The Herald Online reports from South Carolina. "HSBC Holdings PLC on Friday said it was closing a Fort Mill-based unit that made subprime mortgage loans through independent brokers, eliminating 369 jobs in the Charlotte area. 'It's no longer sustainable and not the right place to allocate capital in the future,' said Michael Geoghegan, HSBC's group CEO, in a statement. 'We said we would make tough decisions, and we have done exactly that.'"

The Atlanta Journal Constitution from Georgia. "A year ago, Fulton Concrete Co. stayed busy pouring basement walls, foundation slabs, driveways, curbs and other infrastructure in new subdivisions in metro Atlanta. Residential work has all but dried up now."

"The housing euphoria of the last few years created an 'if you build it, they will come' atmosphere. Developers flooded the market with plans for new subdivisions. Now, the building boom, plus a rash of foreclosures and a slowdown in new home sales, has created a glut of metro Atlanta subdivisions where the slab, driveway, sidewalks and curbs are in, but little else."

"As of June, the latest data available, metro Atlanta had a record 133,538 vacant developed lots, according to Metrostudy. That's about three years of inventory. 'How are we going to burn through that?' said Bill Benzur, Fulton Concrete's general manager."

"Real estate wasn't booming in metro Atlanta in the early 2000s the way it was in cities such as Miami. But the market, with low interest rates and eager buyers, was still perfect for Phillip E. Hill's mortgage fraud scheme to milk millions from inflated home values."

"On Friday, a federal judge in Atlanta sentenced Hill to 28 years in prison and ordered him to pay more than $41 million in restitution for running a conspiracy that involved loan officers and real estate appraisers and racked up $112 million in fraudulent loans."

"Prosecutors said the scheme involved the sale of more than 50 homes and 250 condominiums in eight Atlanta-area condo complexes. 'The sentence today does not replace the losses that were incurred due to this scheme,' said Rodney E. Clarke, acting special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation unit."

The Naples News from Florida. "A Fort Myers man has been arrested and charged with 60 felonies as part of what investigators say is a complicated real estate scheme that bilked investors out of $3.8 million."

"Heckler is accusing of scamming over a dozen people in Southwest Florida. For nearly a year and a half, Heckler and Jack, through a company called Alternative Home Financing, worked deals to arrange financing for lease option to buy homes in Lee and Charlotte counties."

"'They were preying on people who wanted the American Dream of buying a home and couldn’t get a conventional mortgage,' said Trish Routte with Crime Stoppers. 'Then they lost all the money they had worked so hard to save.'"

The Palm Beach Post from Florida. "Jobless rates continued to rise in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast in August, a trend largely attributed to the cooling of the region's housing market."

"The state's slumping construction industry lost 18,500 jobs over the past year. In Palm Beach County, the construction industry lost 1,300 jobs over the past year. About 100 construction jobs were lost in Martin and St. Lucie in the past year."

"'Given the weakness in the national jobs numbers, I take the Florida report as pretty good news,' said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida."

The Herald Tribune from Florida. "Unemployment in Southwest Florida edged up in August, carrying the region further into territory not seen in decades. Southwest Florida's sluggish housing market is clearly a major player in the higher unemployment. The subsequent effects that industry has had on businesses from restaurants to retail stores also play a major role."

"'Overall, this report is good news in the midst of what's becoming an increasingly turbulent soft landing of the national economy,' Snaith said."

The News Journal from Florida. "As the area's unemployment rate continues to hover at 4.5 percent, the mood in the local One-Stop Career Center has turned desperate, even ugly."

"'There are no jobs in Volusia County,' Brandy Harris snapped."

"The slump in the housing market continues to plague the area, hitting not only Realtors and home builders but other businesses. Even companies that aren't laying off employees are enacting hiring freezes."

"David Plaza, who works for a beachside time-share resort, said he has to find a different job. He is paid by commission to generate leads of people wanting time shares. But no one wants to buy a time share now. 'My paycheck was $72 last week,' he said."

From CBS 4 in Florida. "There are a record number of foreclosures in South Florida in what economists are calling a housing recession. The foreclosures are isolated to homeowners who financed their property with subprime and adjustable rate loans."

"At the time when maintaining a home costs more, residents are complaining their proposed property tax bills haven't dropped like a rock as lawmakers promised."

"Property assessments are supposed to reflect property values January 1st of this year. But that's not happening, because much of the real estate data tax collectors are now using goes back to when real estate values were way up."

"Helen Guerrera's fighting mad and she's trying to do something about it. The Brickell condo owner said, 'They're screwing us badly. It's really awful.'"

"Guerrera's property assessment was $593,000, which was increased $168,000 over last year."

"Assessments on the value of a property is based on so-called comparable sales in a neighborhood, but criticism has been that those sales were based on high values before South Floridas' real estate market crashed."

"Broward realtor Peter Maloney says his house has been over-valued based on last year's stronger sales. 'The assessment is on the high side, and of course we've had such a drop in prices recently that it's killing me,' Maloney said."

"Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro said, 'We're looking at data over a year ago which I think is incorrect.'"

"Property appraisers do believe assessments and tax bills could be lower next year."

The St Petersburg Times from Florida. "The Federal Reserve's decision this week to cut the short-term federal funds rate more sharply than expected to 4.75 from 5.25 percent was met with some decidedly mixed views in a sampling of Tampa Bay businesses and borrowers."

"'Hopefully get foreign investors in here to buy new housing and some of those condos,' said Mike Kelly, owner of Kelly Pools in Indian Rocks Beach."

"Kelly noted that there are numerous people in the building trade 'out there starving for work. I get calls from subs every day looking for jobs that never used to give us the time of day.'"

"In theory, the Fed's rate cut should be a boon for mortgage brokers. Lenders should be slicing mortgage rates, homebuyers would be lured by more affordable terms, and calls to mortgage brokers increase."

"Tell that to Scott L. Clark. The president of The Loan Store Inc. in St. Petersburg says the rate cut won't help him much because most of the alternative loan programs he specializes in have either tightened their standards or disappeared, thanks to the ongoing housing slump. These include riskier 'no-doc' and 'stated' loans, which require relatively little financial disclosure from borrowers."

"It would take a huge rate cut to rejuvenate The Loan Store, which began the year with 22 employees and a nice office. 'I'm pretty much down to myself and my wife,' Clark said."