The News Press reports from Florida. "WCI Communities Inc. is the latest developer to be targeted by homebuyers trying to get out of deals now that prices have fallen drastically. A federal class action lawsuit filed recently claims there's a fatal flaw in the contracts used by the Bonita Springs-based developer to sell the 116 units in its luxury, 21-story condo tower Florencia — now some buyers want their deposits back."

"The lawsuit is one more symptom of a softening housing market. The median price of an existing condo in Lee County has fallen 38 percent from February 2006, at $353,900, the highest on record, to $218,800 in August 2007, the last month available, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. For single-family homes, the price has fallen 22 percent from the all-time high of $322,300 in December 2005 to $250,800 in August 2007."

"In this case, David Berry and John Schrenkel want out of the contract and their $115,000 deposit returned. But WCI attorney Thomas Roehn told Miami-based attorney Robert Cooper, who filed the suit, in a letter that it's all just a misunderstanding. 'WCI looks forward to Mr. Schrenkel and Mr. Berry closing upon their purchase of Unit 1202 at Florencia.'"

The Palm Beach Post. "Behind doors in Palm Beach County and along the Treasure Coast, from the meanest fixer-upper to the glitziest gated community, thousands of homeowners are struggling to make the mortgage."

"Between Jan. 1 and July 1, homeowners in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties defaulted on 4,318 mortgages worth $1.05 billion. That's a 311 percent increase in defaults from the 1,051 recorded during the same period in 2006."

"Loans in tony new communities crashed just as disastrously as homes in Counterpoint Estates, the aging middle-income subdivision just down the road from Versailles' golden gates. Condos that once generated traffic jams of eager buyers went dark."

"The $1.05 billion would buy the net assets of Florida Atlantic University — twice. And the number of soured mortgages adds up to one for every man, woman and child in Juno Beach."

"Millions of dollars in mortgages collapsed before a single payment was made. Borrowers holding pre-construction loans defaulted on dirt before homes could come out of the ground."

"'This is all new territory,' said Jessica Cecere, president of Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. 'Two years ago, we could see it coming and thought it would be a disaster, but not this.'"

"This is staring her in the face the minute she leaves her house: A half-dozen homes in her neighborhood are in foreclosure."

"Michael Sichenzia, lead investigator for (a) Deerfield Beach law firm, noted the media frenzy accompanying the boom. 'Every book that was written, every time you read the paper ... all you heard was flipping your way to wealth, borrow your way to wealth,' he said."

"That's the environment in which mortgage broker Micki O'Callaghan snapped up two homes in Andros Isles and three in Terracina in West Palm. Same thing for Demetrius Walton, a 24-year-old South Florida man, who managed to purchase two Wellington homes and a housing lot with roughly $2 million in loans and no money down."

"That sort of exuberance, irrational or otherwise, is the sort of thing loan officers and lenders once walked away from."

"To keep the roof over her head, cancer survivor Deborah Tipton is squaring off with one of the largest banks in the world. Global powerhouse Deutsche Bank never wrote a loan on her modest Greenacres condo. It never saw her credit score, checked her baby-sitting income or requested an appraisal."

"Tipton admits her $100-a-week baby-sitting wages should not have qualified her for a home loan in January 2006. But when her abdomen ruptured and herniated, a life-threatening post-cancer complication, she had no health insurance. She needed money. After 12 lenders turned her down, Fremont Investment and Loan Co. and QuoteMeARate.com Inc. said yes."

"In broker documents, there's no mention of Tipton's meager wages. Instead, the paperwork says Fremont made a call to Wyn Solution Services Inc. of Sunrise, which said Tipton worked there as a district manager, earning $3,800 a month."

"Deutsche Bank, which purchased Tipton's loan along with millions of others and sold them to investors, declined to comment, citing the pending foreclosure. Deutsche Bank holds roughly $154 million in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie county mortgages that defaulted between Jan. 1 and July 1, more than any other lender."

"'We all own a piece of this mess,' said Bill Davis, former president of the Palm Beach County Mortgage Brokers."

"In Anthony Groves near West Palm Beach, a half dozen homes on Berenger Walk defaulted on mortgages between Jan. 1 and July 1. In Counterpoint Estates in Royal Palm Beach, Oliver Lane had defaults; in Lake Worth, Wauconda Way; in Riviera Beach, West 30th Street."

"It's economics 101, Davis said: Prices are a function of demand. In Palm Beach County, the number of homes for sale in August rose to a three-year supply at the current pace of sales. In August, 33,708 houses and condos were for sale in Palm Beach County, according to Illustrated Properties."

"'My neighborhood is a classic case,' Davis said. 'Three years ago, you could put a for-sale sign out, and in three days you would have a contract and two backups. Now, houses are still listed for 12, 18 months. They don't even have open houses anymore.'"

