The Naples News reports from Florida. "First came the conversions. Now come the reversions. In the past year, investors have flooded the market with apartments turned condo. While sales are moving slowly at some projects, others flopped as demand slowed. In Southwest Florida, some developers are welcoming back renters they once sent packing."

"Now, faced with a slowing market, the 356-unit Malibu Lakes apartment complex is wooing back renters with special incentives, including a month of free rent and six months of paid utilities. Units once going for $229,900 to $399,900 are no longer for sale."

"In May, the owners of Monterra at Bonita Springs informed residents they weren’t converting after all. 'Don’t pack,' a flier stated. 'As many of you have probably heard, YES we are staying A Rental Community.'"

"'The supply pipeline is so full that it just takes longer to sell property today and a lot of these owners of these properties had projected in their business plans that they would sell out these condo communities within three to four months, and now it is going to be more like two to three years,' said Ann Bailey with a real estate agency."

"Some investors who gobbled up multiple conversions in hopes of making a killing will lose money, said agent Tom Doyle. It’s already happening. There are a flood of resales on the market from recent conversions. Some are listed at less than the buyer paid for them."

"'You can find deals,' Doyle said. 'There’s no question about that.'"

"Earlier this year, Michele Flocco feared she might be forced to pack up and leave Collier County. She was given only a 10-month lease as rumors swirled that Arbour Walk might turn condo. At the time, rents were on the rise and the average occupancy rate at apartments was 99 percent."

"With the changing housing market, she’s found a nicer condominium to rent in East Naples. She’s paying $100 less a month for a place twice as big. Her monthly rent is $1,050. 'Because nothing is selling they are trying to rent everything,' Flocco said. 'It’s becoming a renter’s market again.'"

The Orlando Sentinel. "For builders, buyers and sellers, the sure-sailing housing market of recent years is moving into uncharted territory. The area's new-home inventory grew nearly 20 percent during the quarter, and the fastest growth came in the 'finished but vacant' category, up 136 percent to 6,787 homes. And in another clear sign of a slowdown, the total number of homes under construction during the quarter, 16,133, was only 20 units more than a year earlier."

"There are benefits to a pullback, said Kohn, a custom builder. For one thing, the slowdown has relieved at least some of the pressure on construction materials and subcontractor labor, both in short supply, he said. 'The subs are now getting back on track, because they are less busy. It's getting back to normal,' Kohn said. 'The market was too crazy. I'm happy with this slowdown.'"

"Nany builders are resorting to attention-grabbing offers to keep drawing enough prospective home buyers to their developments. Bob Benjamin recently paid $315,000 for a new town home near Sanford. But the real clincher, Benjamin said, was the builder's move-in deal: $1."

"Buyers must obtain 100 percent financing through Morrison Financial Services. 'I'm paying a few hundred bucks more than when I was renting, but it's worth it,' Benjamin said. 'I own it.'"

The St Petersburg Times. "It had to end someday. The housing mania that gripped America and the bay area for several years would begin to subside. Otherwise sane Americans who had bought overpriced homes they couldn’t possibly afford would realize the fuse on their deceptively cheap loans was burning short."

"Those who had expected to resell before the interest rate on their mortgage began to climb, for a stupendous profit, of course, might find themselves seated before their bank’s loan officer, weeping."

"In August, mortgage lenders filed foreclosure lawsuits against 860 property owners across Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties, a 44 percent increase over August 2005, according to statistics."

"Kraig Braeuning, regional vice president of an Orlando company that tracks foreclosure suits, said he expects the bay area’s situation to grow worse. 'It’s going to be a tsunami in the next year or two,' he said. 'There’s going to be a huge wave of foreclosures.'"

"Foreclosure lawsuits grew 48 percent in Pinellas, 46 percent in Hillsborough and 33 percent in Pasco. Few neighborhoods were spared. In Pinellas, for example, 44 of the 45 ZIP codes with more than 2,500 households each saw at least one foreclosure in August."

"The county’s 10th-wealthiest ZIP code, Oldsmar’s 34677, had the second-worst foreclosure rate. Low-income neighborhoods tended to be hardest hit, however." "Although most of August’s foreclosure defendants lived in their homes at the time, a substantial minority, 40.5 percent, were investors. It’s testimony to the housing market’s recent fervor that so many people thought they could profit as a speculator or landlord."

"Tampa investor Leigh Fiske has had a rough time, too. In the past year, lenders have tried to foreclose on 10 homes he owns, nine of them in Tampa. Fiske could not be reached for comment."