The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. "Over the past few years, Chris Fountain and her husband bought 10 small parcels in the largely undeveloped eastern section of North Port, part of the couple's plan to dabble in Florida real estate. Like other speculators in North Port real estate, they now find themselves in a double bind."

"As the value of their property rose so did their tax bills. Now, people like Fountain and her husband are facing their highest tax bills ever in a market where selling would likely mean taking a loss."

"In 2005, 2,100 lots sold in North Port. Last year, 380 sold."

"Fountain's lots are uncleared, lie along badly worn roads, and nine of the 10 don't have city water or sewer service. Yet the properties will cost Fountain and her husband, Guy Padhaisky, almost $8,000 this year in taxes. Combined with what they will pay for their residence, the couple will give almost one third of their income to various government bodies this year."

"'The middle class is just being wiped out,' Fountain said of small-time land speculators in a city with more than 60,000 empty home lots. 'We could sell all our lots and still not make any money,' said Padhaisky, noting that years of taxes already paid and a buyers' market that is driving prices down would likely lead to a loss if he decided to sell."

"Jeff Berman and his father, Herb, own more than 200 lots in North Port. In business for more than a decade, the Bermans sold an all-time low four properties last year. Meanwhile they have tax bills totaling $140,000."

"'It's the first year we've ever been negative,' Jeff Berman said. So the Bermans have decided they won't pay the taxes on about one third of their lots. And they are not alone."

"'I'm not going to pay all my taxes,' said Lanie Campion, a retired man who lives in Sarasota and owns more than 100 lots in North Port. His tax bill for those lots is about $100,000."

"The only hope for people like Fountain and Padhaisky could be some form of property tax relief. Even if that happens this year, it's not going to affect Padhaisky's 2006 tax bills. 'What is the county of Sarasota doing for me?' he said, standing on one of the couple's wooded lots in an area so deserted people dump debris on his land."

"The loan crisis between Construction Compliance Inc. and Coast Bank of Florida is wider than one bank or one geographic area. A CCI customer who immigrated recently from China and some of his friends have a total of seven CCI homes with construction at a standstill."

"Another CCI customer from Pennsylvania, Steve Hatch, has seen $110,000 drawn from his Coast Bank loan with only a slab to show for it. That, too, is a story fairly common to CCI customers. But Hatch's property is in Sebring, not Charlotte County or North Port."

"Some of the properties of Caijun Sun and his colleagues were not financed by Coast, but by Ohio-based National City Mortgage. On Wednesday he retained Sarasota attorney Alan E. Tannenbaum, a construction law and real estate specialist who represents other CCI home buyers."

"In September 2005, he contracted with CCI to build a home in the Charlotte County community of Rotonda. Sun made a $17,500 deposit and got a construction loan from Coast Bank."

"Including his deposits, Sun is now on the hook for $95,000 and says his credit has been trashed. 'How can something like this happen?' he asked."

"Hatch, a Millersville, Pa., resident, is asking himself the same thing. Hatch agreed to invest in another speculative property, one that CCI was supposed to build in Sebring's Sun 'n Lakes Estates. That golf resort is owned and operated by National Recreation Properties, the Irvine, Calif.-based company whose TV spokesman is former 'CHiPS' star Erik Estrada."

"Hatch signed the $265,000 contract for the Sebring home on Dec. 20, 2005, and made a $5,000 downpayment. He was stunned to find in December that his account at Coast was drawn down by $110,000. 'I was freaking out,' said Hatch, describing himself as 'having a mental block accepting' what had happened."

"'I will be damned if I take a $110,000 loan for a $30,000 lot,' Hatch said Wednesday. 'I'll walk away, let the bank foreclose and take the hit to my credit.'"

"A visit to the site today revealed that property consists of only a concrete slab. A spokeswoman for the Highlands County Building Department said the slab has yet to be inspected, and because the permit for the work is more than six months old and the site is apparently inactive, more impact fees would be levied against the homeowner."

"Susan Matyi, a Jacksonville, Fla., retiree, has spent six months trying to sell her four-bedroom, two-bath ranch-style home. She has reduced the price to below appraisal in an attempt to sell it more quickly."

"'In this market, you do have to market your house well and have a reasonable price,' Matyi says. 'We had a good offer on our house three days after we put it on the market. We didn't take it, but we should have.'"