The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. "When Jennifer Wigand put down a deposit in 2005 for a condominium, she hoped to quickly sell it and use the profits to help pay her law school loans. Then the housing market plunged. Wigand said she wasn't worried because the developer had promised she could back out any time and her money would be returned. But in July, when she asked to take part in that program, Wigand said she was told it had been canceled."

"'I was disappointed that the developers and their agents went back on their word,' said the 24-year-old Fort Lauderdale resident. 'I just want my [$39,200] deposit back.'"

"Wigand last month filed a lawsuit to get out of the deal. Last week, 20 other buyers in Veranda joined her suit."

"Brad Hunter, director of the South Florida region for Metrostudy, said more lawsuits are being filed because 'there is a lot of buyer's remorse out there.'"

"About 40 percent to 60 percent of buyers are trying to wiggle out of their contracts, said Gary Poliakoff, a Fort Lauderdale attorney, referring to a dozen projects in South Florida that his firm represents, including Veranda."

"'The claims and the suits are namely a means for an end for investor-buyers to get out of deals where they weren't able to realize the profits they expected, but it doesn't mean the reasons are legitimate,' Poliakoff said."

"Developers are not budging, Poliakoff said, because they 'built the buildings on the reliance that the buyers are ready, willing and able to close.'"

"John Mike, chairman of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, said those most upset are buyers who had no intention of living in their properties."

"'A lot of those condos, unfortunately, were bought by speculators with the same business plans — to flip their properties, and unfortunately that has created a glut of units. Now were are seeing a large number or people trying to get their money back by hiring lawyers,' he said."

"Ori Onn, a real estate agent, signed a contract in 2005 to buy a one-bedroom Phase One condo for $295,000. He put down $59,000 and like Wigand, he planned to flip it."

"'They told me they would put it on a resale program if I didn't go through with the deal,' Onn said. 'I just want my money back.'"

The Herald Tribune from Florida. "To some degree, the price-cutting seems to be working in Southwest Florida, with the Sarasota-Bradenton area moving more properties in September than either Fort Lauderdale or Miami, where median prices last month remained at close to their pre-boom peaks."

"The median price for a home in the Sarasota-Bradenton market has dropped $109,200 since the beginning of 2006, based on the September sales report by the Florida Association of Realtors. Back in January 2006, the median was $353,500. Now it is 31 percent less."

"But sellers and their agents have been rewarded for their price cutting with better sales volume than markets where cuts have not occurred."

"Starting early this year, Matthew Augustyniak decided that his Horizon Group, a Bradenton real estate firm, needed to adapt to a stagnant market. He began training agents to convince banks to write off portions of their mortgages in order to move property."

"'This month alone, I have 150 sales of new homes that aren't put in the MLS,' Augustyniak said."

"He also is getting individual clients into homes. One woman is buying a Palm-Aire home for $270,000 that originally sold for $400,000 and carried a bank mortgage of $360,000. 'The bank took the hit on $90,000. So I look at that as a positive effect on my buyer,' he said."

"In the Sarasota MLS, there are now 7,967 homes for sale, and the current selling rate is 70 homes a week, representing a 114-week supply, according to Team Dutoit. The 4,673 condo units for sale in mid-October represent a 156-week supply given the current sales rate of 30 per week."

"To a large degree, the problem was the boom itself, which took the market to excesses both in pricing and in mortgage terms."

"'The biggest reason is the unwinding of the housing bubble, the hangover effect, if you will,' said Geberer, the economist with Orlando-based Fishkind & Associates. 'We had three years of record growth in new home sales and existing home sales, and three years of record prices. Much of that activity was investor-driven and speculative, for which there is no end user and no end demand.'"

The State from South Carolina. "Despite a steep decline in Columbia-area home sales in September, real estate agents remain optimistic because of the area’s traditionally stable market."

"Sales sank 18 percent in September over the same month last year, according to data from the S.C. Association of Realtors."

"Mike Taylor, co-owner of Century 21 Bob Capes Realtors, said the numbers show a return to a normal market after a couple of banner years. 'It’s just not the record-setting market that we’re used to,' he said."

"'If people are waiting for the times when ... every month was a record, it will be a long time before we see that again,' he said."

"Home sales were bleak statewide, dropping nearly 18 percent. The coast continued to show the steepest declines, with the Charleston area’s sales dipping more than 40 percent."

"Columbia’s economic diversification helps during housing swoons, said Tommy Carter, broker-in-charge of Russell & Jeffcoat Realtors’ metro office. 'Even during bad times, it’s not too bad,' he said."

The Free Times from South Carolina. "A virtual meltdown in the subprime mortgage market has contributed to a slowdown in homebuilding and a skyrocketing foreclosure rate. That’s the national picture anyway. Local industry observers say the situation is better in Columbia and statewide."

"New-home sales have fallen in South Carolina, says Mark Nix, director of the Home Builders Association of South Carolina, adding that the median price of a new home in Columbia is about $185,000."

"Nick Kremydas, CEO of the South Carolina Association of REALTORS, even calls the falling price of new homes a good thing. 'After a 10-year boom in real estate, a cooling off period is healthy,' Kremydas says. 'It’s not a bust by any means, but the market is catching its breath.'"

"'We expect thousands and thousands of people to move into South Carolina,' Kremydas says. 'We don’t have enough houses for them right now.'"

"And while home prices have fallen, Nix says the Home Builders Association of South Carolina has launched a program dubbed 'Buy Now' to encourage people to buy new homes and remind them that it is a good time to buy — if they have the money."

The News & Observer from North Carolina. "Economists looking for the bottom of the housing slump found instead an accelerating chasm in a new report on the Triangle market. Sales of existing homes fell 24 percent in September, the sharpest decline since the market turned down a year ago."

"'That's big,' said Moody's Economy.com economist Michael Helmar, who tracks Triangle housing. 'Your market is on a downward track, and it looks like there may be some more pain to go.'"

"The monthly report from Triangle MLS provided signs that there is indeed more misery ahead for the region's largest industry and the hundreds of businesses that depend on it. The inventory of unsold homes rose 23.7 percent from September 2006, and pending sales were down 14 percent, falling to their lowest level in four years."

"Also, the number of homes on the market with reduced prices was 50 percent higher than a year ago, and the number of withdrawn listings was up 19 percent. The ranks of home sellers who had essentially given up and allowed their listings to expire was up 52 percent."

"More recently, said Eb Moore, CEO of one of the Triangle's largest residential brokerages, the market for homes costing $1 million or more has been particularly weak. The number of pricey homes on the market has swelled as owners who financed them with adjustable-rate mortgages try to escape rising monthly payments, he said."

"The glutted inventory of unsold homes includes 405 properties priced at $1 million, compared with 225 in March 2006. Moore said homes costing $1 million or more now take about a year to sell."

"The report showed September closings at 1,990 for in Wake, Durham, Orange and Johnston counties, down from 2,630 a year earlier. The decline was nearly double the next largest monthly fall in the past year: 13 percent tumbles in December 2006 and July 2007."

"'We're not bulletproof, we're just bullet resistant, and that means we're in a downturn,' said Moore."