The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. "After handling close to 30,000 cases in his career, Pinellas County bankruptcy lawyer Jay Weller insists home debt has never loomed so large. 'I've never had that many people walk away from their houses before,' Weller said. 'Real estate is playing a larger role in bankruptcy than in the 15 years I've been doing this.'"

"Angel and Myranda Acosta moved to Pasco County from Oklahoma in 2004 near the height of the housing boom and paid $139,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bath house in the Moon Lake Estates neighborhood."

"They felt lucky to get a loan from Fremont Investment & Loan: 100 percent financing with an adjustable rate mortgage starting at 10 percent. The $1,810-per-month payment is already a struggle and it's set to 'bloom out' next year by an undetermined amount. Their income and credit preclude them from refinancing."

"'No theme parks for us. We pretty much stay around the house. At least the weather's nice,' Myranda Acosta said."

"Two homeowning friends recently walked away from their mortgage and moved into apartments. They're far from alone. The national firm RealtyTrac lists 17,147 troubled properties in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties. They're properties in preforeclosure, scheduled for auction or seized by the bank."

"Horace Morgan, in addition to his realty and mortgage business in Brandon, also dispenses credit counseling for free. Four potential clients who called last week all had the same problem: They used their home equity as an ATM and now are almost broke."

"'All four owed more money than their homes were worth and all four were behind on their mortgages,' Morgan said."

The News Press. "Christopher and Cathy Comerota bought their Cape Coral home in December 2003 just as the boom in housing prices was taking off. But now they’re looking foreclosure in the face."

"They’re not alone. Last month, 783 notices of foreclosures were filed in Lee County court, six times the number from the same period a year ago. The increase in foreclosures has been steady in a real estate market that has seen a yearlong fall in Lee County home prices and a glut of houses purchased by speculators who no longer want them."

"The median sale price of an existing single-family home in the county was $268,000 in April, down 16.8 percent from the all-time high of $322,000 in December 2005."

"They find themselves owing $350,000 on a house that’s worth about $300,000. Their income is down because Cathy Comerota’s job as a mortgage processor no longer pays much in today’s slack market, so they can’t afford the $3,000-a-month mortgage."

"Robbie Roepstorff, president of Edison National Bank in Fort Myers, said a wave of speculation in the residential market is to blame for today’s foreclosures."

"'As we all know, things got a little out of hand, the real estate market got a little aggressive,' she said. 'Investors did a lot of investing in speculative homes. Unfortunately, that doesn’t last forever.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "The Housing Leadership of Palm Beach County has released a study concluding that 90 percent of households in the county can't afford a single-family home; the median price of an existing single-family home countywide was $375,100 in March, the latest figure available. The situation is no better in Broward County, where the median price is $372,400."

"Developers are beginning to respond to the growing need for work-force housing. While many of the projects are meant to be affordable to middle-income workers, the prices of others have some housing industry experts asking questions."

"'Developers are looking to sell their projects, and they need to do whatever they can to appeal to prospective buyers,' said David Levin, a housing industry analyst in Delray Beach. 'Some developers who anticipated selling...at prices that are no longer realistic are repackaging their projects and trying interesting marketing tactics to sell units.'"

"Even at just 5 percent down, a buyer has to cough up $20,000 on a $400,000 unit, a big investment for some. Eric Feldman, a real estate agent in Hollywood, said that the monthly carrying charges on a $400,000 townhouse could be a burden, too."

The Herald Tribune. "Three years ago, North Port's booming population set local leaders on a hunt to bring businesses to the fastest-growing city on Florida's west coast. But now, the city faces many hurdles to stimulate a local economy that has suffered with the downturn in building and real estate."

"In February 2006, the city looked like it would have a steady stream of growth revenue coming in from home building. Today, North Port is faced with diversifying a largely one-dimensional economy."

"According to Jeff Finkle, CEO of the International Economic Development Council in Washington, many high-growth communities are facing similar problems. 'You're now 50,000 people,' he said. 'The economics are not working, and now everybody is going 'Egads, what do we want to do?'"

"According to the 2005 city survey, the last conducted, only 8 percent of respondents worked in North Port. Many of the companies already in North Port rely in some way on the building industry and are suffering in the downturn."

"Busy Bee Cabinets Inc. has had to lay off dozens of people as work has dried up. Matt Uebelacker, the company's president, is trying to increase the company's sales to homeowners and rely less on home builders, who are not nearly as active as they were even six months ago. North Port issued 41 new home permits in April, down from 88 a year ago."

"'It's ugly right now,' Uebelacker said."

The Miami Herald. "At 3-year-old Great Florida Bank, the woes of two commercial real estate borrowers have caused the bank's problem loans to jump." "And BankUnited, one of South Florida biggest thrifts, saw the handwriting on the wall two years ago when it stopped making construction loans for high-end condominiums."

"Several local banks have boosted their first-quarter reserves for loan losses, an indication they may be expecting more delinquent loans this year. At Great Florida Bank, two commercial real estate borrowers that ran into problems sent total nonperforming loans to $9.4 million, and loan payments overdue 30 to 89 days surged to $23 million, almost 2 percent of all loans. Anything over 0.80 percent is considered high."

"At Ocean Bank, a big mortgage lender, loans that are 30 to 89 days overdue surged from about 2 percent of all loans at the end of 2006 to 4.6 percent at the end of the first quarter."

"'The change in the amount of the past-due category is a reflection of the slowdown in the real estate market in Florida,' said Terry J. Curry, chief credit officer of Ocean Bank. Our loan portfolio is well-secured, and we look forward to the inevitable rebound in the real estate market,' Curry said."

"In a recent report, New York investment bank Goldman Sachs estimated the housing downturn would be a mild drag on the U.S. economy, but it singled out Florida as the one state where the slump 'is likely to cause an outright recession.'"

"As the business environment gets trickier, South Florida banks have come up with strategies to ride out the bumps. BankUnited, for example, decided to eschew lending in the condominium construction market."

"'We see a glut coming,' said Chief Financial Officer Bert Lopez. 'We have not made a construction loan on a high-end condominium in two years.'"