The TC Palm reports from Florida. "Affordable housing, welcome to Vero Beach. Centex Corp., is offering new single-family homes in the VeroLago subdivision starting at $158,990. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home was first offered at $218,000 in November."

"Don Santos, past president of the Treasure Coast Builders Association, said the new price points will certainly attract more traffic into the model homes, which could translate into buyers. 'I think in today's market, price is the determining factor on whether or not someone buys a home or not,' Santos said. 'I think they've realized that they if they want to continue selling homes, they have to come down in prices.'"

"(Broker) Sally Daley in Vero Beach agreed, but questioned if flippers and speculators who bought during the boom years will also be willing to lower their prices. 'Only time will tell as both investors and developers have shown a willingness to offer both incentives and aggressive pricing to sell their properties,' Daley said. 'There are a ton of investor-owned properties currently on the market that are direct competition for new developments like this.'"

"Helene Caseltine, development director at the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce who has pushed for more work force housing in Vero Beach sees the pricing as a positive. 'I think it's a step in the right direction,' Caseltine said. 'I think it's great, but I hope it's just the beginning.'"

The Herald Tribune. "The idea of buying houses in Southwest Florida with no money down and making tens of thousands of dollars by selling them before construction was even done obviously appealed to a lot of investors nationwide."

"Hundreds of investors from California to New Jersey jumped at the opportunity to sign contracts with St. Petersburg-based Construction Compliance Inc. and Enchanted Homes and Advantage Builders of America in Fort Myers. But with the real estate market in general retreat, CCI is now in deep trouble."

"Advantage's customers are not satisfied. They say Advantage did not begin building their homes as planned, and officials at the Fort Myers company have been unreachable."

"Bruce Steifman of Old Bethpage, N.Y., found out about Enchanted Homes from a representative of Seashore, a company that made a presentation to his Long Island real estate investment club. For a reservation fee of $12,000, Seashore representatives promised to handle everything about Steifman's investment."

"The problem, Steifman said, is that when he contracted with Seashore and Enchanted in early 2006, it looked like the real estate market in Southwest Florida was still strong. 'Most investors took $12,000 out of their pockets and expected to make $50,000,' Steifman said. 'They figured they would never have to close. But now, because the market has turned, there's an abundance of inventory and houses are not worth what they were.'"

"'I'm caught in it, too, but I don't think anyone misrepresented anything,' he added."

"Both Seashore and Enchanted met their obligations, Steifman said. The only company that the New York investor is worried about is Coast Financial Holdings, the Bradenton-based holding company of Coast Bank. 'I'm just going to pay off my loan to Coast and get some sort of creative financing,' Steifman said."

"'My house got finished,' said Craig Rymal, a Bluffton, S.C.-based home builder, who contracted with Enchanted to build two houses in Cape Coral. Like other Enchanted investors, Rymal was hoping to sell his houses at a profit, but he is prepared to rent them for a while. 'The market is just as slow up here in South Carolina.'"

The Sun Times. "It was late November in 2005, and Dan and his wife saw what they thought would make a good holiday gift to themselves within a year or so. They picked out a condo they liked, that seemed like it would return a handsome profit in short order." "After running the numbers over and over for the next few weeks, they convinced themselves that they had made the right decision. So they bought three more virtually identical condos in the same location."

"I was telling Dan's tale to Connie, my friend and a real estate investor. 'Once you convince yourself that you have made the right decision,' said Connie, 'it is natural to try to multiply that.'"

"In one condo association I studied, at least four couples made the same move that Dan and his wife did. They each bought four condos. Others bought three of the same; still others bought two of the same. Now there are 48 of those you-can't-miss-with-these condos on the market at the same time."

"I have a good friend and client who is an astute investor. His name is Red. 'Most people run into a problem because they buy one piece in one market. If the market goes sour, or it happens to be a questionable buy, they get hurt,' said Red. Maintenance costs, interest on the mortgage, taxes, lawyer's fees and real estate commissions start eating quickly into the hoped-for profit, Red said: 'Soon these investors have a loss on the books and are bemoaning their fate.'"

"'With two partners, I bought two pre-construction homes in Lee County. We were supposed to close this month and decided that the market had declined so badly we would be better to walk away from our down payment than to hang tough and maybe have a bigger loss down the road,' Red said."

"What's Red's opinion of the Naples market now? 'This is a fabulous time to buy in Naples, because the forecasts for continued growth are positive and the prices are low,' Red said."