NBC 2 reports from Florida. "New figures show the number of home foreclosures is sky-rocketing in Collier County. The numbers are in for 2006 and they're record-setting. In fact, they doubled in just the last year. Everyone is rushing to sell and those who can't sell are left without a choice and foreclosure is the only option."

"Collier resident Jose Giraldo thought he would be able to flip his home quickly. 'They said it was a good investment at that time, that we'd make some money so we went for it,' said Giraldo."

"But now his second Naples Park home is sitting on the market. He bought the home a couple years ago when the market was hot. He's put thousands of dollars into fixing it up and he says the mortgage payments are just too high to handle."

"Realtor Glenn Ginsburg says many people are finding themselves in the same situation, they're in over their heads and are left without a choice. He says what started as investments are now ending as foreclosures."

"'Interest rates were at four percent, now it's twice that,' said Ginsburg. 'Put it this way, it's not unexpected.'"

"'We are like in a cage, you know?' said Giraldo. Giraldo doesn't fear foreclosure, but he does fear his financial future. Right now, he's paying $2,200 a month for the loan on this home plus the bills and his other mortgage. He says it is just too much to handle. 'We have to take another loan, and just wait,' said Giraldo."

"But according to Ginsburg, the wait won't be a short one. 'I think we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg,' said Ginsburg. He expects the 2007 market will sink even lower, meaning foreclosures will continue to rise."

The Gainesville Sun. "In the Gainesville MSA, 3,174 existing homes sold in 2006 compared to 3,993 in 2005."

"Sherry Patrick, president of the Gainesville-Alachua County Association of Realtors, said the news affected buyers' moods. 'The national media started saying every single real estate market in the country was in trouble and people started reading that and thought, 'I'll wait for that to bottom,' but it's not going to bottom here.'"

"The slowdown in sales means more homes are on the market, currently 1,964 listed in Alachua County, Patrick said. 'A year or two ago, there might be 700 to 800.'"

"That means homes are on the market longer before being sold and buyers have more time to choose. 'A few years ago, they'd run out with their Realtor when something came within their price range and they knew they had to make a move right away,' Patrick said. 'They were going to lose that house if they didn't make up their mind.'"

"The current availability of new homes that are priced to sell tends to inhibit sellers of existing homes from getting as much as they'd like to, said Steve Elwood, senior VP with Coldwell Banker/M.M. Parrish."

"Agent Chris Curry said...many condos that have been converted from apartments are on the market. At the beginning of the year, there were 1,000 condos on the market with 250 selling per month, while at the end of the year 3,300 were on the market with 50 selling per month."

"'Everyone saw the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and started condo-converting,' he said."

The St Petersburg Times. "Reeling from a string of questionable loans, Coast Bank said it alerted auditors this week to track $66-million it disbursed to build 482 investment homes in partnership with St. Petersburg builder Construction Compliance Inc."

"The money certainly didn’t all go into completing the houses. Homes finished in the past 11/2 years in places like Sarasota and Charlotte counties number only in the dozens. CCI customers, many promised sure-bet investment houses for no money down, are asking one big question: Where are the millions withdrawn from Coast Bank in their name?"

"Jeff DeNight of St. Petersburg signed up for a CCI house in October 2005. Coast Bank has disbursed $80,000 toward his construction loan, but the insurance agent has nothing to show for it but a vacant lot on a block that DeNight called 'swamp land.'"

The Herald Tribune. "CCI, which was doing much of its work in North Port and Port Charlotte, stopped paying subcontractors in the fall, but customers say the company drew disproportionately on its construction loans. That means the borrowers are facing liens from subcontractors, and Coast could force them to pay the entire amount of the loan."

"Homes are almost finished for 154, or 32 percent, of the loans. One investment banker who specializes in buying and selling distressed bank debt said Coast could still take big hits, especially on the vacant lots and half-finished houses. 'The issue then becomes what's the likelihood of repayment from the borrowers?' said David Tobin in New York."

"Tobin doubted that the borrowers or the bank could get the full value of the loans for the land, 482 properties in Pinellas, Sarasota and Charlotte counties. 'Each time one of those defaults, and they gave to go sell the land, they're going to take a 50 percent hit, or whatever the number is,' Tobin said."

"A lawyer representing borrowers, Thomas Carrero, said that considering the amount of cash drawn and the paucity of work done, he is starting to think that much of the $66 million released by Coast is missing. Carrero said he spoke with a lawyer who is representing multiple CCI subcontractors who are short by $1 million."

"On Friday morning, the city of Bradenton Beach resolved on a rather large withdrawal at Coast Bank of Florida: $2 million. Coast was seen as the city's unofficial 'central bank,' and had handled millions in various types of deposits for the city and library."

"The financial blow to Coast could be magnified if city employees and vendors who had regularly used the bank also migrate elsewhere for Bradenton Beach-related transactions. Freedom Bank of Bradenton said this week that it has taken in $2 million to $3 million in deposits from former Coast customers. Other local banks seem to be having a similar experience, though there is no way to gauge the magnitude."

The Journal Star. "The troubled real estate market in Florida has started to hit home in insulated Nebraska, however indirectly. In its latest earnings report, TierOne Corp., the biggest bank headquartered in Lincoln, reported its own consequences from what’s happening in real estate elsewhere."

"The bank attributed the increase in non-performing loans and assets primarily to a $16.2 million increase in nonperforming residential construction loans. 'These loans were made primarily to individual homebuyers on the west coast of Florida, which has and continues to experience a price correction in housing values and delays in housing construction,' the bank said."

"Ed Swotek, senior VP for investor relations of TierOne, explained the situation: TierOne goes through mortgage brokers to people building these homes, and has a direct relationship with the homebuyer, who’s financing construction with a 12-month to 18-month loan. Permanent financing happens later, either through TierOne or some other lender."

"The local governments’ permit processes have been backlogged, Swotek said. 'So what you have is a homebuyer who wants to have their second home built, they have entered a contract to build this house, the builders down there file for a building permit, and because of the backlog, nothing happens,' Swotek said."

"So the homebuyer has been paying interest on the construction loan, there’s no permit, no ground broken, and meanwhile, 'there has been some cooling of housing values,' Swotek said. 'Some are just not making payments on their loan,' he said. 'They’re waiting for something to happen.'"

The Wall Street Journal. "Amid a continuing glut of homes for sale in most of the country, buyers should have plenty of choices and lots of bargaining power. In Miami-Dade, the number of existing condos on the market is enough to last 27 months at the current sales rate, says consultant Jack McCabe. The oversupply will grow, he says, as about 8,000 condos are expected to be completed this year and 12,000 in 2008."

"'It's going to get bloody down here,' Mr. McCabe says. He estimates that condo prices in Miami-Dade fell between 8 percent and 10 percent last year and will drop 20 percent in 2007. Eventually, he predicts, hedge funds and other investors will step in to buy surplus condos in bulk at huge discounts."