"'The first part of this year, we started to see an increase, a lot of layoffs, even with the smaller contractors,' said Steve Munnell, executive director of the Florida Roofing, Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors Association."

"Not only is construction of new homes off but also homeowners looking to put their homes on the market are more likely to repair or replace tiles and shingles. Now, though, 'people are not putting their homes on the market because there is no market,' he said."

The Orlando Sentinel. "More than 11,000 homeowners in the seven-county Central Florida region have defaulted on their mortgages through August. As in other communities walloped by the nation's mortgage crisis, real-estate agents say Osceola's foreclosure boom is fueled by small-time speculators and buyers who got no-money-down mortgages at teaser rates -- and then got trapped when home prices fell."

"'If a buyer's looking for a house and they have 100 homes to look at, and 10 or 15 of them are bank-owned properties that are well below market value, those are the ones they're going to buy,' said broker, Bryant Tutas."

"Leonardo Calvo, a carpenter in East Hampton, N.Y., thought the house would be an easy investment. Years earlier, his friend bought a house in the Kissimmee area for about $150,000 and sold it two years later for more than $200,000."

"The broker who sold him the house said he could get $2,000 a month by renting it. But Calvo never got close to that. He tried to sell the house for a year before giving it back to the bank. 'It was a big mistake,' Calvo said. He also blamed real-estate agents for misleading him."

"'Those guys are liars. They said this is a good deal, you can do this, you can do that. They say everything is easy, and you're going to make a lot of money,' Calvo said. ''When they give you the keys and they say, 'Congratulations, goodbye,' by that time, you're going to be in trouble.'"

"For every Poinciana house sold in August through a real-estate broker, more than three homeowners entered the foreclosure process."

The St Petersburg Times. "Tampa Bay area home sales keep probing new bottoms. September's totals were off 39 percent from the none-too-spectacular sales of September 2006. That part about probing bottoms sounds proctological, but the market is about as savory as a barium shake."

"Why aren't people buying? Prices have retreated up to 20 percent. Builders are giving away the kitchen sink, along with Jacuzzis and hard-wood floors. Banks are dumping repossessed homes at discounts."

"Many buyers wait for home prices to strike bottom, whenever that might be. They assume prices have room to fall, so why buy a diminishing asset?"

From Reuters. "Workers are painting, patching stucco and peeling protective plastic from gleaming panes of balcony glass at a new 1,000-unit condo called The Plaza, two towers that rise 43 and 56 stories over Miami's bank district."

"The opening of a raft of big complexes has analysts predicting the market, fueled by a frenetic construction spree that saw cranes sprout like mushrooms on the skyline, is edging toward a cliff."

"In August, condo sales in Miami-Dade County dropped 44 percent, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. But the number of condos on sale has climbed to 25,000, a 36-month supply."

"Some analysts believe 2008 will be the turning point, when pre-construction buyers are forced to pony up the full purchase price or walk away from deposits, speculators feel the pain of holding too many properties and developers need to dump excess units at discounts of 30, 40 or even 50 percent."

"At the peak some 60,000 units were under construction, planned or permitted in the city of Miami, whose 400,000 people represent only 16 percent of Miami-Dade County. Some of those projects have been canceled. But the ones already underway and soon ready for residents are shrouded in uncertainty as buyers look to back away from contracts, unable to get mortgages or fearing they are paying too much."

"'We have definitely not seen the bottom yet. In the next six to 12 months we'll see the beginnings of that moment of truth,' said Brad Hunter of Metrostudy. 'It could be 2012 to 2014 before this market needs to build more condos.'"

"Between 2006 and 2009, one analyst said, developers will drop 28,000 new units into the Miami market. In just eight prominent buildings in the downtown and banking districts more than 6,600 units are nearly ready."

"A smaller Miami-area condo glut in the 1980s took six years to correct, analysts say. This one could be worse. 'I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of the pain the market will see,' said Matthew Martinez, point-man for a Connecticut-based private equity fund."

From CBS 4.com. "CBS4 has been bringing you to the latest on South Florida’s housing crisis as countless condos and homes remain unsold and record-breaking foreclosures continue. Now some insiders say our real estate crunch is going from bad to worse."

"Cutler Bays’ John Shimmel just put his home up for sale. Fed-up and laid off the Miami native is looking for a new life anywhere but Florida. 'I just got laid off, and I think it's just never a better opportunity to leave,' said Shimmel. 'It gave me a good chance to get the house up for sale 100 percent, and I'm ready to go.'"

"Shimmel’s optimistic he’ll be able to sell his home before he gets into real financial trouble. His advice for any other neighbors still struggling to pay their tax and insure bills?"

"'If they want to stay, it's a beautiful sunshiny state, but there's better places to be. I've lived all around -- traveled all around the United States, and there's just better places to be than right here,' said Shimmel."