The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. "As Florida's real estate boom winds down to its apparent end, Dade City has realized only a tiny fraction of the development seen in areas like Wesley Chapel and Land O'Lakes. At one time, city officials talked of plans to control the growth they saw ahead. Turns out they don't quite need them."

"Even the ever-expanding Wal-Mart noticed. This month, company officials announced that they would delay building the city's first Wal-Mart Supercenter. They want to see more 'maturation' in the local market before building the new store."

"In Dade City, it seems, the development wave has receded before it ever began. When officials for Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, scope out sites for new stores, they look at several factors. That last factor is based not on projected housing starts but on actual new construction."

"'We're only going to build stores once the homes already exist,' said Eric Brewer, Wal-Mart's senior manager for public affairs. 'Certainly in a place like Florida, you don't want to be getting in a position where retail construction gets ahead of residential construction.'"

"Earlier this year, Dade City officials approved 2,000 new homes and received applications for 2,500 more. Ten months later, developers still have approval to build the same number of homes but are apparently electing to do so on a more conservative time line. 'Instead of having 2,500 in two years, because of the slowdown in the real estate market, it will probably be over a period of five years,' said Karla Owens, the city attorney and planner."

"She's confident the neighborhoods will be built, eventually. Why? Because the property has changed hands. 'I just find it hard to believe that large tracts are going to stay vacant forever,' she said."

"The housing slowdown put a lid on more than home prices. Hotel prices, which had been driven by swarms of beach luxury condo/hotel developers, have stabilized at about $79,000 a room across the Tampa Bay market. That's the same as a year ago, according to Marcus & Millichap."

"'The flippers are pretty much gone from the beaches,' said Tony DeGeorge, a Clearwater hotel broker."

From Tampa Bay Online. "Developer Reynold Glanz now wants to turn the former Cone Ranch into one of the biggest residential developments in north Manatee, just a few miles south of Hillsborough County. The California developer filed plans last week for a 1,999-home project."

"Glanz said it is too early to start pricing homes, especially as sales prices continue to drop throughout the area."

The Orlando Business Journal. "For the Central Florida housing market, Anthony Crocco, director of Metrostudy's Central Florida division, says the pace of new housing starts slowed during the third quarter. The Orlando metropolitan statistical area of Orange, Lake, Osceola and Seminole counties posted 6,853 single-family starts in the third quarter, a decline of 32.4 percent compared with 10,142 units a year ago."

"Crocco says the quarterly starts declined to a level comparable to the summer of 2003."

"Single-family inventory, comprised of units under construction, finished vacant lots and model homes, totaled 22,794 units at the end of the third quarter, an 8.5-month supply. The majority of the unit increase is in the finished vacant category, which rose 123.2 percent from 3,664 units last year to 8,179 units this year, Crocco says."

"During the third quarter, 11,197 lots were delivered to the Orlando market compared with 10,316 in third-quarter 2005. Vacant developed lot inventory was 50,760 units, up 29.6 percent compared with 39,168 lots last year. Crocco notes that based on the annual starts rate, this level of lot inventory represents a 19.1-month supply."

"He notes many potential buyers must first sell their existing home before buying another. Because of this pressure on sellers and the continuing introduction of new projects to the market, Crocco says it is likely that the supply of new housing will remain inflated for at least the short-term."

"Mike Inselmann, president of Metrostudy, there are reasons to be somewhat optimistic that the bottom of the cycle in the housing sector will occur in the next six months. 'Cutbacks in new production, aggressive incentives by sellers, the exit of the majority of investors and the fundamental demographic support are positive indicators for a housing turnaround by mid-2007,' Inselmann says."

The Orlando Sentinel. "Robert Stroh at the University of Florida, said the full economic impacts of Save Our Homes have yet to hit the state."

"'This could affect our population in the future,' Stroh said. 'Some people who thought about retiring here are probably having second thoughts: What are your taxes here? The answer to that is going to change dramatically. We've already got a problem.'"

"Mohammed Battla knew that he would face a larger tax bill when he moved to a 6,100-square-foot home overlooking Lake Buck in the Lake Nona golf community. Still the shock of going from a few thousand dollars in property taxes to paying more than $35,000 was jarring."

"'I just saw my property-tax bill and about had a heart attack,' Battla said."