The Palm Beach Post reports from Florida. "Palm Beach County's foreclosure rate skyrocketed in 2007, figures from the county clerk's office show. In Palm Beach County, the clerk's office recorded 13,962 foreclosure filings in 2007, compared with 4,831 in 2006. That's nearly three times the foreclosure rate of 2006, according to the county clerk's figures."

"The rising tide of foreclosures will, of course, add more homes to that inventory as the market continues to decline. Indeed, inventory has become the 'elephant in the room.'"

"'Nobody talks about it,' said analyst Jack McCabe. But 'there's 55,000 homes for sale in Palm Beach County alone.'"

The Sun Sentinel from Florida. "Palm Beach County's median price for homes sold in November was $345,700, down 7 percent from $370,400 a year ago, the Florida Association of Realtors said. Sales declined 13 percent, to 459 from 525 last November."

"The county's existing condominium market also was hit hard, with the median price of $177,400 falling 19 percent from $219,800 a year ago. Condo sales dropped 17 percent, to 347 from 420. Many condo owners were short-term investors who bought at peak prices during the past several years. With an oversupply of units for sale, owners now have to slash prices if they have any hope of selling."

"Marvin Hochberg, a retired accountant, lived in his three-bedroom house west of Boynton Beach for five years. He recently got married and moved into his wife's home in Boca Raton."

"Hochberg listed his house in August for $339,000 but has since dropped the price to $289,000. Still, no offers."

"'I'm disappointed in the way things have turned out,' Hochberg said. 'The way the market is, even people who might be interested are saying, 'What's the rush?' Eventually, things have to bottom out.'"

"South Florida is expected to be slammed by the foreclosure debacle in 2008. Analysts say the market conditions that created the slump will not suddenly go away in the new year. 'The best thing to say about '08, is that '09 is right behind it,' said David Levin, a housing consultant in Delray Beach."

From CBS 4 in Florida. "Throughout 2007, there have been reports of how South Floridians have been overwhelmed wth high property taxes and insurance rates, all happening in the midst one of the worst housing markets to hit South Florida and the U.S."

"Families like the Bozas want to start a new life in South Carolina if they can sell their Cutler Bay home. 'It's been pretty difficult. I've had only one person call,' explained Adele Boza."

"The Weisses have had their Pinecrest home on the market for months. They said they've had several open houses but very few people have come by."

"Some call this struggling housing market a slump, others feel it's a crisis. Veteran realtor Hazel Goldman, who's been selling real estate in South Florida for 30 years, said the market is simply a challenge that does have an end in sight."

"She offers some advice in trying to sell property under the current strained conditions. 'There is a buyer for almost everything we have out there… if the seller is realistic and in tune with the competition and what they have to do to get the property sold.'"

"Realtors say sellers should be realistic, make a home ready to move into for a buyer, and continue to drop prices."

From Tampa Bay 10 in Florida. "Brad and Stephannie Sharp love their two bedroom home, but they're trying to sell it, so they can relocate to Minnesota. 'It's been brutal that's the best word I can use, is brutal, not a lot of hits, just a couple,' according to Brad."

"Their house has been on the market since March, so they recently put an ad on Craig's List and other internet sites. The couple is also willing to give up items like their couch and television in order to sell their home."

"Realtor Ed Gunning says the housing market isn't as bad as it seems. Gunning adds, 'It's a buyers market and if the sellers are realistic on the prices of their homes, they can sell their home.'"

"He goes on to say, homes are about 20-percent lower than they once were. Gunning advises a person not to sell if they don't have to. But it is a great time to buy a home."

"Sharp's home is appraised at 170-thousand-dollars. By dropping his price to $164,900, he hopes to finally sell it. 'Time will tell, I hope so, we both hope so. It's disheartening,' says the hopeful homeowner."

The News Press from Florida. "Some 27,769 building permits, valued at nearly $2.3 billion, were issued in 2007, a steep drop from the 43,357 permits, valued at $3.8 billion in 2006."

"'It's great to compare, but it had to come down drastically,' said Bob Knight, president of the Lee Building Industry Association. 'It couldn't sustain itself.'"

"He added buyers are starting to look for homes again. 'Somebody's got to sell all this,' Knight said. 'Is it ever going to be like 2005? Probably not. That was unsustainable. It will probably come back to the normal pace of 2000. We have to burn off some excess inventory.'"

"December was the worst month — not only in 2007 but in 26 years — for new single-family home permits in unincorporated Lee, Bonita and Fort Myers Beach. Thirty-five permits were issued last month, compared to 292 in December 2006, said Joan LaGuardia, spokeswoman for the Lee County Department of Community Development."

"The previous low for the county was 45 single-family home permits issued in November of 1981. Cape Coral had another record low month with only nine new single-family home permits issued in December, breaking November's record of 12."

"'For as long as we've been keeping records, nine is probably the record low,' said Cape Coral spokeswoman Connie Barron."

"'There's still so much land available for the development of homes,' she said. 'That's why we're optimistic we're going to come out of this in a reasonable amount of time.'"

"Knight said the real estate cycle is a pendulum that swung far to the boom, then far to the bust, and is now working its way toward the middle. 'It's stabilization,' he said. 'It's a good time to buy or build a house, but everybody wants to wait until it hits bottom. You'll never know when it hits bottom.'"

The New York Times on South Carolina. "Ettore and Larisa Costanzo are showing off their new house, which they love madly. The house, on which the couple made a down payment of $88,820, is empty. Their belongings are in storage. They live, unhappily, in a hotel."

