The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. "Median home prices in the Orlando area tumbled sharply in March, just at the start of the critical spring buying-and-selling season. The median sales price for existing homes and condos sold by local Realtors fell by $15,000 from February to March, to $240,000, as sellers increasingly cut prices."

"'Prices are down because of the shift in supply and demand,' said broker Lenny Layland. 'Buyers are being picky.'"

"The inventory of homes for sale by local Realtors continued to swell to record levels in March, while sales fell more than 40 percent from the same time a year ago, the Realtor association said."

"'There's no doubt sales are down any way you want to look at it. And they are down in every price range,' said Stan Smith, a finance professor at the University of Central Florida."

"The number of homes for sale by local Realtors rose to a record 23,547 in March from a revised 22,055 in February, a backlog that would take 14 months to clear at the recent sales pace. More drastic price cuts might be in store after the summer, prime selling season ends, Smith said, if the inventory remains stubbornly high."

"Sales of homes and condos in March (were) down 42 percent from March 2006, when home sales were still on a hot streak. Existing-home sales for the broader, Metro Orlando area tracked closely with the core-market sales, down 42 percent year-over-year in March. Osceola's sales were down 44.1 percent, Orange's sales were off 43.7 percent, Seminole's fell 43 percent and Lake's slipped 31.2 percent."

"The Realtors' listings don't include homes such as the one in Conway that Belle Isle homeowner Tom Wren is trying to sell on his own. He recently stuck a for-sale sign in the window offering the two-bedroom, two-bath home, with 1,076 square feet of space, for $210,000."

"'I figure I'll give it three months,' Wren said, before considering other options such as renting out the house once again. 'It's a entry-level house' that should sell, given that homes throughout Central Florida 'are all overpriced,' he said."

"Also, new homes are competing with many existing homes, pressuring prices even more. Shelly and Justin Braniff recently relocated to the Apopka area from Jacksonville, and (an) agent found them a new home from a builder's inventory."

"'They discounted it over $100,000, and it has lots of upgrades,' Shelly Braniff said. The four-bedroom, two-bath home listed for $429,000 but sold for just less than $300,000."

The Herald Tribune. "The National Association of Realtors thinks the national median price for existing homes will drop this year for the first time since the organization began keeping records in the late 1960s."

"'My first thought was, 'Wow, not even the spinmeisters at the NAR can sugarcoat the current market any longer,' said Sarasota Broker Thomas Heimann. 'My second thought was: I wish we'd only have a 0.7 percent drop in prices in our market.'"

"Sarasota-Bradenton's median sales price dropped 9 percent in February when compared with the same month in 2006, from $324,200 to $294,500. Charlotte County-North Port saw flat sales in February and registered an 11 percent drop in prices, taking the market to near a $200,000 median sale price."

"Heimann thinks that a recovery in the Southwest Florida market 'may take a lot longer than even I anticipated.''

"While sales volume did pick up a bit during the last few months, most were for homes below $250,000, and most buyers used subprime loans. 'As a matter of fact, 9 of our 10 last sales had 100 percent financing, and if the subprime market dries up, then that will have a certain impact on sales activity,' he said."

"Heimann is expecting that some areas of the region will see another 5 to 10 percent price decline. 'It may well be into 2008 until we see a recovery and significant reduction in available inventory,' he said."

"'It's all about inventory levels,' said Manuel Iraola, president of an online realty brokerage that sold $70 million worth of property in Florida last year. 'Inventories have only one way to go, up, and prices have only one way to go, down,' until the situation stabilizes."

"The trouble in the housing market is coming from many directions, and involves buyers, lenders and mortgage originators, said Andrea Rankin, president of Sarasota's Rankin Mortgage."

"Roffers thinks buyers have enormous leverage right now. 'There are 10,000 homes to pick from instead of 3,500' and 'plenty of sellers will work very hard to get a deal done.'"

From Reuters. "U.S. homeowners who bought a home with a subprime mortgage, and now face foreclosure because they cannot make their payments, may have an unlikely remedy: get another subprime loan."

"'If regulators come in and disallow subprime lending, we are going to end up seeing more foreclosures because these people just can't get another loan,' said Patrice Yamato, president of the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers."

"But debating the virtues of refinancing into another subprime loan may be academic, said Patrice Yamato, since funding for high-risk mortgages has evaporated."

"'Subprime lenders have tightened up so much that a lot of those subprime loans are not getting made,' she said, so many homeowners are just going to have to brace for a payment shock or contemplate giving up their homes."

The Ledger. "Central Florida has to emerge from the current real estate slump, which most likely won't end until 2008, said David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors."

"'It's not good right now,' he said. And it hasn't been good for the past 18 months."

"'In August 2005 we peaked,' Lereah said. 'That was the end of the boom. We just went down from there. And speculators got caught with their financial pants down.'"

"Last year, Florida's residential real estate went into a recession. 'Prices got too high,' Lereah said of the 2005 market. 'They shouldn't have gotten that high in the first place.'"

"And it has taken sellers nearly a year to realize the market isn't in their favor, he said. 'But we are headed in the right direction.'"