The Dallas Morning News reports on Florida. "As I drive down U.S. 41, which connects Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Bonita Springs and Naples...the roads are still busy. The cars are still shiny. Massive new shopping centers greet the snowbirds, the early retirees setting up house and the usual vacationers escaping the cold of Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts and Maine. But something is wrong in paradise."

"Last summer, everything seemed to stop. At the Florencia, the newest luxury tower, few purchases had been completed when the project was finished in the fall. Only a handful of units were sold in the last quarter. The downturn drove WCI close to bankruptcy."

"On Jan. 8, WCI lowered prices dramatically at Florencia. A spectacular penthouse unit that was priced at $1.7 million on Jan. 1 can now be had for $1.3 million, a 24 percent drop. Discounts on other units range up to 40 percent."

"According to Fort Myers MLS Board figures, it would take 44.5 months – nearly four years – to work off the current inventory of homes for sale. That doesn't count the discouraged sellers who have taken their houses off the market but still want to sell."

"The local News-Press regularly advertises auctions of homes built to sell for $250,000. The minimum bid: $50,000. Small condos are offered with opening bids of $25,000."

"Over lunch, a Realtor tells me that those $250,000 houses are now selling for $100,000, when they sell at all. She also explains that most of the properties that are selling are 'short' sales."

"The Realtor herself fears becoming a victim. The blunt reality is that she is 'upside down.' Worse, she depends on scarce real estate sales for the income to pay the mortgage. Sadly, she is in the same position as the Texas condo slaves of the late 1980s."

"According to www.realtor .com, Fort Myers has more than 12,000 listings, with nearly 2,000 available at $125,000 to $175,000. Many cost less than $100 a square foot."

The Associated Press. "Places like Cape Coral went from southwestern Florida swampland to bustling bedroom community and one of the state’s centers of a building and buying boom. But now there is a sea of unsold homes and undeveloped lots in this 115-square-mile city."

"'It was very good before. It was like houses everywhere, buildings coming up everywhere, and all of a sudden everything stopped,' said Elliot Aguilar, an electrician who lost his permanent job and is working a lower-paying temporary position. 'If this continues, we probably have to move to another state.'"

"The slowdown is not just along the Gulf Coast. Across the state, people tired of hurricanes and high housing costs are reconsidering Florida."

"Beth Mann lived in West Palm Beach until a year and a half ago, when her husband was offered a teaching job in Georgia. He took it — at a higher salary than he was paid in Florida — and they moved to Buford, Ga."

"Their house is three times bigger. Their property taxes are 75 percent less. Their home insurance bill has been cut nearly in half. 'We’re like, 'Why didn’t we move sooner?' she said."

The Herald Tribune. "When the real estate market turned in 2006, the net migration fell by 100,000. Then for the year that ended in June 2007, it fell to 35,301."

"'The bad news is that a recession in the U.S. delays the workout of our real estate problem,' said Brian Presley, a Punta Gorda-based financial adviser who manages hundreds of millions of dollars for wealthy investors. 'If they can't sell their home in Poughkeepsie, they are not going to buy in Punta Gorda.'"

"Bob Mikla is waiting for one or two of those boomers to show up and buy the luxury condominium that he has been baby-sitting since a late 2006 closing. He also would not mind getting a few more of them to loosen up their wallets and rent one of his limos."

"The 46-year-old freely admits during a tour of his never-lived-in Rivo at Ringling condominium that his mid-life diversification plan has turned into a recipe for disaster. 'I am getting nailed on every end,' said Mikla, who has gradually lowered the price of the $780,000 unit to $610,000, holding an open house every Sunday."

"He has made monthly payments of $3,500 on the condo ever since he closed: now $50,000 in carrying costs. 'The reason I am not listed now, I am already losing money,' he said. 'If you put a Realtor fee on top of it, you are losing more.'"

"The limousine business he set up in Sarasota is struggling with the local economy. 'December, which should have been a very busy month, turned out to be miserable,' Mikla said. 'People are cutting those services out because they don't have the money. It is a luxury item.'"

"The median gain in value for a Sarasota home was $112,000 during the six-year period from Oct. 1, 2001, to Sept. 30, 2007. The comparable gain for a Midwest home was only $34,800. 'Midwesterners would definitely experience sticker shock in the Sarasota market,' said Walter Molony, a research analyst with the National Association of Realtors."

"Mikla's spacious three-two condo seems like it is priced to sell. His pre-construction price was $580,000 and he spent another $20,000 on upgrades. The problem is that his unit is one of many. More than 4,600 are for sale right now just in the Sarasota MLS; a three-year supply based on the current sales rate of 28 per week."

"The city's mood is a far cry from the heady days of the post-2000 building boom, when spirits soared along with economic prosperity and the population. Burglaries have nearly quadrupled in North Port, from 130 in 2001 to 466 last year, according to data compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement."

"Unemployment and financial stress have increased the sense of desperation in this community. While the housing bubble burst nationwide, North Port is a bedroom community and retiree haven that has little industry beyond construction. 'People do crazy things when they they're feeling like everything is crumbling around them,' said Yvonne Parrish, a mother of five."

"North Port resident Steve Crawford said he has three friends who moved away to find construction work after the housing downturn and another friend who 'went right to alcohol and drugs.' 'The boom is over,' said Crawford, a laid-off construction worker."

