The Bradenton Herald reports from Florida. "Pre-construction sales at SevenShores condominiums on Perico Island have temporarily ground to a halt just a year after units first went on the market and despite developers reducing their prices by $60,000 in December. In December, officials at SevenShores said deposits had been received on only nine units in the project's first building with 40 units."

"Sales officials said at least 20 units needed to be pre-sold before vertical construction could begin. That same month, St. Joe officials said they had reduced the price of entry-level units from the $700,000s to $534,900."

"'"I just think it's a reflection of the market and obviously the condominium market has not been one that would give developers a warm and fuzzy feeling right now,' said Manatee County Commissioner Ron Getman."

The Herald Tribune. "Responding to the softened downtown condo market, developer Enterprise Associates of Sarasota LLC has reconfigured the design of its planned Marquee on the Bay residential tower."

"Some of the 15 units planned for the site have gotten smaller, to 1,900 square feet and 2,800 square feet, down from about 4,000 square feet. Not surprisingly, prices have dropped commensurately, from a range of $3.55 million to $4.1 million, down to $1.6 million to $2.5 million."

"'Given the condition of the market, there have been a lot of requests for smaller units,' said Sam Hamad, Enterprise's CEO."

"While the $45 million project has been on the boards since mid-2004, Hamad says he will start construction when he sells just two more residences. 'The building is going up, and there's no power on Earth that can stop it,' Hamad said.'

The News Press. "Our residential market...suffered its fall almost two years ago, and it has been painful for property owners to see their values plummet."

"Let's first look at the entry level market, which includes price points below $200,000. It is now possible to purchase a new home in Lehigh or Cape Coral for well below $200,000. Some have sold in the $160,000 range! That is roughly 50 percent less than a similar home would have sold for at the peak of the market."

"These attractive prices are a result of lot prices falling more than 80 percent in the past 20 months, construction costs becoming more competitive, heavy inventory, and in some cases short sales offered by sellers trying to avoid the foreclosure process."

"The same opportunity exists with existing inventory in the dozens of new developments around town. The developers' backlog of sales is turning into a backache as many initial buyers are walking from their deposits and leaving the developer with unwanted homes for sale."

"Buyers are taking full advantage by getting discounts as much as 30 percent off the sticker price as well as other attractive goodies such as special financing. In some cases the sale prices have been rolled back to pre-boom prices."

"Gulf-front properties are in limited supply due to the relatively small amount of privately owned beachfront real estate. But according to recent sales, it appears like Gulf-front property came down with the rest of the market."

"In March 2007 there were still a number of condo sales exceeding $600 per square foot, but in March 2006 it was much more common to see sales exceed $700 or $800 per square foot."

"Let's look at some examples of Gulf-front condominiums on Estero Boulevard in Fort Myers Beach by narrowing the comparison down to units with 1,000-1,200 square feet built around 1980. Last month a Gulf-front condo located midway on the island sold for $465,000, or $406 per square foot."

"A year ago, a similar condo just down the street sold for much more: $700,000, or $664 per square foot (that buyer was a company, suggesting the purchase was most likely for investment)."

"A 4,840-square-foot singe-family home on Sanibel Island recently sold for $2.4 million, or $496 per square foot. Compare that with a similar transaction from a year ago, when a 4,570-square-foot home on the same street sold for $3.35 million, or $733 per square foot. (That home was sold to a company, suggesting once again an investor-driven purchase)."

"The comparables demonstrate factually that even Gulf-front property is not immune to the market cycle."

The Palm Beach Post. "Last year, Drew Burris bought four boat slips in Charleston, S.C. He's now looking at picking up a few more in South Florida."

"'It's a great investment play,' he said. 'I've seen the prices continue to escalate as more and more people move closer to the coast. It's a good way to park your money into a boat slip, have it rented and in the future realize a capital gain.'"

"Touting rising values, some marina developers are pushing the high-priced spaces to a new brand of customer: the real estate investor. It's a no-brainer, they say, especially in Florida."

"'There's frustration in the marketplace, certainly with single- and multi-family homes and especially in South Florida. They've fallen out of love with the residential side of the business, and they're looking for other creative places to put their money,' said Dunston Powell, sales manager for Atlantic Marina Holdings, LLC."

"'The condo market is soft because it's saturated. Too many condos, not enough buyers. That's not a problem for slips,' said Steeven Knight, CEO of the Fort Myers-based Yacht Clubs of the Americas."

"Others aren't as bullish. Boat slips saw a rapid rise in prices during the past few years, partially driven by speculation. But prices have leveled off."

"Marty Laven started The Dockominium Group, based in Fort Pierce, in 2001. Laven's skeptical of the investor and the promise of large returns. Prices peaked in 2005, and some slips have sold since for less than their original price, Laven said. In early 2006, he listed a 130-foot slip in Jupiter for $1.2 million, or $9,231 a foot. It's now reduced to $775,000."

"'It doesn't make sense to buy one of these things and hope that you can sell it on the upside,' he said. 'Nobody's going to make money in three to five years. The prices are too high.'"

"Many investors will lease their slips, but that's not where the value is. 'The prices are so high, you're not going to make any real return on leasing your slip,' said Boca Raton lawyer Dennis Hillier, who sets up slip-sale programs for marinas. 'You make your money on the resale.'"

The Orlando Sentinel. "Condominium converters drained more than 30,000 apartment units from Metro Orlando's rental pool during the height of the nation's home-buying frenzy, creating a market so tight that many landlords had waiting lists of would-be tenants. No more."

"The current slump in home sales has turned the local rental market on its head. Thousands of condos have slipped back into the rental pool during the past year."

"'Before the condo-conversion craze, condos were an insignificant part of the rental market,' said Jim Lewis, president of a Maitland research firm. 'Now it's big, but how big, we don't know. It's a shadow market.'"

"Lewis said the firm's March survey of Metro Orlando's apartment complexes found they were 91.3 percent full, down from 94.1 percent in September and way down from the record-high, 96.4 percent occupancy rate set just a year earlier, in March 2006. He attributed the decline in apartment occupancy to the flood of condo conversions re-entering the rental pool."

"Thousands of units were sold to investors who planned to rent them out as the home-buying frenzy drove property values ever higher. Once the housing market cooled, converters began dumping condo units back into the rental pool when they could no longer sell them."

"Greg Willett, VP of research for a apartment-research company, said anecdotal evidence from across the country suggests that about one-third of all apartment units caught up in condominium conversions are back in the nation's rental pool."

"He said the two Florida markets in which landlords are 'getting hammered' the most by condo-conversion rentals are Orlando and West Palm Beach."