The Island Packet reports from South Carolina. "The area housing market saw a more than 20 percent drop in the number of single-home sales in 2006 compared to 2005. According to the MLS data, which tracks sales in southern Beaufort County and Jasper County, single-family home prices fell 9.3 percent in 2006 from 2005 levels when looking at median price, and 6.1 percent when looking at average price."

"In real dollars, the median price fell from $430,000 to $390,000. Realtor James Wedgeworth said he's glad 2006 is over. 'It was a bad year,' Wedgeworth said. 'Especially the last four months were very bad.'"

"(Broker) Bob Clarkson, noting the housing market still has roughly three times the inventory compared to 2005, said he thinks prices could drop a bit more. In the area's villa market, the number of sales dropped from 2,146 in 2005 to 857 in 2006, about a 60 percent drop. Villas were often the purchase of choice for investors buying for short-term gain during the booming market in 2005, Clarkson said."

The Times Union from Florida. "For home buyers, the question is no longer 'Will prices drop?' During six months in 2006, they did drop almost 15 percent. Now, as the number of sales still hovers about 20 percent below that of last year, the slow market conjures a different question: 'Where's the bottom?'"

"University of North Florida real estate professor Sid Rosenberg arrives at a 'fair value' far below even the November figures. According to Rosenberg, the 'fair median value' of homes in Jacksonville should be about $165,000 based on what an earner with the local median income can afford."

"'Buyers know that they've got a buyers' market, and if it were me, I'm going to sit there and negotiate very hard,' he said. 'Make lower offers than normal, and if they're not accepted, just move on. Because right now, you can.'"

The Herald Tribune. "Mike Marcus is no newcomer to the game; his Sarasota Builders and Remodelers has been in business for years. A couple years ago, Marcus decided that building hurricane-resistant houses was the way to go. Then the boom went bust."

"'It took a year longer to build than we had planned,' he said. 'In doing that, we inadvertently missed the real estate bubble. I am very happy to lose some money on them,' said Marcus, who said he would be happy to get $249,000. 'It's nobody's fault. It was good, sound business decisions, but things changed.'"

"When construction of the $150 million Promenade at Riverwalk condominiums got under way on the Manatee River in late 2004, the development promised to eventually transform downtown Bradenton."

"One of the project's planned 15-story towers will now be scaled down to five stories to offer smaller and much less pricey condominiums. 'It was a market-based decision,' said Bob Hatfield, the Atlanta developer behind the project. 'There's a limit to what the market can absorb in terms of higher-cost condominiums.'"

"In November, sales of condos were down 33 percent in the Sarasota-Bradenton market compared with the previous year. Prices were down 7 percent over that same period."

The Orlando Sentinel. "After the city hemmed, hawed and battled with developers of a downtown project for years, Mayor David Strong is now hoping the developers of The Carlisle will simply go away -- if he gives them more than $5 million."

"The money is the amount Strong wants to give the developers in exchange for not building the project, and for not suing the city, should commissioners vote to deny the project after giving an earlier thumbs-up."

The Sun Sentinel. "Gary Posner and the Hollywood Community Redevelopment Agency became partners three years ago in an ambitious and, city leaders now admit, flawed plan to transform a chunk of downtown Hollywood."

"Today, both sides want out of the deal, hopes for a theater, trendy galleries and chic condos are all but dead and the city is trying to explain why it loaned $5.2 million to a man who had never attempted a major urban project. Commissioners didn't even ask for a credit check before approving the loans."

"'This is, without a doubt, the biggest mistake the City Commission has ever made,' Commissioner Cathy Anderson said of the development project. 'It's been a fiasco from the very beginning, and we all voted for it.'"

"'I never look back, and it was an experience,' Posner said. 'Let somebody else step in and worry about it now. I'll make some money out of the deal, so that's OK too.'"