The Miami Herald. "Luxury high-rise developers who last year flooded the market with irrational exuberance have a quieter pitch these days: 'Never mind.' And those families who were in the way of the phantom behemoths? That's really too bad. Several were pushed out last year from Bayfront Manor on Northeast 31st Street to make way for ICE2."

"Now they're gone and so, apparently, is ICE2. The number for the sales center listed on the website has been disconnected. 'My understanding is that the projects are canceled,' said broker Nate Cohen, who once was involved with the original project."

"The fantasy of high living has given way to the unglamorous truth of life in a subtropical, hurricane-lashed coastal republic. Today, while developers shrug about a 'normal downturn,' addicts shoot it up in their failed projects."

"Through it all, the city of Miami has sat perched like the Cheshire cat on the bay. What do they have to show for it? On the way to being a world-class city, Miami finds itself once again having to dip into reserves to balance the budget."

"Commissioners just can't help themselves. Last week, over neighbors' objections, they voted 4 to 1 to approve plans for yet another paper giant on the bay."

From Miami Today. "A broker in our pages last week blamed the media for the residential real estate slide. And a developer wrote to us that press warnings of a condo bust had killed the market here and driven him out of it. Folks, don't shoot the messenger."

"The press didn't build tens of thousands of condos, then contract with speculators who now are stuck with units, or might never close. Unlike our developer friend, we never wrote to another newspaper that Miami's condo bubble could never, ever burst, that prices would rise forever."

"We aren't the ones who told potential buyers that they could resell condos for 20% or 40% more in a year with only a down payment actually out of pocket. We aren't the ones who are still building tower after condo tower, flooding the market with housing while Multiple Listings Service sales have fallen nearly a third and some smaller brokerages are shaky."

"Seven columns in this space in 2+ years warned that more than 100,000 planned Miami-Dade condos were a full decade's supply. If timely warnings helped slam brakes on a market that experts now admit was about 80% speculators and only 20% real residents, good."

"The press would have been far more culpable if we'd seen a train wreck coming and hadn't raised a warning signal."

"In the end, of course, someone will occupy every new condo. But it turns out that the condos we're still building at a record pace are going to be bargains as residences when purchased at proper prices. Meanwhile, the City of Miami and others keep on approving plans for still more massive high-rise condos. Which means that ever more bargains loom for buyers who plan to live and enjoy where they buy."

From News 11 Alive in Georgia. "One couple got a $500,000 condo for $300,000. Just five minutes later, another man got the same model for just $278,000."

"Hundreds of people showed up at the Sheraton Hotel in Buckhead to bid on condos at the View at Chastain. Right now there are 9,000 condos for sale in the city of Atlanta and plans in the works for 17,000 more."

"While analysts say the burst of the housing bubble does not include Atlanta, when it comes to condos there is no denying there is a glut on the market. So why do investors keep building thousands more when the existing buildings aren't even filled? They're counting on more people from the suburbs to...choose urban living."

The News and Observer from North Carolina. "Sales of new homes in the Triangle climbed only a fraction as fast in the third quarter as in 2005, and a sharp fall in building permits suggests further cooling in a housing market that has set records each of the past two years."

"'We're definitely in a period of adjustment,' said Bernard Helm, president of (the firm) which compiled the report."

"'They're still selling their homes, just not as fast,' said Hal Adams, division president for Bill Clark Homes. Bill Clark has lost two sales a month since August because potential buyers moving to the area have trouble selling their homes in other markets, Adams said. But because lot purchases haven't declined, he expects the construction pace to pick up in mid-2007."

The Charlotte Observer from North Carolina. "Doug Boone, owner of Boone Communities, said too much investment can be dangerous but that he hasn't seen 'runaway prices' in the region. Boone, whose company sells empty housing lots to developers, has seen an influx of investment in the NoDa and Belmont neighborhoods, but mostly they are buying inexpensive fixer-uppers."

"In his circles, he heard homeowners wondering aloud how high they could price their homes. They eventually had to lower expectations or take their homes off the market, he said."

"'The Market is rational,' he said. 'When you start to hear irrational statements, then the market's about to turn.'"

The Gulf Breeze News. "'New Orleans looked good,' says Susan Moody, Montgomery Realtors. 'The convention was huge and we received so much great information to better serve our clients. We are really seeing a pricedright market, and the volume of homes on the market offer more choices for our buying clients. The market will come back, and in the mean time the value of homes is still appreciating.'"