CNN reports on the realtor boom. "There wasn't just a boom in real estate over the past decade, there was also a big boom in real estate agents. But the exuberance couldn't last forever. Agents, who work on commission, are already beginning to feel the bite."

"'We've seen a big softening in Florida, there are fewer sales to be spread around more sales people,' Richard Fryer, President of a Florida school that offers a variety of real estate courses. 'Obviously there are some people who are not generating a lot of income in this market.'"

"'You've got a lot of people who got into the business in the last two to three years who never really had to do the hardest work of an agent, people who were basically picking low-hanging fruit,' said Fryer. 'Now they're suffering the most.'"

"Some realtors are beginning to look to other professions for an income to sustain them during the tightening. 'Many agents in my local community are really crying the blues,' said Geri DeWitt Ruby, an agent in upstate New York. 'They're very pessimistic, and they're even talking about finding other employment.'"

"Said Gayle Henderson, an agent in Phoenix: 'Our realtor population had swelled to over 70,000 in a population of 3.6 million. Now people are talking about getting another job or leaving the business altogether.'"

"The cornerstone of the whole boom was the real estate license, seen by many as the easy ticket to wealth. Apparently a whole lot fewer people see it that way now. 'I'm absolutely encountering fewer new agents in the field,' said Neil Brooks, an agent in Phoenix."

"'In the frenzied market we just came out of, there were plenty of brokers that were just acting as order takers,' said Pamela Liebman, CEO of Corcoran in New York City. 'Now they really need to work hard to sell these properties.'"

"And so it is that the end of irrational exuberance doesn't trouble most long-time brokers. 'You can't just expect to stick a sign in someone's front yard and have the house sell,' said Brooks."

The New York Times. "If 'Million Dollar Listing' had a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode, it might read something like this: The scenes depicted in this television show were filmed at the height of an overheated real estate market. They are not reflective of current economic conditions."

"Consider the following scene. A Hollywood real estate agent, Ray Schuldenfrei, implores his wife and business partner, Dia, to list a two-bedroom Hollywood Hills home for $949,000, about $25,000 higher than she thinks is fair. 'This is a crazy market right now. People aren’t buying from here,' he says, pointing to his head. He then taps his chest. 'They’re buying from here.'"

"These programs are being broadcast on television as the real estate boom they depict is a fading memory. 'It was hot, hot, hot,' Mrs. Schuldenfrei said last week, reflecting fondly on the Southern California boom days. 'All you had to do was put a sign up.'"

"Without a white-hot market to drive the plot, the producers of 'Million Dollar Listing' and other shows about real estate now have to rethink their formats. And a handful of real estate agents may start to wonder whether their careers as reality TV stars are over."