The Miami Herald. "Justo Luis Fernandez isn't feeling the urge to splurge amid the current economic gloom. The 53-year-old Miami car-rental agent expects to use money from the federal government tax rebate deal worked out last week for life's basics."

"'I'd spend it on my household -- on the things we need,' Fernandez said. 'Things are tight and pretty rough.'"

"'I think things have changed for the worse [in recent weeks],' said David A. Denslow, a University of Florida economist who thinks Florida's housing downturn could drag on for a lengthy period."

"Ask Richard Welch, a Miramar tax auditor, about the outlook and he'll say 'The worst is yet to come.' He's driving less and holding back on buying a flat screen TV and new computer to save money. And he doubts the stimulus package will be enough to get South Florida's economy on track."

"'You're going to see a lot of people lose jobs in the next eight to 12 months,' he says."

"Besides rising foreclosures, Welch says, many people are struggling with higher housing payments as adjustable rate mortgages reset to higher interest levels. 'They're not able to put that money towards restaurants and movies and to go shopping. That extra income is going to pay the mortgages. These are the homeowners who used to drive the economy.'"

"Many economists, like Henry Fishkind, say the region will power through the rough patch better than the nation and Florida overall."

"'We certainly have a housing recession, and we're going to have a condo depression,' Fishkind said. 'But the general economic picture for South Florida is somewhat better than the nation and the state.'"

The Palm Beach Post. "So is Florida in a recession? With no guidelines for state or regional economies, the answer depends on which economist you ask."

"No, says Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida. 'A pronounced slowdown? Absolutely. But I don't believe recession is going to transpire,' Snaith said."

"Susan Jarrett disagrees. 'You can see in the streets with the for-sale signs and closed businesses,' says the retiree. And she expects it could take more than the president's $150 billion economic stimulus plan to bring things around: 'I think it will take 20 years for the economy to ever get back where it was.'"

"'Everybody's being affected by this economy,' said Mildred Davila, a medical assistant who lives in Boynton Beach. 'People don't want to spend money.'"

"Local businesses and consumers are padlocking their pocketbooks, said Greta von Unruh, executive director of the Economic Development Research Institute, a nonprofit think tank in West Palm Beach. 'We are clearly in a severe downturn.'"

"As for recession, 'Is there any doubt?' asked Paul Emmet, founder of Duffy's Restaurants Inc. That's not to say the chain is doing poorly. Just the opposite, said Emmet. But double-digit growth driven by housing sales has slackened, and established competitors such as RJ Gators have fallen by the wayside."

"'I don't know about the rest of the country,' says Duffy, 'but Florida is clearly in a recession.'"

"After hitting record lows in 2005 and 2006, jobless figures are shooting upward in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation. In December 2006, unemployed workers in the three counties numbered 26,638. But by last month, that figure had soared to 40,984, a 54 percent increase."

"Sales of taxable goods ranging from clothes, cars and furniture to building materials and industrial supplies have been falling in Palm Beach County - and plummeting in the Treasure Coast."

"It's no secret that home prices have fallen, but figures released Thursday by the Florida Association of Realtors show just how serious the housing correction has been."

"The median price for a single-family home in Palm Beach County fell from $421,500 in November 2005 to $337,900 in December 2007, a 20 percent decline. And in the Treasure Coast, the median dropped from a peak of $269,400 in September 2005 to $196,800 last month, a 27 percent correction."

"Nearly 5,000 St. Lucie County households defaulted on their mortgages in 2007. Palm Beach County's foreclosure rate skyrocketed to one for every 45 households in 2007. In some neighborhoods, such as Thousand Oaks in Riviera Beach, multiple houses on the same street slipped into foreclosure."

The Northwest Florida Daily News. "The housing market in Okaloosa County is not expected to bottom out until the summer of 2009, according to a December 2007 study by Moody’s Economy.com."

"'These forward-looking projections are based on past trends,' said Rick Harper, director of the Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development at the University of West Florida. 'The study does not capture the influx due to BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure).'"

"'Those new folks who are coming in, they and their households will need homes to live in,' said Harper. 'I think they’re wrong.'"

"Realtor Diane Keller agreed and blamed the Destin market for much of the bleak forecast. 'Destin built a lot of houses with nobody to live in them,' said Keller. 'At some point there has to be an end user. Someone has to live there and work in the community … for the market to stabilize.'"

"She said she has recently seen houses less than $200,000 in Fort Walton Beach — her primary sales area — selling fairly well. 'Destin can’t supply that,' she said. 'Destin’s houses are too expensive.'"

"Another challenge facing the area is that sellers still refuse to acknowledge how far prices have already dropped, real estate agents say."

"'Probably 60 percent are still living in that 2004 mentality,' said Realtor Debbie Gericke. 'And you’re doing damage to a home by keeping it overpriced in a market that’s overcrowded.'"

"Gericke said she’s looking to a successful tourism season to boost the local economy and work through some of the excess property on the market. 'People need and desire to own a home,' she said. 'If there’s no water in Atlanta this summer, then where are they going to come? We still have a lot of unrealistic sellers out there, but there are some good deals.'"

"Although Harper disagrees with Moody’s long-term assessment of the Okaloosa market, he does not dismiss concerns about plummeting prices. He warns that Florida must restore affordability and keep the area’s popularity from sagging."

"'I think 2008 will be an extremely difficult year,' he said. 'If Florida is not successful in fixing windstorm insurance or property taxes … then this (study) is a reminder of what the future housing market could look like.'"