The Palm Beach Post from Florida. "CB Richard Ellis' big-picture report on the U.S. office and industrial space markets pegs West Palm Beach as a national player in both sectors. There are problems: Fuel prices and 'the bursting of the speculative bubble in residential real estate' are cited as potential stumbling blocks."

"The authors write, 'Markets having the greatest exposure to inflated housing prices may have the most difficult time in dealing with the fallout' from soaring gas prices and plummeting housing valuations. That would seem to describe Palm Beach County."

The Sun Sentinel. "A development group on Tuesday gave up its effort to turn 245 rental apartments into condos in Lauderdale Lakes, the only city in Broward County with a ban on condo conversions."

"The investors thought there were 'safer places to put their money,' said Deme Mekras, a real estate agent for members of the group. 'It was [for] city reasons instead of market reasons.'"

"The decision to withdraw the proposal surprised city commissioners, who were poised to consider repealing the city's one-year moratorium on conversions Tuesday night. When the issue became moot, the commission dropped its planned discussion."

The St Petersburg Times. "In the spring, Port Richey officials expected five condominium and townhouse complexes with units priced around $200,000 to break ground by year's end, doubling the city's population of 3,200. Another developer planned to replace the Port Richey Mobile Home Park with hotels and restaurants, trying to attract tourists to the city's waterfront."

"One of the largest projects, the 170-unit Bay Point townhouses, has stalled. And two mobile home parks, ripe for redevelopment, remain on the market."

"That's because a slowing housing market and skyrocketing insurance costs have left the city struggling to get developments off the ground. City officials now estimate just 700 new residents by year's end, a fraction of the roughly 3,000 predicted earlier this year."

"Has the rebirth of Port Richey stalled? 'Everybody knows with the prices of flood and property insurance, we're struggling to make it,' said Ed Winch, city building official. 'It's affecting the market badly. It's slowed anticipated growth. With condos, there's not a market for it.'"

"'I think people have a wait-and-see attitude,' said City Manager Jerry Calhoun. 'With things slowing down, it isn't just Port Richey, it's nationwide. We have to back off our projections.'"

"'Condos was the thing, and they were selling like hotcakes,' Winch said. But then, 'the bottom fell out (of the market).'"

The Orlando Sentinel. "Going broke has fallen on hard times these days. In the year since a tougher federal bankruptcy law took effect, personal-bankruptcy cases have plummeted, and consumers must clear more hurdles than ever to get a financial fresh start through the courts."

"But despite the law's fallout, many experts say it may be only a matter of time before going broke is thriving again, thanks largely to massive adjustable-rate-mortgage debt many took on during the housing boom. Homeowners, especially those who have interest-only or so-called 'teaser-rate' mortgages, could see their monthly payments more than double."

"'Some just won't be able to make the new monthly payments,' said Jules Cohen, a bankruptcy lawyer in an Orlando law firm. 'They'll get two or three months behind, and then you'll see a lot of them file Chapter 13 bankruptcy in hopes they can set up a debt-payment plan and prevent foreclosure.'"

"Interest rates will rise on about $300 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages this year alone, according to a research group. That figure is projected to skyrocket to more than $1 trillion in each of the next two years."

"Consumer lawyers say they are already beginning to see some 'victims' of real-estate investments during the housing boom. Jonathan Alper, a bankruptcy lawyer in Heathrow, said a couple who recently visited his office faced insolvency after buying two $400,000 homes as investment properties. With annual household income of only $75,000, the couple quickly defaulted on the loans."

"They blamed the ill-advised venture on tips from a 'wealth-in-real-estate' seminar."

"'Overall, the real-estate issue is going to be a big problem in the bankruptcy system,' Alper said. 'We haven't seen that much yet, but it is coming. Real-estate lawyers tell me there are a lot of their clients in trouble these days as buyers try to get out of deals before they close.'"

"There may be signs that real-estate troubles are already having an effect. The latest numbers show that bankruptcies are beginning to climb again. New cases in Florida's Middle District, for example, rose 31 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter this year, the court reported. Last year, cases were up only 13 percent in that period."

"'Most people think it's just a matter of time before the number of people filing bankruptcy gets back to a normal level,' Orlando bankruptcy lawyer Doug Neway said. Returning to 'normal' would be a dramatic change under the new law, which, among other things, set up a 'means test' to see whether someone could extinguish all debt by filing Chapter 7 liquidation."

"Debtors who earn more than their state's median income, after reasonable living expenses, must file Chapter 13 and pay some of their debt."