The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. "The financial collapse of one of America's legendary home builders has left people throughout Central Florida stuck with unfinished houses, liens against their properties, unopened clubhouses and community pools, and warranties that could be worthless. Many of the victims, scattered throughout the Southeastern United States, don't know whether their houses will ever be finished."

"'We're just kind of in limbo here and waiting to hear,' said Vincent Santanelli, a resident of Cascades at Groveland who helped his elderly father-in-law with a $20,000 down payment on an unfinished house in the Lake County community. 'We haven't even heard a word from Levitt.'"

"A company Web site says Levitt's future is uncertain, the status of homeowners associations that it previously ran is 'not yet clear' and it can no longer honor home warranties."

"With only 72 employees left out of about 500, Levitt and Sons 'just does not have the resources to continue to serve as intermediary,' said Paul Singerman, lead bankruptcy counsel for the builder."

"At Jesup's Reserve, the pool and cabana are off-limits because construction is incomplete. A 'No trespassing' sign warns residents that the area is a construction site and that entering it without permission is a felony. Resident Maggie Martin fears a closed cabana and pool will be 'a tremendous drain' on property values."

"With almost 70 units of a planned 161 complete, there should be enough money coming in from association dues to keep things running for a while. 'I think they can limp along' and raise enough money to pay for maintenance of common areas, said Matt Jordan, a property manager."

"'We want to at least maintain the bare minimum,' Martin said."

"But the situation is more precarious in Turtle Creek, with only a few homeowners around to pay the bills through their monthly assessments. The budget calls for $18,000 a month to be spent on landscape maintenance."

The Daily Business Review. "The developers of Downtown Dadeland are walking way from the massive mixed-use project in Kendall and handing over the unfinished complex to construction lender Goldman Sachs Commercial Mortgage."

"Gulfside Development principals Jackson Ward and Stefan Johansson say they can no longer afford to make payments on the $224 million construction loan and won’t fight a foreclosure suit filed two weeks ago in Miami-Dade Circuit Court."

"The project’s failure is the largest yet in the current real estate downturn, which has hit the overdeveloped condo market especially hard."

"'It is a friendly handover,' said Johansson, principal of South Miami-based Gulfside Development. 'We have been helping them in the transition for almost a month. There are no bad feelings, and we wish them good luck with a beautiful project.'"

The News Press. "Cameratta Properties is reassessing how to proceed with its mixed-use residential and commercial project First Street Village in downtown Fort Myers because of the soft housing market."

"Before moving forward, Cleveland-based Cameratta must decide whether to scale back the residential part of the development because it’s hard to get financing to build homes nowadays, CEO Joe Cameratta said today. Financing for retail and office construction, he said, 'is much easier to obtain. The economics make more sense.'"

"Ed Bonkowski, a Fort Myers-based commercial real estate broker, said cutting back on the residential is 'a good idea. They were unrealistically priced in the market when they first opened their doors.'"

"The First Street Village sales center has been relocated to the sales center for High Point Place, Cameratta’s nearby high-rise condominium project."

"Colin Kelly is an associate with Commercial Realty Group of Bonita Springs, which specializes in leasing, land sales and new construction. Formerly a securities broker for companies such as Smith Barney and Shearson Lehman Hutton, the Naples resident has worked in various areas of the local commercial real estate market since the late 1970s."

"Kelly believes that the accuracy of the old industry saying that commercial real estate trends tend to lag behind those of the residential side is being borne out by Southwest Florida’s current market conditions."

"His recipe for reversing the current commercial slump involves an attitude adjustment on the part of everyone involved — property owners, prospective investors and real estate agents. Fence sitters waiting for prices to plummet even further, prospective buyers hamstrung by fear of losses and property owners reluctant to lower prices when vacancy rates are high need to realize that their mindsets are helping to prolong the slump, in Kelly’s opinion."

"Q: What is Commercial Realty Group doing to address current market conditions?"

"A: We are considering taking the abnormal rise in real estate rates since 2004 and removing it from the equation. We’re considering rolling back our lease-rates and our properties for sale, back to pre-2003, pre-2004 prices. That would eliminate the investor having to say, I’m going to wait until the market goes down. This is what has to happen in commercial real estate because there’s a whole lot of property that’s going to come on line over the next six months to a year. You’re going to see prices continue to spiral down."

