The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. "The wave of investors who invaded Lake County in the mid-2000s did no favor to buyers, and in the long run, no favor to the community either. They served as a main engine to drive prices to an artificially high level for a short while. Neil Fischer, owner of one of the biggest real-estate firms in the county, said the house flippers set the stage for the slump today. 'It got to a stage where they started seeing things slowing, and the investors went 'poof!' They're out,' he said."

"In March 2004, only three months of inventory was for sale in Lake County. The inventory on the market today is an astounding 38 months."

"Meanwhile, buyers in Lake County have a window, and Fischer, ever the consummate salesman, knows how to take advantage of it. 'If a buyer says, 'I think I'll wait and see if it bottoms out,' I say, 'How much more do you think it's going to bottom out? Ten percent? OK, let's make an offer for 10 percent less than the asking price.'"

"'If they think it's going down 50 percent, they're crazy,' he said."

The Palm Beach Post. "Two years ago, Angie Cifarelli of New Jersey signed a pre-construction contract to buy a condo at the Residences at Midtown in Palm Beach Gardens. Purchase price in the contract: $404,500. Last month's appraised value of the newly completed condo: $200,000. 'I was shocked,' Cifarelli said."

"A property worth less than half its value in 2006 is all you need to know about how bad the real estate market is these days. But this 50 percent drop is not just academic for Cifarelli. With the rock-bottom appraisal, she says she can't get a mortgage for $283,000, as planned. And she says she certainly can't go into her pocket for the balance."

"Cifarelli says she asked the developer either to drop the price or to let her out of the deal and give back her $80,000 deposit. Ram Development's response: No, thanks."

"Her lawyer, Gary Nagle of Juno Beach, said Ram has given Cifarelli an impossible choice: 'Lose $200,000 at closing, or walk away from your $80,000 deposit.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "The housing slump and shaky economy have led to a shortage of jobs for people in the construction industry. They say they are so eager for work they are taking on smaller projects they might have rejected a year or two ago when there was a glut of jobs."

"'We're wheeling and dealing because we all need the work,' said Bill Adams, an owner of Plantation-based Superior Pools, Spas and Waterfalls Inc. 'Compared to last year, this is the worst year pool contractors have had that I can remember.'"

"The price of screen enclosures has also dropped, going from as much as $25,000 two years ago to $9,000 today. The wait is about a month, compared with as much as six months after the hurricane. And the enclosures are built under new regulations adopted after the storms."

"'Our prices are back to where they were and people are getting a much stronger enclosure that is more resistant to wind,' said Glenn Cummings, owner of Sunshine Screen and Patio in Hollywood."

The Miami Herald. "On Thursday night, neon lasers lit up the 10th floor of Jorge Perez's newest achievement: The Plaza on Brickell. The Miami developer unveiled what is now Brickell's largest residential structure, two 56- and 43-story towers boasting a total of 1,000 units."

"What may seem like an odd time to debut a gargantuan condo, at the yet-lowest dip in the housing market and start of a possible recession, Perez sees as a successful long-term investment."

"Construction on both towers began at the peak of the housing boom in 2005, after all 1,000 units were spoken for with deposits. In the last month, Plaza has had 200 closings, well shy of the 1,000 available. As condos are not officially sold until after closing costs and final payments, units may still be available."

"But Coconut Grove Realtor Nathan Kurland doesn't think many of those buyers will be American -- partly because of the weak dollar. 'We're one of the leading foreclosure cities in America, and we're talking about building another 1000-unit system of housing we can't afford. Who bought them?' he asked."

"For those that don't close, Perez will do what he said is most sensible -- he'll buy and keep them until the housing market recovers."

The News Press. "A conversation about single-family homes in Lee County with a pricetag under $200,000 would have been brief, two or three years ago. But oh what a difference a couple years can make."

"In January of 2004, in the market’s pre-peak phase, there were 1,626 homes listed under the $200,000 threshold, according to the Denny Grimes & Company’s VP, Michael Polly. A year later, that number had declined to 588, the vast majority of them in Lehigh Acres, and by January of 2006, that total had a miniscule rise to 593 homes."

"Proof of the market’s decline was illustrated by the January 2007 figures, which found 1,524 such homes. And over the last year, that total has exploded, leaping upward to 5,485 homes."

"Grimes & Company is also the agent for a short-sale home in Cape Coral, built in 2006, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and 1,272-square-feet of living area. The price is $119,000. Polly said the home probably would have sold for more than $230,000 at the market’s peak."

