The News Press reports from Florida. "Compared to the market a year ago, both prices and numbers of sales in Lee County were down sharply: prices were off 7 percent from January 2006's $287,200 and sales were down 34 percent. Locally, some would-be sellers are feeling a mounting frustration as they find themselves unable to dispose of their homes for what they consider a fair price."

"'It's incongruous,' said Jerry Adler, who's been trying to sell his four-bedroom, three-bath house in south Fort Myers for a year and a half so he can move to Tucson, Ariz. 'The mortgage rates are good, the median price is down, building permits are down, employment is up, so what the hell does sales price have to do with it?'"

"Adler started off asking $535,000 and now has it listed at $464,900 but still hasn't had a nibble, he said. 'It's not logical.'"

"Meanwhile, the supply of unsold resales continues to mount: about 15,000 single-family homes for sale in Lee County, about four times what it was a year ago."

"(Realtor) Phil Wood said part of the problem is unrealistically high expectations from sellers. 'There's the real inventory and the fake inventory,' with about 40 percent of the houses listed for sale being beyond the range of what someone might realistically pay, he said, sellers need to adjust their asking prices to the real world."

"One expert said the big price increases for homes in 2004 and 2005 are to blame for sluggish sales. 'The Fort Myers area was heavily speculator-driven during the run-up,' said Brad Hunter, an analyst at Metrostudy. Speculators listing properties 'are not yet lowering their prices enough to let those properties sell.'"

"One hopeful seller, Cindy Infiesto, is trying to sell her 6,300-square-foot, all-concrete Alva house on 7.5 acres with a seven-stall horse barn and a putting green."

"Infiesto, a real estate broker with the Florida Real Estate Store, is motivated to sell, with a property tax bill of more than $13,000 this year and skyrocketing insurance rates. But at $1.4 million, no dice."

"'I'm desperate to sell my house,' she said. 'I'll even throw in the horses,' she said with a chuckle."

"The washed out hotels, crumbled asphalt and shuttered businesses that marred Pensacola Beach after Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis in 2004 and 2005 are mostly gone. But real estate agent John Pinzino still cannot find buyers for the homes and condos he has listed."

"Only five of 354 residential properties on the market in Pensacola Beach sold in January. Pinzino lost one deal after the prospective buyers paid a deposit, but later discovered the $3,500 they had estimated for insurance would actually be $8,500."

"'(Insurance) is a huge deterrent to anyone looking at buying property anywhere in our state. We have property for sale that normally would have been gobbled up but, because of the insurance situation, is just sitting,' Pinzino said."

The Herald Tribune. "Many of the homes in the south Manatee County gated community were built around the same time and are of similar appearance. That makes for easy comparisons."

"In early 2004, the houses were changing hands for list prices in the mid $400,000s. Toward the end of that year, some sellers were asking for and getting prices in the low to mid $500,000s."

"Then, during 2005, pricing got wackier, edging into the upper $500,000s and the low $600,000s. Even in 2006, with the market starting to crumble, one asked and received $624,000 for a 2,400-square foot home on the same street as real estate agent Steve Dutoit's listing."

"Dutoit just listed the three-two with a den, a three-car garage, twin pantries, a deluxe kitchen and a screened pool for $519,500. 'That home probably would have sold in the sixes, say, in the summer of 2005,' said Dutoit. 'We've just seen probably a 30 percent drop in value in most of our inventory.'"

The News Journal. "In Volusia-Flagler, Realtors sold 520 houses, down 19 percent from the 643 sales in January 2006. The median sales price, the point at which half sell for more and half for less, was $207,100, down 8 percent from $225,600 in January last year."

"Stephanie Decker is confident her house will sell. She just doesn't know when. 'I've had a lot of people looking at it,' she said Tuesday. 'I'm not really worried. It'll sell eventually.'"

"In Flagler County, a large inventory of home builders' spec homes is adding to the pressures sellers are facing, said Honora Giumenta, president of the Flagler County Association of Realtors. Giumenta said homes have to be priced right to make them attractive to buyers, and some sellers are 'rethinking' and lowering their asking prices."

The Palm Beach Post. "Struggling local housing markets started 2007 not with a bang but a whimper. Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast both reported plunging home sales and declining prices for existing single-family homes, the Florida Association of Realtors said."

"Some Realtors said buyers are still sitting on the fence, despite recent price drops. 'People keep talking about the lack of supply of affordable housing, but they are not rushing toward the opportunity,' said (broker) Randy Bianchi in West Palm Beach."

"Hesitant buyers, and sellers who won't lower prices, pushed the inventory of unsold homes between Boca Raton and Hobe Sound to 22,888 homes in January, according to Illustrated Properties Real Estate. That's a 37 percent increase over January 2006."

"A housing economist believes the inventory of unsold condos for sale in Palm Beach County could shoot up in a couple of years 'when all the units currently under construction are reaching completion,' said Bradley Hunter, of MetroStudy."

"The likely result will be more condos in the MLS, Hunter said, since many of the thousands of new condos still being built were bought by investors who don't intend to live in them. 'I would expect to see a lot of price declines going forward,' Hunter said."

The St Petersburg Times. "In the Tampa Bay area last month, condo sales were half what they were in January 2006. Sales of single-family homes locally were down 41 percent from a year ago."

"Yet median sales prices of local residences barely budged from the 2006 level, indicating plenty of stubborn sellers with unrealistic expectations."

"'Prices aren't reflective of the actual market yet,' said Carolyn Kling, a real estate agent in Pinellas County. 'A lot of buyers are out there waiting till those prices get where they need to be.'"

The Tampa Tribune. "The Tampa Bay area experienced its steepest home price slump in recent memory in January, while the number of home sales continued to drop. The median sales price of existing single-family homes in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area was down 7 percent from December and significantly below the real estate market's $239,900 peak in June."

"'The housing market in Tampa doesn't look good at all,' said Per Gunnar Berglund, senior economist for Moody's Economy.com. 'This is the sharpest drop in pricing since the early 1990s.'"

From Florida Today. "Chris McCarty, director at the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, said Tuesday that some Realtors and people shopping for a home are hoping for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. However, McCarty said, given recent data on inflation, and statements from Fed board members, 'it is very unlikely that interest rates will be lowered in the near term.'"

"'We still are predicting the effects on housing to spill into other sectors of the economy by May or June,' McCarty said. 'This should be more pronounced here in Florida, given the enormous gains in the value of Florida real estate. It has much further to fall than other states.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "Sellers of existing homes in Palm Beach County found relief in the new year when plummeting prices leveled in January after 2006 ended with three consecutive months of double-digit declines."

"'I'm still concerned about the overall affordability issue. Prices are still not low enough for the average person.' said David Levin, a Delray Beach housing consultant."

"Mike Halleran, who is buying a home in Boca Raton, said many of the properties on the market are overpriced by at least 10 percent. Another buyer, Melissa Rutherford, of Boynton Beach, agrees. She and her fiancé plan to wait awhile longer because they think prices will keep falling."

"'We don't want to buy a house that's valued less than what we paid for it in six months,' Rutherford said."

"Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold homes remains a concern. Palm Beach County has more than 33,400 homes and condominiums for sale, up nearly 19 percent from last year, according to the Keyes Co. of Miami. At the current sales pace, it would take several years to sell that inventory."