The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. "When the market goes south, the deals come out. Nathan Benderson is hoping to jump-start sales at his Port Charlotte retirement community by offering massive rebates that could top $100,000. 'What we're doing, nobody else can beat it,' Benderson said. 'Things being the way they are, we wanted to do something that would get people's attention.'"

"Benderson has about 600 of an eventual 1,000 homes built at Kings Gate. The development was humming along like clockwork during the boom. Retirees and investors could not snap up the properties fast enough, some at prices topping $400,000."

"But when the bottom fell out, the flood of potential buyers dried to a trickle."

"'We have seen all kinds of things in the past year,' said Jack McCabe, a Florida real estate analyst. 'I'm surprised they're not giving away ponies at some places.'"

"'The reality is that people can afford only so much for housing, and that's where prices have to be' or a 'huge inventory' can build up, McCabe said. 'We're coming back now from the delusional, hallucinogenic stage of the boom.'"

"One reason for the bleak landscape is that the local economy has been structured almost entirely around real estate, said Dennis Black, an appraiser who works in Charlotte County. When the bubble burst, the jobs started drying up."

"'We are a one trick pony,' Black said. 'We just don't have anything else to fall back on right now.'"

"In another sign of the turbulence in the banking industry, Stonegate Bank has decided to pull out of Sarasota less than four months after opening. Six of the bank's eight local employees already have been let go, including market President Steve Putnam."

"'I would chalk it up to the poor economic conditions that we're in here,' Putnam said Wednesday."

"Banks doing business in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties have been battered by the real estate slump. Profits are down, bad loans are rising, and many banks are tightening credit lines. 'It's definitely a sign of the economic times that we're in,' Bank of Commerce CEO Charlie Murphy said of the closing."

"Lawmakers face an additional $2 billion budget shortfall and a plummet in housing prices not seen since the Great Depression. Lawmakers already cut about $1 billion in October. House budget chairman Ray Sansom told lawmakers in a memo Wednesday that the budget will have to be cut by an additional $2 billion this year."

"Amy Baker, the coordinator of the Office of Economic and Demographic Research, said that the state's excess supply of homes is more than 200,000 and that it may take nearly two years simply to sell the excess homes. She said prices are expected to continue falling into 2009, with a total reduction of home values in Florida likely to be greater than the 15 percent expected nationally."

The News Press. "Call it the lure of the shoreline: Properties on or near the beach still sell, even in a slower market. The number of sales and sales prices have dropped a bit, but the activity is still steady, Realtors say. And deals abound."

"Clay Cason of Florida Gulf Coast Realty had two closings in December with another one in the works. One of his clients paid $1.225 million for a three-bedroom, two-bath house on Fort Myers Beach. The 1950s-era house is on the water and has an assessed value of more than $1.6 million."

"'Right now you’re looking at 2002, 2003 prices,' Realtor Isabella Wells said. 'Homes priced $2 million to $1.5 million still sell, but what really sells the most are the properties from $250,000 to $400,000. Those were in the $500,000 or $600,000 range two year ago.'"

The St Petersburg Times. "Tony Polito, preparing to deliver a not-so-healthy housing report to Tampa Bay area builders, likened his role to that of a doctor about to deliver a painful shot to the patient's backside."

"'I was going to play the funeral march,' Polito joked as he spoke Tuesday at the yearly economic forecast of the Tampa Bay Builders Association."

"With a healthy balance between supply and demand about a year away, Polito urged builders to create a sense of urgency with the home-buying public. 'For the home market, it's all about undecided buyers,' said Polito."

"Polito's report was a mixed bag. The region suffers from a glut of vacant developed home lots. A healthy supply would last builders 18 to 24 months. We've got a 40-month supply."

"Builders compete with acres of new homes bought by investors during the boom. And home prices have outstripped incomes. In 2002, 77 percent of new homes sold for less than $200,000. In 2007, only 21 percent of new homes fell into that category."

