The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. "(For) the company known for its 'We Buy Ugly Houses' signs, Florida has been one of Home-Vestors' best markets. And there's no shortage of houses for sale, a virtual smorgasbord. But these days, many of the homes for sale in markets such as Central Florida can't be bought, rehabilitated and sold for a profit."

"'I don't know how some [owners] are able to pay the taxes and insurance,' said CEO John Hayes."

"Ron Smith, an independent housing-rehab specialist in Apopka, said he gave up his sideline business a few months ago after 20 years of working the Orlando area. 'It just got a lot tougher. I went to work full time with a roofing company,' said Smith, who used to buy and fix up homes to sell, or to rent until he could find a buyer, as many as four or five times a year."

"Smith said his best years were the late 1990s through 2004, when 'it just went crazy.' So many buyers were bidding up prices, it got harder to compete, he said. Then, earlier this year, sales went flat as thousands of homes flooded the market at inflated prices."

"'I didn't believe the market here would go 180 degrees, but it did,' Smith said."

The Herald Tribune. "Do not blame developers for bringing hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space to market at the worst possible moment. Three years ago, every indicator was persuading them that Sarasota County's southernmost city was in desperate need."

"But it was the collapse of North Port's home building industry that brought the office market to a standstill. Suddenly, developers found it impossible to fill their new buildings, and lease rates plummeted."

"Figures presented by the the Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota County point to an office vacancy rate in North Port of about 50 percent, amounting to about 180,000 square feet of space. Based on the city's historic annual absorption rate of roughly 22,400 square feet, that space will take eight years to fill."

"'It's not a pretty picture, especially given current market conditions,' said George Hugh, a Venice real estate agent and foreclosure specialist. 'Eight years is a long time for developers to keep feeding money to their banks.'"

"Huhn added that the situation in North Port proves that home builders were not the only speculators during the boom."

"'You've got to wonder whether developers and bankers, in their rush to develop in 2004 and 2005, were doing proper due diligence,' Huhn said."

"Benderson Development Group's office park on Toledo Blade is a case in point: The company's six office buildings, totaling 40,000 square feet of space, stand empty. 'I'm sure they saw rooftops being built and they didn't count on them being sold to speculators,' Huhn said. 'You've basically got a situation down there in which half the homes are empty.'"

The Miami Herald. "Tom Murphy Jr. is CEO of Coastal Construction, a general contracting firm in Miami building many of the high-rises going up across South Florida."

"Q: So you have reduced the number of condos you are doing as it relates to your overall business. Why?"

"A: For condos, five years ago the market was on fire, and we made the decision to try and reduce the amount of condo work we're doing as a percentage of our business. I think a lot of people built their business on condos because it was easy to get the business."

"You try to read the future, but you know one thing for sure when a market is so heated up, it won't last forever."

"Now, the number of condo developers looking for general contractors has shrunk. It has significantly shrunk. Fallen off a cliff when compared to the last five years."

"Q: For general contractors that are largely focused on condos is that downturn creating changes in the market?"

"A: We are seeing a lot of movement because guys that only build condos are starting to feel the slowdown that is coming. A lot of these people see what is happening, and they know the company has never built a school or an office building. It's kind of like rats jumping off a sinking ship for some of them."

The News Press. "As difficult as it may be to see, there is a silver lining (something positive) to Lee County’s current real estate market."

"First, the facts: Residential inventory is still near its all time high. Residential sales are roughly equal to the sales rate of 1999. Prices are down, down and down from the high of 2005."

"Foreclosure filings are up, up and up – by some counts, at six times that of 2006. The property insurance and property tax crises remain unresolved at the time of this writing. The residential downturn is having the expected effect on commercial real estate. The number of people moving into Lee County is down by as much as 30 percent."

"So where’s the silver lining? With residential inventory still too high relative to the number of buyers, prices will continue to decline."

"Our residential market set a record last month. According to the MLS, there were fewer homes sold last month then there were in any May so far this decade. In fact, comparatively speaking, more homes were sold in May of 1999 than in May 2007!"

"Another interesting fact is that most of the homes that sold last month had one thing in common. They were priced right! The good news is that it's going to get better. The bad news is, many market segments will get worse before they get better."

"The builder's unsold inventory that is hitting the market at heavy discounts will continue for another year. Foreclosures and short sales will continue beyond that."

"A Realtor told me his clients were waiting it out. Their investment properties that were purchased pre-construction in 2005 were listed, but at prices that would allow them to break even. However, their prices are above what the developer is offering, and what the market is willing to pay."

"What his clients fail to realize is that they have already made a bad investment and waiting to sell just makes it that much worse."

The St Petersburg Times. "If you need a construction-related permit for work in unincorporated Hillsborough County, you may not want to wait until a Friday to request it."

"The county will be closing its Building Services Division offices every other Friday starting June 15. The closings are a cost-saving measure in response to the sharp downturn in housing construction."

The Naples News. "In Collier County, commissioners have given the green light to nearly 5,500 affordable housing units since the end of 1999. Fewer than 1,500 of those units have been built, according to county records."

"'The houses are just not being built that we approved,' Collier County Commissioner Fred Coyle said."

"Coyle wonders whether the delays are market-driven. 'People are just reluctant to begin building at a time when prices are down and demand is down,' he said."

"Several affordable projects that have yet to be built also include market-rate housing, a much tougher sell these days. That may give developers a reason to drag their feet. 'It is more complicated when the affordable housing is merely a component of a larger housing development because the demand for other types of housing is not as great,' Coyle said."

"Phil McCabe, a longtime Naples businessman and developer, believes some of the approved projects won’t get built for 'many, many years to come' because of a slower real estate market. 'I think they’re just frozen in their tracks,' he said."

"Even with falling home prices and a higher inventory of homes on the market, the average sales price is still in the high $300,000s in Collier County, putting home ownership out of reach for many workers, from police officers and firefighters to teachers and nurses, said Marcy Krumbine, the county’s director of Housing and Human Services Administration."

"'This is actually the first time since I’ve been working in housing that it’s a buyers’ market,' she said. 'It’s a better time to buy right now. There is more flexibility in pricing and more things on the market.'"

"There’s more than enough demand to support the more than 4,000 affordable housing units that have yet to be built and sold, Krumbine said."

"McCabe isn’t so sure. He said there are many other affordable housing options available today, with rents and home prices coming down. 'My view of this whole thing is that this affordable housing issue is gone,' he said. 'It’s gone.'"

"McCabe built an affordable housing project called Botanical Place in East Naples. He had trouble finding people to purchase the 64 units in his project, even after knocking on the doors of local employers to try to reach out to workers."

"'I still have one left, by the way,' he said."