The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. "Exactly one year after hitting an all-time high, Orlando's existing-home sales had their slowest August in four years last month as the area's housing market continued losing steam at a slow but steady pace. The number of homes resold in the core Orlando market dropped nearly 34 percent compared with August 2005."

"The market's inventory of available properties continued to grow, surpassing 20,000 for the first time, totaling 21,077 properties, the equivalent of a 10-month supply of homes. The last time the inventory-to-sales ratio was that high was back in February 1997."

"Sellers, increasingly thwarted by the high number of competing homes, are beginning to fret as the weeks tick by without a sale. Maria Rivera, who has been trying to sell her two-bedroom, two-bath Port Orange home for nearly a year, said Thursday that she is about to list her property with a Realtor once again, her third listing since last October."

"'My original price was $240,000, but now the price has been lowered to $219,000,' she said. Rivera said she fears that rising property-insurance rates and taxes are key reasons buyers are reluctant to make offers these days."

"A total of 2,077 homes changed hands in August through the Mid-Florida Regional MLS, compared with 3,134 a year earlier. It was the lowest total for August since 2002."

"Newly built homes are now being added to the Realtors' MLS in significant numbers, and that's a new wrinkle, said Anthony Crocco, Central Florida division director for Metrostudy."

"'This is really something we haven't seen before,' Crocco said. The number of new homes being offered through Realtors is now 'in the thousands,' he said, as increasingly desperate investors or speculators decide to compete directly with the previously owned homes that typically comprise the Realtors' listings."

"The backlog of unsold homes is actually worse in coastal counties such as Brevard, Crocco said, as contracts are canceled and potential buyers walk away from their deposits."

"Area Realtors say they are holding more weekend open houses and hustling harder than ever, particularly for sellers such as Rivera, who need to relocate and are not just testing the market with unreasonably high asking prices."