"'It’s very upsetting, not to be allowed in our own house,' said Ms. Costanzo. 'Please take our money and let us move in.'"

"Their builder is Levitt & Sons, a unit of the Levitt Corporation, which ran out of cash in October and declared bankruptcy in November. All work on this planned 460-home development for retirees, grandly named Seasons at Prince Creek West, has ceased."

"The Levitt employees were laid off, the subcontractors put down their tools, and the Costanzos found themselves in limbo."

"The collapse of Levitt, the first big home builder to fail in the current slump, illustrates how the turmoil in real estate is spreading far beyond subprime. Levitt had a fabled brand, decades of experience and enthusiastic customers with good credit, but none of that was enough to save it."

"Paul S. Singerman, Levitt’s bankruptcy lawyer, said that as the real estate market in Florida went into 'an absolutely unprecedented and catastrophic downturn,' the builder’s customers across the Southeast became victims. 'There is a bad story, an unfortunate story, about every customer that placed a deposit,' Mr. Singerman said."

"Seasons is less than a quarter finished. About 90 buyers have paid a total of $3.48 million in deposits for houses in varying stages of completion, ranging from all but done, like the Costanzos’, to unadorned dirt."

"Another 90 houses are occupied, but many of these residents are, if anything, even more unhappy than the depositors. Levitt sold them on a community where everything would be taken care of. Those assurances mean little now."

"'I can’t believe we’re dealing with Levitt & Sons,' said Nancy Harth, who moved in last March. 'It feels like a start-up company.'"

"Selling a lifestyle was something Levitt perfected long ago. Thanks to the builder, Time magazine noted approvingly in a 1950 cover story, buying a house was suddenly easier than buying a car. The original cost was $6,990, about $70,000 in today’s dollars."

"The product changed in a half-century, of course. The houses at Seasons are not the tiny boxes of the original Levittown but expansive dwellings with whirlpool tubs and marble vanity tops. With upgrades, prices reached $450,000."

"But they were still sold as Levitt houses. Home movies of early Levittown residents dancing on their lawns played in the sales center and on the Web site. A pamphlet giving a detailed history of Levitt’s glory years was passed out to prospective buyers."

"Nancy Darr, who had once watched her condominium developer go bankrupt, asked her Levitt salesman whether the company could fail. 'This is Levitt & Sons, America’s oldest home builder. We built Levittown,' Ms. Darr remembers him replying. 'It’s a solid company. It’s listed on the stock exchange. This could never happen.'"

"Gary Drejza, a former Seasons salesman, confirmed that such assertions were routine. 'We felt they were the truth,' Mr. Drejza said. 'We believed.'"

"He must have, because he bought a house himself. 'Want to see it?' he asked, pointing from the window of his Mercedes-Benz at Lot 49, still a pile of dirt."

The News & Observer from North Carolina. "Record numbers of homeowners in the Triangle were threatened with losing their homes through foreclosures in 2007. Foreclosure proceedings were filed against 7,390 homeowners in Wake, Durham, Orange and Johnston counties."

"Because the state largely was left out of market speculation that left many areas glutted with overpriced homes, foreclosures in North Carolina are proceeding slower than the national pace."

"The increase in foreclosures is already swelling the inventory of unsold homes in the Triangle and could depress prices that have continued to rise throughout the national housing slump, said Bernard Helm, a residential sales consultant."

"The inventory of unsold existing homes in November was up 24.5 percent to 13,107, according to the Triangle MLS. In 2007, total closings were down 5.4 percent in the first 11 months."

"Most of the increased foreclosure filings are in urban areas where home sales and populations are concentrated, or in resort areas where there was more speculation. Filings increased 20 percent in Wake County to 4,461 and 11 percent to 7,943 in Mecklenburg County. In New Hanover, where many oceanfront homes are sold, filings rose 27 percent to 714."

"'Home prices in the Triangle have not dropped, but increased foreclosures will increase the inventory of homes on the market for sale and that will tend to put steadying or downward pressure on prices,' Helm said. For sellers, 'it's going to be more difficult to get what you want -- there's more competition.'"

The Citizen Times from North Carolina. "If everything scheduled to be built downtown actually gets under way, there might be times this year when the number of construction workers downtown exceeds the ranks of lawyers or bankers."

"Work on The Ellington, a 23-story luxury hotel and condominium building planned on Biltmore Avenue, and on Zona Lofts, a condo building planned for Coxe Avenue, should get going this year."

"People looking to sell a home, developers, Realtors and everyone else in the real estate industry will be looking anxiously for an end to the housing slump affecting the nation and Western North Carolina."

"Several larger apartment complexes and some condominium complexes have been approved or proposed for sites ringing the city limits of Asheville."

"'People have asked me, 'Do you think we’re going to have denser development in the city, or are we going to have sprawl out in the county?’ and I answer, 'Yes,' said Jim Coman, Buncombe County zoning administrator."

"Home sales in the Asheville area started dropping in fall 2006, but last year it became clear that the declines nationwide would have a deep and lasting impact locally. The number of existing homes sold in Buncombe County through the MLS was down 19.2 percent for the first 11 months of 2007 versus the same period of 2006."

"'A lot of people in places like Florida want to sell there before they buy here. As soon as those markets turn, we should see increased pent-up demand for Asheville,' said Terry Horner, co-owner, Preferred Properties of Asheville."