The Naples News reports from Florida. "The deadline for closing on properties purchased in an Oct. 21 auction has been moved back to Dec. 6. Auction operator Paul Drake said he wasn’t aware that one of the properties for which he’d announced a high-bid price is now in foreclosure."

"In legal ads printed in the Daily News, Washington Mutual Bank announced foreclosure on 1121 10th Ave. N., although the ads refer to it as Lot 22, Resubdivision of Block A, Lake Forest. The owner of record, Marjorie Dresner, had numerous properties listed in Drake’s auction."

"Shortly after the event, Drake said that property at 1121 10th Ave. N. drew a contract price of $341,000. Public records show that Dresner bought the house in May 2005 for $585,000, with an April 26, 2005, loan from Washington Mutual. Mortgage documents show Dresner took out a loan worth $468,000 plus interest."

"That is part of the problem, real estate professionals protested, before and after Drake’s advertised auction. It was unrealistic, because many of the top bid prices were far less than the mortgage prices, they said."

"While Drake had denied financial hardship was involved for people who had put their properties up for auction, real estate analysts noted that a few days before the auction, Dresner had taken out a second mortgage on most of her participating properties."

"News of the auction ignited debate about Naples’ real estate market, and whether sales prices were dropping drastically."

"Naples Area Board of Realtors President Jo Carter has said her members didn’t object to the idea of an auction, only that the true property values weren’t reflected in the opening price. Drake and Manning listed starting prices at $1."

The Sun Sentinel. "Buy an Orchid Grove townhouse in Pompano Beach, and send your kid to college on Coscan Homes's dime. The tuition incentive is one of the more unusual carrots dangled by desperate builders, who continue to be hammered by rising buyer cancellations and declines in new orders since South Florida's five-year housing boom ended this year."

"Builders would rather offer incentives because lowering home prices can get them into trouble with existing customers and affect future appraisals, said Ray Puzzitiello, president of Puzzitiello Builders in West Palm Beach."

"'If you've got a guy who closed on his home a couple of months ago, and he finds out that somebody else paid $10,000 less than him, and he will because they all talk, then he's going to be upset,' Puzzitiello said."

"'It's been a very quiet market for many, many months,' said Al Piazza, CEO of privately held Coscan."

"'Are these builders in trouble? Yeah,' said Anthony Trella, a Deerfield Beach-based home building consultant. Many builders own too much land, he said. In some cases, they're simply walking away from deposits, figuring it's cheaper to let go of it now and buy it back later, Trella said."

From TC Palm. "'For Sale' signs sit on front yards everywhere but aren't as effective as professionals who can offer aggressive pricing information to get buyers in the door, said Will Rosselle, a broker at Rosselle Real Estate Group in Port St. Lucie."

"The number of homes for sale has tripled, even quadrupled, since last year, according to Rosselle."

"John Reichard, owner of Southwind Construction and Homes in West Palm Beach, builds new homes from Boynton Beach to Port St. Lucie. To move the properties, he has increased broker commissions and tried making upgrades such as granite countertops and paver driveways standard. Still, he said, he's seeing home prices in general fall somewhere between 12 percent and 18 percent."

"'The profits are less, but as long as you make a profit, you can't go broke,' Reichard said."

"'There are a lot of amazing deals out there right now. But a lot of people need to sell their house to take advantage of that,' Rosselle said. To do that, sellers need to look back to prices from two to three years ago, he said."

The News & Observer from North Carolina. "Sales of existing homes declined for the first time in almost four years last month and the number of houses on the market rose, as one of the Triangle's leading economic engines continued to sputter."

"Meanwhile, the inventory of homes for sale grew by 6.6 percent, and the number of sellers cutting their listing prices jumped 17 percent. Hundreds of homeowners have sliced prices to sell their homes. In October, 37 percent of all listings, 3,973 homes, had price reductions, according to the Triangle MLS."

"Brokers blame the slowdown on competition from home builders offering incentives to move new homes, the inability of transplants to sell their old addresses and potential buyers attempting to wait out further price cuts on resales."

"'We're going though a market adjustment, no question about that,' said Bernard Helm, a market consultant who tracks Triangle residential trends. 'The buyer today is going to wait for the pricing to soften.'"

"Shields Pittman, a broker in Raleigh, said, 'If ... [buyers] aren't in a rush, they've got nothing to lose.'"