The Miami Herald reports on a failed condo-hotel offering. "The Royal Palm hotel missed its loan payment last month while facing a cash squeeze amid its stalled plan to convert 160 rooms into condominium units, an owner said Wednesday. The hotel's troubles come as Robert Falor rethinks plans to convert both the Royal Palm and Coconut Grove's Mayfair Hotel into condo-hotel complexes, efforts once expected to generate sales well in excess of $100 million."

"But analysts question whether developers can wring enough profits out of running hotels to justify the sky-high prices they paid for the properties during a booming real estate market. 'The question remains as to whether [the] debt on these complexes could be extinguished as an operating rental facility,' Standard & Poor's said in a report warning of problems in Florida's condo-hotel market."

"Added Francis Nardozza, an investment banker in Fort Lauderdale: 'There's a lot of soul-searching going on right now.' 'We all know buyers aren't rushing in the door,' Falor said."

The Sun Sentinel. "The 28th Southeast Building Conference convened here Thursday, and some of the 18,000 participants blamed the recent housing downturn for what they say is a more subdued trade show. 'Last year it was the sky's the limit,' said (homebuilder) Ray Puzzitiello of West Palm Beach. 'Now this year, people are wondering how long this is going to last.'"

"'Builders' biggest problem right now, is the canceling of contracts,' said Len Tylka, a West Palm Beach builder and president of the Florida Home Builders Association."

"The Local Planning Agency might vote to recommend a land-use change that would enable developer Bill Reily's condo development to go up where there is now an RV park. 'We already have condo homes for sale that aren't selling. Why do you want to add to the current inventory?' said Mike Cilurso, the president of the Jensen Beach Group opposing the project."

The Herald Tribune. "Ever since the residential real estate market fell out of bed last summer, staging has taken on even more importance as a way to accentuate the positive in what has become a very crowded field. A local real estate agent has begun posing a family selling the home in professional shots of the staged house."

"'If you look at a picture and there's a human being in it, you'll look twice,' said Sarasota real estate agent Candy Swick. 'They had no sales. I said, 'Let's let people know there are people who live in the building.'"

"As South Florida's housing market slows down, there are more houses for sale on the high end than buyers who want them. But there's still a severe shortage of mid-priced housing that doesn't require buyers to live on the fringes of the region. So private developers are starting to shift gears."

"'The private sector is suddenly saying, wait a minute, no one is serving the middle class, and that is where we need to be,' said Rafael Kapustin, who has a hand in two downtown Miami mid-priced projects and plans a third. 'In today's market developers also may not have much choice.'"

"The new race to the middle is nationwide, and it comes largely because home prices have risen far faster than wages in recent years, creating large numbers of professionals and middle-income earners who are priced out. 'This sector has been left unaddressed for so long that need has become greater and greater,' said Oscar Rodriguez, of Related Group."