market goes down. And a lot of buyers are saying, 'Why don't I wait until the price gets better?'"

From Bloomberg. "Locals call Naples the 'bubble city,' with home prices that have surged 140 percent since 2001. That's making it tough for employers. 'We have a workforce housing problem of acute proportions,' said Edward Morton, (who) operates hospitals employing more than 4,000 people. 'It is a crisis that will only get worse.'"

"Simone Gartner, who lived in Naples 36 years, sold her duplex residence, which had doubled in value to $310,000, in 2004. She rented a condo and moved in with friends before relocating to Kernersville, North Carolina, in June. 'I'm tired of the expensiveness,' said Gartner, who now pays monthly rent of $650."

"The value of new residential and commercial construction was down $100 million in the first half of 2006, Volusia County reported Monday. Sue Darden, director of the builders association, said, 'There's a softening in the market,' acknowledging builders are a little concerned."

"'How we've done business is changing,' she said. 'People are adjusting their business plans and their expectations.' Darden said she wouldn't say the bubble has burst. 'No, not in Florida. The world still wants to move to Florida,' she said."