The Palm Beach Post reports from Florida. "How about an early peek at March sales of existing homes, which come out this week? You'll have an insider's position for a day, the official Realtors report comes out Tuesday. An early report gives us a heads-up on what Wednesday's headlines are probably going to say."

"'The combination of plunging sales and rising inventories is a symptom of a very, very sick housing market,' said housing economist Thomas Lawler."

"Single-family homes: Inventory: 15,028 for sale, compared with 12,737 in March 2006. Sold: 716, compared with 956 in March 2006. Backlog: 21 months, compared with 13 months in March 2006. Condos: Inventory: 17,368 for sale, compared with 13,413 in March 2006. Sold: 640, compared with 1,082 in March 2006. Backlog: 27 months, compared with 12 months in March 2006."

"'There is a high likelihood that prices will decline fairly significantly during the remainder of this year,' Lawler said."

The Sun Sentinel. "Just three years ago, Port St. Lucie was America's fastest-growing city. But now, as builders, investors or other owners leave homes empty and unkempt in the slumped housing market, some council members say the city should consider actively marketing its real estate."

"Empty houses, which account for less than 5 percent of the city's homes, make up about 15 percent of the code enforcement violation cases, according to city officials."

"At least 683 homes are vacant in Port St. Lucie, according to information from the Realtors Association of St. Lucie County. That number likely is significantly higher because real estate agents often do not list a home as vacant for security or marketing reasons, association representative Curtis Lowe said."

"'If we have a poor appearance, then that's what we're going to attract,' Councilman Christopher Cooper said."

The Herald Tribune. "CCI left hundreds of investors with unfinished homes around the state, but by far the largest concentration was in North Port. Jesse Battle III's company, which has since filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors, collapsed late last year, leaving 482 homes that had loans with Coast Bank in various stages of construction, some with no work done at all."

"Juan Cruz says he is out about $100,000 on two CCI homes he contracted for that were funded by Coast through mortgage originator American Mortgage Link. On one of the properties, CCI drew $80,000 from the loan and 'never even turned a single shovel of dirt,' Cruz said."

"'We've had three large builder failures in the city: CCI, Jade Homes and Avalon,' City Commissioner Fred Tower said. 'We were the fastest-growing community and were affected by builders who saw an opportunity here.'"

"Tower said the city has been monitoring all the abandoned projects by builders within North Port and recording violations."

The News Press. "A stalled real estate market is exposing the masters of an age-old Southwest Florida art: scheming on home sales to make big and fast bucks. The News-Press has uncovered almost 70 Southwest Florida home sales in which sellers or government officials say people either were duped or appraisals inflated so people could pad their profits."

"'The problem is as bad as I've seen it here,' said Douglas Molloy, chief assistant U.S. attorney in Fort Myers."

"The deals in Cape Coral involved a group of business people selling homes among themselves at inflated values, a Lee County official said. In Collier County, a Naples businessman worked independently, piling up millions of dollars in mortgages from sellers, with many of the loans past due or due this year and more than half the homes now in preforeclosure, according to county records."

"'There's something really wrong going on out there,' said Tony Iannotta, owner of a Marco Island mortgage brokering firm."

"In conditions like those of the boom years, it can be difficult for lenders not only to keep pace but to keep watch for potentially bad deals, said consultant Jack McCabe."

"'There's so much speculative activity, banks are so overworked they're too overwhelmed to even analyze it well,' McCabe said. 'It's not until things slow down that it becomes apparent.'"

"The Cape sales were financed by banks or other lending institutions that require appraisals. 'There are appraisers who will pretty much appraise a house for anything,' said Cindy Franklin, of the Lee County Property Appraiser's Office."

"All 47 Cape deals have been reclassified by the county property appraiser as not being based on the property's actual value, Franklin said."

"For example, Miami lawyer Julio Rodriguez bought a house in Cape Coral for $196,400 in June 2005 and sold it to Mario Fernandez, who was involved in other deals, in June 2006, months after the local market had peaked, for $305,000."

"From June 2005 to June 2006 the median price of a single-family-home resale in Lee County dropped 5 percent from $281,000 to $268,000. The house is assessed at $167,620 by the county appraiser, whose assessments typically trail market value."

"Rodriguez, who was the closing attorney on many of the 47 Cape deals, pointed to the market when asked about claims that appraisals had been inflated. 'I guess the market did what it did,' he said. 'The market went up and up.'"

"Douglas Lee Carter of Naples, put together all of the Collier County deals. He owes more than $4 million on those loans and an additional $12.7 million in mortgages from lenders or private investors, according to county records."

"Carter vowed to pay his debts and blamed his problems on real estate's stumble since the end of the boom. 'Everybody will get their money,' Carter said. 'If you really want to do something, fix the market.'"

"'In the end the public ends up picking up the tab,' said Woody Hanson of Fort Myers-based Hanson Real Estate Advisors, which specializes in resolving high-stakes disputes over appraised values."

"Appraisers who stay on the straight and narrow can find themselves out in the cold if lenders, mortgage brokers and real-estate agents stop using their services, Hanson said. 'They soon find themselves in a situation where they cannot say no.'"

"'Banks could stop this if they wanted to,' said Wayne Archer, director of the University of Florida’s Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies. 'When we talk about laws or appraisers, we really need to remember that banks have more of the power than anybody because they’re the ones with the money. Good lending practices would do a lot to stop this.'"

"'Let’s face it,' Archer said, 'there was a lot of money to be made.'"

"Part of the problem in enforcement is that it’s sometimes a fine line between out-and-out fraud and the general atmosphere of carelessness in the mortgage industry now, said Mark Mathosian, regional director for the Florida Department of Financial Services."

"'There’s a heck of a lot of creative financing out there, some of which is sure to be found to be illegal,' he said. 'I remember at one time it took two months to get a mortgage loan. It took two months to get everything verified. Then it got competitive, and the market dictated the lenders couldn’t take that time. Before you know it, there’s almost no verification taking place.'"

The Miami Herald. "Though a booming real estate market sparked the upgrade wave in the Keys, a cold housing market may help reverse the tide. Developers planned to finance the majority of the new resorts with condominium sales, but demand for the pricey units has gone south."

"'All I'm seeing are projects getting canceled right now,' said Robert Boykin, whose was to convert Marathon's Banana Bay motel into a condo-hotel resort."

"Nearby, at the Coconut Cay motel, owner Jim Rhyne had envisioned converting all 66 rooms into condo-hotel suites. 'We didn't get started on it, thank goodness,' he said."