The Wall Street Journal reports from Florida. "Plenty of investors, who purchased homes to rent or flip, continued to buy and sell through the height of the boom. One of them was Marjorie Dresner. The Canadian native believed that Naples would long be an attractive market. A prolific investor, she purchased dozens of houses in recent years, many of them with a partner. One of them cost her $1.7 million."

"But it's increasingly evident that investors and speculators here and elsewhere played a greater role than previously thought in pumping up the real-estate bubble, especially near the end of the run."

"In late October, Ms. Dresner tried auctioning off 28 of her properties, but some bids were as much as 40 percent lower than what she paid. One three-bedroom ranch house she purchased in July 2005 in the middle-class Lake Park neighborhood fetched a high bid of $400,000; Ms. Dresner and a partner paid $690,000 for the house, according to county records."

"Ms. Dresner won't talk much about her investment experience, but prefers to focus on the positive. 'I did very well in the beginning,' she says. 'I look at the overall picture. You don't just look at one year.'"

"Economists cite individual investors for pushing prices up excessively and lenders for lowering their credit standards. 'The thing that sent us into a contraction was that house prices were getting high and affordability was aggravated by investor speculation,' says David Lereah, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors."

"Some of the buyers who placed bids on Ms. Dresner's houses at the auction in October were other investors. One of them was Jerry Krecicki Jr. 'It's all about timing,' says Mr. Krecicki, a local real-estate investor and real-estate agent who believes the market will rebound."

"Mr. Krecicki says he met Ms. Dresner a few months after he sold her his home in Lake Park in September 2004 for $435,000, more than double what he paid for it. After that deal, Mr. Krecicki served as her real-estate agent on multiple sales in Lake Park."

"Mr. Krecicki says he went to the auction out of curiosity and jumped into the bidding when he saw the low prices. 'After about two hours, a house came up for bid that I knew very well,' Mr. Krecicki recounted. They put up the highest bid, which was $275,000. It was the same house Mr. Krecicki and a partner sold to Ms. Dresner for $435,000. Given the huge price drop, 'it would have been stupidity' not to bid, Mr. Krecicki says."

"Many of the sales from the auction haven't closed yet. In many cases the top bids on Ms. Dresner's homes weren't high enough to pay off her lenders in full, says auctioneer Paul Drake. Ms. Dresner says she never bought a home for more than its appraised value. 'The sellers can ask whatever, but it's up to the banks in how they appraise it,' she says. 'I never overpaid for anything.'"

"In the past month, both Countrywide Home Loans Inc. and the Bank of New York filed court papers in Collier County Circuit Court in Florida saying they are seeking to force a foreclosure sale on two properties owned by Ms. Dresner."

"Mr. Krecicki and a partner still own about a dozen homes that they are renting out. He says they have cash reserves to cover homes where expenses exceed the rental income. He says he feels badly that Ms. Dresner has had trouble selling her properties. 'This market downturn came out of nowhere, like a snowstorm,' he says. 'It surprised everybody, especially the people making mortgage payments.'"

The Naples News. "Naples real estate is in the national news — again. The Wall Street Journal published a story about a 'slump in chic Naples,' noting that home prices have dropped and the number of unsold homes have swelled as frenzied investors have scrambled to get rid of their properties."

"Word about the story spread quickly among real estate agents, brokers, builders, and developers on Monday. Some say it will only hurt the market, while others say it may actually help the market by bringing attention to Naples."

"'You know the old adage, 'I don't care what you say about me, just spell my name right,' said Ross McIntosh, a Naples-based real estate broker. He said the story could actually rekindle interest in the market if buyers get the impression that prices have plunged or there are bargains to be had in Naples."

"'We don't want the speculators back,' McIntosh said. 'But this kind of news may attract real buyers. So how is that bad for business?'"

"Realtor Bob Brewer received several calls from clients in New York, New Jersey and other Northern states about the story. 'They wanted to know what was going on,' he said. 'Their comments were, 'Are they still printing that garbage?' He said he is working with 15 to 20 buyers who can't find what they're looking for, though there's a 16-month supply of homes on the market."

"Michele Harrison, president of the Collier Building Industry Association, said the worst has passed, as other local, state and national headlines have acknowledged the market has started to turn. 'If I were in the market to purchase this is the time I would be looking,' she said. 'Right now.'"

From TC Palm. "In the cooled-down housing market, some Port St. Lucie builders are complaining about the city's longstanding policy to require all property owners to pay an 'availability charge' for trash pick-up on vacant houses."

"Having to pay $70.50 every three months for trash service at every house he doesn't sell won't help, said Pyramid Development VP Aleksin Szwed. 'It's not a pro-business environment for builders,' Szwed said. '(But) that might be something they want to do. They've had too much building, maybe.'"

"Metrostudy, a company that tracks housing, reported 1,059 completed but unoccupied homes in St. Lucie County at the end of September. In 2005, there were 492 homes completed, but empty."

"The housing market is causing a 'predicament' for builders, Mayor Patricia Christensen said, but the city is unlikely to change the trash bill policy because it would make garbage collection too difficult. 'They have to pick everything up,' Christensen said. 'If they had to go down a list and say, 'Wait! That house hasn't paid. Leave the pile,' (then) we'd have piles everywhere.'"