"People need to stop saying this is a hiccup. This isn’t a hiccup. If people are going to play in this market place, they should say, lets play, let’s be on the side of the buyer. I’m putting myself on the side of the buyer. I’m saying (to the investor), if you want to come back into the marketplace, I’ll show you a piece of property that’s priced right. You’re not going to have to chase a piece of property that’s spiraling out of control."

The St Petersburg Times. "Concerned about the safety of their money, local governments are pulling their cash out of a $20-billion state-run investment pool. Pinellas County joined the exodus Tuesday, yanking out its entire investment, $290-million. Some $6-billion has left the pool in recent weeks, costing it nearly a fourth of its assets."

"The state pool is another casualty of the meltdown in the housing and mortgage markets. Even though it holds no subprime mortgages, the state pool owns securities backed by other types of mortgages."

"'You can't take a chance,' said Ron Miller, finance administrator for Pinellas Park. He withdrew $14-million from the state pool Friday and is considering what to do with the remaining $8-million in city funds held by the state. 'The primary thing we're doing is securing the money. The return is a secondary goal. ... We may pull more in the next day or two.'"

From Florida Today. "Today Brevard County can complete a whirlwind month of major acquisitions by the Environmentally Endangered Lands program. County commissioners will review two deals to buy a combined 1,500 acres for conservation in Scottsmoor for $24.2 million."

"But Clerk of Court Scott Ellis plans to repeat his concerns about other recent deals. He argues the county is paying peak prices in a down real estate market, and that appraisers have made wrong assumptions about the properties' development potential."

"'We're paying far more for property then it's worth,' he said. 'Why do we have to rush these purchases through?'"

"Of the two deals, the smaller one offers 669 acres for $9.16 million. The price is in between two appraised values from June 2006 and more than double what the land sold for in 2003."

"The larger one -- 853 acres for $15 million -- is roughly $5 million below two appraised values from March of this year. The land last sold for $5.4 million in 2005, according to Ellis' office."

The Palm Beach Post. "The real estate slump has prompted Home Depot's former wholesale arm, HD Supply, to scale back at its new plant in Port St. Lucie."

"Instead of creating 100 jobs as planned at the 223,000-square-foot lumber and building-materials plant that opened in August at LTC Industrial Park, Atlanta-based HD Supply is sitting tight with 10."

"'We believe this staffing is appropriate in light of current market challenges,' HD Supply spokeswoman Lauren Falcone said in an e-mail. 'We intend to continue to staff as appropriate for market conditions.'"

"That's not quite the return on investment the Port St. Lucie City Council was hoping for when it sold the 21-acre parcel to Cox Lumber for the super-discounted price of $100,000 in 2004. HD Supply later acquired Cox Lumber."

"The city's original contract with Cox, which HD Supply was bound by, required the firm to create at least 60 jobs within a year of opening and 100 jobs within two years. If it didn't, it had to pay the city up to $1 million."

"The council agreed this summer to give HD Supply another four years to hire 60 people and five more years to hit 100."

The News Journal. "There won't be many tinsel-and-bow topped gifts under the Christmas tree at the homes of Ray Moore and Ron Paulsen. 'We're going cheap this year,' Moore said of his Christmas list."

"The blame for that goes to Flagler's fizzled housing market, Paulsen and Moore say. The men formed a drywall company 35 years ago and have spent every day since building it and their reputation as contractors."

"Ask them how much longer before they may have to close up shop forever, Paulsen looks to the sky thoughtfully and jokes, 'Let's see, have I got enough gas to last another week?'"

"Paulsen and Moore have survived slow housing markets before. It's part of the ebb and flow of their industry. But this slump takes the award for hardest yet, they said." "Why? There could be several reasons, they admit."

"They say maybe it's that they're getting older. Maybe they should have saved a little harder when work was plentiful. Maybe it's because they weren't prepared to run their business this year without the $60,000 owed to them by multiple builders facing criminal charges."

"Whether it's one reason or all of the above, right now they're just doing what they know to do until it gets better or they can't do it anymore, Moore said. 'We've never cut a corner,' Paulsen said, and they won't be starting now."

"In housing slowdowns of decades past jobs were few, Moore said. In this one, there are none. They've gone from doing as many as two jobs a day working six days a week to working only three jobs in all of September."

"So at the grocery store it's generic instead of name brand. It's health food instead of health insurance. And the little extras here and there are no more. But they can only penny-pinch so much and little good it does if there are no pennies to pinch, Moore said."

"This year has brought with it a fight for their business and their future, but they're doing everything they can to keep three decades of effort on the map and in the phone book."

"'Christmas? How do you spell that?' joked Paulsen."