"'Unfortunately, the people who are not short sales are having to adjust their price based on what’s happening in the market,' said Gloria Tate of Raso Realty in Cape Coral."

"Raso said the drop in prices has meant that homes that were unaffordable are now within reach of middle-income home shoppers who had been priced out of the market. 'In essence, affordable housing has come back to Cape Coral in a good, affordable way, without government help,' she said."

"'I think two-to-three years ago, we would have been talking about are there any (such homes) on the market,' Tate said. 'Today you have a wide variety on the market. Before, people picked where they lived based on what they could afford and now its based on where they want to live.'"

The Tampa Tribune. "Real homeowners with real problems seem to be driving the mortgage foreclosure debacle in Pasco County...according to government officials and real estate agents."

"Chief Circuit Judge Lowell W. Bray Jr. said the culprits behind the crisis appear to be unscrupulous lenders. 'There is a lot of really creative financing out there,' he said. 'One I couldn't believe had adjustments every other Monday. I guess you had to call every week' to find out what the next payment would be."

"Bray said he has seen adjustable-rate mortgages 'tied to strange indexes' or no indexes at all, meaning monthly payments can go up without reason. Some such loans, and others with high prepayment penalties, have been found to be unlawful by appellate courts, the judge said. Others leave the homeowner on the hook."

"'Even if they can find another source of financing, they have to pay a prepayment penalty' for paying off the original loan before the term is up, he said."

"Further aggravating the situation has been a drop from the inflated home prices of a few years ago, the judge said. Where there used to be a surplus of $40,000 or more when homes were sold at foreclosure auction, more and more homes are selling for less than the homeowners owe, Bray said."

"Some lenders refuse to accept the loss and are demanding 'deficiency judgments' that remain in effect for 20 years, meaning someone who is left with nothing will still owe money, he said."

The Herald Tribune. "The MLS used by Realtors is supposed to specify, in the comments field, whether the listing is a short sale. At the Sarasota Association of Realtors, Executive Director Kathy Roberts says 5 percent of listings now carry the designation. But that probably understates the reality of the marketplace."

"At Horizon Realty, a regional leader in the short sale game, President Matthew Augustyniak estimates that 15 percent of the listings now on the books in Sarasota-Bradenton will result in short sales. 'In all distressed sales, I bet at least 25 percent of the market,' Augustyniak said."

"'Lenders have been resistant or unwilling to accept losses, said said Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based economist."

"McCabe predicts that 2008 will be a year of capitulation for lenders who have held back on short sales. 'Lenders will become more realistic to what actual market values are, which are considerably different from what they had in mind,' he said."

"'We know the short sales are definitely accelerating across the country, but it is impossible to quantify because lenders will not reveal that data,' McCabe said. 'They don't necessarily want anyone to know how many deals they are willing to accept at lower than the loan amount.'"

"George Lewis probably was given a larger loan than he should ever have been able to get for the family home on the Island of Venice. After that, he got another one on the house he moved his family to in Manatee County."

"During a year of unsuccessful listing, Lewis was thinking of his Venice property as an $800,000 deal. The marketplace had a different number in mind: $445,000. The Venice house became the subject of a short sale, with the lender taking a $185,000 loss."

"Lewis and his wife made dramatic improvements during the 19 years they lived at the desirable north end of the Island of Venice. But a $630,000 refinancing loan for a guy working as a counselor in the school system, and for his wife, who owns a hair-dressing shop? How could this loan be issued?"

"'I have no idea,' Lewis said. 'I think it was lack of due diligence on the part of the people who were doing this. It was an adjustable rate mortgage. I think it ratcheted up after two or three years.'"

"That second loan on the house in Lakewood Ranch: 'It takes everything that we earn, my wife and I -- and I work two jobs -- to make the mortgage payment and scrape together the money for the monthly bills,' Lewis said."

From NBC 2 News. "Yard sales are good for getting rid of old stuff, but for one man in Cape Coral, his yard sale Sunday was to get rid of it all. Al Rasmussen is facing a foreclosure and bankruptcy. He's part of a growing number of people in Cape Coral and Fort Myers who can't survive in an area with record breaking foreclosures."

"Rasmussen and his wife retired in the Cape and got a mortgage before the market went belly up. Then, during the housing boom, they got a second mortgage to pay of their bills."

"'That was another amount of money suddenly going out for payments. Then everything kind of fell apart. Gas went up, food started going up, everything started going up, and my income didn't change,' Rasmussen said."

"'We had a first mortgage, which was no problem, then when the market went up we said, all this money is just sitting idle, we can use it to pay off some bills, so we took out a second mortgage,' Rasmussen said."