The Tallahassee Democrat reports from Florida. "Home sellers should heed the advice of their real-estate agents, especially in this current competitive environment, according to longtime Realtor Jan Soto. 'Sellers need to do everything they can to make their homes, properties look good,' Soto said. 'It has to be priced right.'"

"'Our number of closed sales improved slightly (over March), but we're dramatically putting more listings on the market,' said Don Pickett, a Realtor and chairman of the market trends and research committee at the Tallahassee Board of Realtors. 'It's like we're taking one step ahead, one step behind.'"

"'I'm not really sure why we're getting more and more on the market. We can't say it's all investors,' he said. 'Some people really hesitated putting things on the market a year or two years ago. Now they've waited, and they're doing it.'"

"Pickett recently asked members of the local real-estate industry why there is currently so much residential inventory. They cited several reasons, including the following: 'Sellers that were on the fence about selling and waiting until the market 'peaked' came in too late last summer/fall.'"

"'Qualifying for a loan has become more difficult for some first time home buyers.' 'Overbuilding.' 'Housing prices have surpassed incomes in many metro areas.'"

The Herald Tribune. "Hank Fishkind, Florida's premier economist, believes that the downturn in the residential real estate market is over. 'I argue that housing has stopped going down,' Fishkind said. 'It is weak. It is painful, but it is not going to get any worse.'"

"For the several hundred builders, developers, Realtors, mortgage brokers and other members of Southwest Florida's real estate industry, Fishkind's comments came as a welcome relief after two of the the toughest years in more than a decade."

"When it comes to the region's condo market and sales of raw land, however, Fishkind was not nearly as ebullient. 'Ugly, ugly,' was how the economist referred to the condo market, in which sales have plunged to about 120 per month from about 600 per month during the boom."

"'People who are closing on condos now and thinking of reselling them are going to find that there is no liquidity,' said Fishkind."

"Prospects for land sellers are even worse. 'Land prices were bid up in the expectation of rising home prices,' Fishkind said. 'We all know that didn't happen. Prices have not returned to equilibrium. It is a dangerous place to be.'"

The Tampa Tribune. "Florida now leads the nation in the number of cases of suspected mortgage fraud. Experts say the fallout from Florida's hot housing market is leading lenders to pick up on bad loans originated last year."

"'One of the things that fueled growth in fraud is the rapid growth in prices in the housing market,' said John Mechem, spokesman for the bankers association. 'When people see all that money, it becomes a target for mortgage fraud schemes.'"

"The state's overall housing economy could suffer as mortgage fraud pushes up foreclosure rates, which causes more homes to flood the already crowded real estate market. As homeowners compete with each other and lenders, home prices could go down."

"'When banks have to take these homes back, they have to get rid of them fast,' said real estate analyst Mike Larson. 'They are willing to drop prices and undercut everybody just to get the homes off their books.'"

"The fraud report comes on the heels of another dim housing report released Tuesday by the Florida Association Realtors. Amid such slow sales, mortgage origination volume is the lowest since 2001. Lenders, however, report 30 percent more suspicious mortgage loans were made in 2006 than a year earlier, according to a research firm."

"Doug Pollock, president of Sanford-based Information Data Services, which investigates mortgage fraud for lenders, said he's not surprised at Florida's rise to No. 1. '2006 looks bad, and I think 2007 will be worse,' he said. 'The only thing keeping us afloat right now is that the Fed is keeping the prime loan rate low, but at some point we have to pay for our sins.'"

"'I don't think we've seen the fallout of the subprime lending industry,' Pollock said. 'It may be another couple of years before it gets better.'"

The Bradenton Herald. "The number of mortgage-fraud cases reported by Florida lenders jumped by 43 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to a national study."

"'It's really embarrassing,' said Greg Hallam, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Florida. He and others in the industry said an unprecedented boom and subsequent slowdown in Florida's housing market is behind the surge in fraud."

"As home values skyrocketed in 2004-05, more people sought to cash in through inflated appraisals, exaggerated incomes and other fraudulent means. Lenders also relaxed their lending standards and practices, making them more vulnerable to fraud."

"'There's always been a lot of fraud and misrepresentation in the Florida market, but a lot of it was masked by appreciation' in property values, said Merle Sharick, one of the report's authors."

"But when values began dropping and mortgage defaults started rising in 2006, lenders began taking a harder look at their loan portfolios, and uncovering more fraud."

"That likely will continue through this year, a local mortgage lender predicted. 'Unfortunately, I think we're going to be seeing more of it,' said Pete Minarich, a senior lending officer for CTX Mortgage Co. in Bradenton. 'I think it's going to get worse before it gets better.'"

"A record number of delinquent taxpayers have two weeks to settle up or face an investor who buys the debt, adds 10 percent and tries to collect. The bills not paid by June 1 will be sold in the last up-close-and-personal auction to be held by Manatee County."

"In all, about 96 percent of 165,000 tax bills, which were mailed in November, were settled. That left 5,930 property owners unpaid, a record, the tax collector's office said."

"Manatee's delinquent population is higher than ever, due mostly to a greater frequency in foreclosures. 'People are stuck with second homes because they thought they could sell the first,' said Susan Profant, a paralegal at the tax collector's office."