The Tampa Tribune reports from Florida. "Home builders should offer incentives or slash prices to sell off hundreds of thousands of vacant new houses glutting markets nationwide, housing experts warned Wednesday at the International Builders Show in Orlando."

"'I'm telling builders that we absolutely have to move these houses' before the real estate market will rebound, said said David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders."

"The Tampa Bay area is among the places with an oversupply of new homes on the market. There were 4,606 vacant new homes in the Bay area at the end of the fourth quarter of 2006, an increase of 1,700 from the same period a year ago, according to Metrostudy."

"More than 34,000 existing homes are on the market in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, according to local real estate trade groups."

The Orlando Sentinel. "The industry still faces challenges brought on in part by overbuilding in 2004-05, when real estate speculators were among those snapping up houses, a phenomenon that resulted in hundreds of thousands of homes sitting unsold across the U.S., said Seiders."

"'There is a seriously large inventory,' Seiders said, now that demand from investors has cooled and the market is struggling to return to more normal supply-and-demand levels. He said the industry overbuilt by about 400,000 units nationwide over a period of several years, though that number now is being whittled down."

"Other economists who spoke Wednesday forecast that a rebound wasn't likely to occur until later this year, and it could be a weak recovery because of high home prices."

"'Affordability is at the heart of what drives housing demand," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant that helps provide liquidity for the $8 trillion home-loan market. 'House prices have shot up so much over the past five years, it will take time for affordability measures to gradually improve.'"

"He said the industry still faces 'a rocky road.'"

The Palm Beach Post. "Home prices will continue to slide for the rest of 2007, Berson said. For 2007, home price appreciation 'is likely to move modestly negative,' said Berson of Fannie Mae."

"'We're not at the trough yet for single-family home sales,' Nothaft said, noting that home prices will have to fall further to burn through the current high levels of housing inventory."

"That's not what the more than 100,000 home builders, Realtors and other industry representatives attending the four-day show at the Orange County Convention Center wanted to hear. But most acknowledge that today's near-record level of homes follows a five-year run-up in home prices, fueled by low mortgage rates and investor dollars."

"Nowhere was that more true than in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. The median price of an existing single-family home in Palm Beach County soared to a peak of $421,500 in November 2005, plunged to $365,600 in October 2006 and ended the year at $368,200, according to the Florida Association of Realtors."

"Median single-family home prices for the year in Palm Beach County posted a 10 percent annual decline from 2005."

"The local condo market, however, 'is not out of the woods yet,' Berson cautioned. 'There's been a huge swell in price weakness in condos,' he said. 'The falloff was bigger in condos because they're more like a commodity.'"

"Seiders of the builders association placed some of the blame for falling home prices directly on builders' shoulders. 'I told Congress we overbuilt the market by 400,000 units,' he said."

"Berson agreed. 'Inventory overhang (unsold homes on the market) is causing price weakness,' Berson said. 'If builders had anticipated that, we wouldn't see these price declines.'"

"The record backlog of unsold inventory nationwide is causing sellers major headaches, he said. 'It means having two houses for sale on your block at the same time when you put yours on the market, which causes you to lower your price,' Berson said."

"Even though new-home builders have slashed prices and offered everything from upgraded appliances to free closing costs, they need to keep aggressively selling, Seiders said. 'Because of builder giveaways, margins have taken it on the chin,' he said."

"Half of the builders surveyed said they cut prices in the fourth quarter of 2006, and 80 percent made non-price incentives, such as buying down interest rates, Seiders said. But builders need to do more, he said. 'Builders have gotta keep up sales efforts and gotta keep inventory going down. The vacant units for sale are critical.'"

"Other factors besides overbuilding contributed to the housing market slowdown, the economists acknowledged. The lowest mortgage rates in a generation, aggressive lenders and record rates of real house-price appreciation that drew in investors also helped cause 'a grossly overheated market,' said Seiders, spreading the blame."

"One of the worst effects of the housing market decline has been the rise in foreclosures nationwide. About 30 percent of homes that enter some stage of foreclosure get taken back by lenders and become part of the massive unsold inventory of homes, Seiders said."

The Dallas News. "Berson blames speculators for a lot of housing's woes. 'We don't think we have seen the bottom – the reason is not the core housing demand but investors,' Mr. Berson said."

"By some estimates, buyers of investment and second homes accounted for more than 30 percent of recent home sales. Many of those investor-buyers are now bailing from softening housing markets. If investors dump houses on the market, it could further depress prices in some areas."