The Palm Beach Post reports from Florida. "The faster they rise, the harder they fall. That old saw aptly applies to new-home prices, and so it is that Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast are now leading the retreat from a boom that saw sales skyrocket and prices soar for five consecutive record-setting years."

"Local builders also admit having a hard time, even though many are still selling hundreds and even thousands of new homes a year. 'Sales are very slow. The residential real estate market is on life support,' said Bobby Julien, CEO of Kolter Communities in West Palm Beach."

"'Depending on location and product, investors have made up as much as 90 percent of a particular market during the past 24 months,' said Clemmer Mayhew, a Realtor in Palm Beach County."

"Investors, who drove the boom's unprecedented success, also provided the seeds of its decline. 'Because of investors, and the greed of builders who sold to investors, we have a huge oversupply,' said Pete Hegener, the developer of massive St. Lucie West and Tradition, both in Port St. Lucie."

"Kolter Communities' Julien agreed. 'We had a whole bunch of builders overbuilding,' he said."

"'I don't believe any of us were prepared,' said Kevin Lawler, managing partner of N-K Ventures in West Palm Beach. A lot of speculators got caught holding the bag, or, in this case, the unsold house, for which they most likely paid a record price. About half of the 991 vacant finished new homes in Palm Beach County developments in the third quarter of this year cost more than $500,000."

"'Many homes are coming back to builders as contracts are canceled,' said Brad Hunter Metrostudy. 'We have firsthand knowledge of hundreds of units in the Treasure Coast, among different builders.'"

"A local real estate lawyer agrees. 'I have been receiving a lot of calls from buyers who want to default and walk away, and wonder if they can get their deposits back,' said John Pankauski in West Palm Beach."

"In Palm Beach County, the supply of vacant finished new homes has more than quadrupled in a year, according to Metrostudy, to 991 in the third quarter from 226 in the same quarter a year ago. In St. Lucie County, the number has nearly tripled, and in slow-growth Martin County, the number of vacant finished new homes has nearly doubled in a year."

"After soaring to $400,000 in September 2005 during an unprecedented five-year real estate boom, the median price of an existing home in Palm Beach County plunged to $365,500 last month, a 9 percent year-over-year drop. It tied with the Treasure Coast for the third-largest drop in the state."

The News Press. "'We were No. 1 going up, and we are No. 1 going down,' said Naples-based real estate broker Ross McIntosh. 'A lot of buildings are going up, but I don't see slabs. The handwriting is more than written on the wall; it's carved on the wall. If you are in business in Southwest Florida, you know what's going on.'"

"We know people are coming in, but we must also realize that people are going out. McIntosh's analysis of drivers' license data suggests that for every two or three people that move into the state, another one leaves, and each of those leaves a home."

"McIntosh is skeptical of what he calls New Urbanism projects, suggesting that investors, not users, are buying residential condos in mixed-use developments such as the Coconut Point mall. 'People would prefer to live in Rapallo than over a shoe store,' he quipped."

"McIntosh says there are only two problems with this real estate market: One is price and the other is supply."

"Developers in unincorporated Lee County, Bonita Springs and Fort Myers Beach pulled 458 permits for single-family houses in September, a drop of 61 percent from the previous year and 22 percent from August. 'Obviously if that is down so drastically, it’s going to affect the employees,' said Michael Reitmann, of the Lee Building Industry Association."

"In the Tampa Bay area, employment in the construction industry has shed more than 2,000 jobs since May, from 87,000 to 84,700. In a good month, Alpine Plumbing of Odessa does about 100 jobs, manager Kyle McCullough said. By September, that fell by half."

"'In December, it’ll probably be even less,' he said. 'In 2007, it could be even worse. Our guys tell us it’s a ghost town out there in the subdivisions.'"

The Tallahassee Democrat. "The Board of Governors of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Tallahassee issued a consumer alert this week to warn home buyers not to fall for the offers of Option Adjustable Rate Mortgages, or Option ARMs. 'I'm refinancing a customer right now who opened an Option ARM a year and a half ago,' said Pat Gaver, incoming president of the local Mortgage Bankers Association."

"'This customer chose the minimum payment option. Her loan balance increased $11,000 in the first year. She opted to pay a 3 percent pre-payment penalty of her total loan balance, which came out to $8,000, just to get out of the loan,' Gaver said. 'It could have been much worse for her because most prepayment penalties are as much as 6 percent.'"

The Orlando Sentinel. "Rhonda Morgan has pulled out all the stops for her recent open houses: big signs, balloons and people in costumes out by the street waving to passers-by."

"Beth Goldstein got into real estate five years ago. She said of the shift to the Internet. 'It's a big source of my business, buyers from out of state.' Unfortunately, Goldstein said, 'I haven't had a buyer off the Internet in about three months.'"

"Goldstein recently organized two open houses on the same day for the same house in Oviedo, one for potential buyers and the other for brokers, with a prize drawing worth $300. 'We're getting a little desperate,' she said, because the number of listings has spiked and sales have tumbled from the record heights of a year ago."