The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. "The future of historic home builder Levitt and Sons is in doubt as the crumbling housing market drains the company of cash. Fort Lauderdale-based Levitt Corp., the company's parent, said Friday it plans to take pretax charges of $160 to $170 million as a result of losses on Levitt and Sons' home-building inventory. The charges are in addition to charges and write-offs of $99 million in prior periods."

"Levitt and Sons is trying to restructure its outstanding debt, but no long-term agreement has been reached. Without a pact, 'Levitt and Sons' viability is uncertain,' the parent company said."

"Three weeks ago, Levitt Corp. said it was laying off as many as 200 of its 573 employees. At the time, Levitt Corp. Chairman Alan Levan said prices that some of the builder's homes were selling for were 'un-economic and below cost.'"

"Analysts originally expected South Florida's housing market to improve late this year or next, but now they don't see a rebound before 2009. 'The pain here and the depth of the problems are more than anybody anticipated a year and a half ago,' said Anthony Trella, a home-building consultant in Deerfield Beach."

"Miami-based housing analyst Lewis Goodkin said he expects new-home prices to drop by 20 percent or more in the coming year from their 2005 peak. 'Some people have made the statement that the market has already bottomed out,' Goodkin said. 'I couldn't disagree more. We've got to get prices down to where true users can afford them.'"

"In retrospect, builders should have started scaling back operations in 2005, said David Levin, a housing consultant in Delray Beach. 'But it was hard to be thinking like that when you saw everyone making a fortune,' Levin. 'You never know where the top and the bottom of the market are until they're past.'"

The Orlando Sentinel. "Resales of homes and condos in the Orlando area had their worst month in more than 8 1/2 years in September, when they fell 55 percent from a year earlier."

"It was the worst year-over-year percentage plunge in sales so far in 2007, and the worst on record going back at least a dozen years. And it occurred despite falling prices and concerted efforts by local Realtors to move buyers and sellers to the closing table."

"Realtors are feeling the pressure to scrape by on 'crumbs' until the market picks up again, said David DeLoach, broker in St. Cloud. 'I've still got my lights on -- I just paid the light bill,' DeLoach said. 'We're just trying to make it through this. We're not expecting it to last, because there is pent-up demand from buyers. I know that.'"

"Many buyers, he said, tell him and other Realtors that they don't want to buy a home too soon and 'miss out' should prices continue to decline. 'But it's like the stock market,' DeLoach said. 'You don't know if you are buying at the bottom. If you need to buy [a home], stop trying to time the market. That's what I tell people.'"

"John Fridlington, executive VP of the Florida Association of Realtors, said the housing slump presents an unusual set of circumstances that is testing the industry's staying power."

"'It just takes time,' Fridlington said. The Orlando-based trade association, with more than 100,000 members statewide, does not have the power to turn the market around. 'No one does,' he said."

The Herald Tribune. "If foreclosures continue at the record pace clocked in August and September, Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties could see more than 1,500 homes taken back by lenders this year."

"That is an average of nearly 30 homes per week. It is a figure roughly four times the total number of homes seized by lenders in 2006 and would dwarf the 278 the previous year."

"The 215 repossessions documented by California-based RealtyTrac in September would represent nearly a quarter of the 910 homes that Realtors sold in the whole region during August, the most recent month for which those statistics are available."

"Another factor has the potential to swell foreclosures this year in this region: the loans made by Bradenton-based Coast Bank to customers of failed builder Construction Compliance Inc."

"'Many disgruntled clients of Coast Bank and others, including SunTrust, National City Mortgage and First Florida Bank, may be facing foreclosure over nonpayment for unfinished homes built by Construction Compliance,' said Sarasota attorney Alan Tannenbaum (who) represents more than 100 former customers of the St. Petersburg-based builder who are suing the bank."

"If that were to happen, close to 500 homes could be added to the region’s already swollen statistics. 'There were a large number of investor/speculators, and I suspect many of the foreclosures will fall in that category,' said Tramm Hudson, a veteran Southwest Florida banker working as a spokesman and adviser for Coast."

"John Yanchek, the Sarasota attorney who represented Neal Mohamad Husani in his whirlwind real estate deals, has lost a house on Bird Key. On July 12, the circuit court in Sarasota County ruled that Yanchek owed Chase Bank $2.05 million and ordered that the house be sold at public auction."

"Yanchek’s situation illustrates how a foreclosure can have an impact far beyond the home’s owner. John and Marjorie Meyer live next door, and they have watched the bank-seized property fall into disrepair. 'They have performed no maintenance in years,' John Meyer said."

The Atlanta Journal Constitution from Georgia. "Kevin Esch was in week four of his condo hunt. Was he getting antsy? Not in the least. Esch can take his time. Atlanta is awash in condos."

"'At a time when the pace of new development needed to slow, a record 3,050 units were started in the first half of 2007,' researcher David Haddow said. 'Atlanta's intown condominium market has clearly entered the danger zone.'"

"A record 6,000-plus units are under construction, Haddow reported. Enough condos are out there to meet demand for the next 31 months, his figures show. Haddow's calculations don't include the projects that have been proposed but not started, such as the two Trump Towers in Midtown."

"'It's the slowest market I've ever actually worked in,' said real estate agent Geoffrey Greene."

"Market changes caused the glut. In 2004 and 2005, Atlanta enjoyed a run-up in condo sales as intown living grew in popularity and easy credit made home ownership possible for more people. Last year, buyer exuberance began to peter out and sales returned to levels closer to the norm. Condo projects, however, marched on."

"From mid-2006 to mid-2007, condo sales fell to 2,239 units, sharply off the prior two years, when an average of 4,000 units sold, Haddow reported."

"Gigi Giannoni, president of Evolv real estate service, said one reason for the downturn is that investors who had hoped to rent and sell condos lost confidence and fled the market. 'A lot of developers ran into that problem, that investors just decided to pull out,' Giannoni said. 'Under-contract condos went empty.'"

"Coro Realty Advisors switched to apartments for its Buckhead Place project on Peachtree Road. Wood Partners announced a similar switch for a tower at The Streets of Buckhead site. Kim King Associates dropped plans to build condos atop the Hotel Palomar, now under construction in Midtown."

"'It's not that they don't want to buy,' Mark Randall, a director with Wood Partners, said about condo hunters. 'They're scared to buy.'"

"Randall said he's been trying to bat down rumors that the Trump Towers project, which Wood is shepherding, is gasping. 'I can tell you the way I'm writing checks right now, it's not dead,' he said. 'We continue to sell units. We will get started because we're Trump.'"