The Miami Herald reports from Florida. "A glutted real estate market is spilling into the lodging sector, as recent condo buyers who had counted on flipping for a profit instead face mortgage payments and maintenance fees. 'They can't sell them and they need an income coming,' said Linda Luft, a mortgage broker, whose short-term rental business grew between 20 percent and 30 percent this year."

"'Basically, what they're doing is telling me: 'Please rent it. Get me anything,' she said."

"Housing sales are already down 29 percent from a year ago. And some real estate experts predict harsher times ahead for sellers, with more than 22,000 condominium units under construction in Miami alone."

The St Petersburg Times. "Two months ago, Nikki DuFore and her husband paid the owner $3,000 and settled into a spacious Tampa home with a big back yard. But their stay may be short-lived. On May 19, they were served with notice that the bank seeks to foreclose because the owner is months behind in his mortgage payments."

"'It was a shock,' DuFore said. 'We had just moved in, and now we're already having to look for another place.'"

"It used to be that tenants got all the scrutiny. But in Florida's topsy-turvy, fraud-plagued real estate market, it's the property owner who may warrant a closer look."

"'We've been getting a lot of calls of late, and the amount of these calls is increasing because more people are in foreclosure,' said Tom DiFiore, head of the housing and consumer unit of Bay Area Legal Services."

The Star Banner. "Sales of existing homes statewide in April continued to tumble from last year's levels, and the Ocala area was no different."

"The 267 homes sold locally last month were down 38 percent from the same period last year and down 33 percent from last month's total, the Florida Association of Realtors reported."

"Ocala broker Steven Light said holding back the market are sellers who are looking to unload their homes for prices that were commonplace when the local housing boom was at its zenith, but are no longer realistic in today's buyers' market."

"'I see people still holding on to 2005 prices,' Light said. 'It's a mindset.'"

"Light said Realtors shouldn't let sellers dictate what prices the market should bear.

From the Ledger. "April marked another tough month for the local economy with ongoing housing declines and a slight uptick in unemployment, according to The Ledger's monthly Polk County Business Barometer."

"The county's builders had a slow April, amassing 333 permits for new home construction. That made for a decrease of 41 percent from 568 in April 2006. Winter Haven saw its permits sink to 47 from 115 last year, a 59 percent drop."

"Meanwhile, Polk had 348 existing homes sold last month, down nearly 35 percent from 535 in April 2006. Lakeland's total fell to 207 homes from the previous year's 314, a decrease of 34 percent, while East Polk's 137 homes fell 35 percent from 211 a year ago. Bartow had four homes sold in April, compared to 10 last year."

"Realtor Shawn McDonough said...that too many homes have lingered on the market for six months or more. 'That's the change we could see that would be helpful,' McDonough told The Ledger."

The Sun Sentinel. "On Tuesday, when the nationwide index of consumer confidence compiled by The Conference Board rose more than expected, a Florida index of consumer confidence from the University of Florida went in the opposite direction and fell to its lowest level in more than 18 months."

"Floridians, reeling from record-high gas prices and falling home values, are veering away from the rest of the nation in their outlook for their finances and the economy."

"'In Florida, employment is solid, but people's finances are not,' said Chris McCarty, director of survey research at UF."

"'No doubt retail sales [in Florida] have been declining for some months already,' said economist Per Gunnar Bergland. 'Particularly related to construction.'"

"Palm Beach and Broward counties lost almost 12,000 jobs in April from the year before. McCarty expects Florida consumer confidence to track the housing market's fortunes and gas prices. 'Until housing has complexly corrected, there's going to be downward pressure on consumer confidence,' he said."

The Herald Tribune. "Smacked hard by regulators, Coast Bank of Florida is under the gun to strengthen its financial condition and its management. The struggling bank faces numerous deadlines, some as soon as next week, to shape up or face further sanctions by federal and state banking authorities."

"Coast made $110 million in loans to nearly 500 customers of Construction Compliance Inc., a defunct home builder in St. Petersburg. CCI drew millions of dollars from the bank, even though it did little or no work on some of those homes. Many of those customers are now refusing to repay their loans."

"The bank has other deadlines to charge off or collect on millions of dollars in loans. It also must immediately stop collecting brokered deposits, which typically pay high interest rates, and within 10 days file a plan with regulators to eliminate its reliance on those CDs."

"The bank has $40.7 million in those deposits it gathered from customers after its loan problems were revealed."

"Trump Tower Tampa has lost its biggest asset: the Trump name itself. New York tycoon Donald Trump has terminated his contract with SimDag, the Tampa development team behind the proposed $300-million condo tower long touted as west Florida's tallest and most luxurious."

"In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court, Trump sounded like a man whose patience was spent. Investors scooped up many units, but SimDag failed to hook financing. Banks shied from pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a Tampa Bay area housing market stagnant with thousands of unsold condos."

"Tampa officials looked to the tower, one of several new condo high-rises, to help revitalize its central business district. But the proposal never shook criticism that its fancy penthouses and gold-trimmed living may have suited Miami and New York but clashed with Tampa's middlebrow image."

The Tampa Tribune. "SimDag has not made payments since October and owes Trump at least $1 million, the lawsuit claims. The developers have yet to break ground on the building."

"The company's office phone is disconnected. Trump declined to answer questions but said through his assistant, Rhona Graff, that 'the lawsuit speaks for itself.'"

"Trump Tower was announced with much fanfare in early 2005. But the luxury high-rise project has struggled to go vertical. Construction activity stalled in November. On Tuesday, there was no equipment on the vacant site."

"SimDag boasted it had sold out of condo units shortly after announcing the tower project, but the company has acknowledged that some buyers have dropped out. SimDag has passed along at least $40 million in construction increases to buyers who had signed up to purchase units."

"In recent months, two buyers have sued the developer for their deposits. In the lawsuit, filed in January, buyers Louis Ricci and Joe Shultz, both of Walton County, near Pensacola, argue it is impossible for SimDag to build the tower by the December 2008 deadline stated in their contracts."

"They also complained that they bought, in part, because they thought Trump was involved in the building of the tower and felt misled when they learned SimDag had only licensed the use of Trump's name."

"George Galiouridis was among the first buyers to put up a 20 percent deposit. In January, 2005, he reserved a 2,900 square-foot, three-bedroom condo on the 31st floor for $1.1 million. A few months later, he says, SimDag said he would have to pay $200,000 more to convert the sales agreement to a hard-purchase contract, locking in the sale price."

"When he learned about Trump's lawsuit, Galiouridis said he wants Trump to take over the project and build the tower himself or push SimDag to return deposits to buyers. 'This is good news,' he said. 'I believe Trump finally realizes that his name and credibility is at stake. He's said he can build it out of his pocket. I hope he does.'"