"'Sales and marketing are the two key words,' he said. 'It's a matter of exciting the buyer.'"

The Miami Herald. "In 2007...the Club at Brickell Bay ranked first among condominiums in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with the most units in foreclosure. Borrowers owe lenders more than $42 million."

"As the region's housing market sputters into the new year, a collection of largely unoccupied new towers are straining under hundreds of millions of dollars in defaulted mortgages. In the 20 buildings in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with the largest numbers of units in foreclosure, loans in default totaled more than $271.8 million, according to a Bal Harbour real estate consulting firm."

"For the 36-story Vue at Brickell, its 65 units in foreclosure represented 20 percent of the complex. Two blocks away, the deluxe Jade Residences at Brickell Bay topped the list with highest dollar value of mortgage defaults of $60.7 million."

"Widespread mortgage fraud, involving inflated appraisals and faux buyers, also led to the dizzying rise in defaults. 'These buildings are notorious because the fraud was so prevalent,' said real estate broker Lucas Lechuga."

"The Club at Brickell Bay had 128 units listed for sale in the South Florida MLS on Monday. Thirty of those were listed as short sales. An 818 square-foot unit, which sold in June of 2006 for $430,000, was listed Monday for $220,000, according to Lechuga."

"Lisa Magill, a lawyer (who) represents community associations, said she knew of associations struggling to cover expenses because more than 10 percent of their residents were behind on fees."

"'In September, we started recommending associations include a line item in their budgets to account for anticipated bad debt from noncontributing residents,' Magill said."

"Earlier this year, the Club at Brickell Bay lost its cable and Internet service because the condo association fell behind on payments. That doesn't worry Alex Fornet, who has lived at The Club for two years. He said he's there for the long haul."

"'Hopefully, when we get all these issues with the foreclosures we'll prosper in the end and profit from our investments,' Fornet said. 'This is Manhattan, it's the future Manhattan, so we're all sitting real good.'"

The Daily Business Review. "When Shannon Ford moved from New York early last year, she began looking around for a condo to buy in downtown Miami. She...soon learned about the potential cost-saving benefits of auctions."

"Last month she raised her bidding card and, at $185,000, became the top bidder for a one-bedroom condo in the Isola Island Residences on Brickell Key off Brickell Avenue. The closing is scheduled for later this month."

"An increasing number of South Floridians are losing their homes as lenders recalculate adjustable rate mortgages. More than 5,300 foreclosure filings were recorded in December, for a fourth-quarter total of 14,527, according to Daily Business Review data. The region recorded less than 12,000 foreclosures in both the first and second quarters of 2007."

"Veteran auctioneer Martin Higgenbotham of Lakeland, recalls March 1983 when he spent days in a tent trying to auction 225 condos at Biscayne Cove, a high-rise building overlooking Biscayne Bay in North Miami Beach. Units were sold at discounts of 30 to 45 cents on the dollar, he said last week."

"'I have been through six economic downturns since 1959 and it is always the same,' he said. 'This time, too, you will get 30 percent to 45 percent discount of the retail price.'"

The Palm Beach Post. "As organizers ready for this year's Stuart Boat Show, area dealers are bringing in boats, putting up tents and holding their breath. 'All you can do is hope,' said Kevin Lindsay, owner of Lindsay Marine in Stuart. 'The boat business right now, for a lot of guys, is really tough.'"

"'Right now, you're not going to have the kind of sales you had two or three years ago when everyone thought their house was worth a half-million dollars,' said Lindsay."

"'Nobody's selling anything,' said George Field, president of the marine industries association. 'Housing bubble prices, that soaked up a lot of boat money. There isn't that much discretionary money around. The boat business has gone to sleep.'"

The Orlando Sentinel. "Amid the growing mortgage-debt crisis, personal bankruptcies nearly doubled in Metro Orlando last year, according to court figures released this week."

"'I have doctors, Realtors, mortgage brokers and all kinds of people who had rental properties who are in trouble now,' said Andrew Baron, a consumer-bankruptcy lawyer in Orlando. 'These are people who never dreamed they'd be facing this kind of situation. And they'll resist until the bitter end before they file bankruptcy.'"

