The Wilmington Star reports from North Carolina. "A rising number of people in Brunswick County risk losing their homes to foreclosure, according to statistics from the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts. So far this year, the repossession man is knocking more frequently, especially in Brunswick, which has had almost a third of last year's total in just the first fifth of 2007."

"'It had been a long time since we saw anything close to the water," said (realtor) Pam Wooddell, who has had several repossessed listings in Oak Island as well as on New Hanover beaches."

"She recently represented a foreclosed home three blocks from the ocean in Kure Beach. The owners had started it on the market for $789,000 with no takers. The bank listed it for $300,000 less, she said. It closes this week at close to that price."

"What she finds disturbing is how many of the properties facing foreclosure were bought just last year, raising the possibility of predatory lending."

"'It certainly would appear that perhaps some loan fraud or predatory lending went on and got people into houses perhaps they shouldn't be in,' she said."

"In boom years, distressed property owners could count on a quick sale or refinancing to bail them out before the lender started foreclosure. 'That's simply not happening now,' said agent Clinton Howlett who specializes in foreclosed properties, adding that even oceanfront properties have gone through foreclosure without being bought by an investor, a sign of how slow some beach markets have become."

The Sun Sentinel from Florida. "South Florida has has a higher rate of loans to borrowers with shaky credit than the national average. Meanwhile, the troubles of New Century Financial Corp., the nation's second-largest subprime lender, have affected local offices of one of its subsidiaries."

"Home 123 Mortgage, which has offices in North Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Plantation, has stopped funding existing loans and accepting new business, as has New Century."

"Subprime lending has a much bigger share of the South Florida market than the nationwide average of 14.7 percent of all mortgage loans outstanding at the end of 2006."

"In Broward County, 18.4 percent of mortgages are 'subprime,' while Palm Beach County has 13.3 percent of its mortgages in that category, according to First American LoanPerformance, a San Francisco-based mortgage data company. Miami-Dade has the biggest share of subprime mortgages in the region, 23 percent."

"Christopher Cagan, director of research for First American CoreLogic, expects South Florida to be hit hard by foreclosures because prices rose quickly, causing people to stretch to buy expensive homes using 'teaser-rate' financing."

"'Two years ago, the rules were gone and everything was perfect,' Cagan said. 'This is the other side of the boom.'"

The St Petersburg Times. "So long, paycheck. Citing growing woes of its subprime mortgage unit, Fremont Investment & Loan told several hundred Tampa employees Monday it will lay them off May 18."

"Fremont's troubles are also taking a toll on the local employment scene. Tampa is one of its residential mortgage division's four regional hubs, and hopes that the staff here would keep their jobs under a new acquirer have faded."

The News Journal. "As a real estate slowdown began tightening its grip on the local economy last summer, average wages in Flagler County dropped below $29,000, a 9.2 percent slide from the mid-2005 level, the state reported Monday."

"Flagler County, heavily dependent on housing construction and sales for its livelihood, serves as a coal miner's canary for Volusia County, said Rick Michael, Volusia's director of economic development."

"'Flagler's economy is so based on housing that we watch the Flagler market as a pre-warning of the Volusia market,' Michael said."

"Michael estimated Volusia's work force of 254,000 has shed about 5,000 jobs. Unemployment, which had been hovering around 7,300 last year, rose to about 9,200. 'We were surprised by the loss of 400 to 500 jobs in business and professional services,' Michael said. 'We had been growing in that area every month.'"

"Flagler's construction industry has lost about 150 jobs, slipping below 2,000, said Sharon Warriner, spokesman for the Workforce Development Board of Flagler and Volusia. More significant, she said, was a 'huge' cutback in Flagler's real estate and mortgage industry, shrinking from nearly 2,000 workers in September 2005 to 532 the following summer."

The Orlando Sentinel. "More than 15,000 condo-hotel rooms could flood Central Florida during the next several years in one of the biggest, and possibly riskiest, building booms ever to sweep the region's lodging industry."

"'If all these rooms are built, the Orlando market would have the greatest concentration of condo hotels in the country,' said Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach real-estate consultant. 'The investment potential of these things is really in question. What kind of appreciation, or depreciation, will we see on these units? No one knows.'"

"Condo-hotel developers walk a fine line when they market their projects, often to the high end. Because the units are condominiums, security laws prohibit sellers from marketing them as business investments -- for good reason. Hotel-room rates and occupancy levels can fluctuate, making a rate of return hard to forecast."

"Rob Risman, an attorney from Cleveland who specializes in real-estate development, bought a unit at Mona Lisa at Celebration, a condo hotel being built near Walt Disney World."

"'Condo hotels are a lifestyle purchase,' Risman said. 'I really don't look at it as an investment. It is a second home that we don't need to decorate, and they take care of everything.'"

"Risman said buyers need to understand that condo hotels will only work if the hotel is viable. 'At the end of the day, I don't think anything will work as an investment if it doesn't work as a good hotel,' Risman said."

"Condo hotels have been around for several decades, but they only recently gained mainstream status. According to Smith Travel Research, one in 10 hotel rooms being planned or built in the United States is a condominium."

"Orlando has 15,518 of the rooms in the development pipeline, second only to Las Vegas, which has 30,032. More condo hotels are planned for Florida than any other state."

"Some proposed projects, including The Blue Rose and Palazzo del Lago are megaresorts, each with more than 1,000 units. And the cost of those units is high. At The Blue Rose, prices start at more than $300,000."

"Blue Rose developer Camilo Aguirre said sales have gone well since the project was announced a year ago, but he acknowledged things are getting tougher. 'The market isn't what it was two years ago or even a year ago,' Aguirre said."

"A slowing real-estate market might delay or scuttle some condo-hotel plans. But market experts say the condo-hotel market has other limitations, including an uncertain resale market and management issues that could complicate ownership."

"'From the investors side, there are a lot of other places to put your money,' said Scott Smith, vice president of PKF Consulting in Atlanta. 'It is risky. You have to wonder how deep the market is.'"

"Bill Haberman, a partner in the company developing Mona Lisa at Celebration, said the number of people willing to pay several hundred thousand dollars for a hotel room is limited, but he said the model works for some. He had a word of caution for anyone hoping to defray ownership costs with room-rental income."

"'If this is done properly, it works out as a better version of a vacation rental for some people,' Haberman said. 'But other people want to go beyond that. They hope that these things will make a lot of money.' Haberman said buyers shouldn't count on that."