The Palm Beach Post reports from Florida. "Trying to back out of a pre-construction purchase on a condo? If you're rich, forget it. A Palm Beach County Circuit Court judge ruled that a buyer could not back out of a contract to buy a $495,000 unit at Marina Grande, a $200 million waterfront condominium in Riviera Beach."

"Judge Jonathan Gerber found that D&T Properties could not wiggle out of its contract based on higher-than-expected maintenance costs. Gerber concluded the buyer could afford the increase."

"The ruling is important because condo buyers throughout South Florida are eager to get out of pre-construction contracts signed during the recent real estate frenzy. Now that the market has turned and the flippers market has died, many buyers are trying to undo their deals based on even minor changes to a project by a developer."

"Gerber's ruling is not binding on dozens of other cases now in the works because the ruling does not come from an appeals court, said Charles W. Edgar III, a Palm Beach Gardens real estate lawyer not involved in this case."

"But it is the first time a judge has tried to define the law's meaning, he said. 'It's not precedent, but it is a predictor of where other judges would go,' Edgar said."

"To take a shower in his new townhouse, Jeffrey Estis performs a complicated choreography. First he turns on the shower and watches a weak trickle of water come out. Then Estis turns on the faucets in separate bathrooms. Next he flushes a toilet. Then he turns on a third sink."

"The water pressure is so low at his home at CitySide in West Palm Beach, Estis says, that he has to turn on all his faucets to trick the water pump outside into pushing enough water to his shower."

"'That's what I have to do every morning in my $500,000 home,' Estis said."

"Estis blames WCI Communities Inc., the Bonita Springs-based home builder that built the development, for low water pressure and other shortcomings."

"The CitySide homeowners association is considering hiring a law firm to pursue legal action against WCI. The company already is being sued by condo associations."

"Matthew Nicolosi also gripes about the poor water pressure and WCI's lack of response to his complaints. 'I can barely take a shower,' Nicolosi said. 'You call WCI, you get the royal runaround.'"

"Another CitySide owner, David Moya, likewise is irritated by unfinished tasks such as the lack of electronic gates in the fence along Congress Avenue. 'It's been over a year, and they still have not completed the project,' said Moya, a real estate agent."

The St Petersburg Times. "For Floridians besieged by soaring home insurance and rising property taxes, this is the cruel twist no one saw coming. Even as the stagnant real estate market drags down their home values, property tax assessments for well more than 100,000 Tampa Bay area homeowners will actually increase this fall."

"'There's going to be some sticker shock,' said Ken Wilkinson, Lee County property appraiser. It has many county officials bracing for an avalanche of confused, if not angry, homeowners."

"Declining property values are a rarity in recent Florida history. But this year in Pinellas County, values decreased on 67,000 homesteaded properties. In Hillsborough, 50,000 dipped. In Hernando, 2,800."

From TC Palm. "American Equity Mortgage Co. is shutting its West Palm Beach office and six other offices nationwide because of the slowdown in the U.S. housing market."

The Miami Herald. "Hundreds of Miami-Dade County employees would be laid off and hundreds more vacant positions eliminated under a cost-cutting budget that Mayor Carlos Alvarez will announce today."

"The details have been kept among a small group of leaders, all anxious to see whether Alvarez and County Manager George Burgess managed to absorb property-tax cuts without slashing services."

The Herald Tribune. "On the Gulf Coast and across Florida, newspapers are cutting staff and shrinking what they deliver to readers. The real estate slump is hitting Florida newspapers hard, cutting revenues by millions of dollars across the state. Like other businesses affected by the real estate slump, newspapers are cutting costs."

"'Problems in real estate, that goes beyond builder advertising,' said Paul C. Tash, CEO of Times Publishing Co., publisher of the St. Petersburg Times, the state's largest newspaper. 'We were in the midst of a real estate boom a year ago, and in comparison to that, this doesn't feel as good.'"

"'California and Florida, those two states in general are seeing some pretty tough classified real estate declines right now,' said James Walden, a stock analyst who covers the publishing industry for Morningstar."

"If the problem were limited to real estate, it would not be that bad. But it spreads from there to affect all kinds of auxiliary businesses, from furniture showrooms to automobile dealers to corner cafes."

"'It is obvious that there is a domino effect on small business,' said Vicki Vega, VP of business development at the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce. 'If there is no work for the builders, than naturally all the complementary businesses are feeling it as well.'"

The Orlando Sentinel. "After nearly two decades of smooth sailing, Sanford-based Federal Trust Bank has run into some serious head winds. Profit has plummeted, bad loans have skyrocketed and assets have decreased for the longtime Central Florida savings and loan."

"It is a dramatic departure for a savings and loan that ranked 53rd in a 2005 survey of the nation's 100 best-performing public thrifts. Profit fell 23 percent last year."

"Federal Trust is not alone in its troubles, said John McCune, research director for SNL Financial LLC. The housing slump has especially hurt thrifts, because many invested heavily in residential development during the boom years, he said."

"'The thrift industry as a whole is getting hit, but Federal Trust is being hit harder than most,' McCune said."

"One of the bank's most problematic issues has been the large increase in nonperforming assets, or bad loans that are in default. Noncurrent loans jumped almost fivefold to $16.7 million in the first quarter. Overall, nonperforming assets totaled $18.8 million, an increase of 376 percent."

"Nationally known economist Mark Zandi told home builders and industry professionals meeting Wednesday in Orlando that the beleaguered U.S. housing industry could bleed for another year or more."

"And Florida, he said, will be one of the states with the worst hemorrhaging."

"'There's no sign at all of stabilization,' said Zandi, a featured speaker at an industry forum related to the Southeast Building Conference, which opens today at the Orange County Convention Center."

"More needs to be done, he said, including deeper price cuts for both existing and new homes, and further cuts in housing starts."