The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. "Rising land costs have some developers of vacation homes in the Walt Disney World area focusing more on condos and town homes to entice buyers with lower prices. The market clearly has cooled, but single-family vacation home prices are still high enough that the rents owners can get pale in relation to their mortgage-carrying costs, according to several developers."

"The answer for many, they say, is a lower initial investment. 'Rental income hasn't kept pace anywhere near buying costs,' (developer) Garrett Kenny said."

"Kenny is developing a vacation-home condo project near ChampionsGate and said most of the sales were completed before the market slowed sharply. 'The market from the U.K. has really slowed down,' Kenny said. 'You have to be priced right these days.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "After years of handing out millions in incentives to downtown developers, Hollywood officials think they are poised to see profitable returns. But first they needed to borrow $20.5 million."

"Driving the refinance package are delays in completing most of the proposed downtown redevelopment projects. 'A couple years ago we stood here and we expected a number of those projects would already be generating those tax dollars,' said Bryan Cahan, agency finance director. 'But because of the [housing] market, some of those projects have taken a bit longer.'"

"Some criticize city leaders for previously promising so much to developers without any guarantees of success. 'If all of this doesn't work or all of this collapses, what's going to happen?' activist Howard Sher said."

"Earlier this year, the developer of Young Circle Commons, one of the largest downtown projects, said he might have to scale back its size after his bid to obtain a nearby private property through eminent domain failed. The developer of SoHo Lofts also has asked for more incentives, citing rising construction costs."

"And the developer who at one time planned to bring a condo project featuring a theater and charter school to Young Circle is on the verge of defaulting on a $5.2 million loan the CRA gave him, officials announced last month."

The St Petersburg Times. "Most Floridians, actually, most Americans, have the vast majority of their personal worth tied up in their homes. So when that value stops growing, starts to look vulnerable or even starts shrinking, people need to turn off the TV and focus."

"According to one particular type of market analysis conducted by Economy.com, a belt of Gulf Coast metro areas from Sarasota in the north to Naples in the south better brace for some dramatic drops in housing prices. It’s only natural since these are the same speculative-investing, hot-spot cities that enjoyed surreal runups in home prices in the past five years."

"A neighbor wasted no time in telling us her family had had it with the squirrelly economics and hurricane threats of Florida. Her husband traveled west to scour parts of Colorado for a better housing market. I wish them well but they may have missed the window of escape. Selling out now could take some time and a painful financial toll."

The Marco Island Sun Times. "According to Marv Needles, the construction aspect of the company will soon stop its building operations. 'I'm not taking any more business,' he said. 'I haven't been since June.'"

"Needles said there were several factors that led to the decision to phase out the construction part of his business. 'It's very difficult to keep a reasonable handle on costs in today's market,' Needles said. 'Most customers aren't willing to sign a contract that's open-ended with the price, so it becomes kind of difficult to do business.'"

A Motley Fool. "My wife and I are Realtors and associate brokers who live and work north of Atlanta. The Atlanta Board of Realtors held a luncheon, when I learned that our guest speaker would be David Lereah, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors."

"We would have a chance to chat with him over lunch before he spoke to our group. It seems he had just spoken yesterday to a Realtor group in south Florida and he told us the mood there was pretty grim. He told us that their business is off 60% from last year."

"Lereah's bottom line is that by next year most markets, including here in Atlanta, will be much more back to normal. Pockets of weakness will remain in California, south Florida, and some of the east coast resort areas like Hilton Head. But for most of us, better days are ahead. Is he right? My crystal ball lies irretrievably shattered on the floor. I have no idea."

"In our personal business, we are still stuck at twelve transactions year to date. Over the past five years, we have averaged twenty five deals a year, so, we are obviously deep in the hole."