The News Press reports from Florida. "One Cape Coral homeowner left an auction sponsored by the Miloff Aubuchon Realty Group elated her home fetched a $400,000 bid. Then the bottom fell out. 'The bid came over the Internet. They said there was a computer glitch,' said Rosemarie Leibert. 'They put it back on auction and the bid was $250,000.' Leibert declined to take the bid."

"'One glitch out of 850 bids isn't that bad,' said Marty Higgenbotham, owner of Higgenbotham Auctioneers. 'We said we'd like to have seller answers to the bids by Tuesday, but that doesn't mean negotiations don't continue. We probably won't know the results until Friday or Saturday.'"

"At both days of the auction everyone spoken to said the bids came in too low and no one expected them to be accepted. Leibert was upset with the auction, calling it a 'farce.' She believes the bids were too low and the auction didn't deliver serious bidders."

"'I think a lot of buyers thought they were going to bottom-feed. These are eager but not desperate sellers.' Jeff Miloff said. 'The auction tells me we are in a market correction.' The bids were so unrealistic the auction showed people didn't do their homework, Miloff said."

The Herald Tribune. "The stalled real estate market turned Stoneybrook at Venice into a very different community than its residents paid for: a half-built subdivision dotted with slow-moving construction sites and 'For Sale' signs."

"The latest news, that mega-developer Lennar will dump more than $6 million in costs on homeowners, has Stoneybrook residents crying foul and preparing a lawsuit. The residents believe Lennar is trying to make up for the fact it has sold less than half of the complex's 998 homes."

"Lennar contends it acted properly. But the meltdown between the developer and the homeowners is perhaps the starkest example of how Southwest Florida's burst real estate bubble has bled on to private residents."

"'What it boils down to is they didn't sell as many homes as they thought they could sell as quickly as they thought they were going to sell,' said resident Gary Natiss, who heads a local homeowners group."

"The residents' grief came to a head Tuesday when the County Commission granted Lennar the ability to tax its residents for $6.6 million in infrastructure costs. The commission's vote was 3-2 in favor of Lennar's request. The tax will add more than $700 a year to some residents' yearly payments."

"Commissioner Jon Thaxton, who voted against the decision, chalked up the residents' hand-wringing to the real estate market boom of 2004 and 2005, a time when 'we had a lot of anxious purchasers and a lot of anxious sales people that were processing disclosures at light speed.'"

"The decision, coupled with Lennar recent increase in some homeowner's dues by $200 a year, another move residents say wasn't properly announced, has a group of more than 150 Stoneybrook residents ready to take Lennar to court."

"During Tuesday's meeting, Stoneybrook residents loudly applauded a speech by Natiss, in which Natiss threatened a lawsuit and said the 'only thing Lennar could be building in this county are license plates while they are wearing their little orange uniforms.'"

"Sales took a dive at Stoneybrook when the real estate market tanked across the region. Today, the complex is about 43 percent sold, which county staff said is less than two-thirds as far along as Lennar hoped. County staff said Lennar will fall almost $8 million short of its revenue goals for its first two years if the sales trend keeps up."

"Indeed, Stoneybrook is only 54 percent built, and at mid-day is nearly as quiet as the nearby Carlton Reserve."

"Signs along North Port's Toledo Blade Boulevard reflect the downturn in the housing market. Builders have turned to touting affordability and hurricane protection, among other things, in their advertising."

"Some billboards and signs seen at model home sites on Toledo Blade: '$139,900,' '$150,000s,' 'Homes for Working Families,' 'Withstands Category 5,' And the ever-present 'Spec Homes Available.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "If you think you're paying more to live in your condo, townhouse or gated community, consider this: It may get worse before it gets better."

"Experts fear that with homes selling slowly, owners who can no longer afford payments may soon abandon them. If that happens, those left behind in communities run by associations must make up the missing share of money to maintain roofs, roads, landscaping and pools."

"'We're seeing a 100 percent increase in the number of files turned over to us [by associations] for lien and foreclosure,' said Gary Poliakoff, whose Fort Lauderdale-based law firm represents 4,200 associations in Florida."

"In Broward County, his firm has more than 900 active collection files. The Palm Beach County office has 200 active cases."

"An association's expenses are constant, so budgets are based on the community's number of homes and apartments. 'Other owners have to make up the shortfall because service providers aren't going to say, `We feel sorry for you and will reduce the cost,' said Poliakoff."

"He said a similar situation existed in the late 1970s and early 1980s and 'it took two or three years for the market to absorb all units.'"

"Another contributing factor to the foreclosure problem is creative financing. 'A significant number of first-time condo buyers acquired them during the boom of the last decade by financing 90 percent or 100 percent and [using] adjustable-rate mortgages,' Poliakoff said."

"Attorney Bill Carneal explained that as interest rates rise, those buyers are 'having to refinance or get rid of their property.'"

"Poliakoff encourages associations to foreclose as a way to beat out lenders. If a bank assumes title to a condo in a foreclosure, the association likely will lose six months of maintenance, money that everyone else will have to make up."

"By beating the bank to the punch, associations can at least get some income by renting the unit, collection foreclosure specialist Adrian Marchisio said. Then, when the market corrects itself, the unit can be sold."