The Miami Herald reports from Florida. "Coral Gables lawyer Brian Bieber is intimately acquainted with mortgage fraud, having represented people accused of the crime. But earlier this year, he was stunned when a broker instructed his own mother, a Broward County schoolteacher, to create phony evidence of a second job to get a mortgage for a Hallandale Beach condo."

"'That mortgage broker actually suggested to my mother that she obtain a false letter of employment from me and my law firm,' Bieber said. 'The broker went so far as to give her the explicit amount my mother needed to be earning per week and asked my mother to ask me to generate at least four pay stubs.'"

"Bieber called the North Miami broker, who he wouldn't name, himself. 'I confronted him and told him he could wind up getting indicted. He said, 'Everybody does it.'"

"Florida has 67,266 licensed mortgage brokers, up from 41,211 three years ago. 'You had all these guys doing [refinances]...they got used to a lifestyle where they were making $100 to $150 grand a year,' said Scott Messina, a Stuart-based industry veteran. 'Take the pie and divide it by half, and now instead of making $100,000 a year, their making $30,000. They have to make money, too, and desperate people do desperate things.'"

"Brokers and other originators can be forced to buy back fraudulent loans from investors who buy bundles of loans on the secondary market. Defense attorney Bieber told the broker who propositioned him and his mother to hang on to his phone number. 'You better save your money; you may need my legal services in the very near future,' he said."

The Palm Beach Post. "In November, St. Lucie County saw its troubled real estate more than triple. 'Tons of new homes have been built in St. Lucie County in the past couple of years, and a big chunk of those were snapped up by speculators,' said Mike Larson, an analyst in Jupiter. 'Now, some are finding they can't rent them out for enough to cover their mortgages.'"

"Larson blames 'excess speculation' for driving prices far beyond what fundamental economic forces dictated. 'Now, with prices falling, that irrational exuberance is being wrung out one foreclosure at a time,' he said."

The Bradenton Herald. "'A prolonged weakness in house prices will no longer allow consumers to extract cash or liquidity from their home,' said Jerry Kirschner, the executive director of a Sarasota-based liaison between business and government. 'If homeowners face mortgage refinancing, increased property taxes and insurance, without consideration of maintenance expense, the homeowner mortgage financial obligation triangle will rapidly absorb household liquidity for many people in our area.'"

"Sarasota County Property Appraiser Jim Todora joked at Wednesday's luncheon that he has had his share of 'fan mail' over the past year."

"'A person had wrote, 'What are you doing down there? Are you out of your cotton-picking mind? Are you crazy? Don't you know what is happening in the real estate market?' Todora said. 'I really enjoyed a homeowner who wrote to me lately. She said, 'At this point you've probably been called every name in the book, so I thought I would skip that part and get to the important stuff.'"

"Dale Friedley of the Manatee County Property Appraiser's Office, said the Sunshine State seems to have escaped fears of possible housing depreciation. 'There's no evidence at all of depreciation in Florida,' Friedley said."

"Any county that experiences a 27 percent increase in its taxable value in a year should call it a miracle, Todora said. 'If we were to think that kind of trend was going to continue, I think we would only be kidding ourselves,' Todora said. 'We would probably break apart at the seams.'"

The Herald Tribune. "The plummeting real estate market could spell a rare downturn in taxable land values, at least in parts of Florida. And that could force local governments to raise tax rates to make up the difference."

"Government officials say such increases are not out of the question. Charlotte County Administrator Bruce Loucks said that if property values fall, governments would have three choices: cut spending, raise tax rates, or both. 'This isn't a surprise to anyone,' said Loucks."

The Atlanta Journal Constitution from Georgia. "While sales and construction are not crashing here the way they are in some other places, Georgia is suffering a parallel, if milder, downturn in housing, said P. George Benson, of the University of Georgia. 'The nation's and Georgia's housing markets are already in recession, both of them," he said."

"All in all, the r-word fits the situation, agreed Roger Tutterow, of Mercer University. 'If you define a recession as contraction in the level of production and activity, whether locally or nationally, it is clear that is happening,' he said. 'You have to admit the housing market has slowed.'"

The Ledger Enquirer from Alabama. "The tide of the real estate market here has rushed out as quickly as it rolled in last year, real estate agents and property owners say."

"Recent arrivals who hoped to turn their investments quickly and now suspect they're stuck for a while. 'The market has dropped off fast. It'll come back again in the future, but nobody knows when,' said Bill West. Two years ago, he put $190,000 into the land and the construction of the house, he said. Next year, he said, he plans to put it on the market for about $430,000. 'It'll be a hard sell, and I know it,' West said."

"Waterfront property values went up more than 50 percent in 2005, according to property sales records. Then in August came Hurricane Katrina and the following Gulf Coast-wide real estate slump. This year, property sales dropped back down to 2004 levels, and prices have dropped more than 30 percent from last year."

"'The trends here are pretty much in line with what you're seeing everywhere along the Gulf Coast right now,' said (realtor) Marc Estes in Bayou La Batre. The difference in the Bayou is that the market had only just begun to draw investor interest when Katrina hit, he said."

"In 2003, just six properties were sold in the Bayou, according to records. In 2004, sales rose to 18 properties. Last year, 40 properties changed hands, more than 60 percent of them snapped up by investors and speculators, according to Mobile County property sale records. This year, just 16 properties were sold, according to records."

"'The entire Gulf Coast is facing the same problem right now,' said (realtor) Lee Martin of Port City Realty. Sales on Dauphin Island are down 65 percent from last year."

"West said he wished he'd known two years ago what he was getting into when he bought a lot in Woodbridge Landing. Four lots there sold in the past three years for $100,000 to $150,000 each, according to records. Houses were built on two of them, one of them West's. The remaining five lots have sat, unsold and undeveloped, though each has bayou frontage."

"The growth hoped for by people like West, Estes and James may come, but 'it may be 10 years or more down the line,' West said. Next year, he said, he expects to make a little money on the house he built, 'but nowhere near what I was speculating.'"