"Of the district's largest metro areas, Orlando topped Tampa (77.6 percent) and Jacksonville (43.7 percent) in the pace of increase. Overall, the three divisions recorded 26,424 bankruptcy cases, up 72.7 percent over the previous year."

"The rich as well as the not-so-rich...bought second homes (and sometimes even more) with the intent to quickly resell, or 'flip,' them at a profit. When the housing market collapsed, they could find no buyer, leaving them strapped with debt, falling prices and little hope of refinancing."

"'We know of a lot of folks who own more properties now than they ever thought they'd still have,' said Dan Moisand, a certified financial planner in Maitland. 'There are many stories out there about flippers who are stuck all over the place.'"

"'It is not exactly a rarity that well-educated, high-income professionals will find themselves in a financial bind,' he said. 'Just because someone has made good money doesn't mean they know what to do with it. They may be doctors, lawyers or whatever, but that doesn't make them a good financial manager.'"

"Another prominent feature in the latest wave of bankruptcy is youth, according to Rosanna Jacobsen, a financial-literacy advocate and local executive with Colonial Bank."

"'You just see more people in their 20s and 30s going into bankruptcy these days,' said Jacobsen. 'Too many young people are uneducated and unprepared to manage money, and that's why we're seeing more of them in debt and in bankruptcy.'"

The News Journal. "The worst is over for the Volusia-Flagler real estate slump, but prices will continue to stagnate for three more years, an economist predicts. Hank Fishkind said his analysis found 'very little price erosion' occurred in most markets last year."

"'Housing prices aren't like the price of barbecue grills at Wal-Mart where you simply mark them down at the end of the summer,' he said. 'People are very reluctant or unable to cut the price of their homes.'"

"He said the Census has estimated the state grew by 195,000, while his own estimate is 260,000, but demographers at the University of Florida have put the growth at 600,000."

"'They based their numbers on building permits, which shot up last year,' Fishkind said. 'But a lot of those houses built are sitting empty.'"

The Christian Science Monitor. "After three years showing houses in Atlanta's hilly suburbs, Dee McMahon is finished with real estate. Yanking up her custom-made 'For Sale' signs in her North Lake neighborhood rattled her ego, she admits. But when Ms. McMahon closed her final sale in late November, the mother of two felt a swell of relief."

"'Now I can finally get my own house back together,' she says. 'I'm nervous about the future, but I feel happy.'"

"McMahon is one of thousands of real estate agents across the U. S. wandering with mixed emotions and uncertain prospects through the debris of a real estate gold rush."

"As many train for new careers, return to old ones, or wait tables until prices rebound, the plight of the real estate agent reveals the human dimension of how loose lending, raw opportunity, and self-determination produced a housing bust that has stunned the U.S. economy."

"'They've tasted success and big money, and now their standard of living has been rocked and reality has set in,' says John Baen, a real estate professor at the University of North Texas in Denton. 'The whole [economy] has been built on real estate. When the music stops, what is left?'"

"Evidence is growing that agents, especially in hard-hit markets like Florida, California, and Georgia, are closing up shop in large numbers, experts say."

"In Cape Coral, Fla., where only 30 percent of agents sold even a single home last year, real estate agents are 'dropping out' daily, says local realtor Ginette Young."

"In Georgia, realty ranks had swelled to 48,000 at the peak of the market. 'There's a lot of money being spent [on real estate classes] teaching agents how to waste a year of their life,' says Atlanta agent Sandy Koza."

"'It's a gold-rush mentality,' says Michael Davis, an economist at Southern Methodist University."

"He has been struck by how many agents, brokers, and investors, acting against conventional wisdom of portfolio management, converted large percentages of cash holdings into only a single and somewhat risky investment: property."

"'I don't know whether they're ignorant or optimistic, perhaps a little of both,' says Dr. Davis."