The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. "The first thing you notice as you drive the hundreds of miles of crumbling roads in this once rapidly growing city is the enormous number of 'For Sale' signs. Every 9th or 10th house is either listed for sale or will be as soon as foreclosure proceedings are concluded."

"All told, as many as 2,000 of North Port's 20,600 homes hang over the market, grossly distorting any semblance of balance between supply and demand, data from the Sarasota County MLS, RealtyTrac.com and Port Charlotte property appraiser Dennis Black shows."

"'Drive any block in North Port and you will see four or five 'For Sale' signs in every direction,' said Michael Tenn, a Daytona Beach resident still trying to sell the house his grandmother moved out of last year. 'Everybody is trying to get rid of property.'"

"Now that the boom is over, North Port is suffering more than any other place in Southwest Florida. Its economy is based on home building and real estate sales, and those industries are now at a virtual standstill."

"The homes that are on the market, or soon will be, represent a 4.7-year supply given the current pace of sales."

"In all, builders have constructed 9,700 homes in North Port since 2002. Convinced that wave after wave of retiring baby boomers would continue to spur growth for years to come, builders kept building."

"Today, all that has come to screeching halt. As of mid-June, there were a total of 885 homes for sale in North Port, according to the Sarasota County MLS."

"There also were nearly 200 FSBOs and 400 houses that builders erected on speculation and are holding in inventory, according to statistics. In addition, another 195 homes have been foreclosed on by banks, while 305 more waiting to go through that same process, statistics show. It is possible that lenders who took possession of those 195 homes also might have put them on the market for sale."

"Ray Martin, spent nearly $740,000 buying six homes in North Port three years ago, is in a different predicament. He was able to sell one at a $100,000 profit before the boom ended, but is still sitting on the other five and paying interest on nearly $500,000 in loans."

"'We've come way down on price,' Martin said. 'We're just about where we were three years ago, and I don't see any upswing.'"

"In the meantime, he is trying to rent the houses to cover his expenses. But rents have also plunged. 'I have one house on a deep water canal that I'm renting for $895, and I used to get $1,100. The others I used to rent for $1,000 and I'm now getting only $800.'"

"Roger Clyne, an agent with Exit Realty, did not try to sugarcoat the situation. 'There's a tremendous supply of homes on the market and demand is way down,' Clyne said. 'Property values are melting like ice cream, and no one knows how far they will drop. The only way to attract buyers is to keep moving the asking price below the rest of the pack.'"

"Traditionally, about 85 percent of the 20,000 homes in the city were homesteaded, which means they were bought by people who intended to live in them. By 2005, that figure had dropped to 67 percent."

"Black checked the addresses of all the non-homesteaded buyers and found that two-thirds of them live in Florida, suggesting that they were speculators and not snowbirds. With all those empty homes hanging over the market, it is no surprise that prices have dropped."

"A 1,600-square-foot home built in 2004 that might have commanded $203,000 during the boom is now worth $60,000 less, Black said. An acre of land that went for $50,000 two years ago can now be had for $10,000."

"North Port was the epicenter of the housing boom and is now at the heart of the downturn, a phenomenon that is hurting everyone who catered to those in the construction trade."

"'A lot of the local guys are hurting, they're not working,' said Ray Behren, (owner of) Chicago Pizza & Pub. 'A lot of guys are still working, but they're just not getting paid.'"

"Behrens does not put up dry wall or cement cinderblocks or show homes to prospective buyers, but like nearly every business in formerly fast-growing North Port, Chicago Pizza & Subs has been hit hard by the real estate downturn."

"'North Port's economy was so front-loaded on building,' said John Pitzer, who works at the Boca Grande Waste Water Treatment Plant, but lives in North Port. 'Their livelihoods were based on construction. Now they are trying to fall back on something else. There's a lot of guys out there working for peanuts right now.'"

"Pitzer, too, got caught up in the real estate bubble. Tired of sweltering summer temperatures and the insects that come with it, he and his wife were considering a move to Wyoming. 'We were talking about it,' Pitzer said. 'At first, my wife wasn't sure she wanted to do it. Then all of a sudden, the bottom falls out. Now we can't.'"

"Last year...Everett Newton, a molding technician who has been in the industry for 13 years, brought home about $1,200 per week. Now, he clears about $400. 'They've cut back big time,' Newton said. 'Last year wasn't the greatest. But this year, the real estate economy has just crashed.'"

"Though the work has slowed dramatically, his mortgage payments have not. His neighborhood was once growing, a home to speculators, newly arriving families and scores of construction crews. Now it is half-built homes, vacancies and 'For Sale' signs."

"'I would say in a four-block radius of my house, there are 10 homes for sale,' Newton said. 'They've been up for sale for a year. They aren't selling. A lot of stuff is going up for sale. I think they are trying to sell and get out before things get worse.'"

The Pensacola News Journal. "Escambia County Property Appraiser Chris Jones says the Florida Department of Revenue is trying to force him to raise property assessments."

"Jones, who has worked in the property appraiser field for 28 years, said the situation is anything but routine. 'I've been the property appraiser for Escambia County for 12 years, and I've never had this happen,' he said."

"In reviewing county tax rolls, the Department of Revenue compares property appraiser assessments to the actual prices for which properties sell."

"But Jones is arguing that such a comparison does not present a true picture of the local real-estate market."

"He contends that the market, especially the residential market, is so sluggish that sellers are having to make numerous financial concessions, not reflected in the sales price, to unload their properties."

"'If I sold you a house for $150,000 but gave you $5,000 in concessions, then that house's real value is $145,000,' Jones said."

"Before Hurricane Ivan made landfall in September 2004, there were between 1,200 and 1,500 homes for sale in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. This year's tax rolls are based on home sales in 2006, when there were more than 7,000 homes up for sale."

"New home sales in Escambia County dropped 41 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 when compared to the previous year, according to the Haas Center for Business Research and Development at the University of West Florida. During the same time frame, Santa Rosa's new home sales dropped 35 percent."

"The housing glut, skyrocketing homeowners' insurance rates and property taxes generally are agreed to be contributors to the drop."

"Several real estate salespeople also said they agree with Jones that sellers are making frequent concessions. 'There is just about a concession on every house sold,' said broker associate Trish Sarfert."