The Island Packet reports from South Carolina. "There's a slowdown this year in the number of homes sold in southern Beaufort County, but those that have sold fetched prices only slightly lower than last year's. Several factors are driving the cool-down, real estate experts said, including higher interest rates, insurance costs, overreaching investors, increased property taxes, fear of hurricanes and more competition in the market."

"Several Realtors agreed that the roughly 5,000 total properties on the market in southern Beaufort County are between two and three times the number available at the same time last year."

"'People were buying homes for the wrong reasons the past few years,' (broker) Bob Clarkson said. People saw real estate as a get-rich-quick scheme and not as a place to live, he said. Those who missed selling at the crest of that wave now are discovering they may have to give 20 percent of those profits back, Clarkson said."

"Just 5 percent of the homes on the market are being sold in any given month, Realtors said. 'There is a ton of inventory, and prices have not hit the bottom yet,' a real estate veteran Bobby Sandell said."

The Palm Beach Post. "The biggest secret in Boynton Beach may be the status of two projects once heralded as the benchmarks of a revitalized downtown. Board members will consider next month whether to continue to offer millions of dollars in incentives to 500 Ocean and Promenade, as neither developer has begun construction."

"CRA member Marie Horenburger said market changes have affected most development projects and that she didn't think a lot needed to be changed in the current agreements. 'Everybody is in the same boat,' Horenburger said. 'There's been a real slowdown in the market.'"

The News Press in Florida. "The hurricanes that tore through Florida in 2004 and 2005 have caused insurance companies to raise their rates and some have discontinued coverage for many in coastal Florida."

"'We may see an increase in defaults and delinquencies due to increases in the cost of owning a home because we have seen homeowner's insurance premiums double and more,' said Tom Tatro, recently retired VP for residential lending for Fifth Third Bank in Southwest Florida."

"Some see a potential rise in foreclosures as a business opportunity but don't think the real bargains are here yet even though some property owners are starting to consider bailing out. 'We've raised $25 million to go after it but we still think we're six months from the bottom,' Fort Myers-based real estate broker Ed Bonkowski said. 'It's going to take that long for the lenders to file their actions.'"

"He recently passed on a foreclosed canal-front lot on Fort Myers Beach that sold at auction for $400,000, probably $100,000 down from what it would have sold for a year ago. Still, Bonkowski said, 'We didn't think the value was there.'"

"Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson said some real estate investors will be hit with a double whammy this year. Even as the value of their assets fall, taxes may go through the roof because they're based on the sky-high prices that prevailed in 2005."

"He expects a storm of protests from the notices of proposed property taxes that were mailed out Thursday, but his hands are tied: legally, he must use last year's prices to calculate taxes."

A letter to the editor at the Sun Sentinel. "In reading the South Florida Sun-Sentinel lately, I could not help but wonder if some of the 'journalists' slept through the class where journalists learn the ethics of reporting the news and not creating the news." "If you read the front page, one would get the idea that the real estate world has already gone to hell in a handbasket."

"I grant you that the market has some selective problems and justly so due to reckless investments and not due to the people needing housing. These investors are going to get what is deserved for their actions in selective areas of the market, but the market as a whole is far from the doom and gloom that is headlined in the Sun-Sentinel lately."

"Our country is in enough of a mess today from this type of activity by some leaders. Don't put the Sun-Sentinel on the same train. That may not be a light at the end of the tunnel, it could be another train."