The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. "Home builder Ara Hovnanian was asked Thursday to rate the housing market on a scale of 1 to 10. 'Am I allowed to use negative numbers?' he said, drawing laughs from the crowd of about 400 at a real estate conference in Hollywood."

"'We're in for a fairly ugly correction,' said Ron Terwilliger, head of Atlanta-based Trammell Crow Residential."

"David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, opened the session with a sobering housing outlook that was more pessimistic than the one he delivered at the International Builders Show in Orlando in February."

"Seiders said there are a record 1.4 million excess vacant housing units for sale nationwide, and the number will grow as homeowners lose their properties to foreclosure. He expects more home and condominium price declines in many areas, including South Florida."

"'Some markets will really be in the doldrums for quite a while,' said Seiders."

"Because of the subprime crunch, traditional lenders are tightening their standards. 'The subprime world has really changed the market in for-sale housing,' said Hovnanian, adding that his company's two softest areas in Florida are Fort Myers and West Palm Beach. 'I'm a bull long term on housing. But the short term is not so rosy.'"

"'I think it's a confusing time to buy,' said Bill Donges, CEO of Lane Co., a apartment and condo developer. 'It's hard to tell if prices are at the bottom. With all the uncertainty, a lot of people think it might be better to rent for awhile.'"

The Palm Beach Post. "More than 400 building professionals from around the country are attending this week's National Association of Home Builders conference on multifamily housing entitled 'Welcome to the Next Step.'"

"But the next step for multifamily housing is really a step back. 'We will see closings start to decline again,' said economist David Seiders, addressing Thursday's crowd about sluggishness and instability in the over-built condo market."

"'Sales, prices and inventory will all continue to decline this year,' Seiders said, delivering a more dour forecast than he has in previous months and years. 'This is not a recovery,' he emphasized."

"'The impact of the mortgage market mess has not shown up in the housing numbers yet,' Seiders said. Prices were rising 18 percent a year for several years, Seiders said. 'We've got some more negatives ahead of us.'"

"The really bad word; Seiders called it 'the big theme,' is supply, he said. The important issue is not how many houses are in the backlog of unsold inventory, he said. It's how many vacant houses, which have risen to unprecedented levels, Seiders said."

"'We've got 1.4 million excess vacant units on the market now,' Seiders said. 'That's a lot. That's the legacy of the finance-driven investor binge of '03. The condo inventory is at record levels.'"

"Vacant for-sale condos are 'going straight up' in numbers, he said. 'That's the major point. Wow! The 'overhang' (unsold units) is very heavy, and that's not considering units under construction, which are still at near-record numbers.'"

"'Pricing has a lot further to adjust. The places that have to adjust the most are the ones that rose the most (such as South Florida),' he said."

The St Petersburg Times. "Pooja Sharma sympathizes with the developers of Live Oak Preserve. She owns two houses there, plus a third in next-door Meadow Pointe and has felt the slackening demand in home values. 'The market is very bad,' she said."

"Yet as a resident, Sharma would like to see Live Oak finished. 'Everything should be done as soon as possible, so we won't have all the trucks and all the dirt,' she said."

"Streets just east of Sharma's are flanked by weeds, not houses. Transeastern Homes, the developer of the 1,600-home Live Oak and the nearby 500-unit townhouse development, obtained only four building permits since last June despite having the two developments only half finished. Nearly 50 earlier permits expired for lack of activity."

"In a news release last month, the company described 'significant doubt' that Transeastern, which lost $468-million in the year ending Nov. 30, could continue without restructuring its debt or obtaining an infusion of new money."

"Meanwhile, TOUSA president Antonio Mon said the company has worked to shrink its inventory of land. 'During the last six months of 2006, we sold land and abandoned our rights under option contracts,' he said in the press release. Mon said TOUSA also would limit speculative building and focus on presales."

"That may explain why Pooja Sharma, in Live Oak, heard from neighbors that Transeastern has begun selling 40-50 lots in a new estate section of Live Oak."

"But over the last year, selling has been a problem. Realtors reported almost 30 percent fewer residential sales across greater Tampa in January and February, compared to the same period last year."

"Mike Wright, renting in Live Oak while he tries to sell his prior home in Greensboro, N.C., said he talked to two Transeastern employees who feared they might be laid off within days. When they didn't return, Wright learned they had lost their jobs, he said."

"'Right around the time that we closed was when construction stopped,' said Eric Cross, who bought a Hammocks townhome last August. 'Living in a half-built community is a frustration,' Cross said."

"'I heard the prices are going down,' said Pardeep Kumar. 'But that's not related just to Live Oak. I guess that's normal